April 17-26 facebook statuses

so often I only write down the hilarious, wrong, hilariously-wrong, funny, infuriating, etc things the kids do and say only on facebook. If nothing else, it's not a good way of keeping a record, so I'm going to try and go back and cross post the kid/family relevant ones here. (side note: sometimes I go several days between posts, sometimes a few hours :)

Tue 4/26:

bwahahaha - kids are in the bath, talking about being superheroes who can spew lava from their hands and stuff, Hailey "so you can be hot boy (E), and you can be hot dad (R), and I'll be hot wife! (H)" *excuse me while I go separate the fighting monkeys*

I was yelling at Hailey, exasperated at why he would use her Popsicle to write on the table and then lick it off (she tried to remove the evidence w her sleeve when I started yelling). Riley says casually "Hailey, the Popsicle just _looks_ like a crayon"

Is so impressed that Elliot just counted to 100 all by himself on the way to preschool!! H & R were trying to teach him last week, he only just turned 4 :)
- And I'm equally impressed that he knows all his tens to do it, they make a big deal of "skip counting by tens" in kindergarten :)

Mon 4/25:

Hailey, telling me about this week's spelling words "they're -it words!". I had a hard time snickering, the first -it word that came to my mind wasn't on the list ;)

is actually psyched to start her new diet-and-fitness regimen! so far weighed in, made tasty low-carb bfast (resisted all the left-over Easter junk food) and went for a 15 minute brisk walk after dropping the kids off at school :)

Sun 4/24:

Our Easter so far: eating slightly overcooked apple strudel off hello kitty plates. Daddy off to work for few hrs. Unsure whether we'll dye eggs, maybe later. We had
peeps on our sundaes last night though :)

Sat 4/23:

On weekends we like to make the most of daddy being home by doing everything together. Gotta say, really enjoyed having a girls day just me and Hailey (and sure daddy and the boys enjoyed their boy time too :)

I hold a dress up on myself and ask Hailey what she thinks. She giggles and says "looks funny". Guess I won't be buying that one LOL

4/21:

Hopes that the preschool parent who put whistles in the Easter eggs ended up with at least two tweeting/chirping kids in her household

Mommy, scoffing at Elliot (4) wanting a lid on his sippy cup "you're too big for that!". Elliot, pouting "my mouth is still little!" hehe

While Elliot's in preschool this morning: can't run errands b/c forgot my purse, can't take pics b/c camera ran out of batteries, so at a playground trying to keep R & H's squabbling from bothering the whole neighborhood

4/20:

Elliot, in a whiny voice "but I don't liiiike coffee cake!". Mommy, in an equally whiny voice "I don't liiiike whiny kids!". Hailey from other room "mommy, I like yours better" LOL

4/19:

Has had several reminders already this morning of how fragile life is, will be hugging my kids extra today...

4/18:

Was joking to herself that she could make scolding the kids into a drinking game, then realized she would spend the next 7 days roaring drunk
- They are totally on volume 11 today once I turned off the tv: hurtling from one end of the house to the other, screaming or squealing loudly, and somebody's always being left out or wronged. *sigh* it's gonna be a long week!

Has a full-blown cold now, but is grateful that hubby and kids helped reclaim the house yesterday, and grateful that school vacation meant I could sleep past 9 :)

4/17:

Dayquil with a double-espresso-mocha chaser, breakfast of champions! (at least those who've gotten waaaay behind on housekeeping and are facing a week of having the kids home on vacation ;)

kids' measurements

Jeff found back the contact paper ruler we used to have on the doorpost to mark the kids' heights. the numbers written next to the lines aren't super accurate, but in case we lose it again:
Riley 43.5" 5/09, 42.75" 2/09, <42" 9/08 Hailey 39.25" 5/09, 38.5" 2/09, 37" 9/08 Elliot 34" 5/09, 32.5" 2/09, 31.5" 9/08 newest height measurements, 3/11: Elliot <40", Hailey >45", Riley 49"

grand opening of Dixon O's restaurant

On the way back from the farmer's market this morning, the kids came up with the idea of having a restaurant.  They pretty much figured it all out themselves, with Oma and I making minor suggestions.  Mommy was going to be the cook, Riley the cashier, Oma the server, Elliot the dishwasher, and Hailey the hostess.  It would be a hot dog restaurant called "Dixon Orders" - Dixon O's for short :)

When we got home, mommy got to work cooking the hot dogs, Oma set up the dining room with Elliot's help, Riley set up the cash register, and customers Hailey and Panda waited patiently outside (with her "car") until we were ready to open.

