Running Club

Albert, Hog and Super all participated in a running club at school this year.  They have the most dedicated PE teacher who truly cares about the kids and goes above and beyond to teach them healthy habits.  They went to school early twice a week and ran about a mile each time.  Some of our children were a little more enthused about the running than others, but, overall it was a great experience.  (Let's just say that some favor their mother's hobbies and some favor their father's.)  If they accumulated 25.2 miles, they qualified to run in a one mile race for kids that was held in January the day before the PF Changs marathon.  All three of our kids qualified and had a great time at the race.   

Here they are getting ready to run.  Super and Hog were the youngest kids from our school running, so we stuck them in the fourth grader race so all three of them could run together.  It was crowded with lots of people and they just grabbed hands and walked to the start line together.  I almost cried when I saw them all together.  It was a sweet moment for their mother.

Sweet Potato (formerly known as Cupcake Princess) was not very patient waiting for things to get started.

ASU athletes and cheerleaders gave the kids high fives as they crossed the finish line.  I loved that they stayed together for the whole mile.  

 Here are our racers with their coveted medals after they finished.  They got great goodie bags, too.

And yes, here is the outtake from our post race photo shoot, where Super insisted on sticking his finger up his nose.  Does anyone teach classes on how to pose for a picture?  My kids need it.  They all take after their father in this respect!

Swimming her heart out

Albert had her divisional swim meet on Thursday night. She was really excited that she improved her time in every stroke. She didn't qualify to move on so the swim season is officially over. This was our first year being involved with swim team and let me just say that I think swim team is the greatest thing ever. Okay, minus the part where you sit for hours in 110 degree heat waiting for your swimmer to have her turn, it's the greatest thing ever.

Albert learned a lot and most of it was not about swimming. At her third swim meet, she swam the butterfly. She was nervous about it. Butterfly is hard and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to compete. However, I could see that “I’m going to give it a try” attitude in her eyes and I knew she would do it. She was worried that her stroke wouldn’t be legal but she did great and wasn’t disqualified. She came in 5^th place and was so happy. I was happy for her too—happy that I have a daughter who is learning to rise to challenges and not run away from them. Who knows that things in life are fun and can be enjoyed whether you are the best or not. The accomplishment comes in trying, not winning. She is an amazing person and I know that she is going to do great things in her life.

Waiting for her turn to do the butterfly.

Almost ready to dive in.

Whew!! She made it.

A happy little swimmer adds to her ribbon collection!!!

Albert's First Book Club

Albert hosted her very first book club!! She wanted a way to stay in touch with her friends over the summer. We talked about it and came up with the idea of starting a book club. The week before school got out she passed out invitations to all the girls at school and to some friends from the neighborhood. Albert decided the book would be Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock, which I think was the perfect book. (Thanks to my friend, Robin, for the recommendation.)

For some reason, I never read Nancy Drew growing up, but I loved reading this book as much as Albert did!!

On the night of the book club Albert wore her best Nancy Drew outfit complete with a headband. For dessert she served rice krispie treats, cupcake pops (which she helped me make using directions from Bakerella and we also served at Cupcake's birthday), chocolate, Skittles and chocolate covered pretzels. Several of the guests brought treats to share as well.

I wasn't sure how the book discussion was going to go, but I decided to write down questions, which we put in a bowl and the girls took turns pulling out questions, reading them and giving their answer. I thought it was going to be hard to get them to discuss their thoughts on the book, but it was the complete opposite. I was blown away with the insights a group of nine year olds came up with. They were amazing and they spent a lot more time discussing the book than I expected.

We also played several games along the theme of the book which included a version of "Don't Eat Pete" which Albert changed to "Don't Eat Nancy." Before the party, Albert wrote down the names of several characters from the book on note cards. Each girl taped a card with a character's name on their back and they had to ask questions of the other girls to figure out who their character was. They played this several times. At the end they played "Thief in the Night" (which was really "Murder in the Dark" but I didn't want to call it that.)

Book club was an excellent opportunity for Albert to practice her planning and hostess skills. She did a great job and we both felt like the evening was a great success. I cannot even express how grateful I am that my daughter has good friends with good parents at both school and in the neighborhood. My only regret is that I forgot to take a group picture of them!!! The good news is, they voted on a new book to read...

I'll get a picture next time.

A Cupcake Birthday

Cupcake turned TWO a few days ago and we celebrated with lots of presents and of course, CUPCAKES! She was more than a little excited about having a birthday and she is still talking about all the presents she opened.

