Ear Piercing Studio

Little Miss A has created her own ear piercing studio in her bedroom. She lines up her stuffed animals and pierces their ears. At one time, I counted 13 earrings in Ms. Giraffe...and her ears are TINY!!! :) This cracks me up. Little Miss A has TONS of earrings in her jewelry box and they are usually ALL in her animals. She switches them every day...now if I could get her to change her own as often as she does her S.A.s. :)

This is the other video I have been trying like crazy to upload...maybe I'll try it again later and it will work. :(

Mr. D's Magic Tricks

My son is becoming quite a little magician, thanks to the help of Uncle D when he was in town over the holidays and taught him a few tricks. Mr. D loves to perform these tricks for us at home and has apparently been showing his 5th grade friends at Friday Lunch Bunch as well. :)

His tricks:

Eating his eyeball

Face Changer

Magic Thumbs

I am so bummed...I have been trying to publish this video for DAYS and blogger isn't cooperating. :(

Funny Faces

Little Miss A and Mr. D have gotten into a silly phase of making the craziest faces at one another. I have to be honest and admit that some of them really freak me out! (Little Miss A's...not so much, but Mr. D...YIKES!!!) Little Miss A seems to think that her entire eye is white when she does this, that you can't see blue at all. :) Thankfully they're not turning their eyelids inside out like our friend Ash...yet!!!

A Walk to School

Last night before bed, the kids were talking non-stop about walking to school. I told them the next time they woke up early enough and got dressed and ready for school in time we would since we obviously have to leave the house earlier to walk and still get to school in time. (Teachers need to be at school at 7:15, so you can probably see why this hasn't occurred too often for us this year.)

This morning I was in the shower when Little Miss A walked in and says "Mommy, the clock says 5:58. Am I up in time?" Absolutely!!! Whoa, that NEVER happens!!!

10 minutes later, Mr. D walks into my bathroom already dressed and proclaims "Okay, Mommy, I'm ready to go. I even made my bed! Can we go now?" WOW!!! The kids were actually waiting on me this morning! That never happens either!!!

So, once I was ready, we walked out the front door, hit the sidewalk and walked our way up the road to school. I think we (Mr. D) probably woke most of the neighbors as we made our way to school to start our day. Yelling from the corner of the cul-de-sac "Bye, bye Daddy!" back J who was watching from the driveway. :)

What a fun way to start a day!

Brotherly Love

Ms. J at school informed me that Mr. D got into a little tiff on the play ground at school the other day...again. Apparently, Little Miss A was playing with another friend (boy) who was playing a little too rough and was telling him to stop, but he wasn't (typical boy, right?). SuperDrew to the rescue!!! D flies across the playground...let the boy resolutions begin. (Yes, I'm sad to report that fists were involved, by both parties. Meanwhile, Little Miss A (a.k.a. damsel in distress) is still on the ground crying. I have to admit that I am secretly so happy to find out the other little boy involved is another teacher's kid in class. A (other boy's Mom) and I joke all the time about our 2 rambunctious boys. (They are such good friends.) Even after the little incident on the playground, at the end of the day, they are still the best of friends. Boys have an issue with one another, punch each other over it, and are totally "cool" afterward. A totally foreign concept to this girl!!!

So, from a Mommy's perspective, do I get super upset that he got into it at school while trying to "protect" his sister?

After Ms. J was finished telling me the events that transpired on the playground, she said that she told Mr. D that she would have to let me know what happened. To that D asks "Why are you are getting me in trouble?" After a quick laugh...that is so Mr. D...I talked with my son about the fact that it is HIS, actions that get him into trouble and that his teachers are trying to help him stay out of trouble and make good choices.

I'm sure this is the beginning of a LONG line of "posts" to come in the future on this same topic...let the fun begin.

