J's birthday

J's officially 8 today. I sent out our family photos for Christmas and put down 8 for his age. My mother pointed it out but I figured he was close enough. The age 7 23/24 looked weird.

We had an easy day of well child checkup, lego building, lunch out and a trip to the bookstore. Then he got his birthday present, a new bike.



It is funny to look at this picture 3 years ago when he got his first bike.

We had dinner & another ice cream log cake like last year (the very last photo). It was an ugly cake. The roll split and the ganache was too warm went I poured it on. Half the cake slid off into an awful mess. I didn't even bother to take pictures. Luckily it tasted great despite its appearance. He requested homemade dark chocolate ice cream. I wasn't sure about the chocolate on chocolate on chocolate, but it was quite tasty indeed. I'm still hoping to talk him into peanut butter ice cream next year.

Twas the week after Christmas

We're trying to keep busy this week. For the kids, there has been a lot of Ipod Touch and DSI and hockey playing. For the parents, there have been attempts at working from home with 3 kids in the house. DH does much better at this than me. Let's just say the phrase "I can't work with you in playing in here. You must play in the playroom or your bedroom!" might have been stated in a vociferous voice multiple times in the past couple of days.

In between all of that we've done a few other things.

I had my annual 'sort the legos' party.



Of course I was the only one who elected to attend which is for the best. It makes me so happy to know that the legos are sorted into ziploc bags with their instructions & a sticky note with the missing pieces. I might even be tempted to go to the lego store and buy the pieces we have lost. I was surprised to find that we are only down about 15 pieces and we have a big bag of extras.

Sunday, DH started an impromptu campfire which led to a dinner of roasted marshmallows and then hamburgers cooked over the open flame. It was cold but the kids enjoyed it.





J's birthday is tomorrow so I'm sure there be more to blog about soon.

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a quiet Christmas this year. My side of the family was gone. S#1 & S#4 stayed home. Everyone else joined S#2 at her condo in Kimberley for some skiing over Christmas. It was a big change from the usual noise & chaos of packing in time with the cousins, but it was nice.


Christmas Eve we went to Mass & only took up half a pew instead of the usual two.


Christmas morning brought great excitement for Santa presents.




The unwrapping of the rest of the presents commenced.


And then it was over again.



The pleasant happy feelings of Christmas lasted a little while until B got very upset. It seems that he really really wanted a drum set and it didn't matter that Santa brought the street hockey set and the nutcracker he also asked for, what he really wanted was a drum set and he wanted the hockey stick that J got not the ones that came with the hockey set and the ball that came with the hockey set was pink and pink is a dumbo color and Santa is stupid and it isn't fair. Needless to say he was thoroughly upset. I was feeling awfully guilty. There was no way I was going to get a drum set. I shouldn't have even let him put it on his Christmas list. It didn't matter that every time he mentioned it I told him that Santa doesn't bring everything we want. He wasn't listening.

He eventually calmed down. We went to the ILs and he got to visit with his cousin. By the end of the night he was okay and said that he loved Santa because he brings up presents every Christmas, but next year he was going to be super good so he could get what he really wanted. I hope he's over the drums by then.

christmas card grinch

Every day I pick up the mail and feel totally grinchy. I cringe as I sort through the mail and find more Christmas cards to us.

I went with snapfish this year. It was a little pricier than the costco cards we've had for the past umpteen years but I liked the design & I had free expedited shipping. I ordered them based on my assumption of the number we sent last year. I could have booted up my old computer and double checked but I was absolutely sure that we sent less than 80.

Nope I was wrong. We sent 89. I totally messed up and we didn't have enough cards. I went through the list and cut the people I was sure we didn't need to send to. I was vicious.

Now it is 3 days until Christmas and the cards keep coming. They are coming from people I cut. They are coming from people I didn't even send to last year. They are coming from one woman I don't even like. Why in the hell did K send me a card??? I know our boys have played on a team together but that does not obligate you to send me a christmas card and make me send one back in response.

I have 3 of our christmas cards left and I have more than 3 cards I need to send. I think I'm going to print the same picture, go to the dollar store and buy a cheap pack of cards and send them out with a photo inside. Tough luck to the people who don't get the fancy ones. I hope you don't visit the people who did!

And to all of you who did get a snapfish photo Christmas card from me, you made the cut! Know that you are loved.

zoo

We had a record high of 85 yesterday. We took advantage of the afternoon and went to the Dallas Zoo to finally see the new Savanna exhibit. The new section of the zoo was very nice, so much better than the old cement cells the animals used to be housed in.









My favorite part of the zoo is still the Nature Exchange. The kids all brought in their bags of collected stuff. It was a great visit. We stumped the guys with a green metamorphic rock that they cracked open with a hammer to get a better look at what it was made of. We surprised them with a strange mushroom that they had never seen before. J brought in a jacaranda seed pod that was in "great condition" and got one of the guys all excited. A brought in the leftover bee honeycomb and chrysalis from the swallowtail that we had this summer.

Someday I want to work at the Nature Exchange and look at interesting things all day long.

campfire & leaves

The whole family came down with strep last week. Kids were going a little stir crazy by the weekend. Luckily the weather has been wonderfully warm and we were able to get outside and enjoy it.

















Poor dog! The kids discovered that it was fun to play hide Frankie's toy in the leaf pile. He spent way too long jumping and digging through the pile trying to get it back. Then he would take off running so they couldn't hide it from him again!

