On Her Own...

Hannah's always been really independent and headstrong...I've never kept this fact hidden. It causes me grief on a regular basis. But, as with all things that Hannah undertakes, when she is ready, she will go full bore and get it right.



Last year, it was swimming. She did NOT want to learn, never was going to...she cried the first day when they wanted her to put her head in the pool. But by the end of 6 weeks of lessons, she was doing pretty good, diving down for rings (albeit with little grace, lol) and swimming underwater without a care. This year, she moved up from her starting point (station 3) to her current session...where she is learning to do the backstroke, having mastered the crawl (or overhand) with rhythmic breathing (if you've never heard the term, it means breathing as you stroke, in a rhythm, or pattern). She's come through with flying colors.



Last year she also begged for a scooter. I am not fond of these things, but when our neighbor gave Scotty a 3-wheeledscooter, I knew it wasn't fair to Hannah NOT to have one. She insisted on a 2 wheeler, though. So, I scoured yard and garage sales and got one for $5 (not wanting to buy one for $25 only to discover she wouldn't like it). She taught herself...and got pretty good at riding it.



She's always done things in her way...she taught herself to write her name once she knew the letters in it...she can draw anything she sees...that's just Hannah.



So...her latest accomplishment? Well, it's in partial thanks to Ali's daughter, who has a 2 wheeled bike. Hannah decided to just pick it up and ride it. She's mastered it quite well in just a few days! I wish I had that kind of determination to just DO it and DO right!



And it appears that Scotty will follow his big sister...he's swimming like a fish NOW (today he passed into station 6 after doing his backstroke across the kiddie pool, stopping only once)...he too was a kid who was afraid to put his face in the water. Guess kids just KNOW when they are ready to do something. And Scotty's also learned to ride a 2-wheeled scooter. He about gave me a heart attack when I looked out the kitchen window one day earlier this summer and I saw him on the neighbor kids' scooter! He's got a lot of style and flair, as all things Scotty do!











And this? This is Akela...in one of her calm and quiet moments. (I put that up for you and the kids, Ali!)

zoo-bee-doo-bee...

Last week (or was it the week before? I forget....see post below called Live much?) several band spouses went to the zoo...(it WAS 2 weeks ago...during spring break...NOW I remember). We had a grand time. The zoo here in Manhattan is not very big. There are no LARGE animals like lions, elephants or giraffes. But they do have snow leopards, lots of birds and a few tigers. There really are a lot of animals there. This is only the 2nd time we've gone to the zoo. We went when we first got here, in the dead heat of the summer (it was in the 100's), and found our zoo to be lacking. But I decided to give it another shot.

We met up with Eileen and her girls, Ginny, Randy and their boys, and Kim, George and their boys. It was all quite fun. Hannah loves when she gets to be with Eileen's girls, because the younger one, Sarina is her age! (we'd had a long drought of having girls the same age in the units we've been with!) And the older girl, Tessa, is really sweet and hangs with the younger girls. The rest of the crew was boys, boys, boys....

One thing we discovered at the zoo: When you are in front of the bear pen, you can look out over the fence and see Famous Dave's....and Target...and Arby's....which means you can practically see our house. The water tower near the park has the City of Manhattan logo on it as well as the Sunset Zoo logo. It was Scotty's discovery that we can see the water tower...and now, every time he sees it, he says, "Hey mommy, it's da zoo waddeh toweh (r's are hard to come by with him).

So, as usual, I took lots of photos...and I thought I'd share some with you.

Sarina and Hannah check out the chimpanzees.

This is the matriarch of the zoo...though I don't remember her name.
she just sat in the bucket...

Scotty poses with a sculpture...of course, he had the baby chimp by the head!

The black swan

I spent the better part of 20 minutes chasing peacock and peahens around to get pictures.
This one obliged me quite nicely.

I got up close and personal with a flamingo. I could have reached out and touched him.
I just kept shooting away. The lady in the purple behind him was amazed afterwards. She couldn't believe how close we were...I thought he was going to peck at me!

Hannah stops long enough to grace me with a "vampire" smile...check the fangs!

This is Sarina. She sports the "vampire" look too. When she and Hannah got together, it was like they'd been friends forever. I like friends like that!

This is Tessa. She has a ready smile and has the prettiest golden highlights in her hair...like spun gold!

Another shot of Hannah, posing after all our walking.

Where are the pictures of Scotty, you ask? Well, most looked like this:

I can't tell you why he was pouting...but he was....

Pornadoes and porpoises....

I had company for supper tonight. I invited the senior leaders' spouses over. We had 4 adults and 9 kids, ranging in age from 2 to 12, 5 boys, 4 girls. Everyone played quite well together, they ate well, and it was fun just getting to know some of the spouses a bit better.

