European Moment

The other day we went to a large Plaza called the Alameda to have lunch. It works well for us because there is pizza by the slice for those who like pizza and there are Chicken and Falafel wraps at the local Middle Eastern place for the rest of us. We got our food and sat on some benches to eat. The kids finished up and ran off to play soccer in the plaza. They used the Hercules statues as goal posts. I sat there in the warm sun watching the kids play and the dogs run around (a leash is rarely used here) and the people stroll by in their fashionable clothes. Then some music started up over at a local restaurant where people were eating outside. It was accordian music and another accordian like instrument that you blow into and play a keyboard on. They played some beautiful music that sounded French, I know I have heard it before, but don't know the name. It was one of those moments when the stars are aligned and you hope you never forget. It brought a smile to my face and made me fall more in love with Sevilla. I wonder what those stylish Europeans were thinking as they looked on at my fancy brood playing soccer....Alex in his crazy camo swimsuit and rash guard and Addy in an outfit of her own creation including the sash from Cassy's bathrobe, her shin guards (for fashion, not because we were playing soccer) and her Polly Pocket stashed in her sash. They definitely have their own fashion flair.

Futbol, Volleyball, and Flamenco

The kids are signed up for some extracurricular activities at a school that is just down the block from us. As you walk down the streets here you see lots of big wooden doors and wonder what lies behind them. Every now and then you get a glimpse. It can be any number of things; an apartment building, a church, a museum, a music academy, a school, a department store. You have no idea based on the look outside. This school looks just like any other door, but opens up into a huge stone courtyard with two levels (outdoor) surrounded by all the classrooms. Many of the private and semi private schools around here are convents or monastaries that have been converted to schools. As a matter of fact, the school we thought might have an opening for Cassy was called "Las Eslavas" as in "The Slaves". Our Spanish friend, Ivan, assured me that it is actually a very forward thinking school and not to worry, it was just called Las Eslavas because it used to be a convent called Slaves of the Lord.

Anyway, our first day of activities was yesterday. Luckily, all the kids have activities at the same school, on the same days, and between 4-6pm...I wish that could happen at home! We went yesterday and everyone was a little apprehensive. Cassy is signed up for volleyball (which is not her first love). Apparently girls do not play soccer in Spain, so for her age group there is not a girls soccer league. She was so nervous and when the girls showed up all together with their matching outfits to practice I could see her panic, but she was very brave and joined right in. The coach was really nice, although he did not speak English and the girls were very accepting and wanted to know all about Cassidy, especially if she was a Justin Beiber fan...to which she was very P.C. and just smiled and said, "Do you?"

Alex was really nervous because he does not speak much Spanish at all, but he started playing and pretty soon there was a group of boys gathered around him all saying "Alex! Alex!" and trying to speak to him in English (the two or three words that they know). They were so cute and kept saying, "Good job Alex!"

At home, I have resisted putting Addy in the shake your booty dance classes. We have kept with the 'pretend you are a raindrop and hop across the floor' type of dancing. Well, call it Flamenco and a Spanish cultural experience, and bring on the booty dancing. I have never seen anything like it, it was so cute. Next time I will be ready with video and camera in hand. I really don't know much about Flamenco and haven't seen any performances yet, so I didn't know what we were getting into. Addy loved it and she was the best booty shaker out there in her pink tutu skirt with her brown boots.

Connor is also signed up for futbol, but his coach couldn't be there, so they just played a scrimmage with their team. He played goalie and decided that he is good at goalie. Cassy asked if she could play and the boys were very impressed that a girl had such soccer moves. They kept giving her a thumbs up, "You good!" Connor was happy to have his sister playing too. They play on a stone courtyard, rather than a grass field and the kids do not wear shin guards. The boys had them on and the nuns kept walking by and pointing and giggling and exclaiming something exciting about the shin guards.

Everyone had a good experience and they are excited to make some new friends. Hopefully they will become a little more familiar with the language this way too. And best of all....mom gets a break!

Late

Poor Addy Booza! She was on her way to school a couple of days ago and she totally wiped out. In her own words, "I was running, cause my brothers told me to run because we were going to be late. The cement wasn't quite in and I tripped on it, and I fell on my face. And I chipped the back of my tooth, and I had swollen lips, and I hurt my knee and my nose. It was by Sister Keller's house, across the street. And she gave me a bandaid on my knee. She was a nurse, but she is retired. And she gave me a drink of water. And my mom came to get me. She took me to Great Harvest for a cinnamon roll. And then we went home to snuggle. And then I went to class at lunch time." It was quite traumatic and she has some serious nose road rash.

