Three Kids=Chaos

Wacky Wednesday

K~ — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:57:15 +0000

T~ is a snazzy dresser on an average day but today is Wacky Wednesday at preschool so she came up with a fabulous outfit.

MissMatch

Nobody rocks the pattern quite like T~!

5 Years & A Couple Of Days

K~ — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:50 +0000

This past weekend we acknowledged T~’s 5th Referral-versary. I say acknowledge because T~ spent the day curled up on the couch. I don’t like it when the kids are sick, but it does allow for some good snuggle time with my non-snugglers. I’m not sure there’s anything better than a child using you for a bed. Before we settled down on the couch, we took the annual Referral-versary picture:

It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 years since we saw her picture. Time flies when you’re having fun!

Brace Face

K~ — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:22:37 +0000

We knew it would happen. A kid can’t suck his thumb for 4.5 years & not need extensive dental work.

Fortunately, this year is not the year for expensive mouth hardware.

The Ortho was nice though. I liked the office & his staff. If we have to spend gobs & money & time, I could find worse places. I have been tempted to take E~ back to our old dentist for braces. A friend just got done with hers & she paid less than half of what we’ll end up paying. The question is whether it’s worth the 4hr round trip for every appointment.

Probably not. I really loved our old dentist though…

In other random news, have you been sucked into the Pinterest vortex yet? I made the mistake of asking my sister for an invite & now my project list has doubled. I need to paint the trim in the guest room but instead I’m designing ways to camouflage our disgusting trash can with spray paint. I’m not sure what possessed me to buy a white trash can for our kitchen… And the recipes! This is what we’re having for supper tonight. With snow & temperatures falling, I can think of nothing better.

I would like an iPhone with the Siri feature. T~ is queen of random questions & I’d love to hand her the phone & have Siri give her answers to such existential questions like “what’s the difference between Twilight & Evening?” & “if water is clear & snow is frozen water, why is snow white?” & “why wouldn’t the Jews just say they weren’t Jews anymore so then Hitler wouldn’t kill them?” This is what happens when you have older siblings who talk about their schoolwork at home.

*sigh*

T~’s Kindergarten teacher is in for a real treat next year & her classmates may be in for quite an education. The kid doesn’t believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus, she knows about the Holocaust, WWII, Star Wars, & Harry Potter, & she’s not real great at keeping her mouth shut. Maybe that’s why we’ve had no offers of playdates from Preschool… Not that she’d go, I can’t stand that place…

Which is a post for another time.

Snow What

K~ — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:48:22 +0000

The kids have spent the past few weeks lamenting on the lack of snow. Finally, late last week we got snow.

Only 3/5′s of the family was pleased with this development.

The other 2/5′s were huddled in blankets by the computer looking at the picture that is the blog background, trying to remember what heat & humidity felt like.

We did take the kids sledding this weekend. There was a dusting of snow but that didn’t stop the neighborhood kids from descending on the hill. It was actually a nice way to sled – no one was going super fast & walking up hill in trace amounts of snow is infinitely easier than walking up hill in multiple feet of snow.

In other news, the boys started basketball. We’ve tried a few leagues in town but didn’t really like them. This league came highly recommended & I think it’s been good for G~. E~ hasn’t played since 2nd grade so his skills are pretty rusty. It’s actually a little hard to watch. He hasn’t noticed though & I’ll take that as a good thing. Both kids are having fun & look forward to practice so I’ll bury myself in a book & pretend not to see the kid flailing on the floor in an attempt to chase down a ball…

Is anyone else having trouble with WordPress & loading pictures? Mine keep getting stuck. One ‘crunched’ over night & still wouldn’t load. They’re not that big so I’m not sure what the issue is.

Phu Tho Girls

K~ — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:14:29 +0000

Nearly 5 yrs ago the Phu Tho Girls were together for the last time.

They’ve changed a little over the years…

I Always Knew My Box of High School Junk Would Come In Handy

K~ — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:53:11 +0000

E~ is losing weight again. This time it’s a combination of medication & the fact that he cannot stop talking about school.

It’s a good problem to have.

His first love has always been the Talented & Gifted class. The current unit is his current favorite unit ever – Bridges. It’s a neat project. The kids are divided into teams & one kid is the engineer, another is the accountant & the third kid is the project manager. The bridges are constructed out of toothpicks, which cost $10K/pick, glue is 8K/day, all of which is paid out of their million dollar budget. I love the real world nature of this unit.

