Zachary Phelps

Zachary has been wanting to pass his green band swim test at the pool this summer, which would enable him to swim in the deep end unchaperoned, go down the slides, etc. The test consists of swimming the entire length of the pool, and then treading water for 60 seconds. Zach attempted and failed earlier this summer, because unbeknownst to me the requirements had changed. You can no longer swim underwater the whole way, you have to do some semblance of a freestyle stroke.

So for the past few weeks I've been helping him practice his freestyle. I told him a few days ago I thought he was ready to try the test again. He was hesitant, but decided to trust me. I said a little prayer that he wouldn't fail again, twice in a row might have ended his swimming career for good.

I could tell that towards the end of his swim his little body was getting tired, but he made it.



His celebratory jump into the deep end after earning his green band says it all.

Ava & Zach Make The Cut

 A friend brought me a copy of the recent Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center brochure. There were a couple of familiar faces in it! I've written about the library before, they have great homeschool programs.

Dancin' Mosleys

The videos from dress rehearsal for my kids' dance recital. My husband has the videos from the actual performance, hopefully he posts them soon...When finding a Mosley in a dance video, look in the back. Tall kids are always in the back. That's why we love solos.

 

Ava's Egyptian ballet routine. Zach says, "Are they supposed to be the Israelites??"




Ava's Hairspray jazz routine. After which Colson says to her, because 8 months of hip hop has apparently made him a jazz expert, "Ava, I saw one little problem in your jazz routine. You weren't shimmying as much as the other girls. I could tell because the strings on your dress weren't moving as much as theirs". But those of you who know my introverted Ava know that what she's doing in this video is akin to her having an epileptic seizure.




And Colson's Michael Jackson tribute hip hop routine. He comes in from the right side in the beginning, he's the one without the glove. Because he lost his. Shocking. Ava was irritated because this routine got all the applause. I had to explain to her that when 37 out of 38 routines are all girls, that one routine with all boys is going to get the crowd going. Plus any routine featuring Michael Jackson moves is going to get applause. I said even if all the boys fell on their faces the audience would applaud loudest for them. It's like a routine filled with babies and puppies.


We asked Zachary if he wanted to be in the dance recital next year. He said, "I think I'm more of a sports guy than a dance guy...."

Goodnight Cars

Baby Zachary used to make me tuck his cars in with him at night. I miss baby Zachary.

Yesterday 6 year old Zachary said we should have another baby. I asked why. He said, "So that there will be at least one kid who doesn't boss me around!" I asked, "What if the new baby starts messing up all your stuff and crying all the time?" He said, while he rolled his eyes in exasperation at my ignorance, "Uh, we'll just take it to the Adoption Center."

So I Like Baths, Big Whoop...

Ava and Zach were having dinner together the other night. Ava got herself a glass of water out of the refrigerator dispenser and Zach got the jug of milk out to pour himself a glass. The following exchange occurred:

Ava: Do you know what I like about water? You don't have to put it back after it's poured, like you do when you have milk. You can just sit down and drink.

Zach: Do you know what I like about water? My mother's always in it.

....Wow.

Memorizing On The Toilet

Zachary saying his memory verses for Awana.

I'll Show You...

Zachary got in trouble the other day, Colson told on him and then Eric punished him. Well, Zachary got so mad at them both that he ran up to his room and slammed his door. A few minutes later he came back out, stormed downstairs, grabbed some paper and a crayon, wrote something furiously, then took the paper back upstairs.

I guess he couldn't find any tape to attach the sign to his door in the usual way. 

Three exclamation points and a mad face. He wasn't kidding around...

Yoga Master

I was stretching after a run the other day. Zachary sat down and said, "Mom, you need to do this when you stretch....Ommmmmm."

Express Yourself

Art day yesterday; each child's favorite project:

 Colson's african mask

 Ava's sculpture of a person holding things

 Zach's portrait of Ava sitting in a chair

Reason Is So Maddening

Zachary got mad at Ava yesterday and yelled at her, "YOUR BUTT SMELLS LIKE POOP!"

She very calmly responded, "It's supposed to".

He got so mad he ran into his room, slammed his door and proceeded to bang his head against it for 10 minutes. He hasn't quite realized that "getting to Ava" requires way more forethought.

Stupidest Christmas Tree

Last year around Christmas I went into Wawa to grab something. While I was in there I heard the most annoying Christmas song playing over the loudspeakers. I got back in the car with the kids muttering about the annoying song. They asked me what it was, and made me sing it to them. They laughed so hard at the song that I went on to iTunes on my phone and downloaded the song for them.

It has now become their favorite Christmas song of all time. So I give you Nat King Cole's Happiest Christmas Tree. You'll be bashing yourself in the head with a hammer in 8 hours when you can't get it out of your head....

Merry Christmas

Monday Mornings With Zachary

Zach stole Eric's phone and iMessaged me on Saturday after his basketball class.

This is Zach. basticbol was god!!!! :-)

I will forever and always call it basticbol.

I Thank The Bank For The Money, Thank God For You

(The title? Come on y'all, vintage Sawyer Brown!)


While I'm most grateful for this cute bunch today, I'd like to take a minute to be grateful for my friends. Oh yes, I have a few of them, don't look so shocked...

First, the original and still the best, Melissa. She's the devil on my left AND the angel on my right. How else would she be able to stick around so long...


While changing their dirty diapers, I never thought that my 4 oldest nieces would grow up to be 4 of my best friends, but here we are.

the one I'd go on a field trip with any day of the week, Bonnie May

the one I love getting late night calls from, Brianne Elizabeth

the one who knows what I look like doing "Superman! BANANA!", Brooke Suzanne

and the one who feels my sweat pain, Bethany Gates.

My dance partner Richard, who became one of my best friends our first Christmas as partners when he looked at me and said, "So...I like you, you like me, we don't have to get gifts for each other, right?" And then solidified our friendship when he later said, "Um, my dead gramma in her casket can spin faster than you." And his partner Solomon, who is wickedly intelligent but still treats me like a goddess. Bizarre, I know.

Hold on, I'm going to go so far as to add two more, who over the past year have become peas to my carrots. Everyone's Sugar Daddy, John Burns, who makes this list not just because his grammar is as good as mine, but because he gets me even though he doesn't like to admit it. (I'd add his wife Karen to this list but she's prettier than I, so screw that idea...)

..and the beautiful Antoinette Santoro, who makes me laugh for real, not the fake laugh that I usually use around most of you. Her sense of humor is so much larger than her chest, thank goodness, which is basically just average....

There! See? I have friends!

(Now, to hope that none of these people comment on this post with, "What? Who are you? Do I know you??")

Ava's Fashions

Brown and pink, a combination that can't be beat. Especially cute in a family photo.

Absolutes Never Stand In This House

Zach: Dad, are lima beans a fruit?

Eric: No, they're a vegetable. Anything with "bean" in the name is a vegetable.

Ava: (yelling from the other room) Uh, jelly beans???

Monday Mornings With Zachary

What Zach wants to be when he grows up, and other fun tidbits as he chats with me while I'm in the bathtub.

Zach's Awana Face

During the Awana closing program they show a slideshow of pictures from that year. I always love these pictures, because I didn't take them. It's fun to see pictures of your kids in places that you aren't and with expressions you don't always get to see.

My Blog Post, In A Dress

The other day the kids and I were at Chili's having lunch with Melissa and her kids. Gavin and Colson were sitting by themselves at another table, building castles with coasters and salt shakers and then throwing sugar packet "bombs" at the other's castle, scoring points when they'd breach a wall. Ava and Sophia were at our table, drawing. Ava was asking Melissa and I what she should draw, we'd give her an idea and she'd draw it. After we'd given her some ideas like "Dancing vegetables",

"An elephant doing ballet",

and, "Melissa wearing a bathing suit and teaching a class",

Ava decided to draw one of her own ideas. She drew, "those wind up teeth",

and then things started to get really funny. I should mention that when we get all the kids together, Ava's favorite thing is to subtly tease Gavin, Melissa's oldest son (he's 12). Ava loves to try to get him to laugh by doing things that could be taken as slightly mean, but she does it with a cute little giggle. So she started drawing a picture, and she was giggling to herself the whole time. Finally she showed it to us:

She said, "It's me and Sophia and Zachary, and we're all happy. But Colson and Gavin are mad because they're wearing dresses!!!" She couldn't stop laughing while she said all that. Melissa and I were cracking up (how can you not? Look at Gavin and Cole, they have their hands on their hips and expressions on their faces like "Who the heck drew these stupid dresses on us???"), and Ava decided to take it over to show Colson and Gavin. They rolled their eyes at her, but she was giggling so hard I thought she was going to choke. She came back to our table and started drawing furiously again. She was whispering to Sophia, "This one is SO BAD!!" We made her show it to us, and it was this:

"It's Cole and Gavin getting married to each other!!" *tee hee hee hee hee hee!!!!* Melissa and I spit out our Diet Pepsi, we laughed so hard. Colson's dress with the puffed sleeve put it over the edge. Well, Ava ran it over and paraded it in front of Gavin and Cole. She was doubled over and could barely breathe at how funny she thought this picture was. She returned to our table, and grabbed the pad of paper. Next came this hysterical one: Gavin, who is in reality a huge football star, playing football in a dress:

Then we got Colson playing piano in a dress:

I have to give Gavin all the credit in the world. He was a great sport about it all. Colson is used to it, he barely blinked when Ava shoved these drawings in his face. He gets it at home all the time. But Gavin has probably never experienced someone drawing pictures of him in a dress before. And he took it like a man, just rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

Gavin started telling us all that he and his best friend wanted to be a banana and a gorilla, respectively, for Halloween, and go out in the neighborhood together as such. So Ava drew this picture of G and HF. When asked who HF was, she says, "His Friend!"

Then she said, "I'm going to draw Gavin as a banana in his dream world", (cause that's a normal thing to draw), and drew the next two pictures.

She was on a roll that day. It's so entertaining when my naturally introverted daughter feels comfortable enough to put it all out there, because she's wicked funny.

Words Are Fun

Zachary says the best random things sometimes. Yesterday he was taking an online test. When he finished it, he came to me to find out what he had to do next. I asked him how he had done on the test. He said, "I think I did okay, but I don't remember what percentage I got". I said, "You're cute when you say percentage".

To which he immediately replied, "Thanks Mom! You're cute when you say fart".

Monday Mornings With Zachary

I found a video yesterday that the kids made themselves. In it, you get to see Ava's comedic prowess, Zach's hilarious dance moves, and Cole's, well, general bossiness....

At around 8:11, Ava adds one of her comedic touches to this video, and it made me laugh out loud. For most of the video she's just smacking her own butt, but every now and again, when Cole's not looking, she sneaks in her wacky humor. Jazz hands from behind the camera at 11:22 made me snicker.

At 10:19 Colson finally adds something to this video by rockin' out the retarded air guitar.

It's a long video, but there are some great moments. I'm sure the only people who will make it through the whole thing are Luke and Sophia Tabasso, but the rest of you can try...