Things to Remember from this weekend....

-Alex starting it all off with the stomach flu.

-Jason and Suzy taking our kids overnight even though Alex had just had the stomach flu.

-The truck not starting on my way to drop off the kids and meet Brad for our date.

-Remember to remember not to let the kids play with the lights in the truck so it burns out the battery and eventually corrodes the connection to the battery making it impossible to even jump start.

-Twilight. The movie just reminded me of how good the books are and now I want to read them all over again.

-The first snow of the season.

-The new Japanese Steak House we found, must go there again.

-The cool glass-filled fire pits in the courtyard at our hotel and the nice hot jacuzzi.

-Sleeping in and not having to cater to kids first thing in the morning.

-Taking Alex to see the Nutcracker Ballet.

-Listen to Alex cringe whenever a male dancer came on stage because "you can see his...." "SHHH!"

-Watching one of the candy dancers slip and fall on her face, then pick herself right back up and into graceful mode again.

-Taking a break from the to do list and just having a good time.

Say Cheese!

Just a few from her party Wednesday. From the left end of the table around to the right end:

Lawson, Morgan, Maddy, Sierra, Emma, Madeline, Alex, Maddie, Johnny, Ethan, Logan, Jayden, Abigail. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and I had great coupons to keep the coins flowing for hardly anything and lots of willing parents to lend a hand where needed. I was pleasantly surprised to see Alex spending individual time with each of her friends throughout the evening. It was a lot of fun to see her be the center of attention she is always striving for.

Happy 6th Birthday Alex!

It's the most CRAZIEST time of the year...

That's how the song should go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX! Now she really is going to think that the 3rd is her birthday since I didn't type this yesterday. Yesterday she turned 6 but her party is today. She doesn't think she is really six until she blows out those 6 candles at her cake today. Yesterday we started the morning with her favorite breakfast (waffles), unwrapped her first present of the day (from Johnny), a chauffeured ride to school (she usually rides the bus) and rice crispy treats for her class. After school we went to Burger King for kid's meals and extra time on the slides then a new movie once we got home. Once Brad got home she opened her presents from us (art supplies galore) and we headed out to the Micron Christmas Party to see Santa, bounce, slide, swing, win prizes and much more. It's a Christmas carnival we take the kids to every year and it seems like it gets bigger every year and my feet are even more tired every year by the end of the night. Last year I tried to get Alex to go on this trampoline where they attach you to a harness and bungee chords and she turned it down flat. This year we walked past it to meet Brad and Johnny up the stairs for some dinner and she insisted on going on it right then and there. The line looked shorter than I had ever seen it so I decided to take the extra time and give her the opportunity that I was surprised she wanted to take. Well the line ended up being a whole lot longer than what I thought, kids were saving spots for their siblings and it wrapped around the side of the trampoline that I thought were just spectators. So 45 mins later it is Alex's turn and since she looks as big as the other kids that were asking to be rocketed up as high as possible they gave her the same experience. She was off of there in one minute when most turns lasted at least 5. Of course once Johnny saw her on it he wanted a turn too but since he isn't patient enough to wait in line I told him he'd have to wait until next year. I doubt the harness would've even fit around his waist. It was fun though and of course we stayed past bedtime and the kids were exhausted and cranky when we told them it was time to leave. Here's hoping they got enough sleep last night because there's no time for napping today. After lunch we are borrowing my sister in law's Suburban and piling some of her friends in and meeting others at Chuck E Cheese for her birthday party that I literally had nightmares about last night. Here's hoping it all goes smoothly and we won't have to do this again for a few more years.

But of course that didn't start the craziness. Alex finished off school before their break with a Feast Day for about 70 Kindergartners all dressed up as Pilgrims or Indians and lined up in the hall with piles of food on their plates that of course Alex (and most of the others) didn't eat. Good thing there was plenty of popcorn.

Then we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the Day family with 11 adults and 9 kids (we missed you Bret and Jo!). So for a few days our house was the hub for the gatherings. 2 turkeys, 10 pounds of potatoes, 8 bottles of Martinellis, 6 cans of olives and 12 pies later our house is empty again and feels just a little bit bigger.

