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Brooke

Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park

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We had just about the funnest day ever the other day.  Dallas had to take a week off of work in order to use up all his paid vacation days before he lost them so we dedicated one of those days to visiting Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park.

The Aviary was a lot bigger and had more exotic birds than I was expecting.  We got there right as a show was beginning.  They were introducing us to several different types of birds and the birds would fly right over our heads.

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Madison loved it:

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There were fun things to climb on:

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There were little bird houses throughout that featured different birds.  Spencer had to keep an eye on them:

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We got to see how we measure up:

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Brooke with a peacock:

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My highlight was meeting this little bird:

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He was just roaming around the area. If you approached him he’d run away from you like any other normal bird.  However, if you ran AWAY from him he’d start chasing you.  So imagine you’re a little kid, who likes to run, and all of a sudden you notice this somewhat large bird is chasing you.  So you run faster.  Which makes the bird run faster and the only way to get him to stop is for you to stop running.  But try explaining that to the kid who is running all around faster and faster and screaming because the bird is about to attack her and she won’t stop running for anything because her life depends on her needing to keep running when actually, she needs to STOP running!  It’s all very confusing to the child and hilarious to the parents.

And maybe it will be hilarious to you, too?  We took video:

This is Brooke very carefully WALKING because the chasing bird of doom was near:

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We forgot our stroller (GAH!) so little missy had her dreams come true as she was able to wander around as she pleased:

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While the Aviary was fun, it was also hot which got the kids complaining right away.  Spencer found a shady bench, hung his hat up, and took a little rest:

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We found some rare species of owls hanging out in a tree:

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The never-before-seen Caroline Piggy Owl.  You can almost hear her hooting:

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We found a picture that you can stick your faces through, and it was perfect!  Three spots for three faces!  Except one of the face holes was too tall for Caroline to reach so you might notice she’s hanging on for dear life as her feet dangle below:

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The kids were positively DYING of heat and hunger and thirst so we headed out of the Aviary and into Liberty Park with our picnic lunches.  We found a nice, shady tree and ate and drank:

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We were right next to this huge hill that the kids weren’t too hot or tired to run up and down a billion times. Go figure.

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Dallas took Caroline and Spencer to the bathroom.  Brooke saw them coming back so she hid behind a tree to scare them. They caught on and hid behind a tree to scare HER.  It was an amusing game of stalemate that lasted several minutes before Brooke made the move and ran out to get them.

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They had paddle boats and canoes that you could ride.  Dallas decided to take the big kids out:

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Caroline was pretty convinced she was going to die:

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They had a fun water play area that was just opening for the day.  The kids loved splashing there.  We just may have to go back sometime when we’re actually wearing swimming suits:

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And that ends our very fun day. We actually wanted to stay longer and play at the park playground but Madison was more than ready for her nap so we had to head home.  Hopefully we can make it back again soon and finish exploring the park.

Potpourri

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Once again I have a million pictures saved up that I feel compelled to show you, so here’s another installment of Potpourri!

The kids wanted to go to Yogurtland.  Dallas said it was too expensive and that we could have a similar experience buying our own ingredients and doing it at home.  Then he proceeded to go to the store and spend more money on ice cream and toppings than we would have had we gone to Yogurtland in the first place.  (Dallas would like to point out that at least we got multiple servings from the ingredients he bought.) Either way, we all had fun:

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Dallas allowed us an authentic trip to Yogurtland. (It was the day they were giving out yogurt for free.)

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One Sunday Dallas pulled out the hard drive with all of our kids’ baby videos on it and let them watch.  They laughed and laughed and laughed:

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Dallas had a birthday (…four months ago…):

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Brooke made a stuffed pony:

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Dallas thought Spencer needed a stuffed animal so he got him a Hobbes tiger.  Spencer loved him immediately:

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We’ve been trying to be better at using our children for slave labor while we sit back and take pictures:

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I stumbled upon the kids and this setup.  I asked what was going on.  Caroline was in the baby’s room speaking into the monitor so her voice was projecting into the living room where the rest of the kids (and stuffed animals) were in “church” listening.

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Brooke made a house:

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Apparently the kids felt like we didn’t get enough use out of our sleds this year during our winter of no snow so they pulled them out of the garage and gave each other sled rides:

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Looks like Madison likes sledding!

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When we’re outside Madison heads straight for our porch stairs because she loves nothing more than to perch precariously on slabs of cement, threatening to fall with each movement, and smiling at me as I save her from tumbling to her death.

One day Caroline gave herself the job of keeping Madison off the stairs.  She started off with just using the umbrella to keep her away.  Here she’s introduced the sled as another obstacle, or as Caroline explains, “Madison is on Level 2.”

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Madison with her cute cousin:

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Brooke learned how to weave paper baskets at school and came home excited to show us her new talent.  She made Madison an Easter basket which doubles as a helmet:  M4 - 1

Madison has taken a liking to sleeping with her doll:

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Spencer told us Hobbes was trying to get on the couch:

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Then Spence put Hobbes to bed along with all of his prized possessions:

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Now how about some pictures with no captions?

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A Creativity Conundrum

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I think I’ve mentioned once or twice (or in practically every blog post) that Brooke is pretty creative.  It’s one of our favorite things about her.  Here are some things she’s done lately that we’ve loved.

