There’s A Ghost In Our House #iPPP
Well, I’ve come to the conclusion there must be a ghost in our house. (I don’t mean the ghost cat. We know she’s here.) Why do I think we have a ghost? Because things keep happening that can’t be explained.
- There’s often no toilet paper in the bathroom.
- There’s always pee in the unflushed toilet.
- There are dirty dishes left on the kitchen table.
- The dog food bowl was filled to overflowing.
Now you may think I’m crazy for thinking a ghost did any of these things because clearly my daughters are the culprits. But I asked them. And this will be shocking, so get ready. They didn’t do it. Any of it. They each claim the other was responsible, but if they both deny it, then what other possibility is there? A ghost.
I think this boy probably knows.
He looks a little like he sees the ghost, doesn’t he?
Note: Reagan is doing a little bit better about some of these things since we made her new kid checklists. Two days in, she’s done everything she was supposed to each day.
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Tea (With Homey)
Jenny was having fun actually hanging out with us last night. Especially after her bedtime when she was feeling all giggly. I took this picture – or really she took this picture with my phone – when she was hanging out in our bed beside me:
Doesn’t she look happy? She followed that up with a note she brought into our room while I was trying to sleep. I read it with my flashlight app on my phone:
She was so proud of her efforts with her cursive handwriting. And all I could think about was her n’s that clearly look like m’s so she repeatedly referred to “tea (with homey)” instead of honey. I laughed and tried to go to sleep. She came back a few minutes later to let me know that she was expecting a response (and I was just thinking about blogging that note). So I wrote one:
She didn’t even notice that I called her homey. And she wrote back one last time for the night:
I’m pretty sure that last word is promise. So I guess she’ll be having some tea tonight. If she remembers. One of the most amusing things about this whole exchange is that she’s never even liked tea in the past.
Happy Friday!
Life With Just One Kid #iPPP
Guess what? It’s spring break. What does that mean at our house? It means we’re having a party while our girls are gone to their grandparents’ house in Hilton Head. Brinky was a little sad when they left without him, but he quickly settled into life where all attention is focused on him.
He can play on their bed. The nice clean bed because their daddy was so nice he cleaned their disaster of a room. He can watch his own shows on TV. Well, that’s not really different because he already did that. He can have his mommy all to himself.
Lee and I are having lots of fun after Brinky goes to bed, looking at silly things on the internet, doing tons of quizzes on Sporcle, and looking at bad movie choices on Netflix and not watching any of them. And sleeping in until 6:00 since we don’t have the middle school schedule to deal with. Maybe that doesn’t sound exciting to you, but it’s just right for us.
We do of course miss the girls (mostly) and talk to them every day. Jenny’s sent me a couple text updates including a video of the clothes she got when they went shopping today and a picture of her sister (I requested) because it’s been 6 months since Reagan got her ears pierced so she was officially allowed to wear what she calls hang-down earrings today.
They’re very excited to be having fun in Hilton Head. Apparently the big excitement is watching The Voice every night because they’ve never done that here in our no reality TV household.
And in case we forget where they are, Jenny left a note on the door to remind us (or Lee really since it’s addressed to him):
She really just modified the note she left up for days that said she was outside, but I still think it’s funny.
While the girls are having fun, I still haven’t felt ready to send Brinky off to Hilton Head yet. Maybe this summer. For a brief visit. He’s just not ready to be away from his mommy.
How old were your kids when you let them spend the night away from you for the first time?
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
The Elusive Jenny #iPPP
I mentioned in my Project 365 post this week that Jenny’s a hard girl to track down these days. Actually, that’s not true. She’s here, in the house, reading. But ever since she turned 11 and started middle school, she’s decided she no longer likes being photographed. This girl, who used to always be willing to pose for the camera:
Last night I decided I was going to sneak a picture of her without her noticing. I pulled out my phone, all casual like, figuring she wouldn’t even notice. This is what happened.
A very attractive Reagan photobomb. And I actually think I would have caught Jenny that time. But she was on to me.
Reagan blocked her again in what appears to be a very uncomfortable position, to me.
There’s a Jenny blur behind Reagan.
My last attempt of last night. Jenny pulled out a blanket to block the camera – and ended up covering Reagan’s head up with it.
This afternoon I was sitting at the kitchen table with Jenny after school and decided to try sneaking another picture. She was diligently working on her homework.
Victory. Sort of. She didn’t notice me taking the picture because my phone was practically under the table. But it wasn’t a good picture either. I decided to get greedy and try again when she got up to put her jacket on.
