Toys 4 sale

Asia has been in this groove where she wants to sell her old toys. But she has this funny concept that if she sets up a box of toys and a sign and sit on the sidewalk, that people are going to stop and buy them from her. I think this is all from watching an episode of Max & Ruby where Ruby was having a yard sale and sold off some of her old toys. It was fun to watch Zach and Asia get this big box all decorated with a sign saying 1 Dollar and a picture of money on it. But then when they dragged the box and toys out to the driveway and then sat behind the box shouting "Toys For Sale!" I felt kind of bad. Who's going to buy any of those toys?

John and I eventually did go out there and "buy" some of the toys. I especially wanted to buy back the ones that I bought in Florida from Disney World. They weren't cheap.

Asia wanted to do the same thing again today, but instead of the driveway, she wanted to set up her box of toys in the front by the busy street. Luckily she listens to me because I told her that she couldn't. I told her that if she's going to just pretend that she's selling toys, that she could do it on the front porch. She told me she didn't want to pretend, she really wanted to sell her toys. I tried to explain that no one was going to stop their car to buy her toys, that it was more of something to do in the summer and when Mom and Dad are also selling things. She still couldn't get it. Luckily she was easily distracted again when I let her pick some flowers from my garden so that she could be a hula girl.

Backyard Turkeys

Can you see them? There were actually 3 wild turkeys in our back yard! And they're weren't little things. Jersey eventually scared them away. I think they're turkeys because I heard of some in the area, but I didn't think turkeys could fly and these did. They flew up into the trees and another yard as soon as they saw and heard Jersey coming. They looked almost like ostriches to me.

Goofy Signs

Here are two pictures showing some of the goofy stuff Asia draws and posts on our doors. When she's mad at me, she'll draw a picture of me in a circle with a line on it. No Mom. Then she'll put it on the kitchen cabinet or my office. Yesterday when she was upset, she asked me how to spell, "I don't like my family." I was considering not telling her how to spell that, but didn't feel it was fair. Luckily she got distracted and only got as far as writing, "I don't like." She did draw a dad, mom, and boy and put them in a circle with a line through it.

The pictures here are simple - she wanted to know if I had strawberries. The funny thing is that the sign stayed on our back door for quite a few days until the wind blew it off. I just wonder what others think when they walk to our door and see a sign asking them if they have strawberries.

Soccer Pictures

Team Fusion being goofy.


Team United. Back row - 2nd from left is Tori, then Asia. Boy on back right is Sammy. In the front row, first on the left is Joey, then the next girl is Lydia.

School Update

Zach creamed me in Monopoly today. We have the British version that my brother bought for me when he was in England during a college semester. So you have stuff like Pall Mall, Coventry Street, Park Lane, Water Works, etc. Anyway, I thought Zach was going to lose because he kept mortgaging his properties so that he could buy houses on his group of yellow properties. He eventually got hotels on each one of them. If we had ended the game before my last turn, I would have won. But I let it go a little longer since we were having fun. And on my last turn, I landed on one of his properties and had to pay Zach 1150 dollars (pounds, actually). I didn't have that much and I had to end the game to get ready for my band concert, so the little boy won. The last time I played him, he also won - by like 10 dollars. Anyway, while Zach and I were playing Monopoly today, Asia, who's the banker, was sitting next to me drawing. Then she said, "I wish there was school today." So I told her that she would have school tomorrow (Monday). So she perked up and said, "YEAH!" Now isn't that great? She wants to be in school on Sunday! Or is that saying she's bored at home... Hmmm...
Zach seems to enjoy school too. Though I guess he got bullied once last week, and he didn't even know it. John intervened. The kid's a little naive still where he doesn't realize that other kids he doesn't really know can be mean for no reason. But anyway, he's getting more advanced reading projects since the normal reading homework is way too easy. His math homework is also pretty easy, but he can be a bit sloppy with it. I'm just glad his teacher recognized his level and assigned more advanced homework. Cub scouts is supposed to start up. John's going to sign Zach up tomorrow. So he'll have soccer (that's over this month), basketball starts up first week of December, Cub Scouts, and this art class that's once a week and only for 12 sessions. Zach said that in February, he wants to start piano lessons. At least he said it, not me.

SCORE!!

Asia scored her first goal in soccer yesterday! And on purpose, too! I'm not sure if it was because she was in really good spirits already or what. We went to Antiquitea for hot chocolate and pbj at around 11 AM. She got to wear her pretty pink dress for the occasion. Then we changed in the car and went to soccer. I made sure to get her there on time. Her friend Lydia wasn' t there today, but her other friends Sam, Joey, and Tori were there. Tori and Asia teamed up right away for the drills and you could just tell they were having fun with them. Usually Asia doesn't like the drills because it'll be some group game where some pretend they're the dog and others are the dog catchers who have to dribble their ball to get the dog or something. For some reason, Asia doesn't like those. But this time, she did whatever the drill instructors asked her to do. And then I think it really helped that when the drill coaches told everyone to pair up, Tori grabbed Asia's hand and said that they would be partners. Asia likes it when she's shown affection like that. Plus one of the drill coaches was new and really good with the kids. Asia seemed to really like her. So when it came to game time, the blue team played the white team. The white team doesn't have any star players on it, so the blue team usually scores on them. But all the kids on both teams were really good today - all playing actively. Again, you usually see at least 2 kids who don't know what's going on or like to hang back at the goal and almost watch the game instead of participate. A lot of times, that's Asia. She likes to be in the game, but not really trying to get the ball. This time, she and "Boy Sammy" were telling each other to go get the ball. Then when she scored, she was actually trying to kick the ball. It wasn't a total accident.
On the same day, Zach scored his first goal in a game this year. Last year, he was always scoring goals. Now he's in an older league. John said Zach was playing some awesome defense too.
Now we have a basketball hoop in our driveway. Zach's pretty good. Asia is also pretty good, except that she keeps getting hurt. Once she got hit on the head with the basketball. I told her that she has to watch the basketball at all times. Then she won't get hit on the head. Today, she got hit in the nose. No blood, thankfully.

birthdays

Today Asia and I celebrated everyone's birthdays. Everyone and anyone in the world. We just needed an excuse to put candles on a cake and blow them out. Nevermind the initial reason for even making the cake was to surprise Zach and John after they came back from a sleepover at the Zoo. When you have a cake, to Asia, that means a birthday and candles. That shows you how often we have cake in our house. Pie, cupcakes, cookies, candy - those are another story. I forgot though that Zach and Asia really don't like cake. What they like is the frosting. I didn't feel like making frosting from scratch. I ended up just drizzling some Hershey's syrup over Asia and Zach's servings. Asia usually ends up leaving half of her piece of cake uneaten whenever she has any. The frosted top is just eaten off. Zach is pretty good at finishing his desserts. It's not like he never has sweets, but if you were to watch him eat dessert, you'd think he has it once a year. He practically licks the bowl clean and for some reason, desserts always leave a ring around his mouth. I'll have to watch him one day to see why that happens. I think it's probably because he's licking all of whatever it is from his lips. He has to have every last drop. Silly kid. Asia, on the other hand, when she's had enough, she'll stop. She doesn't take sweets that well it seems. She'll complain of stomach aches. Sometimes that won't stop her, but every now and then I can use it as a warning. "You don't want to eat too much of that. Remember it will give you a tummy ache." Or I might say, "We can't eat too much chocolate. It gives you funny poop." And it's so true too. Chocolate is a laxative, let's not forget that. I'm off on a tangent, but we'll stop here. The new subject isn't too appetizing.