Why We Don't Homeschool

This year Starshine has had a hard time with math. I believe it is because she is so good at reading that she doesn't understand that she has to work and practice at math. She often gets frustrated right away. I have been trying ALL YEAR to work on positive attitude and practice. (To her credit, she has gotten a lot better with positive attitude...)

Well, last week I was leisurely reading the local paper (mainly because the local crime reporter cracks me up), when I came across an article about a local community college professor who won some sort of math teacher of the year award. I made Starshine pause her TV show to read this quote, "success in math is all about positive attitude and hard work. The first thing they have to do is stop saying they can't do mathematics." Well, later she decided on her own to cut it out and hang it on the refrigerator - I was so proud.

This is why we don't homeschool (ok - this is one of 100s of reasons why we don't homeschool). Parents can say things over and over, but sometimes it takes hearing it from someone else to really take it home.

On an unrelated note, last weekend Grandpa L gave me his old bread machine that he hauled all the way back from Arizona. It works fine, but he couldn't handle all of the delicious carbs. Well, I was excited to give it a whirl, but I was expecting poor results because:

1. I only skimmed the manual
2. I refused to follow the recipe

Seriously, you do not need 2 tablespoons of butter for one small loaf of bread, and the small part of the manual I read INSISTED that one not use all-purpose flour. Ha - I am a baking professional. (Of course this is often where things go wrong.) And, I am sure the recipe will be fine if I substitute half of the flour with whole wheat flour...

Well, to my surprise it turned out great...

Big Girl Biker x 2

We were hoping to move Starshine up to a bigger bike this summer because Jr. Princess needs her current bike, but up until today she wasn't real interested because it seemed so big...

Well, today she had a super positive attitude and after about 30 seconds of trying she was zooming around the neighborhood! We should have mentioned how much faster the bigger bike would be, as incentive, because that is her favorite part. M&M Dad even installed the bike bell that she won playing bingo at the school carnival. (I have no idea why she chose to wear fleece pants, a long sleeve shirt and pajamas over the top - it was seriously a gorgeous day today!)

Awesome. After that victory we went right to the garage to find the training wheels and various parts and tools to quickly fit the pink bike for Jr. Princess...

We are definitely planning a family bike ride for tomorrow morning! We then went on a trip to Toys R Us so they could spend their Christmas gift cards from Grandma M (horribly late, we know). Jr. Princess found an awesome bell for her bike (along with some puzzles) - so people will definitely hear us coming tomorrow. Starshine picked a pretend hair-do set. Both girls also found High School Musical sticker books, and Starshine is (as I type) still sitting in the car peacefully working on it...

More Family Fun

Last Saturday was lots of fun at Grandma and Grandpa M's house. The girls just LOVE playing with their cousins. Unfortunately, it appeared we forgot to get out the camera, because we have hardly any pictures. (If Grandpa M wants to email some, we can post them - hint hint) I blame my allergies. I was so medicated (because I think I am allergic to the entire state of Wisconsin in May) that the whole day is kind of foggy...

The girls were definitely cute playing princess...

And Jr. Princess LOVED donut sundaes in honor of her birthday...
Sunday we went to a BBQ at Auntie's house. At her house I was super medicated because it was the state of Wisconsin AND cats, so we have zero pictures. (Maybe Grandpa L could email some pictures for me to post... hint, hint). The girls had lots of fun playing with the huge group of kids. The funniest part of the day was when we saw Jr. Princess trapping the boys in the soccer net.

I seriously felt better by the time we were back around Eau Claire. How did I survive spring when I lived there?

Jr. Princess's Big Girl Adventure

Wednesday morning Jr. Princess and I were off to the airport for her big girl adventure! She wheeled her own suitcase the whole way...

She was a super star on the plane (though it was so empty, no one would have even noticed if she screamed the whole way!).

Then I was off to a business day in Beloit while she spent some fun time with Grandma and Grandpa L. First was a shopping spree for her birthday. Here is her new scooter...She helped Grandma plant some flowers...She went with Grandpa to the pond to look for frogs...

She served Grandpa some coffee with lots of pepper...

And she snuggled and watched a movie.So far lots of fun! I joined them on Thursday, though it appears we both had a cold so we ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap together. Auntie came and had dinner with us, and we are looking forward to her party on Sunday.

Friday morning was filled with a woods walk and swimming, and then another afternoon nap. You know Jr. Princess must be sick - three days with naps in a row! It has probably been 2 years since that happened!

Now we are waiting for M&M Dad and Starshine to show up after the long drive down from Minnesota. I hear they have been doing lots of cool stuff without us, too, so we'll have to have Starshine post her own adventure stories.

Holy Heat Wave!

On Saturday, Jr. Princess got a fun new sprinkler for her birthday. I thought we'd have to spend the whole next month explaining why it wasn't quite warm enough to use it... boy were we wrong! I think it was at least 90F today.

I almost forgot to give an update on Mothers Day - take 2. Sunday was fabulous! While we didn't necessarily do a whole lot of Mom activities, the girls were SUPER good all day. In fact, they gave me a wonderful gift... they played outside together, nicely, for hours with little intervention by me! Here is Starshine painting the addition they put on the outdoor fort. Now it's half Fort Frontier/half princess castle. That pretty much sums up our cuties!

She even got invited to go see "Ramona" at the Children's Theater, which is quite the coincidence considering she just started reading those books.

Now Jr. Princess and I are busy packing for our exciting airplane ride tomorrow. She's tagging along on my work trip to Wisconsin to hang out with G&G L, while M&M Dad and Starshine will drive down on Friday. We're looking forward to a fun weekend visiting family.

