Birthday Suits and Other Stuff

Luci and her friend Hannah had a joint birthday party at a local party spot.  The kids all had a great time! 

 

This was the cake (really cupcakes put together to resemble a cake).  This came with the party deal.  The woman had to tell me what it was.  Can you guess?  It's a monkey.  So she said.

Opening gifts--there is a splendid "birthday chair" to sit in.  Since the girls both wanted to be first (of course), we put them both in the chair at once and the melee began!

Really, though, it was not confusing at all.  Each girl was honored, and so pleased with their gifts, and their friends did not look like it was an odd thing at all to have both girls going at once.

 

Kalyn and Luci!  Best friends.

John is ready to go home.  He's near the end of his recovery from knee surgery (notice the crutches).  He's keeping guard over the presents.

One of the fun things about this place:  The race car!  This is the most exciting thing Luci has ever done.  Seriously.    Even JT liked it!

 

This party spot had inflatable things for the kids to play on.  Even the big kids, shown here, had fun.

Today, though, was the real day that Luci turns SEVEN.  But not really.  Explanation to follow.

First we decorated her cake together.  We used an all-natural cake mix and naturally colored frosting.

Practice makes perfect!

   

Mom helps.  Look at that tongue action!

The finished cake.  Luci chose what to put on her cake--a little bit of everything.  It was just what she wanted, so that made it perfect.

One thing that is so nice is that Luci shows her excitement over what others do for her.  She's very happy about the Wii game Bryan gave her.

A check from Nana and Papa!  I'm sure we will be visiting the Barbie aisle soon.

   .

  Reading the birthday card.

As you can see, the calendar is a bit off.  It shows October 26 as Tuesday here in our "school room" (also known as our dining room).

There's a good explanation for that.

Last year, Luci's birthday party was planned, John was going to come home from work (he was not retired yet) and then tornado weather moved in.  So her party was rescheduled for the next day, and everyone came but Daddy--he had a meeting he could not miss.

All year long Luci has moaned and groaned about Daddy missing her birthday.  Never mind that he was actually home on her actual birthday.  He missed the party, and that's what counted in her mind.  So, ever since last year, she has told him over and over that he is not going to miss this birthday.  

Then why celebrate a day early?  Because John has a camping trip planned with three others (one of whom is Bryan) and it can't be moved again.  The trip had already been post-poned for John's surgery.  So, why celebrate a day early?  Because the camping trip begins tomorrow!  On her birthday.

Since Luci has no concept of time, I decided to be really sneaky and all month we've been putting up dates on our school calendar one day off.  Problem solved.

Today, as each of us told Luci, "Happy Birthday, 7 year old!"   Her response: "I won't be seven until I blow out my candles." 

She may not understand time, but she does know Proper Birthday Protocol.

She also knows you should dress for the occasion.  As we got her cake ready to decorate, Luci announced that she was going to, "Go get on my Birthday Suit!"

No matter how many times we tell her that a "birthday suit" is just the skin you're born in, she refuses to accept that.  It turns out that her Birthday Suit was a cute pink outfit that included a Hello Kitty skirt.   :) 

It's a Banner Day!

This happened on the way to town today:

First, JT told me that he was, um, not exactly right on a subject that he brought up.  I nearly wrecked the car when he told me that.  It's as close as he's gonna get to saying, "I was wrong."

Then, on the return trip, he started singing (another first!) a song he made up himself.  One of the verses included, I was reading a book.  Nearly went off the road again!

And what else could make today better?  The weather turned cold!  It might not last long, but I'm enjoying it...along with those gorgeous leaves, which you can see in the photo above.  That's JT working on flying a kite, with all those beautiful trees in the background.

Tooth Fairy Time!

Luci won't let me touch her loose teeth ever since the fiasco of last year--where I tied a piece of dental floss on a very loose tooth, yanked, and then the tooth was still stuck in her precious mouth.  OUCH.  So I don't touch them any more, not even to wiggle them.


Tonight, while eating grilled cheese, Luci's latest tooth fell out!  I am some cook, huh? 

