Kids DO the Darndest Things...

When I was a kid it was a common thing for the children's choir to sing in "big church." We did Sunday morning specials, holiday programs, etc. There was always a kid doing something to get the attention of the congregation - I was the kid who pulled her dress over her head. Now, at first it was out of embarrassment. I somehow thought that by hiding my face from the crowd, I was somehow saving myself from humiliation by showing everyone what color underwear I had on. Then my mom started coming up to the front before we sang each time, shaking her finger and telling me not to pull my dress over my head. Then - it became out of spite ;)

Sunday morning during church the kids sang. Zeke was somewhere in the back - he isn't much for singing in front of a crowd, like many 5-year old boys. Yana, however, stood right out in the front. I'd like to tell you what song they sang. I'd like to tell you that I noticed not only how cute Zeke and Yana were, but how cute ALL of the kids on stage were. I'd even like to tell you that I laughed at the little girl just like me who pulled her dress over her head (there's one in every crowd!) BUT - me (and the rest of the congregation) can only remember this face:

Once she saw the reaction and laughter that it got, it continued through the remainder of her time on stage. Instantly, Jeff and I became those parents that shake their finger and mouth erratically for their child to stop doing whatever it is their doing to solicit laughter. She saw us, grinned as big as she could and resumed the face.

And for the rest of the afternoon, on through the Easter party and egg hunt, this face is the one that everybody saw - every time you asked, every time you took her picture, every time it was mentioned. It's famous.

While at the time, all we wanted was for her to stop, we look back now and laugh at the silly things kids do.

Frosty's Anatomy

For Christmas this year, my cousin got Zeke and Yana a snowman kit. It came complete with a corncob pipe, a button nose and two eyes made out of coal. (Yes, I had to sing the song in my head...) It also came with 3 buttons, a scar and a top hat.

Saturday afternoon, we bundled the kids up in layers of socks, pants, shirts, coats, gloves - the whole shebang. I got my camera ready, opened the side door and off they went! All of the fear and dread of wading knee deep through snow immediately disappeared as I watched our two little munchkins throw themselves down in the powdery white and laugh as hard as they could. It was quite something to see!

For the next 45 minutes or so, Jeff and the kids tried to make ball-resembling formations out of the very powdery snow.

We did the best we could for his body, but his head ended looking more like a large potato. It was pretty flat on the front. We secured it as best we could.

While Jeff got all of the necessitites to make a snowman look more "Frosty"-like, I went in search of arms for our little guy. I found two tree branches and inserted one in each side. Jeff weighed down the top hat so it wouldn't blow away and placed it on our snowman's head.

Zeke and Yana put his eyes, nose, pipe, and buttons in the appropriate places. I finished him off by wrapping the scarf around his neck.

We finished up our day in the snow with a snowball fight, some snow angels in the backyard and cleaning off Jeff's car, which we finally found under several inches of snow.