HOT! HOT! HOT!

Remember all of those posts I made earlier this summer complaining about how cold it has been here in WA? Well, I take them all back! This weekend was very hot! And now I'm just not used to heat. We don't have air conditioning but we do have kids. Kids get hot sweaty and then they want to sit on your lap! And since the sun doesn't set till 10:00pm here, there is no relief.

Saturday and Sunday reached 90 and today's high is supposed to be 85. Tomorrow is back to normal with the weather-guessers predicting 79 for the high. I can't wait! But for now, I still need to come up with something cool to keep my kids (and myself) occupied for one more day. I'm thinking about taking them to the movies later, but tomorrow is free movie day. Of course the free movies are different than what's showing today but I'm still not sure that I want to take them to the movies 2 days in a row. I know what you are thinking, I could take them today and then not take them tomorrow. But what a waste of free movie day that would be! Actually a movie sounds like a nice break for me too!

Birthday Smirthday

I'm too old for birthdays! Ok, so I'm still 22 (at least my kids believe that!) or close enough.

Yesterday I got a birthday card from my doctor reminding me to get a checkup for my birthday (great). It also had a checklist of things women over 50 need to care of. Ok, so I might not actually be 22, but I'm closer to 22 than I am to 50! That card really made me feel special on my birthday. Yeah, really.

I also received a small package from my mom. I could tell the address was written in my sister's handwriting, but I figured my mom probably just sent her to the post office. Inside was a book of poems, "For My Daughter." My mom even took the time to write a small paragraph on the first page of the book and wrote which poems in the book reminded her most of me. It was so sweet I almost cried. And this is not typical from my mom. Usually she sends a card and only writes my name at the top and "love mom and dad" at the bottom. And there may be a check in there too. This time she included a gift card. That was nice too.

My sister called today to say "happy birthday." Her birthday is 2 weeks before mine. I told her what our mom had sent me and we discovered that mom had sent her the same book for her birthday. Oh, and my mom picked out the same 4 poems for my sister too. (Good thing my mom doesn't read my blog ;) ) So now I'm not exactly feeling quite so special anymore.

I like to bake, so I made a cake for birthday. Someone had recommended a recipe for vanilla frosting that uses marshmallows. I have a lot of marshmallows right now so I thought would try it as a good way to use up some marshmallows. It was a disaster. It was very thin and more like vanilla marshmallow soup instead of cake frosting! So I thought if I put it in the fridge it might harden up a little. It did harden. It became one giant marshmallow! I tasted it. Sooooo sweet! But certainly not going to work for cake frosting.

I had another recipe that I used before for vanilla icing. This was a little thin but I was in a hurry to pick up my 4 year old from preschool, and thought since it was better than the giant marshmallow, it would have to do. I tasted it. It's good. But it's more the consistency you would expect on a coffee cake or cinnamon rolls. Well, I put it on the cake anyway.

One more thing I got for my birthday... My 4 year old made a drawing for me at preschool today. It has his name on it (although the letters aren't all in order. I think he started to write it and ran out of room, so he just put the rest of the letters on top). And he explained to me what the pictures were. One is a bucket of ants. You can see the ant eggs in the bucket and one huge ant on top of the bucket. The picture also includes the sand in the bucket and food for the ants. In case you missed the ant episode on the cookie jar, it's here.

I still need to make reservations for dinner tonight. At least I won't have to cook or clean! Am I the only who wishes that birthdays would just go away when you reach 29? Not that I would know, I'm only 22, remember?

Summer Reading

Ok, Here's my schipeal (how do you spell that???) about getting our kids to read over the summer. It's important for them to keep reading and instill a life long love of learning.... Ok, that's enough blabbering from me. You all know what to do, Get your kids reading! And Barnes & Noble can help! (Don't you hate it when people say, "Barnes and Nobles"? Or is it just me?) Go to their website and print out a form. Here are the details:

Here's How It Works:
1. Kids read any 8 books.
2. Kids use the Summer Reading Journal to tell us their favorite part of each book. A parent/guardian signs it when it's complete.
3. Children bring their completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 29th & September 2nd, 2008.
4. We'll give them a coupon for a FREE book! They choose from a list of exceptional paperback titles.

* * Eligible books will be listed on the coupon. Choices must be made from eligible stock. No special orders. Limit of 1 form per school-age child (grades 1-6), please. Incomplete forms will be ineligible for free books.

