Scarlett O'Hara

Last March, I found a beautiful cotton curtain panel in a great shade of purple.  It only cost about a dollar and I knew right away that I wanted to use it to make a dress for Ashley.  I figured it could be her Easter dress.  Once in a while I really enjoy the challenge of making something out of nothing, so I used no pattern and just figured out how to implement my ideas.  It takes a long time so I only have it in me to do this once a year or so.  We'll see if I can manage it again next year.

Of course, true to form, I didn't finish it until August!  But slap a sweater on that thing and it works for winter as well.

Ashley wasn't very enthusiastic about pictures this morning, but I made her pose for me anyway.  She thought up this melancholy-faced pose all on her own.

Then I sent her closer to the window so she could watch squirrels play in our yard.  The natural light was much better.

I think Ashley likes the dress.  She calls it her purple princess dress.  I like the petticoat ruffle underneath the top skirt.

I had to post this picture as well, even though it doesn't show the dress.  I sure wish my skin looked as clear and dewy as this!  What a sweet little girl.

Child Psychology

From my understanding, child psychologists often use art to encourage their young patients to express themselves about past traumas.

I thought I would share this with you.  Ashley and I were drawing one day and she said she wanted to draw a whole family of birds.  First came the Mama bird.  Then she drew four babies, one girl and three boys (as our family will have any time now).  Ashley has watched enough Disney movies to know that female animals always have very long, fluttery eyelashes, so naturally that is how she distinguishes the girls from the boys.

And that was that.  But then Ashley tipped her head and examined her picture.  "No, I'm going to make them ALL girls!" she said, "because it's better like that!"

So within a few seconds the Mama bird now had all daughters.

Ashley needed to add one more thing.  "I'm going to draw the meanest, meanest Daddy bird ever!"  she announced.  In the few seconds it took her to doodle his outline, Ashley repeated her original statement about the bird being mean.

"Why is the Daddy bird so mean?" I asked with a laugh.  But she didn't have an answer for me, just a shy grin.

After an addition of a mustache on the Dad's beak (does a mustache make a man evil in the mind of a three-year-old?), Ashley declared her picture complete.

If I were a child psychologist, I might be a little worried.  But I'm not which means I was able to get a good laugh.  Joel, on the other hand, has periodically mentioned the mean daddy aspect of this picture for days.  What does that mean for him?  I'm not a regular psychologist either so it's up to you to decide!

Everett Is Five!

Everett had a good birthday, I think.  He has been looking forward to this day for six months, during which time he'd often tell people that he is "Almost five turning six."

I've mentioned before that Everett is wholly engaged in a major superhero phase.  Well, superhero action figures are all he has been asking for for months on end.  I'd often ask Everett if he could think of anything else he might want as well, and he never could.

Well, superheros we can do!  I found a seller on Ebay who was getting rid of a bunch of figurines and I ordered them.  They were to be Everett's one and only present.  If he was happy with and excited about one present, who am I to argue with that?  In the end I did get him a set of watercolor paints and markers that the other kids could give him, but we kept it pretty simple.  He is still only five and I'm just glad he's not asking for anything fancy.

Everett's morning started off well, because Joel promised him that he would come take Everett out to lunch. Everett told me that he wanted to go to "That place with the girl with the red hair and pigtails."  Hah.  Can you tell that we deprive our kids and don't go out to eat very often?

Everett had a great time and even got to meet some of Joel's co-workers, who also happened to be eating at Wendy's.  Ashley is already looking forward to her birthday so she can go out to a restaurant as well.

Everett first asked for fish for bis birthday dinner, but then changed his mind to bacon and pancakes with whipped cream.  Fine by me!  I even added some raspberries to top the pancakes.   After we ate, Everett finally got to open his presents.

I did something mean, though.  Ashley has a little mermaid with pink hair and she and I wrapped it up to give Everett.  We handed that to him as his one and only present and waited while he opened it.  Ashley thought it was very funny.  Everett, once he got the wrapping paper off, did not.

We got it on video.  Password: birthday

    

If you don't care to watch: 

"I don't want this!!!"  He whined and threw it across the room.  The poor guy had been anticipating his superheroes for so long that this was far more than just a let-down.  He started to cry a little until we told him that it was a joke.  We opened presents at the end of a very long day and I think he may have had a better sense of humor about it had he not been so tired.  But he was certainly relieved when I brought out his real presents.

First was the markers from Ashley.

Then the watercolors from William.

And finally Everett got to open the box full of individually-wrapped superheroes.  I think we got him about fifteen in all--mostly the X-men and their villains and a couple of Spiderman characters.  Ashley was thrilled that there were three female figurines and so the kids have been playing with these constantly.

After presents we had cake.  Everett requested chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and chocolate sprinkles. I decorated it with a Super Everett theme and he was satisfied (Everett asked for a superhero cake but I'm not good enough to freehand Wolverine with frosting).

Everett and Ashley play really well together, even when they mix horses and superheroes.  I just took this picture:  Everett has a lot of his superheroes out on the table right now and he and Ashley are coming up with elaborate scenarios.

Everett's favorite of the figurines is Wolverine, of course.  Once Ashley grabbed Jean Grey and announced, "Look Everett, they can get married!!!"

Everett was offended.  "NO.  Wolverine doesn't marry anyone."

We've heard a lot about what Wolverine does and doesn't do.  This morning Joel gave me a long kiss before he left for work.  Everett was appalled.  "EEeewwww!  Just kiss on the cheek, you guys!"  I told Everett that we were married so we can kiss each other on the lips, to which he replied, "Well, if Wolverine was married he would still only kiss on the cheek."

