Double Digits

This little sweetie turned 10 yesterday {1st and 3rd birthdays}.


Some things never change.


Dance class {3 1/2 years}. Last night of Cubbies when she was awarded her Bible for finishing her Character Builders book. She's used that one till now; we gave her one for older kids last night. {5 years}

And now she's 10! Last Saturday I took only Julia out for lunch at Panera Bread. She said, "This is a nice little bread shop..." :) It was the first time either of us had been there. She picked a chocolate chip cookie for dessert. We ran to Target to get some things for her birthday party. And then to Penney's. It was nice to spend some time with my oldest girl.

These were taken yesterday. The second smile is after I said, "There was no talking about boys last night at the party, was there...?..."

Big smile. "Yes, there was!..... We talked about lots of things." (I'm sure they did, not going to bed till 3 am and all...)

Last night we all went to California Pizza Kitchen, so Julia could get her free birthday kids meal and sundae. Olive Garden is her favorite restaurant, but she chose CPK because she said this is the last year she'll get a free meal there (they stop at 10 years). The wait to be seated was 45 minutes, so we went to Barnes and Noble nearby. One of Julia's friends had given her a gift certificate, so she spent part of it. On an American Girl Felicity mystery and an American Girl Smart Girl's Guide to Boys. Or something like that. Boys! Fourth grade has been the first year she's been interested in them!

She's doing awesome in school. {Day before she started Kindergarten, 5 years} She still sleeps with her special blanket. {2 1/2 years}

Julia used to hang around by herself at school. Every year I'd ask her teacher about it at conference time. In Kindergarten, Mrs. D said, "I know they like her. She's just quiet. Sometimes it's nice to have a quiet girl when you have a bunch of rowdy boys! (in the class)"

In first grade, Mrs. S said, "It's a choice she's making. It looks like she's playing, but she runs and hops by herself." (Around the kids, not with them.)

In second grade, Mrs F said, "I've seen kids like her before. They're particular. All of a sudden, around 3rd or 4th grade, they'll say, 'I pick you.', and they'll have a friend. "

In third grade, Mrs. K said, "I don't know why she hangs around by herself. It's a choice she's making. She doesn't seem unhappy."

Julia's been able to entertain herself from the time she was a little, tiny girl. And was content playing on her own. Well, low and behold, 4th grade starts, and Julia is suddenly friends with a group of girls. She's known all of them, except Megan, for years. It turns out, Mrs. F was right. She is close to 80 years old, and has seen a lot of kids. I told Julia's 4th-grade teacher about her "social progress", and Mrs. MS just nodded. And said about Julia's friends, "Those are all good girls, great students!" And they were all very nice at the party. Well-behaved and friendly. Good job, "Particular" Julia!

We are so proud of our sweet Julia and love her so much! Next year she'll have to add a toe to show her age... ;)

Slumber Party

Julia turned 10 yesterday! A whole decade old! This year she wanted a slumber party for her birthday. Her first slumber party. She was soooooo excited. Austin and Lauren were so excited. The girls who came were so excited. There really was a lot of excitement at our house. Hee hee. The girls came, and dropped off there stuff in the family room: a mountain of sleeping bags, backpacks, pillows and stuffed animals. And even a special lovey blankie or two. Huh. I don't remember my friends bringing blankies and stuffed animals to sleepovers. Very cute though.

Our first activity was making mice. I saw the craft in my Family Fun magazine, and Julia liked the idea. Austin made a mouse. He had to have a blue sock. No pink or hearts on his boy mouse!! Lauren made two mice.


The mice turned out pretty cute. Some of the girls had a little extra fun with the Poly Fil. Their mice turned into rats. Or guinea pigs. Or, as in the case of the black one below, a rat-coon (it's maker said!). LOL I said the fat mice looked like opossums. The girls didn't like that idea. Ewwww....! Most of the mice are in this picture. You can also see the pizza and soda we had for dinner. Oh, and some carrots. ;) I also served Caesar salad (Julia's favorite), grapes, strawberries, and chips.