Ginny has 2 boys, 3 and 2. James and Joseph discovered Hannah's "pet tornado" (a water filled container that creates a neat vortex when shaken). James showed it to his mom first...then later Joseph brought it to us and loudly exclaimed:

"wook, mommy, a PORNADO!!!!!" Hmmmm....is that a whirlwind of porn??? We (the adults) all got a good laugh at that!

Later, Scotty decided to whack his sister with his plastic sword. She was screeching in pain, and thus Scotty felt the need to join in her shrieks with his own: " I did it on Porpoises!!!" I wasn't quite sure what this water mammal had to do with beaning his sister....


Pornadoes and Porpoises.....

The trick is...

can they handle all the TREATS?????

Halloween was a BLAST! Scotty had to try on his pants (I had just finished making them) and once he had THOSE on, he wanted to go all out and wear the entire thing...so I took him to WalMart dressed like this! We had to get some REAL rope to hold his pants up - the small twine I was using didn't cut it. On the way home, he was too pooped to Pirate anymore...notice the white stick in front of the seatbelt on his lap - he fell asleep with his lollipop in his mouth!!!! (they gave it to him at Wallyworld).

We were ready to go by 6:00 p.m.


Perfect Pirate and Sweet Angel



Arrrrrgh-en't I CUTE????



Angelic....only for Halloween!!!
(overheard at a door whilst T or T'ing....a woman asked Hannah if she was ALWAYS such an angel, and the answer was an EMPHATIC, "NO WAY!")


Mom got into the spirit and dressed as a doctor!


We managed to hit a LOT of houses. Those buckets were FILLED to the top. We had to make a stop back at the car after doing one street up and back because the "pre-bagged" things (given by our neighbors and friends) were taking up too much room!!!! By this time, it had gotten dark and we were really having fun. We didn't even finish up the neighborhood we were at, because Scotty was tired. Hannah wanted to keep going, but she didn't have space in the bucket. I'm not one of those parents who gives in to the greed of children by giving them pillowcases, nor do I carry a big plastic bag to dump buckets into so they can get more junk! I think there's more than enough in those buckets to keep them happy till EASTER!

My only complaint? The parents who didn't keep an eye on their kids. I saw kids running through yards and flowers, not caring. I saw them darting across the streets. I know that drivers are usually extra careful on this night, but still. Some of the bigger kids (mostly boys) were pushy and a few times Scotty got pushed aside. But he was pretty decent, didn't complain at all. HE was ALL about ringing the bell and saying TWICK OR TWEET!!! and when they would offer him the bowl to pick, he'd only take ONE piece...and even if they offered 2, he would have to be COAXED to take more than one. He was also good at houses where they left the bowl out for kids to "take 3 or 4". (when did THAT become a custom, anyway? I mean, honestly...can't SOMEONE be home to hand candy out?).

My neighbor Lori gave the kids a really neat goodie bag filled not only with candy, but toys! Here's one of them:


All our other "new" neighbors (new to the neighborhood since last Halloween) were disappointed with the "turnout". We came to most of their houses last, since many weren't home when we left. They said we were only the 3rd or 4th kids to come...the others being the kids who live here. No one else comes here, since it's a small duplex circle with no other homes at ALL nearby (but hey, we have Panera, Arby's, Target, and Pier 1). I suppose we could have warned them!

Here's the final shots of the evening...all the loot gathered!

Angel Sweets.....


Pirate Booty

Kid fun

Well, we've had our 2nd week of swimming lessons. Hannah has taken to water wonderfully! I remember her balking about going. "I won't go." This was replaced by "I'll go, but I won't put my face under water."

After being one of 3 kids assigned to "station 1" (the very beginner, where she had to d0 10 relaxed bobs, head fully under), she was determined to get her face under water. She managed to get her head wet the next day. And she worked and worked...and by the end of the first week, she was in "station 2" (being able to front float and back float for 5 seconds without sinking). Yesterday, she passed to "station 3" (front glide, back glide, front kick, back kick, dolphin kick). What an amazing improvement from 2 weeks ago. She went from a kid who was afraid to jump into the pool to the kid who FELL BACKWARDS...deliberately!

last week's front float and kick

front float and kick two weeks later

another front float and kick today

Cannonball!!!!

BELLY FLOP!!!!

Scotty, on the other hand, has decided he wants nothing to do with swim lessons. But that's okay...we'll try again next session, I think. I want him to not be afraid, but to have respect for water as well.

And here's one last shot of the kids playing "karate". They are wearing headbands made of leftover edges from my rag-tie blankets!!!

Zoo, Zoo, Zoo....It's HOT IN TOPEKA!!!

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