We’ve all been enjoying Just Dance Kids on the Wii. It’s a pretty good workout too. It was a Christmas present to the kids last month.
claire
Finally, a Sleepover
Finally, after many months of patiently asking and waiting, Claire got to host her first sleepover. Claire had spent the night at her friend Maddie’s house a while back, and now we got to return the favor. We ordered pizza and watched A Dolphin Tale. The girls stayed up little late, about 10:00 or 10:30, with Claire telling Maddie “scary stories that weren’t that scary.” Maddie is accustomed to sleeping in somewhat later than Claire. However, Claire convinced Maddie that they should get up at 7:00 am since sleeping in late amounted to “wasting precious play time”.
We set up the “sick bed” for Molly in our room to avoid messing up Claire and Maddie’s scene (and to avoid a madhouse with Molly in there). The sick bed is the portable, inflatable mattress we use when someone is vomiting, etc. and needs to stay in our room. Molly saw the bed and asked who was sick. Kit said that the mattress was the “fun bed” tonight. Molly liked it. She got to arrange the covers and pillows just so, taking a lot of care with it. She was very cozy and seemed to enjoy sleeping in our room. It took her over an hour to fall asleep, although that is normal for Molly.
The kids played the next morning until Maddie’s parents got her around noon. There were some challenges in the morning with not sharing the Wii, etc. and maybe some homesickness on Maddie’s part, but overall we just had a quiet morning. Claire’s friend Harper had suggested that Claire “order donuts” for breakfast. I asked Claire what that meant, and she said she didn’t know, but Harper usually “orders donuts” when she has a sleepover. Is there a donut delivery service I am not aware of? Anyways, I ran up to Howdy Donut and waited in line for 20 minutes to get some pretty great donuts and some really awesome sausage kolaches (one each per person).
So it was a nice, cozy sleepover with an old friend. Claire loved the idea of a sleepover and is already planning her next one. She is actually randomly inviting girls she is sort of friends with, and who have never ever been to our house to play before, for a sleepover just because their mom is there. That is how much she loves sleepovers.
Siri’s Friend
We were all watching the movie version of Charlotte’s Web when the topic of the narrator came up. I thought the narrator was Bob Newhart. Kit said it was Sam Shepard (she as right). Molly asked what we were talking about. We said it was the voice talking off screen that you can’t see. Molly said the narrator is probably Siri’s friend.
Siri actually comes up more than you would think in our daily conversations. Claire and I like to try to stump her or faze her, but she is unflappable. Claire even gets to be mean to Siri sometimes, which is probably fun since she isn’t mean to anyone else. And we can always make fun of poor Siri for lazily falling back to “I found this on the web for you.”
Claire Figures Out Santa Claus
Driving Claire to a birthday party, just the two of us, Claire brought up the topic of Santa Claus. She started out asking in a roundabout way, “So what’s the deal with Santa Claus?” I provided a non-committal answer. After a little back and forth on the topic, Claire finally asked outright: is Santa real?
So she had figured it out. Of course I gave her a straight answer to a straight question. She said, “I knew it! I knew it!” with a big smile. Then she went through all of Santa’s presents and stocking stuffers from this Christmas, one by one, to ask who thought of each one. She seemed to really enjoy this game, sort of an inside track on a big secret. She asked a few more details about who easts the cookies we leave out, etc.
When Claire was done enquiring for details, I asked her, “How did you know figure it out? Did a friend tell you? ” She said nobody told her. She just figured it out herself. She said there were little clues. What really gave it away, she said, was the “believe in Santa” movies. They gave the most glaring clues. We’re talking primarily about The Polar Express and Elf, favorites with the girls this Christmas. If you watch the movies, you’ll see what we mean.
I congratulated Claire on figuring out this fun little trick, made a point of saying this was basically the only thing we had ever mislead her about, and asked for her help to keep this fun kittle secret safe for Molly. Claire agreed with a big grin on her face.
Christmas 2013 (footage)
See the full article for more details.
Christmas Drawing and Words 2013
Claire and Molly put this together, with the help of Grammy, as a Christmas present for Kit and me. Most of the listed family attributes (laughter, kindness, loyalty, magic, generosity, and honesty) are taken from My Little Pony’s Elements of Harmony. Molly added “loving”.
Claire & Molly’s Santa List 2013
Molly decide to start a naughty & nice Christmas list for Santa Claus. Claire got into the idea. She wrote down all the items on the list and added some of her own. Molly’s list is dominated by things or people from school (naughty) and princesses (nice). Claire’s list of full of My Little Pony characters (all nice).
Claire turns 8!
Claire’s birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year. For the first time in years, we went to Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving this year, and we all stayed and celebrated Claire’s birthday down by the Bay. All four of Claire’s grandparents were there as well as (great) Uncle Bob.
As you see in the photos, Molly was crying for Claire’s official candle-blowing-out. She had been asked to vacate the seat at the head of the table to make room for Claire. Molly did not agree or consent to this plan and let us know. Later, Molly made up a brief story, possibly as a sort of apology. She said the main character was Jonny Jakes. The story was called “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!” In the brief story, Johnny Jakes messed up his big sister’s birthday party by making a scene. Everyone said, “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!” and Jonny was sorry. The end.
Presents included two nearly identical My Little Pony Rainbow Dash dolls. It was a clear and obvious choice! We later exchanged one Rainbow Dash for Pinky Pie. Claire also got a big Playmobil Santa’s workshop. Uncle Tim mailed in a painting set with dolphin scenes, thus combining the recommended topics of art and dolphins.
Claire’s 8th Birthday Party!
Claire is (almost) eight years old!
This year Claire had her birthday party with her friends at Jumpoline Park. Initially Claire had talked about having a petty zoo come to our house. Once we expressed some concern about where to put the animals, weather, and other practicalities, Claire immediately said, “That’s easy. We’ll do it at Jumpoline Park.”
And so we had her birthday at the perennially favorite spot, the largest and greatest indoor trampoline you can imagine. The kids had a great time. The girls were still young enough that they wanted us parents out there playing with them. It was myself and Cullen, the dad of Claire’s friend Maddie, who took on the important duty of “bouncing” the kids. This involved the girls laying all around a parent on the trampoline, then the parent jumping up and down as high as possible, trying to bounce the kids up as much as possible. This was tiring work, and soon sweat was dripping from my brow. The kids also liked to be chased across the trampoline, and some were quite good at taunting. I required many breaks to avoid collapsing in exhaustion.
This year, Claire knew ahead of time what some of the kids were going to give her for presents. They basically just told her at school ahead of time. The two big must-have items this year were My Little Pony stuff and a Rainbow Loom. Claire adores My Little Pony and wants to know who your favorite characters are (Rainbow Dash and Pinky Pie of course, and Apple Jack is great but under appreciated). Some of the other kids at school think My Little Pony is babyish, but Claire stands her ground. She just loves that cute little ponies. The other big item was a Rainbow Loom, a rubber-band loom that is super popular at school. Claire got to take hers to school and use it on the playground and the bus, like her friends.
McG Kids 