Of Festivals and Fall....

The vocabulary spewing out of my little people's mouths is just so entertaining these days. Last week I gave Ethan (3) some hand sanitizer after which he declared, "My hands are totally cleaner, Mom."

One morning my kindergartener, relating something to me about one of his friends from school, used the word apparently. And only a couple of hours later when I asked the little girl if she wanted to go to stores with me, she gave me the standard 2 year-old answer, "No." But she caught herself just in time, "actually, yes I do," she said. "Actually?" seriously girl, what is this Jr. High?

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I had a rare chance to go out for coffee with a friend last week. (We weren't exactly at a fine dining sort of place. We had to stick with something that was open during the night shift, after the munchkins were all tucked in.) I ordered a piece of chocolate cake that arrived at my table with a 'lovely' sculpted chocolate mouse on top. Is it just me or are chocolate rodents really not all that appetizing? If I ever start a restaurant where delectable chocolate cake is served please remind me to be careful what kind of fancy decorations I put on it. Once I got over the third grade giggles and the mental block it really was quite tasty, but the chat time/catching up with a friend/escaping the regular zoo routines was by far the 'selling point' not the mouse.

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We took some of the kids to this

last weekend. It was our first time there and we all enjoyed it.

Games and freebies for the kiddos.

 Music and jammin'.

Waiting in line for only an hour or two for an autograph a.k.a. scribble. Let's call this "11 year olds have different priorities than I do."

And perfectly gorgeous weather.

We usually make an effort to take the whole family when we do something like this, and believe me it is "an effort." But this time we decided to just take the ones we knew would love it. It made things so relaxing and easy for me.

 

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 We returned after 2 late nights and set out for church Sunday morning. Let's just say an exhausted Mommy and many whiny children don't do much for a meaningful worship service. And a kindergarten who doesn't make it to the bathroom on time is just the icing on the cake. Oh yes, cake, speaking of cake, we were supposed to be the guests of honor for a birthday dinner right after church. Yours truly chalked up another  year in the books. Someone please tell me what is the proper etiquette for taking small children soaked in pee into someone else' house. Going home in between wasn't an option...I stopped carrying extra clothes for him about 3 1/2 years ago.....Oh isn't this Mommy stuff fun!

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Time to add some Fall-Festiveness around the house. 

I'm a summer girl. I usually hang on to every last bit of summer and probably miss the best of fall while mourning the loss of summer but this year I'm welcoming the cooler temps, the baking everything apple and pumpkin, the cooking of real food instead of popsicles and watermelon dinners, even the sweatshirts and socks.

What is your favorite part of Fall??

Little Boss

When you are the 4 born of 5 little people in the family it's  pretty unusual to find yourself at home with Mommy all.by.yourself. It even caught Mommy off guard for a second. Three big boys got on the bus. One little girl spent her first day in the truck with Daddy. 

(That's a pretty big deal too, but it's a different story.)

My plan for the day was to hit the local produce market that's only open one day a week. Little Man said he would go with me and help me find bananas. And then he decided we could go on a date and get green ice cream. (Apparently that's what you do on dates.) ok. sure. We'll go on a date too! We got our produce and did a few other errands. He reminded me about every 7 minutes that we should go get ice cream. But there are no ice cream shops in our little town. So I gave him a choice. Vanilla ice cream at McD's or Rita's. He chose McD's. He wants a cheeseburger. He wants chocolate on his ice cream. He wants 3 french fries.  He wants to take it to the park. He wants to eat the ice cream first. I said "sure" to all of them. Whatever you say, Little Boss.

Why not eat the ice cream first today? Why not eat your cheeseburger while doing laps around the picnic table? Why not take half of your ice cream home, melted and runny, and drink it like chocolate milk? Why not see if you can swing high enough to touch the clouds? Why not make silly faces for the camera? Just for a few hours he got to be the boss and he ate it up. He knows what he wants and he knows how to have a good time.

Not even a face plant in the mulch and dirt could slow him down for very long. He was on top of his little world and loving every minute of it.