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, the kids have had a week full of Earth friendly activities. Today was extra special though since every Thursday is "show and tell." (Their favorite day of the week!!) Today the kids got to bring something showing how they reduce, reuse or recycle to help protect our environment. So, yesterday after school we did the QUESTy thing and raided the recycle bin to reuse some of this past week's recycling items. :) I was showing A & D different types of "cool" trash...lessons I do with my students ALL the time. Mr. D immediately began planning by picking up the first thing he saw (Big Red soda bottle) claiming it was a rocket, then started adding details, a launch pad, boosters, etc. Little Miss A found some cool pieces, but needed a little help "figuring" out what to make. She ultimately ended up with a Princess castle with lots of towers. :) After assembly, we decided they needed color, so we searched through cans of spray paint in the garage to find our favorite colors. (Yes, I am STILL the spray paint queen...I guess that's why I do what I do at school.) Apply color and voila...2 pieces of recycled art. :)

It was so fun to do activities with my own kids that I do with my students all the time. :)

Passing By...

Saw this as I was passing by the kids' classroom. Too cute. :)

Gotta love kids and technology!!! :)

FIELD TRIP!!!

Little Miss A and Mr. D went with their class on a fun field trip to see the Little Mermaid this morning. I tried to grab a pic of the kids boarding the bus, but the bus was late and I had to get back to class. :( This is the first field trip I am not able to attend and my heart is just broken. The line of things that I am going to miss in my kids' lives has begun. I'm at school and my "babies" are miles and miles away...I'm sitting here at my computer crying just thinking about it. This is the first "fun" thing that I didn't get to share. This is the first bus ride they are taking without me, though thankfully not their first bus ride altogether. (Today's trip is a lengthy one hour stretch from here to G-town then back again.) Just knowing they are so far away (without me) makes me realize just how grown up they really are. I know that I'll be questioning them like crazy when I pick them up today, hoping so badly that they don't leave out any of the details from their journey. Sadly, I can't even wait until the end of the day. I have been watching the clock like a hawk to see when they get back to school. I'll be racing to their classroom just to see them. Am I a crazy parent or what?

Star Wars

Why is it that anytime my kids (one in particular) are "into" something it travels the EXTREMES of that interest? We wholly absorb every facet almost EVERY waking moment of EVERY day. We began our Saturday morning...FIRST THING...with a full Star Wars invasion!!!

What had been months and months of Harry Potter is now TOTALLY Star Wars. I think the kids at school are contributing to the shift in theme. All I ever hear when I am around their class are Star Wars conversations. Cracks me up. :)

That said, Mr. D decided to take his Easter money and some of his allowance he had been saving to buy a new light saber. Really? Is that ACTUALLY necessary when he has an ENTIRE Star Wars backpack FULL of them? How does the one pictured in Exhibit A (below) differ from any of the other "blue" ones he already has? Apparently, Obi-Wan Kenobe and Luke Skywalker have different light sabers which are both entirely different than the blue dual sabers he has as well. I'm going on record to say they look totally the same to me. However, this new one did come with a battle DVD and he has had a BLAST with it since he picked it out after school yesterday. :) By 9:30 this morning, Mr. D had been Darth Vadar, Anakin Skywalker, a Clone Trooper, Commander Rex, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, a Jedi Youngling and (of course) Luke Skywalker. Does this seem excessive?

Exhibit A: Luke Skywalker

Exhibit B: Princess Leia

On the plus side, they are both into these things together, but I have to say that our Little Man is having a larger influence on the direction these obsessions are taking. Little Miss A is such a good sport that she just goes with the flow. She does make a lovely Leia and adds all sorts of elaborate touches to her costume: gorgeous shoes that were covered up by her dress in the picture above, hair...detailed braided buns (totally Leia style), make up, nails and jewelery too. :)

She does still have her own individual interests though. She opted for a new Princess Jasmine costume with her Easter money since the one Grandma bought her got ruined one night when Little Miss A slept in it. Fitful night's sleep...who knows? (On a side note I'm so glad we were able to find one. We couldn't find one in any of the stores around us yesteday and most of the ones we found online are even out of stock which seems really strange. Even the Disney Store was out...weird, right?) Anyway, she has a new costume on order (as of yesterday) and she has already asked twice this morning when it will be here. :)

So wild that my kids are this close to five and a half and are STILL this into dress up. :)

Little Miss Froggie

I picked the kids up from school the other day and this is what I found...

one of my monkeys asleep like a little froggie. Ahhh, those were the days!!! We don't see this very often anymore! Cute, cute, cute...I love it! :)

Midnight Wanderings?