Lunar Eclipse

Last night was the first complete lunar eclipse in conjunction with the winter solstice in over 300 years. The next one won't take place for another 400 years. I get all geeked out over stuff like that and promised the kids I would get them up to see it.

Of course I slept through my watch alarm last night and J woke me up at 3:15 crying because he missed it. I calmed him down and we went out to see what was left. These aren't the best photos but it was 3:15 in the morning and I had no shoes on.






Afterward I went inside to wake the other two. Honestly, I gave a half-hearted effort to get them up preferring children with plenty of sleep over cranky moon viewing ones.

I should have known better because I have two whining, crying children who have declared that I am the worst mother in the universe because I didn't wake them up to see the moon. You can't win, can you?

getting ready for the holidays

We've been keeping busy with some Christmas crafting.

Secret sewing


making ornaments for teachers


painting with watercolors




"baking" christmas treats


So far everyone is having fun and not complaining about being bored. I hope this continues for the next 2 weeks.

Christmas programs

We've had a week of Christmas programs.

Tuesday night was A's night. I pushed my way to the front of the aisle and then was offered a seat in a front row. Prime picture taking spot, except the boy in front of her was too tall. It was a prime picture taking spot, wrong angle. Here's her forehead.



Last Saturday the grandmothers took A out shopping for a Christmas dress. Since she is very opinionated about her clothing, I think it was quite frustrating for the two of them. Mom said she couldn't/wouldn't yell at her the way she used to yell at us, "Just try it on, I don't care if you don't like it, try it on for me!", which meant that was always the outfit we ended up choosing. She did look nice in her new dress.



J's program was Wednesday afternoon. He had a speaking part in the nativity.





B's program was this morning.



A&J skipped the last day of school & their Christmas parties to attend B's program. They were hoping to hang out with the cousins who flew in from Kazakhstan last night. However, they brought illness home with them, so only Marcy joined us for the program and lunch.

Giving

Yesterday while I was at primacare getting diagnosed with strep (not fun!), DH, the kids & J's buddy & family took the birthday party gifts down to Genesis Women's Shelter.

They collected over 80 toys and 7 strollers at their birthday party. It filled a huge basket and then some. They were so excited by the boys' delivery, they gave them cake. That can make any 8 year old boy happy!

We're very proud of the boys and hope they feel proud of themselves too!

Hey Mickey

We got a Christmas card from the Houston cousins (S#4) today. I picked up the card and started singing the song Hey Mickey in honor of the eldest cousin.

A looked at me like I was crazy. Thank heavens for You Tube because I could prove it was a real song.

J's birthday celebration #1

J's birthday is 12/30, right after Christmas. Poor planning on my part. His best friend's birthday is 12/20 so he's stuck in the same situation. They get all kinds of presents in less than a week and nothing the rest of the year. If you add a birthday party on top of Christmas and family birthday, then you're inundated with junk. Piles and piles of toys that rarely get played with.

This year, we did a combined party with a toy donation drive to benefit a local women & family shelter. DH said that if J ever complains about us taking his presents away from him and giving them to poor kids, he'll just blame me.

We had a game truck come to the party with laser tag & a hamster ball. Despite the cold weather, all the boys had fun. And we got piles of stuff to donate to the shelter for Christmas.

Basketball

J started basketball a couple of weeks ago. He's enjoying despite 2 losses to start the season. I took hundreds of pictures of the game only to realize I can't take action shots in a tiny gym with horrible lighting. They were all a blur.

Antique

This afternoon we dropped A off at her yoga class and I took the boys around the corner to get a haircut. Once the cuts were finished, we had 20 minutes to spend before A was through with class.

I decided to go check out the antique store down the way. Dangerous thing to go to an antique store with B, but I tried it anyway. I gave him the one finger rule (you can touch something but only when you ask first and only with one finger, hence, you can't actually pick it up) and threatened him with his life if he ran around like crazy.

The boys liked wandering up and down the aisles looking at all the old junk. J's favorite thing was the shark jaw with teeth for $32.00. He thinks his shark jaw would be worth at least $25.00. B liked the antlers from a 3 point deer for $42.50.

Down the next aisle, they found something and didn't know what it was. I heard them talking and J said, "I think it's some kind of phone maybe. I think I've seen something like it on tv. I wonder how it works." I turned around and they were standing in front of a rotary dial phone. John (who was obviously forgetting the one finger rule) was grabbing the dial with all of his fingers, trying to turn it around from the rim.

I laughed as I showed them how to dial the phone and they both took turns (with me watching closely) trying to dial our phone number. B wanted to know how you pushed talk. J thought it took way too long to dial like that.




It's funny how amusing things from my youth are and far technology has come.

Elf A

Elf J

Elf B

Arghh, Pirates

Yesterday B had a Pirate Birthday party. We went to a party last month where the kids just ran around and played. It was such a nice party I wanted to have one just like. B had other grand ideas of bobbing for apples, pinata, pin the tail on the donkey & a scavenger hunt. I compromised with a pirate treasure hunt. I made picture clues and A&J buried ziplocs of candy in the sandbox. I think the whole party went very well.

pirate hats, patches & swords for all



Skull & Crossbones cake



Picture clues for the hunt



Off to find the next clue



Dug up treasure



Enjoying the plunder



And finally, B's birthday celebrations are over. I have a one week reprieve until we start celebrating for J. He's having a combined party with his friend next Sunday.