Hibbits Happenings

We all got light sabers in our stockings. The boys got red and the girls are blue. Mia is really good and can kill anyone quickly. It is amazing. I told Charlie about it and he nodded like he wasn't surprised. Then later he fought her and came back a few seconds later saying she had already killed him. :) Emma put a sticker on her light saber so that it is easy to identify. Justin was really offended that she would put a sticker on her light saber and wanted me to make her take it off. He said it wasn't a "real light saber" anymore. I love that he considers it a real light saber and that her putting a sticker on it somehow defiles it. I also love that she personalized it.

The kids were riding their bikes in front of our house with their friends. Emma ran in the house and said that a strange man was sitting in his car by our house- just sitting there!! We went outside, walked across the street about 10 feet from the car, stretched out her arm, pointed at the man's face, and yelled "there he is! There is the man sitting in his car by our house!" She looked back at me and said "I think his window is rolled down." I smiled put my hand on her shoulder and said "yes, it is, and that man is our neighbor. He lives at the house where he is parked." Emma shrugged and went back to play.

Emma: Mom, if you had to pick one girl in the whole world to be your favorite daughter who do you think you would choose?
Me: Hmm, Gwendoline.


We have a decoration in the kids' bathroom that my sister made. It says "Jesus loves you, but I'm his favorite." Emma looked at it the and told me that it was a lie. She wants to paint over part of the sign so that it tells the truth. :)


Mia told me she has another best friend at school named Paula. I have never heard of her so I asked if she was in Mia's class. Mia said no, she is in the other class. I asked if she was an imaginary friend. Mia looked at me with the cutest twinkle in her eyes and said "you are so silly!" I liked this reaction because I normally get a "Mom, you're not funny" from Justin.

Emma: I want to get something.
Me: It's bedtime; go to sleep.
Emma: I want to get something.
Me: (growl) no.
Emma: Wow, Mom. That was a pretty good growl. Now I want you to try it again and try to be really scary this time...go ahead...


A few weeks ago Emma was drawing some pictures. She drew a girl/horse. She wrote a caption that said "Emma, part girl part horse. Wild as the wind."

I am trying to decide which picture I want to send this year. What do you think?

I was late getting home from school today. The kids got home about two minutes before me. Justin called my phone to tell me they were home and the girls were fighting, particularly Emma. When I walked through the door Mia ran up to me and showed me bite marks on her arm. She said Emma bit her. Mia's arm was still wet. Emma was crying and Justin was telling me what Emma had done. I told Emma to cool down in her room.

After a little while I went to talk to Emma. She explained her side of the story. I mentioned the bite marks and Emma vehemently denied biting Mia. I called Mia and Justin into the room. Mia told her side. I asked when Emma had bit her. She said at the park. I asked how her arm was still wet when she got home. She said she had been licking her arm to make it feel better. Justin never actually saw any biting. I started to wonder...

Two stories. One truth.

I asked each girl to bite my arm. Then we compared bite marks to Mia's arm. Mia's teeth matched the bite marks. She was given another opportunity to fess up. She admitted to biting herself to get Emma in trouble. I think I am going to have to pay extra close attention to this kid.

I have a new food blog that I really like, http://www.melskitchencafe.com/. I have tried several recipes from it. Here is a review of some of her other recipes I have tried. Her stroganoff does NOT taste like stroganoff to me, but Charlie tells me that it is like the hamburger helper version (the kids liked it, but I stuck up my nose to it). Her homemade pizza dough is good too, but not our favorite. It actually tastes a lot like the pizza dough from Numero Uno, so if you like their pizza you should try her dough. Anyway, here are my favorites so far.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

from melskitchencafe.com

*Note: if you like extra sauce, double the sauce ingredients - pour half over the chicken and follow the baking directions in the recipe and pour the other half in a small saucepan. Cook the sauce on the stovetop at medium heat for 8-10 minutes until it simmers and thickens. Serve it on the side of the chicken.

*Serves 4-6

Chicken:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons ketchup

½ cup vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes so it is evenly coated with the sauce. Serve the chicken over rice.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping

from melskitchencafe.com

Base:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Cream Cheese Layer:

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup caramel sauce (homemade recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, two tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all the streusel topping ingredients and mix until crumbly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture is crumbly but combined. Press evenly into a 9X13-inch baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

While the crust is baking, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Then add eggs, one at a time and then the vanilla. Mix well. Pour over the warm crust.

