Christmas Pics

A picture of all of the young cousins at Laurie's house on Christmas Eve... Almost the entire Crazy Clan opening presents tonight....yeah, we had to really squish in to my livingroom!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know, I know. Christmas has already passed. I'm sorry that I didn't get to wishing y'all a Merry Christmas until now. You'll forgive me, won't you?

While I'm asking for forgiveness, I have a confession to make. I have been lazy with the camera this holiday. I brought it with me to Laurie S.'s house on Christmas Eve, so that I could take a few pictures there. I did. My confession is that it stayed packed away in the diaper bag until tonight, when I went to grab it while all of my CRAZY extended family was here to celebrate Christmas. Meaning I didn't take even one picture all day yesterday.

There are no pictures of Santa's goodies all wrapped up under the tree. No pictures of the kids looking through their stockings to see what little trinkets Santa left there. No pictures of the livingroom floor all strewn with torn wrapping paper. No pictures of the kids playing with their new toys and bits of technology.

So, again, you'll forgive me, won't you?

Pretty, pretty please?!?!

I will be back to upload a couple of the pics from tonight....

Mini Me

I've been scrutinizing Dianna lately. The length of her hair right now, coupled with the way she's been styling it, has reminded me of something from my past. So last night I searched through a stack of old pictures to find the one I was seeing so clearly in my mind. Once I found the picture, I handed it to Dianna and asked her to pose in front of my camera with it.

Here is the result:
I've always said how Dianna is my 'Mini Me', but it's almost scary just how much she looks like a little Phyllis. Good thing for Dianna, though, that she won't always look just like me -- she's not had her nose broken so she won't have that awful bump in her nose that I do!

Mechanic in the Making

Looks to me like Will is DEFINITELY a mechanic in the making. He's taking after his father's footsteps! As I was heading back downstairs, after putting Nora down for her nap, I stumbled upon William 'fixing' my vaccuum. He had opened up the top (where the bag goes in) and was pretending to fix something in it.

Of course, by the time I ran back upstairs to grab my camera, he had moved on to fixing a different part of the vaccuum. I took a picture anyway!

Out of the mouth of Will....

I have a ton of errands and things to do today. Because of all that's on my to-do list today, Will, Nora, and I headed out first thing this morning. We're back at the house for just a little while to get Will ready for school then Nora and I are off again.

As my luck would have it, I failed to put gas in the car again last night, so my gaslight came on shortly after we'd dropped the big girls off at school. We made a quick detour along the way this morning to stop and get some gas. Between the highway and the gas station, Will spotted a Dunkin' Donuts. He immediately asked if we could stop and get a donut. I explained to him that we weren't stopping anywhere till we got gas in the van because if the van ran out of gas we'd be stuck. With his quick thinking mind, Will responded with, 'When you're done passing gas, can we go back to the donut store and get donuts??'

I immediately felt a bit of stress leave my body as I laughed aloud. It took a minute or two before I could explain to William that there's a difference between GETTING gas and PASSING gas. Hopefully he's got the idea now!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I was trying to take pictures of Nora the other day, because she had pigtails in her hair and was FINALLY leaving them alone! And she looked so dang cute. I told Gordon that she reminds me of the animated character, Boo, from the movie Monsters, Inc.

But Nora has become too fast for me and my Canon Rebel DSLR. So you get to view some pretty cute, amusing, not-great shots of my girl. You can fill in the blanks and enjoy her cuteness.

Tuesday Tip

I have a tip for you. To be totally honest, this tip isn't one of my own creating, it's one that I'm passing along to you. I originally heard it from Will's preschool teacher, Mrs. B. For all I know, the rest of the world already knew this little tidbit of info. It could be that I'm the only person on this earth who had never tried this trick.

Do you have Playdoh that's not as fresh as it used to be? Did your toddler leave a clump of Playdoh out for a bit longer than they should have? Or did your toddler leave the lid on the Playdoh container not quite sealed tight enough?

