Art Show

Are you drowning in all of the artwork your kids bring home from school?  I know we were.  And my kids wanted to save EVERYTHING.

Problem is?  I don't WANT to save everything.  There's no NEED to save everything.  And quite frankly, most of the work is NOT worth saving.  (Sorry, my budding Picassos.)

Fortunately, having been the mom of an elementary school child for a while, I knew that their teachers would save most of the best artwork and then send it home at the end of the year.  So 99% of the artwork that came home during the school year?  Into the recycle bin; the kids never missed them.  If the artwork was beloved I would offer to take a picture of it or let them pin it up on their corkboards in their bedrooms.  No room on the corkboards?  Time to take something down.  The kids got used to this rule and there was no more fussing about what we kept.

But with the amount that came home at the end of the year we decided that we'd have a little art show before sending it to the recycle bin.  I told the boys we'd put the art up on the wall for a week or two and then they could each choose 3 pieces they could keep.  It was a deal.

Well, last Friday was the last day of our art show.  We were planning on painting the basement (Which we did!  Hallelujah and amen!) and the art needed to come down.  Please note that the art on the wall is probably only about 1/6th of the artwork brought home all year.  (Not counting all of the crayon drawings done in Kindergarten.  THOUSANDS of those came home, people!)

Here are the proud artists.  I think the sign I made was a nice touch, right?

And here are just some of the favorites.  My personal favorite?  The portrait Josh did of ME. In art class.  He calls it (and I am NOT making this up) "Mommy's Bad Hair Day".

Umm... should I be flattered?  I don't know.  Okay, yes, my curls have been a little crazy as I've tried to reign them in.  But what's up with the red eyes?  I'm loving the luscious red lips, though.

I think this was Spencer's.  Or maybe Josh's.  I don't know.  (Spencer doesn't really care much about art, but Josh sure loves it!)

Josh's puppy, done in colored pencils.  (He was especially proud of this one.)

Josh hand and water color art.

Josh's castle.

Josh's self-portrait. (He must get his lips from my side of the family.)

Spencer's "Mouse Warhol". I don't get it, either.  Must be modern art.

Spencer's rendition of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", done in pastels.  I think it's pretty good!

CAUTION: Feral Child on the Loose

CAUTION.

One feral child has been seen on the loose at the Madsen residence.

Answers to: Tess, Tess-bess, Tessie, Messy Tessie, Tessie-pie, and Hey You.

Sounds like: a screaming banshee, a singing little girl, a bear, a lion, and sometimes a puppy.

Last seen: running across the living room, screeching at the top of her lungs.

Refuses to: have her hair combed, wear anything other than the dress pictured, stop growing up and becoming such a big girl, pose for the camera, smile for the camera, take long naps, hold still for poopy diaper changes, eat anything other than fruit snacks at snack time, and acknowledge Mommy's protests against eating dirt.

Likes: dancing in the kitchen with Mommy, drinking milk and reading books on mom and dad's bed, singing the ABCs and Popcorn Popping, throw food off of the table when she's done, rolling around in sand, having Daddy hold her RIGHT when he gets home, and chase Josh around with sticks.

This feral child is dangerously cute.  If you see her, proceed with caution.

Happy 35th Birthday, Lance!

Lance's 35th birthday was yesterday.  We celebrated with grand fanfare!

And by grand fanfare I mean we went to church.  And then we came home.  And then I did a quick, unexpected visiting teaching thing while Lance stayed at home with the kids.  And then Lance had a nap.  And then we had dinner and cheesecake.

The cheesecake was spectacular. (Mainly because I didn't have to make it.) ((Kidding.  It was DELICIOUS.  See, I edited Don's dissertation and in return Heidi made a New York cheesecake with homemade cherry topping for Lance's birthday.  I'm pretty sure I got the better end of the deal here.))

Anyway, poor Lance.  His birthday was not very celebrated.  However, I don't know that he really minds all that much.  Lance likes a party just as much as the next guy, but he also likes things to be low key every now and then.  (This is why we only have 2 big parties a year, as opposed to, oh, 6 or 7.  Lance reigns me in.)

Because I did not want the wax of 35 candles on such a lovely cheesecake, I decided to make one row of three and one row of five: thirty-five, right?  But Cole counted them all and now thinks Lance is eight.  It's pretty awesome.  Spencer and Josh get a pretty big kick out of it.

So I was thinking that I should do some big, grand gesture on this post about Lance.  Like list 35 things I love about him or write some epic poem full of inside jokes.  But I don't know that that's really necessary.

What I can tell you is this: Lance helped me put up a rabbit fence around my garden and didn't complain once.  He also helped me repaint the entire great room of our basement the day before his birthday.  He cleans the dishes after dinner every night and he often puts the kids to bed by himself while I'm out of the house doing church stuff/girl stuff/whatever.  He lets me steal the blankets in bed.  He has mini LAN parties with the boys and talks to Tessie about cute dresses.  He compliments on how I look every Sunday morning.  He enjoys his job and he works hard at it.  He often does the laundry on Saturdays.  He builds computers a and stairs and pinewood derby cars and digital picture frames and he's good at it, too.

What it all boils down to is this: he's a good man and I'm lucky to have him.

