This won’t be a very exciting post. Fair warning 
Over the summer our kids spent plenty of time away from home and it brought something to my attention about (pre)teenagers and their cleaning habits.
Teach them to pick up after themselves and to offer to help out around wherever they are being sent. Sure they might not do it at home very well, or even happily, but it has been my experience that most kids don’t mind helping out and do a much better job of it when they aren’t home.
Remind them to offer their help (doing dishes, picking up rooms, babysitting, whatever) just before they leave for their trip.
Even if they are the best kids ever, they are still (pre)teenagers, not completely dependable and slightly self-absorbed. Remind their host that is is perfectly acceptable to ASK their guest to do things. If they are like my children, they will gladly help with whatever the task, it just won’t occur to them to offer.
A couple of weeks ago, I went outside to close up the chicken coop and noticed eggs in the nesting boxes! I asked Greg if he put eggs from the refrigerator into the boxes and he promised that he hadn’t. I excitedly ran in to grab Alli and the camera. We ran through the house yelling, “Eggs! Eggs in the chicken coop!”, and, “Wooohoooo!!!!!”! Only after I started to take a picture did I realize that they were ping pong balls. Some dirty pranksters name Greg and Nathan had put them in while Alli and I were taking a nap.
Finding eggs wasn’t too inconceivable. At least two of the hens are close to the right age to start laying. It was a hilarious trick. So, I was a little skeptical when Greg mentioned the past two days that the wood shavings in a couple of the nesting boxes looked like they had been stirred up and shifted. Skeptical until we found this today!
An EGG! A real, fresh, non-store bought egg! Hopefully the first of many.
Originally written March 22,2010. I know some time has passed. This post was mostly written, I’m not sure why I just didn’t post it then. Maybe I was waiting until I got back. Anyway, I’ll write more about this another time.
On Thursday we went to Houston for the rodeo and a concert. Not just a concert, but The Blackeyed Peas.
Alli completely rocked out.
I was sure we were annoying the people behind us because we stood, danced, and sang along with most of the songs. At the end though, they told us that it was great to see the girls having fun.
Super early Friday morning I flew out from Houston to California.
My grandmother passed away a little over a week ago and I didn’t want my dad to have to make the drive back alone. A huge perk is that I got to visit with Christi and her boys. They are absolutely adorable. I doubt they will remember who I am, but I am really glad I got to see them.
My grandmother has a live-in boyfriend, Ray. He’s a 90 year old, super active guy. So far he seems to be doing well, but every once in a while he has a hard time. Once he told me that he misses my grandmother even more than he misses his wife. Sweet and sad at the same time.
The rest of the days have been filled with cleaning; the deep freezes (there was stuff in there 20 years old) and my grandmother’s closet. I found some really old, very cool pictures of both my grandmother and great-grandmother. It is strange to see pictures of people who resemble me and not really know much about them. It looks like my great grandmother was a hoot.
After a long haitus (almost a year with sporadic posting), it is time to clean out the cobwebs and shake out the dust. It wasn’t just a lack of posting. With the exception of a few, I pretty much stopped reading other people’s blogs. Facebook is instantly gratifying. A place to put concise little lines about what is happening in our daily lives. That’s nice and all, but later, I won’t be able to go back to it and have something tangible to remember all of the great things we do. This spring and summer were full of new places and things. For now, here is a sample list. Eventually, if I make myself, I’ll try to put more details in separate posts. If I don’t get around to it, at least we’ll have this list.
Chickens!
– How they’ve grown
– Their habitat
– Replacing the kidnapped
– Surprises with gender (Cock A Doodle Doo!)
– Egg Watch 2010
– Sneaky sneaksters and the pranks they play
Running (if you can call it that)
– Getting into it
– Cowtown Marathon
– Slacking off
– Getting back into it
Mardi Gras Parade 2010. It’s even better with friends and family!
The ever growing children
– Tennis
– Softball
– Band Nerds Unite!
– General woes and silliness
Greg’s Really Bad Idea. Turned out to be one of the best!
Family visits (either here or there)
– California with Dad
– Christi’s visit with her boys
– Oklahoma City to meet a newest nephew (and Zoey’s trip home with them)
Camping, camping, and more camping.
Chickens!
It all started a few months ago (around Easter). Well, if we are really going to get accurate, it started over a year or two ago when I thought it sounded like a great idea to have fresh eggs. The only problem? There were no chicks to be had and we didn’t have a place to keep them. Occasionally, I would mention what fun having chickens would be to those around me. Researching chicken houses and how to build them (then sending Greg links as not so subtle hints).
Then, on one of my Dad’s visits, he had a great idea. There was an old, unused greenhouse in our back yard. When we moved in, it was full of junk and so it stayed that way.
Here is where I would post before pictures, if I had thought to actually take any. With a little work, the greenhouse was cleaned out and all of the plastic sheeting on the ends was removed.
We built a wooden box for them and four little chicks were purchased.