You can refresh your Playdoh with a little water!

Now I'm not talking about the hard as a rock Playdoh clumps that you find months after your toddler last used the Playdoh. And I'm not talking about Magic Dough or any other brand but the one and only Playdoh brand.

Will's preschool teacher mentioned this trick to me when I first met with her in October. I don't remember how we got on the topic, other than the fact that we were talking while watching a couple of the children in the class play with the playdoh. I thought to myself how cool this knowledge is and then filed it away for possible future use.

Yesterday the perfect opportunity arose. Will and Nora both wanted to play with the Playdoh, so we pulled out our bin. As soon as I started opening the different colors, I discovered there were a few that were no longer as fresh as they once were. I was tickled pink to be able to try out Mrs. B's trick!!!

Imagine my giddiness when it worked like a charm!! I don't think I've had that much fun playing with Playdoh since I was a kid myself.

So I task you to file this tidbit away for your own future use. You never know, maybe one day you'll be thanking me. And Mrs. B. Because we saved you from having to toss some Playdoh and buying new.

Gingerbread House

Grace has been asking me if we could make and decorate a gingerbread house this year. I'm pleased to say that our first attempt was an absolute success, even though I've never done it before! (Unless you count the time I made one with graham crackers back when I was a young girl in Brownies)

Grace and I mixed up the dough last week, rolled out the dough, cut out the pieces for the house, and baked them. I didn't get a chance to pick up all of the candy pieces until Saturday. All four kids and I sat around the diningroom table on Sunday evening to decorate.

Well, Grace and Dianna decorated. Will and Nora happily sat there pilfering candy. After getting the big girls started, showing them how to use the melted white chocolate as 'glue', I whisked the Little People away and let the big girls have at it.

Here is the finished project:
First thing Monday morning, the kids were all begging if they could start tearing the house apart to eat. I held them off until Tuesday evening. While the house isn't exactly demolished right now, it is missing some major pieces!

Spare bed not for much longer

Remember back in August I posted about redecorating and moving the 'extra bed' from Will's room into the big girls' room? I had mentioned that the bed would be used as a spare bed in the girls' room until it was time to move Eleanor to a Big Girl Bed.

Lately Eleanor has taken to going into the girls' room and climbing up on that bed. Just last night she was on it repeatedly chanting, 'sleep! sleep! sleep!'

She pitched a fit when Gordon picked her up and got her ready to go to bed in the crib instead! I think she thinks she's a big girl now that she's walking, talking, and learning more and more new things every day. And if big girls sleep in Big Girl Beds, then she should too!

Back when Grace was about this age, I began putting her down for naps in her Big Girl Bed. Gordon had made a side rail for the twin sized bed we already had in Grace's room. It was perfect in helping prevent Grace from falling out.

Today I was thinking about all of this. I was thinking how it was a shame that we no longer have the homemade bedrail. It wouldn't have worked as well because Nora's Big Girl Bed is not alongside a wall, but it would have been better than nothing. THEN I remembered that both sets of bunkbeds came with siderails! One to fit the full length of the bed, one about 2/3 of the bed length. I'd be able to use both full-sized rails to help transition Nora from her crib to her Big Girl Bed without worries of her falling out!!

So Nora is now officially napping in her Big Girl Bed for the very first time. When I first peeked my head around the door to check, she was falling asleep while sitting up. I snapped a picture, but the noise from my camera disturbed her a tad.

Here's the picture I took:
I went back in after she'd settled down again to find her asleep for real this time:

Gordon is certain that Nora will no longer wish to sleep in her crib ever again. We'll see. Right now I hope to stick with naps in the bed, nighttime sleeping in the crib. If it ends up being too much of a hassle, I just might cave and take down the crib way earlier than I ever expected.

O Christmas Tree

As promised, here are the pictures of our Christmas tree.

Gordon, Dianna, and Grace setting up our artificial tree.