Hopefully if I get past today I will be able to get things back on track to finish my website work, photography work, Brad's birthday, Alex's friend's birthdays, Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, put up Christmas decorations, fold the mountain of laundry that has accumulated, catch up on dishes, clean the house, take Alex to see the Nutcracker (can't wait), get ready for my sister Sariah and Hunter to fly out for a two week visit (just booked her tickets last night, yeah!), and check off the dozen other things on my list. Hopefully I'll be able to make a few picture pages for our album and get another blog posted but if you don't hear from me for awhile have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Another Girl's Night

Our original intentions last night were to leave Johnny with a babysitter and Brad, Alex and I would go out to see a play together. We would really like to start including Johnny in these trips but past experience has shown that it usually ends up bad for both Johnny and us. Our neighbor kids were in a play of "Disney's 101 Dalmatians". We love supporting the youth in their extra curricular activities and show our kids all these options of what they could be doing some day. The babysitter had a little too much going on that night and so Brad ended up staying home with Johnny and we made it another "girl's night" out. When we got there, we bought a red licorice rope and found two seats in the middle of the room. We unwrapped our treat and she held onto one end while I had the other and Alex made me promise I wouldn't eat any until the play started. We laughed when Cruela bullied Horace and Jasper around, applauded as the puppies all joined in on the song and dance routines, loved it when one of the puppies bit Horace (one of our neighbors was playing Horace) on the rear and congratulated them when it was all over. It was short and sweet but full of lots of laughs, perfect for Alex's attention span. I have to admit I feel a little spoiled being blessed with this little "grown up" girl that I can hang out with at times like these. Last night we got home a little past bedtime and the first thing she did when she went upstairs was she snuck into Johnny's room, gave him a kiss and turned off his reading lamp. She's feeling pretty grown up these day and realizes that her actions are what earns her the right to do things like this with us (especially since she sees that Johnny's actions earn him the right to stay home). Looking forward to many more nights out with my girl. Maybe when she gets older she'll take me out on the town with her once in awhile (here's hoping).

:o)

100 Years of Magic

Disney on Ice came to Boise so Alex and I made a date out of it. First we stopped at Pizza Hut to use her "Book It" coupon she got last month for reading books at home. Then we headed downtown to see which Disney characters would show up on the ice. She was certain her favorite princess, Sleep Beauty, would be there and couldn't wait to see her. We parked a mile away and ran through the biting cold past all of the kids dressed as Princesses, Buz Light Years and Mr. Incredibles (Alex is wondering why she isn't wearing a costume) to the stadium where we purchased our overpriced popcorn and soda and ran past the other overpriced booths of Disney paraphernalia, up two flights of stairs to our balcony seats. I tried to keep Alex's attention away from her popcorn and the cheap (in quality, not in price) crowns all the other girls were wearing and on the characters skating on the ice. She was a little put out that her Dad's favorite princess, Bell, got to skate and sing for two whole songs (they are always in competition over which Disney princess is the best) and just about every other princess made an appearance except for Sleeping Beauty. Near the end as she's resting her head on my lap, trying not to fall asleep because it is way past her bed time, I'm thinking this is a bust and then she looks at me with a big smile on her face and says "Thank you for taking me to Disney on Ice, it's so awesome. You're the best Mom!" Then we skip to the car, make a quick get away before the parking lot gets packed and she passes out in the back seat before we hit the freeway. I realized that she is going to remember the time we spent together and the fun we did have and not remember any of the things that I thought made the night a downer. Thank heavens for the eyes of a child and good memories of us spending time together!

A Bribe

"Do a good job and let me take pictures of you in your costumes
and I'll take you to the big park and push you on the tire swing."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A mischievous witch out to make some magic.

A confident, witch-hunting cowboy

He finally catches her, but the witch isn't worried...

She still has her wand and he's no match for her magic

Better luck next time cowboy!

Hallow Eve

How do you prepare for Halloween? This year we dressed up early and took pictures in the leaves (pictures coming soon...stay tuned), made pumpkins and ghosts and goblins and hung them on our walls, carved jack-o-lanterns for FHE and to top it all off, went to the dentist for a nice new protectant coat on the teeth before inhaling high doses of sugar tomorrow night.

