Ev's Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Ev's birthday. His actual birthday was on Easter Sunday, but we decided to wait a week and give him his own day, especially since he had no idea anyway! We always have muffins for breakfast for birthdays and put a candle in the muffin and sing "Happy Birthday." We probably had to sing this 9 times for Everett. He loved it. He sang it loudest of all! When we got out the presents, he just thought he was so special. He loved to open the presents and hardly played with any of them in between openings! When I put him down for a nap, he sang himself to sleep with "Happy Birthday," which was adorable. We had a really fun party for him after dinner, where he served everyone up some cake and was delighted to be the center of attention! He is just the cutest thing ever. He thought everything about his birthday was just wonderful.

On Saturday, we all went hiking around Lake Sylvia, on a trail we had never been on before. We saw all kinds of wildflowers, Newts, and birds. We had a great time together. I love that my kids like to do that stuff. Grant and I found a whole bunch of new mountain biking trails on the logging roads behind the lake as well, that we can't wait to tackle!

On Friday, we had our first T-Ball practice. Sammi, Scotti, and Coop are all signed up for the team. Sammi told me from the beginning not to sign her up because she doesn't like sports. Then, we started playing t-ball in the yard, and Sammi is a really good hitter, so I signed her up anyway, just to keep the option open for her. At our first practice, Cooper and Scotti could not have been more excited. Everything was thrilling to them. Sammi, however, politely refused to be a part of the team. Finally, after standing on the sidelines watching her brothers have a great time, she told me that she wouldn't mind hitting, but that doesn't mean she is on the team. She's just hitting for fun, OK? Then, she wanted to practice catching balls too, swearing up and down that she isn't on the team, she's just helping out. She is so funny. Even now, she says she is not on the team. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out!

Saturday was also our big performance for preschool. Sammi, Scotti, and Coop were all monkeys in an adaptation of "Caps for Sale" at our preschool Taco Feed. They were the cutest little monkeys you've ever seen. All the kids were adorable. Scotti had the worst stage fright I have ever seen. He kept coming off the stage, saying he wasn't going to do it. I would take him back to the stage and give him a pep talk. Finally, just when I thought I had him set, the show started and Scotti ran off the stage to me. He felt sad that he didn't stay and finish the show, and directed his friends from the audience the whole time! He's so funny.

A couple of days ago, Sammi, Scotti, and Coop were all outside dressed up. They were being superfriends. Scotti was "Super B" with the power to see inside people's hearts and to sting them with his imaginary stinger. (The stinger was attached to his underpants, which "Super B" always wore over his pants.) Sammi was "Dragon Girl" with the power to fight and to talk to bees, butterflies, unicorns, and something else that I can't remember. Cooper was "Underdog" with the power of stink. (I decided it was better not to inquire further about that one!) They were running all over the yard saving imaginary victims from imaginary foes. They had a great time.

Later that day, Grant went outside to find Scotti on our chain ladder that goes up our playground holding on to the chains with his hands spread eagled and his tummy facing out. He was only in his underwear. When Grant asked him what he was doing, he said that he was Sammi's father and he was dying for her. That's right. He was playing crucifixion. In his underwear.

Everett finds water everywhere in this yard. If I keep him in clothes all day long, he needs an entire new outfit every couple of hours or so. I just let him run around in his diaper nowadays. He loves it. He loves the hose, and our little water pump, and our little wading pool. and our watering can He thinks it is all so great! Tonight, he was playing with the hose and I called him to come to Family Home Evening. He yelled back, "No thanks! Playing hose!"

In the middle of one of our garden beds, we have a pedestal that stands about 1 1/2 feet off the ground. It is for putting a big pot on. Since we have nothing on it, today I found Scotti sitting on it in a yoga resting/meditation position. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was the king of the garden and that if I wanted him to talk, I had to give him a gift of nature. When I gave him a rock, he looked at me with a sheepish grin and said, "I don't really know what to say!"

Last week, Cooper had a long string of not making it to the potty. We started a chart for him, where he gets a sticker every time he makes it to the potty. He has to get 30 stickers and then he can get a reward. He decided he wanted to go to McDonald's playground. Now, with this goal in mind, Cooper calls me every hour or so to look at his pee pee in the potty so he can get a sticker. I've never seen a kid go to the bathroom so much.

