Amanda was the "Bee in the Spotlight" today...

We visited Amanda's class today and watched as she shared many of her favorite pictures and toys with the rest of her class. She really enjoyed playing the teacher and answering a lot of questions from her classmates and teacher. She got to introduce her Dad to her classmates too for the first time. She was so excited!!!

The whole time Amanda was sharing with us in her classroom, Nate was wallowing in misery in the van. He called us several times to make sure we knew that he wanted to go home. He has strep throat and is the third member of our family to get it in the past month. He's feeling better tonight after a dose of antibiotics, but it's going to be a long weekend...

And Nicole was, well, being Nicole. She was happy as could be reading her book after she came home from school. She has finished the whole Sister's Grimm series (4th-5th grade level books) and is now working on Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (level 5.5). She's almost done with it now and is moving onto something else. I just can't even keep up with her right now! Did you notice her missing teeth? She's finally starting to lose teeth and she's almost 8 years old!!! Better late than never I guess.

Our Science Day...

We had the Cub Scouts come over today to earn their Scientist badge. John set up experiments to demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle, Pascal's Law, and Newton's first law of motion. Don't ask me what those are about because I'm definitely NOT the scientist of the family. John and Nate really enjoyed it though, and I suspect they ARE scientists at heart. The other Cub Scouts enjoyed it too. The best part is that they earned another badge to add to their uniforms.

The moms and I enjoyed chatting while John and another dad led the boys through the experiments. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I might have forgotten to take the camera out to get some shots of the boys performing the experiments. Just picture six boys and two dads using air, water, and heat to perform science experiments. It was great fun!

What a small world...

Yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the grocery store by myself to pick up dinner and I had to share my experience while I was there. As I made my way through the store from one end to the other, a woman with two children was right in front of me pretty much the whole way through the store. She had two little girls that were about 3 years old, one was in the shopping cart and the other was following behind the cart. The one that was walking kept throwing things from the shelf into the floor, screaming loudly when Mom wouldn't buy what she wanted, and just generally acting out badly. Many shoppers quietly commented how the mom should be able to control her children or just stay home. The mom kept saying how sorry she was and her cheeks kept getting redder and redder. I just smiled at her and told her how beautiful her children were and kept slowly plodding along behind her. When we finally reached the last aisle and it was just me and the mom, she turned around to me and told me her story.

Apparently, the child that was in the shopping cart was her 3 year old niece who just happened to be two months younger than her own little girl. For reasons beyond her control, the little girl had recently come to live with this woman's family and it had really had a drastic affect on their lives. She said that her little girl had NEVER acted out like that before, and she just wasn't sure how to change her behavior. The little girl kept asking her mom over and over again "And I get to go first, right Mom? Me first, right Mom? Can I please go first Mom?". She seemed desperate to be the one and only child again.

The woman told me that she felt horrible that total strangers were thinking such bad thoughts about her and just wanted to explain her situation. I told her that I understood, and the reason I understood is because my niece is going through a similar situation with foster parenting. It's amazing what you can find out if you just take the time to smile and sympathize with someone who seems to be having a tough day. I just wanted to thank my niece Stephenie for making me open my eyes to other people and to keep an open mind instead of instantly judging. I hope other people will take the same approach in their interaction with others. It can make a huge difference in the other person's life to have at least one positive interaction on such a miserable day.

Starlight Beach Walk...Brrrr!!!

Tonight we took all three kids on a starlight beach walk to take advantage of the extremely low tide. Mind you, it was pouring down raining and about 39 degrees all day so it did not look promising for us. I am glad we stuck it out though because the rain cleared away, the moon and the stars came out, and we had a wonderful time!

We found sea stars, huge crabs, sea sponges, bats (yes, I did say bats!), sea worms, kelp, and many more treasures to look at and touch but leave in their natural habitat. BTW: We did NOT attempt to touch the bats! They were hiding very nicely underneath the ferry terminal piers and we left them there!

After we were done exploring the dark and mysterious (that's a spelling word for Nate today!) beach and pier, we went back to the Beach Nature Station and enjoyed hot chocolate with the rest of the Cub Scouts and their siblings and parents. Nicole was cold, very cold by the time we were done, but everyone else was suprisingly warm and content. What a perfect outing!!!