Me n my handsome date a.k.a. Little Boss.

But for the record, today it was my turn to be the boss again and I said we have to eat our peanut butter sandwiches before our cookies. All good things must come to an end! :)

When a Girl turns 2

There must be a  party. 

With pink and purple decorations. 

Balloons and streamers and fresh cut flowers.

Butterfly nets.

There must be favors.

A butterfly cake.

 Which, by the way, is much easier to photograph alone than accompanied by it's celebrated owner.

But apparently candles with real fire and people singing are much freakier than I knew.

And blowing those candles was out of the question.

Oh well. Daddy to the rescue.

If you're having a butterfly party these little caterpillar guys are a must.

Easy.

Healthy.

Just so stinkin' cute.

And if you decide to cut the cheese into little butterfly shapes, be warned,

it takes forever!

Mini Drink Bar

Lemonade & Iced Coffee.

Aunts and Grandmas will set you up with all kinds of fun stuff.

You will think you're all stylin  and cool.

But before you know it, they'll have turned you into Cinderella.

Don't worry, I didn't make her sweep the whole yard.

The rest of her presents
(which may or may not have come from yard sales and cost a grand total of $5 or less)
must wait until her actual birthday.

It just cracks me up how enthused the big brothers were with the girlie-girl toys.

I'm not sure if they were really that interested or if they just didn't realize that toys come in pink too.

This pic is terrible but I thought it was too cute.

She pulled the paper off the big box

and hulled it over to the trash

before she even opened the box to see what was inside.

People ask me all the time if it's different having a girl then having boys.

Right here is your answer.

Yes!

The boys??

would have either made missiles with that paper

 or left where it landed for weeks unless Mama picked it up.

She's pretty pleased with herself and her trendy new wheels.

Her doll now rides better than she does.

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Sneak Peek!

You can also expect Mama will want to do a photo shoot for a memorable occasion such as this.

Since it involved colorful sugar it turned out to be pretty fun for everyone.

But the rest will have to wait for another post.

Happy Birthday my Sweet Little Blue Eyed Girl!

[And for the record, there is no hurry to get to your next Birthday, let's make this one last awhile!]

Good Bye Summer--Hello School

get up early. check.
healthy breakfast. check.
new lunchbox. check.
new backpack. check. (unless your mom found the one you used last year to be not nearly as thread bare as you wanted her to believe. sorry, kid. one frayed strap, that doesn't do anything anyway, is not cause for me to dish out another $30.)
colorful folders. check.
cute super cool erasers. check
bus schedule straightened out. check.
452 pictures to endure for your crazy mom. check.

The kids each had a different 'first day' this year. crazy yes, but kinda nice in a way. It gave Mom a chance to break in easy. Let me tell you, practice makes perfect  does not necessarily apply to putting kindergarteners on the bus for the first time. It's getting harder, not easier.

Mr. Z. started on Monday. It's been 5 years since I put him on the bus for his first day of Kindergarten, (maybe that's the problem, I'm just a little rusty. Or maybe I'm just turning into an old sap. Yeah, probably that!) My handsome 4th grader. I don't think he was all that excited about going back to school. He may work harder than the entire 4th grade combined this year, but he's up for the challenge. We only hope that Mama's patience holds out until all the homework is finished.

Once he was on the bus and on his way, my little buddy and I did a couple of errands before we headed to kindergarten visitation. The poor boy could hardly wait. He kept reminding me what time it was and asking how long it takes to get here from there. He was paranoid we'd miss it. He has been looking forward to this school thing all summer. I've been thinking of reasons why he shouldn't/can't go. We went to registration, they said he was ready. But I told him that doesn't count because the doctor has to say he's big enough too. Three shots later, without a single tear, that excuse didn't work anymore either.

Tough Guy! Anybody who gets 3 shots in one day deserves an ice cream cone!

I tried desperately to convince him that it would be boring, he'd miss his mama, and he really did not want to go, but it didn't work. Just wait until we go visit and see what it's like, said I, you probably won't like it. The puzzles, play dough, cookies, stories and games did not help my cause at all!

