Who's the Boss, Cooper Style

Okay, so now that the blog is pretty much up to date (have you read the last three posts?), I thought I would share with you some funny stuff that has been going on around here, a few random photos, and some updates.

Silas is doing great and is right in the middle of a language explosion.  He is starting to say everything, although a lot of it is hard to understand.  Tonight he said "Ipod."  We were all so impressed!  He calls Carissa "Sissa" and he calls Maleah "EE-ah."  It is so cute.  His speech therapy is really paying off.  He has been getting a little bit ornery though.  I think the terrible twos have hit.  He has a temper and his tantrums involve kicking, screaming, hitting the floor, throwing things, and spitting.  He can be quite the pill.  However, he hates timeouts so the threat of that is usually enough to calm him down.  But he has had some dandy meltdowns.  It's hard not to laugh.  Who said that girls had all the drama?

Carissa has also been testing me.  Apparently she thinks she is the boss.  I have to remind her multiple times a day that she is not.  That kid is going to grow up to be a CEO.  She is finishing up Kindergarten.  She is still super funny.  She makes me laugh all the time and sometimes she says something sort of deep.  Then I know that the little wheels in her head have really been turning.  Here is a recent conversation with her:

Carissa:  Mom, did you know that Dad isn't my real dad?
Me:  (super surprised) He isn't?!?
Carissa:  Nope.  God is.
Me:  Oh.  Yes, God is your father too.

A couple of nights ago she laid down next to me in bed and her pajamas read "Mommy's BFF."  I said, "Your shirt says Mommy's BFF.  That means Best Friends Forever."
Carissa:  You're not my best friend.
Me:  I'm not?
Carissa:  (very seriously) No.  Zoey is my best friend.  I had no idea she was but she told me that she was, so she is my best friend now.
Me:  Oh, okay.
Carissa:  We can be buddies though, Mom.
Me:  Good.  I would like that.

She also loves to talk about the theories around the Plague and what really happened to cause everyone to die.  There's also a good chance she will grow up to be a doctor.  She is really into the idea of helping sick people and is very nurturing and helpful when someone else is sick or hurt.

Maleah is doing great too.  She has started taking piano lessons and loves it.  She is also involved in 4H and is working on a big project for the fair this summer.  She is finishing 3rd grade.  She loves to watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch reruns on the Kindle.  She has hermit crabs and two fish tanks in her room.

Maleah finished her second 5K this past weekend.  Her and I both participated in the Run for Heaven's Sake that our church put on as a fundraiser for the youth group.  I walked it and she she walked/ran.  She got first place in her age group.  I was super proud of her.  She also stopped by our house during the run (our house was along the route) and while she was waiting for a friend of hers to catch up, she changed into shorts and different shoes.  She also got herself and two friends a glass of apple juice and then continued on the race to get 1st place.  Who do you know that can stop and change clothes and still win 1st place?  Crack me up!

Jason has been doing great.  He has been super busy building a shed behind our house.  My Dad has been helping him with it.  It is turning out great.

And me.  I am healthy, happy, and busy.  Between homeschooling, keeping house, cooking, and running the kids around, I stay pretty busy.  The next Depot Variety Show is coming up and I am in it again this year.  I am looking forward to it.  It is always a ton of fun.

Cutie Pie here doing her school work in her new adorable glasses.

These two just trying to wake up.

Silas got a new balance bike.

Other fun things we've learned this week are:  Do not roller skate while carrying a gallon of chocolate milk through the kitchen.  (Carissa!)  Do not drink bath water.  (Silas!)  Are you sure you want to buy sandals with heels?  They might hurt your feet.  (Maleah has sore feet.)

I am sure we have had a lot of other funny stuff happen around here but it is late and I can't think of any of them!  Oh well.  We all know my kids are funny, right?

Worst Easter Ever (Except for Those Other Two)

Okay, so Nashville post, check.  Birthday post, check.  Now what happened next in the lives of the Mini Coopers?  Hmmm.  Let's see, we finished up our last week of Classical Conversations, we went to the zoo, and we had one of the worst Easters ever.  It made the top three on the List of The Worst Easters in the Cooper Family.  Yeah, it was that bad.

