Playing piano and other news

Finally! I'm updating again! No excuse, really, why it's taken me so long, just busy, I guess. Here is some video of the kids playing piano. I don't know what they were doing, but they really weren't concentrating all that well. They can play better than this, but this is what I taped. If I haven't said it before, they're taking piano with the Suzuki method. Which means, they listen to the music, then learn it by rote (without reading music). The advantage to this is supposed to be developing a good "ear." My mom is doing kind of a hybrid of Suzuki and traditional method (i.e. teaching them to read music). So far, it's working well.

Things really haven't changed much with 3 5-year-olds in the house, instead of 3 4-year-olds. They've been really absorbing any information you give them. They're spending HOURS a day playing the stupid video game we gave them for Christmas. Luckily, they're educational games. It seems their favorite one is a earth adventurers one where they travel around the globe and learn about the continents, etc. There are occasional fights over it, but they're pretty good about sharing. Their new favorite book is an encyclopedia. That's right, an encyclopedia! Santa brought Will a kids' encyclopedia for Christmas. (He likes to look at the pictures of Grandpa Dale's fact books, so I thought he might like to do that with a kids' fact book.) Turns out, they are eating up all the information about anything and everything. Brian reads them 2 to 3 entries every night. Grace's favorite new thing is to point out all the animals she knows that are vertibrates or invertibrates. Ask her sometime, she knows them all. We've also been spending lots of time reading, doing workbooks and projects. I think we have 3 kids who are ready for kindergarten!!!

We've started planning spring activities, and believe me, they cannot wait for spring! We drove by a park yesterday, and Will asked (wistfully!) "Mommy, when will it be spring? I really want to go to the park!" I agree, Will, I agree! We have done some sledding and playing in the abundant snow, but it's just been so cold that we haven't spent a ton of time outside. I hate going to indoor play places, because we always seem to bring home an illness (although, knock on wood, we haven't been sick since New Years!)

They're all signed up for micro soccer starting in April. This is where they are on a team of 4 kids (all the same age). They practice for 25 minutes, and play a 25 minute game. After some deliberation, we decided to put them on all DIFFERENT teams. This may be a scheduling nightmare, we'll see when the schedule comes. But, it just seemed better for them to all fend for themselves and learn how to be independent. And it didn't seem really fair to the one other kid who had to play on their team and be the odd one out.

The other day, Grace announced she wanted to be a ballet dancer. Xander announced he wanted to play football, and Will said he wanted to be a golfball player (we've corrected him 800 times "it's golfer, Will"). This led us to decide to enroll Grace in a dance class at the Y (starting in 2 weeks) and then search for activities the boys can do by themselves. For now, they're taking another round of swimming lessons at the Y (lucky for me, they're at the same time as Grace's dance class for 6 weeks.) Hopefully they will pass this round and they can all be in the same class in the summer. We've been thinking about having my dad give Will some golf lessons, but this doesn't really give him a chance to do something with other kids. We've also considered enrolling Xander in an art class later this spring, but haven't decided. They're still a little young for any Tae Kwon Do or karate at the Y and everything else is just so expensive. So, we're still looking, but hopefully we'll find something for them soon. Grace is really excited about her dance class, by the way. I bought her a little leotard and ballet slippers and she is in love! We'll see if she actually does what the teacher tells her too. Apparently, there's a little recital in April. We'll see.

This post has gotten really long, I apologize. I guess I had lots to share (sorry Chad!) I'd like to post some video of them at 5, answering some questions. Don't know when I'll get to that, though. I have 4 concerts in 5 days next week at school. I'll try to get updated after the busy week is over. Stay warm, everyone!

Happy 5th Birthday!

This is the kids and their "birthday marble bundt cake" they wanted. (I don't know what possessed them to ask for that, I think Daddy had some influence on it!) For a little birthday fun, we took them to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. Of course, they had a marvelous time and mommy and daddy hated it! I spent the whole time worry about germs (because trust me, there were tons) and daddy was irritated on how expensive it was and how terrible the food was. We came home and had cake and ice cream with the grandparents and watched the birthday video I made them (see previous post). My mom and dad stayed and put them to bed while Brian and I went and had a quick drink with a friend who was in town from Texas. I think the kids had a fun day. We really can't believe they are 5 now! They're growing up so fast! I'll get more posted later, plus I'd like to post some video of them talking about what their favorite things are now that they're 5. I'll get to that hopefully soon.