He has a fabulous teacher. She's sweet and fun but always in control. She had the most organized visitation ever. A whole list of fun ways to learn their way around the class room all the while sneaking in ways to see what they  know and teaching them stuff when they had no idea they were learning. I guess 20 plus years of experience will do that!

And in the end, even after we visited, he decided he still wanted to go. He was up and dressed in record time and ready for that bus. It comes at 7:05.

Mama pretended to be all brave and excited but she sure is gonna miss that cute little helper! It's a good thing she had friends to go out to lunch with to keep her mind off the subject that day too.

This guy is headed off to his first day of middle school. T.H.A.T. is crazy!! He was excited about a new year too. Last year didn't end on the best note so I was a little concerned about that. He's playing soccer this year for the first. I think that has helped him ease back in and find his place in the class a little more smoothly.

The big boy is in private school so he got 2 extra days of summer. Wednesday morning they all three  got on the bus. Aren't they a good looking crew?

Unfortunately this is far more normal (at least they think it is) than the one before it. Really guys??

I am not really ready for the land of alarm clocks and homework and must get to bed on time. I love the freedom of summer and I love having my kids here with me. But I don't get to choose. It's good to have a routine again and I am happy for the return of peaceful, quiet nap times. You win some you lose some. We'll do what we have to do and make the best of it. Here's to the best year yet!

Paint Project - Part 2

At last there are "after" pictures of the little girl's room. But we of course need the "before" first to add proper perspective. Except, I forgot to take pictures before the hubs tore it all apart and started painting the ceiling. So I only have

 this.....

 

...but it tells you everything you need to know. 1970's flowered wallpaper and nasty brown carpet has become

 this...

I wanted to do two colors on the walls and I was a little worried about getting the paper stripped off and what the old plaster walls would look like underneath if/when I did. I priced bead board for the bottom half, but I really didn't want to spend that much and I knew that that would mean I'd need a lot more help from the hubs. My perfect solution.....paint-able bead board wallpaper. Awesome stuff!!! The hubs was skeptical at first but by the time it was all up even he admitted that it looked pretty much like the real stuff. I've already made a list of other places in the house I want to use it.

The whole color scheme of the room was based on these pillows, which I made from skirts that I found at the thrift store. Ruffles and pink are sort of fun. A-hem, yeah, just a little bit! :)

This little table is from a yard sale with a skirt made from a netting  canopy, also from the thrift store. Project total $3.

I haven't really fallen for the "owl trend" lately but since this one was the perfect color I thought he added a nice touch. I found the fabric flowers for a buck each in perfect shades of pink and brown. I pretty much scarfed up all the ones they had. They have a pin and a clip on the back. Pillows, curtains,shelves, corners.....the possibilities are many....love them!

The floor is still a work in progress. I decided that most anything was better than the ancient-ugly-who-knows-what's-been-living-in-there carpet. So we tore it out.

We pulled up a little corner first and it seemed like the boards underneath were pretty nice, but we had a back-up plan. There is a large bound carpet in the attic from a former house that would work just fine, I thought. Maybe in the future we'll remember to measure it first. It's a couple of feet to big for the room. And when we got the old carpet out we found that yes, the boards underneath were in decent shape but someone had painted the edges gold. Nice! I am not ready to begin a sanding/stripping project anytime soon. Maybe one day I will repaint the whole floor or we will put new carpet back in but for now we have the stripey look with a $5 yard sale throw rug in the middle. No, it's not ideal, but am I sorry we took the carpet out?? Not for a minute!

Yes, that door goes out to a charming little balcony/porch. It's one of the "character" parts of my old house that I love. But, we have already decided that there will be barbed wire and padlocks up there before she turns 16. A daddy's got to do what a daddy's got to do you know! :)

And the new  look includes a nice clear dresser top. We packed away the diapers today. Somebody is growing up way to fast!

In case you're wondering, winter weather has not arrived here, but it's important to be fashionable at all times you know!