Dance It Out

Virtually There

Yesterday was the annual Primary program for our congregation at church. This is Phoebe's last year in Primary and we were both heartsick at the thought that she would miss participating in the program. The Primary president reached out to me and asked if the girls would like to record their parts in advance to be shown in between the live talks given by the other kids.

A few Saturdays ago the girls wrote their talks, got into their church clothes, then practiced. Because we needed to do both talks in one single video, we had to practice entering and exiting and speaking slowly. It took about twenty takes (not full takes, just lots of starting and stopping), but we finally got one that both girls were happy with.

I got messages from members of the ward about how happy they were to see Phoebe and Sophie up on the big screen. While we still wished we could have been there in person, we were happy that the girls could be part of the program in a small way.

Sophie, Phoebe, and Topher all joined the Primary for the closing song, I Am a Child of God.

Love Letters

Phoebe has a writing assignment for today that she hasn't finished yet and a massive case of writer's block to go with it. This is what she wrote instead.

Dear Brain,

    Why can’t you come up with any ideas!?

Sincerely,

Phoebe

Dear Phoebe,

I am on vacation.

My condolences,

Brain

Dear Brain,

You can’t go on vacation, you're my Brain!

Come back right now,

Phoebe

Dear Phoebe, 

No.

Apologies,

Brain

Dear Brain, 

Why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

See you soon,

Phoebe

Dear Phoebe,

Because.

Warmest regards,

Brain

Dear Brain,

That’s not a reason.

Answer me,

Phoebe

Dear Phoebe,

It is in my mind.

Best wishes,

Brain

Dear Brain,

Wait, you have a mind? Or are you your mind? 

Whaaaaaa,

Phoebe

Dear Phoebe,

That’s off topic. I need to go now. I won’t respond.

Bye bye,

Brain.

Dear Brain,

…

No reaction,

Phoebe

She's going to attempt the assignment again tomorrow, after a full night's sleep.

Fall In My Backyard

Sophie has spent the last two weeks slowly and carefully creating a paragraph about the fall season. In the past writing has caused big negative emotions for Miss Sophie, but this year she's going the extra mile to stay calm when faced with writing. She did a great job working through the many steps on this particular assignment. Here's her final product that she submitted yesterday.

Fall is the season of jumping in the leaves. Climbing the tree is also a thing I love to do in fall. Raking, raking, raking you always have to rake the leaves. The leaves make a "crunch" when I stamp on them. The rustling of the leaves in the trees when I climb is loud. Fall is my favorite season ever!!

Cars

Topher and I were driving yesterday during the late afternoon/early evening when lots of people were on the road. At one point he exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! This traffic (pause) has so many cars!"

True story.

Photo credit: Sophie

Artists in Residence

I Call Myself

Phoebe used the label maker yesterday.

In case you can't read it, her label says "Phoebe is AMAZING!!!" The other kids followed her example. I didn't get pictures of their forehead labels, but I did read them. They said (and were attached to the correct child):

Sophie is so cool.

Cooper is not a robot.

Peter is adequate.

And I guess that describes how they each feel about themselves.

Good News, Bad News

I realize I haven't updated on the state of the new house for a while. Here's how things have been going:

Good news: We've ripped out the moldy walls from the basement and it smells much better on that floor now.

Bad news: We found mold in the master bathroom, plus a subfloor so damaged by water that it easily flaked away when I tried to pull up the linoleum to check for mold.

Good news: The kids bedrooms are 98% finished and can actually be used as bedrooms. Topher is sleeping in his bedroom instead of the master bedroom.

Bad news: Because we found mold in the master bathroom, no one can sleep in the master bedroom. I still have a cough from sleeping in there for several weeks. The boys kindly agreed to keep bunking in the girls' room so that Bryan and I can sleep in their room.

Good news: I've slept better during this week in the boys' room than I have since moving into the house.

Bad news: I'm still so exhausted that I've taken two naps this week and I'm still completely dragging.

Good news: I've nearly got the playroom in order and Topher loves having the space to play.

I could go on, but I'll leave this post on that good news note.

Like the Big Kids

Lists

I made a To Do list on Monday to help us remember what we needed to get done. 

When Topher saw what I was doing he grabbed another whiteboard and asked me to make a list for him too. He was very specific about what he wanted it to say: my candy, water bottles, marshmallows. I'm not sure if this is a To Do list or a shopping list, but Topher seemed happy with it.