I Will Pull This Blog Over!

So this morning started with this excitement. And surprisingly, it continued for about 45 minutes, even after falling, and tripping, and being tackled. And since it was early this morning, everyone is in their pull ups (whether they need them or not, D has a new thing about being a "baby" but that's a whole other subject) and of course pants-less. K has an excuse- her pants are too long and she kept tripping on them. I am not sure what everyone else's excuse is.

A tested for his first belt in Kung Fu last week. He did awesome!! He was the only kid in his class who completed the test individually and he went first and had no idea what to expect (and for a kid with Asperger's that in and of itself is a huge accomplishment) The Master running the test called his name, and almost immediately after his bow Sifu Max (his teacher) grabbed him from behind for the first self defense move. A didn't even hesitate and got out from the grab. So now he is a (kids) yellow belt and he can't wait till he can test again. He wants Sifu Max to teach the new forms faster so they can test sooner.

Cause D sure tried during her baptism. She was quite the comedian and several people have come to me while I have been out in stores, the YMCA, the library to tell me how cute they were.

I pay for them to take drama lessons. These are their spring productions. A is the spider in James and the Giant Peach and X is the Prince in the Princess and the Pea. X was a shoo in for the role as he is the only boy in the class (which is becoming a theme with him)

We come home from an art show having promised the kids that if they stopped whining about how hot it was at the art show they could go swimming when we got home. They are in their suits within 30 seconds of walking in the door and are headed out (with the dogs) when we notice there is a duck in the pool. No biggie, they usually fly away when the door opens but then we see she is not alone. Eight very cute ducklings are swimming behind her as if they own the place. After about 10 minutes we realize they are quite comfortable and aren't planning to leave on their own anytime soon so B goes out to "encourage" them to leave. Of course, the ducklings, who had no trouble getting into the pool, are too small to get out of the pool. So B makes a step and a ramp and eventually out they go, only to walk to the outside of the pool fence and get comfy in the bushes WHERE THE DOGS CAN GET THEM. Now I can't think of much I would like to deal with less than one of those ducklings becoming part of the food chain in front of my kids. So we try to wait out the ducks. After about 30 minutes A comes in and says "you can let the dogs out, Dad says the ducks are gone from the bushes" I look out the door- the ducks are gone from the bushes because they are back in the pool!! So the whole "encourage them to leave" starts over and they leave the pool and go right back to the bush (ducks are not the smartest animal in the world) B decides it's time to really encourage them to leave so he gets Nevada (65 lbs) on the leash and out they go to motivate momma duck to take her babies elsewhere. Momma duck sees the dog coming and pretends to be injured flapping and flailing so that the dog follows her. Meanwhile the ducklings all run back into the pool. Finally though B did shoo them into our neighbors yard and they haven't been back since.

Our local Families with Children from China group provides year round classes for the children in various Chinese arts (music, dance, etc) D is in their version of "Mommy and Me". It is an introduction to some basic language, songs and for the last year or so X has attended the class sporadically as well. He was actually in the class last year. This year the children performed the things they have learned. D was all ready in her princess costume when the teacher realized it was only DW and one other child from the class and we weren't too sure that either of the girls were going on the stage willingly so the teacher recruited X and some other (slightly older) graduates to go up with the little ones to dance. So again, it was X surrounded by a bevy of Chinese girls. He was loving it- up there hamming it up performing to his favorite song from the class. (sorry there aren't more "group" photos to give the feel of the whole performance but I try hard to not post identifiable photos of other people's kids)

And since I just heard someone in the playroom say "X you can't fly" I am sure we will have lots of fun stories when we return....

Here are the pictures from A's NINTH birthday (I would have posted them sooner but they were playing hide and seek in my hard drive, the rotten little electrons).

Next year will be double digits (which sounds a lot more exciting when you are approaching the big 1-0 and not the big 4-0 like some other people here)

This is a book about the new favorite show in my house "Emergency"- yes the one from the 1970s. In a bizarre coincidence A had, not a few hours before opening the presents, said that he wished someone wrote a behind the scenes book about Emergency. Now if he could just wish I win the lottery.....