Dec 18 - 23 (Yikes)

Okay - we're falling apart a little bit here at the end. Mostly me with keeping up on posting our activities.

Sat Dec 18: We read a Christmas book together as a family. This time it was Curious George's Christmas.

Dec 19:We were just really busy working on Simon's bunk beds this day but, hey, we were all down in the garage working together so that was our family activity for the day.

Dec 20: We watched A Year Without a Santa Claus in the evening.

Dec 21:We went to Zoo Lights with Grandpa Wise-- hot cocoa, popcorn, saw some monkeys, fish, giant anaconda. It was a really great time. Wish I had remembered to bring the camera but oh well.

Dec 22: We all worked on a Christmas present for Grandpa Wise. When I was a little girl he always had me make pomander balls for my grandparents so we are working on making one for him. Every one of us worked for a while (and its still not quite done!)

Dec 23: Had cookies and hot cocoa with the Schaefers. Simon kicked the baby, intentionally. It was horrible. HORRIBLE. He was mad because his turn for holding the baby was over and so he kicked at her. It was more of a shove with his feet but it was still horrible. He has some real jealousy issues because he thinks that Lily got her baby sister for Christmas and he wants a baby sister for Christmas. I have tried to tell him that the baby isn't Lily's Christmas present but I don't think he believes me. On the upside, Ike had excellent behavior all day today. Considering how much trouble he has been giving us at school this year I am going to focus on being happy about that and not thinking about how my youngest son enjoys kicking babies.

December 15-17

On December 15, we .. huh.. I have no idea.

On December 16, we opened an early Christmas gift from Duane's sister and her family. It was the game Busytown and since playing a game as a family was one of the things on our list we figured that was a good choice. The kids loved the game. We played it twice through and I played it again twice this morning with Simon while Ike was at school.

Tonight (December 17) we donated gifts to Oregon foster kids. I really tried to get gifts that were for older kids because I figured even fewer people would remember them. Ike was really enthusiastic about the whole experience and thinking about nice things that teenagers would like and he picked out a dart board. (Safety darts.)

Simon was pretty much not there at all. I think 3 1/2 is a little young to be able to think about other people's situations. He is still working on remembering that it hurts other people when he hits them. However, he did pick out a really cute Cars paint set and even though I was planning to aim older we went with it, since he at least was participating.

We also got a Harley Davidson 1500 piece puzzle and a chess & checkers set. Its harder than I thought to pick out stuff for older kids because a lot of the things aimed at teenagers requires other equipment -- video games, music, etc. Nothing would be more depressing than getting a dvd and not having a dvd player to watch it on.

What the heck did we do on Wednesday. I really have no recollection ... oh wait. We built Christmas scenes out of Legos. Well, I built a nice sleigh complete with Santa and a reindeer. Simon played with the sleigh, and Duane and Ike build spaceship "death wagons." Oh well, family time is family time.

Dec 13 & 14

Weekdays are always a little harder to squeeze in our family Christmas activity. However, yesterday we decorated the tree. It was horrible at first. Simon was just being a giant pill. He was whining and grabbing and doing all sorts of naughty things. We actually had to take a break to regroup because both Duane and I were just fed up and not enjoying ourselves.

We did come back and have a good time decorating the tree. I guess that is just part of family activities. I always think about how fun it will be and it really irks me when the kids have bad behavior on something I am doing that I feel is a treat for them. I try to remember that the activity doesn't have to go the way I planned it to go for it to still be fun.

Today we addressed and stuffed the envelopes for our Christmas cards. They are awesome again this year -- no thanks to me at all. That is all Duane. The boys are featured in disguise on the front cover. Ike's kindergarten teacher didn't even realize it was them on the cover!

And now I am OFFICIALLY caught up on documenting our Advent activities AND I don't have to go to work tomorrow so WOOHOOO!

December 12 Tree & Train

Most of this post is going to be dedicated to our official annual tradition of getting a Christmas Tree with the Schaefers. We started this tradition in 2007 the year after we moved out to Oregon and they year that Simon was born. The first 2 years of our tree-getting the Schaefers forgot to bring cash to get the tree. It was especially hilarious the second year because Elizabeth told me had pointedly got out cash just for the trip and then she totally forgot it. (They have brought cash both the last 2 year.)

Our group has increased significantly in population and mass. The first year Simon was a BABY, Ike was a toddler and Lily was there but not visible. (Elizabeth was about 3 months pregnant.)
This year baby Violet made it just in time to be visible in the picture! Enjoy checking out our families' growth.





