Preschool Performance & the "B" Word

When Tyler got home from school today, he excitedly replayed his day for me, like he usually does. Today's recap ended with "And ** got in trouble in gym today for saying the "b" word! He got in a lot of trouble!" Again, I felt the need to find out exactly what Tyler meant by "the b word", so I cautiously asked him what the "b" word was. He shook his head and said, "Mom, we've talked about this before. You know (he pointed & whispered) wiener." Phew. I don't know how we keep managing to avoid these close encounters. Fortunately Tyler's too lazy to think out the logistics of a "b" word starting with a "w". When he retold the story to Ron tonight, it came out that he didn't actually hear the expletive as it happened, but he did get to observe the fallout.

Danielle's preschool class took a trip to a nursing home today to sing for the elderly residents. Danielle was a little nervous, but I assured her no one would throw footballs at her like her 97 year old aunt did the last time we visited. (All in good fun, of course.)

The kids sang 6 or 7 songs for the room full of residents and then passed out pictures they colored to each of the residents who attended. Here are a couple videos.





I have to admit that I was totally caught off guard at the nursing home today. When we walked into that room full of elderly women, I couldn't help but think of my grandma, who passed away almost a year ago. While I watched the kids sing, I was struck by how much joy it would have brought my grandma to hear these little children - and especially her great granddaughter - singing about Jesus in their precious little voices, and I cried. It didn't help any when Danielle decided to give her picture to the one lady in the room who really looked like my grandma. When the kids were all done, one lady stood up, said some very kind things about the kids, and thanked them all for coming. She was 105, which Danielle later declared was "even older than Dad!"

Made Me Laugh

Tyler brought home this paper today, and it made me laugh out loud. Despite his "N" quality handwriting (which does not seem to be improving), I thought I'd share it.

And what is it about pony tails that make a little girl that much cuter?!

Name That Baby

I'm putting together a baby shower for Danielle's preschool teacher. One of the games I thought the kids would enjoy is Name That Baby. I managed to get a picture of the teacher when she was a baby, and have received some pictures of other kids in the class. Tyler has always looked like Tyler, but I've always thought that Danielle looks so much different than she did as a baby. When I look at these pictures, though, I can see the same Danielle, especially in the eyes. Regardless of what picture you look at, you have to admit she's pretty.

4 months


7 months


5 years, 5 months

That's Disgusting (But Kind of Funny)

Sorry. It was a slow news day.*

(You might need to turn up the volume)

*Actually, I uploaded this a couple days ago but was afraid it was too disgusting to post. Since then I've decided I've definitely posted grosser things, so here you go. Be entertained.

Our Infomercial

Tyler has been an infomercial junkie for some time. The biggest one we joke about at home is the Sham-Wow! commercial. We saw someone demonstrating one at the state fair this summer and have regretted not buying it, simply for its entertainment value. The kids and I plotted this week while Ron was gone and decided to buy him one for Valentine's Day. It was every bit as entertaining as we had hoped!

We decided to make our own Sham-Wow! infomercial to see how well it works. The lighting was a little bad, but you can see enough to be amused. Of course, maybe this is something that just makes our family laugh. Hmmm. Anyway, here it is (and yes, we spent the day in our pjs!!):

Valentine Party #1

Danielle's class had their valentine party this afternoon. Here are a couple pictures & a video. I was trying to tape Danielle singing, but I think the teacher ended up being more of the focal point.

We had a wild storm tonight. It is still extremely windy - 45-60 mph winds - but the rain isn't as heavy. The wind is so bad that both kids are still up because it's too noisy to sleep. Tyler's convinced the roof is going to blow off, and that last gust made Danielle jump out of bed. Anyway, there was a short clearing after the worst of it, and we saw the most beautiful rainbows. They were so brilliant and big. Of course, you can't really capture God's majesty in a photo, so you'll have to take my word for it regarding their beauty.

The Zoo

Today I got Tyler out of school 1/2 hour early and the three of us visited the zoo for a couple hours. It was supposed to be 60 today, which is what I was counting on when I planned our excursion. Although it ended up only being in the low 50s, it was still much warmer than it has been in a long time. We had a really nice time. To the kids, this was a spontaneous adventure (getting out of school early) that deviated from the normal routine. I think that made it even more enjoyable. It also helped the kids forget that Dad will be gone until Saturday.

I don't think we saw more than 20 other people at the zoo today, if that. It felt like we owned the place. We were able to spend a lot of time watching the silver langur monkies. Danielle really enjoyed watching the baby run around and pick on the other monkies. He was born on Danielle's birthday this past summer and was orange the last time we saw him.

We also enjoyed the flying fox bats. I have seen these several times, but I am always amazed by them. They are so huge! They had just been fed and were very active while we were there. Several of them were "walking" across the ceiling and spreading out their wings. They're usually asleep while we're there, so it was a treat to get to watch them.

The kids also thoroughly enjoyed the tiger. He was right up against the window and had been playing with part of a cardboard box when we walked up. He was fun to watch. We were all amazed at how big he was and how huge his head was. Although he didn't sound quite like we expected, I'm sure he could sound fierce if he needed to.

I made the right choice in taking the kids' boots! I remember going one time after the snow had melted and yelling at the kids the entire time to stay out of the puddles. We were prepared this time! We really did have a great time.

Valentine Box

Tyler was very excited about designing his valentine box this year. And he was very particular. He decided he wanted to make his box look like a robot, and it had to be covered in crinkly foil. At the craft store he decided it just had to have pipe cleaner antenna with large jingle bells at the ends. I've wanted an excuse to buy colored duct tape, so I convinced him that he needed that, too. Last year his box was too small, so this year he wanted to be sure it was big enough. I couldn't find any small boxes anyway, so he was in luck. He consulted with Ron, enlisted my help, and created this:

















(The flash kept glaring off the foil, making it difficult to get a decent picture.)











The valentines go in his belly.



I think it looks great.



















And not to be left out, here is Danielle mixing ingredients for cookies. Since she has a summer birthday, she gets to celebrate her 1/2 birthday at school (which she did on Friday.) She wanted to take in homemade, heart-shaped cookies with pink icing and multi-colored sprinkles. (It's too bad my kids don't know what they want.) She mixed the ingredients, cut out the cookies, ate the dough, and sprinkled the hearts. She did a good job. She's now officially 5 1/2.

Journal Humor

The other day Tyler brought home a journal he had been working on at school. It's neat to look through it and see how much his writing and spelling have improved since the beginning of the year. Some of his entries really made me laugh. I especially liked these two:

Barack Obama won the presidential election. He will be the 44th president of our country.

His comment over Obama's picture is what I loved about this one: big hed

(For the record, he said he knows the right way to spell "head", he just didn't feel like it.)

Danielle wasn't as amused about this one as I was.

If I could ride with Santa it would be fun! I would get to see his list. My sister is not on it!