Insight

Brenna was watching "Sleeping Beauty". For those of you who aren't familiar, here's a brief synopsis:
Sleeping Beauty is cursed at birth (the whole spinning-wheel-finger-prick thing) so these 3 fairies take her into the woods to raise her in secret. On her 16th birthday they send her out to pick berries so that they can create a surprise party for her. Instead of picking berries, Sleeping Beauty dances/falls in love with a handsome boy, though they never manage to exchange names. Meanwhile, back at the cottage, the party preparations are a complete flop because even though these fairies have been magic-free for 16 YEARS, they have yet to figure out that you bake the cake before you frost it. So Sleeping Beauty comes home, the fairies yell surprise, she tells them about the handsome boy, they tell her that she can never see him again because she is really a princess and is betrothed to a prince, and Sleeping Beauty ever-so-dramatically throws herself on her bed and sobs.

Brenna was downstairs watching this movie while I was upstairs. I came down, and here's the conversation:
Brenna: Mom, Sleeping Beauty was crying on her bed.
Me: Oh, No! Why was she crying?
Brenna: Because those fairies maked a Birthday cake and it was yucky.

Bird Books

Late last night I realized that I am currently reading 2 books that are not about birds, but there are birds in the titles. So I started trying to think of some more. Here's what I've come up with:
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I Heard the Owl Call My Name - Margaret Craven
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelo
The Song of the Lark - Willa Cather
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China - Jung Chang
Hawk of May - Gillian Bradshaw
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Can't remember the author

Can you think of any others?

Fun Stuff

These are just a few random pics I've taken recently.
Ethan and Blake are best friends!

Man, I love this kid's smile!!!

This picture was taken while the kids were playing hide-and-seek in the front yard. Nobody could figure out where Brenna was. Great hiding spot, right?

Spring Break in Ogden

For Spring Break we traveled to far-away Ogden. It was a pretty short little trip, but we packed a lot of fun into those 2 days. First we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch, then drove the rest of the way to Ogden and checked into our hotel. I made sure to get a hotel with an indoor swimming pool, so the next thing we did was swim. Blake and Brenna are not great swimmers, so I took them back to the room after about 45 minutes. Ethan, Taylie and James stayed for longer.

Ethan and Blake in our hotel room

After swimming we ate dinner, then went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D. This picture is of Taylie and Brenna wearing the special 3-D glasses.

The next morning we went to Ogden's Children's Museum (called the Treehouse Museum). It was really fun for the kids! There are a ton of hands-on exhibits. This picture is of the kids banging and African drum in the Music room.

Here are Taylie and Brenna working on some art project or another. There were at least 5 different art project areas in the museum.

Next we went to Washington DC, where Ethan hung out with President Obama in the Oval Office. (In case anyone is confused, this is just another exhibit in the Treehouse Museum.)

After the Treehouse Museum we had lunch and headed to Eccles Dinosaur Park. The kids really liked this as well. There is an indoor museum, but most of the fun is outside. There are a bunch of walking trails, and as you walk along you pass dozens of life-size dinosaur statues. It was fun to find our favorite dinos. There is also a large playground area. This picture is Brenna sitting on a half-hatched dino baby.

This picture is of the kids feeding the fish in this large pond. 50 cents of fish food = 50 seconds of fun. You can see one of the dino statues in the background.

And finally, here are the kids inside a dino skull.

After the dinosaur park we drove home. I really don't remember much about the drive (good thing James was behind the wheel) and I don't remember anything at all about that evening. I may have fallen asleep before the kids did. I don't remember my childhood vacations being quite so exhausting. Oh wait, that's because I was a CHILD. Vacations aren't much work for the little ones. My parents, on the other hand, were probably total zombies. It was nice to get home. The trip was fun though. We made some great memories.

Taylie

This is Taylie: I got my eas pearst on last saturday and ges wat Brenna was spiting at me bad Brenna bad
Here are the earings. She chose a blue-green color that is really pretty. I can't believe how grown-up my little girl is!

Cool Quote

Politically "the right thing" may be as changeable as the moon, but morally "the right thing" remains as fixed as the North Star.
-First Mothers, by Bonnie Angelo, page 71

Hooded Towel

I'm not sure how this tradition got started, but I've taken every child's picture in the same hooded towel. Here they are. What cuties!
Ethan - My only pacifier baby

Taylie - Check out those cheeks! That blob on her face is water from the bath.

Brenna - Somehow the little stinker manages to look the most angelic.

Blake - My little sweetheart. I misplaced that hooded towel the others were wearing. After tearing my house apart for weeks, I finally broke down and just bought a new one. It isn't exactly the same, but it does the trick.

April Fools' Day

Hmmm . . . is it April Fools' Day, because there are multiple fools? Or is there only on fool, making it April Fool's Day? I'm guessing multiple fools. But that really doesn't matter all that much. Here's the trick:
After I got the kids off to school on Wednesday morning, I sat down to pour myself a bowl of cheerios. Only what came out of the box was corn flakes! Ethan had taken all of the bags out of the cereal boxes and switched them around. Very, very sneaky. I was a bit sad that he wasn't around to see me fall for it, but I made sure to tell him all about it when he got home.

Book of the Week: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation
Sticklers Unite!! This is a really funny book about the ins and outs of comma usage, the ABC's of apostraphes, and the rules for lesser understood punctuation such as semicolons and hyphens. If you've ever wondered about the difference between their, there, and they're, this is the book for you. If you've ever been tempted to take a red pen to a thank-you note, this is the book for you. If you've ever really wanted to correct the grammar of the officer writing the speeding ticket (I was not driving "to fast". I was driving "too fast". There's a big difference.), then you need to read this book. It is very informative and funny, and it makes sticklers like me feel a little bit justified in our quirky, grammar-obsessed way of life.

Lion Brenna

Brenna was a little lion in the Wizard of Oz. She is the one right behind the big lion. The big lion, by the way, is our neighbor across the street, so Brenna was pretty excited about that. The first video clip is the beginning of the dance. I got it right this time!!! In the second clip, Brenna is supposed to be doing little hand motions, but she got a little bit stage-struck. She wasn't alone. There are 9 girls in the class, and only 2 of them did any hand motions at all. Brenna was just the cutest little lion I ever saw!

Tornado Taylie

The girls' dance studio did a production of The Wizard of Oz. Taylie's class were little tornados. The teacher said "Make the audience fear you!". I was scared. Once again, I can't seem to figure out the correct order in which to upload the videos. The first video is actually the end of the dance. In that one, it is difficult to point out which dancer is Taylie because they all move around too much. In the second video (the beginning of the dance) Taylie is in the center.