Let's start by talking about the last week of Classical Conversations, or CC for short.  CC is a nationwide program of small groups of homeschoolers that meet weekly to study together.  It is a Bible-based, classical education curriculum and we love it.  We meet with other homeschoolers on Tuesday mornings and have a lesson on Geography, History, Science, Grammar, and Latin.  Plus each child gives a 3 minute presentation each week and we do a science experiment.  It is fun and challenging.  My kids have learned a TON this year.  Anyway, it is the end of the school year and our CC group met for the last time last week.  We were sad that it was over.  My kids are already looking forward to fall. We are still doing our other homeschool lessons at home though and aren't on our summer break just yet.  However, we will be finishing well ahead of the public schools because we didn't take any snow days all year.  I love that little perk to homeschooling.  Instead, we are taking SUN Days very soon.

So anyway, to celebrate our last day of CC, I planned a little scavenger hunt around Louisville and Flora.  We went to several different businesses where the kids had to answer review questions in order to get their next clue.  Some of their questions were:  Tell me about the Cold War.  What is Newton's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Laws of Motion?  Tell me all of the European Mountains.  What is a gerund?  What are the 1st Conjugation Present tense in Latin?  Name the axis leaders and ally leaders of WWII.

The kids did great and answered everything correctly.  They blew away the business people reading them their questions.  We ended the hunt at Charley Brown Park with a picnic lunch and relays and games.  Sort of.  The kids thought that was the end.  But then I surprised them with one more clue, which led them to the Dairy Queen, which turned into a field trip.  We all got to go inside and make our own ice cream cones and get a tour of the place.  It was so fun.  The kids had a blast!

Behind the scenes at Dairy Queen.  Owner Dave

was telling us some secrets about how they make their Cokes.

For the last three weeks of CC we had all worked

on constructing an egg holder made from only

popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and napkins (no glue!).

The purpose was to protect the egg from breaking

when dropped from a higher area.  We tested

our designs out by dropping them from the top of the

curly slide at Charley Brown Park.  These two, Harrison

and Janae, did the best and their eggs did not break!

Carissa and her broken egg.

Dropping the egg.

Maleah and Carissa with their egg holders before the big drop.

Answering review questions during the scavenger hunt

at the Clay County State Bank.

Scavenger hunt at the Potter's Shed.

We were encouraged to dress up as our favorite historical

character from our history studies.  Carissa went as Mary 

Queen of Scots and Maleah went as Joan of Arc.

I wore Clarence's old green jacket from Vietnam and went

as a soldier.

We also recently went to the St. Louis Zoo.  We had a great time there too.  We actually had to go to St. Louis for my three month checkup with my oncologist.  I had a great appointment and all of my bloodwork and everything came back looking fantastic.  Cancer free!  It's always a relief to hear that.  This was the same day that we went to Build A Bear (see previous post.)  I also managed to fit some shopping into this day and bought Mr. Silas Man some new clothes because the kid needed some warm weather attire.  He had nothing but long sleeved shirts and pants that were too short.  He is tall and getting taller!  The kids and Dad (lucky him) got to ride a double-decker carousel at the mall.  They were very excited about that.  I skipped the carousel and went to the Gap instead.

Back to the zoo.  It was great.  We no longer try to fit everything in when we go to the zoo.  We just pick a few things and see that and then we leave.  It's always enough.  Carissa loves lions.  Last time we were there she really wanted to see the lions but they were cleaning the lion area and so all the lions were inside.  She was so disappointed then so this time she had high hopes of seeing a lion.  It was her lucky day because she got to see two lions, a tiger, and a couple other big cats.  She was thrilled!  Maleah wanted to see Maliha the elephant and we did.  It was an all around good time.  However, the hippos proved, once again, to be the most entertaining.  They growled, and huffed, and puffed, and got in and out of the water, and swam right by the kids.  Those things are so huge that when they growled (or whatever they were doing, moaning maybe?) I have to admit I was a little scared and very thankful for that extremely thick glass window.

The Mini Coopers!

Aren't they cute?

He liked the fish.

Maleah and a hippo

This one would have eaten Carissa up, if given

the chance.  I am quite sure about it.

I told you the hippos were entertaining.

They put on a quite a show.  The hippos.  Not the girls.

This is Carissa roaring like a lion.  She speaks Lion.  

Or is it Lionese?  I don't know.  I'll have to ask her.

