Getting your Money's worth

A dear friend of ours gave Benjamin a batman costume for his third birthday. {Thanks Melanie!}

Sam and Benjamin wore it daily until the elastic band on the mask started cutting off the circulation to their faces.

A few months ago, Nicholas found it and has been wearing it every possible second.

And today, Ellie joined the ranks of Batman. It was a very proud moment for me.

I will now be accepting donations of costumes for little girls .

The life and times of Nicholas

Nicholas turned three yesterday. It is hard to believe that he is already three - he is growing too fast! So in honor of his third birthday, here are three very "Nicholas-like" things.

1. Nicholas is a super funny kid. He is always making us laugh. The other night at dinner, he gave us all new names.
Josh became Sissy Sauce.
Sam became Apricot Salad
Benjamin became Fry Sauce.
Eliana became Banana Split
Nicholas became Pumpkin.
And I became Tasty Salsa.

2. Nicholas is very clever. Sometimes it's deviously clever, but mostly it's just clever. Here is a recent conversation I had with Nicholas that illustrates the deviously clever . . .
Me: Nicholas, you don't hit Benjamin. If he's doing something you don't like, you tell him. Use your words.
Nicholas: Ok Benjamin. I am going to hit you now.

3. Nicholas is very sure of what he wants and very determined. He wanted a Wall*E cake for his birthday. Nothing else would do. He kept asking, and asking and asking and asking and asking . . . for the Wall*E cake. So, he got one (a poor excuse for a Wall*E cake). And he applies that same determination to getting cookies, watching TV and avoiding nap time. Lucky me!

So happy birthday dear boy.
We are glad you are part of our family. You really bring life to the party!

Because Jim asked . . .

As in years past, we made the pilgrimage to take our Christmas Card pictures. Here are some beauties from this year.

Benjamin: {I can't remember how to smile. Do you think anyone will notice.}
Sam: {I come from the planet nerd. Take me to your leader.}

Benjamin: {I'm trying out for Constipated Person #2 in the school play.}
Josh: {Sam put your hand down or there will be severe consequences.}
No really - he said that.

Josh: {Go ahead and have a good time now Sam. You are going to die when we get home.}
Nicholas: {I have a two picture limit. This is picture three - someone is going to pay.}
And I have no excuses to make for Benjamin's face in this picture - it pretty much says it all.

Thank goodness for Photoshop!

This
{+}

This
{=}

This.
Almost perfect, and definetely full of personality.

Happy Late Thanksgiving

I know it's two weeks late, but here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving. We had a very unconventional Thanksgiving - we went to Sea World. And we loved it so much that I want to do it again next year {Except for Benjamin who feels like he was robbed of Thanksgiving dinner}. The park was practically empty, the weather was perfect, and there weren't any dishes to do. Plus, we learned a little Sea World tip . . . If you buy your season passes in August, you get the rest of the year and ALL of the next year! Who knew?

What Sea World visit is complete without a Shamu Show?

See how empty the stands are? Perfect!

Some of the family went on a water ride. And some of that part of the family liked it.

Nicholas gave us an uncertain smile when the ride was done.
Josh: Nicholas, did you like the ride?
Nicholas: Yeah! It was a great ride!
Josh: Do you want to go again.
Nicholas: Uh, no thanks!

Nicholas and Eliana LOVE Shamu. They talk about him all the time at home. So seeing one was an unbelievable treat. Nicholas was so excited to hold Shamu's hand, that he couldn't even look at the camera - he had to make sure Shamu didn't let go.

Here's a cute, though rare, moment. Nicholas wants to be Sam, and Sam doesn't always appreciate the attention. So when Sam said Nicholas could sit by him, Nicholas was overcome with joy!

Because the park was empty, we got to feed the dolphins. It was amazing!

Benjamin is a little nervous in this picture. Sam was {kind of} teasing the dolphin by not feeding him the fish right away. I told him to just give the dolphin the fish. And when Sam finally did feed it, the dolphin responded by {SPLASHING} us. We were soaked! But it was SO worth it!

Eliana was fascinated by the aquarium. She and Josh stood there for about 20 minutes just watching the fish.

This is a just because it's cute picture.

Not to play favorites. . .

I love all my children equally. But, I only {love} playing dress-up with one of them.

Can you blame me?

Today was a good day

Thanks to Eliana's mullet hair, look what we can do . . .

Here's to business in the front, party in the back.

A day of Life Lessons

Here is what I learned today:

1. Pop Rocks cannot be cleaned once spilled. The minute the humidity in the air gets to them, they are glued to the carpet and stuck to the floor. {Lesson 1b would be that pop rocks cannot be swept off the kitchen floor either}. Pop Rocks, a candy I adore, will darken our doorstep no more.

