Monday Thoughts

One more week of vacation yall!! One more week! I must admit the l-o-n-g vacation has gone by faster than I expected. This week I'm down 2 kids - God Bless my mother who took Julia and Emma to Camp Gagi for 5 days!! So this week feels like a different kind of vacation altogether. It's much quieter without two children, one of which talks from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed. And the laundry - I didn't realize how much laundry 2 extra children produce! Or, should I say how much less laundry I have with 2 kids gone! I think Lily has enjoyed having the time without her sisters - lots of playdates, shopping and no sharing!

I took down most of the Christmas decorations today. I wonder if I'm the only person who gets excited about taking them down? Don't get me wrong - I love, love Christmas. I love putting up the decorations and getting the tree and all that. But, when it's done..I'm done. Move on and clean out. Just have the tree lights left - boo hoo - worst job ever. Every year when Paul and I are fussing at each other I think that lights really aren't that expensive - can't we throw the tree out with lights on it? But...he says no. Sigh..tomorrow we'll tackle that.

And one more thing...today I was driving down Walnut St and got behind a car that had a bumpers sticker that read: Republicans for Obama. Which made me think..really? Wouldn't that make you a Democrat? Since, you know, Obama is pretty much anti-republican in almost all political facets? Whatever.

Christmas!!

It's been a great few days! Christmas was great!! My kids are at such great ages for enjoying Christmas - it was so fun! Christmas Eve Paul worked in the morning and we hung out and prepped food for the evening. We traditionally all get new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. I had told the kids in the morning that we could open 1 gift when Daddy got home from work. They kept wondering which one they could open (again see my early post about how they remember what they want to remember - neither of my older girls could remember that they get jammies every Christmas Eve). They were just super excited to open a gift and seemed excited about getting the pajamas even though jammies weren't on any list. About 3 seconds after they opened the gift they had changed out of their Christmas outfits and into the pajamas! A highlight of the day was the Santa tracking. Emma was obsessed with noradsanta.com.

We met Paul's family at church for Christmas Eve service and they came back to our house for dinner and to celebrate with us. We had a good meal and a great time opening gifts. The girls were all super exited with all they got - lots of arts & crafts kits, new dolls and some other toys. Jacob had a big time climbing on the boxes and playing with the wrapping paper! We finally got the kids to bed about 9.

Thankfully it was dark & rainy Christmas morning so I think that helped the kids sleep a little later. Lily got up about 7 but the rest of them not until almost 8! They kept asking "Did Santa come? Did Santa come?" Indeed he had! Everyone seemed excited about what they got. We opened our stockings then I (the present nazi) made everyone wait until after breakfast to open the family gifts. We opened more gifts and all the kids played with their new stuff. My dad and his wife stopped by for a quick visit and then we got ready for my mom and her family.

Gagi and Grampy arrived in the afternoon and then my aunt and cousins arrived shortly after. More present opening - American Girl dolls! Bitty Baby! Clothes! The excitement was too much! Lily kept saying "I got a lot of stuff". No joke! We had a nice meal and enjoyed just hanging out and playing with the new stuff.

All in all a great holiday. It was really all about the kids this year. They were super cute and their excitement was certainly contagious. Thankfully they got enough new things that they ought not be bored until they go back to school at least (7 more days!). Now to find places to put this stuff and see what stuff we might want to pass on....

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!!!

PS - I might add pictures later but I posted a bunch of facebook....

Elephant Memory?

Don't they say that elephants have amazing memories and never forget anything. I think they have that confused with my kids. Oh wait..let me take that back..they remember everything they want to remember and everything you want them to forget. Like no one can ever remember what they did at school that day yet amazingly they will remember how you accidentally hit them on the head with a plate when they were 2.

This morning the kids were excitedly talking about Santa when Emma brought up the wrapping paper that Santa used last year. (At our house Santa only wraps the stocking stuffers.) Apparently last year he used pink princess paper with all the Disney princesses on it. Emma described it in great detail. The problem? I totally forgot that's the paper Santa used last year and the paper I used this year to wrap all their gifts from Paul & I. Whoops!! Suddenly I had visions of my frantic text to Paul to Get! More! Paper! And being up until 2am re-wrapping all those gifts. But then I thought I'd try the "you're wrong" tactic and said "that's not the paper Santa used...he used the Santa paper." Totally didn't work. At all. I had 2 of them telling me I was wrong. Then it came to me...I said "oh that's right...you know I found that wrapping paper in the attic and wondered where it came from. Santa left it for us since he didn't use the whole roll last year." Thankfully they bought it. Whew...problem escaped. I'm so glad it's Christmas tomorrow..I can not keep up with the "Santa lies" any longer.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve!!!

A Baking We Will Do

I've lost count of the number of pounds of butter, sugar and flour I've been through this season. Which is probably a good thing. We've (and by that I mean me) have been baking like crazy since Thanksgiving. For one thing I really enjoy it (well mostly really enjoy it) and it just seems like there's constantly been an occasion to make things for. I am however about thisclose to being over it and I am thankful there are only 2 more big meal occasions. Only a little more baking that needs to be done. Thought I'd share what we've been making and our review of it.

Amish Friendship Bread - Cinnamon, Lemon and Butterscotch variations - I actually started making this earlier in the fall but had about a million starters in the freezer. I stopped feeding the starters because I was just over it. I found a recipe using just the starter and it turns out good bread. Cinnamon is my favorite but the other variations are good too. Just know that if you start this you are committing yourself to making endless loaves of bread. One good thing is that each time you make 2 perfect for Sunday School teacher gifts.

Soft Ginger Cookies - these are a staple now for the holidays - they are easy to make and almost always turn out perfect. They freeze well and are good for cookie exchanges

Snowballs - I've made a couple batches of these since they are Paul's favorite. Another easy cookie and there is no egg in them if someone you know has an egg allergy.

Red Velvet Biscotti - this was a Paula Deen recipe that I tried for the first time this year. It won't make my holiday short list of things to make again.

Chex Mix - love homemade chex mix and the kids liked helping me make it.

Sugar Cookies - standard to do at least once during the season. We made ours early in the season this year.

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake - made this Paula Deen recipe for the first time last night. And it was ooey gooey goodness. Will definitely make again and super easy.

Mint Brownies - made these yesterday and Paul loved them. They are rich and decadent but it's the holidays. They also look very festive with the green layer in them.

Bread Pudding - This is my old Chef's recipe from when I worked at the hotel. It's the best. dessert. ever. I only make it Christmas and Thanksgiving. The calories last the whole year through though.

Pumpkin Bread - always make a few loaves. Kids love it. Love to freeze it. Good stuff.

Buckeyes/Peanut Butter Balls - Lily's favorite - she could eat her weight in them. She loved helping me make them. One of our must have favorites

Mint Bark - I found this easy bark recipe using oreos/white chocolate. Thought I'd spice it up using candy cane oreos but alas there were none to be found at Walmart. However, they had cool mint oreos which seemed to be about the same thing. The result - super yummy and Emma's favorite. Also super easy. Bonus!

Snowman Cupcake Cake - Made this for Julia's preschool and it turned out cute. I "borrowed" the idea from Kroger and it turned out cute.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls - I have been wanting to find a good cinnamon roll recipe and I stumbled upon one. They turned out good and very pretty. I'll be making these for Christmas morning.

Cowboy Santa Cookies - we got a mix in a jar of these and made them - they were pretty good - kids gave them mixed reviews.

And last but not least I'll make a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake for Christmas Eve. It's tradition and I try to pick a different festive cake each year. Not sure what we're doing yet but it will get done today.

So..what have you been baking? What your favorite holiday treats?

