Does This Make It All Worth It?

Conversations

Ella (hugging me with all her 3 year old might) : "You're my best friend, Mommy!"

Me (hugging her back) : "I'm glad Ella. I hope I'm your best friend for a long time."

Ella : "You'll be my best friend for seven minutes!"

Me (internal thought) : Most likely true, Ella.

It's Just Better Not To Look

If you are trying to quickly clean your house because you have company coming, and when you go to take the garbage out and find that is dripping water, and when you investigate further and find the above, along with a huge puddle of water, these might be some of your thoughts:

- Aaahhh! What is that? Why does it smell so bad?

- How am I going to clean that up?

- Why did I have to look?

- Is it too late to leave it for Wynn to find?

Where's A Phonebooth When You Need One?

This morning Carter couldn't find his glasses. He noticed this five minutes before he had to leave for the bus. After a frantic search with no luck I convinced him it would be okay to go to school without his glasses for one day and that he had to leave for the bus right now or he would miss it.

After he left I remembered that the last thing Carter did last night before going to bed was play on the trampoline. He wouldn't have left his glasses on the grass outside, would he? Sure enough, that's where they were. I looked at the clock and decided to make a mad dash to the bus stop - or mad drive, if we want to be accurate. Throwing Ella in the van and driving quickly around the corner, I handed Carter his glasses through the window just as the bus drove up.

As I drove away I admit I felt a little like a superhero, saving the day. I mentioned this thought to Ella, who quickly set me right, informing me I was not a superhero because I couldn't fly. She was clearly not impressed by my recent actions, which is the normal reaction I get from my children for my superhero activities, because yes, I think I save the day quite often around here. So I've decided I am left with a decision. Either my kids are good for me because they keep me from getting to conceited in my mothering, or I should don a cape to prove to them that I really am Supermom.

What's Going On There, Anyway?

Wow! That was a long April Fool's joke! Well, moving on...

Here's a little update on the folks around here:

Ella

Ella has decided to start picking out her own outfits so we sometimes leave the house looking like this:

I think she will work in fashion when she grows up...if she ever leaves my side. I asked her if she wants to go to preschool next year and explained she would go somewhere else and have lots of fun learning the alphabet and she told me no way and sung the ABC song to prove she didn't need any additional help in that area. Lately the only place she will independently go by herself, without bribes or lots of persuasion, is the babysitting at the Fred Meyer store. I really can't explain that one.

The other day she came up to me and asked me how baby birds fly. I told her the mommy birds teach them and they practice until they can fly. She said , "No Mom. They just wing it."

Ryan

Ryan recently had the puberty class at school, which seems to me to be some kind of huge milestone without any good way to celebrate. Wynn somehow convinced me that it would be a good idea for me to attend the parent preview for Ryan and he would go for the girls. It made some kind of logical sense when he was talking, since I already know all there is to know about girls, but I've never been a boy. Anyway, I thought I'd experienced all the embarrassment of puberty until I had to sit in a room surrounded by men I don't know and watch a movie with intimate pictures of developing male body parts, if you know what I mean. Sheesh! And now that I think about it, I don't really trust Wynn to keep up his end of the bargain. He has four years to come up with a good excuse to avoid the girl movie.

Here's a picture of Ryan dancing in a mosaic ensemble of dance explaining the different elements of creative writing. You have to love an arts school.




Maddy

Maddy celebrated her birthday during Spring Break this year. She had pancakes for breakfast and went to Red Robin for dinner, mostly so she could get sung to and get a birthday sundae. She still had room when we got home for ice cream cake though. Her special activity for the day was to go shopping with Mom. We went to Target and tried on piles of trashy clothes that Maddy picked out. No, we don't have the same opinion about what is appropriate for a 7 year old (we read the section on dress standards in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet a lot in our family nights). I let her pick out her favorite least trashy dress to buy and we both left pretty satisfied.


Doesn't that look good? I wish I had some right now.

Carter

I don't have much to say about Carter these days. He turned 9 in February and I've always thought the odd years were easier years with my kids. So far that's holding true for 9 and I hope it keeps up. Carter is a sweet kid.


Last Friday we went on a date to get a haircut and look at Legos. We had fun together and it was nice to be with just Carter. He usually prefers to spend his date nights with his dad, so it's rare that we go out together, just us two. Usually it's more like this:

Spring Break News

We just got back from visiting Wynn's family in Utah for Spring Break and I thought I'd quickly share some news. After years of resisting Wynn has finally convinced me to move to Utah. He interviewed at the hospital in Provo and was offered a job he likes so now we get to move! We haven't worked out all the details yet, but we'll probably let the kids finish school here. I thought they would be upset about moving, but everyone is really excited to be by their Sperry cousins. I feel bad about leaving just when Brad and Michelle are coming, but they have the Mosses, right?

Less Than A Thousand Words

I didn't take a single picture of Valentine's Day, which we did celebrate despite Wynn's annual suggestion that we just agree to skip it this year. We were lucky to have Dale and Kerri bring their family to visit for the weekend which made the long weekend a lot more fun, especially since Wynn was on call on Sunday.

Brad and Michelle came to visit too, and I didn't take any pictures then either. I also didn't take pictures of Maddy's class play performance. Anyone see a pattern developing? Anyone want to see another picture of the dog? I have plenty of pictures of him.