The Genius Mix of My Life

As I sit here I can hear my children singing in the background: the soundtrack from Jurassic Park, the theme and various musical elements from the original Star Trek t.v. series, the states and capitols song taught to the local 5^th graders. In my head is a rousing rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever.

The soundtrack of my life truly is an eclectic mix.

Red Dye and Blue

The boys really like to have flag shirts when the 4^th of July rolls around. This year we opted to make patriotic shirts instead of buying them. We found a fun idea for tie dye shirts on Pinterest, so we gathered all of our materials and got to work this morning. When the dying was done and we took the rubber bands off, the shirts looked absolutely amazing!! But then we washed them and the colors bled and they looked a little less amazing. Red, purple and blue was not quite as striking as red, white and blue. I followed all the directions and rinsed the shirts like crazy before washing them, but clearly I’m not a tie dying rock star. Nevertheless, we had a good time. And even though the boys were disappointed that their shirts turned out purple, they still think they look pretty cool.

(I thought it would be hard to get Malia to look at the camera, but it was actually harder to get Nathan to look!)

I have a couple of ideas that I’m hoping will prevent the horrible color bleeding, so we’ll have to give tie dying another whirl one of these days.

A Boy’s Best Friend

This afternoon Matthew was playing fetch with Malia. I know I should be irritated when he treats her like a pet, but I really can’t blame a kid with asthma and allergies for thinking that a baby sister is an adequate replacement for a dog.

They Had a Good Year

Today was the last day of school for Daniel and Nathan. They were both a little sorry that the year was over. They both loved their teachers and had a really fun year. Nathan in particular was a bit sad. He had a really emotionally difficult year in second grade and this year was a million times better. Having a teacher whose personality and teaching style doesn’t cause tons of grief makes such a difference.  We all have our fingers crossed that next year will be successful as well.

Fifth Grade is Fun

As we near the end of the school year, Daniel has had some fun things going on. Last week was his DARE graduation. For those who don’t know DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It is taught by a police officer and teaches kids about the effects of abusing drugs, how to resist peer pressure, the legal ramifications of illegal drugs, etc. In order to graduate from the program the kids must participate in the lessons as well as complete a workbook and write an essay. The teachers choose the top six essays from each class and then the DARE officer passed those essays around to some of his fellow officers who chose the top two (one boy and one girl) from each class. Daniel was one of the winners for his class so he got to read his essay at graduation. He was presented with a medal, a water bottle, a pencil, and eraser, and a stuffed lion for being one of the winners. He had no idea that he would receive anything, so he was pleasantly surprised!

Today was Daniel’s Young American Program. The fifth grade in our school has an award that the kids can earn called the Young American. In order to receive the award they must know all fifty states and capitols, the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, all forty-four Presidents of the U.S. in order, the first and fourth verses of the Star Spangled Banner, and get at least 90% correct on 100 questions about U.S. history. It takes them all year to earn the award. I don’t know about all of you, but I most certainly don’t remember all that stuff. As part of their state reports, the kids had to make a float that showed off some of the things they had learned about their assigned states. Each float was required to be equipped with wheels of some sort. Before the program they had a parade of floats around the outside of the school. It was really fun! During the program the kids get to show off what they have learned as well as receive their awards. I think it is a really great way to get the kids excited about their country and while I don’t know about the other kids, I know that Daniel is pretty darn proud of himself for earning his award. 

I Wish I Could Tell Him to Slow Down

I just finished reading Matthew a book called, “NO DAVID!” It is all about the different occasions when David’s mom must tell him no. As we read the book, we both laughed because every one of them (except for the running down the street naked page) occurs in our home. At the end the mom tells David she loves him anyway. I told Matthew that I love him because he is my Doodle-roni (long story, but it is one of the things I call him). He rolled his eyes at me so I asked, “You’re not my Doodle-roni?” His reply: “Yes, but I hate when you call me that.”

He’s growing up way too fast.

Creativity

I saw a cardboard box. Matthew saw something completely different. Yesterday Kev helped him shape it and Daniel helped him decorate it. Allow me to introduce...

...Iron Matthew.

He wore his helmet to the Walmart this morning.

He sent a drawing of Lego Iron Man to work with Kev.

I wonder if I'm going to need to create an Iron Man costume for Halloween.