AcroSports Birthday Party Fun

One of the kids' school friends had a birthday party at AcroSports and this meant we got to try out the zipline again!  YAY!

And the trapeze!

April Goings On

Here are some highlights from the ol' photo roll this April:

We went to Sequoia for the dress rehearsal of the dance show.  The kids piled on my lap in the audience and would watch as the dancers got set on stage during the "black outs" between numbers and whisper to me, "Mommy! There's a BOY in this one!"  This happened a lot, as there are three boys in Advanced Dance and more in Intermediate.  At intermission, they were whining to go, but then one of the boys from Advanced Dance came up and introduced himself to the kids as a fellow triplet.  And then that became the focus of the second half of the show - "Mommy! That's the boy who said he's a triplet!"

Then it was time for hair cuts.  We went back to Salon de Annie and the boys got their hair shorn off - it is so thick that they seem to cut off twice as much as they have to  to get it looking sharp.

We have reached that age.  The children have learned what wedgies are.  But they are not clear on the element of surprise so they ask each other permission - "Caroline? Can I give you a wedgie?" or they even offer themselves up as victims - "Now it's MY turn to get a wedgie!"

Wedgie train!

Big Kid Beds and New Rooms

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that the kids were five and a half years old and still sleeping in toddler beds (essentially, in their cribs with the fourth side removed), crammed into a tiny shared room. The plan was always for the boys to move, eventually, into the "sun room" in the far back of the house when they were old enough.  We inherited a bunk bed from our friends the Evans and it has been sitting lonely in there for years (except for occasional visits from  Caroline the mountain goat).  And the rest of the room filled up with junk and stuff.

So on April 1st, when I was off school and the kids were in school, Grandma and I hired some nice ladies to come in and help me de-clutter and get the rooms set up.  Then on Saturday we had the 1-800-Got-Junk guys to come out and schlep all the junk out (and a bunch of the stuff from the basement) and paid them a few bucks extra to carry Caroline's new bed (also from the Evans) and chest of drawers (from Laura and Alexa) so that Uncle and I wouldn't have to.

And just like that, the baby room was gone and we were ready for big kids.  

Caroline had to bunk with me for one night until Uncle could come over and help me assemble her bed, but once she was moved in, she was set.  There's a trundle underneath that is currently stuffed to the gills with stuffed animals and which she hides baby clothes in that she wants to "keep for my baby dolls to wear".  She decided she didn't want to take all her brothers' decorations down off the walls, which is kind of sweet.

When the kids came home the first day they INSTANTLY wanted to move their clothes into their new dressers, which means they are no longer spilling all over the living room.  (YAY!)  This also meant that I could convert their old clothes "organizer" into a toy cabinet and move the old toy cabinet into Caroline's room to house her dolls and hair things and make-up supplies.  Now the boys want their toys in their room, but we'll work on that one slowly as there really isn't room.

It is amazing how much bigger the house feels now that we are actually using all of its rooms.

Montessori Observation Day - the last time (*sob*)

Part of the philosophy behind the kids' pre-school is that once a year parents are invited to observe them in school during a regular day for about 45 minutes.  The kids were incredibly excited to show off what they were doing and at times weren't able to separate themselves to do individual work.  Max started working on a United States puzzle and was asking me what different states were.  He was pleased to notice that Florida (where Boppy is working and where we had just visited in February) and California were both colored pink on the map.  When Daniel saw them, he announced, "Well, that's why the plane ride took so long! Look how far apart they are!"

Daniel was showing off his numerals and counters, showing that he recognizes his digits and can count.

Caroline worked with maps of Europe, matching the two sides to each other.

One of the things I specifically remember from my time at Montessori was learning to lace shoes and do buttons.  The third of these tasks is the "buckling frame", which Max tackled next.

Daniel moved on to Color Box 3, matching colors, but it is a project that takes a long time and he wanted to show off other things during my brief visit, so he put it back and rolled up his mat (this is the most amazing - and frustrating - part of watching them.  They are perfectly happy to put everything back where it goes at school, while at home their toys are everywhere.)

Both Max and Daniel migrated to a table to do "metal insets" - a task that involves tracing both inside and outside a shape and then drawing stripes inside the shape.  What is interesting in these pictures is that the boys - who have been going back and forth on which hand they use to write with all year - are using both hands here too.  Max, who has mostly decided to be a righty, traced inside the shape with his left hand, then outside with his right. Daniel, who has settled in to being a lefty, traced inside the shape with his right hand, then switched over.

Toward the end of my time there, the kids decided to team up on things.

I got hugs and kisses at the end of the visit and then they bopped off to do some more "hard work".