Friday, March 14, 2014

Spring ON

*Six new posts below - happy spring break reading! :)

My brother Alex came over for dinner the other night - here is part of a conversation.
Alex: So, spring break. Awesome. 
Me: Yep (sarcastically).
Alex: Oh, dude - your kids don't have school or anything. [pause] So, it's not like spring break. It's like spring on
Me: [hysterical laughing because he's so right]

We've actually had a good week - its been nice to be on a more relaxed schedule. Since spring break also coincided with springing forward into daylight savings it was nice to be able to adjust slowly and stay up late playing in the nice weather and sleeping in late. We've had a few fun playdates with friends (some planned, some impromptu), had cousins Blake and Bailey over for a sleepover (and Maggie and Rebecca went to Emmy/Boone's), saw the lego movie with the Murray boys and spent 2+ hours at the pediatric dentist (mostly in the waiting room) - the un-highlight of the week. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are some general spring highlights...some as far back as mid February.

Owen and Rebecca spent a sunny afternoon (in the middle of all of our weird snow/ice/cold rain days) making some sort of Star Wars themed art project. They worked together on it really well.
Here we are with school friend H at "the swing at the big tree" in our neighborhood. (My new strategy with playdates is I try to double up and have a friend of Owen's over at the same time as a friend of Rebecca's because then they each play with their friend and leave each other alone!) *Yes Rebecca is wearing her same pajama-clad warrior princess outfit she donned at the first soccer game.
Spring Owen-isms:
-starting to have very strong opinions about what we do and when - oh boy

-obsessed with playing a new (adult) boardgame we got called Pandemic (more on that later)

-likes to stand really close to Kyle or I while we're talking and thinks he's hiding (even though we know he's there) and then he yells that he's been spying and knows everything we've been talking about (which isn't usually a secret)...

Spring Maggie-isms:
Hanging upside down like the big kids
For some reason I think this picture is so funny I literally almost pee every time I see it - does it have the same effect on anyone else?
Tay pitur Maggie!!! Cheeeeee!!!!!!!
Pretending to be "nigh nigh" on the trampolien w/ me
Yes I did take a picture (or two) before I rushed over to rescue and scold her. She had a half gallon of milk in her hand. Ont milk.
We got Rebeca a big girl bike with training wheels and put Maggie on the red glider bike - she is still getting the hang of it but she likes it. She got up to the top of our driveway the first time, turned it around, looked right at me and said:
I go widdle bit weally fast. 
And then she took off down hill.
Beaming with pride in her own helmet (looks like a ladybug w/ eyes) that she picked because its red - her favorite color because she always gets it right.
Not in pictures but I don't want to forget:
-The best way to describe Maggie right now is that her little raspy voice says exactly what is in her brain at every single moment - its like a movie narration of what an almost 3-year old is thinking and doing (and thinking about doing). I seriously could bottle her at this age - I literally can't stand the cuteness sometimes.

-She loves love "doraboots" and asks for it every time we're in the car. I usually say no and so she says "no, Dora Boots" like she's turning them down.
-She learned this from them - she yells "we did it" every time she or we successfully do anything (that and a combination of "I did it" or "I do it" (an upgrade from Idoey) make up about 60% of what she says.

-She likes to tell other people about things we've said no to or about. She'll say (to Bee or Nana) - "draw o wall...momma say no" (disappointed) or "throw milk...daddy say no." At least we're getting through.

-She whispers to me. Heart melting. I started it by pulling her lose and telling her I needed to tell her something and then I whisper in her year - usually I love you Maggie or something like that. And her response has been to grab me and whisper into both of my ears (she has to do both sides) - but she just makes whipsery sounds, she doesn't actually say anything. But her sweet little sounds and breath right up against my cheek - it doesn't matter - I absolutely love it. It's one of my favorite thing ever. Ever.

-She actually calls Owen Owen (not Oweee anymore). She actually calls Rebecca Rebetta (not Bepbep anymore). This is both sweet and sad.

-She is obsessed with babies - Beau and Annabell (Amy-bell) are her favorites. But she prefers they both just be called Baby

-She can say pretty much everything but she is missing lots of consonants:
ousigh, uh-stairs, firefuh(k), onge, puhpuh, choochoo rain, stooh bus, wed...

-She rolled her tent off her bed one day last month (long story but I had taken the guard rails off for a night and not put them back on) -she laughed hysterically and said "Maggie fall down - funny!" - she says everything "fall down" when she or anyone else drops something.

-She is obsessed with my phone and its a constant (loosing) battle to keep it from her. Her favorite thing to do other than delete things and text gibberish to non-existent numbers in far away places is to "watch pitures Maggie" and take selfies. She also likes to say my name over and over again to Siri - I found her one day sitting in a corner in the kitchen with my phone saying "Ahsin Mezder" over and over again to my phone and cracking up because Siri was "confused" (isn't she usually?) and was talking back to her.

Spring Rebecca-isms:
Also pretending to be asleep on the trampoline (with Rose Princess).
 Selfies (makes me feel better about my double chin if she can have one)!

-Made a special valentine for her Daddy and taped it to his locker in the mud room (it had a zip lock baggie full of rocks and dirt because he likes being outside). The best part was she made it several days before Valentine's day and hid it in my desk and when I found it and asked her about it she told me her plan was to take it to his locker "while he's taking a snooze."

-Says she wants to be an Eegy Steegy Ologist when she grows up. Then she giggles. Not sure if its because she knows she's saying it wrong/funny or because she knows she doesn't really want to be one.