Here she is modeling the adorable apron Aunt Christin made for her. (Thanks, C!)

Next she opened the tutu that Albert made for her and added it to her birthday attire ensemble.

Blow out the candles on those cupcakes!!!!

Cupcake enjoyed chocolate cupcakes, vanilla ice cream and homemade cupcake pops made by me and Albert. The ice cream was her favorite. Yummy!!!

Here are some of my favorite pics of her from the past year.

July 2008 at the Ranch

Labor Day 2008 at the Ranch

October 2008

Halloween 2008

Christmas Morning 2008

January 2009 at Kids Rockstars Race

Valentine's Day 2009 at our cousins' V-day party

March 2009 with "Kitty"

May 2009 feeding a horse on the farm field trip

HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY, CUPCAKE!!!!

We've been busy!

The culminating events of the extracurricular activities have kept us crazy busy in the last month. I am telling you that May is the new December as far as stuff to go to and places to be is concerned. This post is mostly for grandparents near and far who love to see their grandchildren accomplishing things...but if you're curious, too, read on.

Hog finished his first basketball season, graduated from Let's Play Music by composing and performing his very own piano piece entitled "NBC" (I have it on video but blogger wouldn't let me upload...I am e-mailing it to the grandma's though.) and is now officially moving on to second grade.

LPM Graduate!

Goodbye First Grade. Yeah!!!

Snausage graduated from preschool for the second time (we are so proud!) and is gearing up to go to school everyday next year. He also had a fun season playing soccer. His favorite game of the year was played completely in the rain. He had the best attitude.

Snausage will miss Ms. Nicole!!!

Farm Fieldtrip

A horrible soccer picture, but people, it's all I got. He does look enthusiastic, though.

Albert, our little over-achieving child, played the piano beautifully at her recital, took first place in the poetry recitation contest and the creative writing contest at school, participated in her very first dance recital (LOVED having Aunt Misty as her teacher!), and finished the school year with an "O" in handwriting, something she has been striving for for two years!

Albert and Aunt Misty

On to fourth grade.

Cupcake's extra-curricular activities have included, dumping several cups of sugar all over the kitchen and smearing half a tube of foundation all over her body...in a one hour period. Since she can't crawl out of bed anymore, she has also mastered the art of taking off her diaper and proudly declares, "I did it by myself." Her greatest accomplish lately seems to be that she has put it in stone for her parents that she is the youngest child in this family!

Sugar and snot...Yummy!!!!!

Oh, and this is what Tim does with the camera while we are attending all these functions!

Wow, you made it to the end of this very long post. In the words of Cupcake, "Good job." I am resolving to put "stuff" on here more often. Tim tells me I have been slacking, that people really do read this blog and that he likes to read what is going on in our family, so I even have some goals to revamp "Small and Simple Things" a little this summer. Come back.

Miss Independent

I am a mom who values independence in her children. It starts from day one of their lives when I put them to sleep in the crib. None of our kids ever slept in a bassinet or in our room. They always started out in the crib in their own bedroom. They learned to soothe themselves to sleep because in my quest to raise independent children I never rocked them to sleep. I rocked them to read books or sing songs but never to go to sleep. There is no doubt that I enjoy watching my kids learn to do things on their own.

However, my desire to teach my children independence was reigned in a few nights ago. Tuesday night I finally got the kids to bed and settled down on the couch for a much needed break. Fifteen minutes later, Cupcake came walking in to the family room and proudly announced, "I did it all by myself." What she "did" was crawl out of her crib. She had never done that before and I guess she wanted me to rejoice in her independence with her. Tim and I spent the next hour in the pattern of putting her back in her crib only to have her get out again two minutes later. Somehow, we finally got her to stay and go to sleep. As we were going to bed that night, I told Tim that life as we have known it just ended.

At one o'clock in the morning, we both awoke to a loud thud across the hall and then looked up to see our little 23 month old princess by our bedside. Even in the middle of the night she wanted to exert her new found freedom. We reluctantly put her in bed with us knowing the pattern would just be repeated and had a lovely night with our little girl sleeping horizontally between us rolling back and forth and kicking. UGH!

When morning came, Tim and I promptly got on line and ordered the Cozy Crib Tent. Apparently, we are foregoing the independence thing on this one. I am not ready for the four hour afternoon naps to end and Tim and I are both ready for a good nights sleep again. Independence lost out on this one but sleep will be gained by all parties involved.

