Petite Photographer and Painter

When we walk home from school in the mornings, Caroline likes to get out of the stroller, by the neighbors bush. She knows and remembers this bush, because that is when she gets to walk. She gets to push the garage door button too. Big stuff when you're just 2 years old! :) Many mornings I'll have to get meat for dinner out of our garage freezer, as I did this morning (3/16). Caroline had her toy camera outside and was taking pictures of slug on the driveway. Who else but a 2-year-old can get away with wearing "Cutie" on their bottom?! Hee hee--love it!

She was intent on getting pictures of that slug, chattering away the whole time.

See the picture?

Taking a little break on the curb. And later reading her book while I folded laundry. She always likes to play in the brown basket. Specifically not the blue basket, b/c she knows I put folded laundry in that one. :)

March 21: We went outside for awhile, I think to check on plants coming up. I need to buy some new plants, as usual. Back inside, Caroline read Lauren's Dora book. It's one of C's favorites right now. She'll pick the same book over and over and over for Brian and me to read.

Most mornings at home Caroline likes to paint. Sometimes she makes a big mess, and I'm thankful it's washable paint!

March Randomness 2

The last post I mentioned Brian getting Julia's hand-me-downs from the attic for Lauren. Last Saturday, th 19th, he brought Lauren's hand-me-downs for Caroline out for me to sort through. Julia had a 4-H scrapbook meeting, so was gone for that.


These two liked seeing what Daddy was up to, putting salt in the water softener.


Austin chased Caroline around the garage on his scooter. She was giggling and laughing as she ran round and round. He's such a good brother to her, and played along, even though he's perfectly capable of whizzing right by her!


Lauren and Caroline have been playing baby dolls again. I think it's so cute to find her snuggled up with Annabelle like this. :) Lauren found Julia's Miss Rosy cat under the bed and sleeps with it now. Julia makes sure we all know it still belongs to her (no matter it's been under the bed for quite awhile)!

First family picture we've taken since Christmas (Last Sunday, the 20th). Doesn't it look like we have a 5th baby?! That's Lauren's daughter, Bitty. ;) ;)

Some of the kids wanted a picture with Daddy when I was putting the camera away.

The big kids had a half-day of school Tuesday. They liked having a free afternoon before Awana! Well, except Julia. I think she had a little free time when she read, but she has so much homework that she did that most of the afternoon. I think it's ridiculous how much homework she has! Sometimes on Awana nights she has to work on it after Awana (late!) and even the next morning if we make her go to bed. Some weeks it doesn't take so long, but that is not the norm. Lauren was being silly, and I guess Austin was too, b/c what in the world was he doing behind her?!

Caroline was taking her nap. It's nice that all the big kids can get their own snacks now. Even though they all have to climb on the counter to get them out of the snack cupboard...

My big boy getting a bowl for his Cheerios and milk.

I should also write that Austin is taking karate now. Lauren was planning to. The 1st class she cried, intimidated by not knowing what to do and afraid of doing the moves wrong. The 2nd and 3rd classes she loved, had a great time! She said she wanted to do karate every day for her whole life! The 4th class she didn't even want to attend; said she wanted to swim at Lake Open Court instead. Open Court is the name of her little readers that get sent home.

Lake Open Court is completely imagined, but Lauren had an entire plan for the day involving it, and did not want to go to karate. We went, and she refused to get off my lap and participate, crying for much of the class. Then she wanted me, and when I refused, Julia, to go out on the mat and do karate with her!! I told her I am not signing her up yet! The sensei (instructor) had suggested we try a few classes to see if Lauren really was interested in it, and apparently Lauren isn't ready to commit. ;) Maybe we'll try again next year.

Anyway, Austin really likes karate so far. It's a Christian program, with the sensei being a mom of 6--5 boys and 1 girl! The mom and daughter both have black belts, and when the mom is gone (not often), her daughter teaches. I didn't even know there were different styles of karate--it's all new to us!

March 23: I was doing laundry or something in the other part of the house, and Austin came running, telling me Caroline was drawing on the kitchen counter with a pencil. He'd taken it away, and I could hear her crying. It wasn't long before Austin was comforting her. This is soooo typical around here. He adores his baby sister!

Austin's giving her a mini lecture, ever-so-sweetly, about how we draw on paper, not on the counter. She's pondering the situation. ;)

And, soon she's happy again! Back to writing in her notebook. :)

March Randomness

Looking through my blog pictures folder, and realized the random shots piling up again!

