Worth the Price of Admission

For the last year Bellla has been begging us to go to the circus again. When the chance to go for free came up through Bella's school, we jumped at the opportunity. The local Shriner's paid for the tickets. This time it was the Shriner's Circus at UD. Last year we went to the Ringling Bros. down in Cincinnati. The best part of the Shriner's Circus was that it was free and that buying 2 $4.00 snow cones and over priced nachos didn't seem so bad when our admission was free. Although the adults in the audience probably thought that this particular circus was a little on the cheezy side, to a kid it was a priceless experience.

After the first half hour, Bella wanted to join the the circus. The ironic part about it was that in 2 of the acts (trapeieze and tight rope) there was a little girl about 8 doing some of the tricks. Of all the names that she could of had, her name was Isabella. That made Bella's desire to preform all the more. After Isabella preformed for the first time, Bella started preforming in the isle. That was all she talked about the entire ride home. I am suprised she hasn't tried to put on a circus act at home. I actually had a friend in high school whose family had a local circus act. Her dad was the ring master, her mom did trapeieze acts and my friend participated too.

Crunchy at Heart

God convicts all of us in different ways. One of mine is being a good steward of the land He has entrusted to us. I started as a kid when curb side recycling came to Chicago, and my high school had white paper recycling bins in each class room. Fastforward a few years and now my conviction goes beyond recycling. I have switched to Earth friendly cleaners and I use less paper towels by using rags when I clean. I have switched to organic shampoo/conditioner, and make-up. I have a compost pile, and for the first time I am going to have an organic garden. I generally try to buy mostly organic food especially dairy. We have all engergy saving light bulbs in our house and I use reusable bags when I grocery shop. To give you an idea of how deep my conviction goes, when I am a friend's house and I see they don't recycle, I feel guilty and sick that those items will be going to the land fill. Now I love my friends and don't judge them or even try to bring them to my side, nonetheless I still feel the way I do.

Now I know that the green movement goes farther than I choose to go. I didn't go the cloth diaper route although I use cloth training pants for Xander about half of the time. I have not gone to cloth napkins; however, it wouldn't be too hard for me to make the switch. I don't think that I will go to using natural methods (baking soda) instead of deordant or other extreme methods involved in green hygiene. I am thankful that I live today and not 100 years ago for the advances in hygiene and medicine.

Bella has been learning about Earth Day at school. Yesterday we were at the mall in the bathroom (Xander has to visit every public potty he sees) and I had the girls go into one stall and I was in another with Xander. I heard Bella say to Charlotte, " Don't flush! You can go on top of mine so that we don't waste water." When you look at me you would not suspect that I have a green streak because I look like any suburban housewife.

Whiz Kid

The girls and I get home from church and Xander greets us at the door. He didn't get to go because of pink eye. I start to get lunch together while Dan took the girls upstairs to get them changed out of their dresses. The phone rings. I go over to check the caller ID to see who it was. I love caller ID. It said Ohio Cell, then I looked at the number and it was Dan's cell phone. Xander had picked up Dan's cell, slid it open to revele the number pad, managed to press 4 and the send button to call the house. Only after I saw the number on the caller ID did I notice Xander standing right next to me playing with Daddy's phone. Dan comes walking down the stairs and asks, "Who called?" "Your son on your cell phone." I replied. "Great, we have a very technical kid." Dan responds. If you have every read "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" you will understand when I joke to Dan about Xander playing with any phone saying I think he called Australia. If he hasn't already, it won't be long until he figures it out.

Cute Things Girl 2 Says

Everytime we read There's a Wocket in My Pocket and we get to the page that says: "And the bofa on my sofa acts as if he doesn't care." She says,"Who's iffy?"

In the car the other day we had the radio on and she asks, "Who's Anna?" Girl 1 replies, "It's not who's Anna, it's Hoseanna."

"What is Mama going to do with a 4 year old?" I ask. She answers, "I don't want to be 4, I want to be 3 and small forever." She is such the contradiction. If I tell her she is small, she tells me I am not that small. But if I tell her she is a big girl, she says to me, I am still small.

Occasional when refering to the past she will start, "When I was a little girl I did..."

Easter Afternoon

We went to Young's Dariy Farm for an Easter Egg Hunt. There were 3 age groups. Charlotte and Xander were in the 1st group, and Bella in the 2nd.

In the zone

Is it time yet?

Checking out his loot

Sizing up her competitors

And they're off!

Easter Morning

Grammy brought Easter baskets for the kids and they couldn't wait to see what was in them.

Family Pictures with the kids at church.


By the time we got to Grammy, Xander was beyond done. Actually he was done before we started.