When Your Family Takes Too Long to Buy Shoes...

...you find an unusual place to rest.

Bunk Mates

When your bed is too small for mom to snuggle with you, you come join mom in her big bed.

The Founders

Our family has been on a Founding Fathers kick. I'm sure it started last summer when we listened to selections from Hamilton over and over and over and over while we were moving. Peter is currently studying the Revolutionary War in school, he's fascinated by it. I'm reading John Adams for one of my book clubs, and am enjoying it quite a bit. And we live close enough to Philadelphia to have visited some of the historical sites made famous by that time period.

Our latest library materials attest to our interest.

Good Thing I Know the Heimlich Maneuver

Last week Bryan brought home some clearance Easter candy from the grocery store. He opened a bag of Robin's Egg Whoppers, set them on top of our glass-top stove, and announced to everyone to be careful while eating them because they were choking hazards.

A few minutes later, Sophie walked over to the oven, reached up as high as she could, fished a Whopper out of the bag with the tips of her fingers, popped her prize into her mouth, and announced, "Mmm! I love choking hazards!"

Tale As Old As Time

Last Monday, our second and final weekday of Spring break, we went as a family to see Beauty and the Beast. Peter was annoyed that we were taking him away from videogame time, but the other three were excited. I was cautiously optimistic. I had read several reviews, listened to the soundtrack, knew both the original animated version as well as the Broadway production, so I felt I knew what to expect.

How were my expectations met?

I will start with the biggest disappointment: Belle's voice, her singing voice to be exact. I knew this going in since I'd heard the music and the heavy use of autotune (shudder), but I somehow thought seeing it would help distract me. It didn't. Her acting was fine and I was pleased that she was playing a character different from her iconic Hermione, but the singing crushed my soul a bit.

The biggest positive surprise? The Beast! My goodness, Dan Stevens was fantastic. His performance was big enough for his character but subtle enough to make him compelling and relatable, especially since it was largely a motion-capture performance. I had been curious about this casting choice when I first heard it. Matthew Crawley as the Beast? Really? But now I understand.

I won't give any spoilers for those that haven't seen it, I'll just say there were some plot differences in this version that I appreciated, elements that made the love story more believable. Sadly, I thought the secondary characters were rather underutilized, especially Ewan McGregor and Audra McDonald. Seriously, if Audra McDonald is in the cast, give her a full song to sing! The sets and costumes were quite lovely.

The kids all loved the movie, Peter even admitted that he was glad he had joined us. Bryan didn't love it. I guess I was somewhere in the middle.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

This Is Your Brain, This Is Your Brain Without Sleep

I spent most of last week working on a big project and not sleeping much. I know, I never sleep much, but last week was exceptional even for me. Last Friday I didn't go to sleep until 4AM on Saturday morning. See? Crazy.

I am happy to say that I have been keeping more normal hours this week. At least, normal for me. But in spite of that, I have been dragging all week long. On Monday, thanks to no school and Bryan taking the day off, I didn't wake up until noon. On Tuesday afternoon, I took a power nap on the couch, right in the middle of the homework and chore hubbub. I don't think I've caught up on sleep yet.

I'm afraid that this exhaustion has impacted my brain. I've sat in front of the computer each day this week, ready to write a blog post, completely unable to dredge up anything remotely interesting. After jumping around the internet for a bit, working on chores, prepping lunches, scrolling through Facebook, and staring at the wall, I would drag something out of my weary brain and internally bemoan my lost mastery of the English-language.

It's a good thing most of you read the blog for cute kid pictures...

Easter Eve

Not the Right Audience

Tonight at cub scouts we invited the 12 and 13-year-old boy scouts to teach our 10-year-olds how to do knots and use pocket knives safely. There were six older boys to the four younger ones. Everyone needed a refresher course on how to tie knots.

I learned something very important tonight: I don't understand teenage boy humor. I need to remember this for the years to come...

Open Invitation

Sophie has been asking to sleep on the floor the last few nights. At this stage in my parenting journey I acknowledge that kids do weird stuff sometimes and I don't always question it. We would tuck her in with a pillow and a blanket on the floor by her bed, then move her once she was asleep.

Last night I finally asked why she wanted to sleep on the floor. She said it was so if during the night I wanted to come snuggle with her, I could. She reminded me that I couldn't sleep on her little bed, because I would break it. The floor was the next best option.

I guess it's time to look for a big bed...

On Easter, We Coordinate

Our Easter was full of finalizing lesson plans (I taught one, Bryan taught two), preparing food (we made Resurrection Rolls for breakfast and these rolls for dinner, along with a pineapple cake, cherry cheese pie, and a few other Easter dinner items), listening to sacred music (MoTab's Consider the Lilies), removing sponge curlers (never a fun process), attending church (of course), and posing while we took eighty-five pictures just to get this one.

You're welcome.

I hope you all had a delightful Easter!

Prince of Peace

Nature's Washcloth

The kids started their very short Spring Break today after school, Our district decided that a four-day weekend was sufficient, so that's all we've got. I'm trying to maximize the time we have, so this afternoon the kids and I hit the park before coming home to watch Studio C sketches until long past bedtime. On the ride home Peter was handing out baby wipes for everyone to wash their hands. That prompted Sophie to announce, "Mom, I washed my hands...with my tongue."

Game Face

I've been finding lots of Sophie-selfies on my phone lately. Cooper has also been borrowing my phone to capture images of himself. One day last week, as I sat on the stairs waiting (and by waiting I mean verbally reminding more times than I cared to keep track of) for one child to do a timeout, another child to practice piano, one to do chores, and one to do homework, I decided to visually record how I was feeling in that moment.

It's not particularly flattering, but it is accurate.

When the Wind Blows

Tom

Cooper is reading Tom Sawyer and decided that this pose was evocative of the title character. He originally read an abridged version and has been delighted and surprised by the differences between the two books.

Think of the Happiest Things

I am tired. I know, I'm always tired, but this is beyond my usual amount. We've had many long days in a row with no real end in sight. And so, rather than ramble on with my list of complaints or give a falsely positive spin of things, I will simply share something amusing.

Sophie doesn't say cub scouts, she says scub scouts. "Did you go to scub scouts already?" "Is it scub scouts tonight."

Thank goodness my children do darling things I can hold in my memory during the moments they're making less than adorable choices.

He Likes Bugs

Play Date, Courtesy of Germs

Peter was sick through the whole Conference weekend. His sinuses were on the attack and he spent most of Saturday completely void of energy, sitting calmly while he watched the talks. I feel bad whenever my kids are sick, but Saturday sure was a calm day with our very active Peter out of commission. He felt a little better yesterday, but was still sick. When he got up this morning I let him decide if he would stay home or go to school. He struggled with the choice because staying at home meant missing out on a party during lunch. His continued coughing, sneezing, and total body aches shifted the scales in favor of home.

Sophie was quite pleased.

She really enjoyed having her biggest brother stay home. She probably thought he was here just to play card games and read to her, stopping only to take care of that pesky stuffed nose and lie exhausted on the couch.

General Conference Breakfast Tradition

"Look Mom, I made a Temple!"