Someone introduced her to the game Twister.  It was so fun she had to come right home and make up her own version of the game:

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Here are more of her Play-Doh creations.  She designed dresses for her ponies and had a fashion show:

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Then she made a pony band.  Notice the blue winged pony on the left is the conductor.  The pink pony at the top of the picture is playing the maracas, the one below that is on drums, then there’s an orange pony on the piano and the purple pony on the bottom is playing a horn:

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Here’s another view.  Now you can see the frog singing in his microphone and the orange pony at the top on the guitar:

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Brooke was mighty proud of her maraca.  (I was impressed, too!  That thing was pretty detailed for only being an inch long!)

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Brooke drew a picture for Dallas which was really cute:

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She drew this at church:

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At first I couldn’t understand why the man was in a banana…until I realized it was a spotlight and the martian on the far left was actually the guy’s shadow.

The back of a school paper.  She said it was step-by-step instructions on how to draw a pencil:

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Spelling is not Brooke’s best subject, possibly because spelling a word creatively means you’re spelling it wrong.  (Once she spelt skunk “ccunc” and that looked like a completely legitimate word to her.  This is what we’re dealing with here.)  We are constantly working on spelling, and it’s not fun for either of us.  Finally, one week, things were looking good.  The stars were aligning, and it appeared she was going to get all her words right.  When we got the test back, I saw she had drawn this on the back:

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When asked about it she said, “It’s me clapping my hands because I knew I did great on the test!”  (The irony is not lost on me that she celebrated her correctly-spelled test by using misspelled words to congratulate herself.)

I had a pile of laundry to fold and had the brilliant idea to enlist Brooke’s help sorting the socks.  She’s old enough for that chore!  Why hadn’t I thought of this before?  Perhaps this is why.  Five minutes later no socks had been matched and instead Brooke had created a new member of the family – Snuffy:

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Like I said, we love Brooke’s creativity.  Life around here just wouldn’t be the same without it.  Our blog would have very little content without her antics.   I love to highlight Brooke’s creativity because I’m fascinated with the things she comes up with. I love her crazy ideas.  I could stop this blog post right here and you’d all go on your merry way thinking that Brooke’s creativity is always happiness and sunshine and smiles and laughs.

However.

I’ll be honest – at times Brooke’s creativity is also one of our least favorite things about her.  Her need to create and innovate is often frustrating and exhausting and is always messy and time consuming.  Take, for example, this:

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Looks cute and creative, right?  Well, I hate it.  When I see that picture I don’t see the kind of creative that I love.  I see Brooke sitting down to do homework and 30 minutes later exactly zero percent of her homework is done because she had the idea to make a Lego desk organizer which is still in the stage of “almost done” (which it’s been in for the past 25 minutes) which means I’ve already been nagging Brooke to death to get going on her work while she has been basically ignoring me, so after thirty minutes of doing (no) homework we are both ready to be done with each other for the night and that was only the pregame show folks because thirty minutes in we still haven’t even started doing any of the actual homework yet!

In fact, at the time, I refused to take a picture of that Lego thing, I was so irritated with it.

The only reason there is a picture is because the next day my mom came over and saw it and oohed and aahed over it and said, “You got a picture of this for your blog, right?”  So I caved and snapped a picture.  There you go, Mom.

Then we have parent teacher conferences.  I live in fear of parent teacher conferences because we never really know what side of Brooke the teachers are seeing at school and her creative side isn’t always 100% appropriate or appreciated.  Some assignments don’t call for creativity which is great for people like me who like doing tasks that don’t require a lot of brain energy, but we have Brooke who will not accept that all she needs to do is read a passage and answer questions and be done with it.  No.  She has to distract herself with the “GO ON” at the bottom of each page, notice that the two O’s look like eyeballs, and decide to make each one into a face:

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And really?  How could you not love that?  I love it.

However.

On the same assessment this is one of her answers:

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Perhaps you don’t need to be told that that was not the answer the teacher was looking for.

I am sure that Brooke’s creativity will serve her well in the end.  It’s just the getting-to-the-end part that I worry about.  I don’t want to stifle her creativity…unless I do want to stifle it so we can actually get some homework done.  I don’t want her to stop seeing faces in random places on her worksheets…unless I do want her to stop so she can finish her tests.  I don’t want her to stop making messes as she creates…unless I’m trying to keep the house clean.  I don’t want her to stop turning random, household items into other things…unless I ever want to get the laundry folded and put away.  It’s so hard to know how to encourage her to use her mind to think outside the box while still figuring out how to help her see there are certain situations where you just need to do what you’re told without coming up with your own spin on it.  It’s hard for me to know how to let her know I am delighted by the doodles on her school papers, but I’m also troubled that they’re even there in the first place because shouldn’t she have been focusing on answering the questions?  See?  Conundrum.

Someday Brooke will probably read this and I hope that when she does she has learned how to use this gift in wonderful ways. I’m sure she will.  If anyone can figure it out, it’s her, right?  I also hope she feels like Dallas and I were able to help her spread her creative wings appropriately.

We’re trying, Brooke.  Really.  We’re trying.

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