Crimson

An older saleslady at the store noticed Julian waiting for me to finish my purchase and said to him, "Well it looks like you are the older brother! How old are you?"

Politely, Julian smiled and said, "13." (I marveled at how he is so good with strange grown-ups, always answering clearly and looking them in the eye. Very impressive.)

Saleslady then notices cute little Ethan bouncing around near Julian's legs. As she bent over with her hands on her knees, she says to Ethan, "...and YOU must be the little brother! How old are you little guy?"

Instead of hiding in my knees as he usually might do with strangers, he boldly spoke to her and exclaimed, "I go BIG poop logs in the toilet!!"

Oh my.

Julian's face turned crimson as he sloooooooowly turned away and tried to move away just in case Ethan decided to reveal anymore **ahem** personal facts.
It didn't happen because I swooped in and interrupted the conversation saying, "Oh he's three...heh...heh..and I guess that's the number one topic around the house for him these days....heh....heh...."

I trailed off, turning crimson myself. I didn't dare look around to see what other people might have heard the "P" word as we quickly exited the store.

Audrey-ism #341

We were reading a nonfiction book about airplanes today at lunch.

When we got to this page Audrey said, "Is he holding corndogs??"

Let the Underwear Bomber try to get past THAT man! Huh!

Christmas Pictures

Here is a link to view some of our Christmas pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jofannie/ChristmasDay?feat=email#

Just not feelin' it yet....

Things to do to combat holiday blahs:

1. Eat more candy canes.

2. Do something to serve someone each day.

3. Drink spiked egg nog.

4. Return any gifts that are unnecessary to give.

5. Read Christmas books to the little ones.

6. Sing my favorite carols

7. Thank God.

Julian's Party

For Julian's birthday, he invited a few of his favorite friends over and Christopher took them to a hockey game. Gone are the days of themed parties and planned games!! (Actually I know there are a lot of cool ideas for older kids) The kids didn't know each other, but all got along swimmingly. It's neat to see the kids Julian has chosen as friends...and we think he's done well for himself with a great bunch of guys.

They came home completely hyper and hungry (what else do 12 and 13 yr olds do but eat??) So we gave them snacks and they settled in for a movie. Julian chose to watch an old, classic movie instead of a new shoot-em-up modern flick. Again, very impressed and interested in his choice. Who knows what time they went to bed...but they were up bright and early playing a Wii football game. I think they could've stayed up all night playing if it weren't for us making them go to bed :o)

A Star is Born

This blog serves as an excellent medium to brag about the kids.

Claire has been taking a musical theater class on Saturdays for the past few months, which she absolutely loves. She's passed up a birthday party and a weekend at Gramma's so she wouldn't miss any classes. Now THAT says a lot for a 9 yr old kid!
On this last day of class, the kids did a mini-performance for the adults to show what they have been working on and demonstrate skills. It was so awesome to watch Claire with her twinkly eyes and sparkly spirit. I know I'm biased, but I really felt she stood out amongst her ten peers.
After class, the instructor stopped us in the hall and said that Claire was definitely ready to move to the intermediate classes. And this was only after taking one session!! We were both beaming. The instructor continued to say that if Claire was planning on auditioning for the spring stage production, this next class would help her prepare. Wow!! To hear the woman say that Claire was audition-material was so incredible. It's the stuff Christopher and I always knew about her, but love to hear from someone else.
The musical is called "Seussical" and auditions are mid-January.
Better get my Cat and Her Hat ready for an audition!!

Audrey's Awesome Art cont'd

Audrey let me know this was an apple tree on a windy day, and the girl is selling the apples that fell to the ground.