Highlights

Back to school, Primary programs, Lotoja (which we rocked), birthday lunches and dinners, soccer, dance, piano, Labor Day camping in the Uintah's, Sheepdog Races, Fishing at Lily Lake, S'mores, and dutch oven dinners, Count of Monte Cristo and books about Monet and Matisse, Anna Kerenina and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close all being read at the same time! Man oh man have we been busy. I am hoping to just catch my breath and get organized and into a little routine. One of my favorite highlights from the week....Addy has started reading these little books that they send home from school to get you started on the path to fluent reading. They are very simple and they have little comprehension questions to ask your child as they read to you. We were reading about Sam the Lion and Mat the Mouse. I See Sam. I am Sam. The Sam hops into bed and goes to sleep. Poor Mat the Mouse is jumping on Sam, trying to wake him up. At the bottom of the page it asks,"How would you wake Sam up?" Addy looks at me as serious as could be and says with that little lisp of hers,"I'd poke him in the nuts!" Not the answer I was anticipating....

I love that little Booza. She is feisty as all get out and you can tell she has older brothers!

Back to School

Having everyone go back to school this year has been bittersweet for me. I am excited to hear the sound of silence on occasion and to have the house stay clean for more than five minutes. I am really excited to have some of the bickering stop (at least until 4pm). But this year it will be extra quiet because Addy is starting Kindergarten! She has been so excited to go to school this week. I am so excited for her. I think she is so ready to be at school learning and interacting with school friends. I will miss my little buddy though. It is easy having one child home with me, especially because Addy is so eager to do the things that I am doing throughout the day. She loves to cook and garden and read together, and she also likes to do things on her own like coloring and crafts, playing with her hodge podge mixture of Littlest Pet Shops, dolls, princesses, legos, and whatever else is on hand. As a side note....the other day she handed me a pink play dough ball with lots of glittery beads and some little tube beads stuck in it. I asked her if it was a porcupine and she said it was actually a bomb and when it goes off all of the pokey things will fly all over and get you (obviously she has been spending a lot of time with her brothers). So anyway, it has always been fun to have her around, and she is such a momma's girl that she doesn't ever get too far away. We have been working to get her to at least go to bed in her own bed with Cassidy this summer, with the contingency that if she has a nightmare that she will hop in bed with us. So about 95% of the time she would sneak down to snuggle with us in the middle of the night. Now that school has started, she is so tired that she has even been sleeping in her own bed most nights and we have to wake her up to go to school. There are so many joys of having school age children. It is nice to have some time to myself so that I can get some things done and maybe be able to do some of the extras that I have been wanting to do , but just haven't had the time for. It is easier to go places when everyone can just go hop in the car (for the most part). And it is much easier to go out to dinner! I think it is just kind of hard to say goodbye to babyhood and to realize that we are past that phase in our lives. Especially hard because I just LOVE babies! I like the quote, "Some days can seem like forever, but the years go by in a flash" or something like that. It is so true. Some days with little kids, when you can't even use the restroom without little fingers poking under the door and someone begging to come in, just seem to go on forever and you feel like you are in survival mode. But looking back, it seems it went by in a flash. It is kind of hard and scary to have your kids out in the world and see how influenced they are by their environment. Cassidy's attitude always shifts a little when she is in school and she gets more intense (which is not fun for any of us:) The boys always moan and complain as we try to get back into the school routine of homework, chores and piano. And most of all I do miss having them all around and running for to our next adventure!

Here's a recap of the first week:

Cassy was given an extra two weeks to complete an assignment that was due the first week (that she was cramming to get done) and i think she will still be cramming to get it done by Wednesday. She is in Publications this year and loves it. She is excited to take Spanish, but doesn't love her teacher. She has one teacher that reminds her of the annoying lady who takes Dumbledore's position at Hogwarts in Harry Potter. And she has soccer everyday after school and just found out she made the varsity team, which she is very excited about! She is also working on a very hard piano piece called "Be Still My Soul" that she is going to play with Gabby and Isabella on the violin. Of course her friends play a major role in her life..

Connor has Mrs. Costley for fifth grade and loves being in her class. It doesn't hurt that his best friend, Ford, is in the class with him. They sent home a questionnaire that he had filled out and almost every answer was "Ford". "What was the best advice you have ever been given?" answer "Ford". He must have thought it said "Who gave you the best advice?" When I asked him about it, he got a big smile on his face and said,"I should have put your name down, but I wanted her to know that Ford is my best friend so that she will let us sit by each other." We will see how that works out. Connor wakes up early to read his Star Wars Boba Fat (is that how you even spell it?) or to play Lego's with Alex. He hates piano, but after grumbling he sticks with it and has even found two songs he likes to play..."Ode to Joy" and "When the Saints Come Marching In."

