The visitor

Yesterday, Daddy got the kids home from school. They were playing in the back yard while Daddy did a little yard work. We don't have a screen door on our slider and Daddy saw a little bird hop into our kitchen. Daddy watched the bird, hoping that she would just fly back outside. She didn't. She flew into the living room towards our bay window.  Don't mind the mess on our windowsill, but if you zoom in you can see the bird by the corner of the window next to the headphones. 

Daddy called the kids inside so they could see the bird up close. The kids came inside just as Daddy was able to catch the little bird. Gillian took a quick picture of her. 

The little bird didn't like being held and she squirmed away from Daddy. As she flew up in the air, she pooped on Gillian! The bird flew around the kitchen and then out the back door. 

The kids and Daddy were so excited to tell me about their visitor. Gillian kept shouting "And the bird pooped on me!" I just love that it was a female Cardinal that came to visit. Thanks for visiting!

Robots

John is reading a new book series called "Nick and Tesla."  They are eleven year old twins that solve science mysteries.  This month's book report for John's class has to be a mystery book.  We were very happy that John was able to read one of these books for his report.  Book reports for John's class normally involve some sort of special project to go with it.  This time, they have to take a shoe box decorate the outside and then put five objects that go with the book inside.  John read "Nick and Tesla: Robot Army Rampage" for this report and in the book they actually give directions on how to build the robots in the story.  John and Daddy spent some time and built two of the robots. 

The first one they made last weekend.  He is a friction robot made with some parts from Radio Shack, a paper clip and the head of a tooth brush.

They made the second robot yesterday.  He is made out of a computer fan, wire hanger legs and some other parts from Radio Shack.

The bug

Last night, we put the kids to bed. But it didn't take long before Gillian was out of bed and standing in our room. She said "There's a bug. A little bug." Neither Daddy or I said anything. So she kept talking. "Well not a little bug. A medium bug. On my flower." Daddy went with her to investigate. He came back and said "There was nothing there. But I got rid of it." Daddy saved Gillian from the medium bug. 

Wool socks

Daddy loves wool socks and on occasion I borrow them. On Saturday night, I went to check on the kids after they were in bed awhile. Gillian was sound asleep. John was not. Before I could lecture him, he said "I know. I should be asleep. But my feet are so cold." So I bent over and pulled off my socks, well Daddy's wool socks that I was wearing. I put them on John's cold feet. He was so happy. And he actually wore them all night long. 

Sunday night I helped him get dressed in his pajamas. When he was dressed he asked "Where does Daddy keep his socks?" I told him and he helped himself to another pair of Daddy's socks. He loves those socks. 

The Mug

Every year we give John money to buy Christmas gifts at the holiday shop at school. This year we did the same thing for Gillian. The gifts are normally nothing special, but it teaches them responsibility and they love picking out gifts. Gillian brought her gifts home and wanted to wrap them up immediately. We had John help her. Later that day, we all went shopping in Target. While we were there Daddy saw a display of mugs and said "You know the one thing I really want for Christmas is a new mug. But I don't think anyone will get me one." And he walked away. The kids stopped me. Gillian was grinning from ear to ear. She said "I got Daddy a mug! It's the one thing he wanted. And I got it for him!" She was so excited! John grinned too. Daddy later confided in me and said "I saw the kids wrapping my present." I said "You shouldn't tease her." He said "I'm not. Did you see her face? She was so excited!"

Daddy's birthday is a few days before Christmas and it presented another opportunity to talk about Daddy wanting a mug. At dinner one night, he said "I guess I'll have to use my birthday money to get a new mug for Christmas. I really want a new mug, but no one got me one for my birthday." Gillian smiled and said "Wait until after Christmas." Then she leaned over to me and whispered "I got him a mug! He only wanted a mug and I got him one!"

On Christmas Eve as I was tucking the kids in to bed, Gillian asked "Do we eat breakfast before we open presents?" I laughed "Is that because you want Daddy to have his mug right away?" She said "Yes!" I told her "Don't worry, we will make sure that Daddy gets his mug right away."

The next morning, the kids woke up and we headed right downstairs. The kids looked at all the presents and Daddy said "I would really like some coffee before we open gifts." Gillian ran to the tree, found her present and gave it to Daddy. He opened it up and he got his wish! A new mug! And Gillian made Daddy's wish come true!

Bad guys

Gillian knows that Daddy is a Probation Officer, but she is confused as to what he actually does. I explained to her that Daddy helps bad guys to be good. Tonight at dinner, she asked Daddy "What do you do if the bad guys stay bad?" He said "They go to jail." She then asked but "What do the police officers do?" He said "The police officers catch the bad guys and then they come to me." She said "But, but.." Daddy laughed and said "Gillian, there are two separate but equally important parts.." He didn't get to finish because I was laughing too hard. Poor Gillian it's going to take a little while before she fully understands what Daddy does for a living. 