Cupcake and The Princess Tent

Butterfly Central

A few weeks ago, we got to see the amazing process of a small caterpillar growing, moving into a cocoon, and emerging as a butterfly. Snasauge brought four caterpillars home from preschool and one evening all six of us were actually home together getting ready for dinner and we all gathered around and watched a butterfly leave his cocoon. It was total excitement around here. Even Tim and I were amazed by this process. One of our caterpillars died before he reached his cocoon and two of them came out of the cocoon with "special needs" (i.e. bent wings). We had them in Mason jars and I think they didn't have enough room to "spread their wings" and pump the blood once they came out. I truly felt bad about that.

Ms. Nicole, Snausage's preschool teacher, had to go out of town for the weekend and she let us "babysit" all of her cocoons while she was gone. In the span of two days, we got to watch 15 more butterflies enter the world. (I have to admit that I was a bit surprised and a little grossed out by how much blood came with the butterflies. The butterfly home was kind of disgusting by the end of the weekend.)

Sunday afternoon we let four of the butterflies go. Snausage took the rest back to preschool and released them with his class. Every butterfly we see outside now is one of "our" butterflies. We are so glad we got to see this fantastic process first hand.

Staycation 2009 - The Rest of it

We took a lot of pictures during Spring Break!! Can you tell?

Day two of our staycation was St. Patrick's Day so we cruised to "Ireland." We enjoyed an Irish breakfast of Lucky Charms while I told the kids about their ancestors, the Driscoll's, on my Dad's side of the family who immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Yes, we really are Irish and we wore our green proudly.

Our Irish activity for the day was a stretch but since one Irish tradition is the Blarney Stone, we went to the Mining and Mineral Musuem in downtown Phoenix and learned about rocks.

The kids loved seeing the huge truck tire, scoop and mining car. And our favorite thing was posing at a mine which is actually an incredibly huge mural on the back side of the museum.

This is a small museum that is FREE for kids and the experience includes getting to pick out your own rocks to take home. Don't ask me why my kids love rocks, but they do. This trip helped us add to our huge collection of rocks.

We spent the afternoon at the $1 movie seeing Bolt. We left Cupcake home with a babysitter and I was so happy not to be chasing her around. After baths the kids played Wii while Tim and I relaxed downstairs. We found Snausage passed out on the floor at 7:30. Our first two days of fun had completely worn him out.

Day three we planned to go to Australia, one of our favorite countries. A guy from Australia bought a car from Tim a few years ago and Tim has stayed in touch with him. About a year ago, he sent us a huge package of Australian stuff for the kids including stuffed animals, books and chocolate and a cool video of the outback. We LOVED it!!! Ever since we received that package, we have been facinated with Australia.

Our plan for this day was to go to the zoo. There is a great Wallaby exhibit at the zoo. However, we got a really late start due to my lovely sinus headache and when we finally got to the zoo, the kids only wanted to pet the stingrays and play on the splash pad.

By Day Four, I was running a little ragged with a sinus infection so I called in the reinforcements, which means Grandma joined us for "Japan" day at the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field. This was the most expensive thing we did but it was totally worth it. I have driven by this museum a million times and had no idea the cool things inside.

We were very surprised when one of the first exhibits we saw displayed a picture of our Uncle Helaman (Tim's Great Uncle) along with a story about his service in a tank in WWII. Our kids know Uncle Helaman. They have been to his house and see him at family get togethers so it was awesome to learn about his experiences in the war that we knew nothing about.

For some reason this girl was so excited and happy to pose in front of an airplane engine.

The highlight of this museum visit was getting to go inside a B-17 called the Sentimental Journey. The boys were apprehensive at first because it is a tight squeeze but after the first time through they wanted to go again. We ended up going through the B-17 three times. If you haven't guessed by now, I love doing things where we can have fun and learn at the same time. Tim says I am a museum nerd. I wear the title proudly.

After a quick lunch at Sonic (which has nothing to do with Japan), we had a quiet afternoon at home making our version of sushi. This was another great idea Albert found on Family Fun. The sushi is made from rice crispie treats rolled around a gummy worm and wrapped in fruit roll-ups. Yummy!!!!

Day Five we planned to do something tropical around a Hawaiian theme but our plans did not work out. (We are saving this idea for the summer.) So we just relaxed at home, went to the library and got a nice, cool treat at Dairy Queen--a perfect way to end our lovely staycation.

Our entire staycation cost us about $75, a tank of gas and a lot of creativity. The week did not go exactly as I had planned in my mind but it was a total success because we learned some things, had fun together, and shut out the rest of the world for five days. Small and simple...just how we like it.