And she actively tried to block the camera. Oh well. It was a good effort. Sort of. I’ll catch her on film again one day.
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Music = Togetherness #iPPP
My girls fight more often than not these days, so I was happy to see them join together this week for something very important to them. A quest to buy new music. They’d been working on a plan of pooling their money and selecting songs they both agreed on from iTunes, and it was hard work. When Reagan got an Amazon gift card for her birthday (thanks Aunt Lisa, Uncle Dustin, and Lucas), I suggested that they use it for their music.
Side note: how awesome is it that a lot of songs are cheaper on Amazon MP3 and still import into iTunes and on to iPods? Jenny was very happy that they were able to buy three more songs because they saved money by buying from Amazon. Though she initially acted like that was the stupidest idea ever. She did actually thank me for the idea later and admitted it was a good one, which rarely happens with always-right Jenny.
Anyway, they worked hard on their list of music, working and reworking it and checking the math to be sure they had enough money for all the songs they wanted. Jenny had it all written out in her journal.
So we got to work ordering the songs. Even though on some songs we made comments like “Really? You actually like that?” we bought everything they had picked out. Up until the last year, we’ve generally only bought music for them that we like too, so it’s been a definite shift recently towards them having their own (sometimes bad) taste in music and spending a lot of time listening to music. Jenny always has her headphones in while she’s reading. And she was excited about getting up at 5:30 for school this morning so she’d have more time to listen to her new music!
Look at the two of them together working on this. They were actually being nice to each other. I love how the music brought them together. Even though there were a few songs they disagreed on and bought with their combined money anyway (Avril Lavigne’s Sk8r Boi for Reagan and stuff I’ve never heard of from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack for Jenny). Brinkley was so excited about it that he decided to get out of bed way after he should have been asleep, but much to his disappointment they weren’t even playing his favorite song, Party Rock Anthem.
(Unrelated, if you’re wondering what’s happening on the walls behind them, they were on the computer in my husband’s office and he has his notes for the book he’s working on pinned to the wall.)
A 9th Birthday
Reagan turned 9 yesterday, so I meant to do a post about her then, but we were too busy enjoying the day together. It’s fitting anyway because I swear that for the first year of her life I had trouble remembering whether she was born on the 20th or 21st because she was born so close to midnight. So I’ll finish the celebration with a post on the 21st this year!
I won’t go through her life from birth to now with some of my favorite pictures since I already did that last year (but feel free to go look at that post if you want – she sure had a lot of cute moments). But I will tell you about what this sweet girl wanted for her 9th birthday.
We’ve enjoyed (suffered through) a lot of fun and fancy birthday parties in the past. The Children’s Museum. Our local bounce house. Chuck E Cheese. Great Wolf Lodge (fun!). Funigan’s. But this year Reagan said she just wanted to spend the day with her family. She invited her best friend for a Saturday night sleepover so she’d be here the morning of her birthday, but she didn’t really have much she wanted to do. And she didn’t want a lot of gifts. She’s sweet like that.
So our day went like this. Her brother slept in so the sleepover wouldn’t have to end at 5:00 in the morning when he normally wakes everyone up. That was nice, wasn’t it? Reagan and her friend woke up and requested Reagan’s birthday breakfast – yogurt and fresh fruit.
Once we dragged her slightly surly big sister downstairs, Reagan opened her presents. She truly didn’t ask for much, so we were able to give her what she wanted:
An alarm clock, an owl lunchbox, and new owl earrings. Jenny’s a little annoyed Reagan’s going to have an alarm clock that she probably won’t hear that will just annoy Jenny, but Reagan’s excited!
Doesn’t she look happy?
After healthy breakfast and presents, we worked on birthday cake for an unhealthy second breakfast.
There’s not much tastier than Funfetti cake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Especially because it’s easy. Brinkley loved it too. Maybe a little too much.
After presents and cake, we spent the rest of the day relaxing and having fun and eating the meals of Reagan’s choice – McDonald’s for lunch and Mexican for dinner. We spent a lot of time playing Just Dance 4, even more fun after Aunt Charlotte arrived. We played a new board game. And Reagan played the keyboard her grandparents sent to entertain us for a bit in the evening.
Look how happy she was when she opened the keyboard on Friday:
She really got a kick out of playing the keyboard on the sound effects mode. And I was excited about the hilarious expressions I captured while she was playing, making us laugh so hard. I wish I’d recorded it, but we’ll save that for another day.
I’m so excited to hear the music (or something resembling music) she creates with her keyboard.
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