The Snow That Wasn't

We were supposed to be snowed in this weekend. We weren't. All week last week they said we were going to get snow. And man were my kids E-X-C-I-T-E-D. Friday morning we watched the weather - they said snow - yay! Friday about 1pm when I put the little ones down for a nap I looked out the window and SNOW! Big flakes..beautiful flakes..falling fast. We ran up to the attic got our "snow gear" (leftover from our days in MA). My neighbor texted me and the big girls and I ran outside to "play" in it. Emma put out a bowl to collect snow for snow cream. Convinced we'd have enough soon. Sadly the snow lasted about 30 minutes..no accumulation. The news said it was a lull - there would be more later. There wasn't. It rained. And rained and maybe a little freezing rain and sleet. No snow. Boo. I'm not a huge fan of snow but at Christmas it would be nice -you know just and inch or 2. Don't think it's going to this year - the forecast I saw today said 58 and rain for Christmas Day. Oh well - winter has just begun. Here are few pics my neighbor took of the girls in the "snow."

Gingerbread Village Making

Every year we do a premade gingerbread house kit. One of our many Christmas traditions. Every year someone gets upset and yelling ensues because "you're not doing it right." I *want* to let the kids have their creative freedom but sometimes it just drives me nuts. And, I am too cheap to buy more than one premade gingerbread kit. But this year I saw the perfect thing at Target: the Gingerbread Village. Five "houses" (well technically 2 houses, 1 building, 1 church and a chalet). I thought this is perfect - each kid can have their own to do and there will be no fighting. And actually that's what happened! The girls have been asking to do them for a couple weeks but we held off until yesterday afternoon. Cold...forecast for snow..what a perfect afternoon for gingerbread village making! Jacob even got in on the action - trying to steal the candy and then eating the icing. They were so proud of their creations.

Meadow Lights

I'd heard about the Meadow Lights from a couple friends via Facebook. It sounded like a fun place to go to see some Christmas lights so called up our good friends the Dickeys and decided to make a night of it. Our kids always have a great time together and with 7 kids between us there is no shortage of entertainment. We met them for a quick dinner at Chickfila and then headed east toward the middle of nowhere to see the lights. After a navigational error on my part we finally made it. Apparently we weren't the only people who eyed the 10 day forecast and decided the lone night that it was going to be 49 (even with a fine mist in the air) would be the best night to go. The line was long but it moved fast. They have 3 trains that take you around the lights. At $2/person it was quite a bargain (especially considering how much it cost to do the hayride at the Lights on the Neuse). The kids really enjoyed the ride and loved making up stories about the lights. After the lights we headed over to the old fashioned candy store. Apparently no trip to see lights is complete without candy. We had a quick visit with Santa (no pictures) and then rode the carousel. Fun times. The weather ended up being perfect - cold enough that it felt like Christmas but not so cold that our faces were numb. I highly recommend the Meadow Lights - fun and a great bargain. Maybe not as good as the Lights on the Neuse but considering the cost (all of us rode the train at the Meadow Lights for what it would have cost 1 of us at the Lights on the Neuse) it was totally worth it. Add in the Dickey family and you have a perfect pre-Christmas night!

Christmas Fun

Phew...busy weekend! Fun weekend!! Friday night I went to my monthly Scrapmania with my scrappin' gals. Fun night! And I got a lot of scrapping done. Saturday we spent the day in Rocky Mount with my dad's wife's family (got that?). There were a bunch of kids there and my kids had a great time. Santa even showed up right before lunch!! Apparently he was in the neighborhood and dropped by to check on everyone and remind them to be good for 2 more weeks. So cute! Last night Paul too the kids to Disney on Ice and I got to go out again. I know..spoiled I am..but since we are only on week 2 1/2 of our 5 1/2 week track out I really needed it. My friend Lauren was in town and hosted her annual Ornament Exchange Party. So fun! Though I ended up with votive candle holders in an ornament exchange Yankee swap. Seriously - it was an ORNAMENT exchange...who brings votive holders to an ORNAMENT exchange? Apparently they did not understand the directions. I was sort of bummed...I mean I was looking forward to adding a new ornament to our tree - not votive holders to my mantle. Hoping someone has a regifting party in January - totally know what I am bringing.

Today we had our church Christmas production, a birthday party, AWANA for the girls and then going to my dads to celebrate his birthday. This makes me sort of happy the girls are out of school - crossing my fingers they will sleep in tomorrow!

The Gospel According to Emma

Emma and Lily got invited to go to A Christmas Carol with my dad's wife tonight. They were pretty excited and I thought they should dress up a little for the occasion. I helped Lily pick out one of her Christmas dresses and instructed Emma to go ahead and get dressed as well. She complained about this..wanting to stay in her Tinkerbell dress and black leggings ensemble that she now wears every time it's clean. I insisted and she begrudgingly went upstairs to change. She was up there for quite some time and I could hear her muttering and grumbling to herself. She finally comes downstairs, teary faced and reports this to me:

"Mommy..Christmas is not about pretty dresses. Christmas is about Jesus's birthday and in the Bible it says we shouldn't worry about what we wear. And we need to listen to His word and obey."

Well played Emma..well played.

One Down Four to Go

We survived the first week of our L-O-N-G winter break! I don't know if I've mentioned it but my older girls are out of school for 5 1/2 weeks. We have our normal 3 week track out but this year the timing coincided with the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks giving us a grand total of 5 1/2 weeks. Out Nov. 26 through Jan. 4. Seriously. I had intended (ha!ha!) to be done with my Christmas shopping before the break began but I think we all know how that turned out. Not well. In fact, not one single gift (unless you count the Scholastic book order I decided was a gift) had been purchased before the break began. Oh well. I've got some ground to make up over the next few weeks. Thankfully I purchased a gift for myself the week before break - a package of hours at the local drop off daycare. Merry Christmas to me!! I have plans for come certain children to be spending some time there next week.

The week actually went pretty well thanks mostly to some awesome neighbors who invited the girls over for playdates. Julia still has preschool so we have some of our normal routine for the next couple of weeks at least. I must say it's been nice to have some time away from the carpool line. And from packing lunches. Busy weekend ahead and then we'll start week 2..wish us luck!

O Christmas Tree

Yesterday was our annual Christmas Tree Decorating Day. Emma reminded us earlier in the weekend that we "always get Chinese food when we decorate our tree." I had sort of forgotten that so I was thrilled that one of the children remembered a tradition! After the little ones afternoon naps we loaded up the gang and headed out. First stop was the park to get some more pictures of the kids - I had some Christmas attire and my outside pictures always (usually) turn out better than indoor ones. I enlisted Paul's help (?) to try to get a good couple of pictures. Paul lasted about 13 minutes and he was all done with being my photo assistant. I got maybe one picture and that's being generous - maybe another day this week will be nice and I can try again. On my own.

We went to a local farm to look at trees. We totally lucked out and got to visit with Santa there! They also had a hayride that we got to do which was basically a circle around some cows but the kids loved it! Paul was excited because they tied our tree to the top of the car.

We got home, unloaded the tree and I started the first batch of Christmas cookies - Paul's favorite - Snowballs while he got the tree in the stand and then got our dinner. Mom came over to watch the action after dinner and of course the kids didn't disappoint. Julia was more interested in playing the the ribbon. Lily put a ton of ornaments on the tree though she refused to move from one spot so we have about 100 ornaments in a cluster exactly where she was standing. Emma couldn't decide what was more fun - the ribbon or the ornaments so she was back and forth. And poor Jacob was just walking around inspecting things then throwing them when he was done looking at them. Entertainment (or birth control) for sure!

The tree got done and it really feels like Christmas around here. I got a good chunk of shopping done over the weekend, ordered the Christmas cards and wrote the annual letter. I love this time of year!!

One of These is Not Like the Other

I pulled out the Christmas dresses last night and had Julia wear one today. Everyone says these two look alike..what do you think?

The top picture is Julia from today..the bottom picture is Lily from 2 years ago when she wore the dress.

Elfie's Back!

Our Elf on the Shelf returned this morning! Elfie joined our family last year and the kids have been asking when he would return. If you are unfamiliar with the "Elf on the Shelf" check it out: http://www.elfontheshelf.com/. Super cute...Elfie left a note Friday morning and let us know he'd be arriving soon. The girls were so excited so they wrote him some notes back: Emma's is the first one. In case you can't read it is says: Dear ELFIE, We are so excited that you are comeing. We have been good but we are going eshr good. Today I am going to make my Chrimas list with my friend. We miss you. See you when you come. Love, Emma
The bottom on is Lily's. She gets to the point: ELFIE, I have Benn Good Love, Lily

Sure enough when we woke up this morning he had arrived!