I wrote several weeks ago about Bailey disappearing. We last saw him the morning of Feb. 12. He didn't return, so we assumed he'd gotten caught by a wild animal or maybe adopted another family. ?? Well, the morning of Julia's birthday, there he was, meowing at the back door! Crazy! He was gone 2 wks. and 1 day. He wasn't hungry (didn't race to food bowl) and didn't seem thin. He obviously had eaten just fine on his "vacation" from us.


He's such a friendly cat, and has always been good around the kids.


Picture 1: Caroline got this little notebook for Christmas and has pretty much filled it up with doodling. She thinks she writing names, and will spell them out loud as she writes: "C. A. L. T. P. O... Caroline." Or, "C. A. E. R. S. M....Austin." Things like that. ;) All her "letters" look like O's. She scribbles in it and thinks she's such a big kid writing all that.

Picture 2: Lauren was awarded Spark of the Month for March!

Her leader called and told me beforehand so I could bring the camera. Lauren has completed her regular Awana book, the review book, an extra credit book, and is now working on her Bible Bees Extra, Extra Credit Book! Her leader wrote that on the nomination form, and also that she is attentive at Council Time and enthusiastically takes part in games. And, that she is courteous and follows directions willingly. Yay, Lauren!! She was most serious receiving her certificate. :)

March 6, girls in their matching outfits. Cute!! My little Lauren is getting so tall. She tells me she is the tallest kid in her class, and "even taller than the boys who are 6. Isn't that funny?" :) I tell her it is a good thing to be tall! Anyway, it is what it is. But she is growing out of all her size 6 clothes!

March 9 I went to the outlet mall and bought myself new sneakers! This really is something to make note of. Hee hee. My old gray Adidas are almost 6 years old. I bought them when Lauren was brand new. I remember taking all three (at the time) kids to Mervyn's to buy Brian a b'day present and got myself new tennies as well. I circled some particular signs of wear: rubber sole worn through to foam (?), tack in sole, worn out back heel part. I've worn these old shoes walking to school [almost] every day for 4 2/3 years. They've been worn 3 whole days at SeaWorld, 1 day at Legoland, 9 days at Disney/CA Adventures, and numerous zoo, park, and hiking trips. They served me well! Maybe I should write an ad for Adidas. LOL My bright, new Nikes are on the left.

Cute Caroline. She wanted me to take her picture when I was photgraphing the shoes. ;) Drives me nuts her shirt does that funny curve thing at the neck.

March 11: Sad, sad day! I was in the shoe dept. at Target and noticed my main diamond of my wedding (engagement) ring was gone!! I must have looked horrified (?), because another customer asked me, "Are you ok?!" I retraced my steps through Target and back to the van, and didn't find the diamond. Didn't really expect to, but thought, well, you never know... Realized how many millions of pieces of quartz and glitter there are in the Target parking lot and aisles though. ;) It may not even have fallen out at Target; could be at home, in the van, in the park, etc...

I've told several people about my missing diamond, and it seems the same thing has happened to lots of others. Seems about 1/2 find them, 1/2 don't. I called Brian right away when I realized the stone was gone, and he said, ever calm and gracious, "Well, we'll have to get you a new one. Brian told the kids he'd pay them $10 if they found my diamond, and Julia kind of smirked, "How about adding another couple 0's on that, Daddy." ;)

March 12: Lauren had this set up for a few days in her bedroom. She and Caroline were playing zoo.

March 13: Caroline always wants to into the big kids' toys. Here she's playing with Lauren's Barbie, nicely putting "Barb" (C's name for her) to bed.

Pongo has to have hairball treats every morning. For awhile he was throwing up hairballs about 5 times a week. Gross!! I think his long hair makes the problem worse. Anyway, the treats really help--thankfully! One of the 3 big kids or I give him 10 every morning.

1st weekend of March Brian got Julia's hand-me-downs out of the attic for me to sort through to see what would fit Lauren. It is so crazy how many of the shirts are so short and wide! I took one bathing suit of a box, and it went, "Kcckckckckck," the elastic completely hard? rotten?--not usable anyway! The other bathing suit was all floppy, the elastic totally limp and stretched out. Weird! So Lauren gets new bathing suits. :D Anyway, some PJs are stretched out and short and shrunk. Some shoes are hard and molded strange. Some shirts come out of boxes w/ stains I *know* they didn't have going in the boxes.

I get so frustrated w/ the problems of hand-me-downs, and tell Brian I want to be done w/ them altogether! But, then I find jeans and shorts, and pretty dresses that will still work, and they make the hand-me-downs worth it. Lauren was thrilled to find an old bathrobe (of all things!) in the boxes. :) She organized the piles of clothes we found. The socks and leopard slippers are too small. I didn't have a good system for hand-me-down socks, since they fit for a range of sizes. I finally started putting the too-small ones in one of my dresser drawers so I don't have to hunt very far when the next girl needs them in that size!