To Bite or Not To Bite

Today my son was bitten at school but another child. Not hard enough to break the skin but enough that I could still see the pink mark when I picked him. He told me all about what a bad kid the biter was. I had to sign an "accident report" that stated what happened, what time it occurred, who was present, and the treatment he received afterwards. My son goes to a Japanese preschool and they are a little more "over the top" about some things.

My son was really fine. He was probably more hurt by all the falls off his bike this week. Did I tell you that we took his training wheels off on Sunday? By Tuesday he was doing side skids and putting his feet on the handle bars. He's only 4 and already acting like a 12 year old boy. This behavior is not from me.

So back to him being bitten at school... The mother of the biter called me at home and left a very apologetic message. Then she called back later to apologize again. Really, my son was fine. He was riding his bike after school, he went to swimming lessons. He was doing everything fine and no complaints. In fact, I think he really just liked the attention. He told his older brother all about what happened. How the other child bit him and you could still see the teeth marks. How the other child got in trouble and my son was taken to the nurse and he had ice pack etc...

And how did I react to hearing that he was bit on the playground? I was just happy that it wasn't my son who was the biter! *whew!*

Summer Vacation?

Today was the first Monday of summer "vacation." It's really only a vacation for the kids, not for the moms (or dads) who have to take care of them all summer. So it's not really fair to call it summer vacation is it?

Should I write about how my kids started new swimming lessons today? One kid puked in the pool. I'm a natural puker. If I see puke or smell it, I'll puke. Luckily I didn't join the poor kid as a fellow puker. But I did have a few moms who were offering to get me a chair, fast!

No, the swimming lessons and chasing my kids around all day would take too long to write and I'm exhausted after today! You'd think that all this chasing them around would be great exercise, but somehow I managed to gain a few pounds recently. That doesn't seem fair. All this work and that's what happens?!?!

So I decided to write a funny story that my friend told me today. She has a boy and a girl who are 11 months apart. They used to take baths together when they were very little. But at age 3, the little girl started to notice the differences between boys and girls. One day her little brother stood up in the bathtub. The little girl looked at the boy and was confused. She pointed to him and asked her mom, "is that his tail?" Ever since then the kids have been taking separate baths.

How High Can You Go?

The other day my 4 year old stood on the scale in my bathroom. He was very proud of himself for making the numbers go up to 40. He got off and on again, hoping to make the numbers go higher than 40. He tried jumping and standing on one foot and still it didn't go higher than 40. Then he looked closely at the scale and saw that it went up to 300 pounds. So he turned to me and asked how high I could make the number go. Being a lady, I wouldn't give him an answer. I told him that wasn't really a nice thing to ask a grown up. Of course my kids never listen to me, so I really shouldn't have been surprised when he kept asking me and finally said, "mom, can you make it go all the way up to 300?!?!?!" *sighs* Guess that was a hint that I need to end this all ice cream diet and go back to the all lettuce diet!

Taking the Ants on a Field Trip

My son has taken an interest in ants. When I say an "interest" this is a nice way of saying that he annoys asks me every 5 minutes if I will help him collect ants to keep in the bucket in the garage. We have been keeping ants in our garage since Monday (I think). So I finally decided maybe we should get an ant farm and make a summer project out of this.

I searched online and found ways to make an ant farm yourself. Basically you need a large clear container. If it's big like a fish tank you can place a smaller plastic bottle inside which will force the ants to make their tunnels closer to the outside of the tank. Then cover it with some kind of small net or cloth. Since I don't have a fish tank or an ant farm, I decided to check freecycle first. I LOVE freecycle! And guess what, I found a lady who had an ant farm still in the box that she wanted to get rid of. I picked it up yesterday and this morning we went out searching for ants.

According to what I read online, we need to dig up an anthill and find the queen ant. Then place her and a bunch of worker ants along with some dirt into the ant farm. In about 24 hours you're supposed to start to see some tunnels. This didn't sound too difficult.

We took the bucket of ants in the car for a field trip so we could find other ants for them to play with. Luckily the ant bucket did not tip in the car. My son wanted to hold it (I think goes against mommy rule #537, children can not hold bugs while in the car), but I found a way to balance it pretty securely between the radio and the cup holder in the front seat. Who knew cup holders also work for ant buckets?!

OK, so we get the ants to the anthill. I brought two shovels since I have 2 kids. Immediately the handle broke off of one shovel (Isn't that part of the say, "no good deed goes unpuished"?). So then I could either let the kids fight over the one shovel or dig for ants myself. I dug ants for over an hour and never found a queen ant! We left with the original ants in the bucket and 37 new ants in the ant farm.

