Scout was so stoked on his bed-making skills, he wanted me to take a picture.
I was rather impressed how he incorporated every stuffed animal he could find.
But I am not totally sure if this made the room look nicer or a bit crazy.
Made Bed
Phlegm
Navy was in the car, and randomly asked us what phlegm was.
Scout said, “Navy, it tastes really bad, but feels really good in the back of your throat.”
Interesting stuff that boy comes up with.
Parent/Teacher
Scout’s Teacher sent an Email to everyone that said, “You will only need to attend a parent/teacher conference if I am concerned about your child.”
I was surprised and horrified that I got the “I am concerned” Email two days later.
So I set the appointment and went in.
She had nothing but great things to say about him. I really was wondering when the “but” would come. Ten minutes into the conference, I was still hearing rave reviews.
And then…
“The state provides testing to see where each student is in terms of progress. Scout took the test in November, and was right at the 2nd grade level, exactly where he should be — especially considering that these tests are all in English, and he gets 80% less English than a standard student in California. That being said, he recently retook the test, and I am very, very worried. He has regressed.”
***I’ll put the thoughts I was having in my head in parenthesis.***
(Stinking lazy Scout…this meeting is a waste of my time.)
“The green is where the kids are just fine. And then there is the blue…which means I need to keep my eyes on that student. The yellow has me really worried as a teacher. And then there is the red!!!”
(I’m going to kill that kid! How far into the red is he?)
“I hate to tell you this….”
(He’s in the red.)
“He is in the red.”
(What a joker.)
Then I asked about the test, and how it is taken, how long it is, how it is monitored, and where and when.
Once I heard it was a 30 minute test in the computer lab, with the teacher peaking in every once in a while, I knew.
I asked to see the printout.
She first showed me November’s test scores.
And then the recent test score.
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Without hesitation, I scanned the printout for what I was looking for.
And I found it!
I guess 4 minutes and 14 seconds doesn’t get you in the green.
(This kid has it coming to him.)
She was embarrassed that she didn’t catch on to this sooner, and asked if I would be ok with him retaking it.
(Yes please!)
But I told her, “Yes, but not until I give him the lecture of his lifetime first.”
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Update: You’ll never guess who got well into the green on his test a week later!
St. Pattys ‘15
Can I just say…I really dislike St. Pattys Day.
I feel like it is a newly made-up holiday. I never celebrated it as a kid, and to me….it seems like “mess day”.
But nonetheless, my kids love it.
THANK GOODNESS Micah does the leprechaun traps with them.
This year was a doozie.
All I know is that there was a lot of gold, and a rainbow.
They thought it was a slam dunk.
And at first…it seemed that way.
But Scout quickly realized that it was just a fake chocolate leprechaun.
He left behind a cute note to Navy’s artwork…”This is beautiful. -O’Connel the Leprechaun.”
And a ton of gold and silver.
And the kids cleaned up all of the loot.
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All while I cleaned up all of the stinking mess — that I personally made just a few hours before.
Dash on Vacation
My mo took Dash to Utah to see Bella.
For the record — I do not approve of my kids being away from me. But with infertility stuff going on, I knew a surprise trip by Dash would be very exciting to Bella.
And, very exciting to Dash.
Because really….this has been a “how can we all spoil Dash” trip.
They spoil him by shopping trips and seeing NayNay.
They spoil him by huge egg breakfasts while watching cartoons.
They spoil him by letting him sleep with Bella, while Jon get the boot.
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But let’s be honest….look at the sneaking eye in the background. This is more like a spoil Bella trip. She loves every single second with her sidekick Sumo.
Salt Creek Hill
On a Sunday afternoon, the Salt Creek Hill was calling our name.
We decided to just bring a few snacks down, and a kite to fly.
These two were working together to get the kite up and running.
While this socialite went from group to group.
She would either con food off of them, or find a dog she liked.
She stopped for a long time at this group, because they let her throw the tennis ball to their dog — which made her very happy.
Check out Scout, who got the kite up!
When I didn’t see Navy with him, I realized she found some friends of ours.
Kobe — only the cutest boy in school, took quite the beating from Navy.
Micah and I finally had to stop the madness!
I tried to get a few good pictures of the kids, because the lighting was amazing.
But the cooperation wasn’t at it’s all time high.
Good thing I got this cute one of the Pips.
Poor Scout got all tuckered out from the kite flying, and found a good resting spot.
Navy moved on to cartwheels.
I got Scout to come over for a snack — and my healthy boy wanted all three carrots.
And then we witnessed an incredible sunset that matched Pippi’s bow.
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I always love Sundays.
But this Sunday was particularly good.
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(I was bummed that Dash is in Utah with Nonnie and Bella, but from what I have seen, he is having the time of his only-child life!)
Dribbling
The kids and I went to Micah’s soccer game. Sometimes it is a pain to bring Pippi, because she is all over the place, and I have to keep her out of the field. But today, she found a new favorite past time. She dribbled a soccer ball for at least 20 minutes. She would kick it, and then turn and kick it some more. She even found a friend to play with her, and he played with her the whole time. It was actually really darling. He was so sweet, and she loved having an opponent to dribble past.
Beach Camping
I was at Britni’s house this afternoon (on my bike with the Pips on the front of me). Micah called to see what I was up to, and said he would pick me up at Britni’s house after he, Scout and Navy finished some things. So then I whispered into the phone to bring a tent and sleeping bags.
About an hour later, this was the scene….
Micah was setting up our tent on the sand, while the big kids watched and “helped”.
Then they set up their gear, and played and played until they finally slept at around 11:00.
We had high hopes of them sleeping in, but I knew better.
I slept on the couch, just inside the window, and saw these four up at the crack of dawn.
They were searching for sea glass, heart rocks and any other beach treasures.
Meanwhile, these two lovebirds were feeding the kids and whipping up breakfast.
After clean up, I was a little afraid of the kid’s behavior…so I decided to take them all home with me for an afternoon at the pool.
Bike Ride
Pippi had a tough morning, so I knew we needed to spend some good one-on-one time together.
So I strapped her into the Baby Bjorn, got the beach cruiser, and headed to the open road.
We decided to head to Britni’s house about 6 miles away.
Pippi L-O-V-E-D it!
She pointed and said “bird” to each of the hundreds we saw.
She jolted back and forth in the Bjorn to tell me she wanted to go faster.
When we were about a mile away, I heard “Uh-oh”, so I stopped and realized that she had dropped her plug.
She was perfect.
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I would take that little girl on the front of me anytime!
Girl’s Day Out
Every once in a while, the girls just need to go shopping.
So Pippi and I picked Navy up from school, and headed to South Coast.
Surprisingly, Navy was loving trying on thing after thing.
She even did some pseudo modeling in the dressing room.
But even more surprisingly, Pippi LOVED trying on thing after thing!
She would get a new outfit on, sneak past the curtain, and show off her new duds to everyone in the store — then like clockwork come back to the dressing room for a new outfit.
She was hilarious!
Navy and I were cracking up.
For being so good, I obviously had to treat them to a carousel ride on the Easter Bunnies.
And then outside, Navy did a little impromptu photo shoot, so we could send Nonnie a pic of her new outfit.
Wow — this girl just might have “it”.
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