The other front tooth is a tiny bit wiggly and I am encouraging her to wiggle it out ASAP so she can be our Christmas card this year, with the caption, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."  I told her that was a famous song.  She thinks I made the song up, just to get her to pull more teeth.  Even after finding this cute rendition on youtube, she still thinks I'm making it up.  Maybe if I show her the Alvin and the Chipmunks version, she'll believe me.  After all, those guys are stars.


In China, they do something different with children's teeth.  When a tooth from the bottom is lost, you want the new tooth to grow up, so the baby tooth is thrown over the house to encourage the new one to grow upward.  When the tooth is from the top, it is planted in the ground to encourage the new tooth to grow downward.  I asked Luci what she wanted to do--the Chinese version or the American version.  She replied (rather quickly), "I want the dollar."



What do you know?  The Tooth Fairy snuck in while she was in bed, not quite asleep!  Luci spent some time looking under the furniture for the fairy--surely she could not have gotten away so quickly.




One time, though, we almost caught the Tooth Fairy! 


JT had lost a tooth and hid it under his pillow.  The next morning, he came to me all mad because the Tooth Fairy forgot!  I was in the dog house.  What to do?



Oh My!  I ran to the front door, yanked it open, and what do you know?!  The Tooth Fairy dropped all of her coins and scurried off into the woods!  Apparently she was running late.  Luci and JT were right there with me as I opened the door.  Luci is still certain that she saw the Fairy flying off into the trees.

the F word

Today,  on the way home from church, Luci says,

Don't say the F word!  It makes me hungry!

With our mouths wide open, we all ask,

Luci, what's the F word?

Her answer?

FOOD!

Happy Birthday, Daisy!

Today some of our area Girl Scouts celebrated Juliette Gordon Low's birthday (details on JGL here). She was the founder of the Girl Scouts. I learned a few things today at Luci's Daisy-Brownie-Junior-Cadet bash. For one, Juliette's nickname was "Daisy," therefore the youngest Girl Scouts go by the name of Daisy. Luci is a Daisy.

First, there was circle time.

Then, lots of crafts!  The girls worked at six different stations.

Luci, in her party dress (because, you know, Mama, it's a party) had a lot of fun at the "old-fashioned games" station.  She was a blur in the sack races.  She was also the only girl in a dress, and she didn't care one bit. Because she was dressed appropriately, in her mind.  In my mind, too.

And, our girl was the champion of the Daisies in the Hula-Hoop contest.  Here are the winners from the other age groups, along with Luci.

Afterwards, Luci stepped it up a notch and hula'd with two hoops...until another Daisy tried it.

Then Luci moved on to three hoops...and the little adversary came up with three, also.  See her in the background?

Not to be outdone, Luci went to FIVE...the other girl went back for more...

and gave up when Luci wowed everyone by hula-hooping with EIGHT hoops.  That's my girl!

I think she's a bit competitive.  Maybe.

We made it!

We made it to church in the Prius.  Five people, only one of whom is not adult-sized...but her booster seat takes up more seat room than each of the boys. 

No one fought, no one got hit, bit or spat upon. 

It wasn't pretty, crammed in there like that, but we made it.

So far, we've gone 1,250 miles!  That includes a trip to Huntsville and one to Memphis, plus the usual travel back and forth to town (40 miles for each round trip).

One bloggy friend wants me to feel proud of us not having any emissions while we are stopped at stoplights.  I'm sure she is talking about the Prius, not about the boys....  As for me, I don't care about that too much.  I'm just happy we're saving money on gas.

Told ya I was cheap.

The ZOO, part 2

I couldn't get these photos uploaded on the other post.  Finally figured out why: John was signed in to his google email, which derailed my attempts.  So, anyways, here is the rest of the Zoo trip.

Luci and Kenzi on the carousel

Luci and Kenzi holding hands (yes, Kenzi's mom and I both took strollers...it's easier than listening to the girls whine...whine...whine about all the walking.  Now, if we could just get the mommies to quit whining....)

Kenzi, Luci and Mamie (and an unnamed boy) watching the Penguins as they eat their lunch.

The Three Amigos

Tiger watching.  These tigers just seemed too close for us mommies to feel comfortable.