Happy 35th birthday, Lance.  I love you!

Joshie/Mommy Date

One of the prizes in the kids' Easter eggs this year was a coupon for a date with mommy or daddy.  Josh decided to use his coupon tonight.

I told him we could go to any restaurant he wanted, so of course he chose Teppanyaki.  That kid loves a buffet.

Josh was so excited for our date, which was so sweet!  He gabbed all the drive down and held my hand as we walked into the restaurant.  He had so much fun choosing what he wanted to eat and I had fun asking him questions, listening to his answers, and giving him my undivided attention.

That boy ate a lot - I was quite impressed.  He was especially happy because I told him I didn't care how many desserts he ate!  I even let him finish about a fourth of my Diet Pepsi when his drink ran out and we were leaving.  I don't know that he really liked the soda, but he enjoyed it out of the principle of the matter. (I don't generally allow my kids to drink caffeinated sodas.)

At the end of our meal I let him throw a penny into the wishing pond - a rare treat.  (I'm not one to just go throw money away.)

Afterwards I bribed him into running a few errands with me.  All it cost was a trip to the dollar store and allowing him to pick something out.  He was in heaven.  He chose candy corn, which is bizarre to me because 1) why in the world does any store have candy corn out this time of year, and 2) who chooses candy corn over... well... anything?  Guess I learned something new about Josh.

While we were in Hobby Lobby he said his feet hurt, so I let him squish into the cart.  (They have tiny carts there.  Why, Hobby Lobby, why?)  I called him my "giant baby", which he got a huge kick out of.

On the way home he claimed that he was going to marry me when he grew up.  I told him that I was flattered, but that I was already married to Daddy.  He said he didn't care - he was going to marry me and Daddy could go marry someone else.  I told him that would make me really sad because I had really come to like to Daddy.  (I also said that I had "grown accustomed to his face", but this flew over Josh's head.)  So Josh conceded and claimed that I could be married to Daddy, but Josh would live next door to us and we would be neighbors.  This was a deal I could live with.

Man oh man, I love that kid.

Ice Cream Cone Zombie

Trust me - the face and mess were far more impressive in person.

Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, Tess refuses to smile for pictures anymore.  Punk kid.

Favorite Moments of the Day

1. We were at Sam's Club and had to take a potty break.  Since Spencer wanted to stay out with the cart and Tess, I made Josh and Cole come in with me to the women's restroom.  We walked in and I noticed Josh looking around for something.

Me: What are you looking for, Josh?
Josh: Where are the urinals?
Me: Um, Josh, there aren't any urinals in girl bathrooms.
Josh (still looking a little confused): Oh...

Fortunately, he didn't question me beyond that.

2. I got Spencer to help me finish sanding the dang dresser I've been working on refinishing for his room for so long.  He loved it.  I really should have had him help me earlier.  Perhaps I'll let him help me paint.

Maybe not.

3. I just caught two rabbits sneaking around my garden fence, apparently testing for weaknesses just like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.  I watched them for a bit, silently laughing. Stupid rabbits!  You can't get in my garden now! Then I snuck outside.  And then I threw rocks at them.  And then I laughed out loud, only to realize that the neighbor's son and his friends (who are all home from college for the summer and apparently don't have jobs and just get to play basketball and video games all day) were all staring at me.  Obviously these kids are not farmers or they would have joined me in the rock throwing.

The only good rabbit is one outside of a 10 mile radius from my home.

Stupid rabbits.

The Train! The Train!

Last night we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go to Columbian Park for Family Home Evening.  We played on the park and ate a yummy picnic dinner.  But before that we had to do one very important thing: ride the train.

We haven't been on the train in quite a while - I'm pretty sure Cole was a little baby the last time.  I'm not sure why; life just gets in the way.  That, and tickets are now $2 a piece.  TWO BUCKS?!  Are you kidding me?  Well, I guess it's worth doing at least once a year, especially because the kiddos love it so much.  (Especially Cole and Tess, who are fans of Dumbo and really like the train scenes.)

Cole was super excited.

He was also super sad when we got to the "depot" (read: a couple of picnic tables under a tree) and the train had already left.

For some reason he wouldn't believe that the train would come back.  You can imagine how pleasant it was waiting for that dang train.

Tess and Daddy were fine with the wait!

But the train finally came back and we all happily hopped on board.

Random side note: When we could see the train coming Josh started yelling "De train!  De train" and he sounded just like that guy on that ancient TV show Paradise Island that used to shout "De plane!  De plane!".  Am I aging myself here?  In my defense, I think I was pretty little when that show came on.  I have vivid memories of watching that and Love Boat with my aunt Lisa while we were visiting Grandpa and Grandma Burgoyne's house once.

Just a little non-sequitur there for you.

Spencer's an old pro at riding the park train!

Josh was excited to be allowed to ride by himself and several rows back.  Then he complained and whimpered the entire ride.  Six year olds are fun.

Tess sure was happy.  I think she got a little nervous once we started moving, but did fine once I put her on my lap.

That is one happy FOUR year old!  (He admits his age now.)

The best shot I was going to get with all four in front of the engine.  It was a distraction technique because Cole and Tess were sure we needed to go on another ride.

Sorry kiddos - not until next year!