Democracy in Action

After their snack tonight Beatrice started plying her siblings with questions about what they should do before bed.

Beatrice:  "Raise your hand if you want to play Star Wars tonight."
Hands raise.
Beatrice: "Raise your hand if you want to play Warrior Cats tonight."
Hands raise.
Beatrice: "Raise your hand if you want to stop raising your hand."
Hands raise.
Giggles.

; )

Beatrice Turns 6

Here's a recap from Beatrice's recent Birthday. To start off the festivities, we went as a family to Rochester for Birthday Sushi and then Beatrice got her ears pierced. (So, technically, Maggie and Bee both got their ears pierced at 5 years old.)

Here's the before picture. Suave and calm. But as the equipment came out and the paperwork was signed, she got a little bit nervous. And when the two ladies crowded in on her, a gun in each hand, she tightened up all of her muscles, but it was over quickly. She said, "Ow. Ow. Ow. Owwwwwwww!!!" and then teared up. : )

Here's the after pictures. We got Coldstone Creamery ice cream to distract from the stinging ears. That and the blue lollipop worked like a charm.

Look at those red little lobes! She picked out pale purple earrings - the June birth stone, but who really cares about that at 6 years old??

Then on Bee's actual Birthday we celebrated in a traditional Valentine's Day way. Heart shaped Blueberry Pancakes. You can see here that they were hard to resist.

We held Bee's Birthday Party two days later. Grandma and Grandpa Supan came in town for the week so they were there to celebrate and we also invited our friends, the Freids to come enjoy the evening with us. We grilled hamburgers! Grilled! In the middle of February!! And no one froze to death! Awesome. Then we had presents and cake.

While I managed to take pictures of the cake, I didn't take pictures of anything else. So you'll have to take my word for it that Beatrice got exactly what she wanted for her birthday gifts and that it was a great evening.

Happy Birthday, Beatrice! Have an excellent 6th year. : )

Deep Questions with Beatrice

Beatrice pretty much talks non-stop. The only time she stops talking is when she's reeling in pain because she has just walked, run, jumped, slipped, slid or otherwise collided with something bigger and heavier than herself. All day long she's talking to herself or bruising herself.

Last night while I was making brownies she shouted from the other room, "Brownies!!? Why would the Browns talk to the Knees??!" Then of course she laughed uproariously for about five minutes.

Some things are just funnier when you're a four-and-a-half year-old hopped up on adrenaline.

Toad Games

This week is a busy week. Maggie has Art Camp in the mornings, both girls have VBS in the afternoons, and all three kids have numerous events for the Library's Summer Reading Program (most exciting of those: a ride on the local paddle boat tomorrow!!). While that means a lot of running around and gallons of gas zooming out of the minivan, it also means that for two hours in the morning Beatrice gets to be the biggest girl in the house. (And for two and a half hours in the afternoon, I get to put Obie down for a nap and be childless!! Childless!!!) Beatrice is a girl who really likes her space. She loves her brother and sister, but you can tell that she really enjoys, relishes even, the time she gets to play just by herself with her imagination. She hosts Pet Shop Tea Parties, rescues Zelda from the dungeon, joins the circus, or just gathers up every stuffed cat in the house (all nine million of them) and lines them up and has them all carry on intricate, squeeky-voiced conversations. Her imagination is boundless and those cat conversations are usually hilarious!

So yesterday she was spending her morning quality alone time outside and I didn't bother to check on her. She's safe here, she knows the rules and boundaries, and I don't worry too much. When she finally came in for a snack I asked her what she'd been doing. "Playing toad games," she said. My girls can find a toad within 2.5 seconds of going out into the yard. So I asked her, "Oh, did you find a new toad," because the one from the previous day was left out in the sun and even though we'd had a lengthy conversation that morning about how to take care of toads, where not to leave them, when to let them go, how they are our friends and good for our garden, and how it makes mommy really, really angry when they let a toad die from negligence, I didn't really trust that Beatrice had remembered all of that conversation. She said, "No, with the dead one." I said, "Ew. Go wash your hands." And I didn't think much more about it, except possibly that I needed to go find the dead toad and drop it in the mulch pile.

An hour later when we went to get Maggie from class, I popped out the door to find this waiting for me on the sidewalk:

Toad Games, indeed.

*Sigh*

Ariel

Here's Ariel all dressed up in the ballerina outfit that Beatrice got for her birthday. Isn't she lovely??

Beatrice's Fourth Birthday

Beatrice has turned four. She got really dressed up for the occasion, note the tutu and the tufted fleece hat. You know that's classic party wear!

Here she is with all of her gifts.

A new box of crayons!! Beatrice spends hours coloring each day, so she always needs new crayons. She also got some new coloring books.

And YOSHI!!

Here's her cake, just like the one she picked out off of the internet. It was Grandma's first fondant cake and it was a success!

Here's the birthday girl with her cake, pre-fire.

And here's the blowing out of the candles action shot! She has awesome technique!

