Two Little Cousins Sittin' in a Tree

My sister came to visit. This was just before her youngest had surgery (which, by the way, he is doing quite well). Anyway, her oldest and my oldest went outside, and I went to check on them. This is where I found them. They looked so cute, I just had to snap a photo.

I just noticed, he's wearing a coat, and she's not even wearing so much as a jacket. It was a pretty chilly day, but that's my daughter for you. She gets to playing and immediately sheds any outer coverings.

Easter

I'm about a week late, but I just got around to downloading the pictures off my camera. We had an Easter breakfast the Saturday before Easter at the church, then a ward member talked to the children (specifically to the children, but we were all sitting there) about the meaning of Easter. He included some symbolism about new life and the resurrection. I thought he did quite well. After that, they had an Easter egg hunt. For the youngest kids, the eggs were filled with cereal, animal crackers, and fish crackers instead of candy. I thought that was pretty clever. I got a couple pictures of Emily picking up eggs.
In this one below, Emily saw an egg under the shrubbery, but she couldn't get it without getting poked in the face by the branches, so I got it for her.

Kiwi

I know the last time I said anything about kiwi, I was talking about the bird. Well this time, I'm going to say something about the plant. For many, many years now, I have wanted to plant kiwi in my yard. You're probably familiar with the fuzzy kiwi you can buy in the store? You would also be correct that you can't grow that kind without a hothouse in Idaho. Fortunately, there are other varieties of kiwi, and some of them are quite hardy, though the fruit isn't near as big. I chose this kind to grow. Not only should it have good fruit, but the male vine is often sold as an ornamental because of it's leaf variegation. It is actually quite difficult to find the female plant, but I finally did, and now both vines are planted in my backyard. I still need to build a trellis, so they are in a temporary spot (Emily's little garden plot).

Makeup Clowns

This was a while back, right after Katie got her hair cut. I thought you might enjoy my little makeup clowns. At least they got the lipstick around their lips and the mascara around their eyes. Notice Emily's hands? She dug all the lipstick out of the tube with her fingers.

It's Spring!

As of yesterday, it is officially spring! Yeah! I was beginning to think it would never come. We celebrated by going ice skating. Ok, not really celebrating spring there, but we went and had fun. We bought skates and an annual pass, so we can go anytime we want. I'm not really very good on skates, but maybe with practice, it will come, even with me. I even fell down once (with my skates doing really weird things under me), and hurt my leg. I don't think it is serious, but it does ache. I spent most of the time there supporting Emily. She's trying really hard to do it by herself, and she's doing quite well. She takes a few steps, starts to lose balance, corrects her balance, and starts again. She can now do that 3 or 4 times without falling, so she's definitely making some progress.

We did spend a little time outside as well. It was quite nice outside until about 5:30 when clouds rolled in and it sprinkled a little. Tiffany rode her bike a little. I pumped up the rear tire on Katie's bike that was recently given to us. She doesn't know how to ride yet, and I think she's afraid to learn. She used to not be afraid of anything, so this fear thing is pretty new (the last few months). I'm not really sure what to make of it. She does really well when she doesn't let her fear take control.

School Registration n Stuff

I had thought about writing several times this past week, but I wasn't feeling real well, and I didn't want to sit down and do it. I think the time change has gotten to me. My body clock is still trying to catch up.

Speaking of sleeping. My sister's youngest son has been having some problems. She had him tested last January, and he has been experiencing sleep apnea. So, the poor kid isn't sleeping very well, which has been wreaking all sorts of havoc with his moods and behavior and stuff. He went in for surgery today to have his tonsils removed. This is supposed to cure the problem. All seems to have gone well. He is on a jello diet right now.

Kindergarten registration was this last week. Katie is so excited to go to school. Unfortunately, she has to wait until fall. I think it is a little hard on these children to register them, let them meet the teachers, play in the classrooms, then tell them to come back 6 months later.

Tiffany is also registered for 3rd grade in the fall. She's been doing 3rd grade work all this year, so I'm a little concerned about her being bored "learning" what she already has a grasp on. I talked to the principal about it. In this school they do accelerated reading, which I believe is pretty common. They take a test to determine their reading level, then read books at that level or above, they take short multiple choice tests for comprehension and earn points for what they read. I'm not sure if there's anything more to it than that. The principal said they also do accelerated math. I don't know what that entails, but he said she should still be challenged with it.

