Rock Band is Rubbing Off on Ethan

Here's the very serious life planning conversation I just overheard between 4-year old Ethan and his friend Alena today:

Ethan: "Alena, when I grow up and I'm a rock star I'm not going to wear a shirt. Actually, I'm going to wear my Bolt shirt (shirt w/lightning bolt on front)."

Alena: "You should wear a coat. Rock stars wear no shirt with a coat. But you have to wear pants."

Ethan: "Well, I'm going to have a guitar. You know, sometimes rock stars don't wear a shirt with their guitar. Alena, I'm going to play the guitar, but you can be in it too if you want."

I wish I could have recorded the whole conversation. Alena went on to give some career counseling advice suggesting that Ethan may want to consider other professions. If only I could recall exactly what was said. It was pretty comical. Maybe we should put "Lego Rock Band" on the Christmas list to tone down the serious rocker images our little guy is getting from the wii.

Here's a photo of Ethan playing the air guitar with his buddy, Mitchell Dickson, in Baltimore last weekend. Rock on!

Clever Costume Ideas

Here are instructions for Morgan's costume. I've also posted a few more we thought looked fun from the same book (Make Believe, a Book of Costumes from Klutz Press). It's an old book from 1993 but may still be available at the library.

Ready to Collect Candy

Last year after Halloween it was decided that for 2009 we'd be a pirate family. Twelve months later and twelve months more "pre-teen", Morgan wasn't interested in participating in the family costume. So, she went with her own cool "headless woman carrying her own head" (which turned a lot of heads and won her the teen choice award at the church party...and even better was pretty easy to put together). I'll post instructions if anyone is intersted.

Smelly Boys

Isaac and his friend, Michael, are in the room next to me playing wii. Here's the conversation I just overheard:
Michael: "I don't get what the big deal is about character underwear. You don't even see them anyway. They are always covered up."
Isaac: "I don't get why you have to have clean underwear. Why does it even matter anyway."
Michael: "Yeah, clean underwear should be against the law."

Speaking of clean undergarments, I was having trouble finding clean socks for Isaac for the past few days. I knew I was behind on laundry and figured they were in a basket somewhere. Tuesday morning I told Isaac I didn't have any socks for him and he said, "Oh, it's okay mom, I have a whole bunch of them in my backpack". He opened up the front pocket of his backpack that was stuffed full with about 15 pairs of dirty socks. He'd been taking them off halfway through the day at school and stuffing them in his backpack. Ewwww!

My Funny Four Year Old

Thank you to the creators of Caillou for the very inspirational episode today. Caillou's dad used a marker to draw a mustache on Caillou's face. What a wonderful idea to put into a 4-year-old's head.

Next came the bath to clean up. Who knew a 1/2 bottle of plaque rinse would make 1/2 a tub of water so blue! Ethan was so pleased with his discovery. I'm happy to report there is no hidden plaque on Ethan's skin AND he's smelling minty fresh.

Good thing preschool started yesterday so our hours of mischief making can be kept to a minimum.

First Day of School - August 24, 2009

It feels like school just got out, how can it possibly be time to start again? This summer raced by for me. The kids were busy with summer school for the first 6-weeks of summer. Morgan took Drama and Orchestra (she plays the violin). Isaac took Science and Cooking. Both loved the classes they took, but waking up at 7:45 each morning for the first 6-weeks of summer was very un-summerlike. After summer school ended Isaac had a week of all-day Camp Invention then a week of all-day Cub Scout Day Camp. After camps ended we headed to Utah for two weeks, then Brent and Morgan continued on to California. We'd been home just a week when it was time for school to start again. Phew!

Morgan's must haves for school this year: 1. A school BAG not backpack 2. Clothes from Aeropostale and American Eagle NOT Justice (Justice was sooo 4th grade) 3. Converse 4. Skinny jeans 5. Her own school supplies (not the generic supply pack purchased from school).

Isaac's must haves for school this year: Whatever mom picks-up (gotta love little boys for that).

The Best Thing About Summer!

Look at all those X's. Ahhh, it's a little bit of heaven isn't it? Harnessing the workhorse in those little bodies is so satisfying. Morgan worked all summer for a North Face fleece. Isaac worked for two DS games. Best of all the kids were motivated an generally quite happy about their chores with sights set on big rewards. Well worth it in my book!