My son is very excited. I'm wondering if Orkin has started selling these ant farms. I'm not too excited about having 37 ants in my house. Still, I think this ant farm (with a lid!) is a lot better than a bucket of ants in the garage.

Not a Good Day

You know you are having a bad day when what usually seems like a small thing sets you off. I'm probably in a bad mood because of a "discussion" I had with my husband last night. I went to bed upset.

Earlier that night I boiled water and was planning to make iced tea. When the water boiled, I put the tea bags in. And it stayed like that until my husband left for work and the kids left for school this morning. Then I started to clean up the kitchen. I got a pitcher to pour the tea into. While I was pouring it, I thought I saw something on the top of the tea. Was it a small bug that just went into the pitcher??? I looked but couldn't find it. I thought I'm never going to want to drink this if I'm always wondering if a bug is in it. So I dumped out the tea that was already in the pitcher. I rinsed out the pitcher and figured I could still drink the rest of the tea, right? So I poured the rest into the pitcher. Then I started looking at it and wondering, "could there be another bug in there?" So I looked at the tea in the pitcher and the empty pot for a few minutes. Then I dumped it all out. I know I'll never drink that tea. I'll never get the image of a bug floating in the tea out of my mind. Now I'm starting to wonder if I can ever drink iced tea again! *sigh*



Today was also my kindergartner's last day of school. I heard that on the last day of school the moms blow bubbles and clap as the kids walk out of the school. So I went with bubbles and my camera. I took a few pictures and blew some bubbles. Then my son wanted to show me the ants he had found on the playground. I looked at the ants and oohed and ahhed as moms are supposed to do when their 6 year old shows them an ant hill they found. Then my son asked if we could come back later and collect some ants in his bucket. I explained to him that we had a lot of things to do today but maybe we'd have time tomorrow or another day. That was not a good enough answer for him. He started to pout, and broke out into tears! *sigh* Have you heard of the saying, "No good deed goes unpunished?" I think the saying is my motto.



Somehow I managed to get him out of the tantrum and into the car. Then another tantrum started because he didn't want to sit in his car seat. This pushed me over the limit. I couldn't help but yell at him and he went straight to his room when we got home.



I have a doctor's appointment later. My husband is supposed to meet there so he can watch my son while I go in. Then I have to pick up the 4 year old from preschool. I was thinking about going out for ice cream since it's the last day of school, but I'm not sure I have the patience for it. First bugs in my tea then a tantrum... hmmm.... maybe some ice cream will do me some good!

Graduations

I never used to be like this. I always thought graduations were boring and cheesy. I didn't even go to my own college graduation. So why was it so hard to hold back tears at my son's kindergarten graduation and even at my younger son's preschool graduation, and he wasn't even graduating! We were there to watch the class ahead of him graduate (it's a Japanese preschool and it's a Japanese custom for the class that will be taking the place of the graduating class to sing at the graduation (that is one long sentence!)). So I really had no reason to cry (well, I actually didn't cry, but almost!) at the preschool graduation. Especially since my son didn't even go on stage. He started crying and the rest of his class went on stage to sing while he stayed in front of the stage with the teacher. So I really had no reason to get emotional. A little angry maybe, but not emotional.

The kindergarten graduation was even harder. I've been volunteering in the classroom almost every week and I've gotten to know the kids there pretty well and it's sad to think that this is the end of that class. Next year they'll all be mixed up in 3 different first grade classrooms. And somewhere along the road it became difficult to watch my baby growing up. Does that mean I'm getting old? Am I turning into one of those moms??? I really have no idea how this happened. Really, I was never like this before... Never! *sighs*

I'm Green. What are you?

I found this on another blog and it looked like fun. The quiz said I'm green and I think it's description is pretty good!

Your Inner Color is Green

Your Personality: You are a high acheiver who is very competitive. You're bound to reach your goals, no matter how lofty.

You in Love: Picky with high standards, it's hard to find your match. You need someone as driven as you are!

Your Career: You need a high profile, challenging career to satisfy you. Consider finance, sales, or running your own company.

Field Day

Today was Field Day at my son's school. He's in kindergarten so this was my first experience with Field Day as a parent. I know I may sound old when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. When I was a kid field day was much different. To start, Field day was all day. Today it lasted 90 minutes. (Shouldn't that be called Field hour and a half?)

