Practicing Piano

Do you think Christopher will ever learn to play the piano with all this "help" from Sarah Kate?

Cooking Shows

Today as Sarah Kate was playing with her kitchen toys (ok, they're mine, she doesn't have a play kitchen yet, poor thing), Christopher hatched the idea to film a cooking show.  And since we were home all day waiting for someone to puke (because Will had the night before), I was just desperate enough for entertainment that I let him waste a fruit cup and 1/2 cup milk on this little project.  Of course, Will had to follow in his footsteps, so it ended up being 2 fruit cups and 1 cup milk.  Anyway, here are all three kids' cooking videos.  They can get a little slow, but I find them entertaining! And in case you are wondering, we did eat "fruit cup dip" with tortilla chips at dinner tonight.

For the Record: Sarah Kate's Steps

I don't have any video or photos yet, because it is hard to get her to actually show it off, but Sarah Kate is taking some steps!  Her first step was back on June 3, and since thenthere have maybe been a couple other times that she has taken one little step.  She is such a good crawler and has developed an upright crawl (video to follow) that she uses carry toys and get around at the same time, so she's not too interested in walking.  But today at Nana and Granddad's house, she took about three or four steps to Granddad!  Way to go, Sarah Kate!  It might be another month before she does it again, but we know she can do it!

Burpy Slurpies

We have had an imaginary friend who has been at our house for over two years now.  His name is Burpy Slurpy, and he is a burp.  He arrived early in 2008, and apparently has been breeding, because there are now multiple burpy slurpies around.  Sometimes they come places with us, and sometimes they stay at home.  When they ride in the car, they are buckled into the unused seat belt in the middle of the back seat.  Will likes to race his burpie slurpies, and he can beat them at getting dressed, swimming, etc.  Christopher usually just talks about Burpy Slurpy (the original?), and Will talks about "my burpie slurpies."

If you are paying attention, you may think I can't make up my mind about how to spell our imaginary friends' names:  burpy slurpy or burpie slurpie?  I asked Christopher about this the other day, and after some thought, he decided that "the males are spelled with a 'y' and the females are spelled with an 'ie'."  After which Will said, "Are females girls?  All my burpie slurpies are girls."

I can say one thing about my life:  it never gets boring!  :)

Sarah Kate--13 months

Sarah Kate is so much fun these days.  She is a chatterbox . . . mostly chatter that we can't understand at all, and she is LOUD.  But she says Dada, Mama, banana (nana), please (pees), all done (da da), and more (mah).  And talks in her gibberish all day long, complete with facial expressions and outbursts of laughter.  It is so entertaining!

Sarah Kate just started standing up without holding on to anything, and she is so proud of herself!  We can't get her to take a step after she stands up, but Christopher has declared, "She will be walking in days." We'll see!  She also has started dancing and really enjoys sitting and looking at books.  She also loves to play with her brothers' legos . . . taking them apart and trying to put them together.  She is so patient with it--it's not easy for a 13-month-old to get those legos to fit together!  This month she went on her longest trip yet.  We were so proud of how well she did on the trip to Illinois and Indianapolis! 

Here's a video of her newest trick:

Christopher's Kindergarten Journal

At Christopher's school, they have about 4 journal assignments a week, two at school and two at home.  His school journal stayed at school, and I didn't really see it until he brought it home at the end of the year.  The idea is that at the beginning of the year, the kids are getting down words with spaces between them and the starting sound correct (but not necessarily any other correct spelling).  By the end of the year, their spelling improves and they start understanding punctuation, use of adjectives, etc.  Christopher started off spelling pretty well because he is such a good reader.  But his spelling and punctuation both improved over the course of the year.  We loved looking through his journal and seeing what he wrote.  Here are some of my favorites (his teacher wrote correct spelling underneath so he could start to learn it):

First day of school entry:

Close-up of the drawing on this one:

Indianapolis!

Last weekend, we headed back to Indianapolis for the first time since we moved three years ago.  It was so strange to drive those roads again, and it was fun to see all our friends (who looked exactly the same) and their kids (whose faces seemed to have been transplanted onto taller bodies).  For the sake of record keeping, here are the daily details of our trip:

Thursday:  We drove about 8 1/2 hours to Bloomington, IL.  My brother Jamie helped us out by driving from Michigan to northern IL to pick up my grandfather and bring him to Bloomington to see us.  Sarah Kate did pretty well on her first major road trip challenge.  When we got to the hotel, the boys were thrilled not only with the hotel, but also with the indoor pool, which they enjoyed with Daddy.  We had dinner with Jamie and Great-Grandpa, then put the kids to bed and visited for awhile.

Friday:  We spent the morning in Bloomington with Jamie and Great-Grandpa.  Christopher was ecstatic over Fruit Loops at breakfast, and Will had "cake" (coffeecake).  Then they hit the pool again, this time with Uncle Jamie, who got a workout with two boys hanging all over him!  We had lunch at Olive Garden, said good-bye, and headed to Indianapolis.  That evening, Noel had meetings to attend, and I met my friend Ashley for dessert while our awesome babysitter Dre stayed with the kids.

Saturday:  Noel spent the morning at meetings, and the kids and I spent the morning at Ashley's house with her 4 younger kids.  It was a madhouse, but the kids had a great time!  After eating lunch with them, we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed naps.  Christopher and Noel went to the Indianapolis Speedway to watch qualifications for the Indy 500.  Christopher loved watching the fast race cars and made a new friend, Tommy, who shares his birthday.  Late that night, things took a small turn for the worse when Will woke up with a fever of 102.  

Sunday:  Noel and I were thankful that Redeemer Presbyterian has gone to two services since we left!  Since Will was sick, Noel headed to the early service and got back to the hotel just in time for Christopher and I to go to the late service.  It was wonderful to worship with our former church family, and Christopher and I even sat in our old pew.  :)  That afternoon, I got to visit with my friend Linda and her three beautiful teenage daughters.  Noel and the boys swam in the hotel's indoor pool.  And that evening, Noel and I had a great dinner with several of our friends.  It was so fun to see everyone again!  While we were at dinner, Christopher managed to pull a loose tooth at bedtime.  Noel had promised him $3 instead of the usual $2 if he pulled it on our trip.  I guess the Indiana Tooth Fairy has higher rates! 

Monday:  We had planned to meet friends at the Children's Museum, but Will's fever was persisting, so we decided an open-air activity might spread fewer germs.  So we headed to the zoo!  It was HOT, but the boys loved it.  Sarah Kate came with us for awhile and then was rescued by Dre, who took her back to the hotel for a nap.  We touched sharks, sat in the "Splash Zone" at the dolphin show (but only got splashed once), saw all the animals, and rode the train and carousel.  Will was asleep in the car before we were a block away from the zoo!  After much-needed naps, the boys and I got in one last hotel swim.  That evening we had dinner with Dre at our old favorite, Macaroni Grill, and Noel spent some time with his guy friends.  

Tuesday:  We ate breakfast at the Cracker Barrel that the boys could see from the hotel (Will had been asking for pancakes for days, but didn't really feel well enough to eat them), and headed for home.  It was a 12 hour trip, but the kids did well.  Overall, it was a great trip with happy memories, even if it was a little lacking in sleep.  :)  We hope it isn't another three years before we get back to see our Hoosier friends again!