Welcome to The Beauchamp Family website. This is our home away from home on the web. This site is for our family and friends who live near and far to be able to keep up with us. We will try to keep you guys up to date on our goings-on. For anything prior to January 2006, please Click Here. - Tom, Candy, Jamie & Cassie Beauchamp, Austin, TX
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Monkeys Jumping On The Bed.... or no rules for Summer!
Okay, for the record, they aren't SUPPOSED to jump on the bed, but Jamie was in there doing it in the dark. I grabbed the camera (of course, gotta preserve the evidence). He then realized that when my flash goes off (it's a hot shoe and that thing lights up the entire world when it goes off) he could see himself in the mirror. So they start watching themselves and making faces - Cassie joined in when she heard Jamie giggling at making faces... of course. It's Summer - rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules!
Sometimes dinner doesn't go so well (like last night when I tried to make a non-crockpot recipe into one and we ended up eating sandwiches). Sometimes it does... like tonight. We are playing in a Recipe Zaar game where you "tour" different areas of the world. This week we were doing Central America... we had the most amazing dinner tonight... I am not really big on steak, so I made shrimp in addition to the steak. We had some friends over and had a great time (wine too!)
(same recipe, just a view of the sauce after I made it - yes, me, Candy, made the sauce - and the bean salad actually!)
Shrimp (I'll link the recipe when it posts)
Jamie, I think, was the only one at the table that liked it ALL. That child will truly eat anything :) And yes, he drops food on himself -- just like mom. I'm forever making a mess. LOL
I'm thinking Jamie used to beat small children in a former life or something. It's the only thing that explains why this child has the worst luck. So, Cassie got a rat that is pretty active and social and well, doesn't bite.
Jamie got... well... he got Fru-Fru. Fru-Fru was a black hamster that looked nice enough in the pet store.
Then we brought it home.
Jamie stuck his hand in there to put it into it's house mansion and it bit him. Yeah, now it's name is Dark Blood. Nice.
We are, of course, hoping it was just upset and confused and scared. Me? IT IS A RAT. IN MY HOUSE. I NOW HAVE A LIZARD AND RATS LIVING IN MY HOUSE! DO YOU HEAR ME? THIS IS A PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!
*breathe breathe breathe*
My point? It won't bite me because I'm NOT touching it and if it gets out, I'm getting a cat. Or borrowing one. Or something. Whatever.
So, here's Dark Blood and his house mansion. I also got a shot of him through the bars eating. Yes, I could have opened the door, but he was too close for comfort and... yeah, that's not happening.
He even looks like a menacing little shit, doesn't he?
Yeah, so for whatever reason, my kids went crazy about this stuff. They wanted to do sand art. So I bought sand art. I said we would do it the first week after school was out. We did it Wednesday.... and survey says...
I think they were a little disappointed. I think they were expecting this big huge deal with the sand and decorations and mixing it up, I showed them how to make it layered, but then Cassie's settled and she fell and it got all wiggly and she had a melt down and wouldn't let me take a picture because it wasn't any good anymore, so we added sand to them both and man... Jamie's expression says it all.
I think I'm gonna just let them play outside with dirt and sticks. That seems safer somehow. Maybe I'll get Jamie a beebee gun and a slingshot and Cassie can have some matches.
So... Jamie comes into my office earlier this week and Tom and I both said "Hey, you're an Ewok" thinking he remembered seeing parts of that movie or whatever. Yeah, not so much.
He said "No, I'm pretending I have long hair"
Okay, aside from the weird factor of that (this is Jamie, folks), if his hair starts touching the top of his ear he starts asking for a haircut continuously.
So yeah...
And yeah, I gave it a sand texture or something. I dunno, I was fooling around in PhotoFiltre.
The kids have been basically hiding from me. They are annoyed with me taking their picture. Yeah whatever.
Jamie let me take this because I told him I'd take away his Gameboy if he didn't (what? Oh please, like you've never been evil to your child. As if!)
And Cassie, well, she just thinks if she can't see me, I can't see her. She thinks she's that weird kid from Mystery Men (please tell me someone will get this reference) - Please?