My twin readers...

Both of my girls really like to read. Amanda favors horse or animal books of any kind, and Nicole favors HUGE chapter books (think 4th grade level and above). They have very different reading styles.

Nicole will read anywhere, anytime, and any place she finds. She doesn't need anyone to read to her and frankly you'd probably read too slowly if you DID try to read to her. In the picture, she was out riding bikes with her sister and brother and never even noticed that they got bored and came inside. She sat on that recycle tub for over an hour reading book five in the Sisters Grimm series.

Amanda would prefer to read with someone else but only on her schedule (right before bed like Ms. Hodo told her to do) and only for the 15 minutes Ms. Hodo told her to read. Then she's up and running. She doesn't finish many books and that's okay with her.

I can't seem to find my cable to be able to post the picture of Amanda, but she went to the library and read to a dog today and enjoyed every moment of it.

Nate is a story for a different day...

My Desktop

Here is a screen print of my desktop. I do NOT like autohide on the taskbar. I feel like it's being a difficult child when it disappears like that so you will always see the taskbar on my computer!

25 Random Things...

I've been wanting to do this for a few days now, but just never seem to have the time. Here goes:

1. I feel so lucky to have such a great family! I have three kids that are the cutest kids on the planet and a wonderful husband who is still my best friend after 20 years of marriage.
2. I've lived in eight different states throughout my life and I've found that the one I live in now is my favorite:)
3. I have two older sisters and a twin brother. One sister and my brother still live close to where we grew up. The other sister has temporarily moved to Singapore. We're still pretty close for having been separated for so long.
4. I love hiking, camping, and playing on the beach with my family. That might be one reason I love this state since there is plenty of opportunity for all three of those activities.
5. I am so busy that I don't even have a moment to breathe without three kids asking me why I'm doing it.
6. My kids are growing up way too fast! It seems like just yesterday that I found out I was having my first (which was 11 years ago next month!), and I can remember my preemies being so little and vulnerable that I was scared to touch them! Now they are the tallest in their respective classes.
7. Because I am so very busy, I don't have much time for ME!
8. I love taking pictures of my family, the scenery, and just anything in general. I don't generally do much with the pictures, but I still love taking them.
9. I miss my mom! I keep thinking that I need to tell her something and then I remember she's gone and I'm crushed.
10. I miss my big sister being here in the states. I know I can still talk to her but it's just not the same as being able to reach her in at least the neighborhood of the same time zone.
11. I love writing on this blog, but like many other things in my life, I don't have much time for it.
12. My family and I just started having a Wii Family Game Night every Friday night and we LOVE it! The kids wait with much anticipation for Friday nights and they are on their best behavior at school so they can participate.
13. Now that the kids are a little older and more self sufficient, my husband and I are trying to figure out a way to make more time for us. We're trying to plan a trip away, we have date night once a week at home and less frequently out, and we're just trying to make more time for each other every day.
14. My day begins with a bang at 6am every morning, and I don't stop running until 11pm at night. Does everyone else have such busy days?
15. I make lists every day of what needs to be done and promptly lose them.
16. My son is much smarter than me. That scares me!
17. I have a difficult time disrupting the routine of our house, which means that the kids don't have as many playdates or sleepovers as they would like.
18. My best friends still all go to the kids' old school. Most days I feel very alone at the school the kids go to now. I know it's the best school for them but I'm not sure it's the best school for me:(
19. I love that my kids are involved in Scouting. The girls are really making lots of new friends since they started in Brownies this year, and Nate enjoys being a part of the Cub Scout group. The activities they get to do are amazing!
20. I love to read, but like many other activities on this list I don't have much time for it.
21. My house is constantly in a state of disarray as we prepare for a new home improvement project. I'm looking forward to the day that we can say IT'S DONE! We are making progress, but still not quite there...
22. I love being home with the kids and being able to participate in fun activities, vacations, and moments with them.
23. I'm starting to lose momentum! This is harder than it looks.
24. The amount of laundry my family creates is amazing. I could do a load a laundry a day all week and still not get it all done.
25. I love being able to share these random things with my friends and family.

I hope this works. I spent way too much time on this activity. Now I'm late!!!