Grace hanging our Christmas Nail. It's always the very first 'ornament' on the tree, and the last taken off. It symbolizes the nails that hung Jesus to the cross and is to help us remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Dianna placing the angel on top of our tree. She's finally tall enough to not need Daddy to pick her up!

Our fully decorated tree. It's an eclectic mix of homemade and bought ornaments. Perfect in every way, IMO!

Nora has learned early on that she can look but not touch the ornaments. She still tries, mind you, but quickly moves away from the tree every time I begin to say, "ELEANOR RUTH!!"

I just HAD to share a picture of what our mantle looks like. I just love looking at how perfectly full it is with each one of our stockings hanging. (As a matter of fact, I teased Gordon last night that it's a good thing we're 'done' having children -- there's no room for any more stockings on the mantle!!)

Christmas is coming together!

I know, I know. I still have yet to post the pictures of the girls decorating the Christmas tree. I have most of them uploaded, I just need to upload the picture I took of the final product.

Still, even without pictures to show, I can tell you that Christmas is coming! As a matter of fact, it's descending upon us with a rapid speed.

Our already-full calendars are filling even more. On deck as of right now, we have Laurie S's annual Christmas Eve party to go to. It's always great to celebrate the holiday with Gordon's family at Laurie's house.

Then we'll have our usual Christmas morning here at home. This year Dianna has requested I make fried dough for breakfast. Because Grace doesn't care for it, I'll also be making some Pillsbury Grands Cinnamon Rolls.

The White Family Christmas gathering will once again be held here at the Crazy House. We'll be hosting that on Saturday the 26th this year.

None of the details above really include all of the chaos that is that last week or so before the holiday. By the end of it all, I figure we'll all be in major need of a getaway. Maybe Santa will put some Calgon in my stocking so that I can have my 'Calgon, take me away' moment. ;)

Introspection

I'm often asked how I manage to do all that I do. My usual initial response is to blush. Then I quickly brush the question off, saying that it's really not that much. I don't know if anyone actually believes me when I say this, but I'm probably only fooling myself.

Honestly, if I were to admit to myself exactly how much I do (and how much more I need/want/should do), I'd keel over from the overwhelming enormity of it all.

Earlier today, I attempted to write down a list of all that I've done, tackled, or attempted in this last year. I never completed it. It got quickly abandoned. Even trying to make a condensed list caused me to start sweating.

What's behind almost every one of the tasks I listed is my constant yearning for perfection and the want to please everyone. Disappointing even one person has the potential to send me into an anxiety attack. Especially if this person is near and dear to me.

I'm not posting all of this as a means of soliciting a few pats on the back. I'm just waving a white flag of surrender. I know me, and I'm sure I'll continue to truck on doing what I do because that's what I do. But I want to take a moment to admit that I'm not infallible. I'm really quite fragile. Mostly, I'm only as strong as my biggest supporters (thank you, Gordon!!!) help me to be.

So if/when the next person makes a request of me, I'm hoping they remember that I'm only human. I'll try my darnedest to accomodate your request(s). But in the end I'm not truly the superhero Supermom. I'm just a mom who tries to be super.

Friday Night Family Traditions

In our house, every Friday night is Pizza Night. We try to make sure we have a new movie from Netflix on hand to watch, though we've been known to just watch a movie we already own and/or find something interesting to watch on the television. I toss the ingredients in my bread machine to mix the dough for homemade pizza. Sometimes one or more of the kids will want to help roll out the dough or put toppings on the pizzas. While we normally do not allow the children to eat in the livingroom, I usually make the exception on Pizza Night. We pull the coffee table out onto the area of the room that has a linoleum floor and the kids sit there to eat their pizza while they watch the movie.

This past Friday night we had Christmas classics on hand from Netflix to watch. The kids watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the Year Without Santa, and a couple other movies I remember from my childhood.

I love creating memories with the kids through simple traditions like these. I hope that when they are grown and have families of their own, the kids will look back fondly on these Friday Night/Pizza Nights. Maybe they'll even continue the tradition with their own children.

