The dinosaur

The nephew got a dinosaur...walks, talks and farts. What more could you ask for?

Here's Dash, the Nephew and Stinkerbell playing with it.

Emergency????

So, I'm in Kohl's and there are all of the gift ideas in the aisle. You know...the travel mug, the digital weather station, the emergency flashlight, the emergency cell phone charger...and the emergency ipod charger.

When, exactly, is charging your ipod going to be an emergency????

Bambi

The firstborn took a Hunter's Education Course at school this year. That's great and all, except...we don't hunt. Fortunately, our cousin is an avid hunter AND apparently has a lot of patience, because he offered to take the firstborn hunting. Here are the results...

They are calling the Firstborn a "good luck charm" now. He is hoping to get to actually shoot one himself the next time, instead of just "assisting." I see more hunting in our future.

Wedding pictures

Stinkerbell and Dash were in a wedding this weekend.

Aren't they cute???? :-)

Today, I heard the words every parent dreads...

"The kid who sits next to me puked today at school."

Hmmmm, how long til I'm cleaning up vomit????

Trick or Treat

Mr. Fett (I keep forgetting whether he's Jango or Boba), a baseball player who wants candy and Stinkerbell as herself.

When asked who she was, she said, "Stinkerbell", not Tinkerbell. It was fun to listen to her tell people who she was.

Farming

Our nephew (who I need to come up with a nickname for) came over last week to farm with us for the afternoon. He loved everything about it and didn't want to stay out of a combine or semi or tractor for very long.

Ashley Tisdale

Stinkerbell just came into the room and said, "Excuse me, I'm bringing Ashley Tisdale in to play."

Hmmm, perhaps a few too many rounds of High School Musical???

I've found many things in my washing machine...kleenex, money, notes, even corn and soybeans. But today's find takes the cake...cards...playing cards...a whole deck of playing cards.

I vaguely remember seeing the firstborn take a deck of cards somewhere at sometime. Unfortunately, this thought didn't occur to me BEFORE doing the laundry.

Towels vs. Underwear

I just found myself saying the following to Stinkerbell...

"Don't dry your mouth off using your underwear."

And yes, she was wearing the pair she was trying to use.

My son, the traffic cone

Today was orange day at school...enough said!

Fancy restaurant

Dash and Stinkerbell are in a wedding next month.

Stinkerbell: I am so 'cited for the wedding. Can we go get ice cream after the wedding?

Me: Well, no, but there will be a party after the wedding. After weddings, there is usually a party.

Stinkerbell: There is?

Me: Yep, and we'll have to go to a party the night before too. We'll have practice and then we'll go out to eat at a restaurant after that.

Stinkerbell: At McDonalds?

Me: No not at McDonalds. It will be a nice restaurant.

Stinkerbell: Like Wendy's?

Me: No it will be fancy.

Stinkerbell: (excitement mounting) Ohhhh, you mean like McAllisters?

At least she'll be easy to impress on a date someday.

Staci's surprise party

Stinkerbell and Dash just invited me to Staci's surprise party, held in Stinkerbell's bedroom. They decorated a cake for her, and then suddenly she was at the door and we had to hide. Stinkerbell ran around and found someplace for the cake to cool, while Dash was manning the door to let Staci in. Stinkerbell and I hid...then Dash decided to climb under a blanket. I then pointed out that someone needed to let Staci in. So Dash went to the door and let her in. We all yelled, "surprise", including Staci's friends who were hiding with us.

Dash hopped up on Stinkerbell's bed and said, "Staci's friends love me. Get back, girls, get back."

So right now, I'm not sure if I'm more disturbed that we had a surprise party for an imaginary boxer...or that my 6 year old thinks he's a chick magnet.

"The Reason I'm not in choir is..."

Dash has been in preschool choir at our church for the last 2 years. He really seemed to like it and tried hard to follow along with and learn all the motions. He had lots of friends from preschool and church at practice and he enjoyed that part too. He talked about being excited to graduate from preschool choir to school aged choir this year. So, naturally when sign up time came, I promptly went to the sign up table and snagged a registration sheet. I was NOT going to be bad mom and totally forget to sign him up or anything like that. No, sirree, I had my boy signed up that first Sunday.

