Numbers In My Head...

Little Miss has been working on memorizing our phone number. It is the last 'pie piece' in her chart of things to know before kindergarten.

We have been chanting these 10 numbers for... daaayyys...

And for some reason, she would always forget the exact same number. I was at a loss of how to try it any other way...we had tried a different chant...pausing...looking at it...explaining how two numbers were hugging the one in the middle...

I left her whispering and chanting in her bed tonight after our bedtime routine.

An hour later, she calls me to the stairs.

"Mommy, I can't fall asleep. I have too many numbers in my head. Can I try to tell you my phone number again?"

Bless her heart.

She DID IT!!!

High fives all around!!! The girl knows her phone number!!

Hug. Hug. Hug. SO. PROUD!

Now, back to bed.

She turns around to head back upstairs...whispering and chanting.

5 minutes later back downstairs...still chanting.

She tells me her phone number a couple more (5) times, writes it down, (twice) and now back to bed.

Guess who else is chanting our phone number in their head?
770...

Way to go, Chloe!!!

A Lesson in Prayer from a 5 year old...

Chloe has had some health issues this week...

I felt convicted that I had called the doctor and got the medicine... (which is the right thing to do)

But had not actually prayed - out loud - with Chloe about it...

So in the wee hours of the morning...Chloe is uncomfortable and crying...

I try to sooth her and tell her I am so sorry...and I want her to feel better...

And the Lord reminded me to pray...

So I started praying...

"Jesus, please heal Chloe. You know she is not feeling well..."

Chloe interrupts:
"Mommy?? Why are you praying to Jesus and not to God?"

S: "Well...they are the same, God and Jesus..."
C: "But we are supposed to pray to the Father..."

I pause...the Scripture goes through my head...
"This then is how you should pray, Our Father..." (Matthew 6: 9-13)

"You're right, Chloe, we pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus...

Father, please heal Chloe..."

I was taken back a bit...
She was ACTUALLY LISTENING!
Where did she learn that???
How did she know that??

Regardless, I am glad she knows.

I Onna Go Home...

Little E was by the back door this afternoon...trying to put on his own shoes.

"Where you goin' buddy?"
"I wanna go home."
"You are home, Babe."
"Noo. I onna go Michaw's house and pay wiff Kaynin."

Michaw (Michael) and Kaynin (Kaylin) are in our Growth Group at church...and they are his buddies.

So. Cute.

Disney Day 2

Having trouble uploading pictures...
(Raymond...don't be mad...I'm trying to figure out the online thing you showed me...)

But here are a few at least!

Great day!
COLD!

We arrived just in time
to see Mickey and all the characters ride the train into the park!!
Very Exciting!

Meeting Pluto

The whole Hooper Family
(Plus Cousin Katie)
On Main Street in front of Cinderella's Castle

Us
...and that tiara was supposed to be worn by Chloe...
...just so you know...

Everybody Loves Raymond...

So...you will notice a few changes around The Williams Whereabouts...

Our friend, Raymond, is here from Seattle and he is teaching me a few tricks of the trade in blog world...

So we are playing around with pictures and colors and such...it is fun...

And I am crossing my fingers that I will remember all these tricks once he has returned to Seattle...

But until then...FUN!!

Take Me Out to the (T) Ball Game!!

Our cousin, S. has started T-ball...so we all turned out to watch the big game.

Couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if everything was as fair and non-competitive as T-Ball...

Very serious warming up to do...

Keeping his eye on the ball...
and maybe a little distracted by his scraped elbow

The Fans

Taking a break from the big game to be cute...

Cheerleaders, Granna and C

Little D, S-Man, E and C

Little Slugger

Leprechaun Trapping Pictures

Day 2: Checking the trap

Chloe set a 'table' for the leprechaun...such a good hostess...

'Wee Bits' hat!!!

Leprechaun Update...

Contrary to the opinion of Little Mr. Grumpy Pants in Chloe's class...

We are convinced that leprechauns DO exist because...

Ours keeps shifting things around in the trap.
He left his hat behind.
He left gold coins for us...one for each of our years. (5 for C...2 for E)
Another one made a friend's toilet water green.
Yet another one turned another friend's potato topped Shepherd's Pie green.
Still another one left footprints all over Chloe's classroom!!!
One is apparently running around naked because someone else found his clothes...but no leprechaun....brrrr.

