Spring Break: Eliza Claire Photo Shoot

We went to the beach for a few days for Spring Break.  One day Eliza Claire saw me snap a picture of her and started posing for me and asked me to keep taking her picture.  This is pretty out of character for Eliza Claire and typically when the camera comes out she can not smile to save her life.  She is just awkward for photographs.  I think it is because she is trying too hard and can't figure out how to make her body and especially smile muscles do what she wants them to.  However this day.  She did great.  Some are silly and some are just really cute.  So I had to share.

Rehm's Career Path

Rehm had an orthodontist appointment yesterday.  It was just a progress check.  He needs to lose teeth and get molars before the next phase - complete braces.  I was asking the Dr. when the next step would need to be done as I am trying to stagger all of our orthodontic needs so that we are only paying for one child at a time.  The Dr. told us we could easily push it out at least two years but that he found many kids wanted to be out of braces before high school.  I laughed and told him I wasn't concerned with Rehm's fashion needs only my budgetary constraints. 

When we got to the car, I was explaining to Rehm that we would only be doing braces if they were for true bite/jaw needs not cosmetic. I went on to say that if he felt the need to fix the cosmetic issues he could do that when he was an adult.  His response, "Yeah, I'll need to do that for the photo shoot."  I questioned what he meant.  He said, "You know if I'm going to be an actor, I'll have to do a photo shoot."

I cracked up as he explained that Ronald Regan was an actor before he was a great politician.  Since Rehm's current career plan is to be a politician he has decided he should follow Regan's path to the White House. 

I do so love this goofy boy!
Jenn

Goodbye Leafy

Poor Eliza Claire is having a rough night.

Last night in the bath tub she found a small leaf, about the size of a dime. I have no idea why it was in the bathtub. Yeah, obviously my cleaning must leave a bit to be desired. I'm sure it got a ride to the bathtub on one of the girls' hair as they are notorious for rolling around on the ground when they play outside.



She named it Leafy and it became her pet. They had great fun playing in the bath for about half an hour. When bath time was over, Eliza Claire put Leafy in a cup of water to wait for her to come play today.

The housekeeper came today. Apparently she had no clue there was anything special in the cup and dumped it out when she cleaned the tub. Leafy is gone forever.

Eliza Claire is heartbroken. She cried through her entire bath tonight. She talked about what a good leaf Leafy was and how sad she was that she would never see him again. "But, he was such a good friend, I loved him!"

I thought it might help if I shared the story of Charlie the June Bug with her. I'll share it with Mayhem Mania another day. The fact that 30+ years later I still fondly remember him did not comfort her at all. In her mind he could not have possibly been as special as Leafy.

Ruby came in and told her to kiss her hand and put it in the water do the kiss would travel down the drain to him. When that didn't work, she told Eliza Claire to ask God to give Leafy a message for her. That didn't help, either.

Right now playing on the computer is distracting her.

Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

Highlighting their Individuality

While one was inside sleeping...



The other was outside coloring herself pink with chalk. The picture isn't great but her forehead, arms, hands, legs and feet were all bright pink.



Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

Happy Easter!

The pre-church photos of the kids.  We successfully made it to the eight o'clock service this morning.  This was quite an accomplishment given all of the Easter finery.  

The closest I got to a really good picture of all four Maniacs

Ruby did not like that her dress was shorter than Eliza Claire's.  But when you have such great hand-me-downs to wear, you wear the size you've got.

Eliza Claire can not smile for a photograph to save her life.  I love the three different expressions here.

Charlotte feeling very special in her Easter dress

 

My favorite picture of the day.  I think this completely captures Miss Ruby.

The best Eliza Claire smile of the day.  I love how it shows off her missing teeth.

 

Rehm is to the point he gets annoyed by the picture taking.  I'm just glad he finally found the pants I bought him a month ago that actually fit.  He kept wearing the smaller pants and I kept asking where the new ones were and getting no response.  Finally! Pants that fit!

Looking serious.

Trying to get a good group shot.

Still trying...

Uh, oh, this is getting worse not better.

The End!

Pre-Easter Fun

Saturday we had a small neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  It was nice and low-key and the kids had a lot of fun.  Rehm had a friend come over for the hunt and stay for a few hours.

Hurrying to the Egg Hunt

 

Still not too old for some Easter fun

 

Not sure what Eliza Claire is doing, but she looks like a frog.

 

Showing off their golden eggs

The Golden Egg prize

Later in the afternoon Grandma came out to dye Easter eggs with us.  This is something I always look forward to but an activity that makes me a very grumpy mom.  I think it is the mess potential combined with the initial excitement level of the kids.  It drives me crazy and makes me grumpy which of course takes all the fun out of the activity.  Luckily, I think the kids still enjoyed it. 

After egg dyeing Ruby and Eliza Claire went with a friend to a church Easter Festival.  They had a great time.

