Nina would make a fine teacher

Today the girls spent about three hours with me at school, getting my classroom set up. What wonderful helpers they were! They quietly drew pictures, played Monopoly, and then hung artwork on my walls and help set up the desks and chairs. Nina even arranged the items on my desk for me!

I had to be in the computer lab with the computer guy for a while and the girls drew on the whiteboard there so quietly. They can just be models of perfect behavior when they want.

And then, there was last week. I've written about Maggie's cursing, but I was going to let myself just forget this one. Then a few days went by, and it started to seem funny, so here goes:

Nick told Maggie one night before bed that she had to pick up her toys. She looked at him and said

"I'm not listening to your stupid f*cking rules."

You know, you expect to hear this kind of thing (maybe) when they're teenagers. But 5?? I see a convent in her future...

What a busy day!

The girls and I left the house this morning at 9:30 to go on an Insect Safari. So fun! It was an event put on by the Land Trust at one of their preserves in Edgecomb. A naturalist nicknamed Turtle (I can't remember her real name but it also began with a T) brought a bunch of nets, insect containment devices, and magnifying glasses, gave a quick talk about insects, and set us loose to catch what we could. Boy were there a lot of bugs! We caught crab and garden spiders (and learned how to differentiate between the two), a cricket, a stink bug, and most exciting of all, a katydid. Actually, to be precise I caught the katydid, but who's keeping track?

Maggie did a great job, because if you recall, she's not crazy about bugs. At one point little Jackson had a rather large garden spider crawling on him, and she had a minor freak-out about that (she wasn't the only one!), but then she relaxed again.

After that, we went home to change into shorts because it was hot, and then spent three hours at the railway village. Such a fun place. Two train rides, lots of time in the old model T, on the old tractors, in the old train cars, and at the playground. I love to just let the girls go at their own pace and play train conductor or tractor driver. They have such wonderful imaginations.

Then not long after we got home, Pete G texted from the playground that he was there with his sister and niece, who we haven't seen in ages, so back out we went! Just to make things more exhausting, we brought Marley with us. We tried to coax Moxie into the car too, but he wasn't interested. I decided to not push it; the playground isn't far from the road, and I figured it might be better to see how my better listener did before bringing Mr. Selective Deafness.

Marley did a great job! And wow, is that a great place if I'm sick of throwing his ball for him, because a whole bunch of little kids will want to. I just sat there!

Next up, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. What can I say, it's a Wednesday night family tradition. :-)

I think Nina sometimes wishes she was an only child

Last night while we were brushing teeth, Nina picked up my birth control pills and asked what they were for. I told her they were pills that made me not have another baby.

"Oh, good!" she said, with a huge smile. "Because we don't want another... " (voice trails off and she points to Maggie). Can't say I blame the poor kid; she and Maggie get along great, but it takes a lot of effort on Nina's part to keep things running smoothly, and she just can't envision another one. Can't say I disagree, sweet little Nina.

So this evening when she and Maggie were getting ready for bed, I was finishing painting one little part of the wall I hadn't gotten to yet in the entry way (the wall that was at my back in the pictures), and Nina walked up to me with a glass of water and my pack of pills.

"Here you go!" she said cheerfully. "You don't want to forget to take these tonight!"

Ha!! She's not kidding when she says she doesn't want another sibling!

I've been redoing the entry way this weekend

Behold!

Admit it, you never even noticed the star before...

Note the two-tone wall there. I was feeling inspired!

It all started with the new dresser in our dining room. I guess I need a photo of that too...

It was wood veneer, but there's just way too much wood in our house already and not enough color. So I said, let's liven this place up a bit, and the girls and I picked out a lovely blue at Grover's. My plan next was to paint the drawer insets white and let the girls decorate their drawers (two for Nina, two for Maggie, one for me. The intention is for us to drop school stuff in there and keep it off the dinner table). Nick was nervous about the girls painting, so I compromised and put paper there in the insets, and they painted that. Doesn't it look awesome??

Also, here's a close up of the art above the dresser:

Vanessa and Erik, do you remember that thumb print art book we had when we were kids? The girls found it and made these paintings. Aren't they great??

This one is Maggie's. I love it!!

Anyway, I had a lot of blue left over, and since paint is super expensive these days, I didn't want it to go to waste. And the paint entry room floor was really worn off in a lot of places and totally needed a redo. So I thought to myself, blue would totally brighten that up!

I mixed in a bit of the green from the exterior of the house, and I streaked some of it in for a textured look.

But then, with that lovely blue floor in place, I realized that the walls really are pretty drab. So I poked around in the basement and mom and dad's garage and found some old white and ivory paints, and went to work. Really old paint by the way, one was from 2004 and the second one seemed even older than that, but I just stirred in some water and mixed well, and they're like new.

So there we are. A dresser refinish morphed into a quick coat of paint on the floor, which morphed into redoing the entire entry, but so it goes. I think it looks fantastic and I'm thrilled!!

One more swearing post.

Yesterday Maggie said to me:

"I know one word that's definitely a swear, and one word I think is a swear. Which one do you want to hear?"

Which, for most people would be a strange or shocking thing to hear from their 5 year old, but is just par for the course around here.

I said to her, "Why don't you tell me the one you're unsure about, and I can tell you whether it's actually a swear or not."

And she says, "Ok, but I want to whisper it," (like she's shy about maybe swearing all of a sudden? Fine by me!) Then she whispers into my ear

"...wikipedia?"

Wikipedia!

So I told her no, that's not a swear. And she says,

"The other word was fuckin'!!"

which she didn't whisper.

Oh my. Two more weeks until she's Mrs. Spaulding's problem. Ha!

Silence is golden

Last night I was looking at one of those "funny things kids write" slideshows on some website, and Nina came over and was looking over my shoulder. Maggie was sitting next to us, but not looking at it.

So we get to a poor little student's worksheet that's prompting for words that rhyme with "it," and it shows Hit, Bit, Sit, and asks the child to write in one more word. I chuckled and said to Nina, "See, they wrote "hit, bit, and sit" and wanted the kid to write in a rhyming word and look what they wrote."

And Maggie says, "I know what they wrote.... fuckin'."

So of course Nina busts out laughing and Maggie waits a minute then follows with

"...bitchin."

This is why I'm happy that she doesn't talk at school.

Happy Birthday Party Nina!!

Nina had a fantastic birthday party today! We had a total of 7 little girls including our two for swimming in mom and dad's pool, trampoline time, cake, and presents.

That's getting to be a lot of candles! 

We made this cake this morning and Nina frosted it all by herself. Cool whip, the miracle product!

 Maggie wants everyone to know that she's smiling like that because she has milk in her mouth.

 Here we are, opening presents on the trampoline. Lovely!

 Check out the desk Erik and Isabelle got her. She loves it!

She loves it so much that the four of us played school for about an hour this afternoon. Adorable.

The weather was absolutely perfect for a pool party. Upper 70s, hot sun, cool pool... just beautiful.

Happy 8th birthday Nina!!