This little lady

I get home from work tonight and Tom tells me this story. He, Donovan and Ruby are all outside in the front yard playing. An F-15 flies over our house and Ruby hears the roar of the engines before she can see the plane. Tom says as soon as she hears it she gets a look of terror on her face, takes off running towards the house and yells, “DONO!!!!!!RUN!!!!!! IT’S A MONSTER!!!!”

Now I love this story for two reasons:
1) it’s hilarious
2) it shows her absolute love for her brother that even when she is sure that they are under attack and seconds from getting eaten by a monster, she is thinking of him and his well-being.

She rocks.

Alternate words

Ruby is talking so much. She talks in full sentences and will have whole conversations with or without your participation. My most favorite thing she does now a days is the “alternate” words she has chosen for some things.

For example:
Me? I’m not momma anymore, I’m “Mom-pa”. Donovan? Oh he’s just “Don-Don.” Would you like her to do a somersault for you with no hands? Then you will need to ask her to do a “raindrop”. And are those nipples on her chest? Nope, those are newts. Dono doesn’t have braces but “shiny teeth” or “sprinkles” on his teeth. And squirrels? She’s never heard of them. But (s)QUAILS (the s is super silent), now those she loves to point out.

Weeeeeeerrrreeee bbaaaaaacccccckkkkk

Soooooo, after a brief hiatus (🤣) here we are! We added another crazy person to this family and she has lots of fun things that she is doing that we want to remember for forever so here goes nothing! Not making any promises though this time around. Gonna learn from past empty promises. And now for the pictures:

Green popsicle tongue

10th birthday cake is actually just ice cream

Our 8 yr old artist!

All the crazies! (Minus the parents)

Reese quotes and such

Reese was a super chatter box tonight so I told her that. I meant it in the cutest way possible as I was loving her running commentary but big brother used the word as a taunt and started taunting her.

Dono: "Reese is a chatterbox, Reese is a chatterbox, Reese is a chatter box!"
Reese: (NOT happy with the taunting) "Dono, don't say that word! It's not good to God!" (looked at Tom and I to see our reactions to see if she used that point correctly)

Tom and I did our best but we couldn't keep a straight face after a couple of seconds.
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Reese: "Mom, did you see Miss Nadina's hair? It's pink now. She got a haircut too. I think she just got it cut and it just turned pink."

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I had Reese's teacher conference tonight at her school. Her teacher Ms. Julie called her one of the "dominant females" in the class.  I had to laugh. She could not have hit the nail any more on the head.

Family Facepainting

A little over a month ago we decided to have a homemade face paint day.There was nothing fancy about it. We took turns painting each other with regular, washable kid paint meant for paper.  It was itchy when it dried but otherwise worked quite well for a last minute idea. Here are some of the during and after pictures.

I painted Reese. She is supposed to be a kitty.

Part way through my face paint by Reese. This is before she realized she hadn't used EVERY color.

Finished product. She got as close to getting it in my eye without ACTUALLY getting it in my eye.

Dono painted Tom. It's a car on his face of course.

This was my best try at a zombie.

Some pics of the kids

DAD POST: Conversations with Reese

So Ellen is out of town on her first ever, super important, high-class businesswoman work trip, which means it's single dad time all week! I was a tad nervous about it since she left Tuesday and won't be back until late night on Friday, but the children have been extremely good and we've been having a great time. So much so that Reese is actually talking to me! It's a breakthrough! Here are a few of the conversations we had just today.

In the car on the way home from school, talking about the big storm that rolled through last night:

Reese: Daddy, I like the color of lightning.
Daddy: Oh yeah? What color is lightning, Reese?
R: I don't know.
D: Is it white?
R: No.
D: I think it's kind of like a white light. Like a bright white light.
R: White light?
D: Yeah, don't you think it's like a white light?
R: No.
D: Well what color do you think it is then?
R: Thunder.

At home, talking about a nap:

Daddy: Reese, did you take a nap today?
Reese: Yes.
D: How long was your nap?
R: I don't know, I think for 55 hours.

At bedtime, discussing why I went and played hockey tonight:

Reese: Daddy, why did you leave and go play hockey tonight?
Daddy: I go and play hockey every Thursday night.
R: Why?
D: Because I like to play.
R: Why?
D: Because it's fun.
R: Oh, when I'm your age I'm going to play hockey for fun.

Little princess is currently asleep in her bed wearing her pink Blues jersey.