And there you have it--wisdom from a five-year-old.  We love this sweet boy and are so glad he is in our family.  Everett truly is my special helper.  He is great at doing chores and is happy to help me by running to fetch things for me.  He also is very caring toward his younger siblings and I know he will do great with the new baby as well.

Waiting Games

William always seems to know when it is about time for Joel to get home from work.  Because we have a one-car garage, Joel parks his car in front of the house, which means William has a great view of him through the big picture window in our living room.

Often William camps out here and watches for Papa's car.  Most of the time he is alone but occasionally one of the other kids joins him.

Once Joel does come home, William laughs and laughs and runs right into his arms.  I don't ever get tired of watching his enthusiasm.

Everett likes a different approach.  He and Ashley drag the mattress off the toddler bed, strip it of sheets, and bring it down to use as a barricade by the front stairs.  Then they ask me to get Joel's nerf gun (his Father's Day present this year) out, load it up, and then the three of them sit and wait.

Everett gets antsy and has to peek over the top often.

Then finally Joel arrives and the ambush begins!

But the kids always underestimate Joel's strength and are genuinely surprised when he can push through their cushy barricade.

Lots of laughs, lots of noise, lots of chaos and running around.  That's the way it goes around here!

New Beds

We decided to get Everett a bunk bed and move Ashley into his old bed.  We figured that in a couple of years we will have three kids who need regular-sized beds, so getting a bunk bed now makes more sense than getting another twin when we want a bunk bed eventually anyway.

Well, the kids are a fan of the new arrangement.  Everett sleeps on the top of his bunk bed (surprise, surprise).  He was so excited the first night he slept up there that he didn't even care if I tucked him in or not.  This was a big deal, people.  This is something I've been doing for him every night for almost five years now, and Everett is always insistent that I be the only one to perform this ritual.

Here is the boys' room with the bunk bed.  The new baby will sleep in here with Everett since he is our soundest sleeper by far and will need his room less often than anyone else.  Of course, if this arrangement doesn't work, we could always put all three kids in here and keep the baby by himself (or a number of different combinations).

Ashley and William now share this room.  No, William does not care if he sleeps on a purple pillow and uses a pink quilt, but he does care that the giant stuffed animal dog is in bed with him.  Usually we find him laying across the dog instead of on his pillow.  

William has adjusted pretty well to being in a toddler bed.  He has only been using it for a couple of days but he runs to it now when we tell him it is time for bed.  It does take him quite a while to get settled down at night, which means he keeps Ashley awake.  Since we don't have any toys in this room there is not much for him to get into, and I think in time he will just accept that this is time for sleep.

Ashley loves having a big bed.  You can't see it in the picture, but she chose purple sheets for her bed.  The quilt currently on her bed was a wedding present from my Grandma.  It looks pretty cute in there but I did promise Ashley that I would make her a bedspread similar in style to Everett's rocket ship one.  She wants a horse on it.  This sounds trickier than I can manage but we'll see.

We just repainted the trim and walls in this room.  It was pretty bad before.  The dark wood trim was in terrible shape and the walls were taupe on the top and bright blue on the bottom once we removed the hospital-grade wallpaper.  But there is only a chair rail along three sides of the room.  What do you think we should do with the plain wall?  Paint it somehow, like with a full-wall stencil?  Find some large artwork?  Leave it alone?  Install a new piece of molding to mach the existing chair rail?  If you have any ideas at all, I'd love to hear about them because I am fresh out!

More Firefighter Stuff

I forgot to add something to my post about our firefighter day at school.  Everett and Ashley made their own fire trucks!  It was not as fun as painting a box would be, but it is a lot smaller to store and I didn't have the right kind of paints anyway.

I knew they could draw a fire truck.  They draw vehicles all the time.  But could they cut one out of paper?  

I guess they can!  It was fun to see them figure out what shapes they needed, and yes, I did give a little input.  Poor Ashley couldn't find her little preschool-sized scissors and was stuck with big ones.  I helped her with the wheels but she did everything else on her own.  Everett got down to business, as usual.

I thought they turned out pretty cute so I wanted to save them electronically (my track record for papers is not great).

Halloween

Here is a glut of pictures for a glut of candy on a glut of a holiday.  Presenting: the Johnson Superheroes (and their dog)!!!

William wasn't too keen on having the dog costume hood up until I showed him what he looked like in the mirror and said, "Look, William is a dog!"  This boy loves dogs and was very excited. 

Everett and Ashley gathered quite a collection of candy.  William didn't walk up to very many doors so he only had a few pieces.

He was pretty excited about it, though.  He never gets candy!

Ashley was thrilled to be Supergirl.  

We ran an errand in the car today, with both kids dressed in their full superhero gear, and Ashley informed me that Supergirl does not ride in cars; she only flies.  Well, then.

(Mr. Tough Guy, sticking his chest out and all)

Everett has been dreaming of his Wolverine costume for a long time.  I didn't find one I liked for a price I liked so I made this one from scratch.  I wanted it to be separates so he can wear it around whenever he wants.

It was pretty funny while we were trick-or-treating to watch Everett try to grab candy and put it in his bag with those dowel-claws of his.  Mostly he found a way to be successful but he was very slow.

I would not have gone through all the effort of making Everett this costume if I didn't think he will wear it all the time.  There is a chance the novelty will wear off faster than I expect but I think he will get a lot of use out of it.  If not, maybe I'll make Everett be Wolverine again next year!