I mentioned that we had one of our top three worst Easters ever.  It ranked right up there with the Easter that Maleah was in the nicu when she was a few days old and the Easter when Carissa was two and in the hospital for dehydration.  Here's what happened this year:  We had the stomach flu.  All five of us.  It started off with Carissa on the Wednesday prior to Easter.  She puked in the car on the way home from Effingham.  She puked into a McDonald's bag that Maleah had been eating out of.  She continued to puke every 15 minutes for the next 14 hours.  It was terrible.  I was up all night caring for my sick little blondie.  After we got home from Effingham I carried all of our stuff in, put the carseat cover in the washer, all while Jason started a bath for Carissa.  A few minutes later, Jason and I realized that Silas was eating french fries.  Where did they come from?  You guessed it!  Out of that McDonald's bag that Carissa had puked into.  That makes you want to puke now, doesn't it?  Okay, so guess who got sick next?  Yep.  Silas!  If I would have bet money on that one, I would be a little bit richer.  I had been preparing for a huge garage sale all week and was having it on Friday with a friend of mine.  While I was at the sale, Jason stayed home with the kids.  He called me around 8 a.m. and said that Silas was sick.  Jason dealt with that while I sold all of the kids' clothes they had outgrown and a bunch of other stuff that we didn't need.  (I made a lot of money, which then paid for clothes that fit when we went shopping in St. Louis.  It was worth it.)  By Saturday, Carissa was much better and Silas was getting there.  But by Saturday night... dunt, dunt, dunt... Jason said he didn't feel good, an hour later it was Maleah, and an hour later it was me.  We were all so sick!  It was terrible.  Terrible, I tell ya!  Easter Sunday morning came and we were all still sick and exhausted but suddenly, I had two little kids that felt great and wanted to play.  Um, no.  Please just watch television for the next 20 hours.  Thanks.   They were pretty good for not having much parental supervision.  By Monday, our house was a disaster (see previous sentence), Maleah and I were feeling better but didn't have much energy and poor Jason was still sick.  He missed both Monday and Tuesday from work, he was so sick.  I think he had it the worst.  The kids did get an Easter basket but the Easter Bunny only hid five eggs and they were all empty.  We didn't get to go to church on Easter or to Uncle Timmy and Aunt RaeAnn's house for dinner and an egg hunt.

We celebrated Easter this past weekend instead.  The girls and Silas wore their Easter clothes to church and we had an Easter egg hunt at my Mom and Dad's house.  The kids had fun doing that and hopefully it made up for that unreliable Easter Bunny.  Hopefully next Easter will be much much better!

Hunting eggs!  Finally.

Silas wasn't very good at it.

(Understatement #1)

In fact, he was terrible at it.

(Understatement #2)

This kid is adorable.

(Understatement #3)

He has eggs in his basket because his sisters 

gave them to him out of pity.

I'm having the kid's eyes checked.

She is in motion.  I think she is reaching for an

egg, although she looks as if she might take

off flying.

This picture reminds me of Laura and Mary

on the prairie.

Thanks for reading.  See you on the flip side.

2014 Epic Birthday Week

Okay, so I'm trying to get the blog caught up to date.  I told you all about Nashville, what was next in March?  Oh yeah, birthday week.  Maleah turned nine.  (NINE?  How did this happen??)  And Carissa turned five.  I am thankful age four is over for that girl.  Age four is worse than age 2 if you ask me.  So, we are super excited about age five!  Woo hoo!!!  The girls wanted everything under the sun for their birthdays.  They didn't get it all.  I am so sick of "stuff!"  We are downsizing around here and I just had a huge rummage sale and got rid of a ton of stuff.  How do we accumulate so much?  The girls got plenty though.

The birthday girl...

and the birthday girl.

A cute onlooker

He's always smilin'

On the night before Maleah's actual birthday we went out to eat at the NMN Club.  It was delicious.  And on her actual birthday, Daddy had to work, so I took the kids, plus the Duquaine kids rollerskating.  I had just bought a new camera and gave it to Nolan to figure out.  So a lot of the photo credit goes to him.

Opening something...

If the camera is out, he wants his picture taken.  Unless of course,

I am paying someone to take his picture and then he doesn't.

She got new skates for her birthday.  She had outgrown her others.

This made her very happy because her feet hadn't grown in years.

A new Nancy Drew novel (well, new to her)

The crew

Funny faces

They were really enjoying Nolan being the photographer as I drove us to Fairfield.

I like this one of Maleah.  ha!

Silas thought he was cool, hanging with the big kids in the car.

Oh Max!

And Sam.

