Email from Addie's teacher

I got an email this afternoon from Addie's teacher with the subject line being "Addie." I was a little worried opening it up, for fear that she was sick or something.

This is what it said:
Just wanted to let you know that Addie sang the star spangled banner for the entire first grade lunch and the principal on the microphone today and did it beautifully. She is quite talented!!

So that made my day.

Information dump

Sorry for the lack of form of this post, but I have a couple of things I want to mention before I forget them!

1. Of course the girl ended up talking to Ben. She was 10 and an identical twin. By the end of the night, she was taking him to the bathroom for me and she even shared her clay with him.
2. We've been playing hangman a lot recently. A couple of Addie gems-- the first puzzle was only three letters long. After guessing all of the common letters, Brian and I were convinced she surely had misspelled the word and therefore resorted to racking our brains for any unused letters and possible kindergarten-level interpretations. Ultimately the word was "won." Yup, seriously. It was pure genius on her part. Wanting to be sure, I asked her to define it and she said, "You know, when you win something." Bingo. Another puzzle she gave us ended up being "Daddy has smelle toenals." Then yesterday morning just as Muddy got into the house Addie explained that she had a hangman for Muddy. The word had six letters in it. As Muddy guessed away, I started to think "geeze, this isn't really looking much like a word I know," so I asked her to whisper the answer in my ear. She did and I just shook my head, because she was right. The answer was "bolyah." What? Did she seriously choose "boo-yah" as the word?! What a nut.
3. Ben's current favorite I-can't-help-it-I-need-to-dance song is "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green. He just can't control himself when it's on. We even had a fun time playing it on itunes randomly to see what he'd do and he busts a move without fail. His whole body is jamming along, sort of like a rag doll,because the music just moves him so much.
4. Onkteb was down for the weekend. The kids had a blast with him, as usual. On Sunday as we're driving to ice skating, where Onkteb was going to be leaving from, Ben said, "When my favorite people get ready to leave, it makes me feel weird inside, like I'm sad." Isn't that so sweet?
5. Addie had another snowday yesterday. Really. That makes 7 for the year. They've had so many that they've actually taken back a teacher inservice that was scheduled for March!

Watchin' Ben

Tonight was the monthly PTA meeting at Addie's school. They serve a dinner first. I had both Addie and Ben with me and we were waiting for the dinner to be served. Ben was sitting very quietly over at another table and I went over to him and asked, "Ben, what are you doing?" He looked at me plain-as-day and said, "I'm just sitting here cutely so that the girl in the purple shirt will speak to me."

When I texted Brian (who is at work still) with that story, he wrote back, "That's my boy, smart like his dad. That's how I got you."

Ch-ch-chaaaange

Au-natural hair color, which it turns out that I'm allergic to the "protein- based" product...so I'm covered in hives from my neck up. I can't even wear my new hair down, because it irritates my skin so much. Hoping the more I wash it, the less irritated it becomes. I'm happy with the color though.

Happy Valentine's Day!

From your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Rafael.

made by Muddy, of course. Isn't that the cutest thing?I can see boys (and girls) everywhere wearing them.

Wii boxing

We've had the Wii for several years, but we haven't really played it that much. This weekend we brought it out to see how the kids did with it. Well since then, each night, we've had Wii sports playing. Whether it's the Wii Fit yoga or the Wii Sports' boxing, they are exercising each night before bed. Enjoy the video of them boxing. It's funny to see how much their booties move while boxing.

Valentine's store

Ben and Muddy went shopping yesterday for some little Valentine's Day decorations. When I came home from work he showed me his loot. There are Valentine's stickers and a pack of heart shaped doilies. The package says "AC Moore" on the doilies. So I said, "Oh you went to AC Moore?" Ben looked at me and said, "No. We went to the Valentine's store." I said, "Right, but it's AC Moore, they sell Valentine's stuff there." He said, "No, it's the Valentine's store. There were hearts everywhere." I had to explain to him that it was actually the same store where he wore his Dancy the robot costume and won the contest on Halloween. Funny how he thought it was a whole store just for Valentine's Day. His response was a nonchalant, "oh."