11.1.11

Our Nate turned 5 on November 1st. It's hard to believe this little dynamo already has 5 years under his belt.

Nate always crawls into our bed at night, so when it was time for breakfast in bed I snuck out of bed and went downstairs to make his requested meal: cheese toast and bacon. When we came back upstairs Nate had woken up, run back to his own bed and was pretending to sleep. He opened presents, sort of ate his breakfast, and played with his new stuff until it was time for preschool.

He got to bring treats to preschool, where they sang happy birthday to him and gave him this very special hat.

Check out those chapped lips and his purple tooth. It's a good look!

We made homemade pizza for dinner which Nate ate about one bite of.

And then we had dog birthday cake. Nate picked yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Here are five things I love about Nate:

1. He is very affectionate. I love getting hugs and kisses and being told "I love you" multiple times a day.

2. He is very stubborn and does not like to be told what to do. I can always tell when he has gotten in trouble at school or church because he gets upset and insists he doesn't want to go back or that his teachers aren't nice. When I prod further I discover that by "not nice" he means that they will not let him get away with some nonsense or other.

3. He loves to play with his big sister, Ava. Every day he looks forward to her coming home from school. As soon as she arrives they start building forts or playing boardgames, or whatever is on the agenda for the day. It's very sweet.

4. He still bounces and jumps and rolls off everything. My couches are a disaster for a reason.

5. He's very excited to learn his letters. At preschool they work on one letter a week and he really enjoys practicing. On his own terms, of course. He does not like the writing worksheets he comes home from school with, in fact, he refuses to do them at all. But he loves writing letters over and over and pretending that he's making sentences. Then he asks me what the sentences say and I have to read his mind and figure out what he wants me to see in the conglomeration of letters on paper.

Happy birthday, Natey!

Happy Halloween!

From 2 ninjas, a witch, and a little lamb!

We went to our church's trunk or treat on Friday night, went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins Saturday, and then trick or treated in the neighborhood on Monday. Nate and Ava were really into the trick or treating. Brenna, however, was super worn out from a field trip she had taken that day. Her gifted and talented class met at the school at 4 a.m. to drive down to the Ocean Institute at Dana Point to spend a day dissecting fish, boating, and performing science experiments right on the boat. But after getting up that early she was d.o.n.e. and only went up one street with us before heading home. Gwen was a funny little trick or treater because she was so gung ho to get to the door, then did everything right up until it came time to turn around and leave. Instead, she would pop her thumb in her mouth and stare down the person who had just given her candy. I'm not sure what was going on in her head but it looked as though she were deciding if the candy distributors could be trusted.

Ava at the pumpkin patch. This girl loves to pose for the camera!

Lucy tolerated her costume well.

Gwen barreled through her candy the fastest. By Wednesday it was gone and she told me "I need to go trick or treat again!"

Just as her hair was starting to grow

Gwen cut herself some serious bangs. I had great plans for an adorable blonde bob in the next few months, but it looks like those plans are on the backburner for now. It doesn't look too bad in the following photos but when she gets wild woman hair (as she does frequently) it looks heinous.

Yesterday was Nate's preschool's Halloween party and parade. From left to right are Lila, Blake, Nate and Gwen. These two little people are my two little people's best friends in the whole world. Gwen wanted no part of the group photo.

During the parade Nate was all swagger. It must have been the built-in muscles in his costume.

I had to get some shots of my girl.

She makes the greatest faces in the world.

She may not be potty trained

but at least she's cute.

I wash my hands

of potty training. Things seemed to be going so well, until today when Gwen got creative with poop during her "nap" time. It took 30 minutes to clean the mess out of the carpet with our cleaner. Then another 20 minutes to clean the cleaner and the bathroom where I dumped all the water. Disgusting. I've played this game before with Nate. I know when a battle is lost.

As if that weren't enough, tonight when attempting to make it to the potty on time Gwen peed on my leg. On my leg, people, as I sat there on the floor trying to help her get her undies off. Like I said, I wash my hands of it. After today, my hands need a good sanitizing wash anyway.

Misdirected Patriotism

Nate was feeling particularly patriotic for some reason on Saturday. I overheard him doing the "U.S.A!" chant as he went about his business throughout the house, except he was chanting "U.S.X! U.S.X! U.S.X!"

