Fake

Natalie's new vocabulary word is fake. She tells me all sorts of things are fake. The last few Sunday's after I curled her hair and bangs she has looked in the mirror and said "My hair looks fake!" Today I was looking at some Easter dresses online and she was looking at them too. I asked her if she liked a certain dress and her response was that "the dress looked fake." I have no idea where she is coming up with this stuff and I would love to understand what her definition of fake is. Funny kid.

Tea Time

For mom's birthday I wanted to take her to a place called "The Secret Garden" for lunch. It is an old Victorian house that is about 200 yards down from my mother in-laws house in Sumner. They have converted the downstairs of the house to a tea room. It is so fancy, fun and delicious! I had been there before with Sondra and my sister in-laws and thought it would be nice to bring my mom and sisters to enjoy an English tea lunch. With Kara being in town this was the perfect opportunity to go. We sure missed Kierstin and Amy and talked about the time when we could all go together.



The lunch is a slow progressive lunch that is fancy: finger sandwiches, soup, salad, sorbet (to clean the palate!), scones, and little finger desserts, and of course your very own pot of tea! (We are all tea amateurs but loved the herbal peppermint, peach and apple tea.) There is tons of fun little spoons, strainers, tongs and tea cups that make the environment so fun. Things got a little crazy...and we ate almost all of the sugar cubes in the jar (we brought the kids home their very own sugar cube...they loved it!). Laura was the only one to join the clean plate club, she was able polish everything off!! I came in a close second. Thanks girls for the fun time!



A shout out to my dad who was kind enough to watch all 6 kids while we went and was even brave enough to take all of them on a trail hike and then to Krispy Kreme! What a guy!!

We Might Be Giants!

Our cousins came to visit us for their spring break and we sure had fun!! I don't think anyone took pictures but they were sure cute. I think I need to state for the record that my kids are ginormous compared to their cousins. Not sure what kind of crazy genes Mitch and I possess....but it is like they are giants. It is a shame no pictures were taken to document the giantism. Julia and Anna are the same height. Jules might be a smidge taller...oh by the way Julia is 5 and Anna is 7. Ashely and Natalie are the same height with Natalie outweighing Ashley hands down, Ashley is 5 and Natalie is 3. Probably the most drastic look is when Julia and Ashely who are six months apart stand next to each other. It is crazy!! The kids played and played. I wish I had recorded all the cute things that went on. Here are some highlights:

* Natalie and Ashley holding hands and walking around for the first hour that they saw each other.

* Jefferson and Natalie playing with each other and Natalie asking J what his favorite color was

* Cameron and Anna sitting next to each other and one of them saying to the other, "I sure have missed you"

* Cameron and Julia jumping out of the car before the car was stopped when they saw all the cousins waiting for them patiently to arrive.

* Julia asking Ashley if Coos Bay was in North America (Can to tell what she has been studying in school?)

* Anna telling her mom that our house was the "wrestling house" therefore no need to comb her hair before she came here. There was no point.

We are so glad that some of our cousins live just a little closer!!!

Tooth Extraction

Tonight Cam lost yet another tooth. This is both exciting and a little disturbing. The last two teeth that he has lost have been not that loose when he has extracted them out of his mouth. Yesterday he came to me saying that he had a wiggly tooth and in reality it was loose but no where near ready to come out. I begged him to leave it alone and let it get looser on its own... and a short 24 hours later it is out. You can see that our conversation fell on deaf ears. Yikes. He might make a good dentist in the future. Apparently ripping teeth out of his mouth doesn't seem to bother him!

P90X

P90X WORKOUT:
A REVOLUTIONARY HOME FITNESS PROGRAM
"In just 90 days, you can get back in shape, or build the body you've always wanted. All you need is a set of dumbbells or resistance bands, a pull-up bar, and about an hour a day. No gym membership required."

Oh yes...we are getting in shape!

Waiting For The Bus

A big part of my day is the bus. We go to the bus stop in the morning to drop Cameron off, in the afternoon to take Julia, and then later to pick the kids up. With a kindergartner you HAVE to be at the bus stop or they will not let them off the bus. So Natalie and I spend a lot of time waiting for the bus. While downloading the pictures off my phone, I had to laugh at what we do while waiting for the bus....take pictures of ourselves!

Good Mommy\Bad Mommy

Natalie has become really S-A-S-S-Y lately. You can tell she has been taking notes from her older siblings. If Natalie is getting her way or getting what she wants she tells me "Mommy, you are a good mommy and my sweetheart." If she isn't getting what she wants and doesn't like what I am telling her she says "You are a bad mommy and I don't like you anymore." Hearing this 10-12 times a day doesn't get old or anything. What a little stinker.