Tom and I do this contest for charity each year on Recipe Zaar. It's called the Zaar World Tour. Basically, a group of 10 (well, 16 groups I think) cook dishes that are from various countries. It's a lot of fun and a chance to try different things. This year, there was a Kid-Friendly Challenge and we had the absolute BEST time tonight... here's a slide show and more of the story under it...
The story here is that Tom is the best Daddy ever and decided to let 5 year old Cassie crack the eggs. She made a huge mess, but it was so worth it. After the first one we were quiet while Tom cleaned up the shells from the bowls and you saw her little head peer over the lip and say "oops!" - we all cracked up laughing. Her big brother, Jamie, helped her in the bathroom to wash up after all the egg cracking was done.
Jamie is 7 and he got to cook - this is the first time we've let him actually cook something. He did great, even flipped them half way through! He also read the recipe to us and helped mix the sugar/cinnamon. We had a great time with a lot of laughs and this was truly a great memory - we all had fun.
Okay, let's nevermind that I even have a KID (or two), but he's like in 2nd grade now. 2nd grade. Holy mackerel. Friday (5/30) was his last day of being a 1st grader.
Cassie spent the night with a friend on Thursday and as he was going to bed he got a little upset and started crying. It was really endearing because he had been doing nothing but talking about Summer and no more school and no more homework and water slides and pools and... did I mention no more homework? I think on Thursday night he finally realized that it meant he wouldn't see everyone everyday anymore. He was pretty broken up and when I told him we could call anyone he wanted to come play, he got more upset and crying harder and told me it wouldn't be the same. I tried to NOT feel like chopped liver cuz I'm sitting here with a whole list of ideas to keep them busy and entertained for the next THREE MONTHS. Anyway, so eventually he calmed down (through apparently no help of my own cuz I suck like that).
They had a party on the last day of school and Tom made these frog cupcakes for the class, which were apparently a hit.
Cute, huh?
In the meantime, Tom is enjoying not getting up in the morning because he can sleep through a missile detonating next to his ear. I'm still getting up early, which is good. I seem to do well if I can get my butt up and going earlier, but I so hate mornings. I'm a much better night owl. BUT the reality is that I own a business and need to keep some semblance of business hours.
I don't have to like it though.
Anyway, so I have a 2nd grader... and I have a almost-kinder one too. Wow. Both in school. I'm excited for Cassie, she's going to LOVE it, but a little sad too.
Posting this pic again just cuz I love it so much. It's so "Cassie"
Sunshine Photos of the Kids... (LOVE this one of Cassie)
I took these over the weekend at a birthday party. Cassie LOVES being out in the sunshine. Jamie? Not so much. Jamie spent most of the party grumping that he wanted go to inside in the air conditioning. I feel ya, son. It was 97 out there!
This is another of those rare pictures that I just LOVE... it's funny, one of my friends on Flickr said it reminded her of that song "I'm walking on sunshine" and it really does, doesn't it? She didn't know I was photographing her, I was pretty far away, so her face is just pure joy.
So, I always try to put a little note in Jamie's snack and/or lunchbox. I've been putting in a countdown in his snack each day and he usually writes back "Yay!" or something. On Friday, I sent a note that there were 4 more days left and he sent it back with this sticker. I couldn't stop giggling. Yes, I'm 12. BUT so is Tom, he was giggling like a school girl.
I grabbed some quick pictures of the kids last night. Their friend, J, came over for a sleepover (honestly, I think she's just gonna move in for the Summer - you should hear all the grand plans going on in this house!). We are very lucky to have good friends like J and her mom, D, in our lives. They make us laugh and don't mind watching a movie they've already seen :) Here they are hanging out watching Alvin & The Chipmunks and dozing off...
Cassie spent the night there the night before, so I think she was a bit tuckered out:
... and Tom's biggest secret is that he likes for J to come over because it means that they usually behave (or else we separate them and they don't like that!) so he gets some game time in...
This is from this past week... Jamie is such an AMAZING reader. And I love it for the nights when I just cannot stand to read the alligator story AGAIN and Jamie will do it for me :) *laugh*
Misc Pics of the Kids - LOVE the one of Jamie... Framing it!