Then in the back of the car later he told Scott and me, "I love America. South America!"

First Day of Preschool

In our lovely state the cutoff for kindergarten enrollment is December 1st. Which means Nate could have gone to kindergarten this year at the ripe old age of 4. I never once considered sending him this year. Why? (Wait, surely if you're asking that you haven't read here about all of his awesome wild man mishaps.) Consider it my gift to both Nate and his teachers. He is an angel boy in so many ways, easily the most loving and affectionate little guy I have ever seen. And given another year to mature he is going to be an awesome kindergartner. So bring on preschool!

He gets to be in the same class as his good friend, Blake.

Mom, Dad, and even Grandma and Grandpa Larsen (who were visiting from Texas) came to send him off on his first big day. He was excited to be there and found a place at a table with a pattern game right away. Blake soon joined him and this is how we left the two of them as we waded through the sea of excited parents and made our way out the door.

The big successes: recess, the toys, and the class pet (a rat).

The big disappointments: you don't get to bring your lunch to school every day.

Seen at our house

Dogs and princesses eating together.

A 37-year old superfan with a red and black velvet birthday cake.

A 2 year old who every day wants to go to school and dresses accordingly, complete with a backpack and oversized shoes.

And a sweet big sister reading to her snuggling little brother and sister.

I love these sweet people.

Kids....they keep you humble!

I gave up on the gym during the last month of summer break. My older girls don't like going any more but they're still too young to leave at home and I didn't feel like fighting over it every morning. So I worked out on the spin bike at home or did other exercises, but let's be honest: it wasn't anywhere near my usual level of physical exertion.

So the first day of school came and I was ready to go back to my home away from home. Nate, however, was not interested. In trying to convince him to buy in to our need to get there I told him I am out of shape. He studied me for a moment and said,

"Let me see your tummy."

So I lifted up my shirt and showed him my tummy, which I don't think looks too bad. He took a look and said,

"Whoa! Okay, we can go to the gym!"

So, so humbling.

Back to School

The time has finally come! My sweet girls started 4th and 2nd grade.

Ava was very excited to get back and see her friends.

Brenna was nervous; she didn't know as many people in the class as she'd hoped and her teacher is new. But all her fears seemed to dissipate as soon as she settled in the new room.

Here's to another great school year!

Way back in May

Scott and I got crazy and went on a Caribbean cruise with some friends. Best. Vacation. Ever.

Here we are the first day on the cruise ship. It was crazy stressful getting out the door for this trip, but worth the total relaxation and fun of being with the guy I love best of all. Making it even more fun was that during our 7-day cruise we had a fun group of friends to entertain us.

Scott, Zac, Jared, Marc

Nicole, Lindsay, Kim, me

Our first port was in Haiti, where we rode a zip line over the ocean. Here's the view from the top:

Once we'd done that, the rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun .

The next day we ported in Jamaica, where we toured the Jamaican ghetto, caught some lovely ocean views, and shopped.

Scott and the guys trying on the merchandise.

Our third port was probably our favorite. Grand Cayman would be an easy place to spend a week or two. We took a smaller boat out to the sandbar where we were greeted by some very friendly stingrays. Some would say they were a little too friendly.

I can do many things, but kissing unattractive aquatic animals is not one of them. I wish I had a picture of my friend Lindsay literally jumping into my arms when a stingray swam up against her. They took some getting used to.

We spent about an hour with the stingrays then snorkeled the coral reef. I love snorkeling, although it's always over too quickly. Then we had lunch and hit the beach.

We strolled down the sand, swam in the turquoise blue ocean, and took naps in the blazing hot sun.

Our final port was Cozumel, where we opted for a dust-coated inland adventure involving one of these:

We drove our dune buggies over wildly bumpy jungle trails to Jade Caverns, which turned out to be a sulphuric bat cave and not the exotic aquatic paradise we'd hoped for. Still, it was an adventure and I had a blast.

Once we'd taken an outdoor shower to remove the inch-thick layer of dust covering our bodies, we headed to a restaurant in downtown Cozumel that was recommended to us by a local. It did not disappoint. We had a little time left for shopping and photo ops before heading back onboard the ship.

