Lemons, Lemons, Lemons

Every year, I promise myself that we wont waste lemons. This year, I started early and gave anybody who came by buckets of lemons. We picked and gave away many wheelbarrels full of lemons and yet there are hundreds of lemons that are now ripening and falling and there's no way we can use them all. Today I squeezed almost 10 bags of juice. I made lemon munchies and lemonade but those things of course don't make a dent. The kids had fun playing in the wheel barrel and throwing lemons out but of course it wasn't as fun to put them in. Ellie actually loves to cut and squeeze the lemons so she did most of the squeezing.

Spring Break

This week my kids were on Spring Break so I tried to balance going out and doing fun activities with just letting the kids relax and play. Overall, I think it was successful. We started out everyday with our piano/reading routine and then went on an outing and tried to get back by 1pm so Mathew could nap and I let them just do what they wanted until Matt got home/dinner.

Mathew is now really into marching. This is his official marching outfit--well, the princess wand is optional, but he's pulled out my strainer every day this week to use as a hat and we go marching down to the garden banging metal spoons and then there is a corner in the garden where he pretends to catch fish. I have no idea where this idea comes from but he can't live without doing it.









One highlight from this week is the science museum. Here is a picture of sophie using a computer to distort an image of herself...I love the beehive hairdo she gave herself. Below is another fun activity where they make their shadows catch balls somehow. We also watched the IMAX movie and it was a struggle keeping Mathew quiet--he wasn't being bad, he was just excited and kept on yelling the names of the animals he recognized. Since I bought a year pass, I decided to take the kids again later that week but Mathew had caught a bug and ended up throwing up after the planetarium movie so we went home early.




The zoo was packed. I did let the kids do the camel rides which they've been begging for. My pet peve in taking the kids places is that they want to buy everything.

My world with a two year old

Troy discovered his hands the other day...he looks so grown up to me. He's still so mellow and just sits there entertained, soaking in the sights and sounds of the house. At the same time, I know there is a lot going on in that brain of his--I feel like he's trying to communicate when I look in his eyes.

Yesterday Mathew was relentlessly mischievous--don't know what got into him. In a 3 hour period he emptied out a bookshelf with books/cds & was jumping on the pile of cds, emptied 2 bottles of lotion onto the pillows on our bed, Matt caught him with his favorite set of Chinese scriptures in his bed (who knows what the plan was) and then I found Matt's cell phone in the foot of the PJs he was wearing. As they say, kids only want 2 things and that is all of your attention all of the time.

I woke up at 3am this morning to Mathew yelling "who turned off the lights again?". I guess you'd have to be there to know how funny that was--Mathew isn't very articulate so it is surprising when real sentences come out.

I signed up for a Mommy-and-me gymnastics class hoping Mathew would benefit, but so far it's been a debacle. He sits there rolling his eyes and folding his arms like a teenager that's "too cool" for that--I'm just waiting for him to start saying "whatever, Mom". I'll give it a few more classes and then stop if he doesn't improve. We should probably stick to our daily bike/park routine since that works better.

I have returned to having him unload the dishwasher in the morning and have extended the duties from plastic wear to also sorting silverwear. Even though it takes 10 times as long to get it done, it's a great routine. He understands the concept of sorting well although today he insisted that the "babies had to be with their mommies" so I had to settle for having all forks together (big and little) --same with the spoons.

Hard questions to answer

The girls love it when I walk with them holding onto my legs-it reminds me of when I was little, I loved to do that with my Dad. Here is a picture of the view from my perspective. Here is another picture of Mathew hunting for worms.








The kids always surprise me with the things they say and questions they ask..I need to start writing them down.

Sophie was talking about a friend of hers who has become "show-offy" recently. Sophie says that in the beginning she seemed nice but "I guess sometimes I'm not a great judge of character". Then she said it's hard to stop being friends with people after you've spent a lot of time with them--she said you become like "suction cups".

Then Ellie was talking about when Troy was in my tummy and said "Mom, you know how your spirit comes into your body when you come to earth?"
I said "yes, why?"
She said, "if there is no spirit in the baby's body when the baby is in your tummy, how is it moving?". Then we talked about how the spirit comes into the body while the baby is in my tummy. Little does she know how many debates have been had on that topic.

We've really enjoyed watching the girls in tennis this Winter. Sophie can serve now and Matt has convinced Ellie to play as a lefty even though she's right-handed. I guess some of the best players have done that. Ellie is starting to get a little tired of piano while Sophie is getting more into it. Sophie now tells me when it's time to practice and likes to show her friends what she can play when they come over. Also, she has gone to play the piano a few times when she has been "raging mad" at Ellie...she says it calms her down.

The Garden Massacre

Last week I planted my Spring garden and was excited to see there were tons of worms in the garden. Well, Mathew discovered them and has been busy all week collecting them. In a way, it seems like a harmless activity but after a while, it did start to get disturbing to see the quantity of worms that were being taken out, examined and never making it. It has been a total massacre of worms. He doesn't kill them purposely but none have survived.

The first picture is his official worm-hunting outfit--note the picture was taken at night. He has been doing this litterally all day, every day this week. He comes in with dirt all over his face and I'm really hoping he hasn't eaten any worms but I can't be sure (see the second picture--you be the judge).

Saturday was a really fun day. We went on a long bike trip on a desert trail that runs from Phoenix to Cave Creek. It was about a 3 hour trip. The girls rode their bikes the whole way and Mathew rode his bike (w/ training wheels) about half way and ran the rest. Matt and I would trade off riding the bike and pushing the jogger with Troy and Mathew's bike. It was a beautiful day and the desert was so green.

The last picture is of our Michelin man. He is more and more alert everyday and loves to give smiles.

Cowgirl skater

Check out the bed head!

I bought a little tikes skateboard since I can see Ellie snooping around for a new challange. It's cool because there are 3 settings to make it safer for kids as they learn. This her trying it out with her new cowboy boots from Grandma. She's convinced and is telling everyone that the boots are made out of real snake skin...who knows, maybe they are.

Jeremiah Johnson

Here are some pictures Matt took while up in Eagar this weekend. I had to laugh because the girls reminded me of that old mountain-man movie "Jaramiah Johnson" (or at least a Scottsdale girl's equivalent).

Sophie once said she liked Eagar because she can just "smooth out and eat chocolate. So I guess these are pictures of the just "smoothing out". No pictures of them skiing came back but Matt said they did really well. The are both convinced they went on black diamonds but I guess even passing a sign that says black diamond counts for them.