The girls ate in the family room at the card table. They liked having their own little retreat, I think!! It was pure torture for Austin and Lauren, who ate at the dining room table with us, when the girls shut the French doors to the family room. Those two wanted to be in on everything the big girls did! The big girls really were nice, letting Austin and Lauren do a lot of their activities. And they adored Caroline! Too funny! She got to go in the private room with the big girls for quite awhile. The girls changed into their pajamas really early in the evening, at their choice. They put up someone's blankie and over the glider rocker and toy kitchen and used that area to change in! Forget Julia's bedroom. Or the bathroom--rooms that actually have, um, doors... And walls... ;)

Julia opened her presents. It's always interesting to me, at these kid parties, that the gifts always turn out to be different--no duplicates, and there is always a wide variety of stuff given.


Brian picked up the cake from Dairy Queen. The girl told him to bring in butterflies if we wanted them on the cake, so Austin found these in his bug cage.

Kids at the party: Austin, Chloe, Julia G., Julia B., Lauren, Megan, Rachel.

Julia blew out all ten candles in one breath!

Then we enjoyed yummy cake. Well, ice cream, as there was no cake in the cake. ;) Other things that went on at the party:

*Lots and LOTS of silliness! When the Domino's man delivered the pizza, he shook his head and said, "That's too many girls for me...I have two nieces, and they get loud!"

*The girls pretended to put on a movie in the family room. A few had brought flashlights, and they got a bunch of baby dolls and pretended they were doing a movie about finding all the babies that had been stolen in the last ten? thirty? years. ???? They had all the lights off, and all of a sudden we'd see flashes of light from the flashlights. And a girl would come out, running with a baby doll!

*The girls ran races and relays down our long hallway. Austin and Lauren were included.

*The girls took off their socks and ran around in the yard--in the dark, in the rain--barefoot. Oh what fun! What an adventure! They had the flashlights out there, too.

*At one point they wanted to dance. Brian had set up our old DVD player in the family room. It has been in the attic since we moved here. Still works, but clicks periodically, has done that since an earthquake in Dec. 2003. Anyway. The girls wanted to dance to CDs in the DVD player. So I tried to find some dance music. Let me tell you, that was not easy. For one thing, we don't have many CDs, just don't buy a lot. And the ones we do have? Half are Christmas. Then there is a variety of others. I ended up giving them some from Brian's college days that might work for dancing. I told the girls they were old. They didn't care! So off they went with Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth, one of Gloria Estefan's, the sound track to Beaches... You get the idea. They put in Unguarded (Amy Grant) first. Oh my, how I was laughing about them dancing to that. Funny!!!! I guess I used to listen to '60s music with my friends, so maybe that's what '80s music is to these girls?!?!

*They watched our Princess Diaries movies, started with the first, but only watched a bit of it before putting in the second. I think it ended around 1 am, which is when I went to bed. I thought the girls would be sleeping shortly, as they were all in the dark on/in their sleeping bags. But no! Brian and I awoke at 3ish, hearing a couple in the bathroom, not goofing off, just using the bathroom.

The next morning, they said they'd stayed up till 3! I guess our Julia was the first to sleep, then the other Julia, then Megan, and Rachel and Chloe were the last. Chloe slept in the latest in the morning, waking up just before 9 for breakfast. We made pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

It's a wonder anyone was hungry, as they ate plenty of food the night before: supper, then cake. Then they brought two of the soda bottles in their private room, along with the grapes and carrots. And a bowl of M&Ms, a bowl of peanuts, and two bags of popcorn. Plus they'd made S'mores in a bag before their movie. All of that was polished off, except for some of the carrots, the next morning.

*After breakfast the girls painted wood picture frames. They turned out really cute. No pictures of those though, because I was busy, cleaning up, taking a shower. Plus the girls left, one-by-one after that. The last girl was picked up about 12:30 pm.

It was a fun night. The girls were all well-behaved and along great with eachother! I think Julia had a good time and hope she will have good memories of her 10th birthday party.

Austin's 7-Year Portraits, Caroline's 18-month Portraits

I took Austin's and Caroline's pictures, way back--Jan. 23 and Feb. 1. I debated sharing them, since it's so long afterwards, but thought I should, since Julia and Lauren's were shared. It's hard doing indoor pictures, inside, in the winter, simply because there is less natural light at good times in our schedule. And often the weather is cloudier or rainier than usual. I can't complain though; I know we get more daylight in the winter than other parts of the country. And no snow, and probably less clouds and rain. Anyway. Here are some of Austin's pictures:


He's such a goofball, and even though stopping playing wasn't his idea, he cooperated nicely. Actually was very silly the whole time!! He got one of the suckers afterwards for doing such a good job. :)

This little lady was another story. Oh. My. Word.!!! What a little stinker! And busybody!