He was sitting on the mantle waiting for us this morning. Let's hope he spurs on some good behavior especially since there is no school for the next 5 weeks!

PS: If you are wondering why there are no stockings on the mantle look carefully at the left side of Jacob's head. He has a (thankfully) very small dark bruise...Yep..As he came down from his nap he went right over and pulled the stockings down and got a head bang in the process. Sigh...Boys....

Abundant Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving!! We've had a great day over at the homestead. Family! Deep fried turkey from Bojangles! (Yea..they sell turkeys yall!) Mashed Potatoes! (which we'll be eating for about 10 days since I cooked 10lbs of potatoes..not kidding) Sweet Potatoes! (Paula Deen's recipe..mmmm) Stuffing, rolls! Homemade pumpkin pie! Bread pudding (my special recipe)! Good food..good times. We were so lucky to have my brother and his fiancee over this year. It was fun day though let me say that when you eat your big meal at 1pm the afternoon can get l-o-n-g. Thank goodness Nana and Papa John came by for a visit when they did.

My blessings are so abundant this year. I honestly am so overwhelmed by how blessed I am. My family, my home, my husband who works so, so hard to make sure our family is taken care of. My crazy wild kids, my friends, my health...the list is never ending. I am so privileged to live where I do..in this house, in this neighborhood, in this state..in this country. Just so, so grateful and thankful....Happy Thanksgiving!!

My New Moon Review

So I finally got to see New Moon today. I was hopeful to go on opening day like I did last year for Twilight but alas I ended up going today with a bunch of my neighbors. I'm a big, (ok HUGE) fan of the books. Read them twice. I liked the first movie, and though the acting was only OK I thought the casting was good. I was excited for New Moon to have a bigger budget and a new director. I must confess that this book was my least favorite of the Twilight Saga. Though I liked it I thought it was more a "bridge" to set up the next two books.

So, how did I feel about the movie? I liked it. Did I love it? Not sure about that. I did love Jacob. And I loved the action. The special effects were good. I liked the way they did the werewolves and their transformation. And let's not mention that word without observing the transformation of Jacob Black. I do realize I'm almost old enough to be his mother and the fact that he was only 16 when he filmed the movie (seriously..16..how can that be??) but Oh My. Let's just say he has a bright future. This year there was no shrieking when Edward first graced the screen but there were some very audible "ahh's" when Jacob took off his shirt for the first time. The director certainly knew what he was doing when he left Taylor Lautner shirtless for so much of his screen time. But enough about that. For now.

My biggest complaint about the movie was just how brooding Edward and Bella were. And yes, I know this follows the book but it got tiring to me. I'm ready to see Edward and Bella happier. The acting was better than Twilight, especially for the main characters. I thought they did a good job staying true to the book - I couldn't remember too many differences. Overall a good movie..excited for the next one!

Field Trip!

Thanks to my wonderful mother who graciously offered to babysit my little monsters I got to go on a field trip with Lily's class to Marbles kids museum this morning. I dropped the girls off at school, fueled up on some DD coffee to ensure I had enough wits about me to mind after 5 kids at a kids museum, then headed downtown. After a small parking issue (I waited in line to pay then paid for the wrong space #, had to wait in line again to pay for the right number. Seriously.) I made my way into the museum. Our bus hadn't made it there yet so I waited with the mass of other parental chaperones for the kids.

Just a PSA: Rethink your plans to go there on a Friday morning. There were at least 6 other Kindergarten classes at the museum at the same time we were. Chaos!

The bus finally arrived and we were assigned our charges. My sister in law came along too so we got 5 kids (yay us) Lily, her bff (for today) Alyna, Alissa and 2 boys that I couldn't begin to spell their names. They were actually all really good and very well behaved. They had a great time going through the museum. I did learn the Lily is very bossy both by watching her and by one the kids telling me.

I was very thankful that our class had on the awful tie dye shirts since there were 700 kids there. At least we knew what to look for. All in all a very fun morning - both for me and the kids. They loved it! I feel very grateful I got to go. Thanks Mom!

Love Note

I just happened to see this on the table this morning. Apparently Lily made it for her BFF (today) Alyna. I thought it was cute and wanted to share. I love how 5 year olds think!

Sunday Drive

Sunday was supposed to be a busy day. Church, birthday party, girl scouts, AWANA...However, my dad called on Saturday afternoon and needed some help. They recently bought a home in Asheville and were moving some stuff up there. Basically he needed me to drive his car up to Asheville to pick him up as he needed to be home Sunday night. So of course I offered to help and recruited Lily to ride with me. I somewhat deceptively said "Anyone want to go for a ride with me tomorrow" on Saturday. I failed to mention that said ride was 7+ hours (3 1/2 up then back). Lily volunteered right away. And it actually ended up being quite nice. I don't get to spend too much one on one time with Lily so to have her all to myself in the car (without a DVD player) for the ride up was a treat. Five year olds come up with very interesting things to talk about in the car. And just in case you need to know anything she and Paul apparently know everything. She knows everything because Daddy told her. She then proceeded to spend about 15 minutes telling me all the things she knows about in list format. She could not understand why my dad didn't have a Taylor Swift CD in the car and why I could not play "Party in the USA" on demand. Otherwise we had a nice time.

I went to college in the mountains but haven't been to the mountains in a long time. As we were approaching the area I was flooded with great memories of living in the mountains and astounded by the beauty of them. Even though the leaves were past their peak it was still very beautiful. I had honestly forgotten how much I love the mountains. And I love that in NC you can be at the mountains or the beach in a few hours time!

My dad's house is just beautiful. I can't wait to go back when it's all done (they are doing quite a bit of remodeling). So my Asheville friends I'll be calling you when we get back up there! Can't wait to see some of you!!

Birth"date"

My birthday ended as well as it began. My mom graciously watched the little ones while I took the older girls to dance. Keeping up with Jacob at the dance studio is pretty close to torture so it was a nice break. I also had to measure them and pay for their recital costumes. Which, by the way, cost more than I've spent on clothes for myself this year. And yes, I realize how pathetic that is on a couple levels.

Mom stayed so that Paul could take me out to dinner. We went to the Melting Pot. Yay! It also happened to be a New Moon theme night - how exciting is that?? We did a New Moon trivia quiz that I rocked and they had New Moon inspired drinks like Vampire Kiss and some werewolf thing. Very fun! We had a wonderful dinner and it was so nice to be at a place that doesn't have a kids menu.

The birthday celebrating continues to today(cake for lunch)! I get to go to Scrapmania tonight and stock on my scrapbook supplies! Fun times!!

It's MY Birthday!

It's my birthday and I'm celebrating! Actually the celebrating started last night when Paul brought this gem home with him: It's my most favorite cake in the whole wide world courtesy of Whole Foods. Yay Paul!

This morning I woke up to my most favorite coffee in the whole wide world: Starbucks Gingerbread Latte. Another Yay Paul! Then I got this card from the kids: In case you can't read it well it says: Dear Mommy Have a woderful birthday. Make your drem come choow. We Love you. Love Emma Lily Julia Jacod. Apparently Emma was in charge of it since Lily got to be in charge of wrapping (i.e. selecting a bag) & hiding (in her closet) my gift. She was very proud and apparently wasn't sure I knew who Daddy was..glad she cleared that up.

The "kids" gave me the Glee soundtrack..which is very cool though I just downloaded 4 songs from itunes..oops. Lesson learned - don't buy things for yourself the week of your birthday..you never know what you're going to get.

Then at Bible Study my wonderful leader made me cupcakes! Isn't that sweet!

Gagi coming over to babysit this afternoon so I can take the girls to dance solo (great gift Mom..really) then she's keeping all the kids this evening so Paul can take me out! Great day so far!

Tie Dye Holiday

The girls are out of school today for Veterans Day. One of the rare days they have off of school in the middle of a track. It's pouring down rain and cold outside. A fun afternoon is in store I'm sure. But I digress..Lily's class is going on a field trip next week. Apparently they all need to have tie-dyed t-shirts for the occasion so her teacher sent out a flyer last week asking for parent volunteers to do the project. I agreed to help but only wanted to coordinate the project if no one else would. And of course..no one else did. Yay me. I've never tie-dyed, in fact, I don't really care for that look...But, I'm happy to help the teacher so I emailed parents and recruited some help. Three other parents who also know nothing about tie-dye responded to my plea.

