They Crack Me Up

The funny things kids say is one of the little rewards of parenting. Here are a few that I want to remember.

A few mornings ago, Kaela overheard Corban and I talking about a newspaper article that told of a kid who was accidentally shot when a gun he believed to be "jammed" suddenly went off. Later, as Kaela was eating lunch and looking at the paper, she saw the picture of the boy and said, "Mom, is this the boy who got hurt by the gun that shot jam?" Huh? I asked her what she was talking about and she clarified for me that the boy was hurt by a real gun that he thought only shot out jelly! heehee

Kaela prays for the people of Haiti. She wants them to have their houses back the way they were "in the very very very very very very very very first place."

Karis is able to find the smallest of opportunities to make a funny. Once, her math lesson asked her to circle the operation needed: addition or subtraction. She did a couple of problems and then very nonchalantly says, "I think this one's OR" and circles the word "or." What a goof. Another time, while teaching her measurement, I asked her what we were going to do about measuring a book that was longer than the ruler. She answered, "Just get a smaller book." She cracks me up.

Karis tries to eat with chopsticks at dinner. As she's picking them up off the floor, she says "If only I was French!"

Sprinklemania

Tonight's evening activity was decorating sugar cookies! Fun! And Yum!



Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go clean up icing and sprinkles.






Jessica...are you happy now?

What's this?? A blog?

Colorado Greenery has been resurrected, again!

Dedication to my blog clearly isn't one of my strengths, but I'm back for a quick post because Jessica will be on my case soon and because my sweet mother-in-law, Becky, requested. :) It's a small miracle that I was able to remember how to find my blog and hook up the camera to download pictures!

It's been a season of many changes for us, as you already know. Rho's new job started in April, the kids and I arrived at our new home in Longmont on August 1st, Corban started public school, and Kaela started Kindergarten. I'm very happy with our new home, though it needs our attention in several areas. After putting up blinds and ceiling fans, repairing the sprinkler system, planting grass, pulling gobs of weeds, and having the front porch repaired, we started our first major project--the kids' bathroom. Rho has ripped the carpet and wallpaper out, textured the walls and we're now trying to achieve the right shade of yellow after a miserable first attempt that reminded me of newborn pooh. Sorry, but it's the best description I can think of! Rho will tile the floor and hopefully be able to put the potty back correctly! It's quite an undertaking to do home improvement! We seem to have very nice neighbors and I feel quite at home here....more so than I did after 5 years at our first house!

The kids are doing great. Corban's transition to public school has gone so smoothly. I worried for no reason. He's doing great academically and has yet to have any complaints. The girls and I had some rocky moments early in our school year, but, if memory serves me right, getting started has always been rough! Things are going well now, but it's definitely time consuming! Karis needs more patience with reading, but she's making progress and I'm hopeful that she'll learn to enjoy reading. Kaela is psyched to do school on most days and usually wants to do more than I ask of her. I wish I had the time! Corban played lacrosse again this fall and Karis is about to finish up soccer. Corban decided that Boy Scout's wasn't his thing, but is continuing with Bible Bowl. He'll start violin lessons again soon, I hope, when we find a new teacher.

Sadly, I haven't taken many pictures since we moved, but here are a few to show you that our kids are turning out to be just as weird as Rho and I.





















































And here they are showing that they can be normal and pretty cute, too!

Just Pictures

The girls sitting at the neighborhood beach access walkway.














Stopping to smell some beautiful flowers.














The Green girls in a giant red chair.














The kids learn about dragonflies during an educational outing.














Corban does his best dragonfly impersonation.

Just Pictures

I've been meaning to post pictures in my Outer Banks blogs, but don't feel like messing with them now. So instead, I'm just posting pictures separately.

















The kids feed turtles at the neighborhood pond. There were SO MANY turtles!















The pool at the house was a huge hit with the kids.















The very large home we stayed in.

