Olivia is six!

Olivia is six! Pretty amazing. Here is Olivia at her birthday party on Saturday. Her friends are Signe, Elena and Eva. It was a great party; all of the kids played so hard they were all sweaty and thirsty. Have some pizza and soda and back to the giant play gym. It was cool to have some new kids in the mix as well as parents from MLC. 

As for Miss Olivia, six is pretty cool. She is doing great according to her first kindergarten report. She is working hard with reading and math and also loves making up songs, stories and epic drawings.

The social expectations of kindergarten has been a challenge-- for all of us! There was an issue with some boys being too rough on the playground with her and it was making her upset that they weren't stopping when asked. We encouraged her to tell her teacher and not only did she do that, she also stood up at circle time and reminded all of her classmates about how they should care for eachother and not be too rough. Chris and I were super proud of her. 

Six is the tops!

Olivia's book

Olivia has been working on her writing and the results are pretty amazing. This book is called, "Everyone is Different." The first page says, "Some people have fat hair." 

"Some babies have scratches."

"Everybody's different."

"Happy Halloween." 

Halloween 2014

Our first house was our neighbor, 92-year-old Merlin. He waited for the kids all day and had candy and stickers for them. 

We went to one more house, John and Judy's across the street and then headed to Olivia's friend Scarlett's house.

Super fun!

Just sing, sing a song!

These are the musical notes to Olivia's song today. One of the lyrics: "You are at your best when I am distressed." 

Sammy's Two! (Aug. 9, 2014)

Our Sammy Boy is two! We had a party at Peninsula Park and the kids got to take over the gym and all of the equipment therein. Sammy loves anything that bounces, so we had a balls, balls bonanza party. It was super fun. 

Things Sam loves at two: he loves his Rawrs, building and knocking down tracks for the choo choos, the yellow tempra paint, balls, running anywhere, climbing anything, milk in his puppy cup, playing kitty and baby with Olivia, bananas, picking blackberries, puppies, going up the wrong way on the slide and just generally being an active, loving boy. 

He also loves the ladies. When we were at the pool at Black Butte, he could not stop staring at the tan and blonde teen girls sunbathing nearby. A little girl his own age inspired him to run in circles around her. It doesn't hurt that he is so freaking cute, but then again, I am his mother. 

Two is tremendous.

Summer Loves

It is bittersweet when I look ahead just a few weeks. Olivia will be off to kindergarten, Sam will be doing his own thing in preschool. I want them to stay like this forever and I am thrilled at the possibilities ahead. Bitter and sweet, huh?

Collaboration

This is the project Olivia and I did today. We both drew a picture of a body and then handed to the other person to draw the dress and hair, etc. We used different colored ink so it you could tell who did which. I love her drawings; the expressions on the faces, the extravagant hair and clothing. 

So much imagination. (Olivia drew the body in the picture on bottom middle.)

Olivia words

sadisfying adj. that which makes a person sad or disappointed. That video game is sadisfying because it makes you look weird and that is sadisfying.

Sammy+potty

Sammy used the potty for the first time this weekend! Like real pee, in the potty. It was very exciting. And, he did it again today. When he poops in the potty, I will shoot off fireworks. (I am super done with diapers...does it show?)

The Roars

These are Sammy's "Roars," a ragtag team of handheld African animals he carries everywhere. Olivia tried to name them: Bubba the lion, Blackie the puma, etc. But Sammy prefers a universal name: Roar. And that is what they do, they roar at each other, get scared, hide, then kiss and make up. Today, the Roars were left behind at IKEA. Sammy was not  pleased but thankfully Chris found them on a lawn chair near the check out. Crisis averted.

Sisters and Brothers, Brothers and Sisters, Ain't We Everyone

This picture cracks me up because it totally captures the relationship between these two. Olivia was trying to explain to me the rules of a game only she understands while Sammy does whatever it takes to get her attention. Theirs is a complex love and hate relationship. On the one hand, Olivia nurtures Sammy and can use the sweetest voice to ask him if he needs help or if he wants to play. On the other hand, there's this scenario, pretty much every day:

Olivia: Sam, that's my toy!
Sam: Mine!
(Sound of Olivia grabbing the toy from him.)
Sam: No, Mine!
(Sound of Sammy growling like a baby lion.)
(Sound of Olivia pushing or slapping Sam.)
(Sound of Sam crying.)
(Sound of Olivia crying.)

