27 January 2019

Putting Rosebud in bed just now and she said, "I'm the princess, and you're the king, so you have to use a DIFFERENT voice," and I was forced to sing good night songs in the bass register and wish her good night in my most kingly tones.

25 January 2019

My parents came to visit over New Year's, and my sister and her family came down too.  They were on their way to the Everglades and stopped over for a day or two.  We had a New Year's game night party at the church... it started as a New Year's Day sandwich party at our house, which is an annual tradition, and then kind of grew and morphed and turned into a fun evening that the whole ward was invited to.

My sister's mother in law gave them a karaoke machine for Christmas, and we had entirely too much fun with it!

Rose Pink and Nut Brown

Nut Brown and friend - they sang Bohemian Rhapsody, and They Might Giants songs, and lots of other stuff together.

Mr. Brown and friend, singing It's The End Of the World As We Know It

Nut Brown and his cousin

me and Rose Pink, singing Havana Oh Na Na.  I was so thrilled when she decided she would sing with me... hanging out with her friends here put the brakes on her desire to sing in front of people.  She's such a good singer too.

me and my dad singing an oldie that he picked.  He had a bad cold, so he chose one where he could sing a super fun bass line called "Mr. Bass Man".  I didn't actually know it, so I just kind of made it up as we went along.

me and my sister falling over laughing while singing Cheap Thrills.  We had such a blast!

The karaoke madness continued into the next day, right up until my sister left and had to take the karaoke machine with her.  Rosebud sang 'Over The Rainbow' with me, word for word... it's one of her favorite lullabies at bedtime.  She also sang with the older kids on Shotgun by George Ezra.  Even then, Nut Brown asked if we could bring up karaoke videos on youtube, and he would just sing along with them without a microphone.  So much super fun!

20 January 2019

Girls in pink shirts and jeans

Rose Pink has been so happy since her birthday, and is such a pleasure to be around.  The other night we were eating dinner off paper plates because we were tired of doing dishes, and when I got out the ice cream for dessert, I told the kids to go and get themselves bowls for ice cream.  Rose Pink presented a spoon and had me put her six scoops (we have a small scooper) on the spoon one at a time, and she ate each one while waiting for me to scoop the next.  She is so funny.

The other night we were laying on our bed talking with Rose Pink and Nut Brown, and she said something really clever and funny.  Mr. Brown and I laughed and I said, "Rose Pink, you are so funny!" and she smiled at me and then sighed and said, "None of my friends think I'm funny.  They never get my jokes."  Well, I think she needs new friends.  I wish she had more people who really appreciated her.

18 January 2019

For the girls' birthdays we went to Disney World.  Some friends of our from the ward are ardent Disney fans, and they were excited to be our guides, so we went down together last Saturday.  After the three hour parking snafu, we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom, and finished up with the fireworks at 9 pm.  We got Fast Passes for some rides (Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain) and stood in line for others.  We watched the parade, which was fun, and the laser show at 8:30 and the fireworks at 9 pm.  Rosebud fell asleep during the fireworks.  We packed a lot of snacks/food, which was good, because we ended up not eating dinner. 

The kids had a wonderful time and have been asking to go back ever since.  Mr. Brown and I had somewhat more mixed feelings about it.  It was exhausting, and there were so many people, and we stood in line for what felt like mediocre experiences (including the jungle boat ride with the automated animal carvings - was this really worth an hour wait?), and then riding on Space Mountain made Mr. Brown really, really sick.  The next day was Sunday and we were completely exhausted all day, and the kids were crabby because they were so tired.  By the time we left, Mr. Brown and I were feeling like we never wanted to see Disney again.

But the kids had a wonderful time.  They didn't mind waiting in line, and they loved the roller coasters (fortunately our friends like them too and took our kids on them so we didn't have to), and we really, really enjoyed the laser show at the end.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends, too.  The passes we bought were for four days, so we'll be headed back three more times.  Maybe we'll like Epcot better!

17 January 2019

Last summer we started a road trip to a family reunion.  The kids each had a notebook as part of staying busy in the car, and when we got home I discovered that Bobo had chronicled our journey for part of the way in his book.

passing palm trees... we must still be in Florida...

a farmhouse

crossing a bridge over a river

more trees

more trees... we're definitely in South Carolina now

river plus trees in the median

fewer trees and the other side of the highway

passing a pond with trees in the median

the last page... with a love note from his sister

16 January 2019

Mr. Brown and the big kids leave for Mutual and I say to the littles, "What should we listen to?" and name some of my favorite kid bands.  (I love Raffi.)  Bobo says, "No way, Mom!" and Rosebud says, "no no no Cheap Thrills!"  So they've picked the music this evening and we listened to:

-Seven Nation Army (White Stripes)
-Cheap Thrills (Sia)
-Zombie (Cranberries) (they know all the words to this, even Rosebud)
-Havana Oh Na Na (Camila Cabello)
-Natural (Imagine Dragons)
-Believer (Imagine Dragons)
-Exes and Ohs (Elle King)

And they have sung along to all of them.

11 January 2019

Dragon, by Nut Brown

8 January 2019

A picture of Yggdrasil painted by Nut Brown.

Bobo's reading has really taken off in the last couple of months.  He started reading picture books to himself, and then he started reading everything else to himself as well.  He's learning about Egypt for a geography project, since his first name is Egyptian, and he read a good chunk of a book of Egyptian myths to himself.  He read himself a chapter book, and has been completely immersed in the Geronimo Stilton graphic novel series (fortunately it's a long one).  Yesterday morning, he came to me with an astronomy book that he'd found - aimed at kids, but probably 5/6th grade - and told me all about the cool things he'd learned about, like the life cycle of a star.  He'd put bookmarks in on all the pages that he was excited about.  It's so amazing to see him really discover that reading will broaden his knowledge and expand his horizons.

3 January 2019

Just a memo to myself to remember how Rosebud fell in love with a Christmas song.  The nursery kids were invited to Primary singing time for the month of December, and the singing leader picked Rosebud to hold the 'baby Jesus' baby doll while they sang 'Lullaby'.  Rosebud was so sweet rocking the baby while the other kids sang, and for a couple weeks after she asked for 'Lullaby' at bedtime and talked about how she got to hold the baby Jesus.  Very tender memories.