Dressing Up

My girls crack me up. The outfits they create for themselves are really.... something. Emma and Elizabeth are wearing nothing but shirts and tights. Elizabeth has long sleeved shirts tied around her front and back instead of a skirt. And I guess Emma thinks just tights are sufficient. But if you look at their faces, you can tell they think they look AWESOME. :o)

Annie and Maddie are getting into dressing up too. Annie grabbed this tank top of mine out of the clean laundry and tried to put it on herself. I had to help a little so it wouldn't fall off.

The twins are always putting on and taking off shoes. We had company over for dinner tonight, and Annie put on shoes belonging to our guests. It almost came to blows at one point, when she was wearing the blue crocs belonging to the little boy. We had several days this week where I heard "Ah waht SHOES" (that is "I want shoes" for those of you who don't speak toddler) over and over, while they held out another pair for me to help them put on. It was on and off, on and off, and on and off all day long. And never their shoes that they wanted to wear, but Daddy's or Emma's or Elizabeth's or my shoes.

On the up side, they are learning some new words. :o)

Pillowcase Projects

For Christmas, I made Emma and Elizabeth matching Christmas-themed pillowcases. They liked them so well, they've been on their pillows ever since. It was making me laugh a little, seeing them in June and July. I thought I should probably make them some new ones that aren't so..... Christmassy.

I went to Walmart (we don't have a fabric store in town), stared at the fabrics and realized maybe I should have asked Emma and Elizabeth if they had a preference for color or theme. I pulled out my trusty cell phone and called home. Ryan answered, and we talked about fabrics for the twins, Emma and Elizabeth. Well, I thought we'd brought the conversation around to the older girls, so when I asked Ryan if he'd ask the girls what color fabric they wanted, I could tell Ryan thought I was completely insane by the tone of his voice. But I was clueless as to why he thought that. I pressed my point, so then I could hear Ryan over the phone (with an overly enthusiastic voice) ask Annie and Maddie what color fabric they wanted. ("Do you want PINK? Yes, PINK? How 'bout BLUE? Do you like BLUE?" etc.) I tried to talk to him, but he couldn't hear me call out his name. So, then I just started laughing. I was standing in the fabric dept. of Walmart giggling to myself. I'm sure it was a sight. Ryan got back on the phone and told me that he got a reaction to purple for Maddie and pink for Annie. (The twins do not know their colors yet.)

We got things straightened out, I talked to Emma and Elizabeth on the phone, and I got the fabric cut and purchased. (That's another story... Ugh. Walmart.)

So I made pillowcases yesterday and today during nap times. I made the Ariel one with purple trim for Elizabeth, the Princess one with yellow trim for Emma, and the Dora ones for the twins. They all really like them, so it makes me feel nice. Of course, I would hate for anyone with REAL sewing skills to look at the pillowcases.

Behind Semi-Closed Doors

Last night, after the girls were put to bed, we were hearing a lot of chatter from their area of the house. Ryan tip-toed down to their bedroom and over heard the following conversation.

Elizabeth: Emma, you need to remember the rules and get back in bed! If you get caught, there's no tv tomorrow.

(Ryan enters the room to see Emma standing on the baseboard heater, behind the curtains and looking out the window.)

Emma: Oh Elizabeth. No one's here. No one is going to see me. I won't get caught. They are in the living room talking on the phone.

Elizabeth: Well don't caught, 'cause Dad is HERE.

Emma: No he's not. You can't trick me. I'll get in bed in a minute, when I'm done looking out the window.

Elizabeth: You are going to get in trouble! (Picture the sing-song voice of a sibling who knows their sister is going to get in trouble.)

Emma: He is NOT here. (Throws back curtain.) AAAAHHHH! (Clears throat.) Hi, Dad. I was just getting in bed now.

Daddy: You were not. I was standing here the whole time.

Emma: Oh. Good night. I'm just going to bed now.

Daddy: Ok. Good night, girls.

Lamest Excuse Ever

We were on our way home today from church when we passed a police car stopped at a stop sign on a side street. It turned in right behind us, and we continued on our merry way. Got to a stop light, where we turned and then the police car followed suit. And then we got pulled over. Ryan was driving, but we both started doing a checklist of reasons it could be. He wasn't holding a cell phone, tabs are current... Are we in trouble for not stopping for the old dude who was approaching a crosswalk? Did Ryan not stop all the way at that red light before making the right turn? I guess we'd find out soon enough.

It was a quick stop. I found the proof of insurance, Ryan dug out his drivers license and the policeman came up to our window. He did a visual sweep of the occupants of our minivan and asked if we were coming from church. Well, duh. Why else would a girl wear nylons and skirt in 96 degree weather? But we were waiting for the reason, and it was coming. Wait for it.....

"So, I didn't see you use your turn signal at that stop light."

Really? Failure to use the turn signal? It must be a really slow day. Or, did we have a quota to fill?

Ryan played it cool, saying, "That could be."