5th birthday video

Here is the picture slideshow video I made for the kids for their 5th birthday. It is a  look at pictures of them throughout the last 5 years. I tried to make it smaller so it wouldn't be huge on the blog, but it is very long (about 20 minutes), so you can watch it if you have some time. Sorry about some skips in the music. There is a flaw with the program and I couldn't fix it. Enjoy anyway!

Christmas Day

A picture of Christmas morning, all decked out in their new super hero/princess t-shirts from Santa.

Grace with her beloved new American Girl Doll she named Sarah. That thing has gone everywhere with her lately. She has played with that one doll more in the last 2 weeks than she has played with any other dolls ever in her life. She loves it. Grandma also gave her several outfits and a coat that matches one she made Grace. They have worn them together. I'll get a picture.

Xander in his new superhero costume from Grandma Ellen.

Super Will!

Even Super Grace!

A creative present from Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr. A tent, sleeping bags and a pretend camping set. This will keep them busy for days!

A nice group picture. They got several new board games, including Sorry and Trouble. They love playing games!

So, I'm a little mad at myself. I left my purse at my mom's on Christmas eve and in my purse was, you guessed it, my CAMERA! They did come over for brunch Christmas morning, and she brought it back, but it was too late for any pictures of opening presents from Santa. Of course, we had just gotten rid of our old camera days before and our video camera takes still pictures, if there was a memory card in it. So, no pictures from Christmas morning, except for that first group shot taken after my mom brought the camera back.

We really did have a nice Christmas this year. The kids just were SOOOOO into everything Santa. I think Gordie, our elf, really helped in that regard. When we got home late from my mom's on Christmas eve, we had to make sure to leave Santa milk and cookies and we laid out 8 carrots for the reindeer. (Grace realized later that there were actuallly 9 reindeer if you include Rudolph, so I had to go lay out another carrot to make her feel better.) They woke up bright and early the next morning, and could barely contain their excitement looking at the presents at the bottom of the stairs. It was really hard for them to wait turns opening presents (in fact, Will ripped open a couple of group presents before we realized!). They marveled at Santa getting all these presents into our house and read and re-read the letter Santa left for them. (Gordie also left a note saying Thanks and see you next year. They haven't even stopped talking about Gordie, they mentioned him again this morning.)

They really got a lot of stuff.  Santa brought scooters (which they were able to ride outside on a nicer day last week) books, DVD's, the superhero t-shirts, princess things for Grace, and Imaginext Space things for the boys, among a few other small things. Mommy and Daddy gave them clothes, stocking stuffer type things and the biggest hit, a Leapster Explorer. We spent a long time trying to decide which video game system to get the kids, and decided on this one and it has NOT disappointed. We're pretty much a fan of everything Leap Frog makes (the beloved magic pencil is made by Leap Frog) and this Explorer is no exception. It is a hand-held video game system for kids ages 4-9. It has a stylus that you can write and play with, but you also use traditional video game buttons. It comes with a few games and you download/buy more cartridges. We downloaded a game called Jewel Train that Xander and Grace have already completed all the levels on, it's a great logic game. We have several other math, reading and writing games we haven't even played. Pretty much someone is playing it at all waking minutes of the day. And it's kind of nice because one will disappear with it and the other two will play nicely with something else.  I'm constantly surprised how well they adapt to technology, they can run it so well. We highly recommend it - great learning games!

Christmas night we went to Niebuhrs. We actually hung out there in the afternoon while the kids napped, then opened presents and ate dinner. It was a nice evening. The kids wanted every SINGLE present opened the next day. It was literally like Christmas had thrown up in our living room! But, after a quick run to Target for more storage bins and a major purge of toddler-type toys, we are once again organized.

Unfortunately, the sickness bug didn't pass us by last week. I had a stomach bug the day before Christmas eve, and early Friday morning (New Year's Eve) Grace started throwing up. We had just been to the indoor playground at Mahoney that morning, so that's more than likely where she got it. We ended up canceling our New Year's eve plans (and we actually had plans this year!). Xander started throwing up on Monday afternoon, but was fine on Tuesday. Will hasn't gotten anything (knock on wood!) On a happy note, I filled Will's steroid inhaler last week (He's been on it since October, but we've been using samples from the dr.) and it only cost me $10 and will last 60 days. Compare that to the steroid solution for the nebulizer which cost us $60 for 30 days. We have gone from spending around $700 a year to $60. That is mind boggling! I can't believe it. Hooray for growing up!!!!!!

I think that is finally all for now. Long post, but I hadn't posted much lately. Thanks for reading thru to the end! Happy New Year everyone!