Game On!

Katie had her first t-ball game last night. Her team is the Hot Shots. Their uniforms are hot pink with rhinestones for extra bling. Kindergarten t-ball is pretty generous to the players. Everyone bats until they get a hit. Runners who are "out" stay on base and continue to run the bases. Each inning lasts until every player has batted. All games end after an hour and 15 minutes. I have no idea if anyone keeps score.

They rotate the players to let them play all the positions. Katie played in the outfield, 2nd base, and catcher last night. Apparently, being the catcher in a t-ball game involves sitting on your butt and making piles in the dirt. She did pick up one ball and promptly threw it into the opposing coach's face.

The girls had their team pictures taken before the game. I got Katie showered up, put her hair in little pigtails (too cute!) and put her visor on her head. When we got to the picture area, some of the girls didn't have hats or visors yet, so the coach decided to take pics without them. Katie's hair was still wet when I put on her visor, so her bangs were crushed and matted to her head. No amount of spit or clips would fix them. I convinced the photographer to let Katie wear her visor for her individual picture, but I had no luck getting them to leave it on for the team photo. *sigh* I got a good look at the goofy faces she was making during the photo shoot. They may want to just photoshop her out of there all together.

Summer Reading

Michael and Katie signed up for the summer reading program at the local library. They need to read 20 books by the end of July to get a free book. They've been reading a lot (and I've read to them) and carefully writing the titles down on their reading charts. Here, Katie is reading a book to Michael and he is helping her with the hard words. It's such a sweet moment. Well, it would be sweet if Katie wasn't getting royally ticked-off every time Michael helped her. She doesn't mind if I help her, but he'd better not!

Summer is Officially Here!

My little Kindergarteners are now First Graders. We have kicked off the summer with free bowling. I signed up at www.kidsbowlfree.com and got coupons for the kids to bowl 2 free games a day, each. Saweeeet!!

Katie also started the summer with a new do. Here are some pics of bowling.

"Aww" Moment of the Day

Michael has been playing around with his Spiderman mask all morning. He put it on and told me "Even when I'm smiling it looks like I'm mad because of the mask. And Momma ... I'm always smiling at you."

Aww. Now I'm smiling, too! I swear, that kid is so sweet he has maple syrup running through his veins.

Get me the CDC, stat

I think my kids have the Whine Flu. Is there any kind of vaccination for that??

Marker Face, The Aftermath

I decided to talk to Katie about the Marker-All-Over-Michael's-Face incident of last night. Of course, Michael told me that it was all her idea and she was the one who did the drawings on his face. I totally believe him. Katie would test gravity by pushing Michael out a window. If she wanted to see if you can face paint with a maker, she'd color all over Michael's face. Plus, I found the marker in her bed. Oh, and she had marker on her hands. They don't even have this much evidence on most episodes of CSI. Our marker conversation went like this:

Me: Katie, do you want to tell me what happened with the red marker last night?

Katie: Huh? What red marker?

Me: The red marker you used to write all over Michael's face. We need to talk about that.

Katie: Red marker on Michael's face? I don't know anything about that.

Me: Katie, I saw his face. I have pictures. I found the red marker in your bed.

Katie: I didn't have a red marker.

Me: How did Michael get red marker all over his face? He said you did it.

Katie: I didn't write on him with red marker.

Me: You didn't draw on his face with a marker.

Katie: Oh, I drew on his face. But it was an orange marker.

Me: *facepalms* Why did you draw on Michael's face?

Katie: I wanted to see if I could face paint with a marker.

Me: Then why didn't you draw on your own face instead of marking up your brother?

Katie: *blinks*

Me: You know, you could mess up your own face with your experiment instead of your brother's face. Since it's your little experiment.

Katie: *more blinking* But, then I'd have marker on my face.

Me: YES!

Ah, Katie. She can't even wrap her head around that concept. I feel so sorry for Michael.

And on a side note, that marker was red. I washed it off Michael's face this morning and the washcloth was red. Plus, I found a red marker with no lid in Katie's bed. Oh, and I'm 34 so I know my freaking colors!

Crafty Katie

Katie did some crafting today. She's making projects that she wants to sell at stores. First she cuts about 10 strips of ribbon all the same length. Then she has me sew them together like a snowflake. Last, she ties them to a hair clip. While I was sewing the ribbons together for her, she told me that she thought she could make a little money selling them at the stores. When everything was all finished, she remarked "Wow, I could make a lot of money selling these!"

Marker Face

Usually, Michael and Katie come out of their rooms 3 or 4 times a night, after they've been put to bed. Last night, we were uninterrupted. Now I know why:

Yep, his face is covered in red marker. See the circle around his right eye? I knew what they'd done as soon as I saw it. At my work, we do facepainting on Mondays and Michael often requests a doggy face. I start by making a circle around one eye, kind of like a spot. Then I add freckles, whiskers, a black nose and a floppy tongue. I confirmed it this morning. Katie was making a doggy face on him with red marker. What a suprise, Katie's behind the mischief. Michael said that he tried to clean it off with a wipe but it wouldn't come off. Great. Fortunately, most of it came off with a good scrubbing this morning.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! For my special day, I got to sleep in until 8:30. Before kids, that was called "getting up early" not "sleeping in." The kiddos brought me breakfast in bed from McDonalds - Sausage McGriddle and Hashbrowns, my favorites. Michael and Katie both gave me cards and gifts they had selected themselves from the Dollar Store. These gifts are always my favorite because I get to see what the kids think I like. I've learned that they think I like cleaning and anything that is green. (Green IS my favorite color.) Michael gave me a scrub brush for my dishes. It has a small handle and green bristles. It matches the long handled scrub brush with green bristles that he got me for my birthday. He was so excited to give it to me because now I can "scrub smaller bowls and pans." And I "don't need to use the dishwasher anymore!" Yay! Katie gave me a green rubber mat that you use to line your refrigerator drawers and protect your produce. She also suggested that I could set my newly scrubbed dishes on it to dry. I hate to disappoint them, but our dishwasher is not going into retirement any time soon. All in all, it's been a great Mother's Day.

