The Friendship Egg

What is a friendship egg, you may ask? It is when a group of friends/siblings use the 6 egg dye colors to make a gestalt color to symbolize the beauty of their friendship and it turns out sludge brown, and then the oldest girls mix just a few colors to create a pretty lavender and dye the very last egg.  It still is dubbed the friendship egg, as the kids all share claim to it.

That was the newest feature of our traditional Great Egg Dye, which also included initiating two newbies to egg dying.  I need both extra time and nice weather for this event, as I’ve been Mom too long to allow this to take place inside my house. But the kids took to it right away, even figuring out the foil etching, which I thought turned out particularly well.  Here are our efforts:

Wesley Learns to Cook

The boy is charming the socks off me lately! 

His sisters have taught him to make mac-n-cheese and then recently Dwayne helped him make pancakes. Now he is fearless.

I came home today from a long day at the school and found this treat waiting for me:

Wesley had made me pancakes and set the table with all my favorite syrups, along with a fresh cup of tea.  (He knows the way to my heart is through herbal tea.) The real surprise?  He had done all the clean up, too! 

He served me on our “You Are Special” plate and made me this sign.  And then we sat down together to eat pancakes while we talked about our day. 

You are welcome, future Wesley bride! But if you don’t mind, I’d like to keep him for another decade or two.

Math Olympiad

Kyla has been on 5th grade math team during lunch this school year and the big NEMO (um, maybe National something Math Olympiad?) was finally today, 18 hours after they got home from 5th grade camp.  I’m going to give my friend, Jenny, a huge amount of credit for coaching the group for 6 months and then taking 5 4-person teams to the district event.  Kyla’s team earned a gold—everyone left with a bronze, silver, or gold medal—and I took lots of notes, as I’ll be coaching Piper’s class next year.  Go Pi!

5th Grade Camp: Kyla

Every 5th grader in our school district gets to go to overnight camp in the spring.  Our school shared our Wed-Fri slot with two other neighborhood schools.  Kyla’s BFF’s mom was one of the parent volunteers and someone who loves Kyla put her in the same cabin as both of them.  (That’s how I got all these pictures in real time—thanks Cris!)

Camp must be awesome—if you don’t mind the rain (and snow this year), the kids get to do amazing things: 

fire making,

archery,

and things I don’t have picture evidence of, like rock-climbing (Kyla got a gold bead for this one!), shelter-making, skits, etc.

When Kyla opened her book the first night, she found a card tucked between the pages.

What sentimental mush did I write to my daughter on her 3-day adventure away from home?

Dear Kyla,

Well, I miss you already, but not as much as I am excited for you!  You are doing so many things in 2 1/2 day that I’ve never done once in my life. 

Huh.  That tender moment is over. You just threw your sleeping bag at Wesley; he let out his death scream, and any resemblance to a peaceful morning has been shattered.  You’ll have to tell me what your 7am mornings look like (sound like!) at camp with not siblings or scolding mother.  Peaceful yet?
Love you so much!

Mama

MAMA, WE MADE hats

Look closely!

Wesley’s Big Talent

Talent show tonight, and Wesley, along with 4 second grade friends, have been working on their…talent.  Actually, it turned out pretty well, with Wesley taking lead dancer.  Trust me, it took 30 extra years than it took Wesley to do something like this!

If you want to see the video, click here.

Pi Day

We try to make a little hoopla over International Pi Day each year.  Today was a day I subbed all day in a classroom that took full concentration and 6 senses, letting me be at home long enough to help with homework and program the oven to cook dinner while I was gone, then leaving the kids at home while I went to a 2.5 hour district Dyslexia Taskforce meeting.  By the time I stopped at the story to bring home a pie, they only had cherry left, making 2/5ths of the family happy.  So I also bought whipped cream and improvised:

Wesley liked his pi after all….

Mama’s Week Out; or, Best Auntie Ever

Little Taryn was born Feb. 23rd, and Gramma went down to Oregon to help the first week.  I was able to cancel or reschedule my family’s calendar so that I was able to join Taryn for her second week in this world!

Auntie Denise spent time teaching Amber to climb…,

and taking her on as many outings as we could fit in, including a few parks, story time at the library, the children’s museum, and the zoo.

I also think I got to witness the day she realized that Baby was staying…permanently.

But this was all preparation for Camp Denise when she gets older and can spend time at the cabin with all her other cousins, doing and eating things that we don’t have to tell Mom&Dad about.  Right, kids?  Cecily and Parker haven’t completely ratted me out yet.  Taryn, you’re up next!

[This was a fun zoo sign that applied to both lions and babies.]

My family did amazing!  I am so proud of the kids.  They got themselves up and out every day with no parent there, and took care of things in the afternoon.  Dwayne had to do homework and dinner duty all week, leaving work early each day.  I think this week apart really made us appreciate each other even more.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how independent and capable ages 8, 10, and 11 are, even if they don’t smell like yummy newborns anymore.

Oh, and here are a few more shots of the newbie, decked out in a special blanket Piper knitted for her, as well as well as the dolly Piper also designed and sewed.