Are you lunchsmart or gradesmart?

Another of Braden's ever so insightful comments...several times on the way home from basketball practices Braden has discussed the concept of "lunchsmart" and "gradesmart." Lunchtime at this school has not been Braden's favorite thing. At the first of the year he sat near a friend, but was at a table of tormentors. That settled down to where he was no longer tormented, and now he is gleeful because he gets to be the tormentor of the "cool kids" because apparently THEY can't all fit on one table and Braden in his spot disrupts their placement....anyone else confused??

I think the titles he has come up with are pretty self explanatory. He has repeatedly proclaimed that he is happy to be "gradesmart" and not "lunchsmart". Tonight he commented that it is rare to have someone both "gradesmart" AND "lunchsmart" and repeated his happiness at being "gradesmart."

Ahh fourth grade politics..

Andrew's Entertainer

Andrew's piano teacher doesn't have recitals (I think...)but she does video the kids and post them on you tube. Here's Andrew's performance of "The Entertainer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAUnmoRXYDI

Hoopin' it up

Andrew and Braden are playing rec league baskteball. I thought I'd post a few pictures of them "in action".

First is Andrew-he actually made this shot! He's been playing really well. Good defender, not too bad on offense. He usually has to play trash man since his team seems to play like Duke-live by the three, die by the three. He still manages to score around 8 points a game.



Not a great action shot of Braden, but the boy defending him is the other boy on his Odyssey of the Mind team. His team happens to be one of the best teams in the league, in spite of the fact they are not very good on offense. They've only allowed like 8 points per team. Good defense. Braden is doing well and is learning the game as he whistles and skips up and down the court!!



A few pictures of the onlookers with dad. This was taken the day after the 100th day of school for Chase which inspired the glasses!!



Just a cute picture of Delainey and Dad!! I will mention that Chase and Delainey do NOT EVER sit and watch the game. They are up and down, up and down, over and under, up and down, over and under......it's almost more exhausting watching them!!



Most exciting of all is that I get to play on Friday nights in February!! The men in the stake have an organized schedule on Friday nights, and the women get together and play right before. I'm soooooooooooo excited because I rarely get to play and never with women who know how to play!! WAA-hoooo!

A few of my favorite things...

I've just been thinking about the some of the small things that make my day..thought I'd share a few:

1)Quiet days with no major agenda items-very few and far between

2)Children sleeping in their own beds all night-again few and far between

3)Friends that can come and just hang out

4)Phone calls from friends in other places

5)Comments on my blog

6)Bike rides

7)Songs my family enjoys jamming out to at full volume-preferably while we're working together

8)Nights out with my husband

9)A happy teenager and conversations that help discover what he's becoming

10)Sunshine

OK, so I "Twilight", but this is too much!

We moved to Florida in April. As I started attending park days in the summer and then the fall I learned about the "Twilight" series. Almost all of the YW leaders had read and loved it, as had quite a few others. I borrowed a copy, and sometime in October I started reading. Fell in love, way too obsessive about it, but that's a story for my shrink. ANYWAY, the movie was coming out in November and I watched a few of the trailers. Not everyday mind you, and not over and over and over again. I didn't let my children watch much of it, just on principle.

BUT, one child became a "Twilight"er of sorts. Delainey. Now, I have the original copies of the books. Meaning I don't have the copy with the movie picture on the front. I got the CD for Christmas so that wasn't around. However, that didn't deter Delainey. Sometime in early December Matt dropped me off at Barnes and Noble to run in for something. There was a movie poster for "Twilight". Delainey proceeds to say "Look Daddy, Twilight!!" Stunning.

Today, Delainey and I ran into Kmart for a few minutes. While picking out a snack for Andrew Delainey says, "Look mommy, Twilight!" We were near the posters and they were open to one of Edward from "Twilight." Stunned again. Way too much recognizability for one so young....

SCIENCE FAIR WINNER!!!