Daddy went upstairs to check on the kids last night and this is what he found...
Mr. D asleep UNDER Little Miss A's bed...with light sabers in tow I might add. (That's another post altogether.) Poor buddy, he doesn't look very comfortable, but he was OUT!!!

Croquet

Mr. D is a persistent little man and has been wanting to play croquet A TON lately. The problem is, he usually asks like RIGHT before bedtime or something crazy like that. So we took the opportunity (with the day off) to play during the day. :) Let's just say our yard is not the best design (TOTAL HILL) to pull this off, but it definitely made for a challenging game. The kids had a blast! We had a few casualties with some of the pieces, so we'll break out the wood glue and finish our game up tonight with Daddy when he gets home. :)

A Lesson In Taste

We were making a GIANT celebration cupcake for Daddy...starting his new job...and decided to make his favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I had a box of yellow cake mix, but no chocolate frosting, so we hit the cookbooks and made that from scratch instead. Honestly, we couldn't leave the house since we were stuck at home with construction peeps all day so we improvised with the old fashioned method...it was kind of nice. :)

Anyway, I broke out the chocolate powder to add to the mixture in the mixer and A & D both wanted to taste it. When I told them it was REALLY bitter, they both asked (in unison) "What's bitter?" What better way to find out than to try it!!! Their reactions were priceless!!!

Little Miss A went first and I seriously thought she was going to throw up...she ran as fast as should could to the trash can to spit it out. Mr. D was up next and was laughing the whole time. Even while laughing, he followed A's lead to the trash can to spit it out.

I guess we now know what "bitter" means. :)

Confused?

The rules of fashion according to Little Miss A:
When trying to decide whether to dress the part of a princess or western cowgirl...do both. :)

Must Wear Pants

Not sure what's up with Mr. D, but he HATES to wear shorts!?!?!? What's that about? He absolutely INSISTS on wearing long pants everyday. Which isn't such a bad thing right now, since we have like 40 degree gaps between the daytime high and low temps this time of year. The problem is we're running out of long pant options! Every time I turn around to do the wash, I am tossing another pair of jeans in the trash because the holes in the knees CONSTANTLY magically appear. I honestly have NO IDEA what this little boy is doing to his pants! That said, it's going on summer and the LAST thing I want to purchase is additional jeans!!! What's a mommy to do?

MOTORCYCLES!!!

We finally unpacked the last of our garage boxes this weekend and found the "motorcycle" chargers. The kids' vehicles are finally charged up and ready to go. Once they hopped on I realized we are in need of larger motorized equipment. Little Miss A had to resort to standing since her knees kept knocking into the handles messing up her steering abilities. :)

Mr. D wasn't having quite the same problem, but still looks WAY too big to be on that thing!! :)

Size didn't matter to them, they were both just so happy to have their rides back!!! :)

Not as it seems...

For weeks, Mr. D has been sporting a pretty nasty looking middle fingernail...an injury resulting from slamming his finger in the game room/balcony door. His finger turned instantly black and blue and we've been waiting for his nail to fall off altogether. Every time I ask to see it this is what I get...
Crack me up!!! Of course I ask to see it all the time, cuz it's just hilarious...he has no idea why. Poor buddy, I don't think he'll have it much longer...thankfully he has the fastest growing nails of anyone I've ever met!!! :)

Popsicles!!!

I FINALLY made a trip to the grocery store the other day and completely stocked the freezer for summer with all sorts of frozen treats!! Our first Popsicles of the season...root beer flavored ice pops. Cousin J has had quite the impact on the Caswell Kids with all things root beer flavored...They both commented that "J would love these!!!"

Hoppy Easter!

Easter morning brought wonderful treats to the Caswell Kids!!!! Of the Easter basket treasures Little Miss A was more excited about her swim suit, whereas Mr. D was all about the toys and games. Neither of them really cared much about the candy...whose kids are these? Then they opened Easter cards from grandparents...cash. They were so excited...can't wait to go shopping. :)

After the rush of treasures, we got dressed and headed to church. My grandma and uncle joined us which was an extra special treat. Afterwards we headed back home for Easter dinner. What a great day!