Moving

Since I have 2 other blogs, one of which I update frequently, the other being craft specific. I have decided to let this one go for now.

Perhaps when the boys are older we will re vanp this into a news paper type blog.

So until that day look for updates on our family at
www.samuraimom.blogspot.com

if you must see the projects I am working on you can find those at
www.sewingdervishcreates.blogspot.com

That's so sweet, otherwise entitled "We are good parents after all"

Both of these incidents happened yesterday.

Boba Fett did not know about April Fool's Day until his singing teacher taught him all about it in class. On April 1st I was subjected to numerous very, very poor 4 year old April Fool's jokes. I Told Boba Fett "I am so mad at Miss E. for teaching you about April Fool's!" So yesterday Boba Fett was telling Danger about this and I said, "Did you tell Miss E. that I was so mad at her?" and he said in shock,"No, that would hurt her feelings."

While I was cutting Commander C's hair we were discussing the kids in his primary class. We were discussing a particularly disruptive boy that Commander C is friends with. I said "you like him though, even though he is disruptive." He said "Yeah, but he isn't going to be a very good leader."
I about fell over! Leadership education does work. Unfortunately, I did not investigate his thought process to find out how Commander C evaluates potential leadership qualities.

Home Lessons

I have been making bread for several months now. The kids really like it and are upset when there is no more bread. Since I use a breadmaker for the hard part and then bake in the oven I decided this was a job for a nearly 8 year old.

So I supervised, he can now make bread from start to finish.

Organized mischief

Roo will be turning 8 this month and that means Cub Scouts. I was certain that I would be called to be Den Leader but luckily my friend Kiera has that honor right now. I am glad, because I am sure they will have more fun with her than they would with me.
Our best friend L has decided to join our pack and so Roo and L need not be separated.

We're Enchanted

Last week we watched Disney's Enchanted. Nutmeg has been singing the songs non stop. Everyone is mesmerized when it plays. We have watched countless clips on Youtube and we actually bought the DVD. Here is a picture of the kids watching for the umpteenth time.

What Spring Break did to my house

This is what happens when all of the neighbor kids are home for spring break.

Happy Easter

Our new Easter tradition. Low on sugar since Nutmeg is allergic and the kids got oodles of chocolate in their basket.

I know the secret!

Me: " Osito, see this purple egg that you made that didn't turn out, can we try to make it pink?"
Osito: (without a pause) Yes, I want to make it pretty for you.

He also picked flowers for me today. I am such a lucky mom.

P.S. See those really, really red eggs? I know the secret!

Mimick

We have a little copycat in the house. We frequently find Nutmeg sitting quietly mimicking other members of the house. She does things like sewing, putting on makeup, or washing dishes. The cutest occasion was when I was blow drying my hair and she had her hand up by her head. I thought she was signing "potty" I asked if she needed to go and she said "No." Then I picked up my brush and she put her other hand up and then I realized she was blow drying her hair.
This is a picture of her sitting with Moose, playing on her "computer" twirling her whiskers!

A lesson is stepping out of the way

Piggy banks, a sordid affair in our home, Roo broke into (literally) Osito's one day and ever since then we have had one very ugly piggy bank that is now MIA. I spotted these nice red ones at Winco for $1.98. Usually just plain blank white ones are $10 so I grabbed 2. They both chose Red so embellishment was needed to prevent confusion, theft and bickering. I wanted to just have them "help" me paint their names. I invisioned them WATCHING me paint the names. Roo took me literally and had a grand old plan for his pig. I really wanted 2 nice matching pigs. I tried to convince him to just paint his name, then to at least do the stripes in the same direction. Finally I bit my tongue and let him have his way. I am glad I did because he was very pleased with it.

I just love being a girl!

I just want to say how much I enjoy having a girl. Nutmeg has an affection for ballerinas, called me beautiful the other day and loves to take care of people. We put our hair up in curlers! She is feeling ill today and since our Cinderella DVD has made an unfortunate and accidental trip to Netflix we were watching clips on you tube. We sang along to all the pretty songs and she fell asleep on my lap. C'est finis.

Got Manners?

We don't. I have the feeling that while my children say "Please" and "Thank You" there is something missing. For example - we had a family over for dinner a few weeks ago and Roo said ever so politely to an adult "Move, please." "Excuse me" might have been more appropriate, but how should he know that? I sheepishly admit that I have never taught him that "Excuse me" is preferable to "Move, please.