Photo by Allison Solberg

It was a fun day to start off our Easter celebrations.
Jenn

I Won Two Parenting Awards at the Same Time

What were they?  Well Best Mom Ever and Worst Mom Ever!  Yep, I won them simultaneously.  Isn't that just amazing?  I am super talented that way.

I needed to buy Charlotte and new Easter dress.  I asked her what she wanted me to buy her to wear on Easter.  Her first response was, "a dress," in a "well duh what do you think" voice.  I laughed and asked if there was a specific color or style she wanted.  She requested pale pink or some other pale color.  I was shocked as Charlotte has not liked pink in a couple of years.

I found the perfect dress that I knew, with out a doubt, she was going to love, even though it wasn't pale pink.  The only small problem was I really would have liked to purchase it a size larger than what they had.  But, I decided I had to take a chance on it.  I proceeded to buy Charlotte matching shoes and a bracelet to go with it.  Then because the sales were so good I picked her up another Sunday dress and some school clothes.  And then I also found a pale pink dress that I thought she would really like as well and decided to purchase it as well to let her decide which one she really wanted to wear for Easter.

While shopping I also picked up a pair of Sunday shoes for Eliza Claire as I knew she only had sandals and they were not dressy enough for her Easter dress choices.
I then went to target to pick up just random stuff I needed.
I did not buy dresses for Ruby and Eliza Claire.  They are lucky to be the recipients of tons of hand-me-downs and I knew each one had 3 or 4 very fancy Easter dresses to choose from.  I also realized I had bought things for two of my kids but not the other two and knew someone was likely to be upset and feel left out.

I am a mean Mom.  I don't play the "everything has to be even" game.  If you need something, I buy it for you.  If you don't need something, I don't.  If that upsets you, it is your problem.  If you don't think it's fair, then you are learning the great "life's not fair" lesson we all have to learn at some point in our lives.

So, the kids get home from school and I proceed to show Charlotte the items I purchased from her.  She is giddy.  She tries on the dress that I thought was the perfect dress and is completely beside herself with glee.  She gives me the biggest hug and tells me I'm the best Mommy EVER!

I give Eliza Claire her shoes.  She loves them.  She's thrilled.  Ruby realizes at this point I don't have anything for her.  She gets grumpy.  Then she gets angry.  Then the fit starts, complete with screaming and crying and snot everywhere!  She tells me how horribly unfair it is.  She tells me I'm the meanest Mommy EVER.  She hates me.  She will not listen to me explain that she has three absolutely amazing dresses in her closet she can choose from for her own Easter dress.  She doesn't care that I have three containers of clothes for her to shop from for spring and summer clothing.  I went shopping and I didn't get her anything and she is not happy.

That is when I remember the bag from Target.  I rummage around in it and find the one thing I did  buy for Ruby.  A bottle of Claritin!  I hold it up and say, "Oh, look Ruby, I did buy you something!  I bought you a brand new bottle of Claritin!  And look, it comes with five free stickers, just for you!"  She grumped, and huffed and grudgingly took the stickers from me and was surprisingly somewhat mollified.

And yes, that is how I managed to win awards for Best and Worst Mom all in the same day.

Charlotte brought this pretty Easter card home for me

It says " Dear Mom, thank you for giving me a new Easter Dress.  Thank you for the other dresses too.  I love you.  Love Charlotte XOXOX

Did you notice that Rehm is not mentioned at all in this?  That is because he doesn't care one bit about what he is going to wear for Easter or who gets what.  Now if his sisters had all gotten video games and he had not gotten anything it would be a different story.  But for clothing, he was glad to be left completely out of the mix.
Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

Keeping the Tooth Fairy Busy

Eliza Claire is keeping the Tooth Fairy on her toes. Tooth number two came out tonight. It is kind of hard to see since both of her permanent teeth started coming in well before she lost the baby ones.

She is so funny about having them pulled. She has to have Bear with her. Every time you tug on the tooth she has to stop you, look in the mirror, take a couple of deep breaths, and hop up and down a few times before being ready to try again.

Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

The Meaning of Easter

Tonight Ruby and Eliza Claire were working on some Easter cards to mail. The Easter cards had a chick on them and basically just say, "Happy Easter." the girls were writing notes inside and decorating them with Easter egg stickers. Eliza Claire started trying to sound out a word...

Me: Eliza Claire, what are you sounding out?

EC: I want to say, "the things on this card are not really what Easter is about."

Me: (Being a really bad mom) Eliza Claire, you don't have room to write all of that on the card and I'm not spelling all of those words for you, why don't you write something a bit shorter.

EC: Ok. You know, most of the kids in my class don't know what Easter is really about.

Me: They don't?

EC: Nope. So I told them the real meaning.

Me: You did? What did you tell them?

