dork

I'm one of the biggest dorks of a mom, well, person really... have I ever told the public this?  The funny thing, is that sometimes my kids encourage me in our family corniness. At what point will they be more embarrassed instead of my cheerleader?

Here below is our latest investment.  We bought a string of white lights with large bulbs so we could light up our holiday creations (kind of a continuation of lighting up our pumpkins which is are rotting on the back steps).  These are our Thanksgiving milk jugs.   Yep, we cleaned out some milk jugs and then painted them. Oh, and then stuck lights in them.

 

Wendell and I teamed up (see below).  I painted a turkey on it and he came up with the saying.  "No CHICKENS ALLOWED... " 

 

Then I added gobble, gobble because sometimes during Thanksgiving season I walk around and speak turkey instead of english.

 

 

Wendell painted pumpkins (below)

 

Harlie painted one too but it was just a beautiful abstract painting.  She's the true artist.  I think hers in the far left one (see the top picture).

I'm actually excited because now we can paint something to light up for every season.. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patty's, etc.. whatever and whenever we want.  I might have to come up something other than a milk jug.  Any ideas?  I thought of a glass jar but I'd be scared they'd break easily.  Poor Phil.. he has to live with us.


Moving on to my monkey's....

Is this torture?  Maybe but I took a picture instead of yelling.  Ali really didn't seem to mind and it was safer then actually crawling on her.

Another cheap idea.  It actually works well for her to sit in, kind of like those bumbo chairs.  It's also like an indoor sled too.  I should attach a string to the front so the kids can pull her around..   brilliant!  I just thought of that one!

It just makes me laugh... too bad she won't eat food while sitting here.  Maybe next month?



Well, in case you want to see more 'dorky' ideas.. you can drive by our house at Christmas time.  Of course you can drive by and see our Turkey lights as well.  I recently made our kids and myself something for winter.  Phil spent $20 on his.. mine was free : )  I'll show you next time!  Any guesses?

Have a Great Thanksgiving!  Don't forget to say thank you to our wonderful Lord and Savior.. he has blessed us all with so much!  Gobble, gobble until next time!

twick o' tweet

Althought it has quesitonable orgins, I must admit, I love Halloween.  I love dressing up, carving pumpkins, visiting neighbors to get candy, and eventually a good scare will be fun.  I also love a good Halloween party too... remember bobbing for apples?

Above are the kids in their Halloween shirst from Grandma Val.  

Here they are in their costumes.. inside where it's warm and no coat is needed.

 

Grandma Val and Grandpa Jim took Wendell and Harlie to

a pumpkin patch and of course they had lots of fun.. 

it appears their enthusiasm isn't shown in the picture.

 

 

Wendell and Harlie chose three eyes for their pumpkins and I designed Ali's this year.. hers turned out a little scarier than I had planned.

I went to Wendell's Halloween party at school.  Here are all the cute kids.. some a bit scary, such as the 'babysitter cutter' masked in black and purple. 

 

Here we are right before we 'twick o' tweeted'. 

 

 

 

We had a great night as the weather was very nice, considering the last day of October.  One highlight was the guy who handed out $5 bills and one disappointment was not having the haunted yard that we've visited the last two years.  We also had one embarrasing moment when Harlie told one lady she didn't like the candy she was handing out... the lady handled it well and gave her another option. 

 

After about an hour we had enough candy so we packed up in the car and visited Phil's aunt and then a few friends.  We were pretty tired by the end of the night but it was fun.  I even followed some family tradition of a beef stew for supper; it was hamburger soup but it was close enough. 

 

 

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This is Miss Harlie and her first day of preschool.  Yep, we started her in preschool.  We found out about 3 weeks ago that we can't send her to preschool when she'll turn 5.  It's kind of long and complicated but I was planning to send her to school when she turned 6 since she has a summer birthday but after talking to school people about preschool they say that she is 'expected' to go to kindergarten when she's 5 and the pre-k won't let her go as they don't have '5 year old pre-k'.  Anyways, I made a few phone calls and got no where so we had a quick decision to make.  If we send her to the same 4 year old full time (4 days a week) pre-k that we sent Wendell (at the public school) then we'd want to get her to part time preschool now.  I thought I'd call the preschool that Wendell went to when he was three, just to see if they had an opening, and it turned out someone had just moved so they did.  So in a quick decision I said yes, we'd send her. 

Weff.. what a few days of craziness but I do feel God has a hand in it.  Between the time I found out they wouldn't take Harlie at 4 year old pre-k ( at the beginning of the school  year they said they would so some ruling had changed recently), having an opening at our preferred pre-k, and knowing that just about everyone but myself felt she should go to pre-k now (at 3) then I guess God must have something in mind. 

I must admit, the morning we dropped her off and I got home.. I tried to be sad but I just hooped and hollered with joy.  She's off.. and I know she was in heaven, well the next best thing in her mind.  : )  

 

We all took her to school.  We even had Wendell skip riding the bus so he could come too, as this was his old teacher so he wanted to see her again.

 

 

 

 

 

This little girl was pretty excited.  So excited that when I stuck around to fill out some paperwork she questioned why I was still there.  She was so ready for this.. it makes me happy but also sad.  I see now how fast this will go...

 

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Last but not least is Miss Alveda.  She is starting to eat some baby food.  Prepared by my own two hands and one of her favorite things to do is to spit it back at me, we're talking a spray gun right at my face.  I have started somewhat covering her mouth as I'm not sure an (almost) 6 month old can understand 'no' yet.  I briefly thought about putting her in a timeout.. would it be 30 seconds - 1/2 a minute for her age?   : )  She's also started scratching and pinching us so the word 'no' will be coming soon.  I can see her now.. she'll laugh and smile the first time I say no sternly.. didn't they all?   

So far she has tried mixed grain cereal with br. milk, sweet potato, peas, green beans, bananas, applesauce, avocado, carrots and butternut squash soup.  Soup was her favorite.. and one of ours too!  I think she's going to want her food warm and flavored... no bland for this girl, but we'll see.

This time I bought some ice cube trays to freeze food.  So far I've frozen about 2 dozen cubes so we'll see how it goes.  I have enough to last awhile.  I just hope we get a routine soon.  So far she wakes up around 6:30/7am, eats and sometimes I lay her back down but either way she sleeps again soon.  Then wakes, eats, plays, wakes, eats, plays, etc in about 3 to 4 hour rotations.  Some days she naps from 11am-1pm so I don't really think to feed her lunch as we're all done when she might be ready; and you have to feed her when she's hungry but not too hungry.  And at dinner time, sometimes she just too tired to eat.  It's sad to say but with Wendell I was SO excited to feed him baby food; now 3 kids later, I realize how eat and fast br. feeding is.   Oh well, I'm not too worried, it'll come around, something will work out and we'll find when and what she wants to eat.  We're really just getting started but it's hard to believe in 6 months she'll be eating mostly food and hopefully weaning.  So a lot to do in 6 months!