legos legos legos

some more party prep...

what will become a plate caddy:

tada!

another angle:

utensil caddy all filled:

take me out to the ball game

caroline's class went on a field trip to see a minor league baseball game today (go blue rocks!) the stadium is right across the street from my office slash her daycare. she's been excited about this trip for weeks.

i asked her what her favorite part was. she said, "when the moose, the hotdog, and the potato got in a fight."

i'm assuming it was some sort of silly mascot race (rocky the moose is the mascot.) i get the hot dog, but i am not sure what's up with the potato.

scammer

Q has a new strategy to avoid cleaning up his toys. when he's done playing with one thing, say angry birds, he'll ask caroline to play with him. he then immediately abandons her once she starts playing. since she's now playing with said angry birds and he is not, he can't put them away. thus the burden of cleaning them up has transferred to her and he is free to move on to something else. he fancies himself brilliant.

fast friends

we went to a picnic today with jeremy's work peeps. Q bonded with the 8-year old daughter of one of them immediately. we walked in the door and it was like, "hey, you're about my age. let's play!" they were inseparable the whole time, playing games, riding bikes, and taunting the little kids. Q already wants to know when he will see her again.

not bad for a kid we thought had social skill issues a year ago!

tool time

we hit another "build and grow" clinic at lowes today.  this time, the kids (and by kids, of course, i really mean jeremy and i) made RC from toy story.

i caaaaaaaaaaaan't

with age 4, caroline seems to have achieved a whole new level of whiny. like she's gotten her bachelor's in whining, her master's in tantrums, and her phd in melodrama.

"can't" has entered her vocab in a big way. so big that it requires a boatload of extra a's.

"i caaaaaaaaaaaaaan't"

caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan't is also accompanied by some surprisingly realistic fake crying. it would be ok if this were in response to challenging activities, like if she were trying to do something only grown ups can do. but it's not. its all stuff she can totally do. she just doesn't wanna. this week she caaaaaaaaaan't:

-walk

-drink orange juice

-wash her hands

-pick up toys and books

-put her shoes on

and my personal favorite... "i caaaaaaan't stop whining."

lego city

finally recovered enough from wonderland to start working on Q's party. the lego party is a lot easier than wonderland, but just as fun.

so far we have a #6 sign to hang up:

and a utensil caddy for all the plastic ware:

fauxhawk!

quentin declared he wanted a mohawk. we didn't really take him seriously but he persisted. so we took him to get one  tonight. we decided to go faux to start (and the hairdresser went a little more faux than he wanted.) but whatever, it seems to be growing on him. he is also very excited about the hair goo he gets to use.

john bear

Q made a build-a-bear-esque bear at school today. his name is john, and Q is very excited that today is his birthday. he wanted to have a party for him. so cute.

already

the first halloween costume catalog arrived so the conversations have already begun. 

caroline said witch, then a different witch, then a southern belle, a peacock, and now a wermaid.

Q has stayed consistent - he wants to be molverine.

(i think they need to switch starting letters...)

wonder how long these selections will hold? probably right until i buy the costumes.

150 days!

 150 days til we're back at disney world!

framed

the poster of monster jam trucks Q drew and had autographed is now framed. now... where to hang it???

the negotiator

for his birthday, quentin wants a multi-tiered cake that is a building. it should have a lego guy on top who needs to be rescued by firefighters down below. i asked him if the cake was on fire and that's why the guy needs to be rescued. he said, "no, there's a bad man trying to kill him." my son wants a hostage situation cake.

uno savant

Q has been playing uno at school and pestering us to play here. we figured he played by some dumbed down set of rules. but he is freakishly good. he knows all the rules and is quite strategic.  there's a whole lot of uno going on in here now.

baby fever

Q: i really want a baby

me: like a baby brother?

Q: yeah!

me: you'd have to talk to daddy about that. what about a puppy instead?

Q: i have a good idea: we can have a baby and a puppy!

fashion conscious

with school out for the summer, Q is not bound by the district uniform policy. he can wear regular clothes to daycare. he  insists on picking out his own shirt each day, to ensure it's "cool enough", because you know jake and the neverland pirates shirts are for babies, mom.

peacock!

pepperpalooza begins

first real harvest of the year... a mini eggplant, 2 cherry tomatoes, a jalapeño, and the first 7 serrano peppers!

she just doesn't quit

according to caroline, the ice that chick-fil-a puts in their drinks is harvested from mount maylacana. it's foggy there but sunny on the roads. and people don't go there because they are too busy with their work. 

and now you know.

fantastic plastic

pickle and i had dinner at chick-fil-a tonight because we had to go straight from work/school to dance camp and i hadn't planned ahead and packed dinner.

as we sat down to eat, she loudly proclaimed, "we don't have any real money so we had to pay with a credit card!"

figuring that she wouldn't understand the concept of transacting for rewards earn, i resisted the urge to justify it.  the other peeps eating at the cow thought it was hysterical.

imaginary friend of a friend

caroline's imaginary friend browna has a friend (also imaginary) whose name is layla echinacea.

pizza planet!

the kids did a "build and grow" clinic at lowe's yesterday... the toy story pizza planet truck!

amish monster trucks

because we haven't seen enough monster trucks recently, we headed to lancaster county to see mommy's favorite monster truck, avenger.  plus we've never seen this part of our state.  we did see our first amish horse and buggies on the road.  Q was in shock.  otherwise, it was a classic small venue monster truck show.  not really all that exciting to anyone but the kids :)  and the people who live out there in the middle of nowhere.

entrepreneur

at first i was a little confused about how excited Q was about the patio furniture section at BJ's.  he literally ran to it.  and then it all made sense... he's realized that money falls out of people's pockets when they test out the chairs.  he made $0.08 today and was VERY proud.

mini eggplants!

eggplants a plenty

details

we need to work with Q on paying attention to details.

he watched two movies at daycare today.  i asked what they were.  he didn't know.  so i asked questions about them to see if i could figure out what they were.  we established:

• he'd never seen them before
• one was animated
• one was "people" (i.e. not animated)
• one had a snail that said, "daaaaaaaaaah"

that totally helps.

then he got to watch another movie at caroline's daycare tonight because it was parent's night out.  this time he told us:

• it was not animated
• it was not people
• it was aliens
• and earth
• and outer space

this one was easy enough to decipher (because the school sent out an email listing the movies the kids would be choosing from (it was "escape from planet earth"; no way i'd have figured that one out otherwise.)

the 6th beatle?

i think caroline is 50 years too late to the psychedelic rock scene.  she wrote and sang this song in the car this morning:

minnie goes,
and mickey stops.
the wind is blowin'
papaya. papaya. papayaaaaaaaaaaaah.

that's entertainment.
beet a bite a beet a bite
i am the normal one.
my middle name is broccoli. 

pickle pics