Easter with Extra Kids

Easter weekend began, as usual, with coloring Easter eggs. This year we had two kids staying with us, Q who is 8, and K, who is 5. So this was a messy, fun, loud activity.

My birthday is in March, and it always falls during the time of Paul's basketball semifinals, where he has games all weekend. Although we had celebrated my birthday, I hadn't yet had the home made cake I wanted, so we decided to do it for Easter dinner.
This was Paul's first attempt at making me a two-layer cake. He forgot to spray the pans and it just went bad from there. He had planned to run out and buy me a cake Sunday morning, and then he remembered that it was Easter and nowhere would be open. So he confessed to me he was in a bind. We agreed that he could just make me a sheet cake (that wouldn't be chocolate) and all would be fine. I have the best husband for going to all that trouble and being so stressed out. AND he let me take a picture of the first attempt. :)

Easter morning, two handsome boys playing piano.

Silly boys with bucket heads.

A little pre-church chaos.

Smiling nicely for the camera.

 

 

This is what happens when you try to get three kids in one picture!

 

Mr. Cool. Yes, he came down in those sneakers and I suggested he should change into dress shoes, but Paul said, "I think he looks cool like that," so I was outvoted. (Although he does look kind of boy-band cute!)

Getting ready for the after-church egg hunt.

Counting the eggs.

Back at home after church. Neither boy wanted to change so they were dressed formally, rolling around on the floor playing.

Watching superheroes.

The finished, only slightly marred, birthday cake.

Happy Easter to all.

Fosterisms

I thought I'd start this new title, Fosterisms, to keep track of some things we hear. Paul and I have become licensed foster parents, and although we ultimately want to adopt, will sometimes be fostering for shorter periods of time. So if you see other kids in the posts, that's why.

Me: What are your favorite movies?
8 year old girl: Chuckie and Scream.

Paul: We don't have an extra bike helmet, so you can't ride right now.
5 year old boy: That's okay. I know how to ride without a helmet.

Medieval Times

The annual related-arts night at Rudy's school had the theme Medieval Times this year. The first graders did a dance.  Here you can see them walking in (Rudy is carrying his crown instead of wearing it).

All lined up as the Phys. ed. teacher moves the classes to their spots.

Rudy's class was directly across the gym from us and he was facing us most of the time.

This is how the dance started.

And then they spun in circles a few times, clapped and came together in the middle. Apparently this was the second dance they learned because the first one was too hard. This was certainly wasn't (although it was funny to see how some classes really had it down and were in almost perfect formation and others (like Rudy's) were kind of disorganized.

The end of the dance and there's Rudy still sitting up and looking around.

In the lobby, to continue the Medieval Times theme, was a falcon.

And in the other lobby was a knight.

After a great performance, we went to YoGo to celebrate.

Rudyisms

Rudy has been talking a lot lately about good guys and bad guys and jails. This weekend, separately, he asked Paul and I if he was in jail if we would come visit him. When we assured him we would, he asked if we would bake him a cake with something in it so he could escape. We told him no, we wouldn't. His next questions was whether we would bring him legos then. That we could do!

The other morning, Rudy told Paul-If a bad guy does something really bad, they should put them in a chair and make them look at pictures of rainbows, hearts and cute little dogs. Cause bad guys don't like any of that stuff.

One morning Rudy told me, "Mom, I am really good at sports. I am so good I could beat the Phillies." I replied that I knew he was good, but I wasn't sure he was good enough yet to beat the Phillies. He said, "Yes, I am and I am really fast." He then sat down to finish his breakfast and ended with, "If you believe in yourself, you can do anything." I certainly couldn't argue with that!

I really think one day Rudy will become a vegetarian. At the store, he told me how sad he felt for the lobsters and other animals that people eat. He wondered why we didn't just make something that was 'like' chicken but didn't really require killing chicken to eat it. I told him we did have foods like that and that if he decides to do that as he gets older, that's fine. 

March Madness

Catching up on recent activities...

Wacky Wednesday outfit/

I told him the first picture he had his eyes closed, so this is how we fixed it in the next picture.

Notice the two different shoes- both left feet. I sent his other sneaker in case the boot bothered his foot, but he wore it all day.

Thursday Rudy had his first piano lesson. Bryan is the choir director/organist/pianist at church. Rudy really likes him and he was excited to teach Rudy.

Thursday night, while getting ready for bed, Rudy fell down the steps. The short version is, he was trying to get dressed on the stairs (after being told to go up to his room) and when he heard me coming up, he tried to go up the stairs, but his pants weren't all the way on.

Saturday we went into Philly to the Arden theater. They had a kids day with different activities set up including trying out some theater classes. Here, he pensively waits for his first class.

The first class he wanted to try was musical theater. Each class was just a 15 minute trial. During this class they learned a short song and did warm up exercises. He was very reserved and shy in this one, but except for not wanting to introduce himself, he fully participated.

Immediately after the musical theater class was a Mixed-Up Fairytales class. This one he loved and got right into. They all picked a fairytale character to be (he was Robin Hood- notice him clutching his bow), then made up a story as the went along.

We then walked around Old City and visited some other places that had activities- this class studio let the kids make seed balls to plant at home.

On the way here he had his face painted- a spider.

Then he made something else with clay.

The last class he tried was called Once Upon a Time. The first sentence of a story was given and then the kids talked about what was going to happen next and acted it out.

Doing ninja moves.

Jumping....

....and falling.

He LOVED the classes and asked when he could do it again. So it looks like we'll be signing him up for some and Paul and I will be hanging around in Old City some Saturdays (life could be worse!).
We went to lunch before heading home and Rudy continued his dramatic flair.

And ate a huge plate of pancakes. Notice his eye- two days after and it's nicely purple all around his eye with the lid a little swollen. Between his long hair and his darker skin, it doesn't seem to be really noticeable, though.