We decide today would be a could day for the endeavor since the kids are out of school. They all came to our house and we got to work trying to figure out what the heck we are doing. We had 27 shirts to do. Yes..27. We started one way and then we figured out an easier way. Yall..I am a little scared about how these things are going to turn out. I'm hoping that as the dye sets it will look better. If not, these are going to be the ugliest shirts you have ever seen. Apparently they need to set for 24 hours so we won't know until tomorrow what they look like. Again..scared. I decided that tie dye is pretty messy and really not that much fun..don't think I'll volunteer again for this. I'll keep you posted on the outcome..I'm sure you really want to know..ha!ha!

The Tale of the Deadly Kazoo

Yesterday probably ranks up there with one of the yuckiest days we've had. Ever. It started with a holiday photo session that didn't involve a lot of cooperation from 3 out of my 4 kids. Sigh. And ended with a 6 hour visit to the peds ER at Duke. Let me fill you in.

After naps we decided to go the playground in our neighborhood. The girls all rode their bikes and I pushed Jacob in the stroller. In the stroller we found a kazoo leftover from the neighborhood Halloween party. I gave it to Jacob to hold and play with while we walked. At the playground the girls took off playing and Jacob swung for a while. Then he was done and wanted to walk around. I let him, not really paying attention to the fact that he had the kazoo in his hand. Since he's a relatively new walker he falls. A lot. So he's walking and falls but this time the cry is different..I immediately pick him up and I notice the kazoo in his left hand and that his eyes are clinched shut. Then I notice the blood. Then I put 2 and 2 together....Uh-Oh! So I start walking back to the stroller blotting the blood with my shirt because I am unprepared and not that mom that always has her diaper bag. And I start to panic a little because it's his eye. And it's bleeding. A lot. So I start screaming for the girls to get on their bikes that we have got to go. Now! I call Paul, who wasn't home, as we are walking home and casually inquire as to his whereabouts. I tell him Jacob hit his eye and I think I need to take him to the Pediatric Urgent Care..which just so happens to be about 5 min. away. He is, thankfully, very close to home. In fact he beats us home from the park. The 2 year old on the big wheel slowed me down.

Paul has the van ready for me. And I whisk Jacob away to the Pediatric Express (who, by the way, could not have been nicer...they are great). As I'm driving I'm thinking all kinds of terrible things like he's going to be blind because he fell on a freaking plastic kazoo. But then I think..no..it's just a surface wound..I'm just being overly cautious because it's his eye. When we get to the dr they see me right away. The dr. looks at the eye for about 2 secs and immediately says we should go to the ER. She thinks it may have lacerated the eye muscle and possibly the tear duct so it might need some repair that she's not equipped to do. She recommends Duke since they'll have an eye doc and plastic surgeons on call. Now I really start freaking out. It was just a plastic kazoo!!

So I call Paul and he arranges for childcare so he can go with me to the ER. Thank God for great neighbors (Belinda!!) and for my mother in law. I had no idea what to expect at the ER..I had visions we'd walk in and there'd be a 100 people there in masks with the Swine Flu. Thankfully when we got there it didn't appear to be too busy and I only saw 1 person in a mask. We got a room pretty quickly but had to wait a long time to see the eye doctors. To make this long story a little shorter I'll summarize a bit: waited to see eye doc #1..saw him..he couldn't decide how bad it was..waited more..saw eye doc #2...she thought it potentially hit the tear duct and might need stitches but she wasn't sure..waited some more...saw eye doc #3..he thought the same thing as #2. Basically they had to sedate Jacob to really examine the eye. So finally after 4 hours of waiting they come in do the procedure. Which was really scary. Really, really scary..I was a nervous wreck during the whole thing. There are few harder things than watching your child, especially when they are little, go through medical producers. The outcome was good..very good. The tear ducts were not damaged and no stitches were needed. Phew. Praise God! It took Jacob a little bit to come out of the sedation but overall he did fabulous. He was such a trooper.

It was a long, long night. We were at the ER for over 6 hours. They could not have been nicer though. And I was impressed that the eye doc called us today to check on Jacob. His eye is a little red and swollen but near as bad as it could be. In fact the situation could have been much different. I am so, so thankful for the outcome we had. Thanks dear friends for your prayers and support! A long scary night but at least it turned out good.

Throwback!

The first graders at Emma's school had a "Through the Years Museum" in the media center (library if you haven't been in an elementary school lately) today. They asked parents to bring in different items and antiques to depict how technology has changed through the years. They've been talking about this for awhile so Emma was very excited this morning to get to actually see the different items. I was lucky enough to get to volunteer for the event and go to see really cool things. They had old-timey kitchen utensils, typewriters, a word processor ('member those!), record player and records and all kinds of "old" toys. Meaning old to the kids but many I remember so I would not classify them as old..older maybe..definitely not old.

The best part was looking at the toys. There was an honest to God Atari with a whole bunch of games. Pacman anyone? Space Invaders? Vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls - we couldn't touch them so I didn't get to find out if they still smelled or not. And the best....a pair of white roller skates with red pom-poms!

Those skates totally brought back a wave of memories for me. Saturdays at The Rink (you know before the ice storm caved in the roof). I had a pair of white skates (of course) and I remember going to the Skate Shop to look at all the accessories to pimp out my skates. I remember saving up money to get some blue pom-poms and blue sparkly laces for my skates. I think I had blue wheels too. Totally awesome. You'd round up your friends on Saturday morning and figure out who's mom would drop you off and who would pick you up. Grab your own skates 'cause rentals - yuck and not cool and hit the skating rink. Fun times..fun memories!

Potty Training Triumph???

So Sunday morning in a sugar induced fog Julia actually wanted to wear panties. Paul was up with her as I was still trying to figure out what time it was and told her if she was going to wear panties she had to go potty. She agreed!?! She cried when I told her she had to wear a pull up to church that morning so I let her wear panties and took along extra clothes. She didn't need them. She went to the potty a few times...Yay! And kept her pull up dry at nap!! We did offer her Halloween candy if she went in the potty and apparently that was enough motivation for her to keep going. So Monday morning she wanted to wear panties again. And again..no accidents! She did tell me about 5000 times that she had to go potty and didn't actually do anything but it's progress people. Progress. So..we're on day 4 of this..no accidents so far. A lot of false attempts but MUCH success. Are we done with diapers with her? I have no idea. I'm hopeful though..very, very hopeful!

So what have I learned? All of my children have trained differently. Sadly no magic thing worked for any of them. (Drat!) And they all learned at different ages. The ones that learned the quickest and had the most success were the ones who decided to do it when they wanted to and on their terms. Maybe...just maybe I'll remember this when Jacob is older.

The Main Event: Halloween

Let me just start this by saying that time change Sunday and the day after Halloween should never again meet. Longest Day Ever plus Sugar Highs just shouldn't happen. Ever. Now that thats out of the way...Halloween was tons o' fun!! We started the dreary, rainy day at the Cary Band Day Parade where Emma was marching with her Daisy Troop. Very cute and I scored some mom points by waiting in the rain to see her smiling face. I took Julia and Lily with me and we had a Girls Day Out. We went to Toys R Us to start scouting out items for the Christmas lists then we went out to lunch. To a restaurant. A real one where you didn't order off a wall. Treat!!

After naps we went to the neighborhood party. The kids got to participate in a little costume parade and eat tons of junk in preparation for Trick or Treating (this detail will be important in a bit). The girls had fun and our neighborhood social committee did a great job putting the event together. After the party we came back home to "rest" a little before Trick or Treating. My cousin's fiancee, Ron, came over to hang out with us so that was fun. We had a little Chinese and a costume change for Emma and they were ready. Paul had plans to meet up with a couple other dads and go out in a big group Trick or Treating. We've learned to take extra bags with us as the kids can only carry so much candy. Honestly, we got so much that we ought to be done when they can't carry their own candy bag but whatever. So they went out for almost 2 hours before finally calling it a night. Needless to say the kids were exhausted but super excited to look at their loot.