The Kiwi

Tiffany wrote her first report. She did research and learned to sort her information by topic and in an outline. Here's the final draft:

Kiwis

Did you know that kiwis are on stamps in New Zealand? Because people live there too, you know. They have legs for running, burrowing and..... fighting!!! Pam! Pow! You're dead .....just kidding!!! Did you know a kiwi's egg is six (6) times larger than a hens egg even though they're the same size?! If you read ahead you will definitely learn some interesting facts about kiwis!

If you are looking for kiwis, New Zealand's the place for you! The brown kiwi lives in the North Island forests. The Great Spotted Kiwi lives in the South Island mountains. If you ever are going through Kapiti Island, you might see The Little Spotted Kiwi. If you ever go to New Zealand, keep your eyes open to look for kiwis of course!

The kiwi looks very friendly and soft. When you first look at a kiwi, you will probably see it's pear shaped and is the size of a chicken. Its bill is long and flexible with whiskers at the base, to see in the dark (because it's nocturnal!). Its neck and legs are short,but it can still run very fast! A kiwi is very nice to look at!

The kiwi eats a lot of things but they sure are small! They eat yummy things such as: berries, fruit, crayfish, fish and gross things like spiders, worms, and insects. They eat seeds, too! They eat so much you'd think they would never starve!

So far, you can see kiwis are fascinating creatures! They all live in New Zealand in forests on mountains, every were! They are gray and brown and fascinating animals! Like I said before. I hope you had a good time learning. Bye!!!

Picture Update

I added some pictures to some older posts. Here's the list and the links:

Playing Catch Up

Library Grand Opening

Reading With Idaho's First Lady

Spring Weather

The weather has been wonderful the last week (Saturday was a different story, but I'll get to that). We've taken advantage of that some. We still haven't been to the park, but it's on our list of to do in the near future. We all have cabin fever. The spring weather has been doing us a lot of good.

I pumped up the bike (and trailer) tires, and we rode to the library. I never realized how out of shape I am until I tried riding a bike again. Anyway, we spent some time at the library. It was nice to get out and ride a bicycle again. I know I could have done it even in cold weather, but I'm afraid of the cold. ;)

The girls want to plant their gardens. They each have a little plot to do whatever they want in. Part of the reason we did that was to discourage them from digging little holes in the lawn. We still haven't broken them of that habit. Most of what they want to plant, we will have to wait a while on, yet. If we had some pea seeds, I would have let them plant those. As it was, I found some bulbs I somehow forgot to get in the ground last spring, and let them plant them. I helped Tiffany transplant a rose into her garden. I needed the space for a hardy fuchsia I mail ordered. I also ordered two Kolomikta kiwi vines, which is a hardy variety of kiwi I've been wanting to try for forever.

Saturday, a cold front came in. It rained quite a bit, I heard it snowed some, and we got a little hail. I was hoping for another sunny (or mostly sunny) day so we could finally get our compost bin built, but alas, it wasn't to be that day. Instead we spent the day culling a few more things from the kitchen cabinets. Isn't it funny how odd things seem to multiply? We must have gotten rid of a dozen mugs, that our family couldn't possibly ever use, even with guests. So, we made a trip to Deseret Industries to get rid of them, and filled up the rest of the day with odd and end running around. Though, we probably needed to do all that (ok, we really did need to), I would have been much happier to finally get the compost bin made. Maybe next week. Sigh.

Last Lesson

Today was the last ice skating lesson for the girls. Honestly, I didn't watch any of it this time. Instead, I was brave and went out on the ice myself. That wasn't really the brave part. I asked for the smallest skates they had, and took Emily out on the ice. She was so excited! She also had a horrible time standing up right. I alternated by holding her hands or under her arms. She alternated by supporting her own weight or making me hold her up. My back and legs got tired really fast. She finally figured out how to march in the skates and started pulling me around. She'd take a few steps and then slip, but I supported her, so we got around for a while that way. After about an hour, she let go of me and tried marching off all on her own. She actually did pretty good. She'd take about ten steps or so before falling. Unfortunately, she started to get tired by that time and became a little cranky. I took her off the ice, which only made her more upset. She twisted out of my arms and marched back to the ice! Eventually, I did have to take her off and make her stay off. She was just too tired and cranky.