OBX Day 6

Jack and Kathy, Shannon's parents, left early this morning. When we awoke later, it was cloudy and sprinkling. We decided to visit the Wright Brothers Museum. Interesting, but a little dull for the kids. Went for lunch at a pizza place. Eddie took the 3 boys straight back to the house for swimming. The weather had cleared and was very nice. Mom, Dad, Shannon, girls, and I made a couple of stops for souvenir shopping. Then returned home and joined the pool fun. Decided to make one more trip to beach. It was high tide. Eddie and Cam caught some good waves. Made sand castles. Returned to house for dinner. Started packing a little. Headed out again for shopping since earlier stops were not successful. Bathed kids. Got to bed late.

Left on July 4th around 7:15. Stopped for breakfast and lunch. Had a scavenger hunt competition between the two vehicles. Find roadkill, a school bus, a car with a kayak on top, etc. Arrived home around 7:00. Unpacked UHaul, ate a bite, put kids to bed. Pretty pooped.

OBX Day 5

I was awake pretty early this morning for some reason, but I didn't mind so much. I grabbed "Twilight" and made the most of my time, even though my eyes were barely opened. I'm having a hard time putting that book down. In fact, I finished it today and can't wait to get to bed and start the second one. After reading for a bit, I heard a bunch of commotion and soon the kids were rushing into my room to get dressed for a treasure hunt! I knew that Shannon's parents were staging a treasure hunt down at the beach, but didn't realize when it would be. I got up quickly, threw on some clothes, and we were all out the door with 2 metal detectors, shovels, and buckets. Jack, Shannon's dad, was already at the beach and had "called to tell us all that he met a guy down at the beach who told him there was probably a lot of things to find at the beach today" for some reason or another. Jack was there, guarding the hidden treasure that he had burried. The kids scanned the beach with metal detectors, all 5 of them dropping in the same spot whenever it went off. Corban dug up the first treasure, a gold dollar coin, I believe. He was SO excited. The kids were way excited now. They continued to find special coins, sea glass and special shells. All the treasure was put in one bucket to be divided up later. I don't think any of the kids caught on! After treasure hunting, we came home for a late pancake breakfast. Afterwards, the kids went swimming while the grandparents watched. I laid on the front deck hammock and enjoyed more "Twilight." Shannon wanted to go to Duck, a town just north of us, to poke around in some shops. So, when she was ready, 4 of us (Shannon, her mom, Dad, me) drove to the Waterfront Shops in Duck which are located on the Currituck Sound. It was a nice little outing. We got back for a late lunch. Mom had already fed all the kids. After the rest of us ate, I suited up for swimming and went to the pool. Kaela was the only one interested at first, but soon the others came out to join us. We played some fun pool games and I watched as everyone had some special pool trick to perform. Corban and Cameron like to do this game where they pretend to be someone in the family as they are jumping into the pool. It's funny. For example, they might swing an imaginary golf club so hard that they fall into the pool. That's their impression of Jack, Shannon's dad. For my Dad, they pretend to be asleep and snore and fall into the pool. For me, then pretend to clean everything before they fall into the pool. :) I will take this opportunity to report that I have NOT cleaned anything since I've been here, though it could use it. The baseboards on the stairs are covered with dog hair and it pains me not to clean it. There's a vacuum downstairs calling me, but I resist. Anyway, I'm rambling now. So, after swimming all afternoon, we were ready for dinner and enjoyed a beach boil meal with potatoes, shrimp, sausage, and corn on the cob. It all gets cooked in one big pot with some seasoning called Old Bay. It was yummy. The adults enjoyed some time on the upper deck, the ocean breeze making a very pleasant evening. We had some birthday cake then, celebrating George Bush's birthday. I don't really want to go into that. It's just some joke going between my dad and Jack. After that, we went to the beach to fly the kite I mentioned from the other day. It went up easily this time and the kids each took a turn flying it. Then, of course, we did more crabbing! I'm pretty sure I'll have crabby kids in the morning after all these late bedtimes! Fun times, though, and the day was made even better with the good news of the house inspection going well! Yea!!

Oh, I learned today that there are people out there in the world who make paper from elephant pooh! Yes, it's true! I was poking around in one of the little shops and saw a shelf of products from a company called the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company. I'll prove it later with pictures, though I'm sure you could look it up if you wanted. Funny!