Well, I guess you can read it that way!

Today I was reminded of something hysterical that happened this summer!

While Matt and I were shopping for school clothes at the mall, Matt's attention was drawn to the wall of T-shirts emblazoned with sassy sayings. He was reading and chuckling at all of the "Blame my brother" and "My dog ate my homework" shirts when he came across a shirt and was adament that, "Mom, you just have to get it - it's perfect for you!" Since I hadn't really considered any of those shirts appropriate for a mother of four little boys, I was curious to see what had captured Matt's attention in this way.

The shirt read:

"Too many boys, too little time."

Maybe it was applicable after all! :-)

Mr. Smartie Pants

I know that everyone thinks their children are gifted. Today, though, we got some news that PROVES Matt is as smart as we have always thought he was. In the third grade, the kids take their first standardized test - the 'Cognative Abilities Test'. There is no preparation for it, it is just a general test to determine children's natural abilities. I was shocked, and thrilled to receive the results today. Matthew scored in the 99th percentile NATIONALLY! That was for verbal ability - we always tease Matt about talking too much. :-) There were two other sections of the test, non-verbal ability and quantitative ability. He scored in the 92nd percentile and the 89th percentile in those - both well above the national averages. His composite score (so his overall ability) was in the 97th percentile. I am just so proud of him!

The world according to Matthew

As the oldest brother, Matthew enjoys a certain amount of hero-status among his younger brothers. They often ask him questions and he enjoys giving long lectures to them - mostly on things like Pokemon attacks and the characters in Star Wars, etc... In the last 3rd grade book order, Matthew purchased the All new, 2007, Guiness book of World Records. As a trivia buff, these sorts of useless facts are just the type of thing Matthew enjoys collecting in that brain of his. In the car this afternoon, Matthew was explaining some of his new-found knowledge to William. Since we have twins, multiple birth families are of some interest to us. In Matt's book there was a woman who gave birth to SEVEN babies at one time. "You know what that's called, Will?" Asked Matt. "It's called 7-up-lets." I think the family might need to be alerted to this fact, since they've probably been calling their children septuplets. Also, I think the Coca-cola company might like to know they could possibly use this family as advertisement for their popular soft drink! :-)

Grandma's house . . .

Matthew is upstairs in bed - he has been sick the past 2 days. I just went up to talk to him about our Thanksgiving plans. Warren and I just decided that we would go visit family in UT and ID for Thanksgiving. Then, since this year is our 10 year anniversary the day before Thanksgiving, Warren and I are going to take a little trip to AZ for 4 days and leave our children with our families. Since 4 rambunctious little boys are a tall order for anyone, we decided to split them up. The older two boys are staying in ID with Warren's mom, and the twins will stay in UT with my mom. As I was talking to Matt about this plan he said, "I just love staying with both my grandma's!

At Grandma Julie's:
She has lots of movies,
She tickles me,
She takes us places,
She's nice,
We get to see Grandpa...

But at Grandma G's:
She has that great big garden,
She has those apple trees,
She puts Torani syrup in our milk,
We get to sleep downstairs,
There is a soda machine,
She has horses and cows...

If I had to choose, I really can't decide. I love staying with both my Grandma's so much!"