Clark smiling and laughing

This is for you, Mom! (the music in the background wasn't intended to be a soundtrack or anything, Cora and Soren were just watching a Taylor Swift video on the computer)

Saturdays

Brad's at a camp-out today, and it's always hard to do Saturdays without him. It's so hot outside, activities have to be limited to something involving water and taking all four to the pool by myself is way too scary. Today is a good example of piecing together activities so as not to hear Isabelle say "this is a dumb day!" The girls got to pick a little prize from the treasure box, the reward for getting the minimum checks on their reward chart (includes brushing teeth morning and night, homework/reading/flash cards, clean room/make bed, piano practice). So they played with what they picked for a good part of the morning (these cool little diary-looking notebooks). Cora made hers into a "dream journal," and idea from the movie "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" and Isabelle made hers into her secret diary. Cora drew and colored pictures, relating to me the crazy "dreams" she had. One was about a gumball planet where it rains gumballs and everyone eats gumballs all day for food. Cora has always got some creative story going on (in fact, it's rare for her to let us read her a book, she always wants to "read" it to us, making up total nonsense. I mean, some of it makes a bit of sense and is very creative, but sometimes she just pieces together sentences interspersed with gibberish) Isabelle tried to get me to guess what secrets she put in her diary.
Right now they're outside doing this:




















And Clark is doing this:

Smiles

OK, so school is the theme as of late :-) Soren got Cora's backpack off the hook this morning and asked me to help him put it on. Then he walked to the front door and said, "can I bus?" (which is interpreted to mean "can I go get on the bus?") He threw a little fit when I said no and then he asked to get his shoes on, which led to another fit. He walked around the house for awhile with the backpack on ("packpack" he calls it), then finally gave up. He loves seeing the girls get on and off the bus and is getting less and less perturbed that he can't get on. I guess today he thought he could win a pass if he had the right accoutrement...

Just some cute

Brad's birthday

The girls had a great time trying to surprise their dad for his birthday this week. I love making my own cake and icing and decorating it myself or with the girls. This time was in haste, although to be honest, they never look good and always very home-made and messy. Yet it never seems to bother me (or the kids yet, I'm sure I'll get complaints when they're older and notice other folks who are actually talented in this area), I still love it and for all the things I suck at, I never feel bad about this particular un-talent :-)

First Day of School!

Isabelle and Cora were off to school this morning and were so cute and excited. Isabelle took good care of Cora on the bus and took her to her Kindergarten class. Soren threw a huge gigantic fit when he couldn't get on the bus with them. I thought he'd be okay by the afternoon when he saw them get off. But he threw a big fit again because he still wanted to get on that bus!