Winter Fun

When mommy does laundry, the girls help out by "making it snow". This involves flinging the dirty laundry from the upstairs to the downstairs to be washed. McKenna must have been inspired by the thought of "snow" and figured out how to have a little fun while there was soft clothes to land in at the bottom of the steps.

Here she is to demonstrate Stair Sledding:

She demonstrates a mastery of control while dodging her sister, but perhaps my favorite part is the laugh at the end.

Merry Chistmas

Our Little Drummer Girl

I think she was channeling her inner Tommy Lee with the hat.

And a Pa rum pum pum pum to everyone.

All she wants for Christmas is to lose some teeth

Today, the children's choir sang during the church service. Camdyn enjoys choir and has sung publicly with it several times in the last two years.

Today they sang "Star of Wonder" and "Oh, Come, Little Children" and Camdyn sang inspite of her current affliction:

Seems a tooth is coming loose, and while she is more caught up with the overall holiday spirit, there's still curiousity over when the Tooth Fairy will visit and what the exchange rates will be. There doesn't seem to be any coverage of this particular market in the Wall Street Journal, so her mother and I are also curious on how this will all work out.

Here's video of the tooth's current status:

I personally know that Camdyn's expecting a lot more for Christmas than just to lose a tooth. She may even be hatching a plan to get the Easter bunny to swing by this holiday season too.

She's an Angel! (for one night only)

When she was born she was trully an Angel. After falling to earth, sometimes it felt like she did that just to get closer to her mentor, the devil. Last night was the bi-annual production of "Journey to Bethlehem" at church. While Marcey was responsible for a scene along the journey (a home at the edge of town), Camdyn was cast as an angel at the manger, the final scene.

Here is the scene complete with live donkey, cow and llama(???):

Earlier in the day, Camdyn was presented with her brownie vest that came complete with the badges she has earned so far this year. Most of the moms did not seem disappointed that they would not get to sew on the badges or any future badges since the are now iron-on. She learned some of the traditions associated with this occasion, including the need to do a good deed to be able to turn her brown pin right side up.

Just remember: Everytime you hear a bell, Camdyn just might be getting her wings!

Don't worry, Mom, my kids are paying me back for what I did to you...

It's true what they say, all things do run in circles. And because I don't have the best memory or have what I prefer to call a selective memory, some things as a child I just don't remember. My mom and my sister, Michelle, love to tell stories about when we were young and depending upon its personal relevance, I may or may not remember. (I am the same way with school work or work-work too. Fortunately for me, I also have a good short term memory that I can load and unload at will and a knack for remembering the really important work stuff.) But this I do remember...

It was at about 6 years old that I decided I didn't like my middle name. Despite its long family history and my utmost respect and love to those in my family with a version of the same name, the combination of my first and middle names causes me to twitch. For some reason, it must be said with a southern twang and a slight rising in pitch that just sends me over the edge. Anyone who really knows me, knows that they can really get under my skin by muttering those dreaded combination of words. It was about the age of 6 that I began telling people that my name was Marcey Jane. So where am I going with all this... Yesterday, I caught glimpses of my 6 year old self in Camdyn.

As we were driving yesterday, Camdyn announces that she has told her friends that they can simply replace the 'Y' with an 'E'. As I am having panic attacks that she is starting a spelling revolution that will for sure become my fault, I start by somewhat calmly saying "what are you talking about?"

She replies, "I told my friends that they could put an 'E' where the 'Y' should go."

"In what words?" was my somewhat calm reply.

"My name! I have seen it spelled with an 'E' so I have told my friends they can spell it with an 'E'. Some of them thought an 'A' but I told them it was an 'E'."

As I am struggling to hear what she is saying over the clamor caused by her younger siblings who surely won't revolt against their names, I calmly tell her that her name is spelled with a 'Y' and thats the way it is. Or so I thought...

We sit down last night to finish the last of her homework and she writes her name on the top of the paper... then she rethinks it, erases the 'Y' and replaces it with an 'E'. Silly, naive me thought this was closed subject. Apparently not.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"I like it spelled that way" she replies.

"But that is not the way I spelled it on your birth certificate so you are stuck with a 'Y' - now change it back!" She erases it begrudgingly and moves on. I am sure the subject is not closed...

After, we began practicing spelling words with a gentle reminder that she is not to giggle today when her teacher asks her to spell the word "but" for her spelling test and that she should consider her handwriting like drawing -- the better (more clearly) she writes and draws, the better people like it. At which point, she promptly draws a beautiful flower on her homework paper. I don't think I'll be reminiscing over my 6th grade memories of writing the handwriting lesson for the teacher on the chalkboard with Camdyn but I still have two more chances with McKenna and Keeghan! Oy, the joys of parenthood!

My apologies to you, Mom, for causing you such grief over such a silly little thing like a name. Just please, oh please, don't call me by my middle name. Afterall, I did give McKenna a version of my middle name for her middle name...

Love ya, Mom!

Happy Halloween!!

The Leopard,

the Candy Fairy,

and the Witch

all say, "Trick or Treat!!"