Those Interesting Kids

Frances wanted to draw in the garden.

.

And Chandler wanted to wear her Christmas dress, to pick Frances up from school, in April.

Parenthood is not boring.

Frances's School Had A Luau

Luckily, Frances and Chandler had no idea of luau-appropriate clothing.  They wore blue dresses with big prints.

There was only one Moana at the luau, so the girls weren't too jealous.

Chandler got her face painted like a cat, and then dressed up for the photo booth, so we get:

I will refer to this picture when she's bossing me around in a screechy voice, and then refrain from locking her up for the remainder of the day.  That's the plan.

My Children are Horrible

My children like chocolate.  They really, really like chocolate.  The Museum of Science has a temporary display about chocolate.  I thought the kids might like to visit it last Sunday.  I was completely and totally wrong.

See these faces?

These are the faces of children whose mother is wrong.  Yes, mom tried; but, yes, mom failed.

Here's some more photo evidence of the kids' complete lack of interest in the chocolate display.

As usual, Frances loved the electronics show and the electronics paraphernalia.  This is Frances's hand, stopping the electricity flow.

Chandler's hand, doing likewise.

But don't forget these cherubic countenances:

They may spend every Sunday afternoon in their rooms from here on out, horrible ingrates.

Spring Project, 2017

For this year's spring project, the girls planted seeds we had hanging around the house in jam jars with wet paper towels, rather than dirt.  The lack of dirt makes the roots much easier to observe and monitor.  Frances did most of the work; Chandler drank her bottle and twiddled her hair.  

Frances's innovation was labeling everything, because she's a nerd.

It was one of the few projects that didn't end with me saying, "How do I underestimate the potential for mess every time?"  So far we've learned that wet seeds not exposed to the sun will rot.  The jam jars must be rotated.  Live and learn.  We may start the project again, but the seeds on the sunny sides of the jars are doing really well.  We'll see.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Isn't it obvious?

Chandler/Elsa

The small child has made a definite girly turn lately.  She puts on our knock-off Elsa dress every chance she gets and wants to be called "Elsa."

I can handle the name change and the dress, even if it's too long and has to be tied up before she can wear it around town.  But she wants to Grow Out Her Hair.  Oh, the horror!  I do not want to have two knotty heads to ignore each morning.  See, Frances's knots are her business - at least, I'm trying very hard to make them her business and not my problem.  But two sets of knots?  One of those sets on a four year-old who I probably can't expect to know better?  I'm hoping to stem this terrible tide by bribing her with our salon's lollipops.  This strategy has worked so far, but I feel it's hold on Chandler weakening.  This is tragic.

(No, I'm not over-reacting.)

Snow Day Number Four?

I think that's right; I'm pretty sure it was Number Four.  Mark was home and we survived.  Those parts I remember clearly.  The girls' motives are less clear.  They've got a thing for the Statue of Liberty, so this is how we started the day.

The first thirty seconds over, we moved on to making our own Nutella.  The girls had eaten an entire tub of Nutella at Mimi's house (Mimi worries about their weight, or lack thereof; they also ate Ritz, bacon and ice cream.  Feel free to tell Mimi how not-emaciated they look any chance you get.).  We tried our hand at making our own.

It was delicious.  Don't let the girls' faces fool you.  The concerned look on Chandler's face had to do with the Nutella's escaping down her chin, rather than its taste.

And then Frances was just copying Chandler.

Not our finest snow day, I must say.  Temperatures hovered right around freezing and the whole world was a slushy mess by afternoon.  The girls were inside all day and I was relieved to go dig after a bit.  That gives some clue to their mood.  We had one more snow day (Number Five), but I think we are done with snow days for the year, which means school ends a few days before July starts.  Boo.