Geocaching and static electricity

Today we took yet another ride on the light rail, this time in honor of Josh being awarded the "purple crown" for outstanding behavior at school on Friday. This rarity has only happened for Josh once before, in an incident outlined in my Christmas letter. All we could ascertain from him this time was that he seems to have gotten the purple crown for saying "thank you" to the art teacher. I hope it was for more than that! We're also hoping that there is a correlation between his purple crown behavior and a decision we made with one of his therapists on Thursday to significantly scale back the daily therapy we do with him. We think the therapy has become counterproductive.

Anyway, Josh decided he wanted to ride the train as a reward for his good behavior. This time we stopped off near a trolley stop and a geocache location. Chris and I looked everywhere for that geocache, and we finally gave up and let the kids play with the GPS. I don't know what Josh has in his hand in this photo, but it's not the geocache.

We are having an unusually cold winter here, and the dry air is wreaking havoc on Molly's hair. No matter how much I chase her around with a spray bottle in the mornings and wet down her hair to get it to curl nicely, as soon as the static electricity hits her hair is either plastered to her head or sticking out in all directions.

I think she looks a little like a Dr. Seuss character in the picture below with the weird hair hook coming off the back of her head. I think the summer humidity is going to be her friend.

A Day at the Library

We finally have a weekend with some mild weather, so we took the train uptown to Charlotte's children's library, even though I had just taken the kids there yesterday. We picnicked outside the library (our egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free diet doesn't allow us to eat out anymore) and the kids played on the library's outdoor writing exhibit.

This reminded me of the picture we took of Molly and the pumpkin at the apple farm last fall.

Happy Birthday Molly!

The birthday party I had planned to hold at Molly's preschool today got snowed out, so we had an abbreviated party at home with brownies and presents. We gave Molly a Henry (above), a stuffed animal I loved as a child, and a pair of "shiny shoes," which she is oohing and ahhing over below. The cakes will come later in the week, so stay tuned for yet more pictures of us eating cake. It really is one of our favorite past-times.

Snow Day. Blech.

Charlotte shuts down at the first flake of snow, so the kids are home from school for the second day in a row. They begged to go outside, but it's not as fun when you don't have the proper snow gear (it rarely snows here, so we don't buy snow clothes) and the snow won't stick together to make a snow man! Josh had fun mowing the snow with his toy lawnmower, but Molly was less than impressed with the white stuff. I'm desperately hoping the school buses will be running tomorrow!

It's not a celebration without a cake

We continued the Super Yellow Belt celebration tonight with a cake, which we added candles to at Josh's request. He was a bit confused by the cake at first, asking if he would "turn 6 on Tae Kwon Do." I think he finally understood we were celebrating his achievement, not his sixth birthday.

The cake was a feat in itself, as it adheres to Josh's new dietary restrictions of no dairy, wheat or eggs. The chunk out of the side is where I had to taste it before serving it to guests--I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Luckily, it was a success, and I can now replicate for the upcoming birthday celebrations for Molly.

Vivy came over to celebrate with us, and even she liked my allergen-free cake!

Super Yellow Belt!

A big congratulations goes today to Josh, who passed his test and earned the Super Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do (this is one of several interim steps from white belt to full yellow belt). The testing required some concentration and mastery of a skills, including a sequence of ten positions. We are so proud of Josh, who also earned the "Most Improved" certificate for his class. His instructor said he's never seen a kid improve as much as Josh has, and considering that Josh spent the first few classes twirling around and licking the mirrors, we have come a long way.

It's freezing here

so there's not much news to report because we are just staying inside trying to keep warm. Here are some shots of the kids today.


This is Josh playing on his new computer, which was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa. He got his first taste of computer games at Thanksgiving, when Grandpa let him play Pinball on his computer. After Josh's computer arrived, Josh paused in the middle of his blessing at dinner that night and reverently declared, "Thank you God for Pinball."

More from the new lens

Here are me and Josh at my birthday dinner tonight, and below is a picture Steph took of Molly. This probably was how Molly was feeling about the cake not being served to her fast enough.

Happy Birthday to Me

My big birthday present today was a new lens for our camera, which I've been wanting for a long time. Hopefully this lens will make for better and more interesting pictures of the kids. Molly was sitting next to me at the table this morning, so she endured having her picture taken through breakfast while we tried out the lens. You can also see why we spray her hair down with water before she goes out in public every morning!

Go Gators?

I tried to get the kids to muster up some Gator spirit for a picture celebrating last night's win, but Molly wasn't interested. Josh did demonstrate a tackling technique for her, which only seemed to heighten her distaste for Gator victory celebrations. Maybe there's hope that one of my children will pull for the Tar Heels--and only the Tar Heels.