Adventures of Noops and HZ

First, I wanted to put up a picture of Noops! This was from today. She loves to have her nails painted!

















Next, HZ had a field trip. First we saw a play and then went to the state capitol for a picnic lunch. Luckily, we were at the front of the bus for the trip down there. One kid in back got sick, which made another kid sick, which made a THIRD kid sick. yuck. Other than that, I think everyone had a nice time.

HZ chatting it up with some chicks.





















HZ shooting the breeze with the guys.

Update coming soon.

Guest blogger R here, playing 'damage control publicist' for his wife. Our statement follows below:

L apologizes for stringing you all along. She is on a field trip with H today, so she anticipates a nice post this afternoon. Also coming today: H and A's school photos!

In the meantime, here's a flashback photo from December 2006. (I have very few photos here at work; found this one in my email)

sooooo busy

i'll post later tonight.

Glurch.....Thanks, Am!

My dear friend Amber told me about this stuff. Basically it is a concoction you make out of glue, water, and borax. If you are reading this and you have children, do yourself a favor and GO TO THE STORE RIGHT NOW and get borax. Make this. It will keep the kids busy for a looonnnng time. Way better than playdoh. Way better than letting them cut grass with scissors. Way better than watering plants with tiny 1 ml medicine syringes (although that runs a close second).
What makes this special? You can draw on it for one, something that Noops loved to do. HZ discovered some really cool bodily noises this stuff makes if you press it into a small cup. He said, "Oh WOW! I can make this toot! I'm going to play with this FOREVER!!!!!" If you would like the recipe, just google 'glurch'. (One note: I had to let mine sit for a bit after stirring.)

Kindergarten comedian

HZ came home with a permission slip to try out for the school talent show that would be at the end of May. He wants to tell jokes like a stand up comedian! He loved speaking at his program and is itching to do it again. (Rick and I were laughing because he's only 6!)
I caught him standing on his bed going over his joke 'routine' and when I walked into his room he laughed, pretended to hit his 'mike' and said 'Is this thing on???' I swear to you, he really said that..but only b/c Rick and I were talking and laughing about that line at dinner. We also taught him to say, "Hey, thanks! I'm here all week!"
Here are his favorite two jokes: "What did the leopard say in the shower?" ---"Ahhhhh, that really hits the spot!"
"Knock knock" (who's there) "Doris" (Doris who?) "Door-is closed, that's why I'm knocking!"

Aside from his stand up comic aspirations, I do have to tell this funny story.
Today we got him his first, ahem....'cup' for karate. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. So, he puts on his karate outfit (complete with cup) and then asks me to say "Hey, kid you don't have any karate tools!" (I'm thinking tools meant helmet, or gloves or something) And after I played along and said it, he then replied, "Sure I do! (2 knocks on the crotch), Right here.
(:

Heart breaker

Part 2 in the HZ school series. I didn't have time to explain earlier, but he had a speaking part in the end-of-the-year kindergarten program. We actually had a little video of it, but the darn memory card failed. So sad! I wish you could of heard him, but luckily I had our other camera to at least take pictures.

Here's the scoop on the kindergarten puppy love scene: Apparently, one bossy little girl has been chasing HZ(literally) all year. Last week, though, she announced that she was tired of playing his games. This opened the door to three other little girls who claim to be HZ's girlfriend. WEll, HZ and one of those little girls got into trouble b/c the teacher caught wind that a kiss was exchanged. To which our boy replied, "But it was all HER idea!" But in the end, all was well because they both got good behavior stickers for the day but a promise was made that a note would go home if anything like that happened again. On Friday, HZ told all the girls that he was NOT anyone's boyfriend, that girls were BORING, and that he would be playing the monkey bars ALONE. ....Did you get all that?

HZ's KG program

Well done, my boy. Well done.

Perfect strawberry

I fell victim to the 'topsy turvy', a hanging contraption that allows you to grow fruits/vegetables upside down. Kinda like the thing. We have 15 strawberries at various developmental stages, a blooming cherry tomato plant, and a blooming pepper plant all in one hanging basket. They seem to be doing well so far. I'm beginning to like this vertical element of gardening! So much easier, really.