Toothless Katie

Katie had her two bottom eye teeth pulled this afternoon. She had already lost the two bottom front teeth, but the remaining teeth were too tight for her permanent teeth to fit. One was growing in the middle of the gap and the other was coming in somewhere behind it. According to the dentist, we bought about a year and a half of time with the two extractions, but count on major orthodontics after that. Great.

Spring Pictures 2

Here are the Spring Pictures. I have no idea why they retook Michael's. He looks great in both.

But no retakes of this gem?

Really?

And did they HAVE to pose her hands so that her chipped nail polish is showing??

Spring Pictures

Michael and Katie's school takes spring pictures in addition to the regular school pictures taken in the fall. I should add that they just send you a package of pictures and then you can either pay $35 for them or send them back. I hate that. Now I have to send back these pictures in my kids' backpacks and explain why Mommy doesn't want their pictures. Jerks.

So, we got these pictures on Monday and apparently the photographer took two sets of pictures of some of the kids and just one set of others. He just took one pose of Katie and two of Michael, adding to my picture drama. That led to this exchange:

Katie: *sob* Why did Michael get two pictures and I only got one. That's not fair.

Mrs. Chaffee: Katie, maybe Michael's eyes were closed in one picture and they needed to retake it. (They weren't.)

Katie: Michael, guess what!!! MY first...

Me: Katie... just .... no. Let's not.... (too late)

Katie: MY first picture came out soooo good they didn't HAVE to take another picture of ME. YOUR picture needed to be retaken.

Michael: Or... I looked so good, they WANTED to take another picture of me. Because my picture came out so AWESOME.

Katie: No, they NEEDED to retake it.

Michael: No, they WANTED to retake it.

(repeat those last two lines for the next hour.)

*sigh* You just can't win.

At least Michael is standing up for himself more than he used to.

On the Trampolines

While we were in St. Louis for Easter weekend, we did some shopping at St. Louis Mills. They have a place there where you can purchase time on a bungee cord/trampoline set-up.

Michael went first.

This is as high as he got - about 4 feet.

Katie was up next.


Holy Crap!

Yep. She's flipping in these pictures. Totally fearless.

Smart Cookie Club

Katie is the newest member of the Smart Cookie Club.

Aren't those glasses too cute!!!

That's a Good Question

What's more bad-ass than a lightsaber?

A sword tied to the end of a lightsaber. Duh.

This is Why My Kids Think I'm an Idiot

Katie asked me this question on the way home from school today.

"Mom, you know those candle things with the tubes and water in them? Well how does it get there? Is there some kind of air conditioner at the top?"

What is she talking about??????? I'm always saying "I don't know" because they ask me questions like this!!

Last week, Katie asked me if it bothers me that Daddy is so much smarter than I am. He's smarter because he knows the answers to their questions. Well, Daddy gets ten totally easy questions a day, and I get 500 gems like that one above.

APRIL FOOLS!!!

The kids planned their own April Fools prank for Steve. We got a slime egg to serve Steve for dinner and put a whoopie cushion on his chair. The whoopie cushion was electronic and had a cord and push button to make the tootie noise.

(Lying in wait)

(The yucky egg)

(Hee. The whoopie cushion in action)

Why, yes. I DO let my kids dress themselves.

This is a typical day for us. Maybe once a week, I'll pick out a cute outfit for Katie, but most days I just tell them to dress themselves. I've learned to live with the results.

( It's hard to see in the picture, but Michael's shirt is backwards.)

Paper Factory

Katie received a Bill Nye the Science Guy Paper Recycling Kit for her birthday. This kit allows you to take old, used paper and recycle it into even uglier paper to make cards for people you hate.

First, you tear up some old paper and let it soak in warm water overnight. Katie completely ignored my suggestion to stick to one color family and just threw together a bunch of construction paper - mostly black.

(Soaking the paper)

The kit came with a plastic hand blender. I let the kids use my blender to puree the soaked paper. They both ran screaming from the room as soon as I turned it on.

(Ahhhhh!!! Not the Blender!!!)

Then you pour the resulting grey sludge into a shallow pan.





You scoop up some sludge into a fine mesh screen then let the excess water drain away.

After shaking off the excess water you press it in this vise thing to get out more water.

Set your wet paper out to dry and in just a few hours, you have new paper.

(cool!)

Arrr! That Mirror is dARRty!

Katie saw the optometrist yesterday, and she will be getting glasses. Apparently, she's far-sighted in her left eye. Her right eye has been compensating for so long, that her brain isn't processing much info from the left anymore. She has an eye-patch that she's supposed to wear at home when doing close up work like coloring or writing. She loved the patch for the first 30-60 seconds, then she got frustrated because she couldn't see. I think this is going to be tough.