Class Pictures

They both wanted to wear the same shirt.  I like that both are in the same place in both pictures.  :)

 

Moving along

Well, since it has been cold, I've been acting as an incubator for our little caterpillars.  They seemed to like that and it kind of made them more dear to me.  This also made the boys more feel like they were babies and they were very protective of them-  especially vigilant to keep the rampaging 2 year old away from them.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, one of them died. I'm sure it was not anyone's fault.  I think he may  have just gotten ill or something because one day he just lay on the ground and stayed there.   Another one attached himself to the lid to prepare to cocoon and ended up falling over.  I suspect that the last caterpillar to cocoon himself was the cause.  He was constantly wandering around and poking at the other ones from the beginning.  No one seemed to enjoy the poking.  I worried after the other three cocooned that he would hurt them since he kept poking at them even then.  When I found one had fallen down, I assumed that it was that naughty caterpillars fault.  The last one finally cocooned last night and so this  morning I put them into their home.  I tried to carefully scoop up the fallen one and he wiggled around in  his cocoon, so I hope he's fine.  I had to scoop under him because I was afraid to hurt him.  We shall see.  Our other caterpillar is still in his cocoon.  He keeps moving around in there, so he is still alive- just taking his sweet time.  I'll keep you updated.  The boys are so anxious to see them emerge!

 

Happy Valentine's Day

My super wonderful husband surprised me with some beautiful tulips and some pecan rolls from See's Candy! 

 

My other 3 Valentines!

 

For those of you who were wondering-- Rachel did forgive Connor and they are back to being best friends.  

You may also be wondering about our caterpillar friends.  The baby caterpillars are growing and eating.  The other one, well-- I almost threw him out for the tenth time!  Online it said that they stay in their cocoon for 7-10 days.  On the 10th day, I checked him and nothing was different.  The 11th day, still nothing so I was going to toss him but then I saw it move inside the cocoon.  Here were are well past the allotted Internet time but he is still alive in there-- whatever he is doing or why he is taking so long to do it I cannot say.  We shall see if our little friend ever decides to emerge.  For all I know, these baby caterpillars are going to beat him at metamorphosis!

Also, we finally had one of those moments.  The kind where your kid says he has a  huge  project due and you have no idea what he's talking about.  On Monday, another parent asked me a question about the project that was due on Valentine's Day.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  We were in a rush for a dentist appointment so I didn't get to ask the teacher.  I asked Connor and he said very nonchalantly, "Oh yeah, I need to turn in my Science project on Thursday."  Apparently what happened is that he was absent the day the handouts came home for that and he never brought them home because they stayed in his desk.  Tuesday, his teacher talked to me and we got the paperwork to start our project.  Thankfully, it is being turned in a little at a time and we only needed to get what our experiment would be in by Thursday.  Thanks to my Usborne 100 Science Experiments book, we picked one out quickly and got everything we needed to turn in today in on time.  Yay!

Young Love

We started working on Nicholas' Valentine cards a couple of days ago.  As we were going down the list, we came to Dakota and he stopped and looked me straight in the eye and said, "Mom, I'm SOOO in love with her!  She's my friend and we always play together."  I said that was nice and we continued.  Towards the middle of the list, we came to Hannah and that caused him to stop and look seriously at me again and he said, "Mom!  I'm SOOOO in love with her, too!  She's not my friend yet, but I'm working on it."  All I kept thinking is that we are in so much trouble if he is already a little girl crazy!
Then yesterday, Connor came home and said he needed to talk to me.  He sighed deeply and said that something happened today and all he could do to keep from crying is to keep telling himself he did the right thing.  I was very confused so I asked him what happened.  He announced that he had broken up with Rachel.  (Rachel and Connor have been best friends since First Grade, but I don't know what he means exactly by 'broke-up').  I asked him to please explain what happened.  He said that another little girl had told him that she knew the future and that if he stayed with Rachel his life would not be good.  So since that little girl had accurately predicted what he was going to do for recess, he figured she was telling the truth and he broke up with Rachel.  I told him that no one knows the future and that just because that girl was a good guesser it doesn't mean he should do what she says.  Charlie also told him that he should only listen to his heart in matters like that and not to other people because it wasn't their business and only HE knows what is right for himself.  Connor thought about all of this and decided that he hadn't done the right thing after all and he was going to apologize to Rachel and see if he could fix the situation. 
Can we just skip the teen-age years?  Please?

6 year old check-up

We went to see the Doctor last week for Nicholas' 6 year check-up.  The Doctor said that he is a very chatty and interactive boy!  He hasn't really gained much weight since his last check up, but he has gotten taller.  He is 3 feet and 11 inches tall.  He weighs 50 pounds.  He is in the 75th percentile for height.  Both Connor and Kyle are in much higher percentiles, so Nicholas may be the shortest of the 3 boys in the end.  Time will tell!  We are just glad our little boy is growing so well!

Build a Bear... Again

Connor was determined to get his own Build a Bear, so he used his allowance to do just that.  He desperately wanted a Darth Vader bear. 

 I don't know if this was her first time or what, but the woman made Connor's bear so very fat.  It was extremely difficult to get his clothing on him!  Plus she put the heart that beats in and we couldn't find it afterward.  Turns out the darn thing is in the bear's head and not his chest.

 Bath time

 

 Inputting information to create Darth Vader's birth certificate

 getting the clothes on

 

 Nicholas used his allowance to buy a small bear

 Nicholas had gotten a green bike for his birthday but he hadn't been able to use it yet due to weather or day light running out on us.  He was so excited to finally get to use it!

 We rode to the playground and Kyle played while Nicholas practiced riding his bike and Connor scootered around.

 

 

 

 

Cocoon

It appears our big caterpillar friend may have actually been preparing to cocoon himself.  Today he started moving again, only this time he seemed to be covering himself with some shiny brown stuff.  I believe most caterpillars spend 7-10 days in their cocoon before they emerge as butterflies, so I guess in 7-10 days we will see what the fate of our caterpillar friend was or is.  Our other caterpillars might be ready to move into their home by then anyway.