March 15 Julia had her 2nd trimester awards ceremony. Other kids are blurred for their privacy. Julia received Perfect Attendance and Honor Roll certificates.

Lauren likes to get the mail when she comes home from school. This day a Target Spring/Easter catalog arrived.

Lauren circled all the things she and Caroline would like and wrote "L" or "C" by them. Sometimes "L" and "C" if she thought they'd both like the toy or candy.

Austin's awards assembly was March 17. I liked seeing most of the kids wearing green for St. Patrick's Day. None of them wanted to be pinched!! ;) Actually, they're not allowed to pinch at school, so the green was just for fun. Austin received a Perfect Attendance award and one for Sportsmanship. His teacher wrote on the back that he earned it for showing sportsmanship at P.E. and also in the classroom, that he's always aware of those who haven't had a turn yet, and willing to help those who havent't yet mastered an idea or concept, and that this is one of those attributes that will serve him well his whole life. :) That's my nice boy, easy-going middle child. (We won't mention the bickering w/ the other middle child. Ahem.)

And to finish the post, the little girls in green, also on St. Patrick's Day. Caroline likes this shirt. She knows the elephants' names, and tells them to us throughout the day: Pinky, Dottie, Peanut. :)

Awana Games

Last Saturday, March 12, Juila competed in the Awana Bible Quiz for churches in our area. We had to be at a church/school in Santa Maria at 8:30 am. Early! She was on a 3-person team. Julia did all of multiple choice. Kallie and Keeley, her teammates each did half. I don't remember if she did the whole speed round or not! And she's in bed, so I'll have to ask her later. ;) Keeley's headband was pretty when the kids had to keep their heads down while the quiz master (?) read the question.


Then the quiz master said "Paddles up!" and the kids had to lift the paddle with their answer choice. Julia got every answer right! Yippee! The speed round was next, where the kids had to hold little buzzer wands. She answered two for that round: one correct, one incorrect. The incorrect answer was a long verse from I think Deuteronomy that I do not know! She ended up adding one word for her final answer. The verses have to be word-perfect, so that answer lost some points. (Though I never did figure out how the answers were scored, several people said incorrect count as negative points.) After all the book levels had finished quizzing, the awards were announced. Julia ended up receiving the Quiz Champion title and ribbon! I was so surprised, as I think she was too! She earned this award for having the most correct answers for her level (Book 3).

And, Kallie, Keeley and Julia also were the 1st place team for Book 3. They were all smiles, and so excited. They were teammates 2 years ago. Last year Julia decided to not do Quiz. She said all three of them want to quiz together next year. :) She has known Kallie since their nursery days, and Keeley since Cubbies, I think 4 yrs old. Their coach is the other young lady, Emmie. Good job, girls!

Brian came with the three younger kids about 12:30. Austin was doing Sparks-A-Rama in the afternoon. I took the little girls back home for naps. Brian and Julia stayed to cheer on Austin and the Sparkies! Awww..., look at that cute little boy peeking at Daddy.

I am so glad Brian took pictures and video-recorded Austin competing. It was fun to watch. There were crawling games.

Relay games, running games, and balloon volleyball (?) games. The kids played hard and were serious about doing their best! Austin's team ended up earning 2nd place! Good job, Sparkies!

The Sparkies got their ribbons handed out at club on Tuesday night. I still need to get a picture of Austin with his award. Here is the team from our church. So cute!!

When Julia's T&T game leader saw she was there (to watch Austin play), the leader asked Julia if she'd be willing to join their games team. There was a church from Paso Robles who came to compete but didn't have enough teammates. There has to be 10, and I think they had 8, so 2 of our girls went over to their team. That church competed on a different circle than our team, so Julia never competed directly against her own church. I thought she actually played for both teams, but it seems she played for the PR team. Yet she earned two awards--2nd place w/ the PR team, and a 1st place for being part of our church's team. She came home w/ quite the assortment of ribbons and medals!

You see Julia's pink boots above? She would have worn sneakers had she known she would be competing in games as well as quiz! ;) The funny thing was, the lady in charge wouldn't let her run in her boots, for her own safety, so another girl shared her sneakers w/ Julia. They were constantly switching shoes during the running games! The best thing about doing her doing games, is, she learned it was fun. Typically games have not been her favorite part of Awana, but Julia had such a good time this day, that she said she wants to do games again next year!

Austin had fun also. Next year he'll be in T&T, and says he wants to do Awana games then too!
He got hungry and a little bored waiting for Julia to be done competing, so Brian bought him a hotdog and chips from the concession stand. That helped cheer him up. :)