Blake is 4

Happy 4th Birthday Blake!

He had owl cupcakes. Blake was so excited.



The girls helped him make them. All I did was bake the cupcakes and make the frosting. The kids did all the rest. Not bad, huh?

Cat Fight

Well our cat, Kasper, has come home with his first set of war wounds. He's got a nice scratch across the "whites" of his left eye. It's not across the retina, so he should be OK. But we still have to watch it to make sure it doesn't get infected. Poor kitty.

Bailey and the Nickel

A couple mornings ago, Bailey found a nickel while cleaning. She was so proud of it. She showed it to me, and I told her she could keep it. Grins from ear to ear. How cute!

Ten minutes later, she was wailing.

She'd swallowed it.

I wasn't too panicked. My brother had swallowed a 2 inch quilting pin when we were kids, and the doctor had told my mom to simply check his stools for the next few days and wait for it to come out. I figured we'd have to do the same.

I went down stairs to tell my husband, then came back up to calm Bailey down and try calling Grandpa (a family doctor). No luck there, and I didn't have his pager number. Sigh.

Seth came up stairs and told me he had googled "my daughter swallowed a nickel". His answer was right there at the top. Google's amazing! Anyway, it said the same thing that my mom's doctor had told her all those years ago. Check the pooh.

So we did.

I am happy to report that this morning, two days later, it finally came out. Hooray!

Lesson: don't put nickels in your mouth.

Bailey is 6!

Bailey had her 6th birthday recently. Her and Sierra decided what her "cake" would be, and they helped make it. They decorated the cup cakes and made the mice. I made the cat on top. Cute huh?

Happy Birthday Bailey!

Trick or Treat

Sierra is a black cat.

Blake is Link from Zelda's Wind Waker.

Bailey is my little witch.

Realization

I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that my house would be, and remain, a lot cleaner if my kids went to school every day.

School for Me!

My kids aren't the only ones doing school this year. When they started learning Latin, I said "Me too!". When Sierra brought home a typing program, I said "Me too!" again. Oh, and I've also started teaching myself the clarinet (I played the oboe for 6 years, but I don't have an oboe. I have my husband's old clarinet instead, so I figured, why not make use of it?)

So now, while my kids are doing their school work, I happily busy myself for 10-15 minutes learning to type correctly. I never actually learned before, and while I can easily type 20+ words per minute, I'm not very efficient and have to continually look at my hands.

After typing, I go off to my room and practice the clarinet while the girls continue their school work. (They come and find me if they need me, but this way I don't distract them.) Since I have prior band experience, I'm flying through the lessons. It's somewhat nostalgic to see those old songs that I used to have problems with in junior high. I can easily whip through them now on a new instrument because all I'm really learning are the different fingerings and ambusher (mouth positioning). I don't have to learn all of the mechanics over again. Makes me want to try other instruments once I have the clarinet down. (I'm seriously looking at relearning the piano-I only played it for 2 years-and eventually want to learn at least the trumpet and flute).

Later, typically toward the end of morning school or while the girls are having down time, I get back on the computer and do Rosetta Stone Latin. So far, so good. It's interesting how many English words are Latin based, making it easier on me in the long run. Feline, canine, elephant, aquatics, ambulatory, etc are all very similar to the Latin root.

It's kinda' fun learning along with my kids. Now, hopefully, I keep it up.