Lost

I have a bad habit of losing things. I fully expect someday to lose my mind. My parents used to get mad at me for losing things and I have to admit I lost some pretty big things. For example, I lost my fancy graphing calculator the last day of high school. I lost (and found) my purse countless times at BYU. I lost my purse once at a mall after John and I were married and had to replace lots of things. I lost the band part of my wedding ring on a trip to Colorado. I left it at the people's house that we stayed with and they found it and planned to send it back to me until their teenage daughter accidentally threw it away. Nowadays I am pretty good at not losing things when I'm with the kids because I always double check everything. I find however that I actually lose more things when I am with John. I think I count on him taking care of things and so I end up losing things. In all fairness, he does a pretty good job.

So, the reason I'm pondering on this subject at all is that I lost a family heirloom gold ring on our trip home from Buffalo. I have been wearing it as my wedding ring for a while because my wedding ring is too small (my fingers and my feet both seem to have grown with each kid we've added). I left it at a hotel in Nebraska, and didn't realize I didn't have it until half way through Wyoming. We called the hotel but of course no one had seen it. I am really bummed about it because it was a ring of my grandma's that my mother gave me when I turned 12 and it was beautiful. I know that things aren't people, but I really liked that ring.

I guess on the up side, John said I could go shopping for a new wedding band. My finger feels naked without anything on it. I'm excited and hope that I can find what I want. We are going to go see Ryan and know that he will take care of us.

Book Club Reading List

My book club has lined up the book list for the next year. I'm supposed to help head up the club but I really don't do anything, especially since I've been gone all summer. But I thought I'd post the book list so I won't forget and if you want to come call me.
Sept--Snowflower and the Secret Fan
Oct--Waiting for Normal
Nov--North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Jan--The Lost City of Z
Feb--The Lightning Thief
Mar--The Hiding Place
Apr--Gurnsey Literary Potato Pie Society

I don't know if all the titles are exactly correct but that's good enough and feel free to read along.

Things I Love About Buffalo #4 (and last): Hanging Out With John's Family

The best thing about Buffalo is getting to spend some time with John's family. I love staying at John's parents because we always have a great time. The kids love getting to know his parents on a day to day basis. And this time we got the extra bonus of hanging out with Amy and her kids, Evan and Madelyne. The kids loved hanging out with them and, frankly, were kind of lost after they left. And we also got to meet Dave's wife Lisa and see their house. It was great! We had so much fun that I neglected to take any pictures. People always say they can't believe that I would go and stay for a long time with John's parents (the in-laws), but I couldn't have a better time with my own parents. Thanks Pam and Rod for such a great time and for tolerating us for so long. We all had fun and can't wait to come back. The girls will especially miss the great tree house that John's dad built. Thanks again. We love Buffalo!

Payne Family Dance Party

I got a whole bunch of cheap CDs at the dollar store. They have popular songs redone by somebody (I'm not sure who). I also found a CD by Art Garfunkel and some CDs by Barenaked Ladies. Anyway, I loaded them all onto my computer and then the other day I turned them on shuffle and we had a dance party. I let the songs play for like 30 seconds and then went to the next song. The girls are hilarious dancers. I would have taken some pictures but they were moving too fast.

And then yesterday the girls went out in the pool again. I brought the laptop and we had a pool dance party. It was funny to see the girls' reactions to the different music. I had everything from classical music to the That's So Raven theme song. When the Raven song came on, Ruth said, "It's the Raven song!" I think it is pretty pathetic when my 4 year old can identify the Raven song in the first few bars. Oh well!! Who can fight the power of Disney? Anyway, I definitely think there will be more dance parties in our future.

Kindness Begins at Home

On the way to church in Buffalo, there is a billboard that says, "Be kind to strangers, visit your in-laws." I thought it was funny since I am at my in-laws. The kindness is about to end--we leave on Saturday, but we've had a great time. We love Buffalo!! John's parents have been super nice to us. We hope to come back soon.

Pool Party at Grandma's

Grandma Payne bought a small blow-up pool for the backyard. A few days ago it was finally warm enough to swim and the girls had a party. One of the great things about their backyard is that it is mostly shaded all day long so the girls hardly ever get sunburned, no matter how long they spend outside. As you can see they had a ball.

Peas in a Pod

Here is a "How many people can we fit in grandpa's chair?" moment. I like to tell the kids that the Payne kids run as a pack. Here's a great example.



And here's the odd one out. She could have fit in the chair, but why when you could have a whole chair to yourself. But most days she fits right in.

Out to Lunch

After the museum, John's mom offered to take everyone out to lunch. We picked Friendly's, a sit down family restaurant. When we got there and told the people that we needed a table for 2 adults and 8 children, with a high chair and 4 booster seats, I think they thought we were crazy. Frankly I was beginning to think we were crazy. And the waitress kept saying how brave she thought we were. Another lady offered to give us her wild kids. I thought, Don't you think we have enough already. But I'm glad to say this is a story with a happy ending. The kids were good, angelic really, and they ate all their food. A couple came up to us and said they were the best behaved group of kids they'd seen in a long time, that they didn't even know they were there, and they were sitting across the aisle from us. I have to say Pam and I did a pretty good job of getting their orders and stuff, but the kids really were good. They had a lot of fun, and, since all the meals at Friendly's come with ice cream, they all left happy. Some of them ate so much food, I'm not sure where they fit it all. Here's some pictures of the good kids. It's nice to have well behaved kids every once in a while.