2. Six year old and eight year old boys will not practice the piano when left to their own devices. They will also not bring in their piano books from the car with out proper prompting. {Six year old and eight year old boys learned today -- no practice, no piano prize box. Mother's orders.}

3. A two year old can become addicted to candy in three seconds flat. Since Halloween, Nicholas has had candy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, 4:30 AM snack, and just because snack. {Nicholas also knows what he likes and doesn't like. And I now know what he doesn't like because I find half eaten candy dropped all over the place.}

4. Ants in Texas live for Halloween. {Ants in our house live for the candy Nicholas doesn't like.}

5. To Nicholas, Rude means someone does something mean, and someone gets an owie. {In otherwords, if Sam is rude to Nicholas, that gives Nicholas permission to hit Sam.}

6. Fall daylight savings is kicking my butt. My children have adjusted to going to bed an hour later, but not to waking up an hour later. This morning, they were all up by 5:45 AM. {I, unfortunately, was not.} Threats have been made . . . tomorrow I will not see the light of day until 6:30 AM.

Lessons learned . . .Patience tested . . . tomorrow will be better.

And to go with the randomness of this life, here are some Halloween pictures.

A Proud Mother

There is a contest at school where the kids are asked to submit something creative based on a theme. This year the theme was "WOW!" Sam wanted to participate, and he chose to enter in the photography category. One of the rules of the contest is that it has to be 100% the child's work. Sam started brainstorming ideas for pictures. For every idea he had, I would ask him to tell me how it "WOWS!" him. Some ideas were good {a photo spread of his gecko catching cricket}, others were not so good {the wind blowing the grass}.

He tried to take a picture of the gecko eating, but sadly, the gecko would not cooperate. On to idea number two. He chose to take a picture of the American flag {because it is a symbol of our freedom}. Life being crazy like it is, he didn't get to take the picture until close to sunset. But that worked to his advantage. He got the camera in position, then put it on rapid shutter mode and clicked away. And we came home with some winners.

Next came the photo editing. He wanted to edit the photo so that it would look like it was taken at Fort McHenry, where in 1814 the valiant defense of the fort by 1,000 dedicated Americans inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I was skeptical at first, but he did a great job!

So here are Sam's pictures. One original, and one Sam's photoshop special.

To Infinity and Beyond

At our house, some people can really {fly} . . .




Others just {fall} with style . . .

Monkey see, Monkey do

Eliana loves Nicholas. She REALLY loves Nicholas. She loves everything about him - his clothes, his dog, his blanket, his toys, his cup of milk. Anything Nicholas has, Eliana wants. As I type this, she's throwing a fit because Nicholas has a granola bar and she doesn't. Does she like granola bars? {No.} Will she eat a granola bar? {No.} Will she stop crying if she's holding a granola bar like Nicholas. {Yes.}

Yesterday, two things happened that took her love of Nicholas to my breaking point. Nicholas woke up grumpy and all around disagreeably opinionated. I know, that doesn't sound at all like Nicholas. I digress . . . I told him it was time to get dressed. He looked at me and in his deepest demon voice said, "No! I don't wanna get dressed!" And then stomped off. So, I turned to Ellie and told her it was time to get dressed. She looked up at me and unleashing her inner Nicholas screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" And stomped off after him. I suppose I shouldn't have laughed, but it was so shockingly funny.

Second story: At Walmart yesterday afternoon, we happened to be perusing through the toy aisle. Eliana noticed a display of dolls. She kept saying, "baby! baby!" in her cute little voice. How could I resist? {thankfully, she wanted the $3.00 Walmart special.} I have been waiting for her to want a doll for forever. I began to dream of all the quality mother/daughter play time we could have. So I bought her the doll. She hugged it the entire time we were in the store. She hugged it all the way home. She hugged it all the way into the house. She hugged it all the way to Nicholas room. She hugged the baby until she saw him playing with airplanes. Then she stopped hugging the baby and demanded an airplane. Nicholas gave her a plane, she threw the baby on the floor and played planes with her hero. The baby has been forgotten, along with all my hopes and dreams. I am, after all, no Nicholas.

A Mother's Right {OR} The Cycle is Repeated

When I was in the third grade, I had bad hair . . . it still pains me to talk about it. My mother liked to curl my hair with her hot curlers.

{A short bob cut + a million hot curlers = bubble hair.}

My hair stuck out like an inner tube around my head. To make matters worse, my mom knew her way around a can of hair spray. That bubble hair stayed in one place ALL day long. I got a lot of compliments about my hair - you know, the kind of compliments only 9 year old kids can make. The hairstyle of '86 still haunts me. I'm sure my mom had my best interests in mind. She was only trying to add some volume to my practically bald head. And I'm sure she thought it looked good. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't privy to the Turnagain Elementary fashion world.

Relevance?

I'm sure, years from now, Eliana will tell me that I scarred her for life because of all the silliness I insisted on putting in her hair. But in my defense, the flower is so obnoxiously large, it's cute. So without further ado, may I present for your viewing pleasure

Eliana at 13 months