We went to the park after dinner. It was really humid. The babies didn't like the swings like they used to. I thought M was going to have a heart atttack. His whole body tensed and turned red from holding his breath. Once he relaxed a little he almost liked it. I didn't know splitcat was filming this video, he was waiting for W to slide, but he got lost in thought at the top. That's me cackling in the background. He heard me laughing and that's what snapped him out of it. The longer we were there, the curlier W's hair got. I'm so glad I got one curly head out of 4. It's fascinating.

It's Ballet time! Tonight is rehearsal. I'm so glad they got to wear tutu's this year. Last year their main dance was tap, so they wore a jazzy red number with fringe and feathers. This year they are doing ballet as their main dance. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the top layer of her skirt is a pale lavender.

I always wanted to be a ballet dancer because the costumes were so beautiful.

Endings

School is out. The girl finished yesterday, the boy today, and Splitcat winds up post planning sometime next week. Our summer plans are currently non-existent. We are waiting to see if anyone signs up for summer school. If enough kids sign up, Splitcat will be teaching summer school. I'm torn between wanting him to teach and wanting him to stay home. Summer school is a fairly lucrative thing to do. But the thought of being alone with my kids most of the summer is a little daunting. The twins are very very very busy. The boy and girl are either having a great time together or screaming at each other like banshees. Taking everyone outside to play is nearly impossible when I am by myself. The girls next door left for Las Vegas as soon as they got home from school today, so I can't get them to help me. Is it sad to be scared to be left alone with your children? Actually, I'm not scared, it just makes me tired to even think about.





Anyhoo, P had a pretty successful year. He got his standardized test scores back--1=does not meet, 2=meets, 3= exceeds. He scored 3's on all 3 sections. The girl was really ready for school to be out. She did well this year, also. Next week is her ballet recital and then we are done with all our school year commitments.

We are all finally over our latest bout of gastroenteritis. Looking back on my blog, we all had one this same time last year. I had forgotten that P missed his last day of school last year because he was puking. I won't go into details, but twins with diarrhea is not pleasant.

Scoot Over

Baby M(below). He looks a lot like my dad. Maybe it's the hawaiian shirt.

Baby W. He looks like my Father-in-law's father. They both love to carry the bubble bottles around. I bought an automatic bubble blower so everyone can play in the bubbles.

My mother's day gift

My family has learned that I like to receive money for holidays. I tell them it is the gift of shopping. So my sister and I went to the mall on Monday to spend my Mother's day money. I had been thinking about buying myself a guitar with the money splitcat was giving me from our economic stimulus check, but I found this very cute little guitar at a new store in the mall called Banjo.com. It was very cheap, but had a sweet little sound, and so I decided to get it. Part of my thought process was that with four small children, I needed something that could take a beating. That morning I had been looking online at guitars and the girl spotted a pink one and said she wanted to learn to play the guitar when she was old enough. So I couldn't pass this one up. When I showed it to her that afternoon she was speechless. When I let her sit and strum on it she practically glowed. The babies were also very attracted to it, so I have been practicing while they are in bed. But yesterday I decided to let them touch it. Baby W. was mildly interested, but quickly wandered off. Baby M was totally fascinated. So I sat him on the couch and put it in his lap. He was exhausted(we've all been battling the most recent stomach bug since thursday), but that didn't deter him. He started out upright and slowly fell over. He cried when I took it away.

Hannah Montana: Cliff Notes for Parents

Rhett and Link are my favorite youtubers. Check them out.

The strange ways of 9 year olds

I think I mentioned in an earlier post about the girls that live next door. They are 9 and 11. The older girl is very much a thinker. The younger, well, the best analogy I can come up with is that she reminds me of Spongebob. Warning:if you are squeamish about dead rabbits, do not continue.

So anyway, On the way to the bus yesterday I spied a dead bunny in the road. Not sure of how traumatic this would be for the boy(totally not traumatic, but has ignited an interest in what we would do if there was a dead deer in the road), we took a wide berth around it. I saw the older girl stick her head out the front door, but before I had a chance to tell her to watch out, she went back inside. So we went on the bus stop. When I heard them coming, I walked out into the road a little, and I didn't see anything, including the rabbit. I stepped a little further into the road(there is a tree that obscures the view that I had to go around). Walking down the street were the 2 girls, the younger one carrying the rabbit by its feet. I instantly went into "mom" mode and yelled "Drop It!" She looked up, startled. "Drop the rabbit!" She lets go and the poor rabbit plummets to the ground and they both take off running to the bus stop. Her sister and I say at almost the same time--"Don't touch anything! Wash your hands when you get to school!"
Apparently this is not the first dead animal she has picked up and carried around. They both said that it looked like the rabbit was still breathing, but I think the wind was blowing its fur. The older girl said, "it's chest was moving up and down, but it had blood coming out of its mouth."
I tried to explain that if it was bleeding from its mouth, there wasn't anything we could do for it. I told them to ask their dad to bury it when they got home. I didn't think he would, he doesn't strike me as that kind of dad, but I figured it would make them feel better.
Fast forward to the next morning. I asked if their dad buried the rabbit, I had noticed it was gone. No, they said, he said he wouldn't do it. We did. They buried it under some flowers.

Gross.