A Catch Up Post!

Sorry! I haven't made many posts lately, but I have been taking lots of pictures, so check back soon to see some of our fun activities. In the meantime, here is what has been going on:

*Superman had an end-of-the-year program at his preschool, and he even had a speaking part. It is so cute to hear him singing these songs as we drive down the road!

*Princess had a dance recital where she was in three dances. She has danced for four years now and wants to keep dancing forever!

*Dinky went to Africa for 18 days! The kids and I survived okay, but it sure is nice to have him home!

*Princess was recommended by her teacher to be tested for the Gifted and Talented program at school. Princess did a super job and qualified for the program. Way to go!

*Superman has started his reading class and can now read short books with simple sight words entirely on his own.

*Princess and Superman have both been involved in swimming lessons and can swim the width of a backyard pool now. This time last year, they were afraid of the water, so it is such fun to watch them go down the slide or dive off the side and then just start swimming as soon as they pop back up.

As you can tell, we have been busy. I will try to do better at keeping you more up-to-date.

Meet Mary

Mary works at a little hole-in-the-wall salon called "Hair We R". So we went there to have a little hair cut.

She was the chosen one to give Princess a little bit of a trim.

For Locks of Love that is! That is correct, Princess has decided to donate all of that extra hair to a little girl who doesn't have any.

Here goes the hair! I think that Mary was more scared than I was! Princess was as happy as she could be!

This is right after the initial ponytails were cut off.

Princess is donating two ponytails of 12 inches of hair each!

BEFORE: (leaving the house for the salon)

AFTER: (coming home after the cut)

I think that it is gorgeous! Princess loves it and has been swinging her head back and forth ever since the haircut. She will definitely be cooler this summer.

Don't be mad at me! It was all her idea!

Spring Break Fun!

Big plans were made for Spring Break! The kids and I would drive out to Grammy & Poppy's house by ourselves, then Dinky would fly out on Wednesday after he got off work. We were leaving on Friday night, driving to Abilene, staying in a hotel, and then visiting the museum before heading the rest of the way to visit. That was the plan before the cold front and the temperature in the 30s and 40s! So, being the ever flexible mother that I am, I drove in the rain to Abilene, stayed in a luxurious hotel, and found something else to do to take the place of the zoo. Here is what I found:

OK! Seriously! How cool is this? Princess thought that it was named after her! This is an art museum, history of Abilene museum, and a children's museum all housed in the old Grace Hotel in downtown Abilene. One price for admission and we got to enjoy all three museums!

We got there a little early but the kiddos had a great time peeking in these huge glass plate windows. They could see things inside the art museum and they were so excited about going in!

This is an art sculpture called "Grace Notes." When the kids pressed on the colored squares, it made different sounds and music notes. It was very cool, and I played with it quite a bit, too!

Look at how big it is!

The art museum was hosting some art that was made by the children in the schools in and around Abilene. Superman wants pizza and cheetos at every meal, and Princess loves chocolate, so I caught them staring at these fake replicas. That was a one-in-a-million shot!

The Children's Musuem was awesome! It was small, but there were so many interesting things to see and do there. I can't even list them all here, but if you want to see some more of my pictures, just let me know. We might need to plan a road trip!

This is a tornado maker. There was a button to push and then air come out to push this smoke into a funnel formation. The kids could touch it and everything. They really enjoyed trying to figure out how it worked! I can see Princess going to the library to check out a book on tornadoes to figure it out.

They had a "Movin' and Groovin' Room." Essentially, you stodd in front of the screen and every movement that you made was put up in these moving colors on the screen. This was Princess's favorite place and she stayed in there a long time, and she kept going back. She was sweating when we left! Isn't it cool how you can actually see her dance moves in the picture? I also got one that I stage of the kids pretending to kiss. It is too cute!

No matter where we go, Superman's favorite spot always involves blocks of some sort. I must get that child some Legos so that I can see what he will build!

Once we got to Grammy and Poppy's, Superman decided that he would help clean up the yard. There is a huge Sycamore tree in the back yard that drops the seed balls all over the place, and Poppy mentioned something about needing to pick them up before he mowed again because they just broke up and made the lawn mower and bag all sticky and icky. After he had picked up several of the balls, I told Superman that they were called Sycamore balls, and he got a serious look on his face and asked if they would make him sick. I just laughed at him and explained that the Sycamore was the name of the tree. He didn't seem to care!

This is the bucket of Sycamore balls after Superman had finished. He was very proud of his work and didn't want to just throw them away. He asked for a bigger bucket or box to put them in to keep, so Poppy suggested the dumpster in the alley. That didn't fool Superman one bit, but he wasn't going to argue with Poppy!

Anyhow, that is just a little bit of what we did. It was a busy, refreshing week, but we head back to work and school tomorrow. We are already planning some escapades for this summer, so be on the look out for some of our plans! We are going to make it to a zoo!

Superman is so creative!

I am seriously going to have to question every word that comes out his mouth! He can come up with stories on the spur of the moment, and they are so funny. Here is an example:

On Wednesday night he and I were driving down the road to get to the church. It was just us as Daddy and Princess have to meet us there. We came to a new bank that had just opened or that was about to open, and they had a hot air balloon being inflated behind the bank.

