Trick or treat?

Parade 2010

Iwa rode in the Millington Christmas Parade with Grandpa Tony again this year.This year, Kawika rode with Uncle Buck and Aunt M&M rode too! (Kawika's in the orange coat)Last night when John and I were cooking dinner, I heard maniacal laughter coming from more than one person. This is never a good sign. I came in the front room to find:
I think Santa's just going to get more storage bins for these kids for Christmas. They were entertained for over an hour.

Wrong number

Dear Kelly,

I don't know who you are, but I feel the need to tell you a few things:

First of all, thanks a lot for giving your ever-so-persistent mother an incorrect cell phone number. Did you not stop to think that maybe this number belongs to someone? While she is a nice lady, and I have somewhat enjoyed speaking with her over the last year, I'm sure you can find better ways to avoid your mother than giving her the cell phone number I've had since 2003.

Second of all, this sweet lady who is your mother is concerned about you and has tried vigilantly to reach you. Call her.

Having said that, I feel I must give you a warning: I woke up this morning and checked my messages and heard your mother's voice. She's not happy with you.

It was not nice of you to disable her car and otherwise vandalize it. You've pushed her to the edge. She's resorted to name-calling (which, from my impression is not in her character) and she's very very disappointed in you.

Oh yeah, and she's pressing charges.

Hopefully you'll learn your lesson.

Hopefully the police have the correct phone number.

Sincerely,
The lady whose phone number you gave your mom instead of your own.

Love it.

"I always loved art teachers because they were so bizarre. They were like the homeless people of the faculty -- all disheveled, wearing smocks, covered in paint, always digging through the garbage, looking for bottles and egg cartons and things." -Ted Alexandro

Some pictures

More Kindergarten events..

Farm breakfast:
and Clown Day:


.... and one "Diesel is huge" picture:
Random, I know, but I was about to take him running (he's SO not ready for that, by the way) and I thought I'd get a picture.

That is all.

FIELD TRIP!!!

I know Iwa is enjoying Kindergaten but I'm LOVING it!
Last week, I got to take the day off and go with Iwa on her first field trip to the zoo. It was so much fun!! She got to take a long ride on the school bus, something she's wanted to do for years.
She insisted on taking this picture. Silly girl.

As an art teacher, I don't ever get to go on field trips so it was a first for me too.

Good sport

Over Fall Break we had the "class pet" Rocky.
Iwa was star of the week the week before and the culminating activity of your week is getting to take care of Rocky and take him everywhere you go for the weekend. You're supposed to document your adventures and each child enters a page in his journal writing down what they did.

Since her weekend was over a holiday, Rocky did a lot!

We attended a bridal shower for Mary Margaret at Paint A Piece. Rocky and Iwa painted a square plate for Uncle Buck and Aunt M.... with Iwa's name on it.... and a picture of her painted on the front. Truly a selfless giver.Of course Iwa had to take Rocky to meet all of her animals.


We never got a picture of the animals that actually live in our house. It just figures.

We also picked pumpkins with Rocky.
For a long time, I thought we left Rocky at a Mexican Restaurant so he missed out on a lot. It turned out he was just hiding under the dining room table in a chair. in the fetal position. No one knows how he got there but I could swear I heard him give a sigh of relief when I told Iwa it was time take him back to school.

Fall Break fail....ish

We've had the past week off for Fall Break. We've really enjoyed our time at home in this beautiful, beautiful weather... except...

...Tuesday we had big plans for Mud Island. It's fun, it's free and the kids have never been there, that they remember.

Well... they still haven't.Of course, the day we plan to do something outside is the only day this week it rains. We have plans to do something outside tomorrow. We'll see if that works out.

Nani, the kids, and I packed the car with a picnic lunch and headed all the way downtown and wouldn't ya know, it started raining half way there.

We made the best of it and enjoyed a car picnic at Riverside Park. We admired the houses on the Bluff, talked about the mighty Mississippi with it's barges and tow boats, and we dodged homeless people in the parking lot.I think all in all, the trip was an unexpected success.
Actually, the best part was the long, long naps we all got when we went home. THAT's how to spend a rainy day out of school.

Speaking of quotes I love...

Your Children are not Your Children

They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

-

Kahlil Gibran

Sweet lady

When I was in middle school, I became friends with a girl. She had a great family and I was always welcomed by them. I called her aunt, "Aunt", her grandma, "Grandma". They were all great people.

Several years later, when I was about 15, I started going to church at the same church as this family. Aunt Lorna was my Young Women's leader, and Grandma was too. One day, in the mail, I received a card- maybe for Valentine's Day, or as some Girl's Camp project. Grandma had written a letter to me about how much she loved me. She said that she thought a lot of me and felt like I was a part of her family.

Many years later, Aunt Lorna would become my mother-in-law: I would marry Grandma's oldest grandson and give birth to three of her great-grandchildren.

Grandma Bonnie passed away this July and it's taken me a while to want to blog about it, but I ran across that card again today and some pictures on my computer and my heart is feeling full.
I hope that when I pass, I will have loved as much as she did. I hope my posterity will have as many crazy, funny, heart-felt stories and feelings to share about me. I hope when I move on in years, I will be as full of life as she was. I hope I still think as rationally, giggle at dirty jokes when I think no one is looking, yet have as much class as that lady did.