Spoon the apple mixture evenly over the cheesecake layer. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the apples. Bake for 30 minutes until the filling is set. (I put a cookie dough scoop of each layer in a cupcake liner and baked 25-30 minutes. I liked the presentation better and it added some needed color.)

Cool the bars to room temperature. Drizzle with the caramel topping (or plate individual slices and drizzle with topping one by one).

Caramel Sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cups half-and-half or cream

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix butter, brown sugar, half-and-half or cream, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until thickened slightly. Add the vanilla and cook another minute to thicken further. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce into a jar. Refrigerate until cold. If the caramel sauce has cooled in the fridge long enough to harden, warm slightly before drizzling on bars.

The Best Sloppy Joes

from melskitchencafe.com

*Makes 8-12 sloppy joes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 onions, roughly chopped

2 ½ pounds ground beef

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2/3 cup smoky BBQ sauce (or whatever BBQ sauce is in your fridge)

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

8 to 12 rolls

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the beef and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat, until it is finely crumbled, the liquid boils off and the meat begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Drain the grease off the meat and onions. Stir in the tomato paste, and keep stirring until the meat is coated. Add the BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire, soy sauce, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. You can make the sloppy joe meat up to 2 days in advance and reheat it over low heat or in the microwave.

Wrap the rolls in aluminum foil and warm in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve the sloppy joes hot with the warmed rolls.

Charlie: I ran for thirty minutes on the treadmill yesterday.
Me: That is great.
Charlie: I am sore now. I ran for twenty eight minutes at 6mph, then moved it to 8mph, then 10mph.
Me: (burst out laughing) Sorry, I am just imagining what you looked like running that fast on the treadmill.

Yesterday, I was doing the girls' hair in the bathroom. I braided Emma's hair in two braids. Then she took a stretchy headband and put it around her head, over the braids (Rambo style). She smiled and winked at herself in the mirror. Then turned and walked out.

I was making cookie dough. I let each kid have one spoonful. Mia lingered in the kitchen. She asked for the mixer paddle. I said no. She asked for the bowl. I said no. Then she asked if she could lick my finger. I said no.

The kids cleaned their rooms this weekend. Emma finished hers and helped Mia. Later Emma came up to me and said "you know, Mom, when I was helping Mia clean her room I found your shirt on the floor. (Emma shakes her head sadly) That was not a very good choice."

When Justin has a test at school we always ask how it went. Regardless of how he actually did he will say "Great! It was so easy!"

This week I asked Emma how her test had gone. She said "I don't know." I asked what that meant and if the studying had helped her on the test. She said "Mom, I don't know how I did. I will have to wait and find out once I get my grade. No one ever really knows until they see the grade."

Mia excitedly told me that she was good at school "today". Um, is that opposed to every other day? Is it that bad that you have to announce your good days? No answer.

Emma was reading a book for school. She read out loud "every Sunday their dad played soccer." Then she commented "Oh, that is terrible. Wait, maybe he is Jewish." (yesterday she learned that Jews observe the sabbath on Saturday)

The kids were watching Megamind. At one point Hal says something isn't real "just like the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, and the queen of England."
Emma says "oh, he's wrong. I don't know about the queen of England, but the other two are real for sure!"

Maybe it's time to stop documenting their behavior.

First day to school was pretty good this year. The kids were all excited and they each got the teacher they wanted. Another bonus was that they each have a good friend in their classes. Our friend down the street has been hosting an annual pancake breakfast on the first day of school. It is a fun way to start the school year!

This is Justin's before and after pictures. He got braces just a few days before school started. We affectionately call him brace face and railroad. :)

Emma's room has been a mess for the last year. Or as my mom would say "it looks like someone bombed it!" I have repeatedly threatened her, then about once a month when I can't take it any longer I clean it and throw a few things away. This is supposed to be her incentive to clean her own room. Well, this summer has been worse than ever. I told her she couldn't have a play date with her friend, Jenna, until it was clean. Still didn't work. I threatened that I would clean it. I made her stay in her room until it was clean, only to have her stay in her room the whole day.