I'm my own worst critic... so it is pretty rare that I take a picture I just love. I LOVE this one of Jamie... I love his eyes, I love the slight movement of his hand I caught, I love the odd little look on his face. I just LOVE it. (yes photo nerds, I know it's a little overexposed - I actually did it on purpose because I like the effect for this photo. I'm weird. I know.)
I like this one of Cassie. She was hiding behind a box and I caught her peeking up. I love how you can tell she's smiling by looking at her eyes.
Saturday night we had some extra kids over and everyone stayed up late so we got to bath time late, so we put the extra kid that stayed the night in the shower first, and then started Cassie's bath. I told Jamie to wait about 10 minutes to take his shower to give the water heater time to heat back up the water.
Several minutes later Tom comes into my office laughing. Jamie was standing stark naked in our bedroom (which we keep very cold). Why? Because I told him to wait to get in the shower.
So, he gets in the shower... 20 minutes later Tom comes back laughing even harder. Apparently, Jamie decided to sit down in the shower. Yes, he was sleeping. Tom woke him up to finish his shower.
I'm proud of the pic above. Not because it's some wonderful piece of photographic genius - it's good, not fabulous - but because of what it represents to my children. This is them hugging the little girl next door. We love her as much as if she were one of our own.
Tom and I both grew up "in the sticks". I had a neighbor next door, but they were a little weird - we played together a while, but they got weirder and weirder. Other than that, the nearest kids were several miles away. Tom's nearest kids were several miles away. We vowed when Jamie came along that we would make sure we didn't do that to our kids. When we first looked at this house, we saw a beautiful child of about 10 riding her bike outside of the house next to this one. I knew we were in the right place - there were kids here! That and the built-in bookshelves pretty much cinched the deal. When we moved in, we discovered that little girl on the bike had a sister that would be starting school with Jamie. And her parents are amazing people too. I so totally love my neighbors. Our lives are busy so we don't see each other as much I'd like, but our kids spend HOURS together some (most) days - and they have so few fights. It's pretty amazing actually. When they replaced the fence, they had a gate put in so the kids can go back and forth to each other's yards. They love it.
As soon as we had the chance, we bought the place from the landlord. We adore it here. My biggest fear is that my neighbors will decide to move one day. We know how very lucky we are. How many people can say that they love their neighbors and their neighborhood? I can only think of one person in our little few blocks that we don't really like - the party house - and really my biggest complaint is all the cars parked on the street are in my minivan's way. LOL!
Okay, I'm ignoring the fact that the sound didn't come over, but I finally got the video off of my cell phone!
This is this week. They made helicopters. Way cool, dude!
I like last week's the best though... robot dogs! They used the sensors so that if they started coming close to you, it would back up. Really cute. They didn't program it to bark though - LOL
I think they made this one the week before... whatever... anyway, here's a merry-go-round:
I'm guessing this was some "draw what you want to do when you grow up" type of thing. He came home with this several days ago. There's a shop with a big sign off of the main freeway that is called Pet Supplies Plus. I guess he sees it often enough, he drew it! I thought he did a pretty good job, lotsa detail going on here!
It says "Pets Supplies Plus" and under that I think it says "Fish Free"
I think this says "I sell fish and fish food. They would buy these." "Fish Surprise" "Goldfish" "WooHoo" "Fish Food" "For your happy fish"
Last week, the kids were playing in the little pool and asked for their masks and snorkels. They were deep sea divers and needed their equipment, ya know!
I found this in Jamie's bookbag this morning. I can only guess that this is something they made for Mother's Day. I feel all gushy that it does look like he spent a good deal of time coloring it in.
BUT... read the first line. Ummm... yeah... I came back in from dropping him at school and proclaimed to Tom that he needed to lick my hand and tell me what I tasted like. He looked at me like I had 2 heads. *laugh*
In case you don't read First Grade, "Moms taste like milk. Oh mommy you are the best. Mom let's go to Sea World. Mom, let's go swimming. You are the very very best. From Jamie."