Hello?!?!?!? How could all this stuff be happening if they were not REAL!?!?!?

Also...
Our leprechaun is old. We found a white hair in his hat.
"We WILL catch him....and he will be a part of our family...we will adopt him...so we can know what it feels like to adopt someone."

All good things must come to an end...not sure how long we can keep up with this fun.

A letter is in the works...

It will read something like this...

Dear Chloe and Eli,

Top of the mornin' to ya! It has been sooo fun watchin' you two try to find me...a real treat! I hope you enjoy me gold coins...I will return for them this time next year...until then...me must return to me rainbow in me motherland...to count me gold.

With much love and respect,
WeeBit

*as I read that it sounds a little more 'pirate' than 'Irish'...We will do some tweaking. Oh...and WeeBit is his name because the sign on his hat said, "I'm a WeeBit Irish"...obviously.

Have You Ever Trapped a Leprechaun?

So, I pick Chloe up from school on Monday and first thing she says is,

C: "Mom. We need to make a trap for a...lll...what do you call them???...they have gold..."
Me: "Leprechauns??"
C: "Yeah. Leprechauns. My teacher says we need to make a trap for one and catch it so that we can have their gold!!"
Me: "Wow. I have never made a Leprechaun trap before. Did she tell you how to do it?"
C: "Ummm...no. But maybe we could use a..."
She lost me here in all her creative ideas...I heard, "can...string... lid...she kept talking about it all the way home.

One of the first things I did when we got home was google 'leprechaun trap'...felt a little silly doing that...I mean what if 'Big Brother' thinks I really want to trap leprechauns...
But yadowhachagottado when your adorable 5 year old has her heart set on trappin' herself a leprechaun...

Box. Construction paper. Tape. Glue. Shiny things. (to lure the little fella...might think it's GOLD!) Stickers. Paper cups. Markers. Packing peanuts. (????)

We decorate. We conspire. We set the trap. We wait.
Overnight it seems that we had a 'visitor' the 'swimming pool' has been knocked over. Some of the snacks have been eaten. And the bed and pillow are messed up!!! (they even smell like 'rainbows.')

I CAN. NOT. believe how into this she is!!!
It was the first thing she asked about when she woke up this morning.
She searched and searched the yard.
She sat in the window watching the trap.
She made a trail of coins leading to our back door...leaving the door slightly cracked with more coins coming inside.
She added bait. (animal crackers)
She even set a table for him...leaves for plates and a lovely weed in a vase... SO. CUTE.
She is concerned that she may have to go to school tomorrow empty handed. I have tried to explain that I have never met a single person who has actually caught a leprechaun...they are fast. and sneaky. and really small. so. hard. to. find.

She is determined to be the first.

The plan is for him to leave his hat behind in the morning...hopefully that will suffice...

Setting the Trap...full of anticipation

Rainy Days and Mondays Never Get Her Down...

This rock should make a really good SPLASH!
(Thank you GrandBob and Boppi for the adorable rain gear!)

The drainage problem that provides hours of fun...

"I'm 5" OR
"My sleeve is super wet because I have been trying to find
my really big rock that made a really big splash"
Either one...

At This Rate...

...I will have documented our Disney trip by Christmas 2011...

Missing some seriously cute cuteness as I wait to post things until AFTER Disney posts...

...things like Eli calling pancakes "pampakes."

...and Chloe coming downstairs all dressed for school in:
1 pair of jeans
1 springy skirt
2 long-sleeved shirts
1 tank top
1 short-sleeved shirt
and
1 corduroy jacket.
When I explained that we would need to make some 'amendments' to her outfit she burst into tears proclaiming she had 'worked really hard!' (duly noted)

These are the everyday things we don't want to forget...

Disney Day 1

Our first day of Disney was at Hollywood Studios.

We had no idea what we were in for, but we were excited none the less!!

Highlights:

- the Beauty and the Beast Musical

- Granna made reservations for us at Play n' Dine...while we did not eat much of the great buffet (because there were so many characters to see!!) we had a lot of FUN!!

- We watched a Playhouse Disney Puppet show!

- the Little Mermaid Show

- Exciting Parade with all the Toy Story Characters!

- We met Minnie, Tigger and Eeyore, JoJo and Goliath, and June and Quincy from Little Einstein.

