Life with L&L

Here's the bad news: I haven't written a blog post in ages, and I've been terrible about taking pictures lately, so I have very few photos to post today.

But the good news is that life is full, and we're immersed in daily and weekly routines that include activities that we all enjoy.  The kids have sports, Chess Club, piano lessons for Luke, Daisies for Leah, church & Sunday School, birthday parties, and right now: March Madness!  Life is good.

Somehow, we blinked, and have transitioned from Luke's basketball season right into spring soccer. The kids had their first games last weekend, and it was COLD!  After a few weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures in February, opening weekend of soccer season brought a high of 41 degrees and wind for Leah's Friday night game.  Brrrr!  L&L are also participating in GoFAR (GoOutForARun) this spring at their school, which teaches children about active, healthy lifestyles and helps them train for a 5K (or 1 mile Fun Run).  We'll all be running in the Family Race in May, and we're looking forward to it.

Luke continues to thrive with his interest in music.  The third grade just took a field trip to see the Greensboro Symphony, and this little boy was over the moon, gushing about composers, movements, etc.  He wants to play every instrument known to man, and has recently taught himself how to play the recorder (which is NOT a quiet instrument!).  Luke continues to take piano lessons and I recently realized that I never posted videos from his first recital last May.  This seems like such a long time ago, and Luke looks so little to me, but these videos are priceless, and contain two of the four pieces that Luke played in his spring 2016 recital.

Click here to watch Luke playing How Great is Our God

Click here to watch Luke play Star Wars.

Our little Music Man.

L&L keep us on our toes with their questions and musings.  Luke's favorite phrase is: "I have one question..." which he utters about 725 times each day.  Sometimes we are humbled and astounded at how those little brains work.  For example, Luke was explaining something to us in the car the other day, and used the term, "pitch quiet".  Mark and I looked at each other quizzically, and it took us a moment to realize that Luke was using that phrase similarly to "pitch black"or "pitch dark"... You know, "extremely quiet".

I also asked Luke to find a pair of socks in the laundry basket, which contained a load of clean, unfolded laundry.  He came out of the laundry room a moment later and was agitated and upset.  "Mommy, there are only HALF PAIRS in the basket!!".   I was confused until I heard Mark mutter, "You've got to be kidding me.." and explain to Luke that he needed to look for two "half pairs" that matched and put them together to make a full pair.  Captain Literal strikes again (and we have now added matching/folding socks to his weekly chore list so that he understands that socks don't magically pair themselves before they end up in his drawer)...

Lastly, Luke recently asked me what a "prepostion" was (pronounced "prep-posh-tion").  I racked my brain for derivatives of "preposterous", and started rambling about how it must be a noun that is synonym for absurd, ridiculous, etc.  I glanced at the word that he was talking about: "preposition", and was perplexed that it was unfamiliar, as I was mentally pronouncing it the way that Luke had.  It wasn't until later that I realized that Luke pronounced the word wrong, and that we were talking about "prep-o-si-tion", as in grammar, a part of speech, "on, in, about, over", etc.  Oops. It was not my proudest parenting moment, and I am going to blame that one on all the brain cells that I have lost in the past 9 years due to sleep deprivation.

Luke is currently obsessed with Harry Potter.  He began reading the books in January, and has devoured the entire series.  He's currently reading the last one (Book 7), and he and I watch each movie together after he finishes the corresponding book.  This is such a fun stage of parenting for me.  I LOVED reading the Harry Potter series, and now Luke and I can chat about characters, have inside jokes about spells and all-things Hogwarts, and I'm having a blast planning a Harry Potter themed family birthday party for one soon-to-be 9 year-old.

Leah's class keeps me very busy with weekly volunteering, tutoring, and Room Mom responsibilities.  Last month's Valentine's Party was especially fun to plan, and the kindergartners appreciate any reason to celebrate:

A funny party-planning story:Leah saw me working on a craft for her Spring Party this past week (which will be held in the first week of April), and she asked, "Mommy, why are you already planning THAT party, when you should be preparing for our Leprechaun party this week?"  I had to break the news to her that St. Patrick's Day didn't require a class-wide celebration/official party, and she was devastated.  Then that smart girl made me laugh out loud when she saw the bunny juice boxes for the Spring Party and commented, "Um, Mommy, those are cute, but how are we supposed to get the straws out?".  Yep, I was outsmarted by a 6 year-old, and wished she had shared her helpful insight before I had wrapped 19 out of the 20 juice boxes (with straws still attached) in cardstock.  And that, my friends, is a Pinterest fail... but with a cute cotton tail to make up for it.   

Leah loves all of the themed weeks at school this year.  Read Across America Week last week contained Mustache Monday (for the Lorax), Wacky Wednesday, and Cat in the Hat Thursday, to celebrate Dr. Suess' birthday.  

It's a fun time with these cuties, and full of new adventures each week!