BELLA AND NATALIE

Bella has a BFF....Natalie Narducci. These two girls LOVE each other. They have so much fun together playing all kinds of games, riding bikes, playing dress up. All of these pictures are courtesy of Karla, Natalie's mom, who is awesome at taking pictures and being so creative with her kids. She is always capturing these great moments, which, thankfully, I benefit from. Bella adores Natalie and asks for her all the time.

PARK DAYS

When Gage has early release from school, he gets out at 9:45am. This particular day I decided to keep him out and take the kids to Freestone park to play. The weather has been awesome and it's a huge park full of all kinds of things to see and do. We started out rolling down the hills and then racing up the hills (a good trick to get them and me some exercise). They played on the playground for a while and then Gage wanted to follow the train track all the way around the park. So we sang songs and acted goofy while we walked on the track. We stopped to look at the ducks, watch the waterfalls and then on the way back to the car we played "Follow the Leader". We had so much fun! The icing on the cake was there was a track team there doing drills and the coach gave the kids popsicles. It was a perfect morning!

There is this great park by our house that the kids LOVE. It has tons of green grass full of dandelions that they run around and pick to make wishes.

We have to squeeze in as many park days as we can before it gets too HOT!!!!!!

FUNNIES

APRIL FOOLS

Gage wanted to play a joke on his teacher for April Fools Day. Rob suggested Gage tell her that he just found out that we are moving and today is his last day in class. Gage pulled it off without a hitch and his teacher was so sad. Until he revealed the joke. She sent me an email telling me how convincing he was. Gage loved it!

SMOOTH MOVES

Gage has a little crush on a girl in his class, Madison K. One day he was so excited when I picked him up. He told me that Madison L. had told him that both she and Madison K. had crushes on him. I said that was really nice and it's because he is so kind and a good friend. He was beaming and then asked, "Mom, what does crush mean?".

About a week later I was helping out in Gage's class and I complimented Madison K. on her picture she was coloring. She said, "Thanks! Gage tells me I am the queen of colors because I'm so good at coloring." What a flirt!!

They were celebrating Gage's un-birthday at school, since he has a summer birthday and I brought in donuts for the class. His teacher relayed a funny story from the morning. Apparently they were making ladybugs and each child could name their ladybug. When she asked Gage, he said, "I want to name my ladybug 'whore'". His teacher asked him to repeat it because surely she didn't hear it right. But he repeated, "whore". She thought it was so funny because she knew, of course, that he had no idea what that word really means. So I did some discreet investigating to find out where it came from. He said, "Mom, my ladybug had fangs and was scary so I named him "Horror" like a scary movie. When he says it, it sounds like the other word. I still don't know how he knows about horror movies because he's never seen one. But hilarious, nonetheless.

Bella: "We're gonna just cook up this dog and eat it!"

Gage: "No we're not. We don't live in China."

UNIQUE

Bella has a little friend, Liam, that goes to Joy School with her. She really likes Liam and talks about him a lot. "Mom, I really like Liam. He is so unique!"

Bella is so, so sweet and has a happy heart. She tells everyone how beautiful they are, she sings and dances around, she gives unexpected hugs and kisses and tells you she loves you 50 times a day. She readily obeys with a good attitude and will ask, "Am I a good listener, Mom?" Every day she has a new name she wants us to call her. Today it was "Flower". Yesterday it was "Alexa", and another it was "Brooklyn". She is the first to give up a toy, or her chair, or spot on the couch if someone wants it. (Usually Paisley).

Bella recently came up to me and said, "Mom, I have to tell you something very important. Remember that time a long time ago when Paisley cut my hair? (This was about a year ago when the two of them were in the kitchen and part of Bella's hair was cut.) Well, I told you it was Paisley who cut my hair, but really it was me. I lied and I'm so sorry." The funniest part is that Paisley admitted to cutting it when she didn't. Oh, the power of suggestion.

Bella: "Mom, does Ursula on Little Mermaid wipe her bum when she goes to the bathroom?" (Thankfully, she answered her own question)

"She probably doesn't because she's mean and bad."

Bella: "Mom, let's play Paper, Cut, Scissors." (instead of paper, rock, scissors)

Paisley is growing more and more independent. She wants to do EVERYTHING by herself and for herself. And, boy, does she have a temper. She'll get frustrated trying to do something and start to rage, but she still doesn't want ANY help. I actually think it's a good quality if she can learn to control the temper. She still "leg-locks" her blanket every night. She LOVES the movie "Tangled" and wants to watch it all the time. She'll say, "I want my hair long like Rapunzel" and she'll flip her head over and brush her her hair. She always wants me to do a "down ponytail" which means she wants her ponytail to go down her back as long as possible. But it has to be just right....OR ELSE!! She wakes at the crack of dawn, which now is pretty early and brings me the brush and ponytail holder to do her hair. She is one determined girl. She loves to sing and dance, but also loves to play catch and wrestle.