Prizes, drawings, and posting 'Oh my!'

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Sweet...

one word to describe the day today. I spent most of the day with Niki while Big Daddy stayed home with the boys. We started the day by ourselves when we picked up Reeses from the vet. (That is for another post.) We had donuts for breakfast. Niki rarely gets to eat anything so sweet but since yesterday was difficult for all of us (Reeses accident) we decided a morning spike in the blood sugar would easily be recovered from by mid-afternoon. Once we arrived home Daddy was off to do "Daddy" things and we all jumped on the trampoline. The boys napped and Niki and I read book after book from the library. We haven't been to the library in about 3 weeks. Every time we make it there I rarely locate anything I am looking for since I am chasing the boys around. The boys each chose books, Luke found a giant reference book on classic cars and Ezra found some Dinosaur books. Niki chose some books on Egypt and I got some craft/activity books since our local library has nothing decent to read besides classic literature-which is fine if you don't already own all the classic literature one person can stand! We made it to the check out counter, where the boys sat on the counter and watched the librarian sticker all our books, when suddenly the fire alarm begins blaring. I turn around because the screaming alarm is directly behind me, and I see Niki standing near the fire alarm with her hands behind her back and an embarrassed look on her face. I smiled @ her and she came over to my side. The children's librarian walked past quickly, smiling as she went, to the back office to call the fire department to alert them of the false alarm. The librarian behind the counter did not smile, or comment, or laugh. I smiled as I told her I was sorry, though I wanted to laugh! We all lugged our heavy books outside and loaded up in the Beast and drove home listening to our music loudly.

Flash forward to this afternoon and Niki is sitting in the kitchen in a sea of books asking me to tell her every other word on the page. We played on Wekinz and Club Penguin and then we decided once Big Daddy was home we wanted to go to the new park here in our town. We took one of our friends with us. Then it was onto the book store, as if we need more books! We spent 2 hours there choosing books for everyone. Once we arrived home we had to read ALL of them and play Pirates of the Carribeain. We also watched a movie we purchased. Now I think I may get to sleep...maybe not. Niki is still up asking to play now. We are planning our next big toy purchase!

Just another day

Mady and Niki played Big Daddy's XBox most of the morning, er, early afternoon, a war game. Dom showed the girls how to play last night and they have been waiting to find there way covertly through the rough terrain and blow stuff up since we made them log off sometime around 2 am.

Ezra and Luke played with blocks and shoes all day. They think it is hilarious to hide from each other and when the seeker has found the hider the hider runs wildly down the hall screaming. The only problem with it today was Ezra felt the need to wear Mady's clogs while playing this little game and kept falling in the hall. He just wouldn't take the shoes off. Once they laid down for a nap I put the shoes away so he wouldn't break his ankle!

Mady and I played Set for a bit tonight. I was beating her pretty badly so she decided she only wanted to play one game. Last night she was all over it, I think she just wanted to be on the computer. Since she was bored with me I let her log onto Club Penguin and play what she wanted. The Set game mysteriously disappeared after I cleaned my room tonight. I thought Mady misplaced it but I think I may have misplaced it!

The plan for tomorrow is to take Mady out for the day. We had another book store gift card to use but it has also been misplaced. I think I have one errand to do then we can go hang out @ the books store and do whatever Mady would like after that. I want to go get another board game!

Here are some pix of the kids playing in cornstarch. These are a few weeks old but I thought the site needed some more pix.

Remember the movie Patch Adams?

We watch our fair share of movies around here. I think it is a pass time we ALL enjoy as a family, frequently. Tonight we watched Patch Adams. If you have never watched, the shortest summary I can give is the movie is about an aspiring medical student, Hunter "Patch" Adams, who dreams of changing the sanctimonious attitudes of doctors and the bureaucratic red tape of the health care system during the 70's. It is based on a true story. The movie is of course ended with a short paragraph or 2 about what was happening in the main character's life as the filming ended. Patch did complete his Ph.D and went on to found the Gesundheit Institute.

After clicking around the website I found Designing a Society. The entire organization sounds completely unschooly to me. I can only begin to imagine the kind of brainstorming that goes on in a place like Gesundheit.

This gives me an idea to talk with Mady and Niki about what their thoughts on a perfect society are. What would you have if you could have anything? Every idea would be different. One of the first things that comes to mind is how could everyone reach a consensus? Design my own society...this could be scary! I read The Giver by Lois Lowry and it is one of my favorite books from a unit we did in school on utopias. One of the most memorable portions of the plot for me has to do with twins. A good read, and easy for young readers too.

Happy almost Friday!