She wasn't perfect by any means, but Grandma Bonnie touched the hearts of more people than anyone will ever realize.

I'm not a person who naturally dwells on the sadness of death. I know I will see these people later and there is enough to do right here and right now to keep our minds on things in the present. Instead, I like to think about the lives of the ones who pass and what can be learned from their experiences and thoughts and such.

I love quotes. I have collected hundreds of quotes that mean something to me over the years and I have a habit of applying a quote to every feeling or situation in my life, or in the lives of others. For Grandma's life, I think of a favorite quote by Mother Teresa:

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless."

#3 is 2!

(We're just going to ignore the fact that this post is almost a month late)

Sometimes I imagine that before God sent Leilea to us he did an Emeril: "Let's kick this up a notch. BAM!" Maybe even followed by a little snicker.Leilea has the quickest smile, the heartiest laugh, the shrillest scream and the quickest temper. This girl has been doing nothing but l-i-v-i-n' for the last two years and we love her for it.
It's amazing to me how different each child can be when they come from the same two people.
I've said before that when I was pregnant with her, it was easy to forget that I was even pregnant. Boy, we'll never forget about her now. She makes sure of that. She's grown up the fastest... sort of a survival skill, I suppose, but she'll always be our baby girl. The exclamation point at the end of our family sentence.We're still taking donations for her bail fund.
Happy birthday, Boo Boo.

Walmart Fail

I have lots of things to post. In fact, I have a Post-it on my laptop keyboard with a list of things but right now I want to vent.

Last night I went to Wal-mart looking for a shirt for Iwalani. Usually, Walmart doesn't let me down. In fact, I usually say that if Walmart doesn't have it, I don't need it.

Not today, my friends.

Tomorrow is University of Memphis day for the Kindergarteners at school. They're learning the letter "M" and everyone is encouraged to wear their U of M gear. Of course, we don't have anything like that in this house (actually, thanks to Uncle Matt we have a U of M sweatsuit but it's 2T). I just knew Walmart wouldn't let me down.

I looked at the little girl's section and what did I find? Lots of Justin Bieber. Lots of High School Musical and Hannah Montana, but NO SPORTS apparel. Not even clothes for made-up sports like NASCAR (haha).

I HAD TO GO TO THE LITTLE BOYS DEPARTMENT.

Wow, this bugs me.

Thanks for setting us back a few decades, Walmart. I can always count on you. I did leave with a $3 dress that happened to be U of M blue. The boy's shirts were all in sizes too big and I was just too annoyed anyway.

Root beer

John and Iwa and Special K made homemade root beer last week.

I don't know what is involved with making root beer, but I guessed it involved smiles, giggles, lots of sugar...


...a funnel...
...and lots of shaking.The hardest part of it all was the 4-5 day wait. After the wait was over, we decided to leave root beer making to the professionals.

Dog park

I still have more catching up to do from this summer but I felt like I needed to say something about the gorgeous weekend we just had. Not only was it perfect as far as weather was concerned, it was 3 days long!!

Saturday, we cooked out at Grandma and Grandpa's. Good food. The pool is getting a bit chilly but I'm pretty sure I saw some upper 90's in the forecast. Like the kids care...

Sunday, we took the kids to the dog park at Shelby Farms. They always want to go but last time we went, we had one dog and Leilea was in the Moby. I am positive the kids, as excited as they were, had the wrong idea about what it was.

When we got there and the kids saw that it was pretty much just a big field with some ponds and trees, they were confused. No one fessed up to it, but I think they all thought there would be a playground for dogs or something more interesting.
The dogs thought it was plenty interesting....and after the shock wore off, the kids had a great time playing in the dirt/mud, throwing rocks.

These dogs of ours are so laid-back that they really don't do much. When we throw something, trying to teach them how to play fetch, they just look at us like, "What did you do that for?" Incidentally, they are very good at herding children (which is a great skill for anyone who spends much time with the Frisky Five).

We really lucked out in the dog department when it comes to dogs that are good to kids. They listen when our kids tell them to sit, get in the kennel, and go outside and they are much more patient than any creature should be with the kids' shenanigans.

This next picture was taken at the end of our journey. We were on our way back to the car and had to walk down this gravel road to get there. Leilea had taken her shoes off as soon as we got to the park so I was carrying her over the gravel. She insisted on walking. I wondered why until she started begging us to let her ride Diesel. We have never put anyone on Diesel's back, even though I'm sure he could take it, so she must have come up with this solution on her own.

Of course, we didn't let her. There's only so much patience a dog can have.

The Deli

As a sort of a farewell to summer, the kids and I visited Grandpa Steve at work and ate lunch with him back in July.

We went to one of our favorite places to eat. Seriously. Best. Fries. Ever. That's not just a Frisky opinion, either. USA Today agrees.

Iwalani had the camera and did a pretty good job!

Leilea was feeling a little camera shy:



So, it's generally acceptable to take your cup home from this place, but no one ever explicitly says so, so if we take some home, we try to lay low. I promise, we're not the only ones.

Anyway, when the waitress brought these cups out, Iwa said, "Wow , Mommy!! They have the same cups we use at home." Way to lay low, Iwa.