Why Twins should never be in the same class.

I had the girls do some school work this weekend. K was cutting some pictures to paste onto a frozen pop stick, while J was coloring. J was eager to start cutting too so she colored quickly and sloppily. K looked at J across the table and said, "Jordan, don't scribble scrabble like that!"

This is only reinforcing our decision to go ahead and separate them when they start Kindergarten. I just can't imagine the competitiveness and the criticism (from each other) if they are in the same class!

How do you Oreo?

I found J the other day balling something up in the kitchen. I asked what she was doing, but she didn't answer. She picks out the cream from the Oreo and balls it up into little balls. Then she balls them all up into a bigger ball and eats it. The cookies themselves get neglected. If this isn't a waste of money, I don't know what is.

Then, Big M saw what she was doing and wanted to do it himself. What ever happened to just dipping the Oreos in milk and enjoying the soggy goodness?

Firsts are always harder on the moms

We started the day bright and early at 6:30 today. A lot of firsts happened today; Big M's first day of 1st Grade, K and J's first day of Pre-K, and Little M's 1st day at Mother's Day Out.
Big M was a little apprehensive because he thinks 1st Grade will be very hard. His teacher told him that his Kindergarten teacher wouldn't have advanced him to 1st Grade if she didn't think he could do the work. But no worries. The first words out of his mouth when I picked him up was, "First grade is FUN!"
J was also worried and kept telling Daddy and I that she didn't want to be in Pre-K. But as soon as I dropped them her and K off and found that all their friends were there, they barely had time to kiss me good-bye.
Little M's day went well, too. He didn't know what was going on so he didn't even cry. When I said good-bye and snuck out, he looked out the door and stayed there by the door for a few minutes. I felt strange not having him with me this long but I restrained myself well, I think. I called to check on him 2 hrs after I dropped him off and was told that he only fussed once during diaper change. He also cried when I picked him up because he couldn't free himself from the teacher carrying him to me fast enough. His teachers love him and said he was a keeper. He ate well, was the first one to nap and did not fuss at all. 
I didn't accomplish very much being alone because of all things I could be doing, I went and bought groceries. It ate up much of my time! But I think I chose to do this unconsciously because the grocery store was only 5 minutes away from the school. It allowed me to be close by but still be productive. But I do have to plan my Mondays a lot better next time.
Overall everything went well today. I just can't believe how big my kids have gotten.

(J in orange, K in Pink.)

More wood carvings

I had an idea of having our Christmas tree this year be filled with only our own wood carvings. Daddy thought it was a great idea, so with that he bought more wood carving magazines (to get patterns) and bought more knives.

A little discouraged from my failed attempt at a snow man, I set out to carve a Santa. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty well. I think my previous failure may have been due to the wood. It was too hard making it painfully slow to see any progress. I picked it up to work on it again after finishing my Santa, but finally put it down. I can't get anywhere with it so I chucked it away. Daddy said he may have bought crappy wood from Hobby Lobby.

I have already finished 2 of these Santa. I thought it may be easier the second time, but how wrong I was. It's like carving something new all over again. But like some of the wood carver blogs I've found, they say carving only gets better the more you practice. Hopefully it'll get easier too because I find the magic of 3D images pretty hard to get a firm grasp on.

I am waiting to paint my Santas until I have a few. This is only 4-5 inches tall.

Daddy carved this cool wizard. He would love to carve wizards, and thankfully they can be turned into Santa easily enough. This creation is about 8 inches tall.

On another note, Big M has seen us carve enough times that he is actually interested in trying it. Daddy and I both carved him a knife for carving soap. I bought a couple of kinds of soap at the dollar store for Big M to carve. Today he had a chance to do try while the girls and I did a little shopping. Daddy said he was carving away when he suddenly stopped, unable to stomach the soap smell any longer. I think I may have to buy unscented soap if Big M is going to try this again. Daddy had him started in carving a boat.

