Surviving softball

Lucy waiting for Haley's practice to end

Lucy has really been a trooper with her two big sisters playing softball this season. She has to endure 4 practices and 2-3 games a week. That translates to aprox 10 hours a week of trying to stay entertained at the ball field.

Sometimes she gives kids rides in our wagon. Sometimes she brings baby dolls and her stroller. Sometimes we bring one of our dogs and she walks it around the park. Although there have been a few melt downs she has been great about keeping busy and staying out of trouble.

Last Saturday at her game Haley was playing in the outfield. Shortly after the game started Haley was playing with the grass and reaching into the air like she was on a hallucinogenic. When she came back to the dug out I went over to see if she was OK, she said " Ya, but where's Ruby and Lucy?" I pointed to where they were sitting and she ran over and handed Lucy a lady bug. Haley told the girls that they were all over the grass and she was trying to catch some for them to play with. Ruby and Lucy were thrilled and immediately named the bug Ali and asked her to get more. I told Haley that I really appreciated her thoughtfulness but she had to stop looking for lady bugs and get her head in the game.

Haley's team lost by 2 points but she didn't care, she just kept talking about all the lady bugs on the field.

Bouganvila, Bouganvila!!!!

Right now the bouganvilla is in fullbloom in our area and oh so beautiful.  

I remember as a kid my Dad pointing out different flowers to me, teaching me their names and a little about each flower. The 1st one that I remember learning about was a snap dragon and I thought it was so cool. By the time I was six one of my favorite things was to walk around our garden pollinating the iris.

So a while ago I started teaching my kids about different flowers, starting of course with snap dragons. No flower has gotten them as excited as bouganvilla. 

Today on the way to and from church Eric was able to experience the joys as all three girls at the top of their lungs yelling BOUGANVILLA every 3-4 houses.

weekend project

Ruby's teacher asked all the kids in her class to bring a clean white t-shirt to school for the Zoo field trip.  The day I worked in her class I helped all the kids put tons of rubber bands on their shirts to prepare them for tie dying.  She dyed all their shirts olive green then they had big white circles all over them. On the day of the field trip I realized that every 1st grade glass had done the same thing but each class had been assigned a different color.  I thought this was a brilliant idea and would be great for family reunions, girls camp etc.  

So when I was in Target I picked up white t-shits and shorts for each of my girls and decided to try tie dying with my kids.

It was so easy and fun. They all had a blast and LOVE their new outfits!

Mom- Haley reminded me once again that "Grandma didn't like tie dying in the 60's and she still doesn't like it!"

I am one happy girl!

After several hours on the phone with Verizon and a borrowed modem from another softball Mom, we finally have access to the internet without having to wait 10 min for one page to load! Life is good!

The Opal update

*****Due to DSL issues I have not been blogging. Our internet connection is so slow I can't stand using it right now.  I have received several complaints about not updating my blog so here is a post that I typed in 2 months ago and never published.******

If you are not a dog person, this post will seal the deal. I knew Opal was going to be a lot of work, but there have been some situations I never saw coming.

The big concern was of course potty training. She will go all day using the doggie door and not have one accident. Then Eric will get home and she will have 3 accidents in a matter of a couple of hours. Clearly she didn't understand self preservation. As of today she is doing really well and well, accident free as long as she is not allowed upstairs.

Another big problem was coprophagia... she was eating her own poop. So disgusting. I read on line that this is not uncommon and to sprinkle red pepper on the poop after they go they will not eat it and get out of the habit. It has worked really well... for a while.  Then she decided that she didn't mind the extra flavor.  We are now trying pills from Petco that as supposed to stop it, but no luck yet.

The biggest trial for me was getting her to sleep through the night. Every night for the first 2 weeks she would wake up around 4am and want to play. I didn't want her to wake everyone up so I would take her downstairs and sleep on the sofa. After 2 weeks of sleeping on the sofa the unthinkable happened.

****This is your warning**** If you are pregnant or have a quick gag reflex stop reading here. You have been warned.

One night (while sleeping on the sofa) Opal started scratching on her kennel door so I opened it up. She quickly ran into the kitchen and out the doggie door all by herself. I was so proud of her for going outside, that when she came back in I lifted her up to the sofa and was saying "good girl" when she proceeded to lunge forward to lick my face. I do not ever like dogs to lick my face, but especially not when the dog has just been outside eating her own poop! Yes in the middle of the night, half asleep she licked my face with her freshly poop coated tongue. I started gagging and almost threw up.

Luclily for her I am a forgiving person and allowed her to live.

While that was the WORST Opal experiencebut here are a few that were not far behind.

Coming home and finding holes chewed in 3 of our chairs...
Then a few days later realizing that she had been teathing on base of our breakfast table.

The good news is that Max and Opal have become great friends... most of the time. He is still not thrilled with her jumping on him to try to get him to play with her constantly, but he loves having her around.

Displaying art work

I love art, but I especially love art that my kids have made. A while back I posted about this masterpiece, but not all of my kids art gets matted and framed. Here are a few ways we display the beautiful creations that come home each day.

The Art Gallery

I purchased magnetic wall strips from HERE and use them to hang artwork all down the hallway. I bought nine of them on sale and put them end to end in two rows down our upstairs hall.  They have some that are similar at IKEA for .99 cents each HERE, but they are black and I have no idea how long they are. 

The hidden Kitchen Gallery 

Our kitchen is too small to have artwork on the walls so one of my favorite places to hang it in on the inside of all the cupboard doors. I love opening the doors to see their creations!

 
One art tradition that we have in our home is when each girl turns 5 years old they get to paint a "real" portrait of our family on stretched canvas.  I talk to them for a while about how to plan it out and and trace it with pencil, other then that I stay out of the creation process.

Haley worked on her painting for about 2 weeks every day after school. I broke my no suggestions rule on Haley's painting. I strongly encouraged/forced her to paint Ruby and Dad holding hands.  Everyone else was together (notice little Lucy on my shoulder) and Ruby was out there alone.  Notes about the paining: Eric has a surf board under his arm.  The red dot above the Sun is Saturn. There is a is a big waterfall on the left and a sprinkler near Ruby putting drops of water all over the sky.  There are six of her signature butterflies that she drew constantly at that age.
Ruby finished her painting in about 3 days. I love that every one is happy and in the air including Max and her late Guinnea pig Ariel. I love her perspective on how tall Eric is and how long his legs are. While she was painting this she made sure she put lipstick on all the girls, but commented that Dad did not have lipstick, just lips.  She spent her time making sure she had everyone's hair and eye color just right.

I can't wait until next year to see how Lucy interprets our family and hang her painting next to the other two!

You can see how I archive these fine pieces of art after they have served sufficient time in the Art Gallery HERE.

The bike race

Saturday after Ruby's game I told the girls we were going to see a bike race. They all complained and said that sounded boring and they wanted to stay home.







They had a blast at the race.
On the way home they went on and on about how cool it was and how they wanted to go ride their bikes.