February 11, 2018

Shelbi and her cute friends, recipients of the Superintendent Scholar award.

  The cutest pirate in the 1st grade.  She still can't say her r's correctly, so her pirate "Arrrr" sounded more like "Ayyyy." Not quite as intimidating.

  The elementary classes had their Valentine's Day parties early.  Ryan was surprised that I'd let him make a black box with a broken heart.  If he's making it himself, he can do whatever he wants.

  The brave homeroom mom in Bailey's class let them make slime for their party activity.

All ready for her glow-in-the-dark themed school dance.  Ooh-la-la!

  I told Shelbi that she needs to start doing interesting things so this doesn't turn into the Brynnie blog.  This week she complied.  She participated in a piano festival this weekend.  She had to memorize two pieces and then play them on this big stage in an empty auditorium for the judge.  She said she wasn't nervous.  I would have been. She did awesome!

  See, I'm not the only one who's enthralled with this baby.  Bath time was especially splashy and giggly tonight.

  This may be the strangest Sunday afternoon game the kids have come up with.  It's called "Miko Chico Burrito."  Once one person has wrapped up tightly in the blanket, Ryan yells, "Dis one's for Russia!" in a Russian accent.  Then he sings "Rock-a-bye Baby" in the Russia accent while the others try to unwrap the burrito.  Wha...?

February 4, 2018

  Not having a baby in the house for six years made me forget a lot. Like how all of my babies loved to empty the bedroom garbage can every chance they got.

  It's hard for me to take seriously these kinds of scout ceremonies.  Looks like Erik was serious enough for both of us at his bridge crossing from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  Yep, that's a thing.  On a side note, for a long time Jeff was Cub Master and I was Primary President, in charge of Cub Scouts.  That wooden bridge thing in the picture was our responsibility for three or four years.  We kept it in our storage unit.  I could guarantee a frustrated Jeff every time we had to get something out of storage.  This thing is cumbersome, takes up too much space, and never stands up by itself.  When we were both released from Cub Scouts, the first thing we thought of was we could finally get rid of the stupid bridge.

  I let her play in all the forbidden cupboards this morning.  She was elated, going quickly from one to the next before I came to my senses.

"Hey, look what I figured out how to open!"

Super Bowl cheesesteaks...

...and cheesecakes.

Let's get a closer look at Bailey over Shelbi's shoulder...

Fly Eagles Fly!!

January 28, 2018

A little bit of a delay.  Slow time of year for pictures...

I'm pretty sure there was more squishing than eating going on.

  Does she really have to turn seven?  I know it's cliche to say that you wish your kids could stay young.  Of course I don't want her to stay young.  I just want her to stay the confident, sweet, creative girl who always assumes everyone likes her. 

  As part of her lesson on gravity in science, Bailey had to make a vessel for an egg drop.  She designed and assembled this herself.  That's a tissue box covered in cotton balls.  She buried the egg in the middle of the tissues and surrounded it with more cotton balls.  The egg didn't break when dropped from the highest point on the school playground!  And I must say this box is totally representative of Bailey--soft, fun, and a little crazy.