Proud Mommy

Lorelai's school had a spring carnival today. It was small but really fun. They had half a dozen games that everybody was a winner at, face painting, and food. We won a silent auction for a family game night basket complete with Checkers, Connect Four and Jenga.

Both kids enjoyed the milk bottle game, though Lorelai had better luck knocking the bottles down.


Spencer was lucky if he got the ball near the table, he couldn't decide if he throws right or left handed.


Lorelai wanted her face painted and once the teacher doing the painting talked her out of a brown horse with a black mane and tail (too hard to do) she came up with some lovely strawberries.


Spencer had to have strawberries just like his big sister. He couldn't contain himself and had to flirt with what I hope will be his 6th-grade teacher whom we met at Open House last week.


The fish pond was full of magnetic fish and the idea will probably be ripped off and make an appearance at our 4th of July party this year along with the beanbag toss.


Now we get to the reason for the title of this post. I'm incredibly proud of both of my kids for what you'll see in this video. Of Spencer for his perseverance and good attitude, and of Lorelai for her enthusiastic support of her little brother. I stopped filming just seconds too soon and missed the huge hug she gave him at the end.

Hula

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to take hula classes. I've always been intrigued by the dance, but I had the feeling that it was kind of taboo for a white person to hula. I remember one of the free shows in the mall in Lahaina a few years ago when they were introducing all the little kids so they could take a bow. All these adorable hawaiian girls with what we would consider exotic names. Then they got to the one little blond girl and the lady introducing them got this look on her face like she smelled something nasty and said something along the lines of "Susan??? what kind of a name is that?" I still remember the look on that little girl's face, trying to hold her stage smile while being insulted.

Here, you can't be too white to hula. Everyone is welcome, and I absolutely love every minute of it. It is fun, good exercise and apparently I don't suck at it. The only downside is that hula is done with the knees bent and mine sound like a Jiffy Pop when I dance.

The Doghouse

Our upcoming trip to Disneyland introduced one of the complications of pet ownership: what to do with the dog while out of town?

Stevo's usual solution to any problem: build something!


Steve designed and built a lovely dog house complete with stairs so Bingo can reach the sunning patio on top. He has apparently remembered that he's house broken and hasn't "gone" in the house for a couple of weeks (Bingo, not Stevo) so we'll leave him in the side yard with his house during the day and probably have the neighbors unlock the dog door so he can come in at night.



This project brought to light one of our many differences in parenting styles: I told Lorelai she couldn't be much help making dinner because I was doing stir-fry and all that needed to be done was cutting up veggies and I wasn't really comfortable with her and sharp knives yet so she went outside and Stevo taught her how to use a nail gun.

Hula

Lorelai is taking hula. She's had two classes so far and absolutely loves it. The class is taught by the same halau that has performed with Hapa whenever they are in town.






One of the coolest parts is that Lorelai's friend Sophie is taking it with her. Lorelai isn't a good influence on Sophie's ability to concentrate and pay attention but I think they're both having more fun because they're together.

It looks like so much fun that I've signed up for the adult beginners class. I start later this week. Hee hee!

We should have known he couldn't be that perfect.

During one of the recent multi-day rain storms we've had, Bingo decided the carpet in front of the fishtank was a more attractive spot to pee than going out in the wet. Since then, he has become un-housebroken. Its like we're back to square one with the mutt.

We decided we just wouldn't leave him alone with access to the house while we're gone since that seems to be his chosen time to foul the carpet. One rainy afternoon, to not be cruel and lock him out in the rain with no shelter, we shut him in the kid's bathroom.

Apparently he doesn't like being confined.

He's alive!

For my dad who was afraid that Bingo had run off on us since I hadn't mentioned him in a while.

He's doing marvelously well as the newest member of the family. He has gained 6 pounds since his adoption and can no longer squeeze through the fences (bonus). He hasn't continued to gain weight so we don't have to watch what we feed him. He has only one character flaw and that is that he goes completely apeshit crazy around other dogs. Vicious growls at huge dogs. He'll strain against his collar to the point where he's hacking and coughing. Stupid.

Good Fences

We have thought amongst ourselves since we moved in to this house that the height of our front fence made our neighbor's back yard a bit lacking in the privacy department. We were pleasantly surprised while working on the lawn to have her peek over the fence (stand there) and asked if we minded if she had the fence raised. After a brief discussion of the foolishness of hiring it out, she offered to pay for materials if Steve would do the construction. No problem.


Mandatory before picture:


Bingo kept us company:


The new fence has two step-downs to match the slope of the property and keep it from looking too monolithic. We also put the "friendly" side on our side the whole span instead of alternating:


We sealed the neighbor's side of the boards as we put them up and Lorelai and I stained our side:


Don't have a great after picture but you probably get the idea.