Ugh. I don't know what to do. They both obviously lack the verbal powers to get the other to understand without resorting to violence. But violence works! Toy is returned! But then everyone feels bad and is crying. Perhaps violence doesn't work!

We'll keep trying.

My goal is that these two will grow up to be adults who love and respect each other. Chris and I work on facilitating their relationship but I know how hard sibling relationships are. Then there are glimmers of just how much they do love each other: when Sam's having a hard time getting to sleep, he'll get into bed with Olivia and cuddle. At the park, another kid went down the slide and ran into Sammy. Olivia told her, "You should be careful, that's my baby brother!"

We've got a few exciting trips coming up, so there will be lots of opportunities for growth for these two.

Olivia is 5 years and 5 months!

Olivia is a cyclone of creative energy. She's either drawing, singing, dancing, propping up her dolls and critters for a dramatic scene or acting out an epic narrative. It's no wonder that she falls into bed exhausted at the end of the day. I try and keep up with all of her ideas and help them become realized. For instance, last week we were at Cathedral Park and Olivia found a handful of long, gray bird feathers. She decided that we should use them to make hats. My first instinct is, oh geez, how am I going to do that? I asked her to make some sketches of the hat she wanted to create and she did. Her hats were incredible flights of fancy with lanterns hanging off the ends, sparklers shooting off the top and lots of feathers. We settled on what looked like the easiest one to make and set about doing just that. We came up with a felt topper that Olivia thought her father would look good in. Chris was a good sport and tried it on. That made Olivia laugh because he looked like an elf.

She and I do some sort of collaboration every day; drawing, making dresses out of random fabric or whatever. Lately, she's been very helpful in the garden and she helped me pick out and then plant all of our flower boxes together. She also wanted her own garden (that's her in Olivia's Garden above) which is on the Roseway side of the yard. In it are lots of yellow dandelions, one very well taken care of strawberry plant and a container of pink fuzzy ground cover. My mom used to do this for me as well, to call one small area of the yard my garden. I hope it's giving her a love of gardening or nature.

Other than that, Olivia is almost done with preschool and we're still trying to figure out where she's going to kindergarten next year. I think she's excited but a little worried that none of her Little Lights friends will be there.

Sammy is 21 months!

This guy. This guy kills me! Such a sweet boy, loving, kind, helpful and becoming his own little dude. He isn't using tons of words but lets us know what he wants or needs pretty well. For instance, he can't verbalize that he wants to watch "Lion King", instead he hands me the remote, points to the television and says, "Rawr!" Message received, Son! 

  Physical activity is his thing--he runs, climbs on everything and basically daredevils his way through life. I don't get too worried; he knows his limits. Love this guy.

Sammy can read!

Not exactly....but today he kept pointing to letters in a book and I told him what they were. When he saw an S on another book he pointed to it and said "S!" He found other ones too. Boy is growing up!

Before and After: yard edition

And $2,600 later:

This photo barely does justice to the yard as it is now. It's like a miniature version of post-explosion Mt. St. Helens. In a good way...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is Sammy trying to say Cheese! It comes out more like "sheessss!"

Ballet lessons, part deux

Olivia before her class today:

And during:

Then later, she colored her eyes blue with a pen: 

I said she looked like a fairy sprite, so she gave me her fairy face:

Love this kid.

Bye bye, Brasada

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Brasada Ranch

Alisa and I are vacationing in eastern Oregon this week. We're at Brasada Ranch for clear skies, relaxation and a little horseback riding. I took a few pics from the ride this morning. Alisa had never been on a horse before. Here she is on "Sweet Thing."

What a beautiful place this is. Many thanks to Gramma Margie and Grampa Chuck for watching the kids all week.

Sammy is 18 months: Part 2

Here are the boy's stats:

Height: 2' 9.47" (83.41%)

Weight: 25lb 9.5oz (67.21%)

Head circumference: 19.57" (95%)

Little Lights Valentines

Olivia's school takes Valentine's Day very seriously. It has to be handmade by the kids and this year we were reminded: no super heroes or my little ponies, please. The snow last weekend have us ample time to work on our cards. Really, Olivia doesn't quite get that quantity is more important than quality when we are talking ten kids' valentines. Here is my favorite of the three she did finish:

So cute. Here she is signing her name to Scarlett's card.

She wanted her name to have sparkles so she wrote it first and then added the dots:

Super cute.