Other than the random milk thing, I think he's sucking up for a Sea World and/or pool trip, eh? ;)
Because of some weird scheduling thing, I had a little networking meeting and had to take Jamie with me. Luckily, it wasn't a big deal to bring my kid because it's SUPER informal. Anyway, Jamie found this tag in my bag and made himself a name tag. I thought it was so cute I, of course, had to get a picture.
I have to say what a little man my kid is. He's so smart and cute and funny. He was SO good during the meeting. I was very proud of him!
Jamie and I are about to head to the airport to pick up Candy and Cassie. We sure do miss those two. Will be nice to have everyone back together again (though I will miss the quiet).
The last two hot pockets are in the microwave (given the choice to eat where ever he wanted, Jamie picked ham and cheese hotpockets...thats my boy.)
Jamie is also feverishly trying to fit in one more game of Zoo Tycoon before we hit the road.
Kind of cool actually. I set it up at http://www.zoobuh.com - it costs like $12 a year or something. But we have total control of his email box, who he can email and who can email him. Copies of everything come to me and it has an easy interface and then a really simple one. We use the really simple one.
The first email I sent him said, "I'm very proud of you!" and he replied, "WELL YUO SHUOD." -- I forwarded it to Tom who said, "hahahahahaha! Thats my boy!"
He's kind of been asking about getting email. I hope by letting him have his email, not only will he work on his writing and spelling skills, he will also gain some confidence and feel like I'm letting him have some freedom that he wants.
I'm trying to ignore the fact that the first email he sent out to our neighbor was asking if her daughter could come over and play - and he misspelled one of the words. Yes. My son has sent out his first porn spam email. Great. (I'll let you figure that one out)
I thought Cassie looked adorable in these overalls. Funny thing is she has been steadfastedly refusing to wear overalls for a while and now that she's decided they are cool, these are almost too small for her. Figures. WhaddaBrat.
The kids got these handheld bubble things. You push the handle and bubbles come streaming out. They have also discovered that they can make bubble mounds...
I know this is not teaching my child about following through, but maybe there's a lesson in there for me (to just listen more often) and for him (speak up more often). It all started with him, again, telling us he's having problems at school. He's been acting really horrible lately about school work, about getting up to go to school, everything. We even had a call from the teacher. She was concerned as well, he actually acted out angrily (not against another child - he stabbed his pencil box with his pencil and stomped around). That is NOT how Jamie acts. There were several things going on - he thought we weren't being fair with some things, he was over-reacting and taking these too literally, his bully is back at it again with a friend this time, just a bunch of little things.
So, we talked. I can fix everything except for the bully. I tried to tell him to walk away, tell a teacher, but these are things he says he has done - sometimes. Apparently the school likes the kids to "all be friends" and "like everyone". Great, right? Yeah, well not when 2 other kids are pushing you (not hard from what I can gather) playing chase when you don't want to, taunting you and calling you names. I'm sorry, I firmly believe that you do NOT have to be friends with everyone. There are people in this world I do not want to be friends with and that's just how it is. I'm sure there are people that don't wanna be friends with me either. He is really worried about getting one of his "friends" in trouble. Finally, I told him to maybe ask his counselor for some ideas. He said he did ask the teacher if he could talk to someone and she said later this week. Tom is going up there as well.
If that doesn't work, my friend Denise and I are going up there and beating the snot out of those little 7 year olds. We can take 'em.
I realize my kid is an easy target. For those of you that don't know him, he (and this isn't all mom talking) is one of the sweetest, most sincere, loving little boys in the entire world. He's very much a thinker and not a doer. He works out problems in his head. He wants everyone to like him and wants to make everyone happy. He doesn't like playing rough and he doesn't like mean words. There's a reason I call him my little love bug. He really is.
So, this has been happening. We also kind of made him play soccer this season. He didn't want to, but we forgot to disenroll him and he (Mr. People Pleaser) agreed to do one more season. Well, he's hating it. He likes talking with the other kids and playing with them, he just doesn't like all the shoving and running around and frankly, he's not that athletic. Again, he's my thinker!