Alex told Grandpa Cola on the phone the other day that he doesn't like school. He has Mrs. Stettler this year and has already been working on memorizing his poems. He does like to drag his feet when it comes to homework, making a 10 minute assignment go on for 2 hours. We are working on different strategies to overcome this. Alex loves hanging out with friends. Sam and Danik are two of his friends he really likes to be with, but most of all he likes to hang out with Connor. They are both Lego masters and Alex just got his Lego magazine this morning and put it in his bag to take to school. He is doing so well with his reading and is attempting to read the first Harry Potter book (with a few picture books thrown in for fun). He is a sweetheart and very protective of his little sister....when he isn't terrorizing her.

Addy is loving Kindergarten, although I think it wears her out a little bit. She has started back to Virginia Tanner dance and loves it. She gets to go with her friend Matisse this year. We had to fill out lots of paperwork before starting school. One of the questions asked what name you would prefer to go by. I asked her if she wanted to be called Addyson, Addy, or Addy Jane. She replied, "How bout I be called Diamond?" We asked her if she had any friends at school. She said she has three. Elise and two others that she doesn't remember their names. This morning when she was getting dressed she did let me know that one of her boy friends had told her she looked pretty in her dress yesterday. She is a very girly girl and loves wearing dresses. She can't stand short sleeves, so she usually wears tank dresses or long sleeves. She is a girl who knows what she wants.

Parenting Dilemmas...

The morning started out with Alex acting absolutely crazy about anything and everything. It seems that is has been a crescendo in behavior over the last week. We were trying to get everything together so the kids could go over to mom's and then go with her to Cherry Hill with Treyden, Trevan, and Kiara. Matt and I were taking Addy to a urology appointment at PCMC at noon. They were going to be doing the nuclear testing to see if she still has ureteral reflux in her left kidney. Of course I also had tennis lessons at 7 and Cassy had to go to registration at Mount Ogden before we went. Anyway, Alex was having a million tantrums about everything and anything. I finally gave the ultimatum....get in control or you are not going to Grandma's. Another tantrum.... YUCK! I hate following through and trying to shape my kids into better people! It is so hard sometimes! So we hopped in the car and then we had to take Kennedy to Mike's house and then drop the kids off at my mom's. Cassy called to see if friends could go to Cherry Hill or if they could babysit Alex. Sammy could babysit. Dropped kids off at Mom's, Alex furious and trying to hit my head, Addy is sad too because she would rather go to Grandma's than the doctor. We pick up Sammy, head home, drop them off, then head for Salt Lake. Speeding, now with all the drama we are going to be late. Ten minutes late, no problem, Matt still not there, but he is close. Addy sits at the desk in the waiting room and colors pictures. Makes me think of her going to kindergarten, she is getting so big! Matt gets there and they call us back. Addy was SUCH a trooper (a little less dramatic than her older sister when she had the test). Unfortunately, she still has the reflux. We will test again in 3 years, hopefully she will outgrow it by then. Head to McDonald's (for being such a trooper) and then meet up with everyone at Cherry Hill. I dropped Addy off and took Cassy home with me to get Alex (I am hoping he has learned his lesson and that by missing out on Grandma's and most of Cherry Hill, & by paying the babysitter $20 of his own hard earned money he will still grasp the lesson even if I take him to Cherry Hill for an hour.) On the way home someone runs into the back of my car... Call the police and wait, then head back home, grab Alex and head back to Cherry Hill. What an exhausting day! The day was redeemed when I won my first singles tennis match that night.

The next morning Alex and Addy both started throwing up, so that was probably what was behind the bad behavior. Who knows?

Addy is trying to get me to go help Connor (who is having some Lego dilemma) and she just said to me, "Do you want him to be tough like a missionary or a total scrag?" Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

MMMMOOOMMMAAAAA!!!!

This is how Addy usually starts her day. Most nights she starts asking "can I sleep with you?" Some nights we give in, some nights she has to sleep in her own bed. When she sleeps in her own bed with Cassy she always has a contingency plan, "what if I have a nightmare?" Some nights she tries to claim she has had a nightmare before she even goes to sleep.... By morning she is usually snuggling with us in our bed and the first thing she does when she wakes up is call my name and then she rolls up in her sheets and tries to pretend she is still asleep. I love my little Booza, and secretly Matt and I both miss her when she isn't snuggling with us.

p.s. The other day Cassy's friend Miranda was saying how amazed she was with Addy when Addy was a baby and how well she could speak at such a young age. "Remember how when she was a baby she could say encyclopedia?" This brought back a flood of memories! I wish I could remember things better, but I just don't have the gift of a great memory. I so regret that I have not been a consistant blogger or journal keeper while my kids were really little. I did bits and spurts here and there, but it seems like we are always so busy living life and doing fun things that I haven't documented it all like I wish I would have looking back. I have taken TONS of photos and I hope they tell the story of our life together, but it is the little things like Cassy teaching Addy to say "encyclopedia" when she was 9 months old that remind me of the sweet tenderness of the everyday.

