Luke and Ally's Five-year-old Interviews

The twins are at such fun age.  I think I'm appreciating their age more than I did with Kate and Anna because when Kate turned five, I had a very difficult almost three-year-old and two five-month-olds.  And when Anna was this age, my twins were in the midst of being busy two-year-olds.

On the kids' birthdays, I always give them an interview.  Some of the answers in they gave me were too cute not to share.

Highlights from Luke's Interview

My favorite color is... 

"Who are you going to show it to?"
"It's for you."
"Pink!"
"What if it was for your class?"
"Orange."

My favorite thing to learn about it...

how vehicles work.

If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to...

Noodles and Company, Sky Zone, and a movie.

If I had one wish it would be...

going to Sky Zone 100 times.

The best thing about this year...

(May I add this is a year we drove to Florida and spent a week in a beach house.  And it's a year we spent the whole summer up at a cottage.  And it's a year that I suffered three nights of camping with them.)

go to Sky Zone.

Highlights from Ally's Interview

(I love how Ally likes to keep her options open.  She rarely gave just one answer for a question.  It was usually a list.  I kind of wish I'd video taped her answers.  Her thoughtful facial expressions were ridiculously cute.)

The coolest person on Earth is...

you and Dad and Grandma and Claire and Luke and Anna and Kate.

When I was little, I used to...

drool.

One food that I really dislike is...

"Do I don't like carrots that is baked?"

If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to...

Disney World or Florida or Sky Zone or Mexico.

When I grow up I'm going to become a...

rockstar or a mom or a doctor or a builder.

My best friend is

Claire and Grandma and Mrs. Koscielniak.

If I had one wish it would be...

getting to stay up late.

Apple tree

I am so ridiculously excited that we got ten apples off our apple tree this year.  We planted it when Kate was three and Anna was one.  It's been a long wait for me.

The kids, they're not too fazed either way, but they humored me for a few pictures.

Looking out the window

This totally broke my heart when it happened at the end of June.  It happened right after I'd spent a week working on trying to get them placed together in K5 because I thought it was best for both of them.  This completely made me second guess everything I'd read and everything I'd done.

Ally looked over at Luke in the car and said, "Luke, I love being twins with you."

I thought this was about the sweetest thing I'd ever heard.

Luke didn't respond.

After a moment, I asked, "Luke, did you hear what Ally said?"

He smiled his fake, tight lipped smile, the one he does for pictures, and nodded.

"Well," I prompted, "is there something you might want to say back to her?"

He told her, "I love looking out the window."

Oh, my goodness.  Crushing.

As usually happens, though, time has made everything okay and put this one event in perspective.  Luke loves Ally, but he also likes having his own space and his own interests.  I think he just needed to pull away from her a little bit for a couple weeks.  Their relationship hasn't really changed, though; they're still absolutely best friends and they still love spending most, but not all, of their time together.      

MCL

I tore my MCL pretty badly while wake surfing at the end of July.  It's been a rough month for me, but I was pretty proud of how I'd kept it from interfering too much with the rest of the family's summer enjoyment.  I hadn't realized just how much my injury had permeated the kids' consicousness until I was listening to the kids playing Barbies.  (They're actually usually playing Barbies/Luke from Starwars/Matchbox cars.)

Anyway, they were having a diving contest and I overheard Luke say, "Do you want my guy to have broke him's MCL?"

Ally made me a cast even before the doctor gave me one!

Little diplomat

I was exhausted yesterday.  My hormones were out of whack.  I'd had a huge disagreement with my brother, and I hadn't slept well.  I'd dragged the kids through a petting zoo that afternoon, and I had a doozy of a headache.

After we'd gotten home from the petting zoo that afternoon, I'd told the kids they could have popsicles for snack.  Then everyone but Luke went out to play with the neighbors instead and skipped their popsicles.