Beatrice had a great birthday. We started it off with Grandma and Grandpa Supan coming in to Frontenac on Thursday. You always know the party weekend is getting underway when the Grandparents roll up the driveway. On Friday we went to a little Valentine's Day party with two fellow Home Schooling families. The kids all got and gave Valentines and also got to decorate cupcakes and sugar cookies with pink icing and lots and lots of sparkles and sprinkles. Of course, they ate a ton of sugar, but also got to play a lot of it out of their systems.

On Saturday we went to see some of the sights in Red Wing - mostly the big antique outlet in the historic RW Pottery Factory building, with a stop off at the chocolatiers and also the bakery for lunch. Then we came home for an afternoon of Super Mario on the Wii followed by Beatrice opening her gifts. She loved them all - the pegasus from Maggie; the dress and sweater, paper doll set, coloring books and play dough from Grandma and Grandpa; and the Ariel doll with matching dress-up dress for herself from Mom and Dad. And of course, YOSHI! Then we had her birthday dinner: this year Bee wanted Chicken and Dumplings, which I'd never made before and the dumplings sort of dissolved, but it still tasted pretty great. But then it was late in the evening and time for bed, so we held off on the cake and ice cream until Sunday afternoon. That was her actual birthday day, and besides, I like to stretch birthdays out as much as possible!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We sang happy birthday, ate lots of cake and the ice cream, had left over chicken and dumplings, played card games and video games. Some of us even got a nap. Oh, and the kids all got Valentines Day gifts from Grandma, too.

So now that Beatrice is Four Years Old how will life change for us? In crazy and wonderful ways, I'm sure. And, I'll be sure to let you know as it does!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day, too.

Gone, Baby, Gone

Last week I finally had to give in and take Beatrice to get her hair cut. It was way too long - in her face, in her bum, in huge tangles it was so long. Here she is post beauty salon:

Yes, the girl knows how to rock a pose, huh? And sure it looks nice and everything, but still I'm heartbroken. Some how her head of big, beautiful banana curls has turned stick straight. Just like mine.

I've wanted curly hair my whole life. Those round, bouncy ringlets just make me crazy. My hair is limp, thin, and straight as an arrow and I tried mercilessly as a kid of the '80's to get it to hold a perm, to curl with the big rollers or the hot iron, even to crimp. And it will for about as long as it takes to get from the bathroom to the hallway. I wasted a lot of time trying to make my hair hold a curl, then gave up, got married, and started having kids.

Imagine my utter joy at having my second daughter come along with exactly the hair I've envied forever. Oh, those banana curls melt my heart. I would comb it with awe, especially as it got longer and curlier. People would stop me in stores and exclaim about her beautiful hair and I would beam.

But then I noticed about a year ago that the stuff on top wasn't quite as curly. I figured her hair was just so long that it was weighing down the rest. So I took her for a trim. As the stylist took a couple of inches off the bottom we both knew that it wasn't a weight issue, her hair simply wasn't curly anymore. And still I pretended that it wasn't so. I almost tried to will those curls to grow back in. And I also refused to cut Bee's hair just incase those were the last of the ringlets. I still loved them and wanted her to be my curly-headed daughter. But the thing about hair is even if you don't want to, you simply have to cut it eventually.

So, with angst and a heavy heart I took her back to the stylist a year later. And now the curls are all gone. Just straight hair. But at least it's thick. Maybe she'll have more luck with the curling iron than I ever did. Besides, I suppose it's really not fair to Maggie if Beatrice gets all of the luxurious curl. Now they're on even hair terms. Always a good thing for sisters.

Here's a tribute to Little Bee's Beautiful Curly Tresses. I miss them so.

Beatrice Loves Gymnastics

My girls are enrolled in gymnastics at the local YMCA this fall and they LOVE IT! Here's a video of Beatrice at her last lesson. My favorite part is when she jumps up on the uneven bars and flips her toes right up between her hands. Some of the other kids can barely even swing, let alone monkey around to the point that Bee does. I love to watch her. She vaults, balances, and summersaults with the dauntless abandon of a true three-year-old. I'd take her to gymnastics every single day if they offered it! (I might just have a little vision of Olympic Gold floating around in the back of my head, too!!)

Up next, Maggie!!

What Happened to the Produce??

When I went to the refrigerator to get the nice fresh strawberries to make Father's Day Strawberry Shortcake I found something suspicious:

Someone had nibbled off all of the ends! Little Bee had been sneaking in the fridge all day long to take bites. She's a fruit-aholic!!

Conversations with Beatrice

We went to the awesome park in Red Wing today. While we were sitting in the shade having lunch a woman walked by with a little girl and a baby boy. Beatrice asked me what the boy's name was. I said, "I don't know."

"Hmm," said Bee, "Maybe it's Robert. Or Obie."

"Maybe," I said, "but I doubt it." I though that was it because Bee just sat there munching her potato chip. Then she said, "Well, maybe it's Jim."

Jim??? I just started laughing at her.

And then a few minutes later she piped up again, out of the blue and asked me, "Why did that Lady put Dr. Who in the pit?" Why indeed. Where did that come from???

I Couldn't Resist!!

Beatrice, in Reference to Her PopTart Breakfast

"Well, I guess it will get messy on my cheeks!!"

-declared with utter joy and satisfaction.