Riley took the orders, mommy prepped the food, and Riley delivered it to the customer.  everyone ordered hot dogs and milk except Panda, who ordered pretend bamboo.  The waiter and cook also took their lunch breaks, food was delicious!  Then Riley brought everyone their bill and Oma made sure everyone had enough quarters to pay (except the cook, who got her food for free).  Then the waiter had to share that money (including tips) with the cook and use it to pay for the supplies LOL.  Hailey left to go to her car, and Riley ran after her "don't forget your panda!".  We then saw the sign Riley made for the front door - it meant to say "Dixons O" but accidentally said "Dioxns O" which gave Oma and I another round of hard laughter ("dioxins, oh!")

Riley's cashier station, complete with "tips" jar (Oma and I laughed so hard at that), waiter notepad, and Oma's bill (hot dog & milk)

the menu, which had "hot dog 2$ on one side and "mike 1$" (milk) on the other

The restaurant sign "Dioxns O" - I mean "Dixons O"

Riley's roadtrip journal

I think that's a picture of the wind

for day 2, there's snow

the picture for day 4 is a pretty accurate drawing of the bakugan toy he got in his happy meal.  and it says "I hit mom with a snowball" in case that didn't come through the scan

his suggestion for the 3 sentences that day "boring! boring! boring!" so we compromised and had him write this :)

"We went back to the playground.  To get there we walked over a bridge.  It was hinging (high) over the river."

He carefully drew every aspect of this dinky playground: metal slide, seesaw, metal car thing with three steering wheels, bench, and 3 tires.  "mom bot (bought) some trets (treats) at the (camp) store"

"We stopnd (stopped) at a petting zoo.  It had a monstur truck so big I cud sit in the tires.  We feddid (fed) deer and lorikeets."

"We got home that Day.  we had pizza that Nit.  I Was Happy to be Home." (puppy helped him draw the picture of home :)

Hailey's roadtrip journal

I love the detail on this picture: the McDonald's playplace had a car in the climbing structure.  Hailey (at the table) has pigtails, and you can see the happy meal box too

yes, this picture had nothing to do with anywhere we went that day, but cute anyways

Hailey very carefully copied the rainbow lorikeet's coloring from the wikipedia entry I pulled up.  the picture on the right is the building where the lorikeets were, note the separate entrance and exit

ROADTRIP MAP

link to the map below: http://tinyurl.com/2btwe52

 

ROADTRIP DAY 10: Tonopah, AZ to home!

DAY 10: Tonopah, AZ to Los Angeles, CA

1/5/11

We parked overnight on the "far" side of Phoenix so we wouldn't have to drive through rush hour traffic in the morning.  The RV park was huge and the staff very friendly, including helping Opa back up so we wouldn't wreck the Prius against the hookups.  The kids and I never even left the RV, but our site had a tall cactus that Opa took a picture of.  We knew that we were only ~340 miles from LA and would be home that night, but we thought it would be fun to keep it a secret from the kids.  We drove through the desert of AZ, the desert of CA and though the Palm Springs area.  I pointed out to Oma & Opa and the kids where we stayed last Christmas break, but couldn't think of a kid-friendly, large-RV-friendly stop to make there so we kept driving.  We did stop at Hadley's Fruit Orchard store in Cabazon where we got some dried fruit/nut/candy and the grownups sipped their famous date shakes.  By then we were less than two hours from home and with the latest time zone adjustments we were actually driving through downtown Los Angeles ahead of schedule (avoiding most of the nasty traffic and sunset glare).  I couldn't believe how gracefully Opa navigated that bus through the traffic!

It was cute - Riley had read several signs for Los Angeles, so we were sure the kids had caught on by now that we'd be home that night.  When we were <15 minutes away Riley asked where I thought we'd be stopping for dinner, and I said I was thinking pizza (at home ;)  Then when we came up on our exit Riley recognized some signs, and despite Oma's teasing that they had those signs everywhere, soon all three kids were bouncing with excitement.  After we parked the RV (across the entire sidewalk in front of our house!) and let them out Elliot was squealing "we're home, we're home, we're home!"  Daddy got home from work as soon as he could, and the kids greeted him with just as much enthusiasm, excitedly showing him their journals, toys, and telling him tales of our adventures :)

It was quite a trip - seemed relatively short looking back on it, but each day seemed plenty full.  Opa & Oma are off to the RV repair place in the Valley today and will hopefully by tonight will have picked an RV park to be their home for the next few months.  I've got lots of picture sorting, journal scanning, etc to do still, but at least I'm caught up now on my blog :)  Hope you enjoyed reading along!

-Deirdre