Pictures from Will's birthday

This is the cake we had to celebrate Will's birthday on his actual birthday. Every year, on their special day, the kids get to pick what we'll have for dinner and then the family celebrates the birthday child with a cake or cupcakes.

You can still see remnants of the 'sgahbettis and meatmalls' we had on Will's cheeks.
We had a party for Will on Saturday. The house was full of family and friends who came to share in the fun. Will had requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Though he did better about opening the presents this year, Will still wanted to stop after each one to play with that one thing. He didn't fight too much when one of the kids or I pointed out another present to open first.

He was finally able to play with some toys! Everything got opened in record time. Will took turns playing with every single one of his new toys. Here you see the house that Grace was building with the Lincoln Logs and the 'fire' that Will was building. I think he was born to be a camper!!

Grace and Dianna put the big box to good use! I swear, I'm going to stop buying them expensive gifts for Christmas and birthdays. A box keeps them entertained for hours!

Winter Wonderland vs. Redneck Winter Games

What started as rain early yesterday finished off in snow. This is how our front yard look first thing this morning:


What else would you think of doing in that delightful, snowy, wonderland but this??

Yeah, we really know how to have a grand time. Good thing we're teaching our kids the finer things in life, ya know?

Happy (Belated) Birthday to my boy!

Yesterday was Will's birthday. No, let me rephrase that. Will was born four years ago yesterday. He didn't want to acknowledge his birthday.

When he awoke and came downstairs yesterday, the big girls excitedly called out, 'Happy Birthday William!'

He immediately responded that it wasn't his birthday. He didn't want a birthday. He didn't want to turn four years old, he wanted to stay three.

Ahhh....if only it were that easy. I'd stay twenty three forever. ;)

So Will's birthday came and went. He ended up having a pretty good day, if I do say so. The local schools had some power outages, so they called for early dismissals. This meant that the afternoon session preschool and kindergarteners (including William) didn't have class. Once the big girls returned home, we went over to Nana's for a visit. After returning home, we ate Will's favorite dinner -- 'Sgahbettis and meatmalls'. That was followed by a yummy cake. Pretty good day, no?

Anyway, now my boy is four. Even if he wishes it weren't so.

Countdown begins

Today is December 1st. We're heading into the homestretch. The time left before Christmas Day will begin to dwindle rapidly.

In an effort to try to make the best of it, I decided we'd start decorating the house for Christmas now. In recent years, I'd held off such decorating for AFTER Will's birthday party. The problem with that is that the holiday seems to be over before we really get the chance to enjoy it.

So we're decorating before Will's party this year.

Gordon and I had to do a little rearranging of furniture last night to accomodate the placement of the tree. We have set it up in front of the livingroom windows. I just love that you can see the tree all lit up at night when you drive by the house.

At first I strung up the white lights on the tree. Grace wanted colored lights on the tree, but Gordon remembered tossing them last year because they were old and not working properly. So I put up the white lights. Everything looked good.

This morning I discovered two new sets of colored lights. I suddenly remembered that I bought them at the end of the season, when they were on mega-sale. They've never even been used.

So I pulled down the white lights and started stringing the colored lights up. Wouldn't you know that one of the strands is already broken?? About 1/3 of the strand won't light up. According to the box, if a bulb goes out, the rest are supposed to stay lit. Still, I tried swapping bulbs. Nothing has worked. I think there's a faulty wire in there somewhere.

I'm hoping Gordon can fix the strand. Otherwise I'll be heading to the stores and paying more for one new set of lights than I did for the two of them combined last year.

How was YOUR Thanksgiving??

Ours was great!

Mom's turkey was delish.
The side dishes had enough time to heat to perfection while the bird rested before being carved for serving.

Our entire Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont was a bittersweet one. It marked the first major holiday since Dad passed. I have to admit that I managed to get through the weekend without a lot of tears. I had my moments, mind you, but I don't think anyone noticed -- they were fleeting and I was good about 'putting on a good face'.