When I was in school we had teams and each activity had a winner. Today the kids did each activity and there were no teams, no score and no winners.

When I was a kid Field day was always at the end of the school year when it was hot outside. OK, today is the end of the school year, but it was cold and raining today! Guess that has nothing to do with the school. Seriously, today's high is supposed to be 61. Field Day was from 9:30-11:00 this morning. It was about 50 degrees then!

When I was a kid we loved getting wet on Field day. We would toss water balloons and do other water activities. Today, the kids were wet because of the rain. Did you ever do a hula hoop in the rain? Unfortunately, now I have. I know you're probably thinking what could be worse than wet hula hoops? How about that I was given 8 hula hoops and the kids came to me in groups of 20? fun.

The mom next to me was in charge of the parachute. A wet parachute is also a lot of fun! She told me it was getting really heavy towards the end.

On my other side I could see the moms in charge of the 3-legged race. They didn't use something to tie 2 legs together. Instead they used a pillow case and had each child put one leg inside the pillow case. And since kids tend to fall down a lot during a 3-legged race, they had this activity on the sand and dirt section of the playground (aka mud today). So wet pillow cases with muddy shoes being dragged through the mud. Those pillow cases were filthy within minutes. I'm glad I wasn't in the last group of kids who had to use those pillow cases!

Behind me I could see the moms who were in charge of the tug-of-war. This was also done on the mud sand and dirt section of the playground because kids tend to fall while doing tug-of-war. Have you seen the commercials for those new shout wipes to get stains out of your clothes. They could have used a few cases of those next to the tug-of-war.

I was relieved when my time was up and I could finally go inside. They did use the gym for some other activities and the moms who knew better had signed up for those first.

Afterwards they gave out ice cream to all the kids and the volunteers. I passed on the ice cream because my feet were soaking wet and I was slowly turning into a Popsicle myself. All the kids took their ice cream and sat in the rain eating ice cream and shivering. Then the kids were sent back inside.

The kindergarten class are the first ones to eat lunch. Lunch starts at 11:00. So the kids had to hurry up and finish their ice cream so they could get in line for lunch! <> Thank goodness Field day isn't every day and now I'm very glad that Field day is only 90 minutes!

Playing Games

It has been raining here for about 2 weeks straight :( And the high hasn't gotten out of the 50's :( We've been stuck inside for too long! I'm wearing 2 sweaters right now and turned the heat up. This weather is not normal for June, even in Seattle!

Since we were stuck inside again today I was playing some games with my 4 year old. When I got up to check my email and asked if I would lay down on the couch and take a nap with him. He got his bear, his blanket, his stuffed whale and a pillow. We cuddled on the couch for about 20 minutes. I started to fall asleep and suddenly he jumped up and told me that nap time was over! No fair! I told him that I was still tired so he tucked me back in with his blanket and his bear and his stuffed whale and his pillow. I fell asleep, but not for long. My 4 year old wanted to play with his hot wheels cars and decided to use me as the race track! So while I was trying to take the nap that he promised, he started pushing cars up and down my back. I think I was tricked. He told me we were going to take a nap just so that I would lay down and he could use me as a race track.

Disappearing Ear?

In case you missed it, my 4 year old had a bad cut on his ear and we had to go to the ER where they put glue on it. More than 2 weeks have passed now and the glue is just starting to peel off and the scab is going away. When I gave my son a bath last night I checked behind his ear and told him that "the boo boo is almost gone." Later I heard him telling his older brother, "My ear is almost gone now."

When did this happen???

I really have no idea who this happened. It seems like just yesterday my 4 year old fell backwards and hurt himself and now he tells me that he is a big boy and no longer needs the side rail on his bed to keep him from rolling off the bed during the night. He had been saying that he didn't need it anymore for a while. But I didn't believe him, he's only 4 after all. I told him that after his grandparents left I would take it off and he remembered! How could he remember that I said that when he can't even remember to flush every time?! I really thought that would make him forget about it and I could wait till he was at least 10 or 12 to take the rail off the bed. But he did remind me, so I had to take it off this week as promised.

I put a pile of pillows on the floor next to bed thinking that surely he was too little and he would roll off the bed. Then I would be able to but the rail back on again. But no! He went all week without rolling off the bed and finally I had to get rid of the rail permanently!

What happened to my baby?!?! And don't you just hate when the kids are right and you are wrong?!