Alex bounced off of the bus this afternoon with a grin on her face exclaiming "I just had the best day EVER!". Today was their harvest party at school, a great big party with treats and goody bags and she "has been waiting forever to show me what she got". So she shared a little bite of her candy with her brother, put big black stamps all over his arms and face ("because he asked her to") saying "BOO" and begged all day to eat her ghost sucker even though she was too full on treats to eat her lunch. After all of this week's preparation they are exhausted and fall asleep in the middle of their books, excited for what tomorrow brings.

Of course I'm finding out lately that even though Johnny doesn't seem to be eating much at the dinner table he is finding nutrition elsewhere. Twice now I have caught him outside munching on leaves (the boy does love his vegetables) and once I have found remnants of leaves while brushing his teeth. How many times does he snack on them when I'm not looking? He's also quite drawn to eating soap, something about it when mixed with water in his bath is just too tempting and he can't help himself. Last night as I was going to get him out of his bath I noticed a few more suds than there should've been. I asked him if he had been playing with the soap and as he's trying to talk his way out of it a big 3 inch bubble forms outside of his mouth. He got a mischievous grin on his face because he knew that he had been caught.

Johnny has mentally blocked the letter E

With Johnny starting preschool this year I have been trying to be more dutiful with my teaching skills. I was so good with Alex and she really excelled. I know it really didn't have much to do with me because she has always loved learning but I'm sure it didn't hurt that I always read her ABC books and we always sang the song over and over and practiced counting all of the time. I think we did it a lot though because she liked it. With Johnny it's more of a chore. So every night we have been going over the alphabet and I have been seeing improvements. But no matter how many times we go over it and no matter how many times I enunciate it he always leaves out the letter E. He sings the song "A B C D F & G, etc". So last night I laid out our flash cards from A to G and sang the song with him over and over again. We would take turns saying the letters until he got all of them down except that crazy letter E that apparently doesn't belong. I would point to the letter E and say "this is an E, what is it?" "E" he says. He says E about 20 times then we start at A and by the time we get past the first 4 letters he has already forgotten what letter comes next. What does he have against the wonderful letter E? It starts things like Elmo and Elephant and his best bud Ethan. I've never forced him to eat Eggplant, he does like Eggs and Easter and Exercising. He even likes taking trips to Eureka and loves all forms of Entertainment. I'm baffled. Please Johnny, come to terms with the fact that the letter "E" is a very important part of the English language and I can't do anything to change it.

She never ceases to amaze me

The other day I was irritated with my kid's attitudes and sentenced them to their rooms for a nice long time out. I was on their heels up the stairs and peered into their rooms to make sure they were where they were suppose to be and upon opening Alex's door I found her counting her coins wearing her favorite curly blond wig. I was caught off guard by her instant transformation in the short amount of time it took me to check on her. It made me laugh and once again reminded me that this little girl never ceases to amaze me.

Here are a few more examples:

Putting her training wheels back onto her bike all by herself with the right wrench and everything.

Asking me about something we went to almost 4 years ago when she was only 2 year old.

Reciting an entire episode of Transformers that she watched last week to me with punch lines and all and laughing to herself as she recalls the oh so funny story line.

Reciting a story her teacher read to her that day with animated actions and character voices and all.

Taking a loud group of kids at the McDonald's play place and lining them up like her little ducklings as they follow her through the play set in a quiet and orderly manner (The parents of all of the children were also quite amazed).

Coaching her brother on how to make a new friend. As the boy is standing in front of Johnny she whispers in his ear "hello, my name is Johnny. What's your name? Do you want to be friends?" Johnny dutifully repeats it out loud and all of a sudden has a new friend. Apparently she is a pro at this because two months into school she is already best buds with everyone in her class.

The other day I was holding her in my lap and remembering how little she used to be when I held her as a baby. Some day she won't fit on my lap at all, nor will she allow it. I don't ever want that day to come.

Field Trip Time!