Civic Duty

Before Daddy went to vote this morning he asked John, "Do you want to come with me?" John said "Nope. I went last year!" 

Tonight when I got home, I asked John "Want to go vote?" He said "Nope!" But Gillian yelled "I wanna go!" She put on some boots and we headed out to vote. On our short walk, I explained to Gillian about voting and how it is important to vote. She said "But police officers make sure we follow the rules." I said "Yes, but we get to vote for the people who make the rules. It's very important." She said "And it's fun!" We went in the firehouse and stood in line to vote. She was so excited. I had her come in the booth with me. She didn't touch anything, and constantly asked "Are you done yet? Did you vote?" Finally I was done and she got to push the button to submit my votes. And we walked back home. On our walk, we talked about voting and then we skipped the rest of the way home. 

Book Report

John's class has a book report every other month. For October, they had to read a book and make one of the characters out of a pumpkin. John read one of the "Captain Underpants" books for his report. Daddy and John worked really hard on the written part as well as the pumpkin. I think Captain Underpants looks awesome!

Feety jammies

Daddy laid out feety jammies for Gillian last night. When I went to tuck her in, she was not happy. I said "Look at you in feety jammies!" She said "I don't like feety jammies. They're hot!" I tried to make it better, and said "It's cold tonight, you will want to be warm." She wasn't happy but she didn't make me change them. 

This morning when she woke up, Daddy asked her "Do you like your feety jammies?" She said "No. They hurt and they are hot!" 

We are a little sad. This may be the last time she wears feety jammies. Our little girl is growing up. 

Entertainment

Daddy spent the afternoon power washing the back of the house and the deck. And Gillian spent at least a half hour watching him. She stood at the back slider and watched him clean. Daddy would tease her and spray the slider door with water and she was flinch as if the water was really going to hit her. Daddy's hard work turned into entertainment for Gillian. 

And yes, she is wearing her Easter dress. We told her to get dressed and this is what she picked out. 

Reveille

Daddy woke the kids up with Reveille this morning. He went into John's room with Reveille playing on his cell phone.

John woke up and said "I'm up. I'm up. I'm up. Dude, I said I'm up!" Next he went to wake up Gillian. She didn't even open her eyes, she just flailed around until she knocked Daddy's cell phone out of his hand.

I asked the kids if they liked how Daddy woke them this morning. John said "NO! Who even likes that song?" Gillian said "It was disgusting. We didn't like it!"

The Catapult

What do you do when you build a catapult at camp during your woodworking elective?  Well, in our house, you plan a sneak attack on Daddy with marshmallows. 

We even had Gillian help with the attack!

Great Wolf Lodge

 John decided this year to not have a birthday party with his friends.  Daddy and I offered to take him on an adventure in lieu of having a party.  We planned a surprise trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  John is a lot like Daddy and hates surprises.  So he requested a few clues to help him guess our destination.  We told him: 1) it was some where we have never been, 2) we would need a bathing suit, 3) it would take awhile to get there, 4) we would have to pack.  John guessed right away.  He said "I think Great Wolf Lodge. Cause we never been there and you need a bathing suit.  Daddy said we would be a pack, and wolves live in a pack!"  I was shocked.  I didn't know he had heard of Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) before.  I asked him how he knew of that place.  He said "I heard it on the radio."  I tried to play it off like I had never heard of GWL.  He didn't give it up.  Any time we talked about his birthday adventure, he would mention GWL.

We left on Thursday and headed to GWL.  As we pulled in the lot, John immediately said "I knew it!"  

At check in, John received wolf ears with a built in birthday hat.  He also got a special wristband that said he was a birthday boy and he was able to get free ice cream for our entire stay.  I was worried that the ears would cause drama with Gillian, but she didn't care.  And John actually let her wear them too!

We scoped out the lodge and set the kids up to play MagiQuest. MagiQuest is an interactive game played throughout the hotel. To play you need a special wand. Gillian chose a pink wand with a unicorn topper and John had a brown wand with a red dragon topper. 

Then we hit up the water park. We checked out the pools, the kiddie slides, the lazy river and then headed to the big slide. Gillian was just tall enough to go on the big slides with a parent of course. We read all the signs and headed up to the slides. As we approached the platform, I realized that we were in line for a big slide with what we like to call "a toilet bowl." I tried to convince the attendant to let us go on another slide. It didn't work. So the kids first big slide spun them around and basically scared them. Gillian hated it. She was so angry at me for taking her on that slide. It took a little while to convince her to go on another slide. But when we did, she fell in love. And that's where we spent majority of the rest of the afternoon. 