Grace and Dianna enjoyed themselves immensely, I think. They spent a lot of time across the street from the homestead at Amber's house. Thank goodness there's another little girl readily willing to play with them -- they'd be bored to death if left with no other playmates than eachother. ;)

Eleanor got the chance to spend lots of quality time with the littlest cousin of the family, cousin Zac's baby girl Breanna. Bre will be turning one year old in about a week and a half, so these two little girls are close enough in age to really enjoy eachother. It was quite cute watching the two of them toddle around together.

Will really enjoyed the weekend too. Even without a playmate of his own. He managed to keep himself busy, mostly quiet, and relatively out of trouble the entire time. He especially loved 'helping' Daddy and Uncle Bert when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with Mom's recliner. The verdict is that there's no fixing it.

I do have more pictures to share with everyone (LOTS more). I've got to watermark them first, then I'll be posting them. Be on the lookout!

Break out the popsicles

No, we're not experiencing a heatwave. Here at the Crazy House, we use popsicles to soothe any boo-boos that occur in/on/near the mouth. Now that Nora is toddling all around (she's walking at least 80% of the time!), we'll be experiencing MANY such boo-boos.

With any luck, our girl won't be sporting big nasty cuts or bruises for all of those holiday photo-ops. I realize it's a phase that all toddlers go through, but I just cringe when I look back and see photos documenting it so thoroughly.

Book Character pics

Here are the pictures I took of my big girls dressed up as book characters for school.

'Laura Ingalls', aka Grace

'Junie B. Jones', aka Dianna

Rugged little boys

Thank goodness the backpack I bought William for preschool is an LL Bean. Its a good thing because they have a 100% guarantee on their products. I'm REALLY thankful for that guarantee right now because William has already managed to wear a hole in his backpack.

The backpack Gordon and I bought him 17 days ago.

Anyone else have a child that could wear out a backpack quicker than my boy? That's got to be a record for sure!

So we'll be heading to the local LL Bean store sometime in the near future to see about getting this backpack replaced.

Update on dress like a character

Just a quick update for y'all, as I'm supposed to be in the shower already and soon heading to Mom's...

I took pictures of the girls all dressed up. I'll upload them later this weekend, probably. Check back.

Will did not dress as a character. I simply couldn't come up with anything with what we've got, though I thought of a few AFTER he left for school. He wasn't all into it anyway -- could have cared less, I think. Still, it might have been cool if I'd thought to dress him as Harold from Harold and the Purple Crayon BEFORE he left for school....that would have been easy. (A pair of jammies and a purple crayon -- voila!)

dress like a book character

The elementary school children are supposed to dress like a book character today for school. Grace is dressed as Laura Ingalls Wilder. Dianna is dressing as Junie B. Jones. At this point, I still have no idea what character Will should dress as. Guess I'd best put my thinking cap on.

First, I am curious.....if YOU were to dress as a book character, ANY book character, who would you dress as??

If I had to dress as a book character, I think I'd dress like Stephanie Plum, a character in Janet Evanonvich's series that starts with One for the Money. She dresses casual almost all the time. Jeans and t-shirts/sweatshirts mostly. Most important for Stephanie is that she have her mascara handy. While I'm not one to wear makeup on a daily basis, I can totally understand how one application of mascara can make a gal feel totally prepared to face the world (and chase down bad guys!).

Why not me??

I read an article in this morning's Hartford Courant. Well, no. I started reading the article. Then the girls' bus came, which signals my quiet time to end.

Anyway, the article was about this mom who is a blogger. It wasn't me. This OTHER mom apparently makes money blogging. She's wooed by major companies like FritoLay and Nestle. They send her Omaha Steaks, fly her all over the country, and everything!

