Water Beads - 01/15/2011

We found the most fascinating thing to put in the centerpieces for Crazy Manda's wedding! These little water beads are tiny (see the bag by Sam's hand?) but when you add water to them, they grow to the size of marbles! The little white thing in the corner of the picture is a light that we put down inside of the marbles to make them glow. It may sound mundane, but in a house full of boys, this is
pretty amazing stuff!

The part that's not so amazing is the slippery sludge in my driveway that reappears each time there's precipitation! I guess that's what happens when Sam finds the 5 gallon Gott jug full of these things the day after the wedding and decides to pour them out!

Happy Birthday to Me! 1-11-11

On the way out the door to my Sister Party, I found these!

Well, actually, Sam and Jake had already been here and Jared returns every night so I didn't really find them. But, I did find a chocolate cake, a dozen roses and a new dryer.
A dryer that dries clothes in one load, not three!
A dryer that has a light inside - have you ever seen one of those?
A dryer that has a cool buzzer to let me know it's time to pause my stories and change the laundry!
I love it! Be jealous.

We went to Godwood for my birthday dinner. I'm pretty sure all four of us got brisket. And don't let your eyes fool you, that IS a Diet Coke brownie cake!

A better shot of the cake. Be double-jealous.

And you can be triple-jealous because my ever-thoughtful sisters got me a Jake Ryan t-shirt for my gift!! Could you want anything else?

After dinner, we went and tried on wedding shoes. You don't have to be jealous of this fabulous shot of me.

Then, we went home and had giant chocolate cake for dessert!

Happy, Happy Birthday to me!

New Year's Eve

You really can't go wrong on New Year's Eve with Wii, party food, and balloons!

The boys played Wii most of the night. Dance Party was a big hit (and helped them to sleep well later).

We had lunch bags to open on each hour to make the waiting not take so long. One bag had noisy horns to blow!



One bag had stuff to make NYE crowns to wear for the evening. The other bags had goal setting lists and Favorite Things from the Past Year games.

Earlier in the day, we hung tablecloths from the upstairs banisters to the high window sills in the Family room and filled them with balloons and confetti. The plan was to cut the string at midnight, of course, and let it all fall down on the kids. Sam got a little overeager and cut the string at 10:30 for us, so we had a balloon smashing contest!

When midnight finally came, we celebrated with our 'cheater fireworks' - we danced on bubble wrap!

Christmas Morning 2010

Every year, the boys beg to open 'just one' gift on Christmas Eve. We try to keep Christmas Eve about Baby Jesus and the scriptures, but in the end, we always cave and let them open one. This year, we made a rule that we get to choose which one they opened. Like dogs with their eyes bulging and tongues wagging, they agreed.

(As a side note, I hate that all of the anticipation of Christmas morning, shaking boxes,
the hours of shopping and wrapping are all over in 30 seconds of mass chaos and confetti
rain comparable to NYE at Times Square.)

So, we let them open one gift - oven mitts. They were a bit confused until we told them that they had to wear them Christmas Morning to open their gifts so it would last longer. They were, um, somewhat amused by us...I guess.

Christmas Morning came and we woke up to the buzz of excitement around 7AM. I wish I had a picture of everything before the boys went downstairs, but we don't. Instead, we have a bunch of pictures with a bunch of toys, a bunch of wrapping paper, and a bunch of smiles.

I almost forgot : one of Sam;s favorite gifts was a little Thomas train from his stocking. He is so cute singing Choo, Choo, the Big Train is Coming Down the Tracks (*cough, cough*)
Sorry it's sideways!

Year in Review

This is a slideshow we made for Gigi (my Grandma) for Christmas. We took pictures from the entire year and tried to show her what we had been up to for the last 12 months. It's a great Year in Review for our family!

Finally meeting Poison Control

Josh : Mom, what's this?
Me : What?
Josh : All these medicines on the floor?

Sam's preschool adventure today included emptying the 180 ct. Gummie Vitamins and the 90 ct. Vitamin D bottles in to the carpet. I picked up 66 of 90 vitamin Ds, not sure how many Jared has taken in the last 10-14 days. No clue how many vitamins should be left, it didn't look too much lower than when we passed them out at breakfast.

Me : Sam, did you eat any medicines?
Sam : {hides his face}
Me : Sam, look at my face, I'm not upset I just need to know if you ate some of the medicines.
Sam : {whispers} no

Heck, why am I asking an almost three year old if he ate any gummies when they were just there for the taking? I'm sure he dumped them out and walked away.

PC : Hello, Poison Control
Me : Hi, my 3 year old may have taken some extra vitamins and vitamin D pills while I was being a good preschool teacher, but a bad mom (but please know, I have three other kids and I've never called you before!)
PC : What brand? How many? How many originally? Is he flushed? headache? nauseous?
He's OK. I'll call you back in an hour to check on him. Watch for bright, yellow, odor-full diapers.
Me : Thank you. (p.s. I'm a good mom, I'm a good mom, I'm..a...good..mom, ok, fine, I'm doing the best I can but he's killing me!)


Will there be a day in the near future when Sam doesn't have my heart racing for one reason or another?!?

Doesn't he know I had a birthday, too, and I'm too old for this? My aging heart can't handle it?

For anyone keeping count, the score since January 8th is Sam- 7, Mom-0.
3 bathroom vs. toothpaste incidents
1 bathroom vs. hairspray incident
1 bathroom vs. spray cleaner incident
1 syrup vs. the pantry incident
1 Poison Control incident

Sometimes, blogging saves lives. Today it definitely saved Sam's. Even though I haven't yet blogged Christmas, I must blog the syrup episode or a small boy may not see his third birthday next week.

And, if you laugh about it, you won't cry.

(I will go back for Christmas and basketball later when we have our own computer back and I'm not working on a loaner.)

Here's the story:

One day, a beautiful, young mother was sitting at the computer in her kitchen. All of a sudden, she noticed a brown ooze coming out from under the pantry door. Worried that soda had exploded in the pantry, she jumped from her chair, threw up the sash...wait, wrong story. She jumped from her chair, threw open the door and saw the Saminator standing there.

Beyond the Saminator, was the blood and guts of our former friend, Mrs. B who was found upside down in the Woot! box full of potatoes.

You could say we had a sticky situation.
It was messy. It was very messy . It was even too messy for a chalk outline.

A chalk outline that could've been drawn with the sugar from the sugar crime scene background.

Premeditation was proven by the peanut butter jar lid in the midst of the carnage and the purple spaceship that had been the Saminator's previous quest tossed to the side of the current crime.

Mrs. B refrained from giving a comment. She was said to be feeling hollow, empty, and at a complete loss for words (or anything else, really).

The Potato Family was evacuated from their box home only to fall right into the middle of the crime scene. A can of green beans overheard the Potato father comment, "The memories of this day will stick with us forever".

Luckily, for the Potato family, they were rinsed and returned to the pantry within an hour. The innards of Mrs. B are long gone and she just sits on the counter wringing her empty hands. A Pantry Community that will be haunted forever.
The Saminator is still on the loose. Witnesses report that he draws his victims in with a charming smile and a need for snacks.

In related news, two toothpaste tubes were reported to have been squoze to death on Wednesday. The first death was reported from the downstairs bathroom where evidence was left on the rug, the toilet, the sink, and the floor.
The second death was found later in the day under the train table kept on the second floor of the house.
A room that is often frequented by...
THE SAMINATOR!