Homework?

This cat LOVES Katherine. She sleeps on her bed, she seeks her out, she follows her into the car....she just adores her. Visa Versa too. Katherine is over the moon and she's being very "sponsible" by feeding Coconut and cleaning her litter box. The cat is also very tolerant of being swaddled and carried around like a baby. I swear any other cat would have clawed open an artery by now but Coconut "gets" K and plays along.

We also have another new addition. Spot and Louie have been having babies over the last month. We have had at least 6 baby lizards of whom; 1 was eaten before my very eyes by Louie (UGH), 5 were released into the wild and 1 is still hanging on in the cage. It's been interesting to learn about lizard life cycles.

Katherine brought home her first homework assignment today. A book chart and a journal to draw and talk about the books she reads. Luckily, grandma Susan bought her a set of beginning reading books for her birthday and Katheirne read two of them to me tonight while I cooked dinner. She did a great job and earned a sticker!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Katherine during her Birthday parachute ride My big girl and Coconut

We've had a great birthday weekend. Katherine is now 5! She's such a wonderful little pixie and I couldn't be prouder of who she's becoming. I know that most of it is all her but I can't help but fill a little bit of satisfaction knowing that I haven't' totally screwed her up....yet.... LOL



We had a princesses and pirates dress up birthday party for her and her closest friends yesterday at the "inside playground". The kids had a blast and Katherine felt like a superstar. She especially liked the bubbles and the ride that everyone gave her on the parachute. She got loads of video games, Barbies and Polly pockets and our playroom is now officially full to the brim.



Grandma Susan, Uncle Mike and Aunt Francoise came down to join in on the festivities as well and we had a nice visit with them too.



Today, we went to see Mr. Willie at our local pizza place. He personally brought over an order of mini zeppoli's (fried pizza dough dusted with powdered sugar like little donuts) with a candle in it for her and he sang happy birthday to her. She adores Mr. Willie and so that was pretty special for her. We were going to run to Super Target to spend some of her birthday money but we stopped by the pet store on the way to replace our sucker fish who has mysteriously disappeared. The shelter was there with kittens for adoption and while we were looking at them and, Woody said "you know, I'd rather get a cat than a dog.". he didn't really mean today but what the hey right? So we welcomed Coconut into our family today. She's a little black and white kitten who tolerates Katherine's snuggles surprisingly well. In fact, she seems to really love K when she's not chasing her. If K sits still, the cat comes up and sits on her lap, gets bundled up in a blanket and passes out. Katherine is over the moon about this cat. Lauren is too but Katherine is seriously out of her mind. The cat was trying to eat and K was telling her what they were going to do next. Woody says "honey, she doesn't speak human" so Katherine gets this funny look on her face, turns around and says "meow meow meow meow" while pantomiming for the cat to follow her. It may have been a "had to be there" moment but OMG was it ever funny.



Oh and that Miss K. She's so responsible! The shelter gives you a video about making your house ready for a cat, how to feed and care for it etc. She watched it like a hawk then got up and did everything it said. Closed all of the toilet lids, made sure the dishwasher, washing machine and drier doors were all closed, brushed the cat etc. Before bed she scooped out the litter box and set out fresh food and water. We will see how long it lasts but she says "it's her sponsibility to keep coconut happy and healthy". Woody said that if she keeps that up she may actually get a dog.



On a rather sad note, she was kind of bummed when we said we'd need to get rid of Bambi and Wiggles. We have a neighbor family who are interested in taking them and if they decide against it, I'm thinking that I'll be able to talk our pet sitter into it. She really loves them. So far Coconut hasn't bothered them but I'd hate to come home to rat carnage. That just sounds gross.



I think that's all I was going to write about so goodnight for now!

It's been awhile

Our Family with clouds-by Katherine
Scary tiger with clouds by Katherine
Ummm...ameoba???? by Lauren

I know it's been awhile since I wrote. We've been busy trying to squeeze the last bit of fun that we can out of life before our world is dictated by school schedules.

new word for the week: animalanche - (n)the catastrophic failure of the stuffed animal net hanging in the corner of Katherine's room. (v)Being buried alive by assorted stuffed creatures after such failure.

Katherine started school on the 20th. She goes to Pre-K from 1-4 M-F. So far she's enjoying it. Her teachers name is Adrienne, she's only one of three girls in her class and none of the other kids know their letter sounds yet so she's looking forward to helping all the "younger kids".

She's quite the fish now and she can swim from one side of the pool to the other. She loves everything to do with water and we've spent a lot of time at the pool lately.

Lauren is just as cute as ever. She's being easy for the most part. Although she is showing no interest in potty training whatsoever. She's all good with pooping in her pants. Whatever, no rush I guess. I do think that for posterity sake, I should note that she's got the oddest sleeping thing ever. Most kids need a blankie, doll, thumb...not Miss L. She can only fall asleep if her foot is in your butt crack. I take her to bed, she fusses. I lie down next to her with my back to her and read a book on my pda. She stuffs at least one foot into my waistband and nestles it into my butt cleavege & passes out within 5 minutes. I then remove the foot from my butt and get on with my evening chores. LOL She's so going to hate me for documenting this.