The policeman ran our info, and I guess we checked out. Ryan was "warned" to be more careful about it in the future, and we were on our way back home.

Notice, the policeman didn't say Ryan didn't use the turn signal. Nor did Ryan say he forgot to use it. All in all, a very strange encounter. Unless you count the ride-along in the police car, who looked strangely like a former student of Ryan's. One who might possibly have said (daily, with every assignment issued) that he was going to get Ryan pulled over. But I won't say for sure.

Status

The following are just some of my more interesting "status updates" from my Facebook page. Enjoy.

Gee, it's great being the mom of a 7-year-old with a sense of humor. Emma hooked a small-ish necklace to a belt loop on my backside. I forgot about it, LEFT THE HOUSE like that, and realized the necklace was still attached after I got home from doing an errand. Just awesome.

The plural for corn IS corn, not "corns." If you wish to ask how many EARS of corn I am purchasing, then ask that. No wonder you work at Walmart.

Emma just told me my legs are scratchy like Daddy's face.

With helpers like these, who needs a hindrance?

During church, I tried to take the hymn book away from Annie. She growled at me.

I tried to do too many things at once. I was texting my sister-in-law, instant messaging my dad, making dinner and copying files from my camera to a disk. I kinda neglected dinner.... I think there's a limit to how many things I can multi-task.

Over heard at our dinner table: Emma- "Mom can I have juice in my C-U-P?" Dad- "See You Pee? I don't want to see you pee!" Hilarity ensued.

My kids are actually sad summer break is approaching. No more school? Oh no!

Just heard the ice cream truck playing CHRISTMAS music. What the heck?

Elizabeth just tried to convince me that wearing a blanket wrapped around her middle qualifies as wearing clothes. Hmm...

Today just keeps getting better and better. Maddie refused to take a nap, threw her blanket, binky AND pajamas over the side of the crib. Then while I was trying to get myself ready for church, Elizabeth cut her own hair. Can I just go back to bed?

Elizabeth complained that she was too hot in her purple cords and t-shirt playing outside today. So, she put on a footed sleeper. I am raising GENIUSES.

Twins have super powers.

I love how kids are eternally optimistic: Mom can I have marshmallows for lunch?

Today was a hard day to be Danae's books. Courtesy of the twins, Wuthering Heights lost the title page, and Pride and Prejudice, and Emma both lost part of their respective covers. New books for mom are going to be their birthday presents....

Elizabeth wanted me to tie her hair to her feet so she could be a ball.

The Aluminum Rule

We've all heard of the Golden Rule. Even my 7-year-old can recite it: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. It's something we should all try to live by.

Then while reading a book on parenting, I ran across the Platinum Rule: Do unto others as they'd have done to them. Or, in other words, if you are a lightly-toasted-toast person, and your spouse is more of a well-done-toast person, you would make well-done toast for your spouse. Because that's the way he likes it.

And then there's the Aluminum Rule. (I may have made up this one lying in bed last night.) Do unto others as others have done unto you. So, when friends and acquaintances send a salesman to your door, you pass along the good fortune to more friends and acquaintances.

I hope you enjoyed the visit from the Living Scriptures salesman.

Home Again

We were barely settled after our California trip, when Ryan headed off for a week long conference on the other side of the state. I dread this conference, and it comes around every summer. Just me and the kids for a week. No knight in shining armor coming to my rescue come evening time. So, after a long day, Monday evening rolled around and we talked to Ryan on Skype. Over the kids jumping around and hollering, Ryan showed us what a nice, big room with two queen beds that he is enjoying all to himself. After a crazy evening trying to get the kids to stay in bed, I did a little searching online of activities to do in Kelso. We were going on a road trip.
Tuesday morning brought laundry, packing, printing off directions, a couple of phone calls, and a frantic dash for the car. We made it out of the house at .....just after noon. Alone it takes me 4 hours to get everyone out of the house for a trip.
Then I took my crew on a drive across the mountains along a two lane highway. When you get stuck behind a truck towing a helicopter, you are stuck there. My three and a half hour trip took closer to 4 hours. And I'm not kidding about the helicopter.
We arrived in time for Happy Meals in our hotel room at the Red Lion. Biggest hotel room I've ever seen. We fit two play 'n packs in our room easily, with room for our luggage and then some. Come evening time, we put the twins down in their beds, set Emma and Elizabeth up with a movie on our laptop in the bathroom. I drug the chair ottoman into the bathroom so they'd have something soft to sit on. That left the closet for Ryan and I to hang out in. We watched episodes of Lie to Me on Ryan's school laptop until 9, when we put the big girls to bed.
Our days were spent at the park, wandering local stores and hopefully not bothering our hotel room neighbors. And Ryan was available in the evenings. I don't think I will let Ryan go to conference again by himself. We all miss him, and he claims to miss us too. Even after a few nights of all us of in a single room, he still likes us and says we should definitely come again next year.