Everett tells me every night in a whisper, "Shhhhh! Hear that? I hear a frog!" Then sits still listening for a few minutes. It is adorable.

Easter Sunday!

We had a fun Easter weekend. We started off on Saturday with a fun morning at the dog show (which was really fun!), continued at our local Easter Egg hunt at the fair grounds, and ended at a Easter BBQ at our friend/neighbor's house. We had such a fun day! It was windy and rainy, but my kids didn't even seem to care. Today, we woke up to our Easter baskets and put on our new Easter duds. We had our good friends the Beuses over for Easter dinner and it was a great time. We are so lucky to have such great friends. It felt like we were around a lot of friends this weekend--especially at the Easter Egg hunt at the fairgrounds. I just love going to Elma community events and knowing many of the people I see there. It makes me excited about living in a small town.

Let's see...stories about the kids this week. I was working in the garden this week, when Scotti appeared wearing a tuxedo (a costume from his dance recital last year.) "Mom, I'm getting married!" he pronounced in a low adult voice.

"Congratulations! Whom are you going to marry?"

Without hesitation, "Rosalinda."

"Sounds great. What do you do when you get married?"

Pause. Pacing. "I don't know." Pause. Pacing. Scotti returns: "Mom, I think I'll just be the priest."

"OK, but you realize that we don't really get married by a priest, right?"

"Yes mom, but I'm only pretending!"

Sammi, who is always interested in a wedding, came along and told Scotti to close his eyes. When he opened them, he was to stare at her really hard and then exclaim how beautiful she is. He did so, and Sammi replied, "Yes, I am beautiful, but I'm not Rosalinda, and I'm not getting married." Then she ran off. She and Scotti played this game for a good hour or so, Scotti telling Sammi how beautiful she is, Sammi coming up with different ways to dump him. They refined the scene immensely by the end, adding dramatic hand holding and fake crying and such. I couldn't believe I had such thesbians.

Cooper keeps defining words for me. He told me that another name for weeds is "deeds." When I used the word "deeds" in a sentence, "Could you please pull those deeds over there for me?" Cooper looked at me funny and said that I'm not allowed to use that word, only him.

As we were getting ready to go to the Easter Egg hunt, we were all in the car waiting for Cooper, so I yelled up the stairs for him to come down. He kept yelling back, "just a minute!" Finally, when I got fed up and began counting to the dreaded number three (one.... two...) he came out of his room crying telling me that if I could just wait a minute, he would come down. He was putting on his socks. Cooper does not know how to do this yet. I told him that we didn't have time for him to practice right now and to come downstairs and I would put them on him. He told me that he would just be a minute because he asked God to help him get his socks on and God said OK, so I was just going to have to wait! Needless to say, we had a discussion about how sometimes when we want to do something, God helps us get it done by sending helpers. "Mom!" Cooper exclaimed, "you are my helper!" I whisked his socks on and buckled him in his car seat. What a sweetie pie!

Everett's favorite song lately is "Whoop! There it is!" He sings it all the time. He loves music. In the car, we were listening to John Denver's "Thank God! I'm a Country Boy!" In the background, the audience claps to the music. So does Everett. It is so cute. He also sings along to Queen's "I Want to Ride My Bicycle" and loves "Witch Doctor." Just loves music. Sings all the time. Sings when he plays, sings when he goes to sleep. He is just such a sweet heart. Today is his 2nd birthday, although we won't celebrate it until next week. We decided to take away his binki today. We really geared ourselves up for such a move. We were ready to give extra comfort, listen to a little crying as he learned to go to bed without it. Funny thing is, he didn't ask for it once. Didn't even notice it was gone!

Oh yea, Cooper got stitches this week. We got a package and he couldn't get it opened, so he got a really sharp knife and ended up cutting himself. No problem! Grant just sewed him right up in our very own living room. Now that's service!

Also, at our Elma Easter Egg hunt, Scotti got an egg that had a number where you go to a tent to get a prize. Sammi was very disappointed that she didn't get a prize. She just couldn't recover from the disappointment and had to go sit by herself for a little while to pull herself together. Scotti got his prize, a cool game. Then, the lady came running over to him and told him that here was a little package that went with his prize that she forgot to give him. Scotti was really excited because now Sammi could have a prize too! He ran over and enthusiastically gave it to her. I was one proud mother.