I've started a parents group in our neighborhood. I knew that there were other kids in our neighborhood who we could get to know and figured that if no one is going to call us, then I'll figure out something else. This is what I came up with. I started a yahoo group and posted this there, on fliers (which we passed out) and in the newsletter.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCnorthwood/Some of you may have received the flyers that I passed out, but I ran out before I got the whole subdivision covered.Some of you may have seen the flyer at the pool.Some of you may have no idea what I'm talking about.After living in Northwood for almost three years, I realized that we only know a small handful of our neighbors. I know for a fact that there are a lot of families here and I guess I'm longing for a simpler time. Back when neighbors were really just extended family and you felt safe letting your children play in the neighborhood with the knowlege that everyone knew your kid and that if s/he were up to no good, another parent would let you know. A time of children being "Best Friends" with a neighbor who they shared experiences with. A time when parents could get together to enjoy each others company and experiences. A time when a babysitter was just a block away. A time of childrens parades with homemade instruments and decorated bikes and ice cream socials. Maybe I'm being idealistic but I think we can bring that time back to northwood and create a community family rather than just a neighborhood. Now that my youngest is old enough to let me at the computer for more than 5 minutes at a time, I decided to make the time to give the community an opportunity to join me to celebrate our families.I'm trying to organize Northwood's parents for age based playgroups,field trips, parenting chat, an exercise group and maybe even a babysitting co-op.The goals of this club are to Meet our neighbors and build a new network of friend, to Introduce our children to new play mates to Provide a comfortable place for parents to discuss those issues that we all struggle with to Provide fun activities for our neighborhood children and familieso Help new members of our community integrate and learn more about our area This group is what the members make it so your suggestions are always welcomed.Both moms and dads with children of all ages are welcome to join andthere is no fee. There may be fees for individual activities (such as trips to Busch Gardens) but you may choose which activities toparticipate in. My goal is to keep most of the parents and childrens activities either free or very inexpensive.You may join by going to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCnorthwood/or by calling Cary Wright at 813-862-2659 from 10am-8pm. You willneed a Yahoo! ID to join the group online but I plan to have most ofthe contact with members via email and the group website.There is a message board, calendar and other information about thegroup at the website above.Woops! I guess I didn't make it very clear in the flier that parentsof children of all ages are welcome to join. All parents can benefitfrom a couples night out and the older teens may benefit from helping corral the youngsters during activites like a "home-made parade",talent show, ice cream social etc. The older kids may enjoy going toBusch Gardens with their peers too. Plus, the parents of younger kids(like me) can always benefit from the knowlege of parents who've beenthere done that. :-)This will all be in the next edition of the newsletter too but Iwelcome you to join now. So far we have 5 members and my girls arealready fast friends with two girls nearby who we'd never met before.Last night, I had the girls and their mom over for a PJ party and the girls played dress up and watched a movie while us mom's sipped frozen apple-tini's. YUM! It was loads of fun.So don't wait. Join now and get in on the fun.

so far only a few people have joined but it's all good. it comes out in the newsletter next month so I'm thinking we will get a bigger response then. One person did respond and it's been great. JoLynn and Andrew have two girls Avery (4.5) and Ashton (2.5) and a pool. They also have an unpstairs and two dogs, which Katherine is obsessed with. We've been spending a lot of time with them lately and the girls get along great. Andrew is out of town a lot so when he and Woody are both gone, us moms get the kids together for PJ parties and appletinis. it's been nice having someone right around the corner to call when boredom hits.

Virtual Fridge

My real fridge is full because the girls have begun to obsess about "making art". I figured I'd share some of their works with you.

Picture 1: by Lauren July 3, 2007. Medium-marker. "a happy little guy"

Picture 2: by Katherine July 8, 2007. Medium-marker (washable). "a color-y airplane with clouds and the sun and Lauren trying to steal my blueberries"

Picture 3: by Katherine July 3, 2007. Medium-colored pencil. "Colored pencils"

Ever feel like you really don't belong?

We took the girls to the third church in 4 weeks. We are trying to find one we like so they can be involved in Sunday School. So we drop Katherine off at "God Rocks" which is this particular church's sunday school program. The lady who is in charge of the kids, comes up to me when we dropped her off and says, in this super chipper crazy kindergarten teacher voice, "Does Katherine know our God is an Awesome God?". Ummmmmm, I stutter. Do I admit that she doesn't know much about church or religion? Do I lie? If I lie, will I get hit by lightning? Shoot! Ok, so I say "uh, not really. she knows he's a good guy though" I know. Stupid stupid stupid. I was astonished at how lame I must have sounded.

So DH and I sit down for the service and after a few minutes, all of the kids in K's class come out and start singing a song. "our God is an awesome God!" along with dancing. I literally buried my face in DH's shoulder when the realization hit that the teacher was asking about the song...not if K knows God or anything about church. I seriously almost died.

+Then everyone got up and took communion. Since I dont' know anything about that, DH and I sat it out. I didn't want to do something I didn't feel comfortable with. Of course, we were the only two people in the whole church that did so. Needless to say, we won't be going back to that church again.

A quick post

I'm off to play stuffed animals with Katherine after our busy day. We went to see Ratatoullie today. Cute movie and the kids loved it. We also went swimming. Katherine is doing really well with her swimming and she was able to swim across the pool with only one stop.

I was thinking about some of the things they say lately and I figured I should write them here before the memories of the quirky words get lost in the daily grind.

Lauren asks for a "piece of your water" when she wants a drink
Katherine's newest saying is "and she was like whaaaat?" followed by a very silly face.
Lauren asks for "blana" when she wants a banana
and Katherines favorite dinner is "skuh-bettie".

I just uploaded a bunch of videos from the last few months to youtube so go check em out.

Katherine as a Yellow Canary

Here is her professional ballet recital picture.