Okay - now as I look at these pictures, I am forced to ask, "Do I OWN another coat?" I am the only person in the same coat year after year. I do like it that the coat Ike is wearing in the first picture is the same one Simon is wearing in the latest picture.

Since this post is technically about tree & train -- we also rode the Holiday Train out of Oaks Park in Portland with my dad on Sunday Afternoon. We had a really nice visit and the kids had a great time checking out the train and enjoying the surprise visit from Santa Claus. I got a couple pictures but most of them I already posted on facebook.

Saturday December 11 Puzzle & Stocking

Duane had a puzzle made out of last year's Christmas card -- it was such a favorite with the kids. They both have all the words memorized still. Here is a picture of the original card and one of the boys checking out the finished product.




















We broke out the "big" Christmas box in the afternoon and the boys hung up their stockings. I can't believe how grown-up and tall Ike looks in this picture.

Dec 6 - 10

This week was finals week and I got a little behind on both posting and actually doing family activities. We did manage the following:

• Dec 6: we all ate candy canes.
• Dec 7: we drove around and looked at Christmas lights
• Dec 8: we put up our nativity set. (This one deserves a picture. I am going to put some garland, etc. up once we break out the big Christmas box.)
  

Then December 9 hit. Simon's preschool is not open after the students are done with finals week. This is probably fine for them but its not great for me. I had what seemed like a million tests to grade and paperwork to do and a 3 year old helper. There are some things you can get done with a 3 year old and some you can not. Grading falls in to the latter category. So basically as soon as Duane got home from work both days, I went to work to get all the things done I couldn't do during the day and sadly, the family activities fell by the wayside.

HOWEVER, we are doing double duty this weekend to make up for our lapse. We have 4 really great activities already planned. (One we already did.) Stay posted for a weekend update on Sunday night.

December 5

I was planning to have us take a Poinsettia to Great-Grandma today but Duane has caught a bug and I didn't want him to pass it on to her so I took it by myself. We'll have to replace that activity with something else. We did listen to Christmas music. There was even some dancing including twirls and dips.

December 4 -- Baking Christmas Cookies

Just a few photos to show:

The boys were lots of help:

And here are the cookies before they went into the oven. Please notice the no-legged gingerbread man and his "bloody stump" next to him. This is how cookie baking goes when you live with all boys.

Dec 2 & Dec 3

On December 2nd, we read a Christmas book together as a family. No, not an old classic. In fact, we read "Aliens Love Panta Claus". Its actually pretty cute.





On December 3 we drank eggnog. This was definitely not one of my suggestions since I absolutely hate eggnog but I choked it down in the name of family togetherness.

Francis Family Advent Activites

Simon's preschool teacher recommended that all the parents create a calender of 25 family activities. The idea is that these are big or little things the family can do together. In a car ride about a week ago, we came up with our activities. Ike actually really contributed a lot of good ideas. Simon had a couple that we made workable.

The original idea in the class is that you would list one for each day. Well, I know us and I also know that especially while I am finishing up winter term its really hard to predict which days we will have time and energy for a big activity and which days we won't so I made a chart instead. There are 25 activities on the chart and we are going to put a Christmas sticker over each activity as we do it. A few of the activities are scheduled so I noted those with a particular date.

Here's the chart:

Francis Family Advent Planner

(Activities for the whole family to do together.)

Ride the Christmas Train With Grandpa (12/12)	Have a Festivus Party (12/23)	Watch “Elf”	Bake Christmas cookies.	Look at Christmas lights.
Get a Christmas Tree with the Schaefers (12/5)	Mail the Christmas cards.	Do a Christmas puzzle.	Drink eggnog.	Purchase and donate Christmas presents for foster kids.
Donate unused toys to Goodwill.	Listen to Christmas music.	Put up the nativity set.	Put up the stockings.	Go bowling.
Go to Grandma & Grandpa’s Christmas party. (12/24)	Bring a poinsettia to Great-Grandma.	Eat candy canes.	Watch “A Christmas Story.”	Drink hot cocoa.
Build Christmas scenes out of Legos	Read Christmas stories.	Go to Zoo Lights.	Play a game as a family.	Write a Christmas story.

What did we do on Dec 1? Watched Elf -- son of a nutcracker!

Simon the Roller Coaster

The one thing that has remained constant with Simon is that he is constantly changing -- both his personality and his hair! He was born with copper red hair. It was the second thing I noticed. (The first was that he was actually breathing. Thank GOD.) I think of this as Simon's fighter phase. He overcame so many obstacles -- you've got to be a fighter when you have surgery on your second day of life.