I know to our friends and relatives a little more north than us, this may seem like a small deal. Something to scoff at even, “You call that snow? We’ve had 20″ in the past two weeks!”. But to us, this is huge! If it snows here, it is usually just a few flurries and gone 5 minutes later.
Do you see this? Light fluffy snow! Perfect for snowballs, snowmen, snow angels. You get the idea. I ran through the house telling everyone if they weren’t asleep yet, they really needed to come look. I was slightly shocked by the response I got. “Can you just take a picture?”, from Nathan. Alli got up, looked out the door and laughed, then was quickly ready to go back to bed. I’m not sure she even really woke up. Zoey clearly is the child after my own heart. She rushed to put on her coat and boots and then we ran outside to see beauty.
I have missed this.
So, I have a New Year’s resolution to actually post on here. Facebook took over for a while because it seemed so convenient. Almost everyone is in the same place. The only problem is that it has too many random people. You’ll be getting mostly pictures and Allison stories. Nathan and Zoey each feel like they might get embarrassed if I put cutesy stories about them out where their friends might eventually see them. I guess I don’t blame them, but I’m not making any promises
Because we have watched the Ghostbusters at least twice a week for the past few weeks, I thought it would be a fun theme for Allison’s birthday party. Invitations were designed and handed out. I scoured the internet for fun game ideas and tried to decide how to decorate a cake.
We were able to buy some ghost Halloween decorations at clearance prices and decided to have a scavenger hunt. I told them about how they were Ghostbusters themselves and were on the hunt for the ghosts. Guess how many of the kindergartners had even heard of Ghostbusters. Yep. Just Allison. It didn’t seem to matter to those guys though. Finding the ghosts still sounded like fun. When someone found one, they brought it back for a prize. Everyone ended up with their very own Ghostbuster t-shirt (thank you plain white t-shirts and printable iron on transfers).
These came in handy for the next activity. Making slime. It seemed like a fun idea. I had plastic containers so they could take it home, t-shirts so their clothes would be protected, and lots of kids eager to see how cornstarch and a little water would turn into slime. Everything was going fine until the food coloring made an appearance. I’m sure parents were not only thrilled that their children would be bringing home slime, but they would also have stained hands for the next few days.
There were more games planned, but making slime turned into a big enough project on its own. Instead we finished off the party with presents and cake. Allison is the best present receiver I know. She oohs and ahs over each gift. When she gets to one she really likes she exclaims, “I have always wanted this!!! ever since I first saw it!”!
I wonder how many parents had to (had to? Got to is more like it!) watch Ghostbusters after Alli’s party.
How many of you love Calvin and Hobbes? There are certain things my kids do that will remind me of specific strips. I’m sure all parents who have read it feel this way. That Bill Waterson really knew what he was doing.
As I was uploading pictures from my camera to the computer, I realized that at some point over the weekend, Alli had borrowed my camera.
When Nathan and Zoey were younger, Greg and I would see something they did and call them Calvin to each other. With Allison, it’s like living with our own Calvin.
Usually I am slow when it comes to Halloween costumes. I wait just a little too long before asking what the kids want to be and then spend the night before Halloween (sometimes the minutes before it’s time to leave for whatever festivities there are planned) putting the finishing touches onto whatever costume has been chosen.
This year was a little different. Allison knew as soon as she saw the blue wig at Walmart just how she wanted to dress. Yellow rain jacket, swampers, green tights, striped shirt, pink skirt. If possible, a dragon fly barrette, button key and a seeing stone please.
After much searching, the yellow raincoat was found at Land’s End. A striped shirt was purchased from The Children’s Place (later we found two pink striped shirts in her dresser). Green tights were ordered and I turned one of her old dresses into a skirt. The only thing missing was some yellow wellies. Do you know how hard it is to find yellow rain boots? Ok, it’s not that hard if you don’t mind spending big money, but there is no way I’m spending over $100 on rain boots for my 5 year old. Instead we went back to the picture online of Coraline that was one of the favorites.
Pink and orange striped shirt? Check. Not one, but 3 pink striped shirts were found in Alli’s wardrobe.
Pink skirt? Check. Turned an old summer dress into a skirt with a bit of sewing and elastic.
Green tights? Check. Ordered online.
Low top pink converses? Check. This is Alli we are talking about, she has several pairs of pink shoes.
Denim jacket? Check. We found one in her closet that was pretty darn close.
Blue hair? A bright blue wig was close enough and is what started the whole thing anyway. We even found a dragonfly barrette.
As for the additional accessories? Polymer clay is some pretty awesome stuff. I had no idea you could make almost anything with it. After a couple of tries, a button key necklace and a seeing stone were created and met with approval. You can get a small peek of them in this picture. This was her special pose. Goofball.
Just so we don’t leave the other two out, both Nathan and Zoey decided at the last minute they really did want to dress up. Zoey got quite a few comments on her ninja star to the neck gore.
Nathan was just plain spooky looking.
Maybe next year we’ll have a big Halloween party so that everyone can wear costumes.
