The Best Of The Best

For Christmas this year I gave my dad a secret.  It was my best, and hardest kept secret of the 2009 - prints of four previously unpublished pictures of his grand kids.  They're not on facebook, not on our blogs, not printed.  It was super hard for me to keep these pics to myself but totally worth it to hand my dad something he hasn't already seen on the internet :-)

Now, for public viewing, the best of the best of the grand kids 2009.

Edit:  I forgot to add that, except for the picture of Silas, all of these are straight out of the camera, no post processing.  In Silas' picture I removed some shiny drool from his chin.

Christopher (age 5)

Ella (age 4)

Hannah (age 3)

Silas (age 1)

I still need to get a good picture of Evangeline, but since she's only a month old I have some grace.

I hope 2009 was as joyful for you as it was for our kids!

Kids Say The Darndest Things #46

Child Logic
"Mom, Aunt Stacy is NOT a grown up."  Christopher told me the other day.  We were discussing babysitter possibilities and I was in the process of explaining how his five-year-old friend Rylan could not babysit, even though he's older.   Aunt Stacy is my 32 year old little sister.  She stayed with the kids while we were on the cruise.

"I'm pretty sure Aunt Stacy is a grown up."  I replied.

"No, Mom."  Christopher said, in a patient voice, like someone speaking to a child.  "Grown ups do not play.  Aunt Stacy plays with us.  Aunt Stacy is not a grown up."

And, there you have it.



Education
Driving in the car the other day, the sun was shining hard right in our eyes.  I tried to turn it into a positive by explaining all the good the sun does.  "The sun keeps us warm and gives energy to the plants.  Without the sun there couldn't be life on our planet."

"Mom!"  Christopher piped up, "The Earth is the only planet with people."

I was so proud of all he's been learning in school, for five... four... three... two... one...

"The other planets have aliens.  They poke their heads out of the holes in the planet to look around.  And, they drive space ships."

And I thought, "I'm totally blogging that."



Beautiful Girl
Hannah very much likes to wear pretty things.  I let her try on a new dress on Christmas Eve and said, "Oh, Hannah.  How pretty, go look in the mirror!"

As she ran off to twirl in front of the full length mirror I heard her say, "I bet the mirror will be so happy to see me!"




Pie For Breakfast
Around the holidays I like to eat pie for breakfast.  Growing up there was always a lot of pie around so it was easy to have a slice in the morning.  I've definitely carried on that tradition with the kids, but I try to make them eat something healthy before their slice of pie. (I'm sure my mom did too, although I have no memory of it.)

I promised the kids a slice of cream cheese pie if they finished their grapes.  Hannah said, "I don't want fruit, just cream cheese pie!"

I responded with, "If you don't eat your fruit you can have zero pie and there will be a big hole in your stomach where some pie would have gone."

The pitiful look on Hannah's face almost made me laugh, "If I had zero pie there would be a hole in my heart.  My heart would be broken for zero pie."  She said.

And then I did laugh.


Santa
On Christmas morning the kids had a blast opening up their stockings.  Hannah had a magic wand in hers.  She played with it for a minute before turning it over and seeing the tag.

"Mom, this is from the grocery store!"  She said, pointing to the Circo tag.

"Actually, it's from Target."  I said with a grin.

To which she replied, with a puzzled look on her face, "Santa goes to Target?"


Cookies
We were eating cookies after dinner, the Pillsbury kind with a picture in the middle.  Hannah started telling us how to make the reindeer.

"First you take some brown," she says, with exaggerated hand motions, "and then some tan and then put some brown over here and some more tan and then some red on top over here and then some more brown..."  She kept this up for quite some time.

When she stopped, Christopher piped up with, "Tune in next time for more on How To Make A Reindeer Cookie."

Deck The Halls, Just Get Permission First

The Saturday night we picked up our Christmas tree was full of snow and freezing rain.  After setting it up in the living room the kids were disappointed to find out they had to wait a day or two for the tree to dry out before putting on the lights and decorations.

By Monday morning the tree was dry so I put the lights on and brought up the decorations.  I thought we'd wait to decorate that evening as a family.

Later that afternoon Corinne and Ella came over to hang out.  Corinne and I were so impressed with how well the kids were playing, how quiet they were, how long they played in the living room without needing us...

Do you see where this is going?

By the time we started to get suspicious they'd decorated half the tree, the bottom half since that's the part they could reach.  I'm always surprised at how well they can get along, and how quiet they can be, when they're working hard to avoid detection.

Of course we took pictures before helping them spread out the ornaments.

We even put the star on top of the tree.

Merry Christmas Friends!  I pray your holiday is full of love, peace, family and friends.

Best Christmas CD Ever

I love, LOVE Christmas music!  For almost every song I have a favorite recording.  The best of the best.  My favorite Christmas CD is Louis Armstrong and Friends.  But, if I was going to make a Christmas mix CD this would be it.  (The links are YouTube videos of the songs, not necessarily my favorite videos, just my favorite songs.)

Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings

Louis Armstrong - 'Zat You Santa Clause?


Jars of Clay - Little Drummer Boy

Trans Siberian Orchestra - Carol of The Bells

Ertha Kitt - Santa Baby


Bruce Springsteen - Santa Clause Is Coming To Town 

Tony Bennett - Winter Wonderland

Leon RedBone and Zooey Deschanel - Baby It's Cold Outside (I really like the Dean Martin version too)

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You

Mike Yerrid - O Holy Night - My favorite version of this one was sung every Christmas by a guy at the church where I grew up.  If I had a recording of it I'd link it!

I love SO many Christmas songs, these are just the ones where I have a favorite recording.  What are your Christmas favorites?  I'd love to flesh out my list.

And Then The Real World Smacks Me In The Face

For the last week Matthew and I have been on a cruise to the Bahamas.  It was wonderful and I'm sure I'll have lots to post about it over the next few days.  My husband is the BEST for taking me on such a wonderful vacation to celebrate our 15th anniversary.  I will never forget the amazing time we had and will, for a long time, be indebted to our friends and family for all their help with the kids while we were away.

But now, right now, I'm wishing I was back on that boat.

I want Constantine, our room steward, to come and clean my room, make up my bed, bring me fresh towels, fold the edge of the toilet paper into a little triangle, clean the bathroom, and then come back later tonight to turn down my covers and put a chocolate on my pillow. 

I want to look at a dinner menu and try to decide if I want someone else to bring me two or three appetizers with a gourmet dinner I don't have to cook.

I want 24 hour pizza and ice cream in the next room.

I want to try to decide which of the five outdoor hot tubs will be best to lounge in this evening.

I want to be looking forward to seeing a show this evening.

I want to be warm.

I want to listen to the child crying in the next room and feel relief that I don't have to get up to see what's wrong.

I missed my kids a LOT!!  When we got home they hugged and snuggled us for hours.  We had an amazing time last night just enjoying their company.

Then today, reality set in.  For the first time in my life I left a cart, with groceries IN IT, in the middle of the store and marched the kids out to the car.  I wanted those groceries.  I NEEDED those groceries!  I lovingly picked out all six of the apples and two different bunches of bananas (one mostly yellow, one a little green) and put them in that cart with the intention of bring them home.  But no, Hannah decided to repeatedly ram the cart into other shoppers and food displays.  Then when I picked her up to strap her in the child seat she bit me.  She. Bit. My. Head. And then proceeded to take a huge breath and scream it out, at the top of her lungs, until she had to breathe again.

They're in their rooms right now.  Resting.  Which really means making a lot of noise and coming out every five minutes to ask if rest time could please be over.

Well, my rest time is certainly over.  And I can assure you, I enjoyed my rest time FAR more than my kiddos have ever enjoyed their time alone.

Linkalicious

Lego Add-Ons: Definitely trying this one out with the kids.  I'm all about enhancing toys with stuff you can make yourself.  (via Filth Wizardry)

Glow Gloves:  AWESOME winter gloves that glow in the dark. (via Get Digital)

Bubble Calendar:  Pop a bubble every day in 2010. (via Perpetual Kid)

Doormat Scale: I can't decide if I love it or hate it. (via curiosite)

Slide Stairs:  These are SO COOL!!  Why can't regular people get stuff like this? (via gizmodo)

50 Nifty

Here's the YouTube video of my three-year-old daughter singing the 50 states song.  And, as to not be outdone by his little sister, the one of my five year old singing it too.  If you like them you should go to YouTube and rate the videos!

I Need A Butterbeer

This series of texts between me and my friend Jen yesterday had me laughing so hard I had to share.

Jen (4:14pm): Ok, I can't stay positive anymore.  My kids are driving me NUTS!

Jen (4:21pm): I'm done mothering.  Is 5PM too early for bedtime?

Me (4:25pm): OH NO!  Do you have chocolate in the house?  Because I imagine how you're feeling right now is similar to a Dementor attack.

Jen: (4:27pm): HAHAHAHA!  I'm beginning to think I need to summon a Patronus in the shape of Supernanny.

Welcome to the life of a stay-at-home-mom.  Hope your day is great :-)

Tom and Jerry

The other day Christopher asked me if they could watch Tom and Jerry.  Who even knows how he found out about that cartoon (now that he can read it's hard to keep anything from him) but he knew I had to click on "Cartoon Network" in the Verizon On Demand menu.  Then he directed me down to Tom and Jerry and I pushed play.

Oh. My. Word.

I can not remember the last time my kids laughed so hard.  I was cracking up just watching them.