The strawberry and chocolate milk options in the kid meals were big hits with everyone.

Adam ate a whole cheeseburger by himself. He worked on it for about a half hour and even passed up ice cream to finish it. It must have been good.

The crayons and coloring menu were also popular and kept the kids busy for quite a while.

And the ice cream made everyone happy. It was a great lunch. I know I came home full.

Happy girls!!

Science Playground

The last thing that the girls really liked at the Science museum was the playground. They had a great big room filled with toys to teach science hands-on for little people.

They had dress-up,

ecosystem play sets,

puzzles, water experiments and a tree house with building blocks.

It was great. The kids played for an hour or more and they would have stayed longer but it was time for lunch. They even had a little gated off area for babies and toddlers that Adam, Lily and Madelyn really liked.

It was great!! I loved it and so did they.

Connections at the Buffalo Science Museum

The museum had this really cool area where they had little mini exploration stations set up for the kids to do stuff hands-on. They could simulate a shrinking wetland ecosystem, or perform their own CSI investigation by making a photo of a suspect using actual police software. They had puzzles of the human body, or models of the moon, or things to feel like fur to guess what they were. They had an ant farm and an actual hornet nest (uninhabited) to study. It was really amazing and the girls loved it. We only did about half of what they had so we'll have to go back. (We bought a membership so we will.)

The other cool thing was that everywhere they had these cool quotes talking about the importance of science, exploration, and making connections. I love the power of words and I love the sciences, so to me, it was perfect. I really loved it.

Tag Team Potty Training

Ruth and Lily both wore underwear all day today.

Potty training is definitely my least favorite part of parenting so far, but I guess peer pressure is my greatest asset. When we came to Buffalo, their 3 year old cousin Madeline was potty training too-only she wore panties everyday, and only wore pull-ups at naptime and bedtime. One day John's mom was asking Madeline if she had underwear on and Ruth heard her. Her head flipped around and she said in an incredulous voice, "Madeline wears underwear?" John's mom said "Yes, she does. She is a big girl." Ruth seemed to mull this over (because she is 4 years old and the bigger kid but she was wearing pull-ups all the time, and was having a hard time going potty in the potty consistantly.) Anyway, the next day Ruth told me, "Mom, I would go potty in the potty if you would just let me wear underwear." I said, "Ok, you can wear underwear." She put some on, and about 5 days later, she has only had one or two minor accidents. She has even been wearing underwear at night and has been fine. Apparently she just needed sufficient motivation.

Then this morning Lily, who is 2 going on 5, told me that she too was a big girl and needed to wear underwear. We coopted some of Ruth's and she wore it all day today, even during her nap and had no problem staying dry. I made her wear a pull-up tonight because I'm not totally confident in her ability to wake up and go potty and she's sleeping on one of John's mom's beds, but I think she is doing great.

All I can say is that if I can get Ruth and Lily both potty trained while we are here in Buffalo, I would be one happy camper. And I would only have one kid left and I'm delegating that boy to John. Wahoo!!!

Adam's Visit to the Museum

Adam had a stroller's eye view of the museum. He is not at the roaming age and he is too heavy to carry for more than about 10 minutes, so he spent most of his time in the stroller. Here are his highlights for the visit.

He loved the rabbits but couldn't see them all that well. Oh well, he gets plenty of rabbits at home.

Here he met the remains of a really big turtle that lived at the Buffalo Zoo for about 100 years. He seemed suitably impressed.

Finally we found a place in the play area that was reserved for babies. He liked the shape sorters and puzzles.

He liked all the toys. He especially liked the mirror book that made him look like different animals.

Overall, I think he had a pretty good experience. He went without a bottle all morning because we left it in the car and he never got too upset. He must have been having too much fun. What a happy boy.

Flowers

At the Buffalo Science Museum, they had this great display of flower paintings with quotes about flowers underneath. I thought it was awesome and kind of gave me chills, so I took some pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Live Dinosaurs

This crazy dinosaur at the Science Museum just wouldn't stand still for his picture. It was very Night at the Museum-ish.

Free Movies and the Buffalo Science Museum

We have been trying to do a few fun things with the kids while we're in Buffalo. They have a series of free movies that we tried out last week. The girls saw a VeggieTales movie and seemed to enjoy it. We're going to go again tomorrow.

Another day we decided to go to the Buffalo Science Museum. I decided to buy a family membership because it was almost the same as going twice and I get free access to some museums in Utah. I think it will be great and I think we'll go back at least twice while we're here. They had tons of hands-on stuff for the kids to do, but I'll blog more about that another day. Here's the girls and their cousins entering the museum. You can see how excited they all were. It really was fun.

My Positive Role as a Parent

The other day I bought this foam puzzle at the dollar store for Adam and Lily. We have an alphabet one like it at home and everyone loves it. When I opened it I found a paper that said this, "By choosing this number puzzle, you have already committed yourself to play a positive role in your child’s education." I had to laugh. I didn't know I was taking such a big step. Next time I'll be more careful.

Things I Love About Buffalo #3: Clowning Around With the Cousins

The kids have loved playing around with the cousins.

Evan and Madeline fit right in with the whole group and I think the girls have enjoyed having a boy in the mix. It's one long party. John's parents have a great treehouse/play set in the back yard along with bikes and a kitchen set and tool bench. They also have a great play room in the basement with all kinds of toys. It is fun to see the kids have so much fun with their cousins that they don't get to see that often.