Today was my breaking point. She was stuck in her room until it was clean again, but this time she took Kitty from my room and put Kitty on her bed. Kitty, either really had to go potty or more likely was pissed at Emma, decided to pee on Emma's bed. Have you smelt cat urine before? I went in her room and said "Whoa, Kitty peed on your bed!" Emma said she had figured that out already. I took her mattress out, poured bleach, vinegar, and some other cleaner on it, sprayed it off, and it is drying. It smells much better; we will see how well it dries.

Then I headed to Emma's room with two trash bags. I said her actions tell me that she wants me to be the one to clean it. I threw away a ton of stuff, then set out all of her toys. She had to pick her favorite thirty toys. Everything else was getting packed up. That seems like a lot, but it was really hard. She tearfully handed over dozens of toys and donated a couple to Mia. Her toy drawers and box are nearly empty. I almost gave in and let her choose a few more, but I was strong. I kept thinking that she needed to learn a lesson- it needed to be tough- for both of us.

"Sometimes you are the best mom in the world! Sometimes." - Justin

Justin graduated from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Doesn't he look excited?













That's better.













Here is an update on the remodel. It is slow moving. By the time we are done we will basically have a new house since pretty much everything is being replaced. I am very excited about my new shower. It is huge!

















Here is the old bath/ new closet. No more holes in the floor! Yippee!

Emma let Mia borrow her shoes.
Mia: Thank you, Emma. You are my best friend!
Emma: Okay, you can leave now. And shut the door behind you.
Mia: Okay, and after church I will let you play with me.

Grandpa wanted the kids to go to a math center. It was really cool. The kids were not excited about doing math during the summer, but they had a blast. When we left they asked why I hadn't told them it was about science too. Science can be fun!

Emma was trying as hard as she could not to smile, but she couldn't help it for long.

We have a sewer leak under our house. At first Justin started complaining that his room was stinky. I went in his room and said "Tyler's (my little brother) room always smelt like this. It is a normal boy room smell." Justin and Charlie looked at me like I was crazy, but Tyler's room really did smell the same way. His feet are just wrong. Then a while later he started to get little sewer flies. Well, Tyler never had flies. We called the plumber.














They couldn't find the exact spot of the crack, but thought they knew about where it was. We would have to tear out our bathroom, so we decided to make the layout more functional. Here is the before. (Yes, it's fugly and original to the house. It was next on our remodel list anyway.)













The kids were excited to see us start a new project. Charlie and I started breaking through the concrete and digging down to the sewer line. The more we dug the more leaking we found. Then he had a business trip and left for a few days. I kept digging so the plumber could start fixing. We dug up our bathroom, the closet, the hallway, and finally the kitchen. Then they found more leaks under Justin's room, so now we are digging out and through the front yard. When Charlie was gone, I had been swinging a sledge hammer and shovel for hours. I sat down and cried. This was more than I had bargained for when I committed to do some of the work myself. After some much needed sleep and food it didn't seem so bad. Then I fell in one of the holes I had dug. I was trying to clean some walls and forgot about the gaping hole in my kitchen floor. I scraped up my leg and fell on my back. My kids ran to me and Justin yelled in a panicked voice "call 911!" That almost made me smile.. almost. Let's just say it has been a tough week.

Sometimes I call Mia "Fred". She calls my name and I answer "Yes, Fred?" We were at a store a couple weeks ago and this happened. She looked at me, then said what she wanted to say. Later, when we got home she calmly said "Mom, you know how sometimes you call me Fred? Well, it is okay when you do it at home, but when we are at a store and other people are there it embarrasses me." I am amazed at how well she can express herself sometimes.

I was driving my kids, Ashley, and her kids in my car. Emma asked for me to play Adele's song Rolling in the Deep. I said Dad had the cd, but we could check the radio because it is played pretty often. A few minutes later it came on and all of my kids started to sing along. Then Emma told Ashley that her voice is so good, it just blends in with the music and you can't even tell which voice is Emma's and which is Adele's. This is hilarious if you have ever heard Emma sing. If you have heard me sing, it is pretty close- except she puts her whole heart into it.

I walked into Emma's room and found this... I don't think this is how you clean your room, and it's creepy.

