What a character...

M4 in reaction to something yesterday: "Man alive!" Who says that?

Also, have I mentioned his extreme germophobia as of late? I blame preschool and their obsessive focus on germs. It is to the point where he broke down into tears and asked me to wash his bedsheets because his friend L touched them without washing his hands after going to the bathroom. He drives me crazy asking if germs stick to this or that (the outside of the car, the inside of the car, stuffed animals, bottoms of shoes, etc.). He doesn't want my nose to touch him when I give him a kiss!! Sigh...I know he is just trying to process things, but I also worry for his mental health! And mine...

The power of nature

Nature walk today. We went to Arbor Lake (in town) and saw ducks, geese, woodpeckers (red-headed, I think), and butterflies. It's amazing to me how the kids are immediately put in a good mood when we do something like that. They are both tired today since we were up late last night attending the college's spring dance concert. That means constant bickering with each other and with us. So outside we go and everything is better! I forgot the camera, of course! So instead, here is a picture of the forsythia in our back yard. Even this glimpse of bright yellow in the still-mostly-brown landscape makes me feel better after the long winter:

Out of the mouths of babes

M4: "Mama, it was a pleasure...pooping."

The joy of YouTube

Our friends posted a couple music videos they like. Here is a link to M & M's most requested video. (I can't embed it.) This is the best quality YouTube copy of it I've seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CzxK5BPNCA

And one of my favorite videos involving dancing zombies:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1415/saturday-night-live-snl-digital-short-people-getting-punched-right-before-eating

Signs of spring

Training wheels!!

Friends in the garden.

Spring musical concert.

Aren't they cute? It was a very entertaining evening. One poor Kindergartener peed onstage. The boy next to her was traumatized...he became immobile for the rest of the concert.

Wow, how did a week go by?

We had a great weekend with Grandma and Grandpa! All four old folks went swing dancing on Friday night. We're weren't swinging too heavily just yet, but we had fun and managed not to argue too much about who should be leading whom. Got some practice sessions in at home with the kids.

We also went and saw the college international students' Cultural Performance last night. We found out that our international "son" from South Korea is a serious hip hop dancer!! He's gonna have to show us some of his moves, although we really don't have enough room in our house to work on "the worm." And our son from India rocked a Bollywood number, so he's going to have to show us his moves and burn me a CD, too.

Today, during a trip to Dari Barn, M4 said, "I just love the joy of ice cream!" Amen.

Because I haven't succeeded in taking any pictures recently, and I reset my screen saver to show more old pics, I was reminded of some of my old favorites:

The simple things

M4, reflecting upon his Kit Kat: "These are so awesome! You can break them in half!" Also, we caught some of Star Wars: Episode I (Jar Jar Binks!!) on TV. The kids have never seen it before, but M4 has pored over the Star Wars picture dictionaries we've gotten from the library. So a spaceship came into view, and M4 said, "Oh, I definitely know who that is; it's Darth Maul!" I asked how he knew, and he said, "Well, it's his ship!" Like duh, Mom.

And M3 has declared her love for fonts. She has played around with them in Word, so when we are looking at a document: album cover, flyer for something, etc. she'll say, "That's Bradley Handwriting!" or "That's Curlz!" or "I wonder what font that is?" I am seeing fonts through new eyes.

Sicko

Doesn't it always happen this way? M3 had a birthday/slumber party at a friend's last night. Got the call at 7:40am that she had tossed her cookies. She definitely has a stomach bug, because it has continued. Don't worry, Grandma and Grandpa...we'll have things aired out before next weekend! This is the first time she's been sick all season, so I'm feeling pretty lucky all things considered.

Watched Across the Universe last night. If you like the Beatles, it's pretty entertaining.

We will NOT...

...I repeat NOT, get out the snow shovels again. It's just going to have to move all on its own. Not that I am prone to swearing, but when M4 and I see snow lately, we have taken to exclaiming, "POOP!"

Can you fall asleep in this position?

Mystery Ride

Dari Barn just opened for the season (yahoo!!!), so we decided to take the kids on the traditional St. A. family Mystery Ride for the first absurdly large ice cream treat of 2008. Frustrated by his mother's overly elaborate efforts to throw him and his sister off the trail (I drove around too long), M4 said, "This Mystery Ride is DUMB!!" and buried his face in his hands.