And a final selfie by our photographer Nolan.  This time 

he was trying out the black and white feature on the new

camera.  This kid probably knows more about my camera that I do!

Maleah tentatively trying out the new skates.

Carissa Faith

Me trying to figure out my camera and a blurry Max.  But it sure 

is good of Maleah.

Having fun.

Cheese!

They won a bajillion tickets while we there so they all picked

out a bunch of junk from behind the ticket counter, including

the lovely green alien that rode home with us.

I was incredibly brave (I questioned my sanity) and had a friend sleepover for the girls' birthday.  They both wanted to invite their friends over.  I started out by saying they could each invite two friends.  We quickly realized that wasn't going to work because they had so many friends that they really wanted to invite.  So then I said "five friends each."  It grew from there.  That's when I knew I needed help.  Not psychiatric help.  Physical help.  So, I enlisted my friend Melissa Smith (who doesn't have any daughters but loves to help do nails and other fun girly stuff) and our babysitter Vivian Duquaine.  She is an awesome help to me anytime she is around.  I asked her to help me with the party and she also put together an amazing scavenger hunt for the kids.  She was a huge help.  Jason and Silas left and spent the night at Craig and LuAnn's.  I don't blame them.  The party actually went so smoothly.  The girls were all so well-behaved.  There was no drama.  Can you believe that?  Not everyone spent the night but most did.  Some were still awake at 3 a.m.  (They were so proud of themselves!)  I have no idea if they ever went to sleep because I didn't check on them again until morning.

Opening presents with our friends.

Carissa got a cash register

Maleah and her friends.

Carissa and her friends.

The slumber party guests.  Four were neighbors that just stopped

by for a bit.  Three others did not stay the night but instead went home that evening.

Maleah had wanted a Nancy Drew themed party and Carissa wanted a Hello Kitty party.  She is so into Hello Kitty! So we did a Nancy Drew/Hello Kitty party.  It worked out great.  Jason's cousin Lora made the cakes as usual and she did an amazing job.  Each year she blows me away with how awesome of a job she does.  This year was quite possibly the best ever.  She made Maleah's cake look like a Nancy Drew mystery novel and Carissa's Hello Kitty.  Not only were the cakes so pretty that I didn't want to cut them, but they tasted amazing too.  There was only a few pieces of chocolate cake left after the party and the strawberry cake was completely gone.

Carissa's cake made by Lora Harrison.

Maleah's cake made by Lora.  Our scavenger hunt that Vivian

made was also called The Mystery of the Missing Doll.  It revolved around

finding Maleah's hidden American Girl Doll.

I love this cake!

9 candles!

Five candles on this one!

The party started off with playtime in the backyard, then we had our big scavenger hunt all over the house and outside.  Opening gifts happened somewhere around that time.  After that was pizza and breadsticks and cake and ice cream.  And then we did foot spa and foot massages, pedicures, manicures, and facials.  The girls had a blast.  Everyone watched Frozen next and made their beds that they never slept on.  It really was a fun night.  I managed to have a clean house, no dishes, and everyone gone by 9 a.m. the next morning.  It was great.

The girls also had a family birthday party.  We invited both sets of grandparents over, Great Grandma Zelda, and Craig and LuAnn were there as well as the Smith family.  It was a fun party too.

A Hello Kitty alarm clock!  This was on her actual birthday.

More presents

Carissa got a new Hello Kitty comforter for her bed.  She was thrilled!

Family party and even more presents.  Sigh.

They shared a cake at this party.

The girls had asked to go to Build A Bear as one of their presents.  They both really wanted this for their birthday.  So, Jason and I agreed to it but we weren't able to make time to take them until the end of April.  They loved it though.  Carissa picked out Hello Kitty (of course!) and Maleah picked out a puppy dog that is supposed to be Cinderella's Palace Pet?  Whatever.  It's cute.  They had fun.  That place is not cheap though.  Dang.  Good thing it was their birthday present.

Carissa stuffing Hello Kitty

Covering her ears of course.  The air blowing/bath machine was too loud for the Coopers.

And brushing the new additions.

I will leave you with this video shot by Nolan on Maleah's birthday.

So that pretty much wraps up the 2014 Birthday Week.  I love my girls but I am always so glad when birthday week is over.  Two birthdays at once is stressful.  I can't imagine what that week would be like if Silas had been born on his due date - Maleah's birthday.  Whew!  Further proof that God doesn't give me more than I can handle.