July had two special birthdays in our family. Mia came first, then Justin. Mia kept asking in her prayers for a "perfect birthday." That put some pressure on us, but she was happy in the end. She had a special girls' pampering day with her BFFs from school, Emma, and me. We had pedicures and went out for lunch. Then our family went to the movies for Cars 2. We had the grandparents over for dessert and presents. She was pretty satisfied with her birthday.

Two weeks later Justin had his birthday. We took the family to Wild Rivers. I might have had almost as much fun as the kids. I was nervous for a bit because I sent Charlie down the first slide, followed by the kids, then me. As I was going down I was tossed all over the place. I was thinking what did I do. I imagined Mia all beat up at the bottom of the slide, but when I popped out of the bottom Mia raced up to me almost screaming with excitement and asking what was next.

Charlie and I were able to go to England and France. My little sister, Ashley, lives in London and put up with us for awhile. We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of really cool things, but my absolute favorite part was getting Ashley all to myself, without having to share her with my other sisters. Now I miss her more than before. I can't wait for her to move back!

Here is a list of some of the things we did and places we went:
Tooting market, fish and chips, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abby, St. Paul's Cathedral, changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Bath, Wardour Castle, dinner in a pub, Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower (twice), Louvre, Notre Dame, Catacombs, Luxembourg, lunch at Borough Market (YUM), The London Tower, and a double decker bus. Let's just say that our trip was jam packed.

Mia lost her first tooth. In our house the tooth fairy brings gifts and money, usually books. Justin and Emma both lost their first teeth well into their first grade year. We didn't even know Mia's tooth was loose until right before it came out. Let's just say the tooth fairy wasn't prepared with gifts for her. Charlie was working late and she didn't have back up.

Mia walked up to me and smiled. I said it looked like she had a loose tooth. She hadn't noticed it. I said it would be ready in a couple days, but I could try to pull it if she wanted. She said no and left the room to get ready for bed. A few minutes later she came back and the tooth was sticking straight forward, about to fall out. I pluck it out. She loved it. She screamed with excitement and said it didn't hurt to lose teeth. She called Daddy and told him to come home. She and Emma wrote the tooth fairy a note asking for pom-poms.

The tooth fairy came, but had just ran out of pom-poms. She promised to bring some next time. Then this morning Mia said her tooth next to the missing tooth was loose too. It was barely wiggling. Mia asked me to pull it out for her. I said it wasn't ready yet. She went in her room for a while and came back about 30 minutes later. She showed me that the tooth was getting looser. She had hit it with a chair in her room, then with a toy. I asked if she hit herself with a chair on purpose. She said "not on purpose, just to get the tooth out." She really wanted the tooth fairy to come back, and now she knows that losing teeth doesn't hurt (at least it doesn't hurt her.) I tried to explain that she shouldn't force her teeth out and pretty soon she would be out of teeth to lose. She decided to lose teeth in a pattern: lose a tooth, don't lose a tooth, don't lose a tooth, lose a tooth...

Justin's baseball team had their team party last weekend. We had a lot of fun and got to know all the parents better. There were three assistant coaches and a manager. Throughout the season I spoke mostly with the manager and his wife, the team mom. I barely spoke to the other coaches. When we left the party the coaches and manager were standing together. The manager gave me a hug, then stepped back. I turned to say goodbye to the coaches, but felt awkward because I didn't feel like I knew them well enough to hug them, but it was weird because I had just hugged the manager. So of course I voice everything I was thinking. There was an awkward silence that for some reason I felt I needed to fill. The more I spoke, the worse it got. I kept trying to stop, but the silence was unbearable so I kept going. "Sorry, I am not going to hug you. I am just not a hugger. It is okay that Robert hugged me, but I have a problem initiating hugs... I am okay with other people hugging me; I just don't hug other people...My parents aren't very touchy people. They hugged us and stuff, but we just are not touchy...I feel really awkward... I am just awkward and weird, okay?... Goodbye." It even hurts to type it.

Emma: Humans are animals.
Mia: I know. We are mammals. Mammals are animals.
Me: What is a mammal?
Mia: They are warm-blooded; birds are cold-blooded just like reptiles. (birds are warm-blooded)
Emma: Mammals also don't lay eggs, except for platypuses. They are mammals and lay eggs.

Not bad for a five year old and eight year old; mostly correct anyway.

