Pirates!

Back in October, our city held a "Pirate Day," wherein anyone who wanted to participate could walk around to various locations and pick up pieces of a pirate costume (hat, eye patch, etc.). Those of us who participated were encouraged to put a picture on Instagram. So we did the whole thing, and it was fun, and then a week or two later, i got a message saying that we'd won 4 tickets to the Public Museum and the Pirate exhibit and also the Planetarium. Yay!

So today we went to the museum and the pirate exhibit and the planetarium. Fun! The Pirate exhibit was fine. Not the best thing i've ever been to, but interesting enough. The kids enjoyed it. And they really enjoyed walking around the other exhibits in the museum (honestly, they have pretty low expectations, apparently, because our museum is pretty boring for the most part). But i think that my favorite thing was the Planetarium, mostly because i just love planetariums. I could want to go and just have them show us the stars and the constellations. (They did that a bit, and then they did a movie about going back to the moon.)

And...Katrina just started throwing up. So. The rest of the week is entirely up for grabs now.

Also, we visited Keren, who is doing SO WELL.

Katrina slept over at her cousin's house last night, which meant that we were entirely Katrina-free for over 24 hours, and it made me realize just how very much i love having each of my children around. It wasn't boring around here - the boys and Emma made sure of that - but it was just...missing Katrina. Each of the kids brings something unique to our family, and it's just really obviously missing when they aren't here. (She's back now! We're happy! Although she went to sleep immediately upon climbing into bed, which was 5 minutes after getting home, so....)

One thing that i realized about Emma today is this: She can't handle it during the day when we have people in different rooms. At one point, Houston was upstairs, and Zane was by the kitchen table, and i was in the front room, and Emma was just obnoxious. I'd call her, and she'd come sit by me for a minute, and then Zane would make a noise and she'd leap up to investigate, and then the guinea pigs would make a noise and she'd go over and try to lick (or eat) them, and then she'd try to get into the kitchen, and then i'd call her and she'd come over and sit down for a moment until Zane made a noise.... Eventually i gave Zane permission to play on the computer just to get Emma to stop. And it totally worked. Sigh.

Easter!

It's Easter!

After church, we went to my sister's house to celebrate with the whole family (or as close as we could get, since my brother Rick's family lives across the country), and we had a giant meal with way too much food for us all. It was delicious, and while it's always fun to sit and talk with everyone, it was extra-fun today, because it was the first Sunday dinner since my parents got back from their two months in Florida. Yay!

My mom had Easter eggs for everyone, so we hid the eggs all over the yard and then sent all of the kids off to find them. It was a lot longer and harder than we'd expected, because even the easy eggs were hard to find given the sheer size of my sister's yard. Each kid had 16 eggs, and they kept wandering around, muttering, "Only six more to go! Only five more to go!" while the adults gave helpful hints like, "Um, hey! I can see three of your eggs from where i'm standing right here!" In the end, and with a bit of a group effort for the last few, all of the eggs were re-located. It's a really good thing that we knew how many we were looking for, though!

I ran out last night to get chocolate Easter bunnies to but in my kids' baskets, because Zane was SO EXCITED about the chocolate bunny that he was SURE he was going to get. I just couldn't bear to disappoint him when i could make him fantastically happy for just $1.50. And, sure enough, he ripped it open and was ready to annihilate it immediately. I had to stop him to take a quick picture...and he first licked it before putting it back in the box, because he just needed to taste it. Right now!!!

Hockey

Juanito's work had tickets to a hockey game tonight, and his boss was all, "If you don't take them, they won't get used at all! And it's your fatherly duty to take your kids to a game!" And ... new experiences and whatnot.

So we went to a hockey game tonight. Zane enjoyed it. Katrina suddenly developed a fear of heights, and kept leaning on me and whimpering, "I just don't like this. I feel like i'm going to fall!" Houston didn't appreciate the loudness of it all. So! Success for one out of three! One out of five, if you count Juanito and me.

(I'm a terrible fan. They're all, "Let's make some noise!" and i'm all, "No. Thank you." And they're all, "Chant this thing again!" and i'm all, "I've already done that for you. Twice. You can't make me do it again." Truly, it's just loud. LOUD. And it's complete sensory overload - the second the action stops on the ice, they start playing loud music and show stuff on the screen, and then they'll cut the music off mid-phrase to go back to the ice, but then they'll start chanting, and then they'll cut to something else. It's not my cup of tea.)

