I am raising a vegetarian?

This is the meal that Daniel prepared for himself this weekend: a peanut butter, jelly and carrot sandwich, blueberries, more carrots, olives, and pretzels. Yes, he filled his sandwich with carrots, and yes...he ate every bite. Nine times out of 10, he'll choose to have no meat at all. (He does love meatloaf & steak, though!) He loves his fruits and veggies so much, it's amazing!

It's in the Bag

Daniel's homework last night was to fill a paper lunch bag with 3-5 items to help tell his new classmates about himself. These are the items he picked and chose himself:

1. Photo of Daniel & his cousin Matthew from Christmas 2005 (his best bud)


2. The book "Flat Stanley" (he loves to read)


3. 3D Glasses (he loves to watch 3D movies)


4. Little baseball figure (he loves baseball & other sports)


5. Little salt packet (he loves salt - seriously!!)

It's got to be the meatloaf

So tonight Shawn was out of town, so I decided to take Daniel to Wednesday night at church since this was their big kickoff for activities for the school year. Daniel fussed and complained about going until the minute I dragged him into the Family Life Center, when he recognized several of the kids, including his good buddy Chandler. Then, once he discovered that they were serving meatloaf for Family Night Supper, he was thrilled and hooked. He ate all his dinner, then went through one hour of children's choir, and another hour of R.A.'s (Royal Ambassadors). He declared the evening great fun, and asked if we could come again tomorrow. He seemed satisfied when I told him we'd return next Wednesday night, so we may have a new schedule forming. He's still not sure about the choir (he LOVES singing to himself, but NOT for other people), but we'll keep trying and see what happens! One thing is for sure - if you need to bribe my son, use meatloaf!

First day of school

So...classic first day of school photo, and I snuck the good 'ol school bell into the background of the photo. It was a great day, with a new teacher, new friends, and new rules to learn. He likes his teacher, and said she was nice. He said lunch was great - the choices were chicken rings (Daniel's, the classes, and the school-wide favorite) or catfish sticks. Recess was great, computer lab (today's related arts class) was a lot of fun, and everyone was nice to him. I guess you can't ask for more than that!

Getting back into the routine...

...in more ways than one. It has been a hectic summer, but now that school begins on Monday, we will get into the routine of all three of us eating breakfast together, getting homework done and checked, early bedtimes - the whole nine yards. And while I am at it, I'll strive to post more blogs with info and photos of our activities to share. Today is Fall cleaning, but I'll spare you the photo of our refrigerator before and/or after cleaning (unlike all these folks!)

Sweat, glitter and bugbites!

One more picture from the library's "Catch the Reading Bug" celebration (that I got from their website). This is me - I volunteered to run a booth, and I was helping kids paint and decorate milk-carton catapillars. It was a lot of fun, and loved spending time with all those kids, but by the end I was sweaty, bug-bitten, and covered in glitter! All the multi-colored glitter kept blowing on me, and it just stuck to my sweat from the 100+ degree weather. I wish someone had taken a picture...it was pretty funny!

Summer Reading Celebration!

This is cool - I found this photo on our public library's website! Daniel participated in the public library's "Catch the Reading Bug" reading program this summer and read 54 books. At the end, they had a reading celebration with lots of bug-themed contests, activities and prizes. Even though it was miserably hot - over 100 degrees that day - it was a blast!

Wonder what he wished for!?!

Wii gonna get Fit!

The boys got me Wii Fit for my birthday, which is actually really cool! First you load your Mii (that's your personal Wii avatar), tell the Wii your height and birthdate, and then step onto the board to weight in. I have to tell you, I died laughing when my Mii suddenly "plumped out" like a kernal of popcorn when my weight & BMI were calculated. (Likewise, we laughed when Daniel's character shrunk, and Shawn's got super-skinny.) Next, you do some balance tests, then set up goals for fitness. I set mine to lose weight, Shawn's to gain muscle mass, and Daniel's is to maintain. The exercises are even more fun than I had imagined, and it definitely feels more like fun and games than work! One of my favorites so far is the run - you run in place, but your character is running through a great city park with waterfalls and trees, and all your other Mii characters run past and wave when they see you. (This is really fun, as we have Mii characters for all of our friends and family who have ever come over and played Wii with us, as well as a few other oddball Mii characters we have created like Snoopy, Darth Vadar, and Chipmunk Alvin.) Nothing is quite as funny as having Darth Vader jog by you and wave when you are out exercizing! I will keep you posted on our progress!

Vacation - it's never long enough!

I think a good vacation should always leave you wanting more. Our quick blast to Myrtle Beach did just that! We had fun excursions (of an educational nature, of course!), lots of swim time, great seafood, and lots of relaxation. We visited an aquarium, explored Myrtle Beach State Park and Huntington Beach State Park (especially Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter home of Anna Hyatt and Archer Huntington), and enjoyed an IMAX 3D movie about the Deep Sea. We also went to Medieval Times, which is a touristy-cheesy, but fun still...especially for a soon-to-be 6-year-old. How can you not relax in a beautiful setting like this?

Beauty secrets

My son woke me up the other morning by gently rubbing my cheek. I smiled.

Me: "Good morning!"

Dan: "Morning, mom. I like your soft cheeks. I know why your checks stay soft!"

Me: "Oh? How's that?"

Dan: "It's because you talk soooooo much!"

So that's how my keep up my youthful appearance!

A good book isn't hard to find...

It is so interesting to watch my son pick out library books. He is SO opinionated, and he makes up his mind in a split second. He is so totally unlike me (and his dad) in that regard, it’s funny.

Me: “Well, what about this one?”

Daniel: “No.”

Me: “This one?”

Daniel: “No way.”

Me: “This one looks goo…”

Daniel: “Nope.” He flips randomly to a book titled Biscuit and the Baby. “This one.” This is said, of course, as he is already heading to the librarian’s desk, leaving me.

Now, I am sure that Biscuit and the Baby is a fantastic book, but what made it the obvious choice above all others is beyond me!

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Winter semi-wonderland

Some things just make me feel like a little kid again, and snow is just one of them. (Probably because we almost never get any!) So it's 11:30, and I am running around outside in my pj's and flipflops, taking pictures in the dark of the snow coming down. Why? Well, the last time it snowed here, my son was 6 months old. He's 5 1/2 now. So that gives you an idea of how rare this is.

School is delayed for 2 hours already, and I am seriously thinking some of this may be around in the morning! You can see there is some sticking on the ground. Okay, enough blogging...I gotta go watch some more snow!

All he wanted for New Year's...

Strongbad would be proud...

When supervising Dan's bath, he pointed to Shawn's "Axe Recovery" shower gel, and said, "Look, Mom - just 2 steps!  Step 1, wash with the soap, and step 2, the girls are all up ons."  I looked at the pictures, and yep...the silhouettes say it all!

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Laughing at a serious moment

We're hanging curtains in the other room when Dan come running in rubbing a red eye.

Me: What happened?!

Dan: I sprayed that stuff [Lysol] in my eye! It HURTS!

Me: Shawn, bring some paper towel to the bathroom, we've got to flush his eye out.

Dan (panicked): YOU'RE GOING TO FLUSH MY EYE?!?!?

Poor guy! He's fine now.

Happy New Year!

Goodbye to the old, hello to the new year. 2007 was a good year, but ended with Dan having an outbreak of "the spots" - some head-to-toe evil, itchy spots that the doctors could never give a name to, but were contagious. Nice! At least he was all cleared by Christmas day!