Jr. Princess's Special Day

Since we are going to be visiting our families next weekend on Jr. Princess's actual birthday, we had her "Special Day" today. She was super excited to be the boss of all decisions...

1. Breakfast - cheese toast
2. Help make the birthday treat (chocolate cake) and decorate the house with streamers and balloons


3. Tattoos - Cars


4. Morning activity - last day of gymnastics class (We got some cute video, too, but that will have to be another post - I'm bushed.)
5. Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly shapes with oranges
6. Birthday treat - Chocolate cake with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles

7. Afternoon activity - swimming at the community center (which is a bummer because there are no pictures) and the new indoor play place

8. Dinner at Snuffy's - chicken sticks and a chocolate malt

They were so tired after all of this that no one even remembered that we were going to have cake again after dinner...

What a fun day!

Mothers Day - Take One

This morning started off wonderful. After I slept in, Jr. Princess was adamant that I should have breakfast in bed (not sure where she learned this, but who am I to argue...), so my darling family made me waffles with yogurt and strawberries in bed. (Note to self: brush hair and put on makeup for future Mothers Day possible photo ops)
We then went on a fun nature walk...
In then went downhill with several Jr. Princess timeouts for not following directions, along with Starshine having a super bad attitude on our family outing to Family Day at the art museum. Can you just see the attitude oozing out in this picture??? We were working hard on our pointillism bookmarks.At least Jr. Princess loved the drums exhibit...Well, M&M Dad surprised them (and me) with an announcement at dinner (lovingly made by M&M Dad) that they were going to redo Mothers Day next Sunday (and, if necessary, future Sundays) until they get it right. Wow - you should have seen the shocked looks on their faces. Poor M&M Dad -- he looks like he needs some zen quiet time from trying so hard today.

On an unrelated note - I love this picture of Jr. Princess on Saturday sitting in a tote watching TV! (If you look closely, you'll see it's Michelle Tanner from Full House!)

Uncle B beat Grandma M at Bananagrams. Wow.

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Mothers' Day Program and School Party

I worked from home today so I could go over to Starshine's school for the Mothers' Day program and picnic lunch. All of the 1st graders sang 3 songs and 3 poems. It was super adorable. My favorite went something like this:

On Mothers Day

I will do my best

Do make sure my Mom

Can get some rest

Amen! Starshine's favorite part was that she got to be on the risers this year (last year for kindergarten graduation she was on the floor in the front row). I thought this was funny, and then Best Friend's mom mentioned how upset Best Friend has been all week that she is on the floor AGAIN.Starshine scored us prime real estate on the mats instead of the hard floor. I'm not sure why we couldn't have this picnic outside... it was gorgeous out.

Then, after school Jr. Princess's school had a start of summer party complete with Super Jump. The girls started with the crazy hair table...

...which meant we definitely were doing baths tonight. Jr. Princess had a fortune cookie for her treat, and for some unknown reason they both like to stick their fortunes to their foreheads??? I'm not sure where this trend started.

MS Walk 2009

This morning we went to the MS Walk. I'll be honest - I really have a hard time going because I hate seeing all of the people in wheelchairs and having to come face-to-face with what could be my future. I have been very lucky with 8 years of very mild symptoms, and while I wouldn't say I am in denial, I just prefer not to think about what could be. In previous years, we had just called this the Mommy Walk, but this year Starshine had a lot more questions, which were a challenge to answer in an age appropriate way. They also had a booth where the kids could get "I walk because..." shirts where they could use Sharpies to fill in the answer. I was tearing up helping the girls write "I love my mom." (Note to self: next year M&M Dad is in charge of this activity). I wish my shirt could have said "I am strong because..." so I could fill in " I love these smiling faces!"


Here are the girls starting a LONG list of fabulous snacks-hot chocolate and fruit snacks. We should really change the nickname of this activity from Mommy Walk to Oodles of Snacks Walk.

Starshine was a fabulous walker - walking probably at least 5 of the 6 1/2 miles. Jr. Princess bopped in and out of the stroller, with an occasional stint on M&M Dad's shoulders. Aren't they sweet...

Well, this and the 5K yesterday means we are exhausted! I think we'll lounge about the house for the rest of the evening!

M&M Dad Here: Pink Mom thought she could just post the preceeding writeup of the Mommie is Special walk without a picture of her and the princesses. Well, she was mistaken. I know she didn't think any of the pictures I took of her were very good, but nobody wants to see a picture of me with the girls today. As she mentioned above, the walk can be tough mentally for her, but we had a great time and she handled it like a trooper, just like she does every other day of the year with the fatigue, the annoying numbness, the uncertainty of what is coming next and the weekly shots. Just the last one alone proves she is tougher than me. We are proud of you and we love you.

5k Fun!

Today was the annual 5K and kids run at my work. Last year M&M Dad painfully ran the whole thing in the cold and wind with Jr. Princess in the jogging stroller while Starshine and I walked in the other stroller. He nicely asked if he could run for real this year... Hmmm, my brain took a while to figure out how this could work...

Thankfully Starshine is a big enough girl to stand by herself and watch us because I certainly couldn't handle two girls in strollers! M&M Dad had a personal best time!

Of course, I am super slow pushing Jr. Princess around, but luckily the course looped in such a way that I could hand her off to M&M Dad when he was done and finish with no kids.

(Starshine is pretty proud of the bunny ears in this photo)
Then came the kids runs. First up was Starshine in the 5-8 year old division... The poor girl was disappointed that she didn't win.

And then Jr. Princess in the under 5 division...

Jr. Princess was super fast. I think she has a shot at the title next year. We had a lot of fun, and the girls ate their weight in free healthy snacks!