Welcome Home

No, they did not get me a dead woodpecker. However, there were some dead flowers on the table. And about an hour's worth of homework to do with Pearl (at 9:00 at night...) and laundry in the washer and dryer...oh, and they were out partying instead of waiting anxiously at home for my arrival...welcome home, Mommy. Good thing I hurried so fast home so I could see them before bed... I must at least say, that the kitchen was clean. Pretty impressive.

Food while mom is gone

Amy left me to go to a conference for nerdy SLP's in Fresno.  So I have to care for the kids.  Instead of eating out at asian restaurants I experimented with cooking asian food.  I tried to make like rice coated steamed meatballs.  It worked.  The kids loved them.  They weren't very good in all honesty.  Beef instead of pork, brown jasmine rice instead of short sticky white rice. I didn't soak the rice overnight, etc.  But it still worked.  So next time they will be awesome.

Today we had wraps with lavash bread (cross between pita and tortilla) with tuna, cucumbers, fresh dill, cottage cheese and hummus.    Pretty good.

Last night we were waiting for mom to call us so we had a few minutes to kill.  I let the kids watch the Thailand episode of Bizarre Foods.  Sam loved it.  He thought it was so cool that they ate grasshoppers, ants, worms, sea snails, crabs, fish gut sauce, and lizards.

Selflessness in a 3yr old

Pearl suggested while we looked for treasure outside, that we might also look for gifts for mommy when she returns.

Sam added enthusiastically, "Yeah! Like a woodpecker!"  He was of course referring the 2 days dead woodpecker carcass he runs to whenever he can.  Sweet of him, isn't it?

Now I just need to figure out proper presentation of a dead woodpecker?  In a vase arranged with babies breath and pink carnations?  In a box elegantly wrapped?  Silver platter with a grape in it's beak?  Stuck on a pike?  Mounted like a deer head?  We'll figure it out.

Grandpa Hulbert

Our relationship with our Grandpa Hulbert is, shall we say, different than our relationship with Grandpa Weir. He likes to growl and tease, and get Pearl to run from him screaming (which she most obligingly does most often)

Grandpa and Sam's latest game is shooting each other with their Buzz Lightyear lazers. You can just imagine how that one goes. Sam has the face to match down pat!

Sam wins this battle, which doesn't bother Grandpa too much because he can't reach much past his knee. Pearl is running in terror, as is typical with these encounters.

What you doing, Grandpa? Shooting things. I mean, does a grandpa for a little boy get much cooler than that?

Grandpa does do sweet things, like he's always the one to get the kids bandaids, he lets Sam bring him book after book to his armchair on Sundays, and he will always take the kids for a walk before dinner when they just need to get out. However, I'm sure he'll be embarassed at any mention of niceness, so maybe we'll just leave it at the growling...

It's nice to have one nice grandpa (grandpa Weir) and one scary grandpa (grandpa Hulbert). All in all, I'm pretty sure my kids have no lack of love and attention.

Tadpole

Grandma Hulbert scooped some tadpoles out of her pond for Sam and Pearl to see. Sam was utterly fascinated. I'm not sure how much he understood, though. First, he told me they were "sea creatures." Then he asked me if we were having tad-a-poles for dinner.

Sam instructing me:
"say pole. Good say tad. tad-A-pole" Um, can we tell he has a speech therapist for a mother?

High School Musical 2!!!!

So, Pearl's Uncle Paul got us some tickets to see a local production of High School Musical 2. Pearl and I decided to invite our friends Tami and Makayla and made a girls night of it (on a school night, too, you can imagine the giggles about how they were going to be so hard to drag out of bed in the morning...) We went to Olive Garden, where Pearl was so impressed because they had cloth napkins:)

The play was a great production, the girls were dancing in their seats. We did have a bit of a breakdown in the car on the way home Pearl in tears, (well, it was 9:15), Mom, Makayla says she is going to tell Mrs. Dyer what we did tonight, but I want to!! Ok, Pearl, calm down, why don't you each think of a favorite part to tell her? But I don't know what my favorite part is!!! (Makayla inserts, Pearl, you have to tell your part because we can't both have the same part) Finally I get it out of her. "I liked it when they told Sharpay to break a leg. It was funny, they didn't really mean get a saw or something and cut off your leg, they meant good luck!" "This is how she would have to walk if they really broke her leg...that would be so silly!" Can we tell it was past her bedtime!

It is really fun to have a daughter who is starting to be old enough to do this kind of thing with:)

favorite easter day pics of the HUTCHISON family

Ok, the consensus in our family is that Jack is the most photogenic child ever...I think these pictures prove it. I so enjoy getting great pictures of my sister's families with my cool camera!