Star Wars Legos

The boys love to play Star Wars legos together. They are happy building planes or jets or whatever it is that Star Wars guys fly. The big exception to the happiness is the fighting over who gets to play with the R2D2 guy.

Keith took Joshua out to the store this weekend and they picked out another pack of legos. Fortunately for all of us, there was another R2D2 guy in there. Now everyone's happy!

I made the appointments for the packers today and bought our plane tickets for the kids and mine final trip to Florida. The mini-van ships in a few weeks. We are really, really getting ready to go! The packers come in 22 more days to pack our house. I'm going go be gone for 10 of those days. Just thinking about it makes me feel like I need to breathe into a paperbag! There is so much to do! At least the boys will busy themselves with their Legos.

Resuming our daily walks

The day started with the usual unhappiness over our lack of brown grocery bags. This is what I came upon when I went into the kitchen to find Daniel.

The weather is still weird. One day it's freezing and windy, the next day it's wonderful out. This morning Daniel woke up in a very grumpy mood. He didn't eat breakfast and was crying and falling apart when I was getting him dressed, so I left him in his pjs. After he woke up from his nap in a better mood, I took him out for a walk. We use the bike trailer so that the high sides can protect him from the wind.

We walked down to Spruce Cape and I met up with a friend of mine out there. We stood and looked out over the water. When Joshua was learning about Christopher Columbus back in October, I had taken him up to this area and we talked about how the water looks like you could just fall right off the edge of the Earth.

When Daniel and I returned home, the big kids were playing outside nicely together. Then we had dinner and sang songs and it was time for bed, since they were all tired. I sent Megan in to brush her teeth, and instead she decided to accessorize herself using all her hair-pretties. And, of course, let's not forget Bunny Foo-foo, she's got a hair-pretty on, too.

Weirdness

The kids woke up this morning and saw the sun shining bright. They were cranked up and ready to go out! I was ready to let them, until I saw that it was only 28 degrees. It's just not right for the sun to be so inviting, but the temperature to be so low! I made them hang out inside until later in the day when it was about 35 degrees. Keith put them to work picking the rocks out of the front yard. When we shovel the driveway in the wintertime, the rocks from the driveway end up all in our front yard. While they were outside, Megan somehow found the one tiny patch of ice that is still in our yard, and down she slid, slicing her thumb open on a rock. I missed the whole thing, I was running some toddler girl clothes over to a neighbor with a little girl younger than Megan. Here is Megan telling me all about it when I got back.
The kids love to get out their school supplies and draw when I am cooking dinner.

Daniel is a sneaky little stinker. He pulled my MP3 player out of my bag from yesterday and had it on (I'm pretty sure he pressed all the buttons until it turned on). And notice that he is trying to get the earbuds to fit into his tiny little ears. He knows I've got some kid music on a playlist in there.

And just to prove his weirdness....We keep our plastic grocery sacks in a drawer to bring back to the store to recycle. However, when Daniel has a diaper that needs to go into the outside trash in the garage, we tie it in a plastic grocery sack. Daniel has taken pride in bringing the diaper and the bag to me for a diaper change. However, he will only bring me brown Safeway bags. He gets very upset if there are white bags in the grocery bag drawer. Of course, yesterday I did huge shopping at the commissary and have about 30 white bags in the drawer. Daniel pulled every one of them out until he found a brown Safeway bag. Then he put all the white bags back in the drawer. I know he gets this weirdness from both Keith and I, we are both very meticulous about different things.

Frenzy Fridays

I went to be early last night from sheer exhaustion. Fridays are usually our day to get the house extra clean, load up on groceries and plan out the weekend. Friday morning the kids and I tidied the house, and then Joshua did school work.

Since we are nearing the end of the school year, Joshua's work now focuses on mostly reading and math as actual school work. Truthfully, I'd rather him have the opportunity to go to the Wildlife Refuge for a class about animals, than to sit at the table and fill in all the a's in the short story Nat at Bat. We do writing practice in different ways. He likes to make lists sounding out words.

We are just about done with his reading lesson book. I think he's become a great reader. In math we plan on finishing up the year learning about calendars, telling time, and counting money.
I mentioned in a previous posting that when I drive on base I have to cross the runway. A girlfriend of mine called me to ask if that was legal! So, fortunately, I had the camera with me while I was sitting at the stop sign waiting for a helo to go past. See, I wasn't fibbing.

Friday afternoon I decided to go out to the commissary to stock up on our last big grocery run before the big move (sorry, Becca, I know it makes you sad!). Since I was going to be all the way out there at the base, I decided to spend some time at the gym. Before the price of gas became too high, I would take the kids with me 3 days a week and they would play in the "horsestalls" in the parent work-out room while I ran on the treadmill. I love that they were confined from the equipment. We usually go into the main gym and shoot hoops when I'm done running. There is a special 4 foot tall basketball hoop in the closet at the gym that I pull out for the kids when we are there. But, Friday, I was all by myself and it was wonderful. I did my running in the parent work-out room because it was empty and quiet. I like quiet.