Personalities and Color Groups

What color is your personality? Ok, I don't know a whole lot about this. I was talking to a friend the other day, and she asked me. She supposed I was a white. Try to keep peace. Stubborn. Things like that. So, I googled it, and what do you know? Apparently I am a white. Though I still don't know a lot about it. My friend and I got to talking a few days later. She said that whites adapt to other personalities. It was a revelation to me. That is so totally me. I knew I did it, but to hear somebody else say that, makes it seem more like it is an ok thing. I used to get so frustrated that I didn't have my own strong personality, but I enjoy doing what others around me like doing. What the revelation did for me was to put my quirks in better perspective. When I meet somebody new, it is usually very hard for me to talk to them, especially to be the first to talk. Instead I tend to watch people until I feel comfortable. I think this has the unintended effect of making other people uneasy. But I think what I am doing is feeling out their personality so that I know how to act around them. I love to socialize in very small groups. It is very difficult for me, it wears me out very quickly to be in large groups, and especially to mingle. I think this is because there are too many personalities at once to be able to know how to act. Now, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but for me, right now, it really does explain these weird eccentricities and give some validation to them. I don't know how to change them, or even if I should. I do try to talk to new people first, and I think I'm getting better at it, but I still have to fight the urge to just sit, listen, and watch.

Reading With Idaho's First Lady

IDVA gave the children the opportunity to gather at the library to hear Lori Otter, Governor Butch Otter's wife, read a book to them. The book was That's Good, That's Bad. It was an interesting session. She was very good at engaging the children's attention. I think it is a good opportunity for the children to have more of an awareness of government. Although Mrs. Otter herself is not a politician, she is representative of the governorship by virtue of her husband. So, it raises an awareness of the importance of his position to our state. Plus, I believe, it was pretty fun for the kids. The reading was recorded and shown live via the internet to the IDVA children who could not make it to the live reading. It also snowed pretty good that day, making the live turnout a little less than it would have otherwise been.

Sorry, the pictures aren't that great. In case you can't tell, Tiffany is the one in green. Katie didn't want to sit on the floor, and Emily was a very clingy momma's girl that day.

Library Grand Opening

I took the children to the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new library. They were able to get right up in front to see everything (there weren't many kids there). So, they got to see the mayor cut the ribbon and listen to the speeches. They thought it was pretty cool. Then they had donuts and orange juice. Baskin Robbins gave away coupons for free kids cones. They got metal bookmarks with the Library Grand Opening written on them and "I Love to Read" bracelets. We spent two hours there with the girls looking at books and playing with puzzles.

The cutting of the ribbon (the girls each got a piece of this ribbon for their scrapbooks):

The girls beside the 3 foot scissors:

Katie is enjoying a donut:

Clogging and Potties

The girls enjoyed watching a clogging competition that their cousin was in on Saturday. You wouldn't think so, as much as they wouldn't sit still, but they are still talking about it. It wasn't really what I expected, having never seen one. Mostly, the children in the competition danced for about 20 seconds each. It wasn't really enough for me to get a feel for it, but I guess it was enough for the judges, and that was what they were there for. I mostly enjoyed watching the team competitions, where they danced together for an entire song. I also liked to watch the a Capella routines because it was interesting to hear their shoes make the music.

In other news, Emily likes to use the potty. If somebody else says they need to go, she starts pulling down her pants, saying "bah, bah." however, it is not always evident that's what she wants to do as she does the same thing for "bath," and if she wants to change "pants." So, after a bit of interpreting, I figure out she wants to sit on the toilet. I usually try to discourage this, because she's never done anything on it, and she wants to sit for a really long time with me right beside her. I'm not really very patient. Of course, I want her to potty train, but really, I don't want it to be any work for me. And she's not even two yet. She has plenty of time. So, she did it again today. Several times. I usually try to pull her off after a few minutes of no results. Of course she protests my efforts. I just want to say that this evening she actually peed in the toilet. She was so proud of herself. But she wanted to poop, too. So, I still had to pull her off, though she didn't protest quite as much. I let her wipe and flush, so she was more satisfied. Later this evening, she did it again. I think she is finally figuring out how to make herself pee. Yeah! At least I won't be quite so impatient with her toilet sitting efforts in the future. And, who knows? Maybe she will potty train herself very soon.