Immediately they asked to eat some candy and I said sure..have a few pieces. Lily sorted all her candy by kind and took her coveted bubble gum and put it in a "special place". Emma enjoyed her fav, Laffy Taffy (I know..yuck) and Julia kept eating anything she could open. Finally we made them go to bed. As I tucked Lily in she mentioned that her tummy hurt. I assured her she was ok just tired and probably ate too much candy.

Turns out she did eat too much candy. Or too much junk. Or too much of something since she came into my room about 10pm saying her bed was wet. Turned out she got sick in the bed. Bless her heart..it was so gross and I felt so bad for her. She said "I don't like this night at all." There are few things worse than seeing your child get sick and knowing you can't really do anything to help them. Thankfully she's fine now but it was not a good night. We were up a lot. And then of course, Jacob was up at 6am. Grrr...hate time change. Love Halloween though..again, lets hope it's a long time before these 2 events meet again.

Scariest Pumpkins on the Block?

Not really - unless you call weird carving scary. Which some do. Last night we had our annual "Family Pumpkin Carving Night." A tradition we started when our oldest was 7 months old her first Halloween. We clear off the kitchen table and line it with newspapers, pick our pumpkin patterns and let Daddy go to work. Well..that's been the tradition but now we have so many kids that I actually have to participate in the carving of the pumpkins. I don't mind it's fun...but usually Paul gets the really hard designs and I get the really easy ones. However, somehow last night he got to do Lily's star eyes and I ended up with Julia's Mickey Mouse. The girls had fun separating the seeds though Lily kept talking about how "gross the pulp is." We roasted the pumpkin seeds and everyone has been munching on them all day. A fun night last night and a great kick-off to the Halloween fun today!

Homemade Candy Corn is NOT a new Halloween Tradition

So our way cool friends, the Hart's who happen to live in Hawaii, posted on their blog about making homemade candy corn. As soon as I read the title of their blog post I knew I had to try it. I mean what sounds more fun the week before Halloween than making your own candy corn? Which, by the way, I don't even really like. So I checked out the recipe and it doesn't seem to hard...not many ingredients and the Harts were successful so no reason to think I wouldn't be, right? So wrong...so very wrong. My first clue that I should abort this project should have been when Paul called and said: "Do you really need powdered milk..you know it's $6.00 for this box right?" I replied: "Yes..I need the milk and I am sure that we can find other things to use the milk for." Needless to say Paul was not thrilled.

So Tuesday it was rainy and gross so we decided it would be candy corn making day when the girls got home from school. So we get it going..follow the directions exactly and what I ended up resembled a white brick. Not doughy, no way to add food coloring..just a rock hard lump. Fail!! I looked up the recipe and this time read the comments and it turns out you should really pay attention to how hot the mixture is getting on the stove. Let me just give this disclaimer: I am fairly new to cooking on a gas stove so I forget it's much hotter than an electric stove. Not a worry..I'll just try again. Wrong. As I'm measuring the second batch I run out of powdered sugar. Grrr.

So the powdered milk/missing cup of powdered sugar has been sitting on my counter for 2 days and Paul keeps gently asking me when I'm going to make the candy corn since, you know, he's spent like $50 getting all the ingredients I need. He had brought home more powdered sugar the next day. I had some time on my hands today and figured I'd tackle it. And I did. And I learned it wasn't much fun and I still don't really like candy corn.

The recipe was pretty easy to follow and once I paid attention to the temperature I got the dough to the right consistency. However, I let it cool too long so it was hard to work the color in. When I got to the rolling out stage it was a royal pain. It was hard to get the 3 layers of dough thin & small enough to make normal size candy corn. Needless to say we have what looks like candy corn on steroids over here. The kids didn't really help much but they loved the taste of it and have been inhaling it all night. Every time I turn around Julia has a giant candy corn in her mouth.

The moral of the story? Walmart has candy corn for $.88 a bag - buy it there if you really like candy corn.

Trick or Treat Take 1

Last night we went with some of our friends from our MOMS Club to Sunrise Senior Center for Trick or Treating. I thought it would be a good opportunity to give the costumes a test run and bring some smiles to the residents. I mean what's cuter than little kids in fun Halloween costumes? Not much...

Of course getting ready for the event was not without drama but we got everyone dressed and to the senior center only a few minutes late. I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there but was hopeful that I could handle it with all the kids. Turns out they had the residents in the entrance way in a circle with bags of candy. Once she figured out what was going on, my typically shy youngest daughter showed no fear going up to strangers to get candy. None..in fact she may have gotten more candy than the older girls. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Just How Old Do You Think I Am?

I pick the girls up from school yesterday and our conversation goes something like this:

Emma: Mommy (because every single sentence must begin with this), my homework tonight is to ask you what you used to do for fun when you were a little girl.
Me: Oh..well..we used to play outside, play Barbies, play...
Emma interrupting: Um, they didn't have Barbies back then..
Me: What? yes they did...I had all kinds of Barbies. We played video games called Atari, a lot of the same things you did
Emma: You mean they had TV when you were a kid?
Me: Um, yes! How old do you think I am?
Emma: Well...
Me: Yes we had TV..ok so we didn't have cable until I was in the 6th grade and we didn't have remote controls but we had TV and it was in color!
Emma & Lily: Huh?
Me: We had TV but no Disney Channel. And you had to get up to change the channels because we didn't have a remote control.
Lily: You didn't have the Disney Channel???
Me: No..I did not.
Lily: Wow..you are old
Me: I'm NOT that old!
Emma: I bet you didn't have a microwave
Lily: No microwave? How did you make popcorn?
Me: sigh..We got a microwave when I was in middle school. It was enormous and took up half the counter and had a turn dial. But it was a microwave. And before the microwave we used a popcorn popper or we used Jiffy Pop on the stove.

On second thought..I don't want to know how old you think I am.....

Because I Can

If you know Julia, my 2 1/2 year old you may think she's sort of quiet and shy. And she is. In public. At home or once you really get to know her not so much. She's had some speech issues..the girl didn't utter a word that made sense until she was 2. And for the first few months after she was 2 it was mostly one word here and there. She was in speech therapy for almost a year. Well, the past 3 months or so her speech has really come along..blossomed if you will. She now talks and talks and talks. Just like her older sisters. And along with all the talking comes the questions. Question after question after question. So last night we were in the car and our conversation goes something like this:

Julia: Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, why? why? why? why? about anything and everything.
Me: Julia why do you ask so many questions?
Julia: Because
Me: Because why?
Julia: Because I talk now and I can

Ah..if only that independent spirit would manifest itself in the potty training.....

Another Fun Fall Weekend

I love October. There always seems to be so many fun things to do. This weekend was no exception! Friday night I got to go to Scrapmania with my friend Frances which always makes me happy. Paul stayed home with the kids and had a family movie night minus mom. The Hannah Montana movie was on the agenda and apparently loved by all. Saturday we took the kids downtown to Raleigh Wide Open. It was a great festival to celebrate downtown. Lots of good eats and fun things going on. Thankfully we went right before the rain set in. They had Wheel of Fortune tryouts going on and I really wanted to go for it but sadly Jacob had had enough so we had to go. So we didn't meet Pat or Vanna. Boo. And last night Paul & I got to go to an adults only Pumpkin Carving party. Fun times though our pumpkin did not win. Whatever. Maybe next year? Today has been a pretty normal, relaxing Sunday. Though wasn't it supposed to warm and sunny today?

A busy week to come getting ready for Halloween! On the agenda: Homemade Candy Corn and Family Pumpkin Carving Night!

Must See TV

Lovin some of the new TV shows this season. My new favs: Glee, Modern Family and Cougartown. Glee - funny, cheesy, over the top but fun and funny. Love, love Sue Sylvester and I love the music. I would totally buy the Glee soundtrack. Modern Family - laugh out loud funny. Love the characters, love the storylines, love the way the show is set. Lots of laughs. Funny stuff. Cougartown - I know this has gotten mixed reviews but I like it. I mean Courteney Cox and the girl from Dawsons Creek? Great. They are funny though Courteney Cox gets a little screamy sometimes. I also think the neighbor is super funny. So..it stays on the "DVR series" list.