-Our littler sneakster crossed a line recently. Kyle went out to get some meet from his freezer (or just admire it) and the meat was not frozen. Figured out that the control in the fridge had been messed with and the temp for the freezer turned way up. Go back a few weeks - I went to grab a drink out of the fridge and noticed a bunch of cookie crumbs in the door of the otherwise very clean and almost empty fridge - didn't have time to investigate but thought it was weird. Well, we figured out (and got a confession) that our little princess had been sneaking cookies (leftover from my IF:Gathering event in early February - yuck stale cookies that I forgot were in a crisper drawer). She accidentally messed w/ the thermostat. We had a big talk about not only the fridge and garage stuff but also about sneaking in general. Seemed to get through. Then the next day she came in the kitchen in a tizzy asking me where the cookies in the outside fridge had gone??? Uh - why are you asking? Were you trying to sneak one? Crickets. Still made I through away the cookies...Ah, children. :)

Family Project?

This is what the freezer in our garage fridge looks like. This is the reason we have an extra fridge (in addition to a full deep freezer) in the garage. And now there is a new toy to go along with it...
 
Kyle bought a smoker - like a big one. And in true Kyle fashion this decision came only after months of internet research. And though he hasn't actually fired it up to smoke anything in it yet (that happens tomorrow for the first time) he has greased it down like a prize pig (with the kids' help) and charted (literally) the temperature variation in different chambers. He is basically an anesthesiologist for dead meat - tracking its vitals, adjusting different beeping things, how much fire and smoke and how hot. 
He even recruited a couple of helpers. Those are literal filthy rags they're holding.
Scrub-a-dub-dub you're getting a bath tonight.
Proud papa. And proud assistant #1. And proud bubble-blowing assistant #2.
Kyle watching the coals get hot.
Just checking it out up close.
Maggie upset about something smoker-related.
Tomorrow he's starting out with a pork shoulder and tells me he has to work up to brisket. If you're local you'll probably be invited to some sort of smoked-meat-soiree in the next weeks and months so we'll keep you posted...

*Each family at Owen's school is supposed to do a "family project" every year - we had thought ours would probably be chickens but that got put off until spring and now spring is here and we're not feeling very motivated (mostly because I was only ever side-line motivated and Kyle's motivation has been transferred to the smoker - at least temporarily). Sooo...this little activity may be our family activity.

Welcome Beau Luke

Our Mezger counterparts Luke and Melissa welcomed their fourth baby last week and we couldn't be more excited -sweet Beau Luke Mezger was born last Wednesday, March 5th. That brings the Mezger grandkid count to seven (not that Nana or Grandpa are counting). And starts to even out our boy-girl ratio by bringing it to 3 and 4, respectively. 

Kyle was working but on Thursday I took the kids to the hospital to meet their cousin. We caught Mel and he just hanging out (he was actually awake which was so fun) before Luke and Mel's mom brought their other three up to see Beau. 

Owen w/ his 2nd boy cousin
 
Rebecca and Beau (she just kept saying - ahhhh, so cute!!!)
Maggie was super excited to hold "Baby" too but I didn't catch a photo (she continues to insist his name is just "Baby" and not "Baby Beau"). And at the Mezger household the other day she got into a little squabble with cousin Blair because she kept insisting that Beau was her baby (not Blair's). 

Here are all of the kiddos - I think this is the first photo of all 7 Mezger grandkids. (Can you see how absolutely thrilled Blake is? I seriously can't imagine a little boy more excited about having a brother.)
*Luke was telling Blake how Beau would be his best friend one day - how sweet is that?
*Blake told Luke that Beau has more hair than Kyle - how true is that? :)

Reading Roundup Rodeo

The biggest defining thing about kindergarten (at least academically if not overall) has been learning to read. As a parent its been so rewarding to see the "light turn on" for Owen and reading start to happen. It didn't come without work - we're still making it through the 60 "readers" he is supposed to get through this year (reading each one three times with a parent by his side). We got a little extra motivation during the gammar school's 3-week "Reading Round-Up" read-a-thon. Each kindergartener's goal was to read 75 minutes each week (parents kept a log that got turned in and tallied for the class). That was easy to hit because it could include doing their readers as well as being read to. (It was funny to hear the older kids in our carpool recount all their reading round-ups - they remember them! They had fun stories about so-and-so trying to break a record and that's why they have caps now...) Anyways, the round-up culminated with the Reading Roundup Rodeo. I was the helper for Owen's class as we went through all the stations. His teacher was home ill but the sub was super sweet and I was so impressed with her!
The petting zoo - holding chicks.
The two kiddos in his class that I have gotten to know the best - D is in our carpool (isn't she the cutest little hipster cowgirl you've ever seen?) and H is Owen's best buddy at school - and it was his birthday!
Getting ready for the tug-o-war!
They knocked Mr. Gilliam (Regents Resident Farmer) to the ground!
Against another class - that rope went back and forth across the line so many times it really was a case of everybody wins.
Egg-in-spoon and barrel racing (not together)
Boys on a wall
And what's a rodeo without a cow paddy and rubber chicken toss???
And what's any party without an inflatable slide?
The class cowboys and cowgirls
My cowboy
*Oh, at the beginning of Reading Roundup Owen came home and started telling me all about it (not knowing I had read a handout on it) and explained that if they read 500million12 minutes Mr. Acton (head of grammar school) would have to sit on the roof for a whole day. But as he told me, his voice indicated he had a question. Come to find out he couldn't figure out why having the principal sit on the roof was an incentive. It left him wondering if they actually didn't want him to read - so Mr. Acton wouldn't have to be on the roof. ??? (We talked through it and he sort of got it. Then we got to school on Friday and Mr. A was indeed on the roof - coffee in hand, throwing candy at kids, yelling congratulations for meeting their grade and school-wide reading goals. Owen understood.)