After dinner, the kids who hadn't had popsicles asked if they could have them for dessert instead, and I said they could.  I could see Luke was on the verge of a meltdown when he pulled it together and politely asked if he could have a popsicle, too.  

They're fruit and vegetable pops, so they're actually pretty healthy.  And did I mention I was wiped out?

So, I told him he could have one.

Kate, very aware I was exhausted, politely reminded me he'd already had one.

I shortly replied, "I know."

I could see her conflict.  I could see her thinking this was just insane.  Two popsicles!  In one day!?

Then she slowly said, "I'm sure you know what you're doing."

She must have gotten her diplomatic genes from Dave.

Oh, Anna!

I was remembering an "Anna Moment" from this spring that I don't think I shared.

My mom was going to pick up the three younger kids from school because Kate had play practice, and I had an appointment or something.

My mom said she never remembered how to use the code in the door so she asked Anna, "Will you be able to let us in."

Anna answered, "Yes! As long as Kate's there."

Five!!

I had a little bit of a hard time with this last birthday.  

Five.  

It seems so old.  

It's like four-year-olds are still practically a toddler. 

 Sure, they started K4, but some places don't even have K4, 

so technically they could still be considered preschoolers.  

But five-year-olds.  Five-year-olds are legitimately in school.

My babies aren't babies anymore.

But, they're so wonderful and so much fun, 

and I'm thankful every single day for these two amazing people 

with whom I get to share my life.

Luke and Ally are both really into Star Wars.
Luke, probably more so.  But, he chose to have a Cars cake.
I'm not certain, but I think he just wanted something different than Ally.

I succumbed.  Judge away, all you perfect mommies, but I bought my kids squirt guns.
Yes, guns.  Not squirt animals or some other type of generic squirter.
My son wanted a gun.  All he had on his birthday wishlist was "shooters."
So, I swallowed my pride and admitted before-having-a-five-year-old-boy-Kristal
might not have known all she thought she knew about child rearing,
and he got a squirt gun and a nerf suction-cup dart gun.
I've canceled my membership to the perfect PC mommy club.
And my little boy is thrilled with his new toys.

Repellent

Kate had a couple friends up to visit at the cottage a couple weeks ago.  They brought along this mosquito repellent.

Luke couldn't believe it!  "'Em brought frog repellent!?"

I'm made of coconut oil

It turns out I "melt" at the same temperature as coconut oil.  When I get my oil out to moisturizer before bed, I know that if I'm crabby from the heat, it will be clear.  If I'm a bit uncomfortable, it'll be runny, but still white.  If I get it out and it's solid, I hadn't even thought about the temperature, because I feel just fine!

Sunscreen

Ally, after she thought she was done smearing on her sunscreen, asked, "Daddy, is I still white anywhere?"

Beer for the boys

It's funny how one's particular lifestyle gives one's kids certain unintentional stereotypes.

It took my kids until recently to understand that it's not just men who drink coffee and not every woman drinks tea. 

And last year I made a big deal of refuting my twins notion that "boys" work and "girls" don't.  Yikes!  I was sure I would have feminists beating down my door if any of that confusion got repeated outside of the house.

Yesterday morning I thought it would be fun to let the kids drink their kombucha out of wine glasses.  Kate said it was perfect because they were playing dolls and they were grown ups, so they would pretend they were having wine.

Later I asked Luke, "How's your wine?"

He said, "No, it's beer, because I'm a boy in the game."

Evidently no self respecting "boy" would drink wine.

Which reminds me of Luke's conversation with Dave the other day.  Dave was having a grapefruit shandy, and Luke had heard Dave tell me it was that.  

"Daddy, is that grapefruit 'sandy' like a summer 'sandy'?"

Smiling, Dave replied, "It is, but instead of having lemon flavor, it's grapefruit."

Luke nodded and asked, "But the sandy part tastes the same?"

My sleepy sweetie in his favorite new outfit he got for his birthday on the drive home from our canoe trip Wednesday.