It got me thinking....I wonder what (if any) kind of companies would try to woo me to blog about them.....then I realized that my blog is probably FAR too random for that. They'd probably want me to blog about their products and how I use them, which I would. But I like to brag on my kids far too much for their liking, I'd guess.

Ahh well.....the laundry needs to be swapped again so I guess I'd best go....

Shhh...do you hear that?

I just love it when I catch a bit of the kids' conversations without them knowing I'm listening. Like this morning, right after Nora woke. I hadn't gotten out of bed yet. I could hear through the baby monitor that she was stirring, but was waiting to see if she would settle back down for a few minutes or if she would call out to me right away.

Nora chose to call me.

Almost instantaneously I heard Will pipe up. He apparently felt the need to jump in as the role of Big Brother, Protector. In the sweetest voice ever I heard, 'It's ok Nora -- I'm right here with you!'

awwwwww...

My heart just melted!

Christmas is in the air

For the last couple of weeks I've been seeing signs of Christmas. Sales fliers arriving in the mail. Decorations up at the stores. I wouldn't be surprised to find Salvation Army Santas standing outside the stores with their big buckets, collecting donations from shoppers.

Am I ready for this?

HECK no!!

I don't think I'm going to be granted an extension of time, no matter how much I beg and plead that I'm simply not ready for the holidays. So the next best thing is to just buckle down and MAKE myself get ready for Christmas.

First things first, we need to celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm excited to say that we'll be heading to VT again this year. There we will do practically nothing besides eating. I might go for a walk or two with Mom. Knowing the big girls, they'll spend a lot of time with Amber (the neighbor's daughter).

Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas we'll also be celebrating Will's 4th birthday. Although he's attending school, we won't be inviting any of his classmates this year. I'm sure this will be the last year I'll be able to get by with just inviting family. I wonder what theme I should use when decorating Will's cake. We've done dump trucks and John Deere tractors in the past. Any ideas?

Look out world, Nora's walking now!

Be sure to click on the arrow below so you can see our girl in action....Sorry the quality is so yucky....one of these days we'll have a real digital camera for taking video clips. For now, if I want to share a clip with anyone not sitting on my livingroom couch (meaning we used our old VHS camcorder), I have to use my cellphone video recorder.

Time to get out the Lysol

The sickies have hit our house finally. Don't get me wrong -- I wasn't hoping we'd get it here. It's just that practically the entire town has been battling one thing or another for a few weeks. I've been waiting for it to hit our house.

So far it's just Dianna who is down. She started with a plegm-y cough yesterday. A fever quickly followed. Today she is acting fine, but I'm keeping her home for the rest of the week probably.

I don't expect it'll take long for the rest of us to get something. I've never been a complete germa-phobe. I certainly don't keep the house as clean as it could be (we prefer a 'lived in' feel!). It's just bound to be that at least one more of us will get this too. Probably most of us.

This and That

Will ended out his first week at the new preschool pretty well. His teacher e-mailed me just to let me know she thinks his transition is going rather well. She said he did have a few moments where he'd ask for me and get a little teary, but that overall he was very happy and playing well. She said he's working hard at being a good listener, following direction, and learning the new routines.

YAY!

That yay is two-fold. First, that Will is doing so well. After the start of the week, I was worried for sure! Second, I love having a teacher who is kind enough to communicate the good stuff, not just bad stuff.

We've been really fortunate, really, in that respect. ALL of the teachers we've encountered with the girls have been awesome like that. I remember one time when Grace was in the first grade that her teacher (the beloved Mrs. Y) scheduled a parent-teacher conference with me. It wasn't an out of the ordinary conference, as it was one of the specific times the school sets aside time for these things. But it was the one in the springtime, when those kids who are doing well don't usually require a conference. Mrs. Y scheduled one with me. She wanted to meet with me in person to tell me how WELL Grace was doing with her reading skills, especially because Grace had been struggling in the early part of the year.

It's those kind, thoughtful times that really make you realize what high quality teachers we have. The personal care makes ALL the difference.