We went back to the room for a little bit and the kids were excited to find a tent! It was their own little room with bunk beds and their own TV. 

We played more MagiQuest and ate a late lunch and then headed back to the water park. We timed that well because while most people were eating dinner we were enjoying short or no lines on all the big slides. John and Daddy checked out a really big slide. All four of us also got to go on one big slide together. 

We watched a show in the lobby. Gillian loved it. John just wanted to get back to MagiQuest. 

The next day we spent more time in the water park and John attempted to finish his MagiQuest. 

We didn't get a lot of photos of our adventure, but I did get this video of the kids and Daddy on one of the water slides.

The Battle Bot

Daddy introduced John to BattleBots.  Since then, John has been designing a Bot in his mind.  Today he drew it out and I got him to describe it for me. 

I love how he took what he learned in the first show and applied it to his bot.  After the video (while I cleaned up the glass he knocked over), John also explained to me "the ultimate weapon."  Basically, the ultimate weapon is when all the bot's weapons activate at the same time.  He is currently working on a name for his bot.  Got to love his imagination. 

Gillian's Preschool Graduation

Gillian's Preschool Graduation was on Tuesday last week.  She was very excited to graduate and was up bright and early that morning.

Daddy and I dropped Gillian off at school and we were able to get front row seats for graduation.  TLC combined the Kindergarten and Preschool Graduations, so there was a lot of kids.  Graduation started with the kid marching in and lining up.  Once everyone was lined up, the kids introduced themselves.  Gillian proudly said her name loud for everyone to hear.

After the graduates introduced themselves, they sang Phil Collins' "On My Way."

Next we said the Pledge of Allegiance, and the kids sang "My Country Tis of Thee."  The graduates then sang "Over the Rainbow."

The Kindergarten kids also read "Pete the Cat" while the Preschool class said the refrain.  I didn't get video of that, but the kids did an awesome job!  After the story, it was time to present the diplomas. 

Gillian accepted her diploma proudly.  She also went back in line and clapped for each and every one of her classmates.  Then the kids recited a poem and then they sang "The World is a Rainbow."

They finished off the graduation by singing "It's a Small World."  And we also got to watch a slideshow of pictures from this past year. It's amazing to see how much they have grown.

I'm so proud of our little girl.  She is going to do awesome in Kindergarten next year!

The Riddle

Tonight at dinner, John said "Wanna hear a riddle?" Daddy and I both said "Of course!" John says "What house has no doors and no windows and a star in the middle?" Daddy and I looked at each other. Both of us were clueless. Daddy said "John, I don't know." He said "An apple. Cause when you cut it in half it has a star in the middle." Daddy and I just stared at each other. And then Daddy said "But an apple isn't a house." John didn't miss a beat and said "It is for a worm!"

Typing

Yesterday Gillian discovered the typewriter in our office. Yes, we still have a typewriter. We actually thought the ribbon had dried out, but Gillian showed us that all we needed to do was repeatedly hit one key. She got it working and had a blast typing her name and a bunch of random letters.

When we got home and told Daddy all about it, he laughed and said "I used to do that when I was little." Some things just go full circle. 

Car wash

This afternoon, Daddy asked me to dress the kids in there bathing suits. This resulted in a lot of questions. "Are we going to a pool?" "Why do we need our bathing suits?" "Why don't you have one on?" I sent them to find Daddy. I finished some chores in the house before I went outside to find them.

They were having a blast! They scrubbed Daddy's car. 

They moved to my car next. 

John's favorite part was using the hose. Well, John really enjoyed spraying Daddy and Gilly. That was Daddy's favorite part too. 

Daddy had two helpers and the kids had an awesome time!

In disguise

Tonight at dinner, Daddy was playing with a Transformer toy. He held it and asked "What is this?" I said "It's a Transformer." Daddy stared at it for a little longer, and then said "Yea, but what is it?" I started to explain that it was from McDonalds, when John said "You know, robots in disguise."

Yard work

John and Gillian helped Daddy with the yard this weekend. Their primary job was picking up sticks. John was an excellent helper. He took Daddy's garden cart around the yard and would pick up the sticks and put them in the cart. Gillian was an okay helper. She got easily distracted. Yesterday when they were supposed to be picking up sticks, she picked me a bouquet of flowers instead. 

Today they finished their task and then helped Daddy spread mulch too! John was telling Daddy a little while ago, "I wish the garden cart had a tool that would pick up sticks when I drove over them." Daddy smiled and said "I have a tool that picks up sticks." John said "You mean me, don't you?" Smart boy.