EC: I told them that Easter is really about Jesus dying on the cross on Good Friday and not being dead anymore on Easter morning.

I'm just thrilled that my five year old is so comfortable sharing her belief in Jesus.

Happy Easter,
Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

Stupid Squirrels

Yesterday, I saw Baron jumping up on the fence and realized there was something on the top of the fence.  It turned out that something was a mother squirrel carrying a baby squirrel.  Having the baby squirrel with her made her slow and heavy.  She was fighting to not fall off the fence, especially with Baron jumping right below her. 

I asked Michael to go get Baron.  I didn't want the poor squirrels to get eaten.  I felt extremely sorry for them.  Luckily Baron was cooperative and, shockingly, came right in when called. 

Fast forward to this morning.  I walk by the back door and notice a stupid squirrel, who was only a screen door and about 3 feet away from me.  The blasted thing was stuffing its mouth full of my one and only remaining chair cushion!  Argh!

Not the best quality due to the screen door but I had to show you this dumb squirrel.

Today, I'm really regretting yesterday's squirrel charity and Michael is contemplating the purchase of a BB gun...

Jenn

Definitely his Father's Son

Today the fifth graders are having a Read In/Game In as a reward for finishing state testing.

My son left the house this morning with the following items: Trivial Pursuit, The Hobbit, the current issue of National Review, and a Charles Schwab investing magazine.



He's definitely not my kid.

Jenn- Posted from my iPhone

Operation Surprise the Boy on his Birthday

Since he dubbed today "The Best Birthday, EVER!" I'll say we were successful.

A few weeks ago Rehm announced that he wanted to open his junior brokerage account on his birthday!  He thought that would be "the coolest thing ever!"  Of course, his birthday was a school day, so he assumed that it wasn't going to be an option.  Michael told him that if Rehm helped fill out the forms, Michael would take them in on his birthday and open the account for him.  Rehm was completely fine with that.

Rehm filling out his brokerage account forms

After breakfast, Rehm opened gifts from the family.  His sisters had all made him gifts.  They had basically found things in their rooms they thought he would like and wrapped them up and made him cards.  He did such a great job of appreciating their gifts.  I was very proud of him.  His sisters did a great job of picking things that followed Rehm's interests.  They also game him a Chuy's T-shirt that had a Hunger Games theme.  He decided, at my suggestion, to change shirts so he could wear it to school.

He went on to open his gift from Michael and I as we didn't know of any other time that day the whole family would be in the same place.  It was the Skylander starter kit for the Wii. He was very pleased.

We sent him off to school thinking he was going to just have a normal day at school and that I would bring goodies for his class toward the end of the day.  What Rehm didn't know, was that we had a better idea.  Due to coincidence it happened that Rehm was going to be having a mostly review day at school on his actual birthday.  Michael and I decided he could miss part of the day.

We even had to pretend to pack his lunch.  His lunch box contained an empty ziploc container, a juice box and a note from us, just in case he actually opened his lunch box.



I arrived at school at 9:30 to pick him up.  He walked in the office saw me and asked, "So what did I do?" in a resigned voice.  I told him I was picking him up for an appointment.  He looked really confused and asked if it was to go get his hearing checked.  I explained that he had a 10:00 appointment to set up his brokerage account.  He was stunned.  It was too cute.  I told the office staff we would be back after lunch.

In the car he called Cici so she could wish him a  happy birthday.  He wanted to know what time he would be back at school because his teacher had told the class they could work on the 5th grade school iPads  after lunch if they behaved themselves for the morning.  I assured him he would not be upset if he ended up missing the iPad time.

We set up the brokerage account.  Our account manager was great with him.  He made a point to talk to Rehm, ask him questions and explain some things about investing to him.  It was great and made Rehm feel very grown up.The account manager wanted to know what else Rehm was going to do to celebrate his birthday?  I spoke up and said, "What Rehm doesn't know yet is that when we leave here we are taking him to see The Hunger Games."  I thought Rehm was going to fall out of his chair he was so shocked.  He never in a million years expected his parents to let him miss school to go to a movie! And, he wasn't sure we were going to let him see this movie.

Waiting for the movie to start

He enjoyed the movie and thought they movie makers did a great job staying true to the book.  After the movie I took him back to school for the last hour of the school day. 

After school he came home and played Skylanders for a while - he really likes it but would like more Skylander characters.  Then we had a quick dinner and sent him off to scouts.

We did not have cake or cupcakes on his birthday simply because he wants Gigi's cupcakes and thinks their Friday menu sounds the best.  We will finish celebrating on Friday.  Which is a good thing as I realized last night while trying to fall asleep that we never sang Happy Birthday to him.
I think he is also planning to invite a couple of friends over in a couple of weeks for a sleepover.  I guess we need to get that planned...

Jenn - Posted from my iPhone