Barnum 200

On the last evening that the circus was going to be in the Dallas area, Daddy reminded me that the 3 older kids had been asking to go to the circus since they first heard it was in town a couple of months ago. We've been so busy this summer that we just couldn't fit it in the schedule. So here it is, minus Daddy and Little M. We didn't think Little M would be calm enough to endure the entire show and Daddy wasn't brave enough to take all 3. So here I am with my 3 monkeys. Brave, huh?

So I bought the tickets the night before, and it totaled $130 without any discounts. Big M did get a free voucher ticket but unfortunately it was only valid on a weekday. But being the savvy mommy that I am, I found some promo codes online and reduced our tickets to $60!! I decided not to tell them where we were going though until we got to the entrance arena where they were selling the program (for $12!!)

At the arena entrance right after Big M figured out what we were going to see. Look at that big smile! (K is in pink, J is in blue.)

This is the all access pre-show right at the floor. Big M volunteered when they asked for one. It was a lot of fun.












All 3 were in awe of the circus which was priceless! J kept saying, "whoa! How did they do that!" It was most fortunate that we got our tickets at a bargain price because it was highway robbery inside.
Here's what I spent:

• $12 - 1 program
• $12 - cotton candy with souvenir hat
• $36 - 3 snow cones with souvenir cups
• $9 - 3 hot dogs
• $6 - 2 bottled water
• $3 - popcorn

We bought the snow cones at the end of the snow which meant they had to eat it before we could go back to the car. Apparently, when the who is over, they want you out of the building. Pronto. They shooed us away from the lobby area, so we went to the bathroom so I could get them to potty before we headed home. But even then we took too long and was shooed away from there. They needed to get ready for the next show.

Overall, it was a fun experience. This was a first for all of them and I enjoyed watching them ooh and ahh and everything.

Random toddler shenanigans

Little M is now 16 months! He routinely climbs up and down the stairs on his own, climbs on the kitchen chairs to climb onto the table, peels the keys off the keyboard, and provides all of us (especially his sisters) with endless amusement. When I tell him "Let's go!" he runs to the door, when I ask him where his sippy is he starts looking under the couches, and when I say "Let's change diaper!" he runs to our bedroom.

He says "nigh-nigh", "teechoo" (for thank you), "all" (ball), "ook" (look), "bye-bye", and he imitates many other words.

He will be going to a Mother's Day Out program once a week starting next week, so that I can finally schedule doctor appointments (I would probably get chewed out by the dentist) and other errands. He will be going from 9am - 2pm. Yeah, he's my fourth child and I've gone through a heck of a lot of things, but I will more than likely be beside myself with anxiety the first day he isn't with me though. So perhaps it would be wise not to expect that I could do so many things that first day.


Wearing Daddy's shoe.


After eating one (yeah, only one) Graham cracker.


He just loves the game controls!


Riot police.


Little boy table! He did fall off the chair a few times being too wiggly.

Playing for Kids Play Fore Kids charity event

Last week, my 6-year old played for Kids Play Fore Kids charity event. It benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas and the North Texas PGA Jr Golf Foundation. It's been 109 degrees here consistently for over a month, so it was a terribly hot day. I had every plan on making this a family event, but unfortunately it didn't happen that way. Daddy took Big M to golf and the rest of the kids and I stayed home. 

Big M raised over $223 (thanks to the his Nana for making the largest donation) and about half of it he raised by himself by going from store to store in the mall. He was a hard worker and definitely outlasted my energy on that trip to the mall.

He has never played before but this was such an awesome opportunity to teach him that sometimes people have to work hard for others. He actually had fun and did quite well. He played in a team of 4, he was the youngest. His team mates were all 8 years old. We're very proud of him.

Backyard water fun

With highs consistently around 105-110 we need to find ways to amuse ourselves without the hassle of always going out. We've had a few friends over just to play in the backyard. Little M is always so good willing to do what everyone else is doing. He even lets his big brother use him as a target for his water gun.
We are hoping the drought isn't bad enough that our backyard activity doesn't get prohibited. The ponds and small lakes are dried up.