What are you watching? New favs this TV season?

Fair in Pictures

Here are some pics from the fair yesterday:

Deep Fried Fun

The State Fair is in town and Paul needed to take a vacation day before the end of the month so we decided to make a day of it and go. We took the girls out of school a little early (sshh..don't tell) and went after we picked up Julia from preschool. As we ate, I mean walked, around the fair a few things came to mind: 1. What else can we possibly deep fry..wait..I'm sure we'll find out next year. 2. People will wear anything, and I mean, anything to fair. 3. I don't think we were the only people taking kids out of school for the fair. 4. There is always a line for the NC State ice cream. 5. If you go to the fair during the day on a school day there are no lines for the thrill rides but the kiddie rides are packed. 6. Really..pajama pants? You're going to the fair and you couldn't even put on jeans? 7. High heels? Really? Again..you're going to the fair. Walking, dust, rocks...and you wonder why your feet hurt? 8. You can spend a lot of money very quickly at the fair. 9. Parking is free! 10. Thank goodness we only do this once a year.

We really did have a good time. My sister in law came with us so that was good. Always better up to up the child to adult ratio. It's also nice to have someone to share the food with and since Michelle is always up for eating anything it's all the better. The girls got to ride a bunch of rides and play a game. Julia was pretty nervous about the rides at first but after she did one she couldn't get enough..very cute. Jacob mostly rode in the stroller and screamed. He did thoroughly enjoy the ice cream though. Mostly we just walked around and ate. And speaking of food here's what we ate and what I thought of it since I know that's what you're all dying to know. And let me preface this by saying there were 3 adults and 3 1/2 kids eating most of this food. I did not consume all portions of this list. I might could have but I didn't:

1. Al's French Fries- As Michelle says - got to start with fries and they must be Al's. Two locations to serve you.
2. Footlong Corndog - kids loved it.
3. Deep Fried Ho-Ho- I was pretty excited about this one. It was good. Great? No. But definitely worth trying.
4. Roasted Corn on the Cob - got to have one...every year...so yummy.
5. Fried Dough - with just cinnamon and powdered sugar - this got rave reviews from the my kids. Especially Jacob who squealed with delight upon eating this goodness.
6. London Broil Sandwich - I actually didn't eat this but apparently it was good or so said my husband.
7. Fried gizzards on a stick - I kid you not. Again..not something I ate but Michelle and Paul did..apparently it delighted them. I just thought it was funny.
8. Ribbon Fries - one of my fair favs. They were yummy and Jacob loved these too. So did the rest of my kids. Lily actually looked disappointed when they were done.
9. Ham Biscuit - Again..not me but Julia, my 2 year old, loved it.
10. Deep Fried Cookie Dough - Simply the best thing I ate. My favorite, favorite thing. Oh. So. Good. Way better than the ho-ho or the snickers.
11. Pig Lickers a.ka. Chocolate Covered Bacon - Seriously they call them pig lickers. That's just funny. My opinion? Not as good as I was hoping for. It was only OK. I much, much prefer the deep fried cookie dough. Paul and Michelle thought it was good but not great. However, my 2 and 5 year olds? Loved it...couldn't get enough. Go figure.

Now that my arterties are sufficiently clogged I must go wash my veggies for tomorrow since I'll only be eating that and water. Again..glad it's only once a year. Pics coming soon just too tired tonight!

Sick Day

Nothing like an unexpected Monday Sick Day to get your productivity jump started for the week. Emma started sniffling yesterday morning and by 5pm she had a low grade fever, a runny nose and little cough. We gave her some cold medicine and I went to Walmart and stocked up on Tylenol and Motrin because where's there's one child with a fever another could be right behind. She rested last night and had a good nights sleep but at 7:30 her temperature was up so she stayed home from school. Poor kid was upset she didn't get to go to school. She was out on Friday too due to the funeral. She said "but I can't miss 2 days of school in a row." Sure hope she always has this much enthusiasm for school.

So..here we are..home..all day..on a Monday. Actually it's been good - I've vacuumed the baseboards downstairs, completed 5 loads of laundry (even got to the delicates basket), whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and started dinner. All in all a very productive morning. And the good news is Emma's fever is down and she should be able to go to school tomorrow. Going to go lysol the house again to hopefully keep this from spreading..wish me luck.

Audiobooks are my new Best Friends

I love audiobooks. Love them, love them, love them. And, love, love that the library has so many to chose from. This weekend we had to go on an unexpected road trip. Sadly Paul's grandmother passed away last Sunday so we needed to travel for the funeral. Destination: August, GA where his grandmother lived for many years and where his grandfather was buried. It's about 5 hours to Augusta from our house. And we took all 4 kids. The last time we took a road trip, to VA to see my aunt, I had gotten a couple audiobooks and it worked like a charm. If you've been reading my blog or know my kids at all you know my 6 year old talks non-stop. And when I say non-stop I mean all. the. time. So for her to actually be quiet for any length of them (say 10 min) is appreciated. So, Thursday I popped by the library and picked up a few audiobooks for the trip. They had some oldies but goodies: "Ramona Quimby, Age 8", "Nancy Drew," "Stuart Little", "Encyclodia Brown." Brings back many memories from elementary school. Nonetheless I settled on "The Magic Treehouse" (5 hours!), a Cam Jensen mystery and "Ramona Quimby, Age 8". Lily ended up riding with my mother in law but Emma was so excited to get to hear the books. She asked for one as soon as we got on the road and we listened to the stories the whole trip. It was so peaceful. Success!!

The rest of the trip was good..or as good as it gets when you are traveling for a funeral and traveling with a one year old that's just learning how to walk. We got to see a lot of Paul's family that we hadn't seen in a long time and I got to meet some cousins that I've never met. Everyone was excited to see the kids and though it wasn't easy having Jacob with us I'm glad they got to see everyone.

Potty Training Troubles

Oh my do I have a stubborn girl on my hands. We've been trying to potty train Julia for months. And literally I mean months. I started in June when she was just shy of 2 1/2..my other 2 were totally trained by then (well except for pull ups at night) so I figured she should be too. Day 1 was a disaster so I decided maybe she wasn't ready and we had summer travel coming up so I'd wait. We tried again in July. Again..disaster. She'd wet and says "I pee." She just wasn't getting it. Then we were moving so again I decided to wait. Around Labor Day I decided to get serious. You see, my philosophy, for a while has been that you have to be just as ready as the child for it to work. I mean you have to commit to staying home, minding the clock, cleaning up messes, laundry. No easy task. But, I was ready. We set up a potty chart. With stickers! And candy! And prizes! And no luck. None. She cried when she went on the potty and after 3 intense days we saw nothing. Just a bunch of dirty laundry. So I gave up. Thought I needed to change my method. The problem is I'm not sure what to do. Should I just wait it out? I mean I know she won't go to Kindergarten in pull-ups. I'm just sick and tired of buying her diapers. So I'm looking for help my friends. Anyone have any recommendations on things that worked for very stubborn, strong-willed children? Anyone have any ideas on how to get her from being so adamant about not using the potty. It's making me crazy and people..I need some sanity back. Not to mention coffee money for the winter (peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes are coming). Help!

One Kid Weekend

My mother in law bravely offered to take all 3 girls to her house this weekend for a sleepover. At first I thought it was just Friday night but she said she'd really like them to stay Saturday night too! (Brave, brave woman) They were so excited to get to spend the weekend at Nana's. Shopping! Barbies! Junk Food! So. Much. Fun! We were just as happy to send them. I cleaned the house on Friday in anticipation of having a clean, quiet house all weekend. It was great. Friday night we caught up on the dvr'd shows from the week. Glee, anyone? Saturday morning I got to sleep in and Paul did his usually Dunkin Donuts coffee run. We didn't really have anything pressing to do, which was strange. No real house projects, no real errands. It was so nice to be lazy and actually have some quiet around the house. I actually got some scrapbooking done. We ended up going out to lunch. Then after Paul went to the gym I went out and did some shopping by myself. No kids! After Jacob got to bed we had a nice steak dinner and watched a movie. This morning we went out to breakfast then to church then out to get the girls. They had a wonderful time with Nana! It was nice to have some peace and quiet this weekend but we were excited to see their smiley faces this afternoon. Julia told us at dinner "I missed Mommy, I missed Jakey, and I missed Daddy but I had fun with Nanny." I guess that about sums it up.

