Ruthless Chef Lennon

I walked into the kitchen innocently enough, but you wouldn't have thought that by the way Lennon shot me that accusatory glance. He was going through the pantry and had found my stash of disposable plates for lazy nights and kid parties. "These aren't yours Mommy. They're mine. You just thought they were yours, but they're actually mine. I need them for my kitchen and my restaurant, so I'm taking them. They're not your plates." "Fine. Whatever." I blurted out. What exactly had just happened here? What am I going to do in another couple of years when I am completely unnecessary to him? I walked out feeling slightly confused, but happy that he was entertaining himself. Ahh, motherhood.

Family Fun Day

We randomly declared today Family Fun Day. It was pretty cold this morning when we all got up (around 26 degrees!) so after we had pumpkin pecan pancakes and sausage we packed some snacks and headed out the The Museum of Science. As we were heading to the exhibit we all wanted to check out we passed by a competition that anyone could enter. It was a trophy stand building contest. You decided if you wanted to support a tennis ball, baseball, soccer ball, basketball or bowling ball and chose from among just a few possible building materials that included popsicle sticks of two different sizes, newspaper, rubber bands and tiny dowel rods. Each person also got a small cardboard cone. There was a minimum height for each category to even be considered. Mia chose to go with the tennis ball. The current winner had built a structure that was 69 inches tall. She decided after about 5 minutes of working that she did not want to try to win, she just wanted to build something that was at least 21 inches tall, which was the minimum for the ball she chose.

Her final trophy stand was about 29 inches tall and she came up with everything on her own. She had a little bit of help with assembly, but overall did it all herself. When she went up to test it the person behind the counter complemented her on it. She said she had seen so many of those today and that even though it wasn't that tall it was the most unique one she had seen all day. She was very impressed with Mia's creativity which really excited us. The structure did support the tennis ball as hoped and it also worked with the heavier baseball. We tried a soccer ball as well, but it was not strong enough to hold that much weight. Mia was really happy with her final project and we were so proud of her we were probably glowing.

When we finally pulled ourselves away from the Identity exhibit we realized it was already past Lennon's nap time so we just resigned to skip it today and all shared a big plate of spaghetti for lunch before having a couple more hours of fun at the museum.

After leaving we headed straight to the Red Box to rent The Princess and The Frog for our Family Slumber Party. Once dinner was done we popped some popcorn and the kids made the living room floor into one giant bed where we all snuggled up and watched the newest Disney movie. Everyone enjoyed the movie although Lennon barely stopped talking and asking questions throughout the whole show. As he and Mia were gathering up materials for the giant bed he was shouting "Geronimo!" Not sure where he heard that.

We unfortunately didn't take any pictures today so as Shelby says "we'll just have to remember what a great day we had." It was just the day I needed after a pretty frustrating week with Lennon. After such a great day out and about I wonder if Lennon has simply been going stir crazy all cooped up in the house during these last few wintery days of spring.

When I Grow Up

Mia announced yesterday in the car that she definitely wants to be a rock star when she grows up. To which Lennon added that he definitely wants to be a "cooker" when he grows up.

"How do I be a cooker, Mommy?" He asked

Lennon has also had his heart set on a yellow VW Bug until we passed one on the street today. At which point he changed to a blue one. And when he gets this blue VW Bug, how will he celebrate? By getting his hair cut, according to him.

We went to a couple car dealerships today to see what the cheapest thing they had that ran was. Neither one had anything in our price range, so we moved on to what we already pretty much knew was going to be the case and checked out Craigslist. However, at each dealership when we started to leave Lennon protested loudly announcing, "Wait! We need a car! We need two cars!!!" He calmed down in the car.

Old Sturbridge Village

Last Friday we let Mia skip school and we drove down to Old Sturbridge Village in southern MA. Claire was taking her kids because they were having a Home Schooling day with lots of extra activities and we tagged along with them. As we were parking the car, Mateus leaned over to Mia and almost in a whisper directed her to "make sure you don't tell anyone you are a 'schooler.'"

We had a great day. We left the house in Claire's van at around 8 30 and we didn't get home until almost 6. No one napped except for Biance who fell asleep in the car on the way home for about 45 minutes and there were no major breakdowns or tantrums all day. I think the kids, and probably the adults too truth be told, were just so happy to finally be outside after such a long, cold winter that almost nothing could have brought us down. It really was a beautiful day and such a cool museum.

One of the first things we saw were the lambs. Lennon was especially excited about them.

Shortly after, we came upon a couple of chickens. Lennon didn't want to get to close in case one of the chickens "might pick" him.

We saw a guy boiling sap from a maple tree to make maple sugar. He said out of every gallon of sap, about 95-98% of it is water, so it takes quite a while to get a decent amount of it. Lennon was much more interested in climbing on and off this rock and narrating as he went. "Now, I'm climbing back on top. Now, I'm walking back down. Now, I'm stepping up on the rock..." And so on.

Our crazy kids. We hiked up a hill that was still mostly covered in snow and kind of slick. Had a banana snack at the top and the kids danced, twirled in circles and conquered huge climbs, like this rock.

Trying out the craft of Cooper

I thought you might say that.