Spoiler Alert

This crazy adventure began when R. came home for lunch and then went with me to pick up Aubin from school and pay for tickets for the dance that evening.
.....SOLD OUT. We didn't even know that was possible as it is a good size school with a large gym. Apparently it was such a huge hit that 220 families signed up and they were simply out of room and have been turning down other families all day long. OH, no. NO, no, no. We begged, we pleaded. We gave them our name and number in case one out of those 220 families couldn't make it. They said it just wasn't going to happen.
We had to tell Noops (I'm going to officially make this her blog name now.) She cried all the way home. My heart was broken for her. She had been really looking forward to this in a big way. So, after she calmed down a bit we told her that we would all get dressed up and have a 'fancy' family dinner. "Somewhere with a candle on the table?" Yes, somewhere with a candle. I had planned on taking HZ to a movie while Dad and Noops were at the dance, so we told her we could all go catch a movie too if that sounded fun to her. Sounded great to her. Whew. Then on the way back to work, R. got a call from the school. "We'll make room for you after all." I told Noops the great, wonderful news, but she broke down in tears because she didn't want to change plans again. I tried to "sell"the daddy/daughter dance idea to her, but she wanted to keep family night. So that's what we did.

First stop: Vinny's. A local Italian place that we've been going to since R. and I were dating. This is where we opened up the envelope (over tiramasu) that had Noops' sonogram telling us she was a girl. And yes, there was a candle on the table. ( :

















We surprised the kids after the movie by dropping by this place on the way home. The "hot light" was on. It was the thing to do. This place has been here since 1948 and my Granddad and grandmother would get donuts from here. We got late night donuts from here,too, when I was pregnant with both kiddos. MMmmm...so good. The best.














Ok, kids. For real, time to go home and go to bed. We've had a big day. Uh, oh. Something's wrong with the car. We're going to pull over and let Dad look at the problem. Yeah, you can get out too. Let's go in to this store for a minute while we're here.....HEY! It's a TOY store! How did that happen!!!!?? This is a famous toy store in the 'big city' known for odd/retro toys. Super fun.

Random talk

HZ has been a bit under the weather the past couple of days but is doing much better tonight.
I may of mentioned that HZ is way into Garfield right now. We have checked out several Garfield collection books from the library and he reads them every night. Consequently, he has been blurting out little Garfield quips that crack us up.
"Sheesh! I hate Mondays." "Aakk! There's a tuna bone in my dish again."
I don't think the humor carries over in Blog Land, but if you could just see the way he moves his hand like a cat paw and says "Hi, Jon" to you I promise that you would laugh.

A. has has had a nice week at school and has had fun with her dancing. In fact, she's looking forward to a Dad-daughter dance this Friday!

Saturday's dance class

She had a blast! The parents sit outside and watch through the windows that are all along one wall. All of the kids had so much fun.

April Fool's Day blue plate special

On the menu: Grilled cheese and fish sticks. Actually, it was toasted Sara Lee pound cake with icing for the "cheese" and sugar wafers coated in peanut butter then rolled in crushed cornflakes. As soon as the kids felt the food they knew something was up! A. was NOT happy with me and ran out of the room crying that I 'tricked' her. HZ thought it was funny and liked his "grilled cheese".

I am so glad that today is close to being over because both kids have been driving us crazy since 5pm yesterday. HZ put on his school clothes instead of pajamas in honor of 'it's ALMOST April fools day' and both kids ran downstairs after we put them to bed only to be caught switching cereal bags into different cereal boxes (a tip HZ learned from Highlights magazine). A. has been saying "Good night" and "Happy Valentine's Day!" since she woke up this morning to EVERYONE who will listen. ( :
Also, I should add that this morning Daddy-O put out the snoopy snow cone machine with a sign that said "Breakfast" to the delight of HZ and A.
So, to end this day I had to get in on the April Fool's action!