Drinkin' the Koolaid...

Did you know last week was TV-Turn-Off week? Well if you didn't let me just say, boy oh, boy did you miss out!!!

We knew this was coming, Lorien's school pushed TV-turn-off week almost as hard and the annual fund raiser. She was sent home with "warning" fliers Friday after school. And after a high intensity school wide assembly Lorien was enticed (by a ticket for free ice cream), persuaded (by the fifth graders who elected to keep the TV off for a month) and committed (by a signed contract) to not watch TV for a whole week!

We started the week off cool and happy. Lorien went off to school for hours of TV-free enrichment and at home the little kids played with out asking for the TV once! When Lorien came home all the kids played outside and for FHE we made collages with pictures of the fun things we would do instead of watching TV.

Tuesday also went well, until I realized the house was trashed from my Sunday-day-of-rest and a Monday of playing with the kids so they wouldn't turn on the TV. Clare got to watch a Baby Einstein on the laptop, Wyatt played some games on the computer and I got the dishes done! When Lorien came home she led the way to the trampoline and kept everyone happy for as long as she could...about fifteen minutes.

Wednesday was a day of activity, we managed to build a pretty cool obstacle course for the kids to ride their bikes through. Clare and Wyatt spent some time playing with their cousins while I went to a painting class (A much needed break for me and them!). We even met friends at our favorite park for a few hours. To top this day of amazement off I sat in my disgustingly dirty house and dreamed about the day when my Mothers-helper would come back from her week long vacation and save me from the out of control mess surrounding me.

On Thursday the wheels had fallen off my "no TV" wagon. While the children seemed to be thriving with out the boob-tube, I decided that TV isn't for children, it is for stay at home Mom's who want to take a shower once a day. Even with out my daily shower, I was feeling pretty smug. Only two more days to go and my kids would turn back into the television-watching, Momma-ignoring zombies I had worked so hard to raise. Then Lorien informed me that a week is seven days, not five. Ta-da, we'd be going with out TV for another four days! In hopes of getting some time to accomplish one or two chores I agreed to baby sit Evan and Andrew for a few hours. Of course, by babysit without my Mother's-helper I mean locking all the kids outside with a box of coco-puffs. No, no, that was only the first part of the afternoon...after that we made a mean marble drop.

After school we did an activity the kids had been asking to do for months. We filled an empty soda bottle with sand and tied it upside down from the roof. When we took the cap off the bottle and gave it a push the falling sand made designs on paper below.

Where did I get this nifty idea you ask? Why, from TV of course. Yep, we watched some kids from Germany do this on an episode of Teletubies.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were a total blur. I know we made it to Lorien's softball game but beyond that I only remember wishing we could turn on the TV...

At last Monday April 28th arrived, our sentence was over and I sang aloud: "Ding-dong the TV witch is dead!!" Oh Television how I have missed you. I've realized through this looooong week that thankfully my children are only TV zombies because I make them so. With the exception of Clare, the kids didn't really ask for TV all week long. We filled the time with wicked fun and creative activities and I ignored all of my "home maker" responsibilities that didn't involve my cutie-patutie-kidd-o's. Over all it was a satisfying experience I am happy to leave behind.

Sunday lunch...

Aunt Betty-Jo and Uncle John invited us over for lunch this afternoon. John always whips up a mean BBQ with plenty of Costco sized treats for later (by "later" I mean four minutes after we've parked the car). It was another totally gorgeous day in the Bay Area and we had a lovely afternoon enjoying the warm air and shade of the back yard. Just behind the pick-nick area Aunt Betty-Jo and Uncle John have a fun "secret garden". My kids love this garden! They want to know if the plums and oranges are ready to be picked, how many different colors of roses will be blooming and to dig in the dirt and leaves for what ever has dropped off the trees.

Uncle John is a great gardener and today he had a treat for the kids. He had picked up a big flat of petunias and let each of the kids plant a few in his garden. Then he took them around to water the whole garden. I think Wyatt had the most fun gardening with Uncle John. He stuck by John long after the other kids had scooted off and finished watering ever single plant.

Clare's favorite part of lunch was her own can of caffeine free Coke and a giant chocolate chip cookie. I only let her have about a third of the can of soda but she nursed that sucker all afternoon. I think you can see her holding it in every picture...

Lorien sang a song about a fire engine roughly 50 times with cousin Evan and led numerous charges through the "secret garden" to hunt for treasure. Will, Dave, Angela, Betty-Jo and I focused our energy on all the food and making sure all the shade didn't go to waste. The kids were also super excited to get a restock on those super bubbles I blogged about earlier. Thanks for a fantastic afternoon Aunt Betty-Jo and Uncle John!

Pay back...

This weekend was the Father-Son camp out. There is also a Daddy-Daughter camp out later in the spring and these two evenings with Daddy are some of the most coveted of the year. Lorien has been complaining all weekend that her camp out will not come soon enough. All day Thursday and Friday Wyatt kept asking when it would be time to leave. Wyatt called Daddy's cell phone a dozen times to ask him, on Friday, if he was coming home yet. Finally at about 5:30 pm Uncle David and cousin Evan pulled into our drive way and it was time for the boys to depart!!! All of the boys had a blast roasting way too many marshmallows, hiking in the woods and sleeping in the tent. The next morning this sweet boy (Yes, he dresses himself and yes, that is a Skippy peanut butter wrapper on his head):

brought me home this sweet pet:

as pay back for my "Absolutely NO Dogs" policy. Needless to say, I nearly peed my pants when I looked into the red plastic cup cradled in my son's arms. I think I want a dog now...