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Grace and Dianna are both officially done with soccer. Dianna's last game was over a week ago. Grace's season ended in a tournament held this past Saturday. Boy am I glad to be done with that -- standing outside in the freezing weather to cheer them on was getting tough!

Grace's newest endeavor will be basketball. Mrs. I, a fourth grade teacher at her school and mom to one of Grace's soccer teammates, suggested to Grace that she might want to try it out. Mrs. I coaches a team and thought Grace would do well to join them. She said Grace's running skill would be helpful, and that the extra practice of playing a game man-on-man would only enhance her soccer skills. I'm all for encouraging extra physical activities (as long as it's one per season!) and I LOVE basketball, so I talked about it a lot with Grace. She finally agreed that she'd try it out when I explained to her that it didn't matter that she didn't already know how to play -- Mrs. I will help her to learn how to play the game!

Grace will start her basketball practices this afternoon. They meet every Mon. and Wed. right at the elementary school, as soon as their school day is over. I will just need to pick her up at 5pm. How more perfect can it get? More running for Grace (in the physical sense) and less for me?!

Grace's first games won't be until December sometime. I'll have to check with Mrs. I to find out when for sure. It'll be good for the girls to get a few weeks' worth of practice in before they're expected to play a game. I hope it'll help Grace to feel more confident on the court.

The end of the silence

So the lovely silence from yesterday afternoon didn't last long. Right after I updated my blog, the phone rang. It was the school nurse.

:: Immediately I began thinking H1N1 ::

Nope. We dodged that bullet again.

It was simply that William was 'falling asleep' in class. So she asked if I could come pick him up. Which meant I needed to wake Nora.

SERIOUSLY?!?! Can preschool really be that boring that an almost 4yo boy would fall asleep?

Of course I went to get him. And you know what? Will never fell back asleep for me the rest of the day. I put him to bed early last night, which of course resulted in an even earlier wakeup for him today. I just hope that he will snooze a tad in the car while we run errands this morning.

Because if I get a call again today, I think I'll definitely lose my cool.

The sound of silence

Ahhhh.....do you hear that?? Me neither.

Will got on the school bus like a pro this afternoon. Nora went down for a nap as soon as we walked back inside the house. And it's been QUIET in the house ever since. I'm LOVING it!! I got to balance the checkbook in silence. I was able to have a 45+min long conversation on the phone without anyone whining, crying, or begging me to do something, get something, or help with something.

If I can keep Nora to this new schedule every day, I don't know what I'll do with myself! I just might have to plan on taking a regularly scheduled nap every day too. Just because I can!

For now, I'm going to go tackle a chore or two while I still can without being interrupted.

Back to Halloween

I figured I'd best post pictures from Saturday night before everyone starts asking me for them.

First, though, I've had a couple of people ask me about the Trunk or Treating we did on Friday night. It's an event where people bring their cars/trucks/suvs to a public area, open up and decorate their trunk or tailgate, and then hand out candy to all of the kids dressed in costumes. Some say it's a safer way to celebrate the holiday. To me, and to the kids I'd guess, it's just another way to get candy. ;) Me, I like the old-fashioned idea of actually going door to door for Halloween.

Saturday night we joined two of our neighboring families for trick or treating around our neighborhood. Rob and Margaret decorated their trailer for the holiday, hooked it to their quad, and Rob towed all three families around from house to house. We all had such a blast -- we've already decided we're doing it again next year!

Here are some pictures from Saturday night...the kids all crowding Mrs. D, our first ToT stop for the night....poor Will was the straggler the whole night long...

See? He's barely climbing the stairs as Dianna's running back to the trailer....Grace was already back!
At the end of the night we all hung out at Joe and Kathleen's house....the kids couldn't wait to get inside and start looking through their loot!

Holes in the floor of Heaven

Today was Will's first day of pre-school at the local elementary school. I have been a Nervous Nellie worrying myself over William getting onto the school bus and then knowing how to find his classroom once he gets to the school.