I let them watch with Ella at my Mom's the other night and the three of them laughed uncontrollably for 30 straight minutes. At a cartoon where no one really talks. And they play old music.  And the creators never even heard of digital.  Classic.

They really like when Tom swallows something inappropriate (like an umbrella) and it does something wacky (like open up) inside of him and his body takes on a weird shape (like a cat with an umbrella in his face).

Currently they are banned from watching it because in one of the newer episodes someone calls Tom stupid and now Christopher calls Hannah stupid.  But, for the looks on their faces when they watch that cat and mouse, it's coming back soon.

Dance Of The Evergreen Fairy

I pulled the Christmas boxes out this afternoon and started unpacking the decorations.  Hannah found the tree skirt my Aunt Marsha made for us when we got married.  She was fascinated!  I helped her put it on and she was dancing all around the room. 

She was thrilled with me taking pictures (not always the case) so I took a lot.  Here are the best.

 

 

 

Linkalicious

School Readiness: This is a very interesting article about what teachers say children really need to know before they start kindergarten.  Definitely working on some skills with both of my kids. (via Childhood 101)

Air Purifier: This is an awesome air purification system uses a NASA technology and a live house plant to purify the air in your home. (via Hammacher Schlemmer)

A Good Cry: This is a heartwarming story of a community stepping in to help a newborn after his mother dies.  TEARS! (via cnn.com)

Christmas Craft: LOVE this easy-to-do-with-kids Christmas Tree craft. (via bloesem kids)

Bubble Wrap Insulation: This is a great idea but was obviously thought up by someone without young kids.  My kids would NOT keep their hands off!  (via Build It Solar)

40 Second Toothbrush:  If I was the kind of girl to spend $100 on a toothbrush, I'd be buying this one. (via Hammacher Schlemmer)

Underpants Purse:  I can't decide if these are cool or creepy. (via I want one of those)

Pac Mac Rings: LOVE these! (via Etsy)

One More Tear Jerker: The Salvation army is asking that you put your prayer requests in their Christmas kettles in response to "an unprecedented need in the community."  Wow.  Reading some of the prayer requests got me all choked up.  People are so honest about their needs when talking to God.  I wish we could be that honest with each other. (via KXLY.com)

The Tire Park

I know we did this over a month ago but I just realized I'd uploaded all the photos into Blogger but never posted them.  So, here's a throw-back post (all the way back to the beginning of November).

We recently re-discovered a childhood family favorite.  The tire park.  I remember playing here when I was a kid.  Tire swings, tire sculptures, tire mulch.  Lots to climb on, in and through.  Corinne and I took the kids there a couple of days ago a month ago in an attempt to get the most out of these last few days of nice weather.  It totally worked!  The kids had a blast and the lighting was perfect for taking pictures.  Most of these shots are straight out of the camera.  I didn't have to pump up the color, they just came out like that!

 

Wonder if it will still be fun in the snow?

How To Host A Lego Party

Just before Thanksgiving we had a Lego party for my son's fifth birthday.  It was a blast!  Here's how we did it.  (Disclaimer: I was not paid anything by Lego to write this post.  They didn't give me anything or sponsor anything.  In fact, I'm pretty sure the folks at Lego aren't aware of me whatsoever.)

We had the party at the YMCA.  I strongly recommend having a party somewhere other than your house.  Especially when your son has a November birthday (outside=cold, wet, unpredictable).  The kids had an hour in the pool and two hours in the Teen Center.  A wonderful staff person arranged for child-sized tables and chairs as well as help with set up and clean up.  LOVE it!

We dumped a bunch of Legos in the middle of the two long kid-height tables.  The kids sat around the tables and played with Legos for nearly an hour.

We also brought our small Lego table with us.  I made it using 10x10 Lego building plates (we had two and I bought two for $5 a piece at the Lego store), an old Step 2 kid's table (that I got for $4 two years ago at a yard sale) and a bunch of heavy duty glue dots.

We brought along Christopher's Lego book.  It's a three ring binder with Lego directions printed out and put in page protectors.  Check out this link on the Lego website for tons of downloadables.  Thanks to Ed for hooking us up with that one.

Then there was the cake.  What's a party without a cake, and what's a Lego party without a Lego cake?  Now, before you get all kinds of crazy respect for me, I didn't come up with this on my own.  You can watch the video here and make it yourself.

I started out with a two 11x13 cakes, four containers of icing and a bag of marshmallows.

I used Wilton icing colors (this is the set I have) to tint the icing so it looked like this.

Then I just followed the directions in the video until my cake looked like this.

We were expecting about 50 people at the party (between kids and adults) so I actually made two of these.  I had the 50mm lens on my camera though, so I couldn't fit both cakes in one shot except artistically, but I'm ok with that.

Christopher blew out the candles, we all clapped, he was delighted and a great time was had by all.

Let me know if you host your own Lego party!  I'd love to see your pictures and hear your great ideas.