So my new resolution is to become more civilized.

This means using table linens, i.e. table cloths and cloth napkins. First, our kitchen/dining table is a mess. 7 years of fork banging has taken its toll and there are large craters on the surface of the table. I filled the deepest holes with wood putty for sanitary reasons - food could get stuck in there and never come out. I have some tablecloths to use for everyday and will seek out more for the collection.

Also, the napkin issue. Moose's family always has paper napkins on the table. I think this is well, trashy. Now, mind you my family didn't use any napkins. I guess we just used the back of our hands. When things got really messy someone was dispatched to the kitchen to grab a few paper towels. So I will concede that the in-laws win the classy contest there. My Mother in-law even gave me a lemon themed napkin holder, but as I have this strange aversion to paper napkins unless I am at a picnic, it lives on the top shelf of my cupboard. I do possess a set if silver(plated?) napkin rings and some cloth napkins. I will be enlarging my stash of napkins as well.

Women are always bemoaning the loss of gentlemen in our society, I have been known to complain about it once in a while myself. But I realized maybe I should be teaching my boys to be gentlemen and my daughter and I how to be ladies. I have never felt that I quite mastered the ladylike qualities. We will be working on that too. Moose will be that hardest one to train I suspect, he's stubborn and knows he can get by without.

So if anyone has a good book on manners let me know. My sister and I embarked on this mission once before but all we learned from Emily Post was how to write thank you notes and plan weddings.

Little man, your worst nightmare is about to come true!

I filled my glass with water and shut the refrigerator door. As I took a drink I looked at my husband and we rolled our eyes at the sound of a child's cry. We had just finished putting the kids to bed. We debated which child it was and then told each other "He's your kid." I lost the draw and headed out to tell him to go to sleep.

As I approached the staircase I saw him standing at the top of the stair case sobbing "Mom, I saw a police out side, I really, really did"

A little back ground here. Osito is terrified of the Police. We don't know why. We are law abiding folk so we don't have any reason to fear law enforcement in our home. We don't talk disparagingly about the police and our position is that Police are there to help and protect us. This reasoning falls on deaf four year old ears. He is convinced that the Police are going to come get him.

Osito is a thinker, he thinks about things and tears and frustration come from what seem like out of no where as he thinks about something in the past and then gets mad about it all over again. A common frustration is something one of us said ages ago and he brings it up and it has to be hashed out all over again. Once, I found him sitting on the stairs, enormous elephantine tears rolling down his face getting his shirt all wet, filling up his glasses; he was crying because he had hurt Nutmeg and the Police were coming to get him. I didn't even know he had hurt her.

He asks us questions at random times about the police, "Where to they live?", "What do they take you to jail for?", "What do they eat!"

So last night as I stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him, I thought, "Ugh, not again." Then I turned and looked at the front window to see red lights flashing on the blinds! I went to the door and saw a police car that had pulled someone over on the main road and they obviously chose our road to pull over on, and since our house is the first house with enough room to park in front of and doesn't have an enormous Cascade Water truck parked in front of it, they stopped in front of our house. Nice.

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but he was sleeping in our room at the front of the house rather than his room at the back of the house. What are the odds?

Naturally, Osito was sure that they were here for him.

Well, I ran up the stairs and swooped him up, telling him about traffic stops and assuring him that they were not there for him. Eventually the patrol car left and Osito went back to sleep. The only thing that would have been worse is if the police knocked on the door and he opened the door!

Last night Osito faced his worst fear, and survived.

It can't be 2 years already!

Our Little Nutmeg is 2 today. I can hardly believe that tiny little thing is now running, talking, telling me "No!", completely potty trained and being a mother to her dolls. She has been such a joy and a blessing.

It was very windy today but warm so we went out to play. Apparently being 2 means "No, Mom. I will not look at the camera no matter what you say." Somehow I managed to get this shot, which, considering the sorry state of our OLD camera is a miracle.

On the menu tonight Nutmeg's favorite meal Spaghetti (ok, spaghetti sauce is her 2nd favorite meal but we had pizza already this week) and Devils food cake from scratch with pink 7 minute angel frosting. Last year I attempted to make this cake and the frosting was a disaster this year it is perfect.