Does it look like she wanted to sit still? Well, she didn't! Thank goodness I had Assistant Lauren making music with the stick horse and See & Say toy to get Caroline to look. The biggest problem was getting Caroline to stay put! She did have a ball dancing on the fleece, so Lauren would start the music, and we'd say, "Dance, Caroline! Can you dance on the pink?" Ha!

She was having a good time. Dancing and prancing, anyway. Lauren brought out the beads. Caroline brought them to us, giving us a strand, back to the bead pile, back to us with another stand. I kept tossing them back to get her in the right spot again, so on and on this little game went. Dance, prance, share the beads.

Caroline spent plenty of time rolling on the pink, too. At least she was happy, rolling, and would check to see if we were looking. More fun and games with Mommy and Lauren. I like this one.

But this is my most favorite. :)

Four-Day Weekend

Last weekend Julia and Austin were off Friday from school, then of course on Monday, too, for Presidents Day. It was a full weekend!

Friday Austin had his friend, Solomon, over to play. Lauren was so excited to have Solomon over, too, and played right along with the boys. They didn't seem to mind. Solomon has a younger brother and baby sister, and of course Austin and Lauren are good friends, so it all worked out fine. They played Thomas trains--it's been months since they've been out! I was glad to see them being played with. :) They played other boy things too--had a good time together.

Saturday Austin's friend, Isaac, came over. Earlier in the week, Isaac's mom called and said Isaac was really wanting to come back and play at Austin's house. He came here at the end of Christmas break, and had fun. So again, lots of boy stuff going on. Some train-playing, some Legos and race cars, some light-saber and Nerf gun wars...

Julia wanted a friend to visit too, so I thought, why not, she might as well have one the same time as Austin. Her friend Megan came and stayed several hours. Lauren hung around with them a *lot*! Julia and Megan were very good about it--they sat on Julia's top bunk doing a friend question/answer thing, while Lauren was on her bottom bunk. She wanted so badly to be included. She'd hand them various toys and books of hers. Which they were kind about--acknowledged Lauren at least.

Then Lauren started getting silly: "I'm going to kick you in the bottom and you will die!" Cackle cackle cackle. Oh boy. I made her come out, and she was so sad about that. "I just want to have time with the girls!" Boo hoo, boo hoo.

Saturday night Brian and I dropped the all the kids off at church for Parents Night Out. Three hours of free babysitting, just had to pay $2 for each of the 3 big kids for dinner provided. I packed food for Caroline. Brian and I went to Rosa's for Italian food. Yummy! Next it was off to Michael's to pick up a birthday gift for another friend of Julia's. She'd only gotten the invitation Wednesday, and the party was Sunday night. After our quick trip to Michael's we went to Starbucks. We both only ate half our Rosa's food, so we nicely had room for treats at Starbucks. :) Brian got hot chocolate and banana chocolate chip coffee cake, and I got a mocha and a vanilla cupcake. Then back to church to pick up the kids. It was nice to have a date.

Sunday was church; Brian and I taught Lauren's Sunday School class, which she was so happy about. She sat on Brian's lap the whole time he told the story. I always have him read/tell the story (and he nicely, willingly does it!), since he has a louder voice and I think is better at it!

After lunch I dropped Julia off at her friend Katie's house for Katie's birthday/sleepover party. It was Julia's first sleepover, and Miss Independent was eager to go. We told her she could call any time to be picked up, but no phone calls at all. Her friend Megan was there too, and when I dropped Julia off, Megan didn't know if she would want to stay the night, but ended up sleeping over too. I think that was nice for Julia, since she hangs out with Megan more than the other girls who were there. But I think Julia would have stayed either way. :)

Monday Brian was off work, so we picked Julia up from her friends and headed to Morro Bay. We walked around Morro Rock. All the kids liked climbing on the rocks. They loved that! Not on the Morro Rock, though, as that is not allowed. ;) Austin was climbing at the bottom of it, and I told him I hoped he wouldn't get arrested, with the sign right there saying not to climb it. Ha! They mostly climbed on the big boulders.


