Lexey's soccer party - 5th birthday

Alexey recently started soccer and with her excitement for her new sport she decided she wanted a soccer party. I rented the NCSP mini field for an hour to let the kids play and then we had cupcakes.

 

Also, this is Lexey's favorite dress. She wears it at least twice a week! Usually she has a pink sweater she wears over it also.

 I had a lot of soccer games planned but the kids mostly loved just running around on the field with their balls and doing their own thing.

 Lex enjoyed playing soccer for about 10 minutes but then as she saw all of her friends arriving with presents she wanted to open presents. While I had talked excessively with her about good manners when opening presents such as saying "thank you" even if you don't like it and taking the time to say thank you to each person, etc. I hadn't prepared her for waiting for present time.

 
 

 Here she is pouting b/c we can't open presents! :)

Jo was like a little energizer bunny on the field. She loved running around and playing. Usually she is just on the sidelines! She actually does a really good job dribbling. She may also like soccer when she gets a little older!

"cheese"

Here's the gang. Lex invited about 10 friends from church and school + Calvin and Clare and cousin Parker!

 I looked around online for soccer cupcakes and realized right away I was not going to make soccer cupcakes with black and white frosting. Way too messy and hard. I found this idea instead. All I did was print off on my computer at home lots of little soccer ball clip arts and then glued 2 together with a toothpick in between  to make a little cupcake topper. Easy and cute.

Also I didn't get a picture but for the favor I got each kid a water bottle and put in a couple of little things- cheese and crackers and gummies and 2 little soccer ball chocolates  I hate all the junk toys that you have to buy for goodie bags so this was better. It was a little more expensive but worth it in my mind to have something useful and the rest of the party was cheap since we weren't doing any food.

All in all it was a great 1st party for my lex. We were also lucky enough to be in Reno with Dave's family for her real birthday so she was spoiled with two parties this year!

jo talks

After my post a few days ago about Jo, listing some of the words she says I realized that she talks a lot more than I gave her credit for. She can pretty much keep up on everything that is going on. She definitely can understand everything we say and can respond with an answer or follow directions.

One of the funny things she does is tattle - she'll say "mom....exey....." and by her tone you know exactly what she is saying. She'll also tattle on Tressel. His name sounds  a lot like "tutu".

When we drop of Lex at school she says "where exey?" I'll say she's at school and jo will say "why?"

Food - she loves to eat- she says cereal, cookie, cracker, drink

speaking of drink - she calls all water drink including our swimming pool and the ocean.

She calls all dogs Tressel. She can also say dog but still calls them tressel. She also says cat.

She says the blessed toddler words  "MINE"  "NO" "STOP"

She says "funny"

When we pass a playground she says "play"

When I pick up prescriptions she says "hungry" -because it is drive thru and she hears the bag in the car and thinks I've picked up something yummy like in-n-out!

She is such a delight! I love her little interpretations of the world.

dave loves piano

For our anniversary this year I gave Dave the gift of piano lessons. I signed him up for and paid for some lessons (so he couldn't "return" the gift) for his last few months of research time.  It will be a long while or never when he has a chance to take time out of his day for something like this.  He had been fiddling around a lot on the piano trying to learn a few songs and teaching himself some scales in some of his spare time.  To be totally honest, he was sort of driving me nuts because every spare minute he had I would hear him pounding away at the piano! I decided to direct this energy towards real piano progress so I signed him up with Clare's teacher. He takes approximately two 45 minute lessons/month. Since his schedule is sporadic, his teacher has been kind enough to be flexible with setting times for him and being flexible if he has to cancel and reschedule. Dave has loved it and says it was a great gift. He is really enjoying himself. He is assigned classical music, scales and other finger exercises like hannon, and a couple of hymns each week. For the hymns, to test if they are singable his teacher makes him play while she conducts and sings along!   Dave has not had much piano background so he is also learning a lot of theory and music language that he had not otherwise known.  

Dave is really enjoying this musical world!

Every night when Dave is brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed he finds himself a concert pianist to listen to. One of his favorites is Beethoven Moonlight Sonata mov 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucBfXpCA6s

He has also been reading about pianos and dreaming of the future grand piano he wants to have in our home.

He has also been reading about the history of piano and some of the composers he is interested in.

Ever since he started piano lessons and this increased interest in piano he has been more tolerant of classical music I play in the car, excitedly came to a Mozart symphony with me (previously would not have been excited about this).

