Our Kids

Well about 3 weeks ago I put a moratorium on TV. No TV, nada, zip, zulch! There was entirely too much fighting over what to watch, where to sit, when to turn it off etc. So we 86′d it. It was kind of painful for the first few days but we instituted our wonderful bag of activities (a red bag full of things to do) that they get to draw out of and whatever they pick we do. This helps with the “what can I do” question I heard about 50 times a day.

Funny how when you decide to do something it sucks for a couple days and then they don’t even seem to notice it is gone. We also had to 86 movie night. Piper was using it as a test your parents night and we could not handle that late on a Friday evening when we were all exhausted. So we changed it to Friday night game night and it went much better. We now can use the movie card for some time during the day on the weekend and it all works out so much better. Movies before bed did not work out for us.

It is too hot to blog in Jason’s office, for some reason it is a good 5 degrees hotter than the rest of the house which doesn’t make sense because it is smack dab in the middle of the house and should get enough ventilation. Anyhoo, here I am sweating bullets to bring you an update (I know I have a laptop and can leave said hot room but what would I complain about then?).

We have been keeping up with the summer fun here in AZ. We went to the movies to see Charlotte’s Web which was interesting because it was not the animated version and the girls still like animated movies, Lela got the gist of Charlotte dying and was quite upset about it. Piper got the whole pig is going to the smoke house to make those strips of meat thing and Landis got popcorn all over:)

We also tried out the new Sea Life Aquarium that opened on May 15th. The aquarium was nice and had a decent amount to see but the guy “working the line” told the kids that if they answered the trivia questions throughout then they could give their ticket to the gift shop lady for a prize. Now because Lela’s love language is still gifts she was single minded and wanted to get through that thing lickety split to get her “prize.” The prize was a foam sticker! Gah! $30 bucks to get in even with two free tickets AND we had to rush through to get a foam sticker that costs less than a penny! Now we enjoy doing new things but it was a good reminder that they don’t need a lot of flash and dash to be entertained.

We have also been going to Great Play twice a week for classes and open gym as well as having playdates with friends K and E. Doesn’t sound like a lot but we are keeping busy.

The other night as the girls said goodbye to their fav babysitter of all time (Teacher Karen from Desert Sun) Piper noticed the first star of the night. Now Dora and Boots say this is the star to make your wish on, and so does Sister Bear for that matter. Anyhoo, the girls promptly wanted to make a wish. Lela made a wish immediately and then announced that she would not be telling me what she wished for or it wouldn’t come true. Piper got very upset because she couldn’t come up with a wish on the fly (I’d like to think this is because there is nothing more she could ever want but I seriously doubt that was the case since she is 5 and the world still revolves around her). So Piper insisted that I let her come out later and wish on the star.

When we came out she was very upset to see that there were other stars out by then. She said she couldn’t wish now, I assured her she could still wish since she had first thought about wishing when it was just one star. So she made her wish and just like her mother she couldn’t wait to tell her wish.

A couple days later we were shopping in Kohls looking for some tennis shoes for next school year. At the counter they had a stuffed Rex, Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story all about a foot tall. They were $5 each and supporting some charity so I decided to get one for the girls. Lela chose Buzz and Piper chose Rex and Landis opted out.

Later they were so excited to know that the wishing star worked, it really worked because that is what they had wished for….Rex and Buzz. Oh I hope that wishing star keeps working:)