This was our first, believe it or not, foray into science fair projects. I'm still in great disbelief that it has taken this long for us to participate...but that's a story for another day!! Our first experience led to a second place winner!! Braden was/is sooooooooo excited about his 2nd place finish. He hoped only for honorable mention so his expectations were obviously met and exceeded! Interestingly enough, his class took 8 of the 18 places in the science fair. In the three catagories they took first AND second in all but one catagory! Not bad for Mrs.Conroy, who I believe is still a "temporary" (for this year) teacher!!!

Yeah for Braden!!

With all the Physical Science division winners



Proud and happy in front of his project "How does a non-Newtonian fluid react differently to a pencil tip, a pencil eraser and the back of a spoon being pushed quickly into the non-Newtonian fluid?"

Happiness is...

Sitting at the computer doing what I want while four children empty the dishwasher with "Supermassive Black Hole" blaring in the background....

aaaahhhhhh

Funny things said in our house today

At our ward building they are clearing out some trees to make room for a bigger parking lot. Matt and Andrew went over this morning to get some of the wood to have for campouts. Matt came home and showered. He came out of the shower shirtless to cool off a bit, picked up Delainey who commented,

"WOW! Dad, your pits are really wet!!"


Later I asked Chase a question and the response was


"No, I don't think so Cracker Jack!!"



Where did these kids come from??

Christmas Eve and Morn

Andrew decided to invite everyone into his room for a Christmas Eve sleepover. That way, the first one up could get everyone up together. Delainey was struggling with a cold, so she coughed most of the night away leaving Andrew with, and I quote, "4 hours and 6 minutes of sleep" but who's counting?

Visions of sugar plums??




The line up



Trying things out




Andrew has declared Wii music the BEST GAME EVER CREATED!!! (many thanks to Jared, Mary and company!!)

Christmas Sunday

I had ward council meeting before church on Christmas Sunday. As I was getting everything ready to leave I felt my inner Southern woman coming on in full form. I turned to Matt and said "You know, it's a great tribute to my faith that I'm actually going to this meeting this morning." He looked puzzled and I explained, "Because I'm leaving you at home to get the kids ready on Christmas Sunday!" He did a fabulous job and even got some pictures in!

In their Christmas finery (all the boys, including Matt and my dad) had matching ties and Delainey picked out her dress. (and oh, the height discrepencies...)




More true to life:

One of those streets...

We are very fortunate-we live on "one of those streets." During the Christmas season quite a few of the neighbors put up lighted arches. At last count, our street had 23. It's so much fun to drive through at night. Then, on Christmas Eve, they light luminaries, walk down the street waving and saying "Merry Christmas" to the people driving by to see the lights. Then, a special person comes and brings gifts to the kids! Lots of fun:

A look at the arches:




Our house:




Santa arrived on his "Deere"



Gifts for the kids: (notice the terrified Delainey clinging to mom!)

Work Christmas party

One thing we used to really enjoy when we lived here before was the Harris Christmas Party. They have lots of fun activities for the family-food, pony rides, crafts, rock climbing, the moon bounce activities, a hay ride, battle of the bands, car show....and gifts for the kids!! Delainey was totally stoked when she saw the ponies. We went at the busiest time so we spent too much time in line, but we still had lots of fun.

A great looking foursome:



Chase gives it a go (he needed just a little convincing)



Need I say more?

The joy of Sunday Movies!!

So, since the beginning of our child rearing life we have had a rule about Sunday movies. The usual-10 commandments type, scripture videos, and movies with "real people and songs" (musicals) A week or so ago, Braden, joined quickly by Chase and Delainey, could be heard singing "matchmaker, matchmaker..." Just tonight as he got ready for scouts, he was belting (and he really can belt, and sometimes on key!) "If I were a rich man..." I love it when my children are affected by their exposure to the classics.

Out of the mouth of babes...

So a couple of cute quotes from our house..

After a dinner time discussion about all the new/coming cousins, Chase seemed a bit bewildered by the sheer numbers of people. He then declared "All our family has been born!!" I couldn't agree more.

Braden, after trying to explain something to me "My brain is too complex for my mouth!!" I don't know if my brain is too complex for my mouth but I certainly have a disconnect point from my brain to my mouth!!

and the rockets red glare...