So my parenting has been a little sub-par lately. I must be distracted. Yesterday I packed the lunches for the kids and sent them to school. When they got home Justin asked who had made his sandwich. He had two pieces of bread and nothing between them...Oops.

Our elders LOVE Mia. They keep telling me that she is perfect. They say she is the most obedient little girl and just too sweet. Don't get me wrong- I love that kid. I agree that she is sweet and practically perfect, but obedient? No way. Here are two example just from yesterday.

1. I lined up the kids and asked who had been drawing on the bathroom mirror with a toothbrush. Justin and Emma both said "not me!" Mia just looked around and giggled nervously.

2. Mia came home from school and told me that she had been silly at school with Christine. They planted a raisin tree. I stopped her and asked if she really buried the raisins I had put in her lunch. She looked up at me and said she didn't feel like having raisins.

Mia: At school, we watched a butterfly movie. It had a bird that ate a butterfly. It was very sad. I love butterflies and I love nature. Birds eat butterflies because it is what they eat and it is part of nature. But that nature makes me sad.

Sometimes we call Emma our rule follower. She wants to know all the rules and tries to follow them exactly. Emma brought home yet another terrific tiger award from school. She brings home at least one or two a week. I jokingly asked if she was cheating and making her own papers to bring home. She looked offended and said she is not allowed to do that! Then she went on and on about how she tries really hard to be good and obey. She said that when she gets more and more terrific tiger awards she knows that she is getting closer and closer to being ready to go to heaven.

I love my Justin. He is such a sweetheart, and maybe a punk sometimes too. He heard kids making fun of one of his friends at school and calling him names. He told them to stop and tried to make sure his friend didn't hear. Then he went to the teacher and threatened to take it to the principal if it didn't stop. He was hurt and offended for his friend and wanted to protect him. He didn't understand why people would want to be mean to such a nice kid.

Emma has been working on a zebra report. Most of it is done at school, but she also has been working on a diorama at home. As we put the finishing touches on her homemade zebra we set it in the diorama. She looked at the zebra, then at me and said "you know I am getting graded on this, right?" I guess we have more work to do.

I asked Mia to shut the fridge. She said "you forgot the jelly- yo!" When did my five year old pick up street slang?

Mia: Mom, I want those! (frosted animal cookies)
Me: No
Mia: I want those for my birthday.
Me: Okay, when it is your birthday,
Mia: Mom, I want cheese puff balls for my birthday too.
Me: Okay
Mia: What if I forget about it when it's my birthday?
Me: What if we both forget?
Mia: Then...we're DOOMED!

Emma: Sometimes I want to be all by myself with no children around.
Me: But you are a child.
Emma: Not a lonely one!

Today, Mother's Day, Emma asked if she could drink some distilled water. I said that I had bought that special water to clean some electronic screens, but it probably wouldn't kill her if she drank it. (I think I'm funny.) She looked at me and thought before saying. "Um, how about you take a drink first?"

Justin has been on a roll lately. Last week someone let gas and he sat up straight and while slowly tipping over exclaimed "someone poisoned the waterhole!" It was hilarious. Perfect delivery. Then a couple nights ago he was teasing Charlie about his throwing. I was laughing at his comments until he said "you're almost as bad as mom." Then I stopped laughing and Charlie started.
Today Justin said "Dad, you're as lazy as me. Ouch. Ha ha ha." Um, hilarious, but not sure he gets it.

Mia was in the talent show for school. One of the performances of the night was a dance to "Let's Get Physical." It has been stuck in our heads ever since. The kids keep singing it around the house. Charlie and I tell them that it is not a song they should be singing because it is inappropriate. One day Emma replied "but I really do want to get physical." Charlie stifled a laugh.

Over the last few months Emma and I have had this conversation a couple times. The most recent was yesterday. It always goes like this:

Me: Bye, Em. I love you; be good for Dad.
Emma: Goodbye, Mom. I will always love you. You are the best mom I have ever had. I will never forget you.
(awkward silence)
Me: Um, thanks. I sure hope you never forget me. You do know that I am coming back, right?
Emma: Yes, I just want you to know that I won't ever forget you and I will think about you for the rest of my life.
Me: Uh, okay.