June Birthday Party

Aaaahhhhh! The birthday party season is almost over. I love to have fun birthday parties, but at the same time it is a lot of work! Tonight we had the extended Howard family and my mom and Wayne over for a celebration. Connor turned 10 (which he informs me means he is now officially a tween) and Addy turned 5 today. We had some yummy brownie pizzas (peanut butter, chocolate with pretzel m&m's, and mint) with homemade vanilla ice cream. It was all yummy and we even made some ice cream in the roll around ball...which is fun for the kids for about 5 minutes and then the adults get to take on the task for the next 20 minutes. The kids had lots of fun kicking around the soccer ball and flying some styrofoam planes that the Gloeckner's gave Connor. The older girls snuck off to Cassy's room, but we tempted them back with a game of table topics, a little conversation game in which you each get to answer different questions. We ended with everyone answering what your ultimate birthday dinner would be. Some of the answers: Ralph-wild salmon, baked beans and real key lime pie; Connor-top ramen, bread pudding; Alex-cereal; Cassy-bruschetta, brie, margaritas (non alcoholic of course); Grandma Bennion-roast beef dinner (which we then all agreed is the best, especially if your grandma makes it for you :)

Crepe Paper Flowers, Hullabaloo, Paper Doll Crafts, & Chocolate...all at the same time!

One of the things I enjoy most is watching to see what Addy will do during the day to entertain herself. Sometimes I think I should have put her in preschool, but she is always busy and I get to be with her everyday and I wouldn't miss that for the world! In the last 10 minutes she has been making paper doll crafts, which morphed into making me crepe paper flowers on pipe stems, playing Hullabaloo (and doing the winners dance every time), and eating her chocolate Easter bunny. Of course there were a few hugs and kisses thrown in too. I am so glad I get to be home with Addy and share this fun time with her!

Here is a look at our day so far:
Family Scripture study
Spanish Lesson
Breakfast
Morning Chores
Kids off to school
Get ready
Play Group (as we were leaving, Addy said she wanted a play date...never enough time with friends :)
Lunch at play group
Coupon clipping
Addy computer time (while mom makes a few phone calls)
and now the crafting, dancing, and chocolate eating....
the older kids will be home in a few minutes then we will go to....
Alex baseball
Connor Orthodontist
Alex soccer
Addy soccer game (taking Alex and his friend Sam)
Cassy Futsol (at the same time as the soccer game:)
Bookclub for me (YAY!)
and somewhere in there we need to practice piano, read 30 minutes each, do homework, & eat dinner, prepare sharing time lesson, etc.

When people ask what I have been up to lately, nothing ever comes to mind....clearly it is because I have lost my mind with all of this running around!

Hell, Great Scot!, & A Monkey's Uncle...

I am going to try to get this blog going again! I want to remember every precious thing that my kids do and I have such a bad memory that I need to get it recorded or it will be gone forever....

Addy was helping me fix dinner the other night and as we were about to get started she looked at me and said,"Mom, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE FIXING FOR DINNER?"

"What did you say?"

"What the hell are we fixing for dinner?"

"Addy, that is a swear word."

"Oh..."

A couple of days later she was calling me from upstairs and I didn't respond as quickly as she wanted so she stomped down the stairs...

"Why the hell won't you answer me?"

"I didn't hear you, you just swore again."

"OH...Sorry"

About half an hour later she came in with a question.

"Mom, can I ask you if something is a swear word?"

"Sure."

"What about 'Great Scot!'"

I assured her she was safe with that one. A few minutes later....

"What about 'A Monkey's Uncle'?"

I let her know that one was OK too. A week or two later...

"What about 'Hail to the Princess Aurora'?"

TOO FUNNY!

Princess Addy Boo

Addy is such a girly girl!  She is so much fun.  She loves to dress up in her princess costumes and have tea ("appy juice")  from her special rose tea cup that Grandma Bennion gave me.  I am always finding my make up all over the house because she is always getting into it and running around and putting make-up on everyone.   She loves to be called a princess when she dresses up, but if you call her a princess when she is in her normal clothes she lets you know that she is not a princess, she is Addy Jane Howard (with hands on hips for extra emphasis).  If you cross her, you'll hear, "NOT BEST BUDDIES" or "MMOOMM!  ALEX CHEATED!"  Too much fun!