Anyway... so his game this weekend kind of annoyed me. I felt like I spent more time telling him to pay attention or to stop chasing bees or examining the weeds. And it's just been bad all season. So, we found out that Lego Mindstorms starts soon and we've pulled him out. I think the Lego thing will be much more up his alley. He gets to build something and think through stuff. At this age bracket, they just build. In a year or two, if he decides to stick with it, they will start programming them and having competitions. He's excited about it. I just hope he really likes it. If not, he wants to try Karate next. But I have a good feeling about the Mindstorms. It's collaborative with a small group and no one is running or shoving.
Of course, this does mean that I am going to have to get that indoor lens, honey.... *laugh* Okay, Okay... no lens... *sniffle* *HINT HINT HINT HINT* (Mother's day is coming up, by the way) *HINT HINT HINT HINT*
I've told him that if he does the Mindstorms at the YMCA and participates well, I will see if we can't get him a set for his birthday or Christmas (The YMCA provides the kits). Note to all family members: It's expensive so I may be asking for a "go in together gift" LOL.
Anyway, so here are pictures from his last game... interesting that they kind of tell the story of how he "plays" so I'll kind of talk you through his thought processes. ;)
This is Jamie's favorite part. Sitting here talking to the other kids picking grass.
This is what he does on the field most of the time. I'm not sure if he's pretending to be a robot here or dancing. He does both.
I would love to say he looks like this the whole time:
Instead he makes his 5 kicks of the ball in the game (I said it once and now he figures if he kicks it 5 times, he's done) -- See... he even keeps count and tells me...
So, goodbye, soccer... we'll still be there every week for Cassie, but Jamie's gonna be playing with robots, dude!
If you've made it this far... we're a little worried that Jamie might be depressed... I know that sounds silly. He's SEVEN! But he keeps telling us no one likes him and he doesn't like himself and he's stupid. These seems to be the same words his bullies are using though... ugh. This mommy stuff is hard work.
Hehehe... Tom and I are sick... we keep calling him Emo Kid when he talks like that. Here's a video to make you giggle:
I work odd hours. I work a LOT of hours sometimes. So that my butt doesn't start becoming one with my desk chair, I move to the living room and work on my laptop if I need to work at night. I use this product that let's me "log in" to my desktop computer and work on it like I'm sitting right there. It's pretty cool. Of course, if anyone moves anything on either computer, both screens see it. So, I was watching a movie with the kids in the living room, cutting some checks. I needed to come into the office to grab them and decided to mess with them.
So, I opened Word and typed "I love my kids" and inserted smiley faces and hearts and stuff, made them different colors. The kids were laughing, I typed Jamie's name and he nearly freaked out that the computer knew HIS NAME. *laugh*
Eventually, they figured out it must be me... so Jamie got brave and decided to type back... yes, he wrote "poopy". Great. Just great. 'Course at least it's a word. Cassie just did gobbly-gook afterwards.
We had a good laugh AND it got Jamie interested in learning to "write" using the computer. He's not interested in learning to type (when do they learn that nowadays? I think I taught myself around 10 or so, but we "learned" it in high school maybe?). Anyway... so now he's allowed to type his spelling words once per week. Which he thinks is AWESOME. We let him use Wordpad and he changes the color and font and stuff. Such a smart kid!
So yeah, I scared my kids.
Oh, the avocado seed started getting white and pink mold spores on it. I ended up washing it off and the seed covering came off. It was all slippery. Uhh... duh. Tom and I are idiots and haven't been changing the water. Yes. Laugh. Go on. Feel better? Anyway, the seed is cracked all the way around... hopefully we'll see some roots start to form... the kids will go crazy if we do!
I'm starting to worry a bit about Jamie's obsession with this stupid computer game that Tom taught him - it's called Generals (something or other). It doesn't bother me that he plays it, but nearly everything he has to do at school and bring home centers around this game.
For this assignment, it looks like he had to write instructions for doing something. Most kids maybe built a fort or a lego house or something. Not mine... he writes for how to play the game.
We've already cut him way back to only being able to play a set time on weekends only. I have no idea if that will work. I shouldn't be surprised, his dad is addicted to World of Warcraft. Must run in the blood.