We next move in to Simon's bald phase. Simon is a pretty docile baby by this point. Easy going a good sleeper but a real Mama's boy. He pretty much will only be happy with me and Duane is an unacceptable option.






Next comes what I like to refer to as SImon's glory days. To start with he has the MOST beautiful hair anyone on the planet ever had. It is golden blonde with just enough wave to look perfectly tousled at all times. I would just stare at it in the sunshine. With his two big dimples and blue eyes he was a poster child. Everywhere we went people stopped me to tell me how adorable he was. He was also so sweet and docile at this age. Just a pleasure to have around.



Well, the hair changed and so did the personality. Here came the terrible twos and BOY were they rough with this one. One minute he was a sweet little angel the next minute a horrible monster. He would randomly attack other kids at the playground. I had to hover over him at all times to make sure he didn't hurt anyone. I was always a little happier when he went after the big kids because that was so much better than when he picked on the toddler girls. As for his hair, it pretty much stuck up in every stinking direction no matter what I did to it.



At about 2 and a half we gave him a homegrown buzz cut. At least this way I didn't have to fight him through hair combing and hair washing every day.












3 finally came along and the hair is a little more manageable as is his personality. He can be so sweet and so funny but he also can be really whiney and is having a hard time adjusting to really not being a baby anymore. I just got through with his first preschool parent teacher conference. Apparently his behavior at school doesn't in the least resemble his behavior at home. He never whines or complains. He's the first to help (?) AND get this two different Mom's have come up to me and said what a sweet boy Simon is and how he plays so nicely with their daughter and I quote from one of them "not like the some of the other boys in the class." Well, there's hope for anyone then!

Ike the Scientist

Ike was born with a scientific mind. He is an amazing problem solver. When he was 18 months old he got a Tonka dump truck for Christmas. He was happily loading it up in the living room when he stopped short with an epiphany. As fast as his fat little legs could go he pushed the dump truck to the baby gates in the kitchen and scaled the baby gates.

Ike loved tools from a ridiculously early age. He got a toolbench for his 1st birthday but those were pretend tools. He wanted the real McCoy. His first actual sentence:

I need more tools.

This is Ike at about 17 months helping out with drill that I really hope has the safety on.

In some ways Ike sometimes comes across as unsympathetic because he can always see things from a rational scientific standpoint. A few months ago Duane hit a small bump in the road and for some reason, he told the boys he ran over the neighbor's cat. (Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, eh?) Simon got all upset but Ike simply looked out the back window and said,"I don't see the remains."


Ike surprised both me and his preschool teacher by developing his own technique for figuring the sums of small numbers.

So the big question of the day at our house is how does a very smart, very clever, not overly mature 5 year old boy do in a regular kindergarten?

So far we're hanging in there but the jury is still out. We've had several notes home, met with the principal once, and the teacher more than a few times.
The issues:

1. Ike gets bored and then starts getting in to trouble.
2. When he does get in to a project he wants to keep working on it instead of moving on to the next topic after the allotted time.
3. The girls are getting on his nerves (his words -- and I think this is actually very common in kindergarten.)
   

Anyhoo - we'll see if he can manage the year and hopefully adjust in to 1st grade at his public school next year.

Keeping the Kids Entertained -- I hope.

We're heading out at 6am tomorrow morning for a fairly long trip to Central PA for my father-in-law's wedding. Its about 5.5 hours of flying combined between 2 flights followed by a 3 hours of driving. Yikes!

We've done a lot of cross-country travel with kids having always lived on the opposite side of the country as half of our family. I thought it might be helpful to document some handy things to have on a plane.

So here is what I packed for Simon:

• industrial strength kid headphones -- they break the earbuds in about 2 minutes
• new matchbox car
• mini helicopter,
• silly putty --this is awesome on the plane since it dissolves when it comes in contact with Purrell
• Yo Go dispenser -- also awesome since it is a little hard for them to work and it only dispenses one at a time
• a notepad & pen to draw pictures
• 1 magnet activity book
• 6 new books.

And I packed pretty much the same stuff for Ike, but replaced the magnet book with a Justice League sticker book. We have a bunch of shows on our iPods for the kids to watch. They don't mind the small screen and its way easier than fumbling with dvds.