Costume Craze

Tis the season..you know the one where Party City puts a flyer in the paper with their Halloween costumes in it every week therefore sparking the following conversations during Sunday breakfast: "I want to be a ladybug" "I'm going to be a fairy" "No..no I changed my mind I'm going to be Strawberry Shortcake" "Wait no I'm going to be Supergirl"...and on and on and on. Needless to say the "What are you going to be for Halloween" conversation has been happening around our house for a few weeks. They've been asking (begging) to go to look for costumes for a couple weeks now and I decided today would be a good day. No real reason for that other than I'm a bit tired of hearing about it. So after I picked the girls up from school we headed up to Brier Creek to check out costumes. We had already looked briefly at Target and Walmart but didn't find "It" there. Thankfully we only need to find "It" for the big girls - Jacob is going to be the most adorable monkey. Ever. Courtesy of Old Navy which really has the cutest baby/toddler costumes. Ever. Julia is going to be Minnie Mouse. Why? Because I found her a nice, relatively cheap costume at the Disney store last year. I'd love, love to find a theme for all my kids that coordinated. Maybe next year. I'd also love to be that mom that makes the Halloween costumes but considering I can't even sew a patch on a Daisy uniform I don't see that happening. But..I digress..TJ Maxx didn't find it so we headed to Party City. Which, had coupons that expired last week. Why oh why didn't I go last week? Ugh..Anyway..we looked. And looked. And looked at their Wall O'Costumes. And Emma found hers first - Pretty Kitty. Seriously. A pink and black cat costume. Why? I have no idea. I didn't even know she liked cats. A few minutes later Lily found hers..Barbie Cheerleader. Really. Why? The outfit was pink. She was a cheerleader last year. But..not a pink cheerleader. And not a Barbie cheerleader. Whatever..that one was on sale. So we're set...1 pretty kitty, 1 Barbie cheerleader, 1 Minnie Mouse and the cutest monkey you'll ever see.

Family Fun at the Farm

October is one of my favorite months of the year. The weather is usually great and we always have a ton of fun things to do. Today we took our annual trip to Hillridge Farms for a day of fun and to pick our pumpkins. The last 2 years we've been we've been a little closer to Halloween and it's always been packed. This year we lucked out and it was a beautiful (though a little hot) day and it wasn't that crowded. It was even better because our good friends, the Dickeys (Frances & Steven and their 3 girls) and Jen Guild went with us. I made a point to dress the family in coordinating clothes with hopes of getting a good family picture at the pumpkin patch. Paul was thrilled to say the least.

When we pulled in the parking lot the girls immediately remembered the farm and couldn't wait to get started. First thing they wanted to do was hit the bounce house. After the bounce house we did the maze and giant slide. Another huge hit was the corn playhouse which is like a giant sandbox and instead of sand there is dried corn. The girls all loved, loved it. We opted to keep Jacob out since he would just eat the corn. We also played on the playground, did the duck races, did the hay maze and finally did the hayride.

The girls were so excited when we reached the pumpkin patch. They immediately ran off the wagon and into the patch looking for the. perfect. pumpkin. Some of the girls had an easier time than others selecting their pumpkin but in the end I think they were all happy. We also took some time for family photo shoots. I did get a couple good ones! Yay! And somehow we managed to get all 12 pumpkins and 7 kids back to the cars successfully. A great, fun day full of family memories. Here are some pics:

First Grade Homework

Emma's homework for tonight: Draw a Venn Diagram to show how a TV and a microwave are alike and different.

Um..excuse me..what? Draw a what? Apparently my memory really stinks because I can't for the life of me recall this term or have any idea what in the world she's supposed to do. I'm starting to panic a little thinking I'm going to have to use google to figure out what a Venn diagram is so I can explain it to Emma. And, I'm hoping I can google it without her knowing that I'm doing it so I don't appear dumb. I was at least hoping to get to 3rd or 4th grade without having to use google to get through homework. So I casually ask.."Emma, do you know what a Venn diagram is?" She replies: "Sure do..let me show you" And she proceeds to get a piece of paper to draw a Venn diagram as she is explaining it to me.

After she drew it I totally knew what she was talking about I just didn't know the proper name for it. This is just the 2nd quarter of first grade. I'm pretty sure I am in BIG trouble!

Of course you probably know what a Venn diagram is but in case you don't click here for the definition.

Birthday Party!

Yesterday was Jacob's 1st Birthday and we were excited to get to celebrate on his actual birthday. We had a little party and invited a couple neighbors, special friends and our family. We were super excited that my BFF and my brother were in town to celebrate with us! We planned to cook out and figured that the kids could just play on the swing set and run around in the yard. The weather was looking a little iffy in the morning but thankfully by noon the sun started to come out and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon!

I made Jacob his own little cake and I made a cupcake cake in the shape of a 1 for the kids and other party guests. Paul did a great job grilling for us and Auntie Erin made the best baked beans. Jacob wasn't quite sure what to think of the cake. He ate a little bit of it - more frosting than anything I think! He certainly enjoyed playing in it! He had frosting everywhere..and I mean everywhere - his hair, his nose, his ears! Messy...but oh. so. cute!!! I know my kids had a great time and I hope others did too! Here are a few pics:

Happy Birthday Jacob!

I can not believe my little baby boy is one! Seriously..he's one! The past year went so, so fast. Now it didn't really feel like that when he wasn't sleeping through the night. But, overall the year flew by. It's amazing how much they change and grow the first year. Just amazing. We feel so blessed to have this precious, smiley baby boy in our family. So blessed.

It's been a really fun birthday weekend. My bff, Erin, came Friday. We got to have a girls night out on Friday at Scrapmania. Saturday we did the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Walk. Saturday afternoon was a girls shopping trip and last night Gagi babysat so we could have an adult evening. Today we went to church and then prepared for Jacob's birthday party. More on that tomorrow. The weather turned out awesome and we had a great time!

Relaxing

Setting: The other day...kids are playing in the yard. I'm sitting on the porch playing with Jacob. Emma runs into the porch...

Emma: "I'm so tired, I just need to take a minute and relax"

Then she sits on the loveseat and does this:

Where do they get this stuff from?

Family Movie Night

Every few weeks we try to do a family movie night. We pick out a movie just for the kids and usually have a array of appetizers and snacks for dinner that we get to eat in the family room (!). It's big fun. Saturday night we had our most recent movie night. We watched the Jonas Brothers Concert Experience. The girls really got into it. They love music and they love to dance. So they got out the Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars and started jamming away. Too cute. Here are some pictures of their jam session to the Jo Bros concert.

VMA's

I channeled my inner teenager last night and decided to watch the VMA's on MTV. It was the promised Michael Jackson tribute that got me and the fact that the VMA's never disappoint on drama. Of course last night was no exception. I figured I wouldn't know any of the music since the only music I usually hear is Radio Disney but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually knew most of the artists and most of the songs! Made me feel young I tell you.

The MJ tribute was pretty cool though I'd have liked to have seen Justin Timberlake or other famous people dancing instead of random people in the beginning. (Of course, I'd always rather be watching JT) I thought it was really cool when Janet came out and danced with the Michael video in the background. She can still move - it was impressive.

Then came the first award - I think it was Female Video of the Year. By the way..there actually weren't that many awards handed out and it seemed like the same videos were nominated in lots of categories. Honestly I didn't know many artists still made videos since you, know MTV and VH1 don't really show videos anymore. Because, you know, music television is all about college age kids drinking too much and trying to win money doing cheesy reality shows. And of course with the first award came some drama with Kanye West jumping up on stage and stealing poor little Taylor Swift's thunder. Bless her heart. I wish Kanye would have kept his promise not to come back to the VMA's since he never wins. What a jerk. Anyway that cutie Taylor Swift went on to give a great performance and in the end she got her moment.