Trapped...

When Clare doesn't wake up from her naps screaming I usually leave her in her bed for a bit longer so I can finish up what ever has my attention at the moment (dishes, laundry, a meal or breaking up a fight...). While stuck in her bed she is not without entertainment of one kind or another. Some days I can hear her singing to herself. Other days she will pull toys up from the toy box next to her bed (mostly blocks because they will fit through the bars of her prison). Yesterday, I stood outside her door listening trying to figure out exactly what game she had invented. She was busy talking to herself: "Now de cow, he's updawe. Now de guk, he's updawe..." I waited a few more seconds to hear "OK, doggy. All safe?" I was totally puzzled as to what she was playing when I opened the door this is what I saw:

"What happened?" I asked. "I spidd-up." Clare responded. More to the story...Clare has always had a strong gag reflex. If she coughs too hard she'll toss what ever is in her mouth or stomach. When she was a baby she couldn't take a bottle or pacifier because they always made her gag. Apparently, she must have coughed or something and ended up spitting up all over her blankets. She and Doggy had headed up a rescue crew to save all of her animals from the puke mess. Disgusting but true...

Double bounce...

The kids like to haul the bouncy balls up on to the trampoline to help them get a little extra bounce. Even Clare has figured out how to do it...

My perfect day...

I really love going to the beach. I love spending as many hours as possible soaking up the sun, building sand castles, eating snacks from a cooler and splashing in the waves. I love the sun-drained feeling you have on the drive home and the taste of salt on the faces of your children when you kiss their cheeks. I love the feeling of a little sun burn on your shoulders and sand stuck between your toes. I love the chill of the ocean waves and the heat of the sun beaten sand. I love hunting for shells, rocks, sea glass and drift wood. I love dreaming in the motion of the waves the night after a beach day. I love it all!

I've been missing great beach days ever since we moved to California. Here where we live it can be 90 degrees and super sunny but once you cross the little range of hills that separates us from the ocean the temperature drops 30 degrees, the wind kicks up and the fog rolls in...making an afternoon and the beach the total pits. When you get to the beach you want the sun to be blazing so that the idea of jumping into blood freezing water sounds not only reasonable but wicked fun. I never thought I would think the Atlantic Ocean was warm but compared to the ocean water here, it is!

Today, however, was the day at the beach I've been dreaming of. We went down to a beach near Santa Cruz with some friends from church. Clare liked to stand at the waters edge, clinging to my legs waiting to see which wave would reach our toes. When one did get us she would squeal "Dey dot yours toes!" and when she saw a wave coming she would warn the others in the water: "Wach-out! Here dey come aden!" Lorien is the family fish, she was in the water the whole time we were at the beach...excepting a five or ten minute snack break. She and her friend chased the waves and tried to jump over the break. Lorien even ventured out into deeper water with Will for a bit. Wyatt appreciates all of the treasures available at the beach to an avid collector of crap. He discovered about 40 interesting rocks, a giant hunk of drift wood, sea shells, bottle caps and stalks of sea weed longer than he was tall. He took a short break from treasure hunting to be buried in the sand, up to his neck. Will enjoyed time talking business with friends, wrestling with the kids, chasing the kids, tossing the kids up in the air and splashing the kids in the water. I built sand castles and dug deep holes, filled buckets with water and spread peanut butter on dozens of crackers. I kissed my husband, took pictures of my kids, sat in the hot sand and chatted with my friends. I even managed to get my whole body in to the water without my heart stopping, although, the icy water did take my breath away. When we got home I told Will that this was one of the best Saturdays I had in a long time...

I do have to apologize to my brother and sister-in-law. We were supposed to babysit for them tonight but there was a terrible accident on pass over the mountains home and we ended up in bumper to bumper traffic for several hours. I'm sorry Dave and Angela, I promise to make it up to you!!!

Their Father would not be impressed...

Lorien and Wyatt are the best of friends two days a week. (I wish I could tell you which days those two were but they are chosen at random and require way too many elements for me to keep track of.) When they are best friends they play games (of Lorien's invention) all afternoon, laugh and be as silly as possible. Today's game started out as opposite day and morphed into the kids switching places for a little while...

Family Home Evening...

My Visiting teacher passed along a great idea for a family home evening last week. (After we had neglected to have FHE...again.) She set up a chair in middle of the living room and each family member took a turn sitting there while the others went around saying what they loved about the person. Thoughtful and easy!

For a week now I have been super excited to have family home evening so we could try this out. Now, this would be the time in another Mother's blog where she would wright about all of the positive qualities she observed in her children leading up to family home evening. Not this Momma...The big kids started fighting almost as soon as we got in the door from school. Clare would not take a nap and dinner was one of the most stressful in a long time (maybe because this was the first time I actually cooked dinner in over a week). Things got even better when Will was late from work and Clare threw most of her dinner on the floor, awesome! More over, by the end of the meal I was knew that my response to the question "What do you love about your children?" would be: "I love them because in 3 minutes they are going to be grounded to their bedrooms for life or sold to the circus." In spite of all the unpleasantness in the pre-FHE show FHE was great. The kids loved having a turn to hear nice things about themselves and Will and I enjoyed the time to think (really, really hard) about what was special about our children. I'm pretty sure the most memorable part of the night would have to be the green glitter St. Patrick's Day hats we all got to wear during dessert.