Mom: Mia stop sucking your thumb.
Mia: How did you know?
Mom: I am a genius.
Mia: As much of a genius as me?
Mom: Sure... but you are pretty smart.
Mia: I am. Can you count to 100?
Mom: yes
Mia: Can you count to 2,000?
Mom: yes
Mia: Can you count to 100 100 1000?
Mom: That is not a number.
Mia: Oh, can you count to 99,000?
Mom: yes
Mia: whoa. Do you know what 5+5 is?
Mom: yes.
Mia: Do you know how tall a two story house is?
Mom: ha, ha yes.
Mia: Do you know how tall a tree is?
Mom: yes
Mia: Do you know how tall a branch on a tree is?
Mom: yes
Mia: Do you know how tall my picture of the cat in the hat is without looking?
Mom: yes, I think it is about two feet tall.
Mia: No, it isn't.
(Later, when we got out of the car.)
Mom: HA! It is two feet.

Friday, Mia came out of her kindergarten class and excitedly told me "Mom, I love you!!" ... "April Fools! Ha, Ha!!"

Mia came out of her kindergarten class a couple days ago with a brown paper bag. She excitedly told me that she was bringing home Wormalina! I called her Wormalinda and was corrected. I looked in the bag and found dirt, rocks, and grass. I told Mia that maybe we should let Wormalina stay at school so she could be with her family. Mia said she had made Wormalina a new family. I looked in the bag again and saw tiny strips of paper cut out in the shape of worms and colored in. I said that Wormalina would die if we kept her in the bag. Mia said she planned to let her out at home. I had a few more objections, but she had already thought up an answer to each. I convinced her to let Wormalina go. She had to pick the exact right spot to dump her out.

Then that same day, Emma came home with a plastic water bottle filled with dirt, grass, and a ladybug. I pointed out that ladybugs eat other bugs, which Emma hadn't included in the bottle. Emma didn't mind letting the ladybug die in the bottle, so the next day I let the ladybug out. When Emma got home she got really angry with Justin. I intervened just in time.

Justin came home from school really upset because Emma didn't listen and went in the crosswalk when he said to wait. She almost got hit by a car and every time he tried to tell me about it he would cry. Such a sweet brother. I guess I will be meeting them at the crosswalk from now on.

Then this morning, while eating breakfast, Mia looked at her older brother and sister. She said "okay, today, Emma, you need to wait at the crosswalk and pay attention to Justin. He will tell you when you can cross and not get hit by a car. And Justin, you need to keep Emma safe." Emma got mad and told her that she isn't the boss. (I'm sure my kids are the only ones that say that line.) Justin told Emma that she should listen to Mia because she was right.

Mia was playing at school today and found a worm. She held it in her hand and named it "Wormalinda." Isn't that a pretty name, Mom?
This kid has always loved bugs, rollie pollies especially, but this is getting ridiculous.
I love that when Mia said this Justin started lecturing her about the importance of washing her hands. :)

Mia and I were walking home from kindergarten a couple days ago. We turned down the green belt and had this conversation.

me: watch out for the dog poop.
Mia: eww, there are flies on it... You know that one fly is my friend- even if he does eat poop. You know there is a girl at school who is friends with a fly at school. That is weird! I am not friends with any flies at school.

Last night we received a phone call from Nielsen's ratings asking to survey an older child. Charlie put Justin on the phone and he attempted to answer some question about movies. Toward the end of the questionnaire then started to ask other questions. Justin told them he speaks english. Then he looked really confused by the next question. He looks at Charlie and asks "Dad, am I black or white?" Charlie calmly responded "you're white, buddy." I was so impressed by Charlie's composure. I was already in tears.

Mia is already planning for her birthday. She made this invitation for our neighbor, Susie. I am not sure Susie will want to come. Mia seems to be planning some crazy kind of party or is planning for an outbreak of diseases.

Here is our conversation:
Mia: I need to give Susie this invitation for my birthday.
Me: Your birthday isn't for a long time.
Mia: That is okay. I still need to give it to her.
Me: Wait- is that a picture of a kid throwing up?
Mia: Yes, it's Justin.
Me: Why is he throwing up? Wait- is that Toby pooping all over kids?!
Mia. Yes.

Emma's baptism was so nice. We had family and friends there to support her and show her their love. She was sweet and adorable. Here are her before and after photos.