E~ has been enamored with WWII for the past year or so. I have been a little concerned with his Greatest Generation/romanticized view of WWII & while nothing could diminish his love of battleships, I think he is beginning to understand the nasty side of war. This past week his teacher introduced the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. He also was assigned to do some research on the Holocaust & present his findings to his class. We’ve had some really deep & meaningful conversations this week & I became the coolest parent ever when I told him I had visited a concentration camp. I was able to pull out my pictures & even a map of Dachau from my box of High School Crap. He grilled me on Dachau & could hardly sleep due to anticipation of sharing his new-found information with his classmates the next day. It was really neat to see. I love it when something at school really excites my kids & they can’t wait to learn more.

After his stint in the Navy, E~ might just be the countries next great WWII Historian.

Or a Bridge Engineer.

His fall back is Lego Artist

Reality Bites

K~ — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:01:59 +0000

After 18 days of travel, sleeping in, movies, reading, & stress-less living, it’s time to get back to reality.

The boys headed back to school today. T~ goes back tomorrow. Piano lessons resume. Basketball starts on Friday. Appointments have been scheduled. Meetings start back up.

Christmas Break was nice while it lasted.

Besides the whole vacation thing, which I hope to revisit, we did a whole lot of nothing. The kids were disappointed at our lack of snow. They both received sleds & other snow paraphernalia for gifts & were hoping to be able to hit the sledding hill over break. Instead we walked the dog, played football, & watched a ton of movies. T~’s favorite was Dolphin Tale. The boys loved Tin Tin. J~ & my favorites were Hugo & The Man Who Knew Too Little.

I hadn’t expected to like Hugo because I love the book, but it’s a great movie. Watching it, I actually wanted to go back to Paris. I haven’t felt that way ever. The movie was visually stunning. The kids liked it, but not as much as the book. I have to agree on that point.

Hmmm. Other randomness.

I bought a new pair of running shoes hoping to prevent a flare of my plantar fasciitis. So far so good. I bought a pair of Inov-8‘s & besides the fact that they eat my socks, I’m pretty happy. My first run was a mile with no pain! That’s not happened in well over 6 months! Maybe I can do the 5 mile race in April. Of course, that will require me getting to the Y more than once a month…

I’m boring myself so I’ll stop torturing you too & just go take my nap already

Dinner Conversations

K~ — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:29:23 +0000

Picture it: A lovely Tuesday afternoon, or was it Wednesday? No matter. All of Metropolis is off for the week & decides to also take their families out to lunch at the Olive Garden. By some stroke of luck, we only had a 15 minute wait before being seated. Our children, all competing for the role of Town Crier, were loudly carrying on conversations with each other & with us. I think we spent the majority of the meal reminding our lovelies that we are sitting right next to them.

Anyway, T~ was digging into her salad when she spied something she HATES.

“Daddy! I don’t like the blacks!”

“T~, shhhh. I’ll take care of it.”

“Daddy! Get the blacks away!!”

“T~, can you say ‘Olive’? Those are olives, not blacks.”

“Olive. But I still don’t like the blacks.”

Ending the Dry Spell With Pictures

K~ — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:52:43 +0000

We took a little trip recently & my faithful blog readers get first crack at the pictures.

We headed west for our vacation so we could see things like mountains:

Mt St. Helens

Waterfalls:

Multnomah Falls

The Pacific Ocean:

The Space Needle:

The Space Needle

But mostly we went to see these girls:

The Phu Tho Girls (minus one)

It was amazing to see the girls together again. It was wonderful to reconnect with the friends we made in Hanoi. We’re already planning our next reunion. More pictures once the laundry & the house are back in order

Lego Competition

K~ — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:18:25 +0000

What a ride! Saturday’s competition was so much fun! The kids did amazing work. Their presentation went very well. The kids memorized their parts & all of them did a great job. They answered the judges questions well. They nailed the teamwork interview, & they had fun explaining the intricacies of their robot. The robot runs could have gone better, but the kids handled the technical issues with grace. At the end of the day, I was incredibly proud of my team & was truly honored to have been able to coach them. It was a stressful 9 weeks but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The kids had a great time too; until the end when they didn’t win any awards. It didn’t seem to matter that we all thought they did fantastic – they wanted outside recognition. I’m sad for them but I hope that won’t cloud the experience. Our kids were competing against teams that had 8th graders, coaches that had seen NXT programming before, & that had been working together for a lot longer than 9 weeks. The odds were stacked against us, but they can’t appreciate that. It’s hard to be 11 sometimes

Tomorrow we have our celebratory breakfast & I suppose at some point we’ll have to dissemble the table & put the Lego’s back in storage. I’m happy to sleep in a little bit again but I’ll miss my Lego kids. Good thing there’s lots of projects in 5th grade that require parent volunteers. If I get to work with these kids again, I’ll be the first to sign up!

A couple of blockheads