My carving

It's pretty relaxing to whittle wood, even though I've stabbed the fleshy part of my palm a few times. But had it not for the hubby's insistence on proper safety gear, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up in the ER more than once.

The wizard is my 2nd project and it's supposed to be a 5-minute project. In my case, it took more than an hour. I thought I did a pretty good job. Painting the eyes did pose a poblem. It's as if the human face is not something I see everyday. Hubby said it looks fine, so I'll let it go. Besides, it's a wizard. It's supposed to look weird.

The twisty thing was a hard one. The wood is a lot harder but I persevered. It took 3 hours one evening and then another 2 the next day. I'm just thankful it didn't break. It's not fully finished because I don't know what to do with the ends. But I'm fine with it. After 3 failed attempts, I mainly wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.

I've also attempted a full-body snow man but that isn't going very well. I took a leap too early and now I feel discouraged. I am learning that my brain cannot easily transform a 2D drawing into a 3D figure. It's tough! I told the hubby that I might pick it up again to finish someday....maybe in a couple of years. In the meantime, I need to stick to some simpler things. But I must say, both hubby and I are having fun. He's definitely better at this than I am, though. Bastard.

always on the go, go, go

So he likes to climb up the stairs when noone is looking and he likes to sass me when he gets up there.

He also likes to run around as if he he's always late to something. As you can see, he leaves a trail of mess.

Fun with crafts

We got into painting one weekend: Daddy painted his wood carving, Big M painted the catapult he and Daddy made, and the girls and I painted some people sticks. J and K wanted me to paint ones that looked like them. They painted ones themselves - some alien looking ones. Little M did his best to find an unoccupied chair to climb and stand on to see what everyone was doing. But then he got into a small flip-flop and was happy feeling like a big boy. We all had fun.



J and mini J

K and mini K

I have a business-minded kid

I HAD to take Big M to this clown show because the first time we tried to attend the same show at the public library we were turned away because the place was already full.

This was at the mall, and an hour before the show the place was already filled. I let Big M sit on the floor in front of the stage area and Little M and I just stayed on the perimeter. Right before the shoe started, the host called the kids for a scavenger hunt - for a family pack ticket to the Barnum & Bailey circus. One of the things the kids had to bring to the host was a man or a boy's sneaker. I could see that Big M wasn't participating so imagine my surprise when I saw someone waving a shoe just like his in the air. At first I thought it couldn't be his, but then again how many of these kids wore Star Wars shoes? Then as I tiptoed to see where he was to check whether he still had his shoes on, I saw another kid waiving the foot of a Star Wars shoe!

Finally I found his spot and yelled out his name. I mouthed out "Where are your shoes?" He shrugged his shoulder I don't know. Oh great. At that point I started thinking of ways how to get him through the parking lot bare footed in this 100+ degree weather. Finally when the scavenger hunt was over, I saw him putting his shoes back on. He then waved a hand waving a quarter. His smile was huge. How very enterprising of my son.

As we were about to leave, he won a voucher for a free ticket. Lucky boy.

Playdate at a pizza place

K, J, Little M and I met some mom friends and their kiddos fro lunch one day. It was at a Pizza buffet place with a arcade play area. I almost didn't go because handling these 3 in a place like that by myself could potentially become a nightmare. But we did go. It wasn't cheap, but thankfully Mommies eat free that day, and Little M was also free. Good thing too because we barely ate.

I walked around with Little M, while the other 2 went in different directions. I could've freaked out like most moms with only 1 child, but I didn't. I kept the game cards so they kept coming back to me. And thankfully I never reached that amount of time when I glanced around and couldn't see them. But what it did mean is that we barely socialized with anyone else. Turning my head in so many directions several times a minute is not a task compatible with the ability to chat with other Mommies.

Gone shopping

K and J received clothing from a friend that were too small so I took them to exchange them. I was just hoping to get a bigger size but what we had was the biggest. So I told them to go ahead and pick out what they wanted. K is in denim colored skirt, J is in purple skirt. It was pretty interesting having all 4 of us in the fitting room.