Mommy: "Superman, look at that hot-air balloon behind the bank! I wonder why they have a hot-air balloon?"

Superman: "They are escaping!"

Mommy: "Escaping? What do you mean that they are escaping?"

Superman: "They stoled all the money, and they got to get out of there!"

I couldn't help must laugh because he was so animated telling his little story. I didn't have the heart to tell him that no one could quickly "escape" in a hot-air balloon. His little story has kept me laughing for days. Have your children every said something that brightened your life for days?

Daddy-Daughter Dance

????Why is this typing in underlined print, and how do I turn it off?????

Dinky took Princess to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at the Children's Museum on Saturday night. She came home with a photo cube that she had made, a t-shirt, a bracelet, and some lotion. The picture below is not the greatest because I am really no good at taking pictures. They got some prom-style photos taken while they were there and when we get those, maybe I will post one. Princess said that she spent most of her time playing in the rocket, and not dancing. I told her that next year, we would not be spending that kind of money on the cost of the event, a dress, and shoes just for her to play in the rocket. We can do that anytime for much cheaper! Oh, well! Everyone had a good time at least!


P.S.--While they were enjoying the Daddy-Daughter Dance, I thought that Superman and I would go have Mommy-Son night. So, we went to eat at CiCi's Pizza and then came home to play games on the Wii. Not my idea of a "great date" but it is what he wanted! We had fun together!

AWANA Grand Prix--We have a winner!

Today was our church's Grand Prix races. All the boys and girls in Sparks and T & T can build and decorate a block car from a kit, then they are raced against each other. There were 41 cars entered this year, andthe kids were placed into three separate brackets. Princess has been excited about this for weeks, and finally the day has arrived. Here is the report on the action:

This is the "Butterfly Crown Car" which was 100% designed by Princess with some help from Mom & Dad with painting, hot glueing, and assembly. It is supposed to look like the front butterfly is driving the car and that the other butterflies are riding along. The one on the back is chasing after the car to catch a ride because she was late. How creative is that?

The car looks pretty good considering the drama that caused both me and Princess to be in tears over it just a few short hours before we had to be at the official weigh in. I took it to school with me to spray it with laquer because any good crown needs to be shiny. I left it outside on a sidewalk so that it would dry before school got out and Princess would have plenty of time to put on the jewels, butterflies, and wheels. Well, one of our second graders grabbed it on the way out to recess, and he/she decided to dig in the garden with it. By the time that I found it in a tire in the recently watered (read as muddy) garden, part of the end was broken off in two places, and it was covered in dirt which was permanently stuck to it because the paint was still tacky! Thankfully, my wonderful assistant and my student teacher could see how distraught that I was, and they cleaned it up as best as they could. With a fresh coat of paint and some jewels and butterflies, it looks as good as new, and Princess is very happy with how it turned out. We have decided not to be angry at whoever chose to take something that didn't belong to them, and we have used this as a lesson in life on how to treat things that do not belong to us. I guess that God needed us to have a refresher course in that!

This is the car in the actual race. As you can see, the Butterfly Crown Car is well behind the other racer, but we really didn't expect it to run at all. Two of the wheels barely turned, and as one boy put it, "Those butterflies are going to catch some wind!"

This is where the car stopped on the track. Right in front of us as if to say, "There's my Princess! Pick me up!" The poor thing didn't even make it to the finish line!

Princess is soooo excited! Her car won 2nd place for Most Creative Design! She is telling everyone she sees about her first ever trophy that she has ever received. She even wants to sleep with it tonight, and I think that I will let her.

This is Princess and her friend A. A's car got 3rd place for speed. Way to go, Girlies!

We had a fun morning. We might even consider doing this again when the Grand Prix comes up next year. But, then we will have two cars to design and make! Superman can't wait!

WOW! I haven't posted in a year!

HI! I just thought that I would let you all know that we are still alive! Superman has been Mr. Mystery Fever for the past 5 days, but it looks like we will all be able to return to work and school tomorrow. We had a busy Christmas time, and the kids especially enjoyed seeing all of their cousins and family members that live way far away. I have put a couple of pictures below (they loaded in the backwards order that I wanted them), and that will sum up Christmas for you. I hope to get back to being a little more regular with the blogging! Have a happy day!

Santa brought a Wii for all us! If you don't have one, then you should ask Santa for one next year. We have great amounts of fun and even gotten a little bit of exercise when using it. Of course, now we have something else to help us waste our time. If you want to come over and play, just let me know!

Taking a snack for Santa. They set it out so carefully by the fireplace. Santa got four cookies--one in each color that they had decorated, and a cup of milk. We also put a few carrots out for him to give to the reindeer. In the morning, everything was gone! How do you like their matching pajamas? It is hard to find boy/girl sets of matchy things.

This is Superman opening his new guitar from Aunt C and Uncle A. He loves it! Now, he and Princess have their own band because he will play his guitar and she will play her keyboard. It sounds "lovely" but I can't help but smile!

This is Princess opening her first American Girl doll ever! This was also from Aunt C and Uncle A. The doll is named Elizabeth (which is Princess's middle name) and she has long, blond, curly hair like Princess's. She loves this doll! I see a trip to the American Girl store coming on this summer!

My gorgeous, beautiful, awesome children posing for the obligatory Christmas picture. Aren't they adorable!