And finally my backpack contents:

• medications: any and all we might possibly need.
• Purrell -- for removing germs AND silly putty
• snacks: Yo Go refills, skittles, and beef jerky
• Several Pens
• Wallet
• Phone
• Moisty Wipes
• netbook
• Mental Floss -- in the bizarre chance that I have a few minutes to read to myself.
• The boys' St. Christopher medals. (I am pretty sure the protection still holds even if they aren't wearing them.)
• iPod (currently charging)
• camera (taking the picture)
  

Even with all this planning, I know I'll forget something important.

PCM

"What? We're not climbing on the cow."

I finally finished my summer Webwork project which has taken up all my computer time. Its kind of a shame because I had a lot of fun times with the kids this summer and would liked to have done a better job documenting but ....

Today the whole family went to Portland Children's Museum and had a pretty great day. The kids love that place. Unrelatedly, we have a really fancy digital camera which I never learned how to use. I have one of those simple point & shoot numbers that I take with me. I decided my newest project is to learn how to use it. I got some decent shots today (and a lot of horrible ones also while I was playing around with the settings. The first is Ike shooting me the "stinkeye." He wanted to see what it looks like himself.





I got a couple of the kids working in the clay studio also:
















You can actually buy your kids creations but its nice that they just let the little guys play and enjoy the activity without any extra cost.










The last time we went to PCM we lost Simon. Well actually he hid from us. We were in the "Enchanted Walk" or whatever the heck it is called. I turned to hand Ike a moisty wipe to wipe the face paint off his hand and Simon disappeared. Seriously, into thin air. I really thought someone had snatched him because there just didn't seem to be any way he could have left that quickly. I called and called his name on the way to the front desk where they very quickly initiated a room-by-room search and posted someone at all the exits. (I was actually very impressed with their quick response.) Anyhoo -- he was hiding in a hollowed out tree about 6 feet from where we lost him. I didn't even realize those stupid trees were hollow.

Garden Party

The term really picked up and I've neglected both my garden and my blog. However, I've decided to dedicate a page to some of our gardening achievements. Here is a picture of our first 3 ripe strawberries. Not a large harvest but they were delicious.



The next is a picture of my conjoined twin rose. Its not 2 roses close together but actually 2 roses coming out of the same bud. I didn't get a great picture, it was hard to get the camera to focus on the flowers.







Finally here are some pictures of the "Grasshead" Ike made at preschool. It was totally easy to make and it turned out really cute. You use a cut off nylon. Put some grass seeds in the bottom and fill it with sawdust. Twist a piece in the middle to make the nose and then just keep the bottom in water.

Silver Creek Falls State Park

Mostly this is just going to be a bunch of pictures I took at Silver Creek Falls last Sunday. The weather was awesome. It was warm, almost seemed like summer.



This is a picture of the boys probably right after they all chucked a bunch of pine cones off the bridge. Nothing is more fun that throwing stuff off a bridge.









This is Ike at South Falls, its a little blurry but you can tell he was really excited about the whole thing. You can tell he must be excited if he was willing to pose for a picture.















Duane had to carry Simon most of the way partly because he was tired and partly because he was really scared of the waterfall!












A butterfly landed on Simon's shirt during the hike. I can't believe I was quick enough to get a picture of it.












A decent family portrait thanks to the timer of my camera.











Ike and Simon wade in the ridiculously cold water. Their feet turned bright red but they claimed they weren't cold! I remember swimming in the Pacific when I was a kid. My tolerance for cold water has certainly changed.












Simon the cheesecorn hamming it up for the camera.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

A few weeks ago, I made my own laundry detergent. I got the recipe off the Duggar's website. I think a lot of what they do is totally crazy, however, I think the cost of laundry detergent is also ridiculous. Moreover, I like a project. It was pretty easy to do. First you grate a whole Fels Naptha bar and mix it with 4c hot water. Cook it until it melts. It looks like this when you are cooking it:



It took a pretty long time. I thought the soap would melt easier and threw in a couple chunks instead of making sure every piece was finely grated. I will definitely be more careful next time. Here's a picture of me cooking it.



Finally fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with hot water. Add 1 cup of arm & hammer washing soda (I found it at Winco) and 1/2 cup of borax and then the melted soap. Stir that all up. It blended together almost instantly. Here's how it looks:




Finally fill the bucket the rest of the way up. Let it sit overnight. Then mix 1 part detergent to 1 part hot water to use. I use 1/4 c per load in my front-loader. The negatives to this are that is a very odd consistency and it gels up while it sits around. However, its dirt cheap and it works really well. Clothes come out with not scent just clean.

