It'll fry your brain

Emma's a clever girl 

 

Andrew, the cooker

Andrew likes to come in the kitchen and tell me he's the cooker or the baker. Sometimes he'll tell me he's go to cook something for me and will pull some random food out of the fridge or pantry and give it to me. Or he likes to pack his lunch. Here's what he packed himself yesterday. He zipped it up and was ready to take it to his playdate. Hmm. He loves to eat plain tortillas or bread and steals them out of the pantry all of the time. We would never survive on a no-carb diet here.
 

Birthday, Ender style

Ever since Emma's birthday, Andrew's been telling me he wants doughnuts for his birthday. Come to find out the 19th was Pirate Day at Krispy Kreme and if you dress like a pirate you get a free dozen doughnuts. Arr, this here boy be 5 today! He liked watching how the doughnuts were made.

Then he had his other favorite food for lunch, sausages. He's nuts about sausages and terribly cute the way he says it. Then true to nutty Ender form, he wanted to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy. He loves that guy, especially when he talks about naked mole rats.
We headed down to Sonic for dinner with Nate, Angie and Maisy and went back to the house for cake and ice cream. Last year for his birthday Andrew was talking about a hot dog cake. I dismissed him as strange but when he started talking about his hot dog cake again this year I decided to grant some birthday wishes and made this beauty: 

Tonight (two days later) he said the family prayer and said "thank you for that hot dog cake I had and for those trains I got (from Nate and Angie)." Andrew was very excited to have a birthday and wanted to call his cousin to let him know that he's five now too. He told me he's not a baby anymore, he's a big boy now and when I started to look sad he told me that big boys still snuggle their moms sometimes.

 

It's been a crazy month. The kids of course went back to school and the next week Andrew and I started preschool. Tuesdays and Thursdays I've got these cuties (+2 that didn't make the photo op, including Andrew who was off throwing a fit ). 

Then in the afternoon (Tues and Thurs still) I watch my friend's kids while she teaches a class. One Emma's age, one Andrew's, not a bad playdate arrangement.

Weston started baseball. For a Texan he's starting late in the game and these people take their sports seriously so we've got some catching up to do. The coaches have put these boys to work. They had a practice tonight, one tomorrow, one Sunday (well, we won't be there), and one Monday. Then a game Wednesday. He's already had a bloody lip and a black eye.

Andrew's doing t-ball. Ever seen The Sandlot? I think of that movie every time I watch Andrew throw.

His first game he covered his face with his glove while playing left field then he lay down in the outfield not even facing the field, doing what looked like the backstroke. And he tells me every day he doesn't want to go. Why am I doing this again? It is cute to watch though. Everyone cheered for him last night when he finally made it to first (yup, I'm the mom of that child :o). Then he got confused and froze between first and second until someone came over and tagged him out, baby steps.

Emma got put into the QUEST program (Texas' gifted and talented program) so she's got extra homework and still devouring books. I'm trying to continue Emma's piano lessons I gave her over the summer and keep up with my calling. I think about my mom and how the six of us kids were doing sports and piano and clubs and the rest while my parents did bishopric and RS president, and I have no idea how they managed!

My big little girl

Tried to post this a couple weeks ago but got in a fight with the blog so here goes again:

My little girl turned 9. Emma’s getting all grown-up and mature, she’s not much of a little girl anymore. Her birthday was Sunday (well, Sunday two weeks ago) but the celebration went all weekend. Friday after school we headed up to my brother’s in Ft Worth and the kids hung out with cousin while Jamie and I went to the Dallas temple. Saturday Deborah and I took the girls to Hawaiian Falls water park (a reading program reward). Monday we took Emma out for her new favorite, sushi. She fell in love with California rolls from the HEB samples so I got a Groupon for a sushi place and Nate and Angie joined us. We also went shoe shopping but the highlight for Emma was the surprise trip to the pet store where Emma picked out her new pet, a dwarf Russian hamster she named Sweetie. She’s been begging for a pet for some time now and has gone great lengths to prove she can be responsible. Emma is one spoiled and happy girl! She even had fireworks for her birthday.

 

 

 

Back to School

The kids started back at school last week. Andrew still has one more year home with me but Emma and Weston headed back last Monday.
 

Waiting at the bus stop. After sleeping in, vacationing, and changing time zones all summer I was worried we didn't have it in us to get up this early anymore (it's still dark out when we get out of bed) but somehow we made it.

And there they go.

So, how did Andrew feel about being home alone again?...

Oh he managed :o)

No, he likes playing with his brother and sister but too much summer and not enough schedule and sleep makes Andrew an anwry boy so he was ready for things to get back to normal.

How to eat a Watermelon

Jamie was all excited the other day because of some "amazing" video he saw and told me I needed to buy a watermelon for our FHE activity. So for FHE he showed us this video tutorial on how to eat a watermelon and followed the intructions. Apparently I've been eating watermelons wrong my whole life. I can't say that I'm converted but it made for a fun activity and I have to say the watermelon itself was the best watermelon I had all summer.
 

Returned with Honor

Grandma (Bethe) Hatch went home to join Grandpa and other loved ones.

We love and miss her and I am grateful that my own children had the chance to get to know this elect daughter of God.

 

I got to fly out to California to join my family for the funeral.