Plasma Car

When Peter got home from work today we had the kids come inside and gave them their new present from Grandma: a plasma car.

Later the kids were playing with it outside.  Brita was taking a turn and Benton thought her turn had gone on too long so he went up and slapped her head.

Peter (sternly): Benton, come inside.
Benton (running inside):  Is there another one?!?

Walking

Mima is officially a walker today.  I'm fairly certain she's been walking when no one is around for a while, but today she forgot to hide it. 

We played ring around the rosies for family home evening tonight and she loved it.  As did the other kids.  For our lesson we practiced the songs for the primary program.  Benton was sad that he didn't know the words, so he requested we sing some "nursery songs" after that.  Brita and Benton are both convinced that there are nursery songs and there are primary songs, but there are very few overlaps.

Journaling

Today for family home evening we learned about journals. Here are some random thoughts we want to remember for later.

Benton: Yesterday we lost a dinosaur at the red park. I love going to the temple.

Brita: Today I picked flowers and put them on the table. We like to play outside and play hide-and-seek. Sometimes we like to hide behind the peach tree. (Brita and Benton are playing "kickies.") We play with blocks all the time and make the tallest buildings. We play almost everything and we go to the grocery store. The thing I like to do most is playing with Mima and Benton.

Mima: (Mima likes eating grapes, riding on trikes and the back of the truck, and playing with computers, the ipad and Mom's phone. Right now Mima and Benton are putting their foreheads together and laughing.)

Mom: I cleaned the counters today. It was monumental.

Dad: We had waffles for dinner the other day. They were really good. There were also tomatoes and grapes from the garden. Mima loves the grapes.

Summer

My baby grows up

So yesterday Mima decided that she wasn't a baby any more.  The kids were outside and Brita said, "Hey Mom--Look!"  Mima was kneeling on the back of Brita's trike holding on to the seat while Brita was riding all over the patio.  Then Mima decided that she needed to ride the trike herself, so she climbed up on the seat and Brita pushed her around the patio.  Then she climbed into the back of the truck because that was "safer" and Benton climbed up above her and Brita drove them around.

All I can say is that it was a scary, scary thing to watch.  Does she not realize that she's just a little girl?

What we've been up to.

Well, many things have happened since I blogged last (how could they not have; it's been forever). But, instead of telling you about all of them, I'll just show you what the kids have been up to the last two days:

It's Father's Day.

I told Benton to tell Peter Happy Father's day and that he loved him.  Benton went over to him and said, "It's Father's Day."

Me (having just talked about Father's day a little bit): Benton, who's your father?
Benton: I don't know.

Benton brought home a big bag of Hershey kisses from nursery today.  I'm pretty sure they were supposed to give them to their dads.
Benton: Look what I got.  They're for later.
He did end up sharing a few with Peter.  And fewer with me.

Mini vacation

Last Saturday was the curriculum fair at the homeschooling convention.  I tried to stay away, but I just couldn't.   I love books.  So I left the older kids with Peter and headed down to Provo with just Mima.  I tried to get someone to go with me, but that didn't happen.  It really was like a mini vacation.  I got PitaPit and shared it with Mima.  I talked to Monica the whole time I was there so it was almost like I had lunch with her.  Except that she's not eating these days.  Then I went to the fair and looked at stuff and looked at more stuff and bought  books and bought more books and looked at more stuff.  I called Melissa to see if she wanted me to get some books for her so it was almost like she was hanging out with me there.  And then I went back home because Peter was really, really sick and I probably shouldn't have left the kids up there in the first place.  I was gone for about five hours and it was so, so nice.  Yeah for vacations that don't involve driving 30 hours with three kids.

Some things would be easier

Andrea: I could cut off your arm.
Peter: That would make doing some things harder.
Andrea: I think that would make doing just about everything harder.
Peter: It would make pretending you only had one arm easier.

Here's Mima's new skirt I made. Brita was pretty excited that I was making one for Mima, too. I think it turned out pretty cute. I had to call a bunch of people for opinions on what to do with it, but in the end Brita decided how she wanted it to look.

Here's both of them together.

In trying to get the above picture, Peter was making all sorts of strange faces. Mima was not in the mood for smiling. Brita started doing the faces too in order to make Mima smile. Not the best for a normal picture, but it was pretty funny.