I would normally have stopped watching after that but MTV kept sucking in saying things like "Beyonce in 5 min"..."Who will win video of the year in 17 min" ..."New Moon trailer in 7 min." Darn MTV. Beyonce totally rocked her performance of Single Ladies. She can dance. Well. It was very impressive. And..she's a total class act. When she gave her moment away to Taylor Swift after winning Video of the Year I thought that was so cool and kind.

I think my favorite part of the VMA's could have been the New Moon extended trailer. I can not wait until Nov. 20th when New Moon opens. It looks so, so good. Full of action and romance and Edward and werewolves. Fun times to look forward to. So thank you MTV.

Late Summer Reading List

I've been reading a ton lately. I love to read but don't always have the time (imagine that) to read. But lately I've been making the time 'cause I've found some great books. So..I thought I'd share...lucky you....

Southern Vampire Mystery Series - This is the Vampire series by Charlaine Harris on which the HBO series, True Blood, is based. I think the first one is "Dead Until Dark". They are fun, quick reads about a telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse and her interesting encounters. The first time I picked up the book I couldn't get into it but my bff insisted they were good. She got me watching the HBO series so then I felt like I had to read the books. And the second time around I really got into them. I will warn you these vampires are nothing like the Cullens but they are a fun read and I think the books are getting better as the series progresses. I just finished the 4th book.

"Ties that Bind" by Brenda Jackson - This was my book club pick for book club. It looked good when I selected it but I didn't realize it was pretty racy. So warning..there is a lot and I mean, a lot, of sex in this book. So..if you don't mind a little soft core porn read it. It's a good summer read - meaning it's light and you don't have to use too much brain power to digest it. It has a good story with some compelling characters. I am looking forward to discussing this one!

"Hedge Fund Wives" by Tatiana Boncompagni - Jen Lancaster had this on her summer reading list and since I have a mad girl crush on Jen Lancaster I put it on mine. It didn't disappoint. Another fun, light read - which is pretty much all I read unless book club has chosen something else - and entertaining.

"The Memory Keepers Daughter" by Kim Edwards - This was our August book club selection - I know it's been around a while but I hadn't read it. I'm glad it was our book club pick because I don't know that I would have read it but, I really, really liked it. It was sad in parts but a good, compelling story.

"Best Friends Forever" by Jennifer Weiner - I love this author and try to read everything she puts out. This was a good story about two childhood friends who reunite. I don't want to give anything away so I'll leave it at that.

"The Beach House" by Jane Green - Another author that I really like. I admit I wasn't sure about this book. Even halfway into it I wasn't sure I wanted to finish it. But since I don't typically not finish books I kept reading. And I was glad I did. I really liked the twist at the end.

Now I'm compiling my fall reading list which will definitely include finishing up the Sookie Stackhouse books. How about you? What are you reading?

Great News - Times 2

Saturday morning my brother called and asked us to gather up the family - he had some news to share. His girlfriend got on the phone too and they revealed they are engaged! We are so, so excited for them!! He's been dating Ginnie for a while now so we've been wondering if/when it was going to happen and it did. They haven't set a date yet but did say it would be sometime next year. They will either get married in "the City" (that would be New York City for those of us who don't live there) or "some exotic location." They already said they hoped that the Potter girls would be flower girls and Emma could hardly contain her excitement. I guess we'll see how that plays out as they plan their wedding.

Then...on the way to Ikea that very same my adorable cousin Emily called to tell me she and her boyfriend got engaged on Friday!! She was so, so cute telling us all about her proposal..which involved a Scrabble game - how fun is that! They don't have a date yet as they said they just wanted to enjoy the weekend and then start talking about it. We are thrilled for them too! So much excitement! I just still can't believe they both called us on the same day to announce their engagements!

We haven't had a family wedding since Paul & I got married nearly 10 years ago and now we have 2 coming up! I'm just going to go ahead and call 2010 the "year of weddings" for us! Yay!

Julia's First Day of Preschool

Today was Julia's first day of preschool! It's hard to believe that she's old enough for school! My baby girl is growing up! She's in the 2 1/2 year old class so she'll go two days/week for 3 hours. It's the same preschool the other girls went to and we love it there. She felt very comfortable this morning and seemed to have had a great day! No tears for anyone!

Two Wheelin' & Summer Fun

Emma casually mentioned that she wanted to learn to ride her bike without training wheels back in July. We put her off a few weeks with the move and all but now that we're settled I decided it was time. I had hoped Paul would take on this task but he never got around to it so one day I grabbed the wrench and off came the training wheels. Lily had decided she wanted to learn too and so she decided to go first. She screamed for the entire minute and a half she was on the bike so I made her get off. She can try again when she's feeling braver. So it was Emma's turn and though she wasn't entirely comfortable she did well. We went out the next night and she tried again and this time she actually rode some on her own. That was about 2 weeks ago and though she's no expert she's doing great. She has some trouble steering and using the brakes -she'd much prefer just to run into the grass, anyone's grass that is. So..we're working on those things. The other night she and Paul took a bike ride together..so cute! Here are some pictures of the bike ride and some random pictures of the other kids playing on the swingset.

Ikea is NOT the New Black

We had plans to hang out with our good friends the Dickey's today and Frances had a fabulous idea that we should load up the families (there would be 4 adults and 7 kids between us) and take a road trip to Ikea. I was all about it since I have been dying to go to Ikea since I heard it was open. Dying I tell you...in fact I've mentioned to Paul about 10 times that I was sure we'd find our playroom storage solutions at Ikea if we'd only go. He was a little less excited than me and I think her husband was even less excited than Paul but whatever..they agreed to go. So, we packed some snacks and loaded up the kids and off we went. The trip down was uneventful and we got to Ikea with only one potty stop. Excellent. We grab some carts, check out the childcare area and planned our attack. Since we could only leave the kids for an hour (we later (much later) found out you can leave them in more than once as long as there is 30 min between hours) we decided we'd keep them all with us until we couldn't stand it any longer. The older 4 kids could go into the area, leaving the little (but loudest) three. Not bad.

Ikea was just as I remembered it - big, lots of people and oh so many things that I just have to have. We headed upstairs to the showroom and began to look around. The main things on my list were storage solutions for the playroom and a computer desk. Right away I found some bookcases I liked but kept looking. We made our rounds upstairs and managed not to lose any kids (a big win) and actually found a storage system that would accommodate our needs in the playroom. Score one for Ikea! And it was reasonable priced! Score two for Ikea! We proceeded downstairs dropped the big kids off and set out for the Marketplace. Oh, the Ikea marketplace..so full of junk you don't need but is so cheap that you feel like you do need it. I was looking for some storage baskets for said storage unit so I hunted. And hunted. And couldn't find. Then we went to the self service area to check out our storage units. And they were out of stock on two of the shelves we needed. What?? Our time was up so we had to grab the kiddos and since kids eat free this weekend (!) we decided to eat before picking up the big stuff. After dinner and depositing the big kids back in the child care area we head over to get the big boxes. We find out the storage boxes are out of stock and "have been for a while now" and that the 2 shelves are also out of stock and will arrive in 8 weeks. Great. Just great. So much for getting the playroom organized this weekend. We decide to go ahead and get the big shelving unit that is conveniently packaged in 3 boxes. We grab them, check out and go to load up the truck (did I mention Steven has a truck - yay!) As Paul is loading in the boxes he notices one is damaged. This is not good. We have 10 min to get new boxes and get the kids. Paul takes all the boxes back in and of course they have no more on the shelf and "even if we had some up high, we don't get them down until 9pm..you can come back tomorrow to get one" is what we were told. What? Even if you had it you wouldn't get it down for us? Apparently that's how they roll at Ikea.

I'm so, so bummed. I loved this storage collection and to order it online would cost me $160.00 in shipping. Yes, $160!! I get that they are going to be out of stock on some things but they should put something on the displays in the showroom if they are going to be out of something for 8 weeks! Anyway..now I'm so over Ikea and I don't know if I'll be going back in 8 weeks to get my shelving system..maybe I'll find something better. So there Ikea.