The base of Morro Rock is behind the little girls, in these pictures.

The waves crashing on the breakwater were huge!

Many, many of them crashed right over the breakwater. Pretty impressive! Brian said in college, he and a friend used to go out on the breakwater. No one was walking out there this day!

We ate lunch at The Hofbrau, then got some saltwater taffy at Carousel Taffy. It's tradition! Seriously, as soon as the kids heard we were going to Morro Bay, they all asked if we could get taffy. We let them have 12 pieces each. We went to Tideland Park, nearby, and let the kids play for awhile. It has a fun pirate-ship playground. Austin gets right in there and plays with kids he's never met, like they've been friends forever. And Lauren gets included. She tags along, and he includes her--such a good brother! Julia climbed around, did her own thing, also typical. And Caroline had a great time digging in the sand, filling up her pail. She bucked and kicked, protesting, when it was time to go!

Monday night Brian took Austin to Back-to-Baseball night at the high school. He said the hall was packed. My, these people get into their sports! ;) Brian is the coach for Austin's team this year. There's a manager who is "in charge", and Brian. I am *so*, *so* glad Brian is coaching! It was no fun dragging the girls to T-Ball practice last year! The practices weren't near the playground, so they got somewhat bored. Julia did her homework most of the time. But when that was done, then what? Our girls were the only girls that were ever there. And there were always two a week, unless there were two games. Then just one. But now, Brian can take Austin to practice! At least most of the time. I think it will be good for them to do baseball together, anyway. Austin will love having Brian coach!

Nineteen Months

Sweet little Caroline is 19 months now. She sure is getting her own personality and sense of humor. She's a little clown and tries to get us to laugh. She sometimes pokes us and then giggles, wanting us to laugh too, like she's tickling us. She likes to throw things in the trash. She'll pick up random things (sometimes trash, sometimes not), open the cupboard door, and toss them in the trash can. Yikes! I'm just waiting for the day when we find the TV remote or keys in there. Today she tossed one of my perfectly good Tupperware containers. She also hid a pair of Lauren's socks in the pantry, on the shelf in front of the cereal boxes.


Caroline is a little snuggler. She'll sit by us for a long time, just nicely sitting. Often she wants a book read if we're sitting. Her favorites seem to be the Calico books. She calls Calico, "Cawco". Tonight we read Hello, Calico, and before I started reading, Caroline said, "Hewwo,". She's heard those Calico books so many times she knows which one is which! But really, Caroline loves most books. She sits nicely for the big kids' story time too, even though their books are significantly longer than her board books.

Caroline's vocabulary continues to grow, pretty much daily, it seems. SO fun!! I won't list all the words she can say. But a few cute things:

Sibling names: Eeya or Deeya, Ausin (very soft "n"), Ouwren

Caroline says "Tant oo" (thank you), oh-so-sweetly, when anyone (well, in our family) gives her anything. We didn't practice this with her. She just picked it up from hearing it, and figured out that "thank you" is what you say when someone gives you something. Give her food: "Tant oo!" Hand her a fork: "Tant oo!" Give her a scrap of paper: "Tant oo!" Share candy: "Tant oo!" On and on it goes.

Caroline is just starting to combine words into (very) simple sentences/phrases. Examples:
"Nigh nigh, Daddy!"
"Mow' gogoot!" (More yogurt)
"Bye bye, kiyee..." (She now says kitty, "kiki/kiyee")



Caroline continues to be very picky about what she eats. The most frustrating thing is, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the pickyness. I just give her what we eat, pretty much, and hope she eats something. She boycotted chicken for weeks, but now eats it sometimes. Usually she gobbles scrambled eggs, but some days will have nothing to do with them. She doesn't love Goldfish or Ritz or graham crackers. Aren't those toddler staples? Actually it's probably best she doesn't think she needs them, but it's also funny to me. She ate grapes well for a good week, then suddenly, no more grapes. Now she's loving oranges.

