My Preschool's Auction

I'm just proud as punch, so I have to publish it. My preschool had an auction last night. Our board thought we should shoot to earn $3,200. We earned well over $5,000. I'm just so excited. Oh, have I told any of you that I am the director? I'm the director of the preschool this year. Don't confuse that with success on the auction because I don't deserve any of the credit. The credit goes to our wonderful Kym Foster (Co-Director) and the amazing parents of our preschool. Every one of them put effort into the auction. It has been so great for me to be a part of this community of people who care about their kids. I just love it here in Elma! Nice job to all my preschool buddies! (I don't have any pictures, but it was pretty classy in the end!)

Masked Marvel

Scotti is always cooking up ideas for his pretending. I have a hard time getting him to accomplish the things I want him to because he feels that he is so busy with his own things, he doesn't have time. He's always upset with me for making him go pick Cooper up from preschool right in the middle of his soccer game or his cars' race or whatever. I mean do I really expect him to just leave his team (imaginary) in the middle of a game to go pick up Cooper? Mom! You're making me let my team down! He wakes up every morning and tells me about all the events that are going on that day. Today he had a soccer game, a race, and then cub scouts. All pretend. He carries out every one of his plans and that entails some serious thinking and creating on his part. On the day of this picture, for example, he had decided to be the Masked Marvel, but had no mask. He got out the red felt and drew a mask shape on it and cut it out. I doctored it a little around the eyes and this is what he came out with. Not bad!

Halloween

I completely forgot that I have given no report yet on Halloween! All my kids decided to be Power Rangers this year. They don't know what Power Rangers are, but the super hero costumes looked awesome to them. We did end up getting one book that has Power Rangers in it, but it is really weird and basically my kids are just really confused by it. They just play super heroes in them. Sammi was yellow, Cooper blue, Scotti red, Everett green. We had a Halloween party with friends and it was really fun. Some of the party was still going when it was time to trick or treat in Elma, so here is the picture of all our little buddies in their costumes. Here all of "downtown" (I use that term loosely) Elma accepts trick or treaters for the afternoon of Halloween. The entire community turns up and downtown is filled with everyone I know in full costume and ready to trick or treat. It is just so fun. We had a great time. Sammi changed costumes for trick or treating and was a Snow Fairy Queen. She loved it.

I have loved our Power Ranger costumes. Imagine the fun I have watching my four kids in full costume play Super Friends. My bedroom is headquarters and they each have their own special power: Sammi has pointy elbow power, Scotti has speed, Cooper has the power to roll (isn't that a funny choice?) and Everett has the power to... Well now I can't remember what his power is. They meet in headquarters and talk in super hero voices until one of them declares that there is a bad guy some place in the house. Then they all cruise out of my room and start fighting a pretend naughty guy with such passion, I wonder if they aren't really superheroes after all! Every now and then one of them declares that they are dead. At this point, the other superheroes drag the dead superhero out of the room and lament the death of such a brave fighter until the so-called dead superhero is brought back to life by some miraculous superhero power! It is a stunning performance.

I think Halloween costumes are an investment. when I buy a nice one that will last, my kids get more use out of them than out of any of their other toys. In fact, the only disappointment I had about Halloween this year is that my kids didn't really think it was that special to dress up, even in new costumes, because they basically dress up every day. I'm so tired of getting them changed out of them, I've finally decided they can even wear them in public to the grocery store and the library. What's the big deal anyway? Usually people just think it is cute.

Power Ranger faces

Yesterday Cooper came and told me about his faces that he uses when he is a power ranger. I took pictures of all of them. The first picture tells the bad guy that he is not afraid of him. The second picture is when he is deciding if he should get the bad guy or not, and the third picture tells the bad guy that he better get out of here before Cooper gets his hands on him!

Buddies

This week we were in a store and Everett asked me if I would take a picture of him with his buddy. I said sure! Who was the buddy? He replied, "Cooper is my buddy mom! Are you teasing me?" This is the promised picture. Aren't they sweetie pies?

Another couple of Ev stories while I'm at it: I'm always after Everett for playing in the car. This week, I was doing puzzles with the three older kids and Everett was happily playing trains upstairs by himself for 20 minutes or so. Soon, I went up to check on him, and he wasn't there. I had heard him the whole time we were doing puzzles and could still hear him, so I wondered where in the world he went! I opened the garage door to see if he was playing in the garage and there was Everett sitting in the driver's seat of my car. He yelled through the window to me, "You're here! Phew! I almost played in the car!" I told him that it looks like he's been playing in the car for a while and opened the door to get him out. He stumbled a little as I opened the door and said, "Oh my gosh mom! I almost touched that steering wheel!" So smart. So scheming. How could he know to use such intelligent tactics to save him from punishment?

A couple of hours after that incident, Everett came and told me that he wet his pants but not to worry, he already took care of it. He was still wearing his wet pants, so I asked him what he did to take care of it. He said that he "Apogagized." (Apologized.) To whom? To his pee pee apparently. I guess it wanted to get in the potty and he got it in his pants instead.

Everett (and all my kids for that matter) can play a mean game of Uno. He knows all the rules and can play with next to no help. Smarty pants!

Cross Eyed!

Last week in the bath, we had that thrilling moment when my kids learned to go cross eyed. Here's the proof, though I kept missing them in their best crossed eyes!

Grandma Beck's 90th Birthday Bash!

We had such a fun time a few weeks ago traveling to Salt Lake City to go to Grandma Beck's 90th Birthday party! It was a weekend of Birthdays, beginning with a birthday party for Cate on Friday (and a tremendous sleepover at her house! Thanks Joni and Jer!), Grandma Beck's party on Sat., Grandma Janet's birthday on Sunday, and Ali's Birthday dinner on Monday. Whew! Lucky us to be there on such an important weekend!

At Grandma Beck's party all the great-grandkids sang some songs in a little program and we loved seeing all our cousins again! It was great to see all of our cousins kids playing with our kids too. Grandma Beck is one of the kindest people I know. She loves people for who they are and never supposes she's in a position to judge others (though I know she most certainly worries about every one of us!) She has such a fun sense of humor and always let me make up my own rules in a game of Uno. I always know that she loves me. What a lucky break for me to get such a grandmother!

Here are also some pictures of the kids having a picnic with their cousin Jake and at the Zoo with Grandma Janet and Great-Grandma Hatch. We saw the most adorable baby elephant, tigers, and giraffe! Thanks for the fun at the zoo Grandmas!