On the way home...she was out like a light before we got to the Mississippi line!  163 miles home, and she slept for about 145 of them.

This is not from the field trip.  We had to make a milk run early Saturday.  So happy to go to Piggly Wiggly!  She has an outfit for every occasion.   (As a side note, that little Prius did very well in the gas department!  We had driven 100 miles before starting this trip.  Then 326 miles round-trip to the zoo, and we still had 75 miles left on the meter.  We got 8 gallons of gas after our trip to the Pig.  Happy with that!!)

I did not want to take my big camera on the zoo trip.  I'm glad I left it at home.  These photos (and those from ZOO part 1) were taken with my cell phone.  It's not a smart phone, has a little camera, but I think it did just fine for the daylight photos I took.  If you disagree, it's not necessary to let me know.  :)

The ZOO part 1

This week's Fun Friday activity with our homeschool group was a trip to the Memphis Zoo.  It is a gorgeous zoo.

On the way there, Luci made a "must-see" list.  A girl after my own pre-planning heart.

Hippos

Watching the monkeys

in China!

Ya Ya the female panda

Luci showing off her panda doll to Le Le, the male panda

One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty Four

That's the number of this post.  Wow!  That's a lot of posts about very few things that are truly important.

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Nearly every Friday, our homeschool group has something planned.  Some things are planned locally and may be as simple as a playdate (bring your own picnic) in a local park.  Some are more involved and require traveling and/or spending money on admissions to a zoo or science discovery center or historic location.

Last Friday, September 30th, we met at a local park that has a few rides for the kids.  We got a special rate of $3 for all the rides the kids wanted on a carousel, a train around the park, and a mini-teeny-tiny roller coaster.  Luci was excited about the carousel, asked a hundred questions about the train, and was adamant about staying off the roller coaster.

JT was my baby-sitter (I didn't really want to ride).  He was a good sport and was the best big brother that day! 

Here are some shots of the fun:

Somewhere Between

This is a documentary that will be shown at some film festivals around the country. I would love to see the whole movie. This took forever for my quick connection to download...but it was much faster after I right-clicked and then turned off HD. Luci's already expressed sentiments similar to Jenna from Newburyport, MA. (She shows up at the 2:00 mark.) Luci has some deep thoughts for a six year old!

TRAILER: Somewhere Between - A Feature Documentary from Linda Knowlton on Vimeo.

It is not for children under 13 due to sensitive subject matter.

What Was, and What Is

Tree-Hugger, I'm not.  (although I do care about the environment...I'm just not militant about it)

Cheap, I am.

So, it was with not too much sorrow that we traded in our Honda Odyssey (getting 20 mpg city, 24.8 highway--not bad for the 2007 model!) for a 2011 Prius.

What Was:

What Is:

What Was:

What Is:

Wow, now our garage looks so BIG!

On the way to the dealership to pick up the Prius, Luci waxed eloquent about the Odyssey: 

This car (van) has been lots of places!  Disney World, (took us to) the cruise, to Vero Beach, to Mt Rushmore, The Arch, to Idaho!  Lots of places.  It was a good car.

Yes, it was.  Now it's time to learn how to pack well because we can't take just everything.

On the way home, we got to listen to Radio Disney on the satellite radio!  Very happy little girl in the back seat, singing all the way.  Very happy mommy in the front seat, saving money on gas.

And, I knew it would happen as soon as we got a gas-sippin' kind of car:  The Upside of Economic Worries:  Lower Gas Prices.

At first, Luci was not happy with getting a new car.  She is very resistant to change.  Once I explained to her that we can go on more field trips, she was all for this little vehicle!  We already have two trips planned for next week:  the Memphis Zoo and a visit to Huntsville to see another family with a daughter from China.  YIPPEE!

JT's Weekend

Last Saturday JT had a Tang Soo Do Championship meet.  He had a good time! 

He's in there, somewhere.  Trust me.

Practicing his form.  Love the height!

As a time judge...JT is near the center of the photo, one of the two young men sitting together as this young lady gets ready to perform.

Handsome!