Child labor

There are a lot of things in this story that might cause you to wonder about parenting choices being made around here. The gist is that two kids are forced into slave labor after being tempted by a store clerk, who transfers the kids to mean parents. Before anyone calls CPS, let it be known that (a) while it's true that Kenzie has to clean toilets, she has never prepared an entire meal (nor has she ever been burned by the stove) and (b) she is the only one around here with a red dress.

Other points of clarification: Strange mark on cheek -> face painting from the magic show tonight; strange grey circulating tube -> annnoying cat.

Seedlings

Today we discovered that our newly-planted seeds are growing! The kids and I are very excited at the prospect of fresh peas, zucchini, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, pumpkins, lettuce, carrots and basil. Okay, Mason is excited about digging in the dirt, Kenzie is excited about watching them grow, and I just want to eat them. Cindy really isn't excited at all because the place I want to put the garden is currently covered by thick blackberries...and there may be some work ahead to make it veggie-friendly.

Pieces

Last night at dinner we cooked a whole chicken. This prompted many questions beginning with Kenzie's, "Mom, do they just pluck the feathers out one at a time?" Then there was the, "and they just cut him up into pieces and we eat him?" I tried to defer, realizing that I was quickly losing my appetite. But, the kids were unphased and wanted all the details of how Mr. Chicken could become Mr. Main Course.

Fast forward to story time with Mason. He and I were laying in his bed. (Oh, I should tell you that he has moved past the "whale story" phase into a "spooky story" phase.) He said, "Do you want a spooky story?" As there is only one right answer to that question, I said, "yes." The story follows.

One night a bat was in the spooky jungle. There were snakes and spiders and tigers and crocodiles. They ate the bat and cut him into little pieces. The end.

Bon voyage Grammy (and Grampy)

Grammy & Grampy are heading to Costa Rica tomorrow. They came over tonight for dinner. We watched some videos of the jungle. Mason asked them to bring him back a monkey.

Blue cake

Today from the cake the frosting got my tongue blue. My friends And I Playd! my friends nams are Mia, diggory cole.

Izzy And George

Kenzie And Mason lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve Izzy And George!

Dribble

This one makes Cindy's heart sing. (And this is also proof that I am not above bribing the kids for blog content.)

"I Love You," by MacKenzie

Kenzie presented me with this story today, perhaps just to terrify me. When I showed some alarm and inquiry, she said, "Mom, it's just a story, relax!"

Cover: "I Love You. By MacKenzie, Illustrated by MacKenzie"
Page 1: Girl proclaims the obvious, and her love: There's a Boy. "I love you, Boy."
Page 2: Girl puckers up (those are some lips), "Kiss me Boy." Boy says, "No!" (I'm liking this boy already.)
Page 3: Girl says, "please!" And boy, disappearing says, "No!" Girl is giving some sort of hand gesture, we'll assume it's a wave goodbye.

Alphabet...progress

Remember when, in November, Kenzie tried to teach Mason his alphabet? We're making progress...more letters and a tad bit more patience too.

When his sister's not "helping" he gets through all 25 letters. (This is a modified alphabet, the one that doesn't have an "N".)

Frog book

Dorothy

I have a new frend at church her name is Dorothy. Love mackenzie!

New Dos

Kenzie is growing her bangs out, so we took several inches off of the back to even it out. She thought this was a good idea until she realized that we had to actually shorten her hair to make this happen. I think it looks really cute. She's warming up to the concept. She did say that "Mason looks like a prince. Or maybe he's just my really handsome little brother."

soap Mason and MacKenzie!

We made a bar of soap.