What I learned in Kindergarten

Yesterday I helped out in my son's kindergarten classroom. The kindergarten classroom next to his had some papers hanging on the wall that the kids made. The papers were titled, "What I learned in kindergarten." Here are a few of my favorites:

I.lernd.how.to.rite

I lrnde hot to red

I lrnd how to reed.

I lrnd letters.

I lrnd to read.

I lernd singing.

I lrnd how too bee the best lin leedr.

I lernd evethig.

Those were so cute!

Also, just to keep updated, the corn cupcakes we made yesterday didn't win any prize in the cake contest :( We'll have to come up with something even more painstaking clever for next year!

Look what we made!

Aren't those cute?! I made the cupcakes today and helped the kids decorate them with jelly beans to look like corn. The butter is really a yellow starburst and the salt and pepper are made with black and white sugar crystals. I found this in a magazine a while ago, but I don't remember which one. I'm not that creative on my own!

We made them because my kindergartner's school is having a cake decorating contest tomorrow. Then the cakes will be sold at the school carnival tomorrow night. He really wants to win a prize. Now I just need to figure out how to transport these :S

Good News and Bad News

I got a "letter" from the county Tax Assessor's Office today. I always hate getting these in the mail. It's never good news. It usually means that you'll end up paying more money soon.

This time there was a chart that has 2 columns. One had the value of my house and land in the 2007 and the other column had the value of my house and land in 2008. It took me a minute to realize that the chart was trying to tell me that the value of my property decreased by 4%. I guess that's not really too bad considering the national housing market right now. But still, I wasn't planning on re-evaluating the economy this afternoon. I was still trying to figure out what to make for dinner when this appeared in front of me.

So after getting a little depressed that I'm out 4% of something I never really had to begin with, I started to think about what it means to me... That must mean that my taxes will be going down! So I was happy for a moment. A very slight moment. I didn't remember seeing any mention of my taxes in the "letter." So I pulled it out again and reread it. Sure enough it didn't mention anything about my tax rate. So I was right the first time, these "letters" are never good news. Basically it said that my house decreased in value but I'll still owe the same or maybe even more taxes this year. Now can someone please pass the rum?!

Love Those Leftovers

It rained all day today. Ok, so it may be Seattle but still, it's not supposed to rain here in June! Yes, it rains September through April and we all just smile and accept it. But it's June 3rd! and I wore a sweater all day! And turned the heat on! and still wanted some hot chocolate! This is crazy!

Ok, enough about the weather. I have some good news. Today I made leftovers for dinner. Yes, I can hear the grunts and moans coming from the peanut gallery over there (I got that peanut gallery saying from my mom. She's the old one, not me.) . The good thing about these leftovers is that I didn't make them in the first place. My husband cooked dinner on Sunday! And he made enough for 2 dinners. So I didn't have to cook dinner twice! Isn't that great?! Aren't you all just jealous! Don't get too jealous. This is a once a year phenomenon... actually I don't think he made dinner in the last year, maybe this is once every 2 years like the Olympics. Anyway, I was happy not to have to cook dinner tonight or on Sunday. Instead I spent the rainy afternoon baking and decorating sugar cookies with my kids and 2 of their friends. After that nightmare fun was over I had a nice rum and coke to go with those leftovers ;)

What's Wrong with my Baby?!

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while. The in laws just left this weekend and I'm just starting to get back to "normal." The kids (and maybe us grown ups too) got so spoiled the last week. You know what they say, it takes two weeks to undo each week spent with the grandparents! My 4 year old was especially whiney and bossy today. I guess he liked being the center of attention all last week. He yelled at me for not bringing the car to the bus stop! And that was how my morning started...

I have a funny story to share about my sister. She lives in Michigan and is 2 years younger than me. Even though we're thousands of miles apart, we're still as close as ever. Her son is just over a year old. Last week he was sitting is his high chair eating dinner when all of a sudden his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell face down on the tray. My sister panicked and called 911. An ambulance came and rushed them to the hospital. The baby had woken up but they thought he had a seizure.

At the hospital they did some tests to see what was wrong and why he had a seizure. But all the tests came back normal. After a few hours one doctor came to my sister and told her the bad news. The baby had fallen asleep at the table. She panicked because her baby fell asleep at the table! Yes, that's what happens when you become a mom, you panic and think the worst of things. I'm not sure which is funnier, that she had to call an ambulance because the baby fell asleep or that the baby was so lazy that he fell asleep eating his dinner! Just glad it wasn't me or my baby because you know I may jump to conclusions at times too ;) Remember that time my son had mad cow disease?!