It has been fun to have Dave taking lessons for Clare's sake too. She enjoys checking to make sure his fingers are curved and gets a kick out of the fact that he has lessons just like she does. He is a good example since he practices hard and likes to practice (whereas clare says she "hates piano" and doesn't always love practicing).

sweet jo

Jo is growing up and changing so fast!  We all love her!  Clare made this hat for girl scouts. Of course Jo stole it before it was even decorated!

 

It is so hard to get a pic of jo these days! She is always on the move. (Plus she's had a runny nose for 3 months). I pulled out the camera to try and get at least a few of her. She is a delightful little person with more and more personality day by day.

 "cheese"

Jo is talking about everything! Here are some of her words/phrases: hungry, thirsty, NO TRESSEL!, NO, stinky, thank you, Clare, Here you go, Lexey, Calvin, Mama, Dada, that, NO, YEP!, help, shoe, sock (although I'm pretty sure she calls both shoes and socks "socks" - at one point she did have both words!), cat, cow, hat, head, nose, eye, book, please, where lexey?, where dada?, why?

I have to highlight YEP! IF you ask her any question she says either no or yep, but usually it is yep! It is darling!

She still cries at night sometimes but when I hold her she settles right back to sleep in my arms. Since she is most likely my last baby I love these special moments and am much more patient about having her wake up on occasion than I was with any of the other kids!

Here's Clare's hat all finished!

lexey

I love Lexey! She is such a funny little girl. She is clever, feisty, aggressive  competitive, smart and fearless. I get a big kick out of her.

Lately she's done a few funny things I want to remember.

- she calls her forehead her twohead!

- she came into bed with me a few nights ago in the middle of the night. She said, "Mom, do you know why I'm wearing new jammies? Because my other jammies got all sweaty. My bed got sweaty too."  This happened one other time months ago and when i told her she had peed in bed she freaked out and said, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" so I didn't say anything to her this time, cuddled her for a bit in my bed and then took her down to her room and changed her sheets and blankets. She is so funny.

- A school district nurse came over to our house to visit with me and Calvin.  She walked in the door and came in and was chatting for a little while. Lexey always hangs on and talks non stop to anyone who comes over, so as usual Lex was following her around and talking to her. Then out of the blue Lex reaches up with two hands and grabs her boobs! I kid you not! Apparently she was pretty fascinated as she hasn't seen much of those around here.

- Once or twice a month Lexey comes and crawls in bed with us. Usually she doesn't stay long and wants to be walked back to her own bed, but on a rare occasion will fall asleep with us for a while.  Recently she told me "mom, I had a bad dream one time. All the other times I was lying so that I coud come get in bed with you."

-Also, I love that she cries during movies. Anything with a happy part in it, she'll either cry (shed a tear or two) or say, "mom, it was such a good part I almost cried."    She says that after almost every good movie we watch.  The most recent movie she almost cried while watching was Wreck-It-Ralph and before that it was Madagascar 3 and A Cinderella Story! 

More on Lex soon! It is her birthday this week!

randoms

reading "boop" -as jo calls it

we love the science center

I'm guessing Lex was the photographer. She loves the camera

Got a coupon and took Calvin to this awesome haircut store where you can play video games while they cut your hair. Pretty sure we'll go back. I like to cut Calvin's hair myself but sometimes he won't let me so this is a good option.

 Jo recently discovered the joy of dipping.

My cousin came to visit with her 4 great boys and stayed with us for a couple of days. It was such a treat to have them here. We had Pete and Jessica over one night for dinner so this is a picture of all the kids - 1st and 2nd cousins I believe!

The first grade Christmas concert. It was cute. Everyone in our family loves the song "Must Be Santa" best - 3 months later and we're still singing it!

Kids Sing Christmas Concerts!

Well, here it is March and I've never posted any pictures of Kids Sing! Better late than never, right!

 

In Kids Sing we have two groups. Wee Sing for 3-5 year old preschoolers and Kids Sing for K-3rd graders. Lex is in the little group and Clare in the older group.

 

Crazy Lexey eyes in her cute Kids Sing t-shirt!

Clare and Lex ready for the concert!

I teach the preschool class. It is fun. They are great. It is 30 minutes each week at my house (during Jo's nap time so very convenient). I am not an amazing house keeper so it is good motivation to have Monday be a cleaning day!

The Kids Sing costumes turned out perfect and looked so great on stage.  We sung at a community Christmas in the Park event (pictured here) and at an elementary school for family and at a retirement community. Everything turned out really well.  Jessica is so cute with the kids. Kids sing is a highlight of Clare's week.  Lexey on the other hand, doesn't always like to participate. She likes the concerts but will not sit still for class. Being the mom and the teacher I can't take her aside or discipline her during class time so sometimes I bribe her to be good with TV time or treats.  She is a little fire cracker!