Friday night I stood at the beach by the Cocoa Beach Pier along with a few thousand of my closet friends and watched the night launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. There's nothing quite so spectacular as a night launch of a shuttle. The night suddenly become sunrise as the whole skyline brightens up. Ater a few seconds the stunningly bright shuttle peeks its way over the building tops and you stand, absolutely amazed and awestruck, as you ponder what you're looking at. A rocket (actually a few) attatched to a large vehicle, carrying people blasting up and into the atmosphere. At night you can see when the SRB's fall off as two small points of light separate themselves from the brighter spot of the shuttle. You then watch, for what seems like a really long time, as the shuttle curves around the earth on it's way out to space. After a time, the ever dwindling spot of light that is the shuttle goes out, and there is a sigh of relief that everything went according to plan. Launch successful.

It's AMAZING!!! It's like Disney except Science and not Fantasy. I'm not the most eloquent writer so the words aren't coming, but it's amazing to look around and see how many people will drive long distances to see a shuttle launch. It's one of those, only happens here experiences that follow us wherever we go. Every place we've lived has the "only happens here" experiences and I love them.

I don't know what Washington will decide about the space program, but before they make any solid decisions, they all need to come and watch a night launch and experience the magic of Kennedy Space Center.

Halloween-late post

I know there are many of you who do not particularly care for late posts, but life is life and cameras are cameras, and getting pictures from the father in law who had the only pictures of Halloween takes a while! (Thanks Matt for staying up to all hours of the night getting these!)

Frankenstein and his bride, 14 years later...



Delainey, our little carrot



Braden as a yeti-and boy, the few numbers of people who got that one are even fewer than the people who knew what a yeti was...





Chase as a spider, or for all you Harry Potter fans, an acromantula:



Sadly, it appears that we didn't get pictures of Andrew as a stick figure. I will say that it was light when we took pictures so he wouldn't have shown up well anyway..

I've been tagged...

My friend Charity tagged me with the "I" tag so here goes.

I AM tall, happy to be here, not very creative at the moment, and an Odyssey of the Mind coach

I HAVE four children, a wonderful husband, a pool (I still feel snooty about that one even though virtually every other person in Florida has one...), too many things

I GET FRUSTRATED WHEN my house gets messy five minutes after I clean it, I have too many things going on at one time, and food prices out growing my growing family

I VALUE honesty, a job well done, friends, family, quiet time to do something I WANT to do

I WISH I could stay in one place for a long, long time, I could feel like we could just get a little "ahead", I could bike more

I FEAR the future of our downward spiraling country, losing one of my children to the dark side, not doing everything I should be doing as a mom

I DISLIKE slow drivers, snakes, my metabolism, and fun days that are much too short

I LOVE BIKING (and don't get enough of it right now), time with family and friends, chocolate, the giggles of my little children, and the much too few fun, relaxed moments at home when everyone is around laughing and enjoying being together

I TAG Jared, Shelly, Michelle, Monica, and Sara

Quote for the day

As already mentioned, my children love Mythbusters. (probably says WWAAYYYY tooo much about my children...) This afternoon, due to some mercy from mom, they were watching a few minutes of the show where they are trying to scare Jamie and Adam with creepy crawlers. The tarantulas come out and I ask Chase, "Would you be scared by those things?"

In his very indignant Chase like way he replies "NNoooooo, I don't have arachnophobia!!"

I merely stand and blink...

The Office

Chase and Delainy spend many an hour and many a ream of paper in the "dining room" which I now call the "Kid's office." They have access to markers, crayons, dot paints, and stickers and love spending loads of time drawing.

Ode to Emma

Matt's cousin Shelly has a daughter, Emma, who is rather famous for the locations and positions where/how she can fall asleep. Here's Delainey's tribute to Emma:

She sneaked out of her room after being put to bed to do a little reading in the living room:



This one is when she got stung by what we think were japanese wasps and she was incredibly uncomfortable and would only sleep with her legs at a 90 degree angle:



Asleep on mom (not a flattering picture of mom I might add):



And finally, with a buddy, on the way home from school: