Don't Worry, Tree.

 As I am watering the tree, Ivey and Olive were offering the tree comfort:

"Oh no! You need water! Don't worry, tree. We'll get you some. (Gently petting the tree.) Don't worry... We will burn you up, but not until after Christmas when you get all dry and crinkly.... but don't cry, we'll hug you...."

Remind me not to need comforting from these two.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving! "What are you most thankful for?"

Asa: "That Daddy has a good job."

Olive: "For our animals."

Addison: "That I'm not sick on Thanksgiving."

Ivey: "That our horse is gonna have a baby."

Freaked Out

 Olive (with shrugged, stressed shoulders up to her ears and a red face): "I don't know why I do this, but I get really freaked out when Ivey gets in trouble."

Me: "Well, Olive, you're just a lot like your brother. And that's pretty cool."

I swear, it is like raising him up all over again!

25%

 Addison has a recital in a week. After practice today, he was nervous. When Addison is nervous, he is a bit obsessive. In 10 minutes, he had told me how stressed out he was, how he had the feeling that he procrastenated but didn't, and how he was "freaking out" about everyone improving before next week. We made it to the hockey game, and he played and ran around for an hour.

Once in the car, he says, "Well, I am around 25% less stressed out now."

That pretty much sums him up!

The Quest

 Olive and Ivey were pretending. I have no idea what they were imagining, but Olive says, in a low, movie-quality suspenseful voice, "Follow the silent toot.... until you get to a secret door...."

Randomness

 Olive, in the van after hockey last night:

"I like this. I have my own stinkiness, so I can't smell Ivey's stinkiness anymore."

____________________

I have decided that Ivey is just TOO creative for either Halloween or Christmas. I about killed her over her flip-flopping from "Gollum" to "Tinkerbell" to "Maleficent wearing a horse costume" at Halloween .... and now, when I ask her for Christmas present ideas for her, I get "a remote control baby racoon."

____________________

Ivey: "I gotta poo."

Me: "Do you want to know a fancy way to say that?

I need to have a bowel movement."

Ivey: "Oh, is that what you say on a date?"

____________________

Olive: "Ivey, I have a great idea!"

Ivey (sing-songy and hyper): "♪Great great great, great great great, great great i-dea!♪"

Olive: "It's not that great."

____________________

I've spent the past year telling the girls that we couldn't go to Disney World until everyone has outgrown the whining and pitching of fits... and that there are lots of lines in Disney World so you have to learn to be very patient.... seriously, I spent a YEAR on this.

Jeff: "So, do you think you guys have been good enough to go to Disney world?"

Olive shakes head "no".

A few minutes later...

Jeff: "Do you guys want to go to Disney World for Christmas?!"

Olive: "Um, we need to go before Christmas cause I've already written my Christmas list and Disney World is not on it."

____________________

Olive got a fountain lemonade at lunch, and insisted that it tasted wrong.

Olive: "My drink isn't right. It doesn't taste like anything. It has no taste."

......

Mim: "Hmm... Can I taste it?"

Olive: "No."

Mim (confused): "Why not?"

Olive: "Cause there is no taste."

___________________

Olive whispers to me last night: "Anna sang that she wanted to shove some chocolate in her face... and I AM shoving chocolate in my face!"

My daughter (Addison 2.0) cannot enjoy the act of painting because she is too stressed out about using up all the paint. Good grief.

Fine Tuning