If you are in the Salem area and would like to try it out just bring a bottle by and I'll pour you some. We have plenty!

Old College Friends

Yesterday I met up with one of my best friends from college, Kala, and her husband and daughters. We met up in Eugene which was cool because that's where Kala and I had been friends. We first hit the science factory and then Roaring Rapids Pizza.
I love Ike in this picture. He was making a run from it following his brother's stellar example. That is Mia on the left and Ela in the middle. They were cool kids, funny personalities -- pretty much what I would expect of Kala's offspring.

It seems like sooo long ago that I was a nerdy college student studying math and drinking beer at the local crappy bars. I remember going to hang out at Kala's tiny 2 bedroom house where we would drink coffee with brown sugar and work math problems on her white board. For breaks we would play pool and drink beer at this total dive bar called Cher's. I am pretty sure one of the lights was out on the sign so it read Che's. Good times. I'll really have to dig through my old photo albums and post some pictures.

Saturday Morning with Simon

Simon and I had a great morning together. Duane had taken Ike to Home Depot to build a butterfly house and Simon and I stayed home together. We did "spring cleaning" which sounds fun to a 2 year old. Here is a picture of him washing the plastic easter eggs that the Easter Bunny fills with candy. Ike & Simon did a lot of practice egg hunts and they were looking a little grimy.

We also managed to wash the playdoh cookie cutters and put them all away, clean the kitchen counter tops, mop the floor and do 2 loads of laundry. All in all very productive.

Simon is a roller coaster these days so I try to really focus and remember the times when he is sweet and cute. Later this morning my sister called and said my dad was in the hospital again. I spent the rest of the day at Providence Hospital so needless to say the morning I spent with Simon was the highlight of my day.

I think my dad is doing OK. He just hasn't been the same since he had his heart attack last September. Its really hard because I really have no idea what to do to help.

First Week of the Term Madness

The first week of any term is always kind of crazy. This first week is just insane. We are trying out a new schedule -- half days for the kids at daycare and everyone is having trouble adjusting to it. I have to teach an 8:00 class which means I have to leave the house by 7 before the kids even get up. I don't like getting up early and I know how hard it is on Duane to get both the kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door in a timely fashion.

Moreover, the whole stress of kindergarten is getting to me. I really really wanted Ike to be able to go to the local public kindergarten but I surrender. I just can't swing it. For one thing, kindergarten lasts for 2.5 hours. Seriously, I thought it would be at the very least 3 hours. Secondly, they can't guarantee us a spot in morning kindergarten since we live within walking distance of the school. The admin told us that there was a chance we could get morning kindergarten because people often switch and that we would find out in August. Um, what if I wait until August and we DON'T get morning kindergarten. Then exactly what is Ike supposed to do for kindergarten???? Seriously August. They can't get it figured out before then?

So anyway I went and visited the Periwinkle Child Development Center at LBCC where I teach. It was really, really nice. They have a full day 9-2:30 kindergarten curriculum and all the teachers have masters degrees in education. What's even better is there is a CO-OP option. If you enroll in a special child education class at LBCC (which I don't have to pay for since I am faculty) and volunteer 4 hours a week in your child's class (which I think would be awesome anyway) you can get kindergarten for $400 a term. That's for 4 months!

Simon can go to preschool there for an additional $500 a term. One of my friends on the faculty sends both her boys and she gave it rave reviews. I have heard the same from several students who send their kids there as well.

So what are the negatives? Well for one, Ike will have to start first grade and be a new kid. Secondly, I HAVE to go in to work every day. I like to work from home when I don't have class. Thirdly, kindergarten starts the second week of september but preschool & my classes don't start until late September. So for probably 2 weeks I will have to drive to Albany, drop off Ike, drive home??, and then drive back to pick him up at 2. With Simon. Yikes. Maybe my mom can babysit Simon some of those days and I can just stay in Albany and get some work done. Finally, I don't think Ike can get his speech therapy at the kindergarten in Albany since it is through Salem. This isn't as bad as it sounds because his current speech teacher said she really didn't think Ike would qualify for speech therapy as a kindergartener anyway. This is a good thing because he has made such awesome progress with his speech classes.

Okay - gym bag is packed, lunch is packed, coffee is ready to go on delay timer, I am ready to go to bed. Tonight I finish The Three Musketeers which is an awesome book if you haven't ever read it. Tomorrow I hope for nice weather, we're dyeing eggs and I would LOVE to do it outside.