Around the House

It's been a while since I shared a random list of things they say, but I've collected a few recently that I want to make sure I remember. Enjoy.

"If he's naming his dog after you, it must be pretty serious." - Dave, in response to Ella telling us that her friend, who is a boy, got a new puppy and named it Ella. She denies that he is her boyfriend, put Dave does make a good point.

"I makin' songs." - This was Luke's response when I told him it was time to take his drumset back to his bedroom so he could go to bed. He makes lots of songs, all the time, on whatever instrument he can find, but I believe he may be partial to drums. As I carried him, kicking, away from the drums this morning, he told me his legs were his drum sticks. I foresee an upgrade to a real drumset in the not-so-distant future.

"Sometimes in life, you have to have a baby brother." - Words of wisdom from Ella. I think she's finally accepted the fact that he's never going to be a sister.

"I a fast boy. I run fast in my shoes and take off and fly! I a super fast boy!" - That's Luke Roper, Super Fast Boy. He also has a super hero Fast Button built into the top of his hand that he occasionally pushes so he can run super fast.

At 6:30 one recent Saturday morning, Ella tore open her bedroom door and marched down the hall to demand, "Where's Daddy?" I peeled open my eyelids to see her standing there, almost impatiently tapping her foot, with a kindergarten math workbook in one hand and a giant pencil in the other. I told her I thought he was downstairs. She said, "We're going to do some math," turned on her heel and marched away. I am equally proud and reverent of that child's nerd tendencies. Also? I'm ecstatic that she already loves math. She told me that math is her favorite subject in kindergarten. She doesn't even start kindergarten until August. I hope she has better luck with geometry than I did.

"Hey! Hey, Mommy! Hey, it's me, Wuke Boper!" - Luke, demanding my attention. I wasn't aware that I was being terribly inattentive, so I'm not sure if he just needed to identify himself, or I just didn't hear him the first few times. Either way, he's Wuke Boper.

"What are we going to do when they are teenagers?" - Dave's response after he planned, purchased, and cooked our supper two nights in a row. He finally understood that we really do eat as many groceries as I buy every week (a lot). I guess that's something you just can't really fathom until you plan, purchase, and cook the food, then see how much is left.  

Flip Floppin'

We spent a fantastically beautiful weekend outside, starting with Ella's first soccer games Saturday morning.

We played in the park Saturday afternoon, but I didn't bring the camera. It was warm enough that Georgia needed a swim in the creek to cool off. We cooked on the grill and played ball  in the yard in the evening.

Sunday afternoon wasn't quite as pretty, but it was still warm so we played outside until we were tired of wiping the gnats out of our eyes.

This is one of our modified balance beams. When I asked Luke to step away from the wall, he said, "This one?" and proceeded to show me that I don't have to worry about him walking on it anymore. I shouldn't; I watched him walk on the regulation beam at gymnastics all by himself this week. Instead, I'll only worry when he's riding that duck and not paying attention to the edge.  

This is Ella performing the Rombo Circus. As usual, I'm not sure what that is, but I'm supposed to take her to practice on one side of the driveway and watch her perform on the other. It appears to be some combination of cheering and dancing.  

Gypsy adopted her warm weather sleeping spot when she got tired of playing with Luke. He thought it was hilarious that she was in the flower pot. 

 Luke played his horn for us while we walked down to the creek to let Georgia take a dip.

Luke shed his flip-flops for the warm weather. 

I would apologize for my unpainted toes, but really, you are just lucky that the last of the old plum colored polish I put on there in October finally chipped off. Ella's little flip-flopped feet were too cute not to share.

I absolutely adore the first beautiful, shorts and flip-flops, and grill cooking weekend of the year.

Day 1 - 8 o'clock

Our Saturday morning 8 o'clock usually looks like this. Today, we happened to be at Breakfast with Santa, but usually it's my kitchen table that's in wreckage by the 8 o'clock hour. The monkeys get up with the sun, no matter what time they went to bed the night before, so we've usually had plenty of mess by 8 a.m.

This year, they both went willingly to sit with Santa for a picture. Ella was motivated by telling him her Christmas list, which she has prioritized by order of importance.

Ella's Christmas List
1. Barbie House
2. Barbie Car
3. Soap
4. Gum
5. Tattoos

Luke was just excited about the pancakes.

Thanksgiving Break

Good coffee. Good book.

"Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

It's Thanksgiving break at my house. That means the kids and I are home from school and work. There's lots of playing, a little cleaning, plenty of football (even at eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning because we have ESPN and it was Luke's turn to pick), and an excess of time to conquer our running list of things to do: paint, dance, read books, etc.

I have so many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving but today I'll list the trivial: a comfortable book, good coffee, a warm house, little voices at play, and a child who just told me, "I'm an article." She meant "artist."

Happy Thanksgiving Week!