Spring Break! YAY!

Today was the first day of Spring Break!

This morning we went to my sister's house, along with my mom, my other two sisters, and all of our kids, to dye Easter eggs. Yay!

Beforehand, Zane insisted that he really wasn't interested in dying ANY eggs, thank you very much. He didn't like dying eggs, you see. Katrina and Houston both said that they really only wanted to dye 3-4 eggs each. So i bought and boiled a dozen and brought them along.

I insisted that Zane needed to at least try dying ONE egg. As soon as he started the first one, he realized that...hey! Dying eggs is fun! Who knew?! And Houston and Katrina both flew through their first 4 eggs as well, and then all three kids looked around pathetically until their cousins and aunts offered them another egg or two to dye.

Moral of the story: Next time, we need more eggs.

We got home at 11:30ish, and the kids almost immediately started asking if we could go to this or that place, and if they could play computer, and what could they do? Couldn't we DO something? Me: "It's the FIRST DAY of Spring Break! Go play outside! Play a game! Read a book!" Them: "Sigh. FINE."

Nostalgia!

I've been scanning and scanning old pictures into my computer, because right now they're in boxes and random photo books that just sit on my shelf, and i never look at them, and i'm always a little bit worried that they're going to get lost or damaged or ruined somehow. If they're on my computer, then they're safe, but more importantly, i can use them for things! I use them for my screen saver! I can think, "I need a picture of such and such," and instead of thinking, "Nope. Impossible to find," i can just quick search for it on my computer! I can use the pictures for books! So many possibilities!

So while i'm scanning, i'm (obviously) looking at all these old pictures, and that makes me all nostalgic. Look at my cute grandparents! They were so awesome! I miss them! Look at us when we were little! Awww. We were cute! Look at what a terrible photographer i was! I really have gotten better!

Look at how many exclamation points i've already used in just two paragraphs!

Anyhow. Back to the present. 

Katrina's in fifth grade, which, even when i was young, means that it's time for the school to split the boys and the girls into separate groups and teach them about puberty. Yay! I asked Katrina about it afterwards, and she was extremely matter-of-fact about the whole thing. "Some of the kids were SO embarrassed. I don't know why." I asked her if she learned anything new, and she thought for a second and then said, "No." 

What i do think is odd is that they spend 2-3 days talking about stuff. The first day seems to be about puberty and getting your period and what to expect with all of that. On the second day, they talked about HIV and AIDS. I asked her if they talked about sex at all, and she said that they didn't. I asked her, "So ... how did they say that you could get AIDS then?" and she said, "They just said that you could get it by doing sex or sharing needles or becoming blood siblings." But they didn't explain what "doing sex" meant. (I'm sure it's because parents would object, but explaining one without the other just seems...incomplete.)

As long as we're talking about that talk, allow me to tell you my memory of when i was in 5th grade. They invited the mothers to come to the class with their daughters, and then they showed us a movie that was probably made in the late 60s. It was cheesy and really out-of-date, and at one point, one of the girls (who was wearing a really, really short skirt) was all, "Will anyone know when i have my period?" And my mom leaned over to me and whispered, "If you bend down they will!" I was SO embarrassed. The end.

Also, it was a gorgeous spring day, so everything was happier.

For some reason, our internet didn't work at all, all day yesterday. Finally, after the kids were in bed (and after we'd tried everything we could try several times), i called Comcast to find out what was wrong. They ran their diagnostics, and told me, "Well, i don't want to insult you, but your modem is...old? So you need a new one." And so i planned to trade out our modem for a shiny new one this morning...except that this morning our internet was working completely fine. Technology.

In fifth grade, the kids do a wax theater project for history class, and it's a huge project. Katrina really wanted to be Betsy Ross, but by the time that she got to choose, Betsy was already taken, so she is Sybil Ludington, who was apparently "the female Paul Revere." Her poster and money box are due tomorrow. I think it's pretty obvious that Katrina did her poster almost entirely without any help - and it is adorable - and also that she had a wee bit of help making the money box.

My parents are home! Yay!!! They've been in Florida for the past two months, and we've all been missing them. Today my mom came over to hang out for a few hours, and it was lovely.