- The TOY STORY MANIA ride!!! SO MUCH FUN! (and a REEEEEAAAAALLLY long line!)

Us at the beginning of the day

Kevin and Chloe

The girls with Minnie!

Yay!! It's Eeyore and Tigger!!

The Hoopers at lunch...bunch of characters...

It's JUNE!!

We were excited to meet her because she is our friend Luke's imaginary 'girlfriend.'

The Stones and the Williams before our Character Lunch

Meeting JoJo...Chloe watched her when she was little

The Parade

Granna and Zeke made this trip possible!

THANK YOU!!!

Daddy and his kids

The Gang...taking a break to figure out what is next!

Photo opp with Mr. Potato Head as we wait in the line-that-never-ended...

All the kids in line...and yes, I mean Kevin, too. :)

Crossing the Florida State Line

What is the customary response to crossing the Florida State Line???

Pulling over at the first rest stop for a free cup of orange juice and getting a picture in front of the Florida State sign, of course!!!

Well, we are a family of keeping things customary (not really)...so pull over is what we did!!

This stop will forever be unforgettable...

We stop...get shoes back on and bundle up because the Sunshine State is pretty chilly on this particular day...

First of all...the welcome center was closed...no orange juice for us...

Eli takes off down the sidewalk...with an adorable skip in his step that makes the Mickey ears on his sweatshirt flop back and forth...so. cute.

"I must get this on video!!"

Roll tape.

(WARNING: I think this will be as painful for you to watch as it is for me...)

It was BAD, people. The left side of his precious face scraped, nose bleeding, eye looking like it is going to bruise, lip bleeding like crazy. I was pretty sure we were going to need stitches...

So sitting on the sidewalk, gently pinching his upper lip together, I started praying...

'Jesus, please heal his lip...please heal his lip..." Cry, cry, cry...(both of us)

"Jesus, please heal his lip..." Cry, cry, cry...

We calm down. Head to the bathroom to clean up. Back to the van to look for something cold...a semi-cold ice pack is refused.

Pull over a few more miles down the road for ice cream which is also refused.

The swelling starts to go down and stitches are not needed. (Thank you, Lord!!)

But that sweet face will show it's war wounds for most of our Disney pics... super sad face...

Sunshine State Sidewalk - 1, Eli - 0.

Frincesses

According to Little D...
Frincess = Princess
Don't you know??

Uncle Dale

Uncle Dale was in town from Spain...somehow his visits tend to coincide with birthday parties...this time it was Little D's 'Frincess Party'.

All four grandkids with Great Uncle Dale...Eli is clearly thrilled.
3 out of 5 looking at the camera was as good as it was going to get!

March In Like a Lion...

If it is dumping snow in Georgia...does that constitute the month of March coming in like a lion?? I don't really get that saying. Does that make me stupid?? :)

Either way...it IS dumping snow in Georgia!!

Kevin and Chloe efficiently made a snow-person in the front yard before he headed into work.

I did not make my Piggly-Wiggly run yesterday for milk, bread or hot chocolate...even with all the 'it might snow tomorrow hype'...feeling like a slacker Southerner...cause guess what...

we are out of milk.
(only because BOTH children decided they needed TWO bowls of cereal this morning...oh, and Kevin and I dived into the cereal after a disgusting night of The Bachelor...which I don't watch by the way...I watched the finale to be relevant...) But really...I don't watch the show on a regular basis! No judgement on those of you who do. :)

In other news...Kevin has our Disney pictures on his new Mac Book. Just a second...let me wipe the drool from my chin...HIS COMPUTER ROCKS!! I do all my important work (i.e. Facebook and this here blog) on my Toshiba...has served me well ever since my Brother-in-law gave it to me. (Thanks, Rob!) But I may have a slight case of the covets...

It took 5 minutes to upload 73 pictures to my Facebook page...ok...maybe a little more than that...but only because I couldn't figure out his computer...all that one click...swipe...2 finger swipe Mac lingo that I am completely illiterate in... But SERIOUSLY!!! That was awesome!

So, I am hoping to use his fancy-pants computer to upload our photos for your enjoyment and possibly to make you as covetous as me...not really, but we did have a FABULOUS time.

Yep. I think I have accomplished my 'most random post' yet!!

Pictures to come!!