here fishy fishy fishy

my children will not eat cheeseburgers.  or grilled cheese sandwiches.  or or anything with sauce.

but they love fish.

not fish sticks.  actual fish.

we had baked tilapia for dinner.  they love it.  they even season it with salt and pepper.

Q had two filets himself.

weirdos.

compromise

after dinner and homework were done i told the kids they could watch one show before tubby time.

quentin wanted to watch monster trucks.

caroline wanted to watch phineas and ferb.

we were at an impasse.

until the kiddos worked out a compromise all on their own...

they would watch the monster truck episode of phineas and ferb.

brilliant.

and then it dries

the girl with no curl

this is how long pickle's hair is when straight

daddy's work is so fun

last one done is a rotten egg

oh rotten egg, how i love you.  you motivate my otherwise pokey offspring to pick up the pace.  and unlike a race where one kid would win and gloat while the other kid has a mental breakdown, i can always position myself as the rotten egg.  speed without tears.  delicious.

our latest project

growth chart!

9 years...

and we celebrated by eating take-out indian food and watching ncis. god we're old.

i guess my kids are cats

by the way...

browna has a pet elephant named cheesy

spring school photo

my fave school photo yet :)

ready for launch

in honor of earth day, pickle's daycare is having a contest amongst all the classes. each class has to make something out of recycled junk. caroline's class made this awesome rocket ship out of old car seat boxes. inside it's equipped with a control panel made from various plastic bottles and caps. the entire frog room is pretty certain they are going to win.

video star

at dance class today the teacher videoed the class doing their recital routine. then they got to watch themselves on TV. this quite possibly may have been the highlight of caroline's week.

koala hop

tonight Q's school had a family dance... the koala hop. he was so excited about it. he even willingly wore a dress shirt.

he was so excited to see his teachers and friends there. he danced gangnam style with a gaggle of girls. pickle was happy because the DJ played "call me maybe".

love you and miss you, bailey

happy birthday beagley beagley boy

flashback

2 years ago at auntie becky's wedding

they grow up so fast

one minute they're in kindergarten and then you blink and they're in middle school...

no really.

our kindergarten center was evacuated as a precaution due to an issue with the boiler, so they took all the kids across the street to middle school for about an hour while they ensured the building was safe.

Q was very proud of this.

if only...

caroline and browna were playing in the yard tonight. browna was pretending to be caroline's daughter. and i was browna's teacher, vanessa.

caroline drove the cozy coupe over to me to drop browna off at school. then she hopped back into the coupe, drove 6 feet away, and said, "now i am at my work."

(i guess she doesn't think highly of what i do all day because...)

she hopped out of the cozy coupe and sang a couple of verses of, "i'm doing lots of work" to the tune of the farmer in the dell, while shaking her booty. then she said, "ok i'm all done work now!" and came back to school to pick up browna.

looks just like on the box...

cheerleader

bunhead

getting ready for dance class pictures today

car party

the cars were having a party. and they were hungry. the kids amused themselves with the car party for like a full hour. weirdos.

born to perform

caroline's daycare is in the same building as my office.  most days my coworkers hustle past us as caroline and i meander at pokey-pickle-speed toward the parking garage.  sometimes they comment on her aborability, some just smile knowingly, and others (mainly those i don't know) just walk by without noticing us.

not today though...

today, caroline's class was a few minutes away from going outside just as i got there to get her.  she wanted to see her friends from the other side of the fence, so we waited in the courtyard for them to come out.  it took a lot longer than we expected and we ended up waiting there for a few minutes.  pickle got bored.  so she starting putting on an elaborate song and dance routine about the weather (totally improvised, and very loud.)

this was right at 5 pm, so pretty much my whole office got treated to the show.

so cute.

consistently proficient

we had Q's parent/teacher conference on monday.  we assumed everything was going ok, because we hadn't heard otherwise, but given how the year started we also weren't taking anything for granted.

on his report card in december, he was pretty much "not yet proficient" and "not yet consistent" across the board, except for math and a couple of the easier language arts ones.  the teacher's comments were:

"quentin is disruptive in class; lacks self confidence."

this time, it was like a whole new kid.  he did so well.  i'm still a little shocked.  he's now proficient in everything except for penmanship and identifying position/direction words (whatever the heck that means.) 

and almost all of his social skills are now consistent (save for "stays focused on task" and "works independently", forgivable seeing as how he does still have ADHD.

he's met almost every threshold he needs to meet by the end of the school year, so he'll be going to first grade!!

amazingly all this progress was made after he got expelled from the stupid daycare. hmmmm....

opening day!

Q had his first t-ball game last night.  unlike last year, he loves t-ball.  he still doesn't really get it, but at least he was paying attention and wanted to be there.  he even "played" first base.

another flavor of daffodil

Q's bulbs have done quite well

it's ok. daddy said i can do this.

busy bee

t-ball season is just getting started. despite the entirety of last season and a near epic meltdown earlier this week about going to practice, he is now totally into t-ball. he's even paying attention and participating. go bees.

and daffodils!!

imaginary friends

today caroline introduced us to her new (and very invisible) friend, browna. browna is 5 years old and has blonde hair. her full name is browna purple-a pinka. her mom's name is blacka (bit of a pattern, maybe?)

she and browna played in the backyard for a long time tonight. when it was time to come inside for dinner, pickle told me, "browna's mom says we can stay outside."

and then i overheard this:

"oh hi cutey boy. what's your name? my name is caroline and this is browna."

oh boy.

green eggs and gold

some of the school work Q came home with today...

crazy hair!

it was crazy hair day at Q's daycare today. blurry but still crazy.

OBX

when we were in VA last week, we had to head towards the outer banks to go to grave digger's house.  and since we were mostly there anyway, we went all the way to the beach.  it was baby cousin mackenzie's first time at the beach.  it was cold though.  totally normal to be wearing down jackets on the beach.

and now we have...

hyacinths!