Lennon held this piece up to me upside down and asked, "like this?" "Sure" I said, "that's good." He then turned it the right way and said "I thought it was supposed to be like this?" He likes making me look stupid.

Silly Boo, posing with a branch

This is just before lunch. Lennon had accumulated about 5 branches which I made him leave outside of the cafeteria. This was when I asked him to run to catch up with the rest of the gang going in to eat and he said, "No, Mommy. I'm not going to run. I'm going to walk. Running, is falling."

Mia and Mateus trying to fit in this tiny little cabinet before lunch. It was only about 6 inches deep.

Lennon feeling the weight of an old fashioned iron.

Our little domestics, hand washing Bianca's hat. As we were leaving, Bianca turned to Claire and said, "I can only leave for a minute. I have A LOT of washing to do."

This whole shaving kit was glued down. Lennon tried with all his might to use it nevertheless.

This little girl can find a basket anywhere in the world. She loves pretending to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Climbing the fence to see the huge bull.

Lennon fed the bull some of his pine branch. The bull ate it at first, but then seemed to decide that it was not really that good.

I just thought this sign was funny. There was a whole exhibit about old guns and military stuff. We didn't spend too much time in there cause it was late in the day and the kids were pretty much toast by then.

Mia and Mateus looking out the window of the pretend outhouse on the playground. Quite a strange piece of play equipment if you ask me. Lennon was in there and said he was going to go potty. I told him to make sure not to actually go potty. He assured me he was just pretending and then squatted and said, "poop, poop, poop." Nice.

Riding the bull.

Claire stayed with the little kids at the playground while Mia and Mateus made tin candle holders. While the little kids were playing, Bianca told Claire, "I am his wife and he is my human."

Lennon must have spent ten minutes pretending to fill up this bucket with water from the well and then taking the water into the house for Bianca to cook and wash with.

In the car. Bianca passed out. Lennon finished off a bag of freeze dried strawberries, which always has a ton of red "dust" at the bottom and makes a huge mess, as you can see. He also seems to be able to make more of a mess eating than any other living creature I have ever known. It's pretty much amazing. He stains almost everything he wears.

Lambs, chickens, bulls, cows, candle sticks, pretend potties and guns. What more could you ask for in a day? Early in the day Mia told me that she definitely wanted to be home schooled for third grade. And the saga continues...

Mia's Read-A-Thon

Mia's school is doing a read-a-thon and it has prompted her to become a huge book worm. In second grade you get credit for reading any book no matter how small, but if you read a chapter book then you get to count each 20 pages as a book. According to those rules, Mia read 17 books the first week and 35 last week. It basically averages out to two chapter books per day. The coolest part is that she doesn't even seem like the competition is the major driving force behind her reading. It probably has a lot to do with it, but I think she has just really learned to love reading. I'm super excited because I never really loved reading and think it is one of the greatest tools she can have.

Playing Dress-Up

Showing Anderson where the treasure is buried. "X" marks the spot, you know.

I've got my pirate hat, a shovel and a sword, what more could a Backyardigans pirate need?

Ladybug wings+ blue leotard+ roller skates = one cool dude

Lennon's New Puppy Suit

The first Monday of every month, my Mom's group at the church does a clothing swap with all our kids outgrown stuff. Over the last two years I've had several good finds, but this one definitely takes the puppy snack. One of Lennon's favorite activities is pretending to be various animals. Puppies, birds, ducks, bunnies. Puppies is probably the most common these days. Which is why he was sooo totally excited that I wound up with this gem last Monday. One awesome benefit from his love of playing "puppies" is that he always wants "puppy snacks" which are usually cherry tomatoes or carrots, of course. And he is a very hungry puppy!

Here he is laying on his "puppy bed"

Mia put a leash on him and took him for a walk around the house.

Star Student

Mia's class elects a different student each week to be the following weeks Star Student. No one is ever elected twice, so it's not a competition and each weeks Star Student gets to choose the next weeks Star Student. Last week was Mia's turn. The Star Student brings home a poster that they fill in with all their favorite things. Movies, books, food, etc. Also, the parents write a letter to the class telling them about their child. During the week, Mia got to present her poster and read the letter to the class. Another day she stood in front of the class while they had a chance to ask her questions about herself to learn more about her. On the last day of the week she was sent home with a short letter from each student and the teacher telling her what each of them liked most about her. These letters were so stinkin' cute! At least three of the kids said that Mia was a "stylish dresser." Many of them cited how much she smiled and laughed. All the boys said they really liked playing with her at recess because she always let them chase her and she was a fast runner. A lot of the letters mentioned how great it was that she was always happy and always a good friend to everyone. It was pretty awesome hearing her read us the letters and learning how she is viewed by her peers. We are, as always, so very proud of our sweet little Mimi.

Proper Classification

Lennon has always liked Little People, especially the barn. Unfortunately, I got rid of the Little People house we had been given because he almost never wanted to play with it. That is until we no longer had it. Shortly after purging the barn he seemed dissatisfied with the title Little People and declared that they were NOT Little People, they were just People. Later, when he had accepted that the house was gone and pretty much only played with the barn, he decided they were actually Barn People and if anyone ever calls them otherwise, he is quick to correct them.