Keith was a champ hanging with the kids for the few hours I was gone. The weather was yucky and the kids were climbing the walls. He managed to get them all down for naps. They always listen better for him! Joshua said that Daddy deserves a special dinner, so Joshua and I made Buffalo Chicken Dip for Daddy to snack on.

Megan's 4 year old Well-Child Check

Megan had an appointment today with our favorite Physician's Assistant. She loves going to see Mr. Mete and he's so good with her. Her weight has been a bit of a worry for us. Last year at her 3 year old check, she was in the 10% for weight on the growth chart. This year, she's just under the 50th % mark. She's about 34 pounds now. She was so cute doing all the tests - hopping on one foot, drawing a smiley face and getting her reflexes tested were some of her favorite parts of the visit.

On the way back from the visit, we picked Daddy up a Subway sandwich to bring to work tonight, since there aren't any leftovers in the fridge. I nearly fainted when I drove by the gas station:
I filled up outside of city limits and it was just a bit cheaper. Fortunately, it will be the last time I fill the mini-van up here in Kodiak.

The kids watched Meet the Robinsons tonight snuggled in my bed (we used the DVD function on the laptop). I needed to fold laundry and clean up my bathroom and they were wanting to watch a movie. They've been restless and I knew they would be monkeying around in the livingroom, so I brought them back to my room where I could keep an eye on them. They loved it. And I was able to pull the room-darkening curtains, mellowing them out for bedtime.

Megan looks sad because she just realized I didn't put in The Little Mermaid.

It's all in the last minute details

Megan and Daniel sharing an apple today. They are so funny together!

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Keith had a training of some sort this morning, then he came home for a few hours and went right back to work. While he was gone for his morning training, I spent my time evenly between creating castles out of Legos and making phone calls to the East Coast finalizing plans with the college about the upcoming graduation.

Then I sorted through the clothes again in the boys' room. I'm starting to set aside a few things for our express shipment. The express shipment is a shipment up to 1,000 pounds that we can send down to Florida to meet us there. Since all of our belongings that are currently in our house will be sitting in storage for a month or two, this express shipment sounds like the key to getting some of our things that we might want more sooner than later. I've got a corner in the garage that I've put aside a few smaller things to ship. I'm considering taking apart Megan's bike and Daniel's tricycle and seeing if they can be shipped in the express shipment since Joshua already has a bike there.

I'm also trying to clean out the pantry and freezer to get things ready. But at the same time, leaving the few convenience food items that we do have for Keith to warm up with the kids while I am gone.

I've got our outgoing hotel reservations made, so Keith and I can take turns hanging out with the kids while the packers are here. I can't even begin to imagine the trauma of watching their toys getting packed away.

I also re-structured the carseat configuration in the mini-van. Joshua was upset that I moved him back from his belt-positioning booster into a 5-point buckle. It just didn't feel safe to me, even at 5 1/2 years old, he still barely weighs in at 41 pounds. So I moved the kids around putting Joshua in Megan's seat, since hers is one that the 5-point harness holds up to 65 pounds. And Megan is in Joshua's since his 5-point harness holds up to 40 pounds and then becomes a belt positioning booster. I read tonight that Florida State Law indicates that carseats are mandatory for children 3 and under only. And that children 4 and 5 should be secured in a safety seat or with just a seat belt. Wow...someone's behind in their carseat research, and it's not this slightly overly paranoid safety freak. :)

sleepy boys and pack rat girl

Last night at the party, Joshua was having a blast, then about 30 minutes after he ate cake with blue icing, he starting falling apart. Out of no-where he just started crying and complaining that his socks were bothering him and that he wanted to be carried home. I figured he was weepy because he was warm from playing with the other boys there. Well, into the night, he woke up with some hives on his back. He was a bit on the sleepy side today. Our lessons included doing some calendar work and he kept getting frustrated with himself. Finally, I told him to go lay down in the livingroom and take a nap (the little ones were napping). Joshua slept soundly for about an hour, and then Keith sent Daniel to go wake him up. The boys sat together and watched a movie while I made dinner. Poor Joshua, Daniel sits so close to him!

Then Megan and Daniel set the table for dinner while Joshua tidied up the livingroom. Here they are sorting through the cutlery drawer.

The reality of the movers being here soon has really set in. I went through Megan's room again today, sorting and organizing. I took one look under her bed and nearly fainted. I'm so glad I looked now instead of when the movers move her mattress/boxsprings off the bedframe. She's a little packrat - there were empty Kleenex boxes filled with socks, a half a dozen cherries from Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh, bunches of her playfood, all of her My Little Ponies, one of her dolls that she had picked all the stuffing out of, and all the stuffing was all over the place. Not to mention the light-pegs to the Light-Bright, a feather boa and about 30 loose feathers. I promise, I keep a cleaner house than this! She's got her father's pack-rat genes, so when she's bored, she climbes under her bed to play with her treasures. The good news is that a couple of hours later, all the puzzles were put back together, the trash had been taken out, the carpet had been vaccumed and all the ponies got their hair cut (they were a matted tangled mess). Now, all of her toys are sorted, and her boxsprings and mattress are on the floor, lest she hoard anything else in the next few weeks!