Lunch

Today a very good friend of mine had the kids over to play with her kids while Gary and I went out to lunch. It was so nice to sit and chat over a leisurely lunch. Once we picked the kids up I had a conversation with Leia that went like this:

Leia: I'll bet you were saying stuff to each other at lunch.

Me: What do you mean?

Leia: Like it's so nice to not have the kids here at lunch.

Me: Of course not (Thinking) I knew she was talented but I didn't know she was a mind reader!

Stress relief

Today was a really stressful day for me. Spencer misbehaved and I had to discipline him in a very decisive way. I had to ban him from the playhouse for the whole day. As a result I had a very challenging almost five year old on my hands. He was dealing with a pretty intense rage that he didn't know how to control. He wore me down with his persistent begging to go outside and all the tears. Thankfully this evening has completely chased away the blues. The weather was so nice that we decided to call a babysitter and go for an unplanned date. We took the bike and drove out to Beavercreek and went shopping for Leia's birthday coming up in a few weeks. It was a lot of fun and night riding is so great. The day has certainly ended on a high and I feel renewed. Hopefully I can have an uneventful day with the boys tomorrow. I really hated to spend the day at odds with Spencer. I want them both to be happy. I think Kindergarten in September will prove to be a good outlet for Spencer. He is getting to the point of being bored a lot of the time.

And also for your viewing pleasure. We went to the Aullwood Audubon Center this afternoon to look at the picture that Leia entered into the Avian Art Contest. It was a great picture and we are so proud of her. She literally is sunshine in my life and I love her to distraction.

Playhouse

Superdad!

Today the playhouse that we ordered finally arrived. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. When we opened the box, we were amazed by the amount of pieces. Gary started building it at 3.30pm and finished at 9.45pm in the dark! Can you believe the devotion? He refused to stop until the job was done even though he had to run an extension cord out into the backyard from the garage to plug in a work lamp. So I couldn't get a shot of the finished house. Needless to say I will take some more pictures very soon. Here are some shots of the job in progress.



The early stages



On with the roof



Leia watching the progress of the house after she was supposed to be in bed

T.E.X

Today when I went to pick Leia up from school she had a note telling me that there had been a problem today at school and that her teacher wanted to talk to me about it at our upcoming parent/teacher conference scheduled for this evening. On the way home I tried to get Leia to tell me what this was all about. She seemed very confused. It was about a boy (we'll call him Jon)and a girl (we'll call her Jane)asking her a question about T.E.X in the bathroom.

I was beginning to cotton on at this point. I was extremely interested to hear what her teacher had to say. Her teacher's version was this. Leia and Jon seem to be very friendly at recess. Leia had apparently written him a note which mentioned marriage (after high school of course!), and then Jane whom I assume is also friendly with Leia attempted to explain what sex is to Leia in the bathroom at school. I missed the part about how exactly her teacher found out about this but her teacher decided to ask her about it. She asked Leia what it was that Jane had said to her. Leia placed her finger on her lips as she does when in deep thought and said "well it was about that word T.E.X". This satisfied the teacher that she was a clueless participant in this little bit of intrigue. I'm sure she was relieved that it was unneccesary for her to broach this topic with one of her class members. She has assured us that the principal will be talking to Jane about the appropriateness of talking about certain topics in the bathroom at school.

Once at home I asked Leia again what Jane had said in case there was anything I needed to know. Funnily enough she was very bored of T.E.X and was very concerned about whether she would have enough money to buy a Hannah Montana CD once the tooth fairy has made her latest visit. I think I like her priorities!

Thank goodness for Swamp Pops

Thanks to Jana for giving me the idea to compile a playlist of rockin' tunes to put on my blog. Hope they all make you feel summery. I certainly feel great when listening to these tunes - some of favorites of the moment. And thanks to Swamp Pops. They kept the kids duly entertained while I built the list.

Something about stripes

While looking back over my scrapbooks, I realized that 9 times out of 10 I dress my children in stripes. I am unconsciously drawn to stripes it seems. Maybe it says something profound about my personality?? Originally I thought I was going to make a slide show of pictures of my kids in stripes and then I realized that the slideshow would be about 30 minutes long and no one, not even my family would be prepared to tolerate that kind of self obsession. So here are pictures of what the boys have been doing with the lovely spring weather that finally showed up this week. And surprise surprise they are wearing stripes.


Playing in the sand/water tray. There's nothing like adding sand to the mud that the boys have already been rolling about in this week

Riding bikes,trikes,etc..

Jumping on the trampoline which over the winter got buried under the snow/leaves and consequently started to disintegrate.

I love to see the boys enjoying each other's company. It does happen once in a while!

I was hoping that by now Nathan could eat a bag of M&Ms without smearing them all over his face. And why is he crying? I just spanked him for his disgusting habits? Actually, I asked him to pose for the picture and he didn't want to. It's not as if I'm going to show everyone the picture or anything!!

Serious business

I don't quite know how Nathan figured out that when Gary takes reading material into the bathroom then he is on serious business. The other day, Nathan went into the library to retrieve a book on airplanes he is quite fond of and announced to us that he was going into the bathroom. Sure enough he sat there with his book and produced his business. To the uninitiated to the Asp household this may seem like a small thing, but Nathan normally saves business of this kind for his nightime pull-up! Who knew there was an up side to Gary's 20 minute bathroom jaunts?

Easter Holiday

Mum and Dad left to go back to England this evening. For the first time really, Leia was very upset. She sobbed all the way home from the airport. The boys are still oblivious but Leia is just growing up so fast and is a very emotional little girl. Whenever Grandma Shirley is around, Leia is her shadow. They spent a lot of time writing each other coded letters and every school day while they were here, Grandma either walked Leia to and from school or wheeled her bike up to school so Leia could ride back. Grandma bathed the kids every night and read them stories. To Leia there will be something missing for a little while. But it just makes me so grateful for a close family. These relationships are so precious to me. I love to watch Leia with Grandma Shirley and see the bond that they have.


Mum riding on the back of Gary's Harley


Spencer touching a shark at the Newport Aquarium


The three amigos at the Aquarium dinosaur dig


Feeding the Lorikeets at the Aquarium


Outside the Aquarium


Arriving home from a bike ride


A worn out Spencer on the way home from a full day of fun


A game of Quack Quack


Nathan and Grandad


My wonderful parents Alan and Shirley


Hanging out

We're all looking forward to August when we will see them again and go on a vacation together!