What a fun evening we had celebrating CP’s B-day! We kept it sweet and simple. When I asked CP what kind of cake he wanted he said he wanted some “N-s and O-s”. He is learning the letters of his name.

We went to the book store the other night and CP made a B line for the adarondak. He grabbed a book and sat back and enjoyed a good book. I am tickled that he loves to read!

CP was using his “I’m so cute” voice tonight to try and get out of going to bed. I said that he had to go when Master C chimed in saying, oh your strong willed. I would have let him stay up and play.”. I turned to CP and said,”Master C has a soft spot for you.” then CP asked, “what a sof spot? Oh, His butt?”

I altered the names of course.  I thought it was the sweetest thing Ramona has ever written.  What a stark contrast to her “I Hate School” paper. 

She wrote CP this letter and placed it on his bed the night before his birthday.  I found it on his bed in the morning and read it to him.  I love that girl!

I just have to laugh.  She came to me this morning and asked if she could write a story about how stupid school is.  Of course I said, “yes.”  I’m all for writing!  If I were really hard-nosed, I would point out all of her mistakes and make her rewrite it.  Haven’t decided if I will or not.  But could be a great tool.  This is definitely a keeper! 

For your benefit, Chinnes is Chinese.  O is Oh.  Grramme is grammar.

Oh, and she apparently still needs SCHOOL:)

Got to love self-expression!

Place only one 7 oz bag of alphabet pasta into homemade chicken noodle soup instead of two.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We took a much needed break from reality last week.  We spent several nights at a house in Sunriver.  We managed to fit in quite a few activities and had a glorious time spending time together.  The kids and I went up Wed. and Daddy’O followed on Thursday.  We all came home together and stopped at Richardson’s Rock Ranch on the way home for some thunderegg digging.  What a blast.  We could have spent all day there!  It was so much fun digging up hidden treasures.  They were a dollar a pound, so we had to be careful with how many we dug.  We got out of there for under forty, so I was happy.  God is good to provide such beauty and fun for us to enjoy!

Today was one of those days that every mother hates. 

We actually started out on a fun note by stopping in at our local Krispy Cream.  We haven’t been there in about a year or so, and thought it might be a fun treat. 

Well because we were out by some other stores, I thought we should run a few errands.  We stopped in at some large box stores too. 

I’ll skip the gory details all to say by the end of the day, Ramona was not getting any sugar until Wed., playing with any friends outside until Thursday, and was already grounded from her bike until Friday.  A few other consequences were thrown in there as well, but we can’t list those  

Whew!!! What a day.  After all that I put CP to bed and told the others that they could stay up until 7:45 and then were to go to bed.  They were aloud to read for an hour and then it was lights out.  Daddy’O was already in bed and I left to go clean a few bathrooms at my folks’ house.  While I was there Ramona called –Now if you had known what kind of day she had (how utterly -we’ll just say “disrespectful” she was to me) you would not have recognized her voice–she had the sweetest, most precious little voice. 

I think God made her eye itch just so she would call me and let me hear her precious voice from afar.  There is no way I could stay upset or frustrated at a little girl with such a sweet and tender voice.

I have to laugh at my daughter’s twisted logic.  The job jar came back from a Summer sabbatical and is now getting a good workout.  Ramona is refusing to do what she is told so she can pick a job from the “job jar.”  She just laughs and says, “no.”  Yipee, I get to pick a job from the job jar.  Now, if I asked her to do a job, she would say no to that too.  Boy, I’m gonna get a lot of stuff done today.  She has already cleaned the bathroom mirror and is now dusting for ten minutes.  I’m gonna have to add more jobs to the list.  What’s going to happen when she picks one she doesn’t like?