Last night at 4:30 I realized it was almost time for AWANA. (AWANA is basically a church youth group for kids ages 4 through 5th grade. They meet at a local church and my kids LOVE it.) We hadn’t been in a few weeks because we’ve been sick, so I thought the girls might want to go.
Me: Girls! It’s almost time for AWANA, do you want to go tonight?
Aubrey: Really Momma? We can go to AWANA right now?
Me: (feeling like a loser because they’ve missed so much) Yes honey, get some shoes on.
Aubrey: Emma! Hurry! Get your jacket, it’s cold there!

They scrambled to get clothes and Zeb helped Emma get her shoes on.

Aubrey: Momma, is it going to take a long time to get there?
Me: No, it’s just a few blocks away.
Aubrey: But Momma, it’s REALLY far.
Me: No it’s not honey. Remember, where Sara goes to church?
Aubrey: (bursts into tears) NO! I don’t want to go to THAT AWANA!!
Me: (seriously confizzled) What AWANA do you want to go to? That’s the only one I know, honey.
Aubrey: DAD! You know! The one we saw on TV!? Where the gold is? THAT AWANA! You said we could go there one day!!
Zeb: You mean ALASKA?
Aubrey: (still crying) YES! I want to go to Alaska!!
Me: Honey, we aren’t going to Alaska on a Sunday night… I just meant church. Do you want to go or not?

She went, but she was totally ticked. And Emma cried when we got to the church and said, “This isn’t Alaska, I don’t want to stay here.”

For. The. Love.

Today I took Aubrey and Emma shopping at two different Dollar General-type stores to spend the allowance they earned this week. Emma, as always, went for the $3 generic Barbie (luckily THIS time there were no strippers on the shelves.) Aubrey… well Aubrey discovered the whoopee cushion… there has been lots of faux tooting, giggling and poorly planned pranks.

Aubrey had to get a hair cut today, because we haven’t been able to get a brush through her hair for the last two weeks. It’s so curly they have to straighten it to cut it, and she LOVES it. She calls it “flat hair” and when I told her she was going to get her hair did today she said, “Oh Momma! Will they make it all flat like last time, when it puffed up just like a dandy-lion!?”

I said yes, even though I’m not sure I understood the dandelion reference. She was stoked.

As soon as we walked in the door and Emma saw Aubrey toss her now silky smooth hair she had a fit, “MOMMA! I want weally fat hay-uh wike Sissy! Not cully hay-uh wike dis!!” She grabbed a couple of fistfuls of hair.

So I flat ironed my 4-year-olds hair and wondered how all those crazies on Toddlers & Tiaras do it. I’m lucky if me and my kids have the attention span and incentive to actually wash and brush their hair on the same day… forget putting eyeliner on a preschooler.

You can’t IMAGINE the amount of hair tossing that has gone on in my house today.

My sister and her little boy Tucker have been at my house visiting for the last week. I haven’t had time to blog because, well…just look at the pictures. You’ll see.

“I love playing with my cousin!”Sadie realized she had the chance to be the boss of somebody.
My sister said, “WHY did he just sit there and let her play him like the bongos??” (I think it’s hilarious that her little hands were moving so fast they are just a blur.)

Tucker is an only child, for the time being, and he is not used to the amount of abuse Sadie receives on a daily basis from her big sisters. But it didn’t take him very long to realize that the Rules of Engagement are a little different around here. So my sister and I have spent our waking hours trying to keep the two babies from beating the crap out of each other.

Yesterday afternoon the girls and I hit up Sonic Happy Hour for slushies. I downed my Powerade slushie before bedtime, but the girls both had about half of their watermelon slushies left. We stuck them in the fridge last night and I promised them they could finish them today.

At 7:00am this morning I was sleeping soundly in my bed when I heard the thundering of two little feet, running through the house. And I’m not talking about the pitter-patter of little feet. I’m talking about full on sister war. I could hear them screaming, thrashing and throwing elbows as they thundered through the house screaming, “MOMMY!!!”

I sat straight up in bed as they burst through my bedroom door. Aubrey was hysterical. “MOMMA! Emma threw my slushie away!!!” She hiccuped.

Emma was screaming and clutching her slushie in a death grip.

“Get out of my room and go to the kitchen now! If y’all wake Sadie up you are going to be sorry!”

They ran to the other side of the house a little more quietly. I got up and followed them to find them laying in Aubrey’s bed, sharing Emma’s slushie.

“WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?” I asked.

Aubrey: Well Emma threw my slushie out.
Me: Emma what did you do?
Emma: I frew Sissy’s swushie out da door…
Me: You threw it outside? WHY?
Emma shrugged. -I dunno. But we ahre shawing mine now Mommy. Here Aubrey…
Emma shoved her straw in Aubrey’s mouth and she slurped happily.

REALLY? I don’t like to speak or be spoken to before 10am. If they were going to work this out on their own did they have to wake me up? And what the heck Emma?? She actually went outside and dumped Aubrey’s slushie out before 7am.

FOR. THE. LOVE.

They just don’t know how lucky they are that their Daddy had already made coffee before he left for work!

How’d your kids wake you up this morning?

This is what happened when I put Emma in time-out for pushing Sadie. Emma cried. Sadie consoled her by sitting in time-out with her. Sadie now likes to push, pinch and pull hair so she can go to time-out herownself…cause that’s what big girls do, right?

Apparently my 3 year old has figured out how to use the camera on my iPhone. I spent approximately 10 minutes deleting pictures of: the wall, the floor, her blurry face and what appears to be either her half eaten dinner or an extreme close up of the contents of our trashcan. There was one jewel though…