Our last day on board we literally spent HOURS by the pool. We enjoyed so many things while on the ship: the surf simulator, massages at the spa, comedy shows, musical performances, dodgeball tournaments, endless Diet Coke, 3D movies, poolside reggae bands, singing Jamaican waiters, the dance club, bottomless onion rings at Johnny Rockets, miniature golf, spectacular ocean views, and people watching that in itself was worth the price of admission, but it's hard to beat an uninterrupted hour at the pool.

Scott and I are ready to go again next year!

If only she wore heels

I could double the size of my shoe collection! Brenna's size 7 foot is on the left. My size 7- 7.5 foot is on the right. I'm not sure when this happened, but this is a milestone I was not prepared for, especially given that she's only 9!

Guess How Much I Love You

My kids regularly create variations of Guess How Much I Love You with cherished family members. (I love you to the end of the galaxy and back, I love you to infinity and back, etc)

Nate to one of his grandmas:

"I love you to the earth, to the cold place that makes you shiver, and the other place, and the other place and the other place."

Sometimes love is beyond words.

99% of the time

I would prefer my children not be eaten by sharks.

After this morning, though, this picture just made me laugh.

Confession

I don't like jokes.

Don't get me wrong, I love to laugh and I love a good funny story. But I haaaaate jokes like "A guy walks into a bar...." or "Knock, Knock, etc"

Scott and his family love jokes. It's one of the ways they communicate and kind of a fun thing they share together. Whenever they get together, they tell their latest jokes. So Scott tells the kids his latest kid-appropriate funny joke every now and then, which starts a 20-minute onslaught of,

"Knock, Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Who"

"Who who?"

"What do you think you are, an owl?"

or if Nate's telling the joke

"Orange"

"Orange who?"

"Orangy manker stanker, silly!"

You know what would make this even worse? If Scott and the kids were to tell me all their jokes, while we put together a jigsaw puzzle, while watching "How It's Made" on TV.

And I'd be the only unhappy one in the family.

Gwennie Goose

Also known as Cindy Lou Who who was no more than two:

Gwen likes having her hair done now.

I need to get a picture of what her coif looks like when she yanks her "do" out in the car. It's awesome.

Taking care of her friend Lila, who is the same age as Gwen but considerably smaller. Gwen treats Lila like a baby and Lila obliges her.

Still a constant thumb-sucker.

How do you spell catsup?

Ketchup? Catch up? Let's go with that last one and start with Brenna. For heaven's sake, I haven't even posted her birthday photos yet.

On her 9th birthday, February 25th, she had "Donuts with Dad" at school that morning, career day during the day (with a father whose "making of chips" presentation was reportedly even better than the firefighter), and was invited to a birthday party for one of her friends from church. She was so excited to go to a party and had a ton of fun with a big group of girls. They even saw the Justin Bieber movie. Thank goodness she didn't come home with Bieber Fever. So we celebrated her birthday on the 26th, beginning with breakfast in bed. Muffins, fruit, bacon, and hot chocolate, all sweetly shared with a little sister who couldn't resist climbing into bed with her and snuggling up for a snack.

Dinner that tonight included steak and a strawberry cake decorated in a dragon theme. She contemplated her birthday wish thoroughly.

She declared the cake good.

Now, on to softball season. Brenna is playing softball for the first time this year and seems to have a knack for it. Even more importantly, she really enjoys it. Here she is before the first game.

Up to bat for the first time. She always taps the plate with her bat before each pitch.

She was walked to first, then stole second and third. On a wild pitch that the catcher couldn't recover in time, she made a break for home plate and scored a run.

At her second game on Monday she stole home plate on a similar pitch and scored the game winning run in the bottom of the last inning with 2 outs.

And now to Brenna's least favorite subject, her new braces. She has thus far refused any pictures but I fooled her at the 3rd grade awards assembly this week and got an actual photo of her smiling. But that's what you do when you make principal's list for the zillionth time, you smile.

She'll have these bad boys on her four front teeth for about the next year, just to correct her overbite and pull those teeth into proper position for her other adult teeth to grow into the right place. Then the braces will come off until her adult teeth are all in, at which point she'll get a full set and learn what misery really is! Just kidding. It will be fine. I can't believe how much her teeth have already shifted in just 2 weeks.

So there. You're all caught up (mas o menos) on the life of Brenna for the last month.