Really Good Water!

Big was excited (as usual) to partake of the sacrament water in church yesterday. He drank from his little cup with relish and said, "Mmmm. That's good water... really good water! Better than in the bathtub this morning!"


The sacrament water was pretty darn gross tasting but, having seen the boys' bath water this morning, I think he's probably right. 

Needing Knives

Rophone and Big were sitting at the bar the other day when I overheard them have the following conversation:


Big: "Hey, Dad! What do you want to do?"


Rophone: "I dunno. What do you want to do?"


Big: "Hmmm... we should cut things with knives."


Rophone: "No... I don't think we need to do that."


Big: "I need to cut things with little knives."


Rophone: "I think we should think of something else to do."


Big: "Awww."

Pen Can Spell! Well!

About a week and a half ago, Pen won her school's spelling bee. Yup. She won. The whole shebang. She is very excited about it, and says the victory has made her quite popular. I would give you the play-by-play, but I can't. I wasn't there. 


You see, Pen asked me not to come watch, so I didn't. Although I hated to miss it, I understood her motivation. I was exactly the same when I was a kid-- having my folks there made me more nervous and prone to make a mistake. So, I stayed away. 


I'm so proud of Pen and her victory. Other parents who were there told me she was spectacular to watch, spelling with a confidence and surety the other kids lacked. Not that they weren't good spellers, but the parents said Pen was different-- like a big league slugger. She was determined, I know that. 

Now we're busy preparing for the valley-wide bee next month. I doubt that I'll be at that one either, but I think Pen will let her dad tag along. He'll give me the scoop.  
Way to go, Pen! We love you!

Ha!

Bud discovered the game of hangman last night. Ginger invited him to play a few games before bed, and he loves it. He asked me to play this morning just as I was sitting down to eat breakfast, so I told him he would have to wait a minute. I then heard him mutter that he would just play by himself. I was really interested to see how it was going to go. 


A few minutes later, Bud walked up to me (looking rather disappointed) and dejectedly said, "Playing hangman with yourself is kinda easy." Thank goodness he didn't think it was hard!


After Big and I dropped Bud off at school we decided to run some errands. We had a successful and fun shopping trip. Big did a great job manning the list so we didn't forget anything. In the car on the way home, I looked back at Big and said, "I like you!" He gave me a bored look in return and replied, "You've mentioned it." 


Clearly, I must tell my kids that I like/love them too often. But, I believe a job isn't worth doing unless you do it well. I'm practicing for when they're teenagers and it will come in handy. To torture them. 


I'm gonna be the best!

Big's Big!

I can't express to you how excited I am as I type this post! After ages and ages of Big saying to me as he shuts the door to a room, "Excuse me, I need some privacy so I can go in my pants.", I am happy to report that Big did it! He went somewhere other than in his pants, and it was even in the approved receptacle we call the potty! Wahoo! 


It has been driving me nuts that I have a two year old who can use the word "privacy" properly in a sentence, but yet had no yearning to be potty-trained. Maybe now that he sees how easy it is, we'll be on our way to the land of the diaper-free! I am buying a one-way ticket, and when we get there I'm setting up house and never coming back! 


Way to go, Big! 

All About Ginger!

Yesterday we celebrated Ginger's birthday yet again, but this time it was with her friends. HOLY COW! I never would have guessed at the amount of giggling 6 pre-teen girls could produce. 


Mind-boggling. Seriously.


I just take it to mean the party was a grand success!


One of Ginger's friends arrived a few minutes early, so the two of them waited together impatiently for the other girls to arrive.

I took a few pictures of the decorations while they were waiting..

Once all of the girls had arrived (the giggling increasing ten-fold as each came in the door), we got the party started. 


The first activity was a huge hit! We printed out a bunch of black and white photos of Ginger from the series I took a while back. Each girl chose a photo and I dumped a pile of Sharpies in the middle of the table and told them to go to town, decorating and defacing the photos of Ginger in any way they'd like. 


At first the girls seemed a little hesitant, but once they got going there was no holding back! They all had a little wicked gleam in their eyes as they went at it. Let's hope I didn't just breed a whole new generation of yearbook-photo-defacers! 

Next, using a big poster-sized picture, we played "Pin the Mustache on Ginger". Judging by the giggling, I'd say the girls liked this activity as well. 