3 yr old pre-school and 5 yr old kindergarten interview

I interviewed both kids last night as a first annual preschool tradition. My plan is to ask the kids these questions every year right at the beginning of school to see how their answers change over time. Without further ado, the questions and answers:

Donovan, age 5. 8/11/14- Night before the first day of kindergarten
Favorite color: Dark Blue
Best friend: Palmer (from the Berry Patch)
Favorite food: Chocolate ice cream with M&Ms as the topping
Favorite sport: Baseball
What do you want to be when you grow up? A baseball player
Favorite toy: Lego cars
Favorite Fruit: Strawberries
Favorite TV show: Baseball games or Peppa Pig
Favorite animal: Cheetah
Favorite Song: "Everything is awesome" from the Lego Movie
Favorite book: Hotwheel books
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite Movie: The Lego Movie
What are you most looking forward to doing in kindergarten? Playing cars

Reese, age 3. 8/11/14- Week before she moves to the 4 year old's class in preschool (Ms. Julie's class)
Favorite color: Pink
Best friend: Alice (from the Berry Patch)
Favorite food: Grilled cheese sandwich
Favorite sport: Dance
What do you want to be when you grow up? A dancer
Favorite toy: Elsa barbie (from "Frozen") and Buzz light year
Favorite Fruit: Strawberries
Favorite TV show: Shark week (it just so happens to be shark week now) and Jake and the neverland pirate
Favorite animal: Giraffe, elephant and cat
Favorite Song: "Let it go" from the movie Frozen
Favorite book: 5 minute Disney Princess stories
Favorite holiday: Halloween
Favorite Movie: Toy Story 3
What are you most looking forward to doing in this year in school? Playing with my friends

First day of school!!!

Today was Donovan's first day of kindergarten. To say he was excited is an understatement. He barely ate any of his breakfast because he was "too excited" and he spent a couple minutes before the bus picked him up running laps around our front yard to "get his energy out". Here are the obligatory pictures he let us take.

When the bus came he was so excited to get on he almost couldn't spare the time to give me a kiss goodbye.

And for everyone who wants to know, I didn't cry!!! I got a little teary when I drove past his school with Reese on the way to drop her off and she said, "Mom, look! That's Dono's school!".

He will be riding the bus every morning and riding home twice a week. The other days he is staying in the after school program. Today when I picked him up he was crowded around the lego table with a bunch of other kids, looking like he was having a blast. The after school teacher told me he was quite the sports nut, as he did really well playing kickball and even held his own with the older boys. He told me he almost hit a "home run". Donovan reported he had a great day at school. Told me he met a girl named Mickalya, and spoke about her a couple times so it looks like he already made a friend (they sit right next to each other in his class). He did tell me two areas of "bad news" as he likes to call anything that happens that he doesn't like, 1) Was that one of the boys in the after school program told him he wasn't good at building legos 2) And the second that a kid stuck his tongue out and blew raspberries at him and unzipped his back pack. He was not too phased by either so I was happy with that. I asked him if the good outweighed the bad today and he said, "Oh yeah!". As I laid in bed with him tonight I told him how I was happy he had a great first day and he said, "I always do!" Turns out I worried for nothing :)

Fun with friends

We have been lucky to do lots of fun stuff so far this late spring/early summer with our friends. Here are some of the fun stuff I have actually gotten pictures of:

Going to a minor league hockey game with Claire and Owen (and parents). We adults even braved Outback steakhouse with all these kids and they did great! We are finally at that point where we can go to restaurants (or "rest-ra-nauts" as Dono still calls them) and actually all enjoy our meals and our time. It's lovely.

We went to Ian and Colin's house for their magic themed birthday. The magician also made balloon animals so Reese had him make... drumroll please... a kitty.

Hanging with their friend Abby. She never stops moving. Didn't get a pic of the birthday boys, they were too busy.

We went to Grant's farm with Owen and Claire and their cousins Ray and Sam. It was perfect because Reese and Claire were inseparable and Dono and Ray best buddies as well.

Both kids were really excited to get a map of the place. They were VERY territorial of these maps.

Dono and Ray rode the camel together and Reese and Claire rode together. Claire's mom said she didn't think that Claire would have been brave enough to ride the camel if it weren't for Reese so Reese's bravery rubbed off!

A post snow-cone smile picture if I ever saw one.

This past week Penelope (or "Pa-len-o-pee" to Donovan) had her 4th birthday at the bowling alley. Donovan was definitely the best bowler but Reese bowled about 4 frames and declared she was done. Not enough princess and make believe for that girl.