Full of Surprises

Sometimes, one of our kids will just seem to make leaps and bounds over night.  Whether in their skills, or emotional development, understanding of the world.  It's always a little crazy. 

 

And right now, it's Bugs' turn.  So many random things:  The other night, he offered to take the dog for a walk before dinner.  I reminded him that she probably needed to poop and his response. "No problem!"  He came back home a few minutes later swinging a poop bag (which he actually put in the garbage can without any reminder).  HUGE.

 

And then, 2 nights ago, I asked him to grab some pj's and a diaper for Peanut so I could get him ready for bed.  Instead, the two of them came down a few minutes later, with Peanut in a new diaper, pj's and teeth brushed.  Then Bug asked if he could read to Peanut before bed.  This is a kid who hasn't been willing to touch CLEAN diapers ever.  And who has typically fought anything that could be considered "chores".  But now he wants to get Peanut ready every night.  I love seeing him take on the big brother role!

And then there's his art work.  We always love seeing what he comes up with.  This owl was for a school project--the idea and construction were all his own.  I can't believe how real it looks.

And ignore the terrible pictures that I can't get to rotate for some reason).  But this is the fleet of dragons he made at school the other day after starting a new book series (Wings of Fire).  I think they represent all the different types in the books, but don't quote me on that.  I haven't read this series.

 

The crazy part, they actually fly.   He adapted some of the different paper airplane designs he's been making lately and managed to make paper airplane dragons.

 

That pretty much sums up Bug right now.  Almost 7.5, creative, surprisingly helpful, sometimes a little too determined for his own good, and always thinking.

Peanut-isms

Peanut is at that age where he cracks us up every day.  A lot of it is his little voice, his mis-pronunciations, and the fact that he is still trying to figure out pronouns, so for awhile, he called himself "me" in every context, and now it's "I", as in "Can you read a book to I?"  Whatever it is that is making us laugh, we're sure going to miss all these funny conversations.  Here's a few from the last couple months:

I don't want to be happy!

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Please go here, Mama.  Mama, please put your hand here.  No, right here!  (He's gotten very bossy, lately, but he's so polite about it with lots of pleases and thank yous, that it's hard to mind.)

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Me:  Why did you color your hands orange?
P:  Just 'cause I want to.

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Random talks before bed:

While I'm trying to sing to him before naptime:
P:  Mama go night-night?
Me:  Sure, Mama will go take a nap, too.  (He loves to make sure we are all going to bed anytime he has to go to bed.)
P:  Move the clothes off your bed first.  (guess he noticed the piles!)
A moment later
P:  I like this song!

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After I'd left the room:
P:  Mama!  Mama!  Mama!
Me:  Yes?
P:  Mama talk.
Me:  You want to talk to me?
P:  No, Mama talk to me!

Celebrating Spring

This weekend was our annual celebration of spring.  The Bradford Pears are in full bloom, the weather was perfect on Friday, and we actually had a free afternoon.

Peanut actually got the idea of the egg hunt this year (and the older kids were warned to leave the ones in plain sight for him).  He also thoroughly enjoyed all the chocolate and candies, which we don't usually let him have, so it was a big treat.

I had to post this one because this is pretty typical of how Bug's hair looks these days.  It is just always a mess and going 10 different ways.

And this girl--how on earth she got such perfect teeth coming from the genetic combo that she does, I'm not sure.  But we love to see that smile!

11 years

Not the greatest picture, but it's the only one I thought to take.  Celebrated 11 years of marriage to this awesome guy with dinner at a new (to us) restaurant (which we will have to go back to because the server recommended about 10 different dishes that all sounded incredible and I only got to try 2) and a movie.  We do not get to go to movies often enough.  And because it wasn't a movie at home on the couch, I actually stayed awake for the whole thing!  I can't tell you how many movies come up in conversation and I have to ask Daddy-o, "Did we see that?"  "Yes, you fell asleep about half way through."  (Sometimes it's a lot sooner than that.)   Could have helped that "Non Stop" really was non stop action, too.

Even though this year wasn't a big celebration (no cruise for us this time), it was nice to get away for an evening.  And I'm grateful every single day that I'm married to someone so amazing and who is so perfectly matched to me.

NC Field Trip

After spending the year learning about NC history, geography, science, and legends, the 4th graders got to spend a day at the capitol.  And even though it was a bit of a juggle finding someone to watch Peanut and get Bug to and from school, I'm glad I got to go along.  Since I didn't grow up here, and we haven't been to Raleigh to do all the museums and government stuff, there's a lot of new stuff for me to learn, too.

  Bean's class, in front of the governor's mansion.

Bean, and her friend, M, who I got to spend the day with.

After meeting at the school at the insane hour of 5:45, the buses and chaperone carpools all met up around 9 a.m.  Raleigh is set up perfectly for these types of field trips, with the Natural Science Museum and History Museums right across from each other, and the Capitol Building at one end of the block, and the Legislative Building at the other.

First stop for us--the Natural Science museum.

Bean brought along Bones, our little skeleton friend, who has been the subject of family stories for about 7 years now.  Most of his adventures are crazy, fictional ones that are hashed out in bedtime stories, but we also drag him around on the actual adventures our family goes on.  I can't believe he hasn't been lost in all this time.  He enjoyed his tour of the capitol.

Bean, her friend, E, and a huge quartz.  They've been learning about rocks and minerals at school recently, so they enjoyed this section of the museum.

And who doesn't love a giant shark's jaw?  These 4 girls were cracking me up.

Bean took this one for her Grandpa.  (Although this particular memorial was for WWII.)

This statue was a gift, honoring the women who sacrificed so much during the Civil War.

These 4 girls have so much fun together.  I'm really glad that Bean has been able to be back with old friends, as well as made a lot of new friends, this year. 

One of the fun surprises of the day was when the governor walked by during lunch.  I'm surprised at how excited all the kids got when they saw him (although I don't think mine was the only one who didn't actually know who he was until someone told her.)  He gave out high fives and hand shakes all around.

After lunch, we hit up the history museum, where the kids learned about the native americans, the various wars, and some of the major social movements that have occurred in our state.  We didn't have as long here as I would have liked because there was a lot to read, but we also had to make it to the Legislative building for our tour, which was honestly pretty boring.  It didn't help that I'd been up for almost 10 hours at this point, but I had a hard time staying awake when they sat us down above the senator's room.

And then, it was time to put the kids back on the bus, where they were surprised with the movie Frozen, and the rest of us adults made the drive back to Charlotte where we got to wait for another hour for the kids to make it back (WHY can't buses drive a little faster?!)

Our family will have to go back to revisit the museums when we have a little more time to read and explore.  What a great city!