Call it a giggle-based-guess.

After a pause to open presents...

...it was on to another fun game! We played BINGO, only we used Ginger's nickname instead of the word bingo and characteristics and likes of Ginger's rather than numbers. It was a fun way to have the girls learn more about Ginger, and they got to win some prizes to boot!


This is what the card looked like..

These were the prizes..

The girls got to sit around munching on cake pops and m 'n m "beans", yelling out Ginger's nickname when they filled a row on their card. 

You may have noticed that even though this is Ginger's party, there aren't very many photos of her in this post. Um... yeah. That would be because the girl was so totally bouncing off the walls with excitement that pretty much every photo of her is so blurry as to bug the eyes. 


I should have used the sports setting on my camera.


To finish the party off, while awaiting the arrival of the parents, I let the girls decorate the big "Pin the Mustache on Ginger" poster with the Sharpies. Now Ginger will have a great memento of the party to hang on her wall. 


Ginger told me it was "the best party EVER!" Good. I'm glad. Happy Birthday, again, Ginger! We love you!

Nine!

Ginger celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. Nine. It's really hard to believe for some reason. We had a family dinner with her grandparents and Auntie and Uncle Art last Sunday-- her requested favorite of salmon. It was a lot of good food and company. Then, on Tuesday, we just hung out as a family and had another meal of her request. Company casserole (don't ask). 


After dinner on Tuesday she opened her gifts. 

Big was hilarious, saying stuff like, "What's in this one? .... She's taking too long..... Just rip the paper.... Open it, Ginger!" He hovered over her shoulder the entire time. 

I must have annoyed her a little, too. I caught her mid-eye-roll after something I said. Oh, well. It's my job and I think I excel at it. 

Then, of course, came dessert. Since I knew I'd be making some cake pops for Ginger's friend party later in the week, and we had loads of brownies left over from Sunday night's family dinner, I opted for a fancy cupcake for Ginger. Leftovers for everyone else. 


Just ignore the fact that you can see my flash in the window behind her. I told everyone that would happen. 

Here's another shot after I convinced her to move away from the window. 

It was fun, she liked her meal and her presents, and the cupcake was a hit. Happy Birthday, Ginger!

What They Said

The boys have managed to spout off a few funnies over the past few days. I don't know that they've been as funny as usual lately, though. Or maybe it's just my humor that has been lacking.


Last Friday, Big and I were talking about our plan to go bowling as a family and he kept informing me that he was going to win. A little while later, while picking up the girls from school, we had this conversation-- 


Big: "Mom? Can I gloat?"


Me (just assuming he was still referring to his future bowling victory): "Well, I guess you could, but it's really not nice."


Me (after a few seconds to think about it): "Do you even know what it means to gloat?!?" (I mean, I know he has an impressive vocabulary... but gloat?!)


Big: "It means to fly up into the sky!"


Me (a little disappointed): "Oh. That's floating, Big, not gloating. You meant to ask if you can float."


(I then gave him the definition of 'gloat'. Maybe a 2-year-old doesn't need it, but I gave it to him anyway)


Big: "Oh."


Me: "And... you can't float, because people can't do that, and you shouldn't gloat because it isn't being a good sport and isn't nice."


Big: "Oh."


That'll teach him.

*     *     *     *     *

Then, on our way to dinner after bowling (Big did beat several of the attendees, by the way) we went over a stomach-dropping bump. We all kind of said "Woah!" and Bud exclaimed, "That made my penis wiggle!" 


Indeed.

*     *     *     *     *

Yesterday, Rophone played a game of Memory with Bud. Playing Memory with Bud is not for the faint of heart. Or for those who hate to lose. Bud rocks at Memory.


At one point in the game Rophone got a couple of matches in a row and began to feel hopeful, only to have Bud look down at his much larger pile and crow, "You can't beat me! I'm the GREATEST!" He was so sweet in his cockiness, and was speaking the truth, so we could do nothing but agree. 

*     *     *     *     *

Rophone played a little hoop with the two boys yesterday, too. As they came into the room where I was when they were done, Big gave me a little head nod and said, "Hey, Mom. The six of us were playing some hoop."

He's smart. I swear. Maybe he was counting arms. 

Or legs. Or something.