Alex's Kindergarten class took their first field trip yesterday. I guess they are usually only allowed one field trip but since the fire department is only a 15 min walk from the school they will be allowed one more trip to the zoo this year via bus. Alex always made sure she was up near the front of the line and was always walking with a different friend in her class, (or skipping, dancing, or hopping, I don't know that she did much walking) continually humming a tune to herself or chatting with the person next to her. She's not the shy little girl I was as a child, that's for sure.
So the crew of parents and 22 kindergartners put on their walking shoes and headed single file (kind of) through the neighborhood to the fire department where they got a run down of the truck and gear they wear as well as a few safety tips. Of course the fire fighter giving the tour was always open for questions and more often than not he got a "what if" question from each and everyone of them. "What if a tree was on fire?" "What if the TV was on fire?" "What if the road was on fire?" and I kid you not "What if the Earth was on fire?" When he asked if any of them had a planned meeting place in case of a fire in their home the only one who could think of one was Alex (our mail box); nice job Alex. Way to show that we're prepared. Yesterday was also their first "tie dye Tuesday" so all of the kids wore the shirts they made at school last week.

Since Johnny's preschool class had a field trip to the fire deptartment this week as well I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and snuck him in on the walk. He followed his sister around very well and sat up front listening intently to the firefighter and putting in his two cents whenever the opportunity arose.

Pet praying manti are not for the faint of heart.

Yesterday, Alex noticed a praying mantis clinging to the outside of one of our windows. She got all excited and asked if we could catch it and keep it. We've caught them before but we have never kept one because I wasn't ready for the responsibility of feeding it. We had one as a pet when I was growing up named Mr. Green Jeans. My Dad would catch live flies for him to eat or take him outside to catch his own. That's right, praying mantis are carnivorous little critters. So I make a home for it in a jar and tell the kids to go looking for rolly pollies or something to feed it. Alex comes running back into the house after just a few seconds with another large praying mantis in her cup, "they can be friends!" she exclaims. For a brief second it occurred to me that they would probably not be friends but for some reason I brushed it aside and found them some little bugs crawling on my roses for their supper. Alex claimed the bigger, brighter green one as her's and named it "Julie" at first and then finally for whatever reason, decided "Sarah" was a much better fit. Johnny wanted to name his "Green Guy" but since the name triggered Alex's memory of me telling her about my pet praying mantis she convinced Johnny to go with "Green Jeans" instead. And since it still had his favorite color "Green" in the name, he was satisfied.
It was just about dinner time so I put Sarah and Green Jeans away on the far end of the kitchen so the kids wouldn't be distracted while eating. During dinner though I noticed they were awfully close to each other so I took a peek and realized Sarah was missing her head and Green Jeans was happily nibbling away on what he figured was his dinner. I was so appalled. I quickly put the jar out in the garage so the kids wouldn't have to see the carnage happening between their new found friends. About an hour later Green Jean's tummy was quite full. When I finally told Alex what had happened she first got a very sad, hurt look on her face and wanted to know why. Then she became quite angry with Green Jeans and drew pictures of him titled "bad green jeans praying mantis". Then she entered denial and made up her mind that actually, it was Sarah who ate Green Jeans so her praying mantis was still the one pet left. Then she accepted it and decided to name the last standing praying mantis "Sarah Jean" so that she and Johnny could share it. This cracks me up because my very good friend who moved so far away to Florida also has the name Sarah Jean, subconsciously Alex must be telling you to MOVE BACK ALREADY! So anyway, I was out later that night with Alex, trying to teach her how to ride a 2-wheeler when we came across a grasshopper. Alex catches it, puts it in her bag on the front of her bike and takes it home for Sarah Jean's next meal. Maybe we should name it "Audrey II" because I feel like Seymour from the Little Shop of Horrors, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Last night Alex had nightmares about the whole thing and I told her I was letting it go. She woke up this morning, ran downstairs and out to the garage to make sure her precious pet was still around begging me to let her keep it. This morning the grasshopper was "smaller" according to Alex. The greedy green devil bit part of it's head off and left it for dead. I cleaned out the large square glass vase it is living in for now but decided I should probably let Alex be the one to let it go so he can find his next meal on his own. No more pet praying manti in this house.

Hay Rides & Cow Trains

Yesterday Johnny had his first field trip. His class went to "The Maize" where he got to ride on the "cow train", jump on the huge "bouncing pillow", pet the animals, ride the go carts, and take a hay ride out to pick his very own pumpkin. He loved every bit of it and is in love with his new pumpkin. This place is much better than any pumpkin patch we've been to in the past few years out here. And it will be the only one we go to for now on. We might just have to go back there this year and bring Alex with us.