The *only* thing she'll always eat is yogurt! Yogurt is her favorite, most-loved food. If someone's talking and mentions yogurt, Caroline hears it! Her eyes light up, and she looks at you to see if you heard. Then it's just seconds before she's saying, "Gogoot?....Gogoot?" Or, off she goes to the fridge, and stares at it like it's going to open by osmosis. If someone opens the fridge to get something, Caroline is often right there, trying to grab a yogurt container off the bottom shelf. And when she eats it, she's so happy! It's funny! Sometimes she'll be eating it, and says, "Mmmm.....mmmmm..." thoroughly enjoying every bite of her delicious yogurt. She even prefers yogurt to ice cream. Guess that's a good thing...

Food Funnies

The other night at dinner, Brian said, "OK. Close your eyes. We're going to pray."
Lauren says, under her breath, "I hope it's a short prayer! I'm hungry!"

Friday at breakfast, she was complaining about her cereal: "I want wooden Cheerios!"

Me: "Wooden Cheerios?"

Lauren, glaring at her bowl: "I don't like these wet Cheerios! I want wooden Cheerios!"

Maybe better forget the milk next time?

Talking Tests

Yesterday I took Lauren to get her speech evaluated. She is completely fluent, has a huge vocabulary and understands everything she should for her age (probably more), but there are a few sounds she says incorrectly:

"S" for "f" "fl" and "sh"
"W" for "r" and "l"
"T" or "S" for "th" (as in think, third, thumb)
Sometimes "d" for "j" and "th" (like in the, they, them)

All are age appropriate, except the "S" for "F". At 4 years, 90% of kids are able to say that correctly. The Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) was so, SO sweet. Her name was Caitlin, and I think she was younger than me. Kind of funny, when all the teachers we've come in contact with have been older, so far. Guess I'm getting older.

Anyway. Caitlin was very thorough, and very kind. The evaluation took about an hour, then Caitlin told me she'd have to write up a report, and add up Lauren's scores on the assessment. She has to do that to get an "official" conclusion, but it was her thought that Lauren will need some speech therapy. Caitlin said she thinks Lauren will be borderline on her scores. 100 is average, any score between 85 and 115 is considered "normal". If Lauren scores below 85 she'll be eligible for speech therapy through S.N.I.P (Special Needs Intervention Program) through the school district. If she scores above 85, we'll just be given exercises to work on at home. Even if she goes to speech classes, we'll have to do exercises at home.

March 3 we have a meeting scheduled to discuss Lauren's scores and Caitlin's report, and to decide how to proceed.


During the evaluation, Lauren was able to say "F", but only on command (stimulable, Caitlin said), not in any repeating words or conversation. It was kind of sad to see her quickly identify every picture, but when it came time to say something like "leaf", Lauren would triumphantly say, "weas!", like she was so proud of herself for knowing what the picture was, yet she had no idea she was saying the wrong sounds. Caitlin did say it's good Lauren is stimulable. I asked if it's something she would grow out of, and Caitlin said that at 4 years old she should be able to say that, basically she should have grown out of it already, compared with most 4-year-olds.

Next week we have to go get her hearing and vision checked. I'm pretty sure they're just fine, but they have to be checked to proceed with everything.


Our sweet neighbor watched Caroline during the appointment. She's taken care of all our kids at some time or other. I took Lauren to get a Happy Meal on the way home, and the little gorilla (above) was her toy.

Lauren said the "talking appointment" was "super fun!", but I could tell it had been a stressful day for her, mainly last night! She was somewhat clingy at Cubbies, wanting to sit by me at story time (hasn't done this for months), then completely melted down in tears when she saw the jug of milk come out at snack time. Usually kids bring juice, which Lauren's used to. Then last night, out came the milk, which she doesn't like, and they never have. It was no big deal to get her a cup of juice from the team in the next room, but just seeing the milk put her over the edge!

Then last night before bed, Lauren came in to tell me good-night, and repeated the whole story to me, how when she was 2 years old, the doctor said if she didn't start talking by the end of summer she'd have to go to special talking classes. And the doctor asked her what kind of cake she'd had on her birthday, and Julia and Austin answered, "Chocolate!", not even letting her say a single word. Then suddenly, in the summer, she started to talk! And now, "I talk and I talk and I talk... I talk and talk and talk!" ;) I could tell she was still processing the morning's events!