Below are pictures of Will leading up to the Big Moment...

We had some time to kill, so I was taking shots of William while he played...I LOVE this one

At first Will asked Daddy if he would sit with him on the bus. I was pleasantly surprised that Will didn't put up a fuss when Gordon told him that he wasn't going.
This is the last I saw of my boy -- I couldn't see where he was sitting as the bus pulled away...I think he searched out Cecelia and Olivia, our neighbor's preschool aged daughters. I've been telling him for over a week now that he could sit with them on the way to school and sit with Grace or Dianna on his way home.

Now I bet you're wondering where the title of this blog post fits in with Will's getting on the bus.

Lemme explain.

Right as Will was getting on the bus, Gordon and our neighbor Margaret commented that they felt a raindrop or two. Then it started sprinkling more. The rain only lasted a minute or two, but it made me think of the song Holes in the Floor of Heaven sung by Steve Wariner. The chorus goes like this:

Cause there’s holes in the floor of heaven
and her tears are pouring down
that’s how you know she’s watching
wishing she could be here now
and sometimes if your lonely
just remember she can see
there’s holes in the floor of heaven and she’s
watching over you and me

I started getting all teary eyed as Miss Wendy pulled the bus away, carrying William off to school. I just know that Dad was watching Will too. No need for me to worry about Will as he makes his way off the bus and to his new classroom -- Dad's watching over him.

Trunk or Treating

Last night we went out with our neighbors and their kids. They had invited us to go to the next town over to go TRUNK or treating. The kids had a BLAST! It was pretty cool to see how most of the vehicles were decorated.

Dianna doesn't look happy simply because I told her to stop and turn around for a picture pose. See? She's much happier in this picture!

This last shot of the kids was taken after they'd trunk or treated ALL of the cars. There must have been at least 75!

In the center of the Green where the Trunk or Treating was held, there was a slew of carved pumpkins. Some had real creative designs carved into them. This picture only shows about 1/4 of the total number of carved pumpkins.

Halloween Weekend

Are you ready for ghoulish fun??

She sure is!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Here are some pics from Grace's game this past Sunday...

Grace is the one in blue with the ponytail, #13

Look at her charge at the ball!
Scoring a goal

Gordon shot a picture of me, Soccermom Extraordinaire

Great minds think alike!

Last Friday I saw a sight that reminded me of something from a looooooooong time ago....

This is Eleanor, sitting in her Fisher Price Activity Table. She's 15months old.
I remembered taking a few different shots of Grace sitting in the same Activity Table, so I went searching through all of our old photo disks. (Thank goodness we used to have our film copied directly onto floppy disks, or I'd never get around to scanning old pictures I'd like to share with y'all!) I found just the shots within minutes of searching!

Here is Grace, back in September of 2001. She was about 14months old at the time.

All of our children, actually, have enjoyed using the Activity Table as more than just and activity table. Apparently it screams, 'SIT IN ME' or 'I'M A COMFY CHAIR-REPLACEMENT' because they all tried it out as a seating option.

I wonder what Fisher Price thinks of my kids' creative uses for their toys....they probably have a warning label somewhere that says, 'DO NOT allow children to climb into, on top of, or sit in this toy.'

We're infested, but at least we're in good company!

Tuesday afternoon we experienced a warm-up outside. It was a gorgeous, sunny afternoon. I was going to sit outside on the front step, while the littlest one napped and the boy was playing quietly. I wanted to soak up some of the beautiful warmth.

Much to my surprise, I found we were being infested!! There were (and still are!) at least a bajillion ladybugs all over our house.

Unfortunately I do not have a macro lens, so I couldn't zoom right up to get a closeup of the little buggers, but here are a few shots from the front of the house...

Turns out we're not the only ones with millions of extra houseguests. Geoff Fox, one of the local weathermen in the area, blogged about it yesterday! You can read his blog here: Geoff's Blog

At least they're not harmful!