On the way home from church that Sunday, I told him that I had signed him up for choir. And he promptly told me that he didn't want to be in choir. After the shock wore off, I asked him why. I never really got an answer about why, just that he didn't want to. I waited a week or so and talked to him again...still not interested. So, with my head hung low, I went to the registration table and "unregistered" my child. Of course, I had to answer the questions: "Why isn't he interested? He seemed to have so much fun last year." And of course, my answer was, "I don't know."

Well, fast forward to tonight, about 5 weeks later. Stinkerbell is in drama mode because she doesn't understand why his choir had sign up already. Why hasn't her choir started? And why can't Dash go with her this year? But whyyyyyy? During tonight's whining session, er, I mean discussion, Dash informed her why he was not in choir.

"The reason why I am not in choir is because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom in the middle of a song."

I did follow up to find out if this had been a problem last year. He told me it had been but just during a practice. Apparently, that one instance left quite an impression on him...and has ended all chances of an American Idol appearance in the future.

Rac-racoon

Dash found a fuzzy brown caterpillar. I decided to play the role of "good mom", and told him we could keep it in a jar. Sure enough, the little guy spun a cocoon. So now we check on it daily...rather hourly sometimes. He probably has some type of Shaken Caterpillar Syndrome from all of the jar shaking that occurs. But I digress...Stinkerbell was checking on it the other day.

Me: What are you doing?

Stinkerbell: I'm looking at the rac-racoon.

Me: You mean the cocoon?

Stinkerbell: (With a look of 'duh' on her face) No, I mean the rac-racoon.

Imagine her confusion when we read a book about a racoon at the library story time.

Right wing

The firstborn watched the presidential debate last night. A few minutes in, he questioned why McCain was on the left side of the screen. Since Republicans are called right wing, shouldn't he be on the right side?

Shoes

So it's an unusually beautiful day and I persuade Dash that riding his bike would be a good idea. We go outside. Stinkerbell decides she wants to come too. Dash gets his helmet on, tries to run over a grasshopper and takes off.

Stinkerbell comes out holding a pair of shoes, realizes she doesn't have her shorts on and heads back inside to get them.

Dash rides some more, wrecks once, gets back on.

Stinkerbell comes out, shorts in hand, and needs help putting them on. (still no shoes on) We put her shorts on...Dash is still riding...she goes out to the sidewalk and says she needs help with the shoes. We put the shoes on. They are pink summer sandals with velcro straps. We put them on; she tells me they don't feel right. (Dash is still riding his bike.) Of course they don't feel right, because I put them on the CORRECT feet. She messes with the straps a bit and then decides they might be ok.

Dash finishes riding his bike and comes up to the sidewalk to play hopscotch. While, Stinkerbell is telling me I drew the hopscotch wrong, Dash is picking a rock. Stinkerbell then decides the shoes don't feel right afterall; so she heads back inside to get another pair.

We've been outside for 15 minutes now and Stinkerbell still hasn't played or done anything other than debate the merit of her shoes. She comes back out with another pair and puts them on. She gets up to walk and then announces that she needs socks on with them. So she goes back inside. I suggest that she wear her Crocs, which she informs me hurt her feet. She goes inside and gets them anyway. She comes back out with them, tries them on and decides they don't hurt her feet anymore. She's finally ready to play.

They head to hopscotch and discover a bee...which is their cue to run inside yelling about the bee. Stinkerbell takes her shoes back off and finds a doll to play with inside.

Stacy...or is it Staci???

So, Stacy has come to live at our house. I'm not quite sure if she spells her name with a "y" or an "i"...or perhaps even an "ie." I haven't ever actually talked to her, but she moved in without my knowledge apparently. She is Stinkerbell's imaginary friend.

We don't have any close friends named Stacy, so I'm still not sure how she came up with that name. Although I find the fact that Stacy is always busy with her boxing lessons to be a little bit more perplexing. But she must be well-rounded because Stinkerbell just came out and told me that she and Stacy were going to the PTO meeting.

So "Dash" comes home from school and tells us he got in trouble for talking.

"What were you supposed to be doing?"

"Taking a test."

"Well you can't talk during a test. You might be cheating."

"Well we would NEVER do something like that!" (with a look that tells me he's amazed I would even think such a thing)

"You can't talk during a test."

"Well, she never told us that. But I've learned my lesson!"

OK, I'm sure his teacher probably never specifically said "don't talk during tests". I'm sure she thought the "no talking when you aren't supposed to be" rule would fit all situations. Besides, who has ever heard of taking a test the in kindergarten...in the first couple weeks nonetheless.

Wow, kindergarten is going to be very interesting!!!