Mid-Winter Blahs

We have the blahs around here. Same old same old. School, homework, work, clean the house, pick up toys, make food, clean up the food, go the the bus, pick up from the bus...you get the idea. My motivation level is at a record low. Should I pick up the house? Nah. Take a nap? Yep. Hopefully with spring almost here it will help get us out of this rut. On a related note, I spent the last week reading and finishing the Hunger Games book series. Good books! Like I said, I am highly motivated to do much of nothing.



Today I went to Costco and let the girls pick out new summer pajamas. Julia instantly picked these. It made me laugh...zebras wearing high heels. A good choice for a 5 year old going on 12.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Yesterday was Read Across America Day (aka Dr. Seuss birthday!) The kids had a fun day at school. Cameron's class got to wear their pajamas to school and bring their favorite Dr. Seuss book. It was also their celebration of 100 days of school. When they got home from school Cameron NEEDED to wear his Cat in the Hat costume. Of course the girls were not going to be left out, hence the pirate and the kangaroo! Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!



Julia made this cute Cat in the Hat at school! I love it.

After dinner Cameron and Julia sat down together and read their favorite Seuss books to each other. They were so cute. Go, Dog, Go isn't a Seuss book but definitely a favorite!

...and thought I would throw in a picture of the scary pirate...

Mid-Winter Break

Well mid-winter break was a little more wintery than we were hoping for, but we had a nice week off. We went to both of our grandma's houses, swimming, a bouncy house place, played in the snow and relaxed. Best of all mom survived the indoor fun all week!



Cameron decided to shovel the driveway and asked me "Do you think if I do a good job that I might earn some money?" What a sweetheart. After he was done, Mitch went out to inspect the driveway and Cam earned $3.



Here is a little video of Cameron and his hoop. He loves it and plays on it ALL the time. It can be trying for me at times because he is always underfoot in the kitchen, hopefully spring will be here soon and we can play outside. Yesterday he told me that he had dream the night before and in his dream he made a slam dunk at Glacier Park in his basketball game. Of course that is what a seven year old boy would dream about!

Hair Cuts

First thing on the agenda for mid-winter break: Hair cuts for the girls. After cutting the girls hair myself last time, I thought that it would be best to take them somewhere to have it done. The girls loved going to a salon! Hooray for less snarls, tangles and crying when it is time to comb our hair.
The before shots:





During:







The after shots:

Homemade Books

The kids just love the books by Mo Willems. He is such a funny author and we enjoy reading all of his books. We get so excited when a new book comes out that we have never read. Last week Julia and Cameron decided that they wanted to make their own books by copying the originals. Their books might be the cutest things ever. I love the determination and creativity they had when creating them.

Two pages out of Julia's book:

Two pages out of Cameron's book:

Cameron also is in the process of making a book of his favorite book of all time "The Cat in the Hat." It is priceless to me.

Random Thoughts

Just in case you think that everything at the Stuard house is perfectly wonderful all the time... Here are a few rants, whines and everything in between of things going on with us:

• The other night after dinner Cameron said, "That dinner was delicious, but not the best I have ever had. Maybe my 4th favorite." Well...good to know...
• Why is it that for Valentine's Day my kids got a million Fun Dips and Pixie Stix? They are the WORST candy for kids. Straight sugar that inevitably ends up all over the floor.
• Julia brought home a Skippy Jon Jones book from the library. That series of books is so bad that I cannot stand reading them. It is actually painful.
• Natalie will NOT go Primary. The first two weeks were no problem and then she decided that she hates it. She has been TERRIBLE. I am talking full on screaming in the Primary room when I am sitting next to her. We have tried to reasoning with her, talking it out, bribing and now we are moving on to threatening her. As you can see, our parenting skill are exceptional. Mitch and I are about ready to sell her.
• Our roof is STILL leaking. I asked the roof guy how much it costs to replace a cedar shake roof like ours. I now want to die. Anybody have an extra 10 thousand they might let us have?
• While helping in Julia's classroom the other day her teacher told me that in her 23 years of teaching, Julia was the first to throw up in her classroom. OOPS.....
• Cameron had to learn to spell the word- Quadrilateral, Amazon River, and Andes Mountains in spelling last week. Enough said.
• After 10 months of Natalie being potty trained she still will not go by herself (I have trained myself, good job self.) Boo.
• Cameron asked me the other day if I could get the recipes from the school's cafeteria to make chicken patties and Big Daddy's cheese pizza because they are SO delicious. Can you imagine the shock of the cook at school if I asked her. That might be a first ever, somebody actually liking cafeteria food!
• This coming week is Mid-Winter Break, no school all week long--it is supposed to be 40 degrees and raining most of the week. HELP!

The Green Grinches

Cameron has had a fun basketball season so far! His dad is the coach!! Each week Cam is getting better and better and I think the coach is enjoying the season too. The name "The Green Grinches" is the results of letting nine- 7 and 8 year old boys come up with their own team name. Nice.

Eleven Years

We celebrated by shopping for a new couch and going to Benihana. What more could we need?