I couldn't resist

Kitty Cat & Halloween Parties

Both boys had parties at school today. Rogue's was a "Kitty Cat" party. They were supposed to pick a cat to come as. I laid out the options for Rogue: Tiger, Lion, Jaguar, Leopard, Panther, Cougar, .... Then, instead of using the term "house cat", I said that one option was to be a cat like Loca (our calico cat). He opted for Loca. After the kids went to bed last night, I racked my brain, trying to come up with what I could do to turn him into Loca. I decided to use a white karate suit that the kids have for dress up (it has come in useful many times- thanks, Mom), then cut up black paper and a brown paper bag into spots, and stuck them all over the karate suit. For the ears, I used black, white, and brown pipe cleaners, shaped them into cat ears, and taped them to his black beanie (you can't see them very well in the pic). He was pretty excited when he woke up :) Elijah's was a bit easier. Their's was a typical Halloween party. Instead of wearing his intended black Spiderman Halloween costume, he chose to go as a chef (also out of the dress up box- thanks again, Mom). Afterall, that is what he has chosen to be when he grows up, and he might as well start getting used to the attire.

A Case of Treasure and Treachery

As previously mentioned, I participated in a murder mystery Wednesday night. The leaders put it on for the youth at church. It was A Case of Treasure and Treachery, and all of the kids came as pirates, ready to observe the Pirate Council. I played the part of The Black Widow (who was in mourning for her husband, Blackbeard, who had been lost at sea 25 years ago). It was loads of fun, and the kids were left hoping it becomes an annual tradition. Here is a pic of the cast:


Top Row: Sir Henry Morgan, Lady Chastity Morgan, Tia Maria, Captain Bluebeard (Blackbeard's brother), Blind Pew (who turned out to be my long lost husband, Blackbeard), Long John Silver, Roger the cabin boy

Front Row: Scarlet Reid (thought to be a boy, but turned out to be a woman!), The Black Widow, Ms. Hatchet (the hostess of the evening), Anne Bonnie (The Black Widow's daughter)

Way Back When-sday: "Hammer Time"

Who's that hot chick in the parachute pants, you ask? Yup- that would be me. A self portrait in fact. Can you see the artistic potential? I was browsing through the attic in my parents' house, looking for something for my murder mystery costume (details and pics coming soon), and I happened upon an old journal of mine. I was so excited to read it, but the most interesting thing was the backside of the front cover. The rest was, unfortunately, pretty boring. But who could not be impressed by that front cover? I sure was. That's one foxy lady (Although, she's a little "short for [her] age")!

Playing with Mom's hair

I LOVE having my hair played with. I don't get it that often, but when I do, it's usually Elijah. Hopefully, as Lexi gets older, she'll love doing it too, so I can get it twice as often (although, not likely- she's too much of a tomboy to like doing any of those girly things). Right now, Eli's playing with my hair while he's waiting for his turn on the computer. I'm tempted to put off giving him his turn, so I can selfishly get more hair time in. Ah, darn- he was just distracted by the sight of his name on the computer... I guess I better get off and give him his turn....

Way Back When-sday

I couldn't help myself. A friend of mine, April, has been doing this on her blog, and I thought it was an awesome idea. Every Wednesday is "Way Back When-sday". She finds an old picture and posts a blog about it. I intend to steal her awesome idea (hope you don't mind April), and do the same. So instead of thumbing through all of my old pics first, I checked to see what I might already have scanned onto my computer, and I came across this oldie but goodie:That would be me at about 5 years old, and my little... make that younger brother, Michael at about 3 years old. A full 2 years difference, and he had already caught up to me by the time he was 3. Well, caught up to me in height, but surpassed me in girth, it appears. He's now almost a full foot taller than me (5'1" vs 6'0"). I think Elijah and Rogue are on the same path, although not quite so extreme. They also have a 2 year difference, and Elijah is barely edging out Rogue. Elijah's not entirely thrilled about it.

Crisis Averted

I thought it was a done deal, but alas, I was mistaken. I do not need my ride "mommed" after all. We found out that there were some problems with the minivan we were planning to buy, so we backed out of it. In our search for a different minivan, we discovered the awesomeness of the 8-passenger Honda Pilot. Yay! Just thought I'd better throw this out there to those who were awaiting my presence behind the wheel of the before-mentioned minivan. To my utter delight, and complete surprise, it will not be happening any time soon (although I must admit, the process has significantly softened me to the idea). All in all- crisis averted!

28 going on 40

All of my life I have been frustratingly considered younger than I really was. I was told countless times, "you'll love it when you get older." Well, I'm older, but before I got a chance to "love it", I suddenly look older than I really am. Tonight, I was talking with someone about John Bytheway. He is an awesome motivational speaker, and I was saying how great he was, then added how I had a couple of his cassette tapes as a youth. The woman I was speaking to replied, "Really? He must have been really young." Young? He was born in 1962! 1962! How old does she think I am?! When I told her that I was 28, and she seemed pretty surprised. She and another woman continued the conversation, during which she insisted that he wasn't doing motivational speaking back when they were youth. I am pretty certain that she had been grouping me into the same age group, and they were 10 years older than me! Are you kidding me? I never even got to enjoy the looking-younger-than-I-really-am thing!

Cold Feet

Rogue loves to play with Trav's ring. Today in church, Rogue was playing with it again. He asked Travis, "Dad, does it go on my thumb?" Trav told him, "No, it goes on this finger when you get married," indicating his ring finger. Rogue got real quiet, then looked up at Trav, near tears, and said, "But dad, I don't wanna get married!" Trav assured him that he didn't have to worry about that anytime soon.
Travis thinks that Rogue witnesses what he has to put up with every day (meaning me, of course), and it's scared him away from marriage. I'd like to think that he just doesn't want to have to move out and leave his Mommy anytime soon.

Party like it's... 2008

And the Princess turns 2.... Well, she turned 2 a week and a half ago, but the family get-together party was on Saturday. We did the standard cake and presents, and threw in a little "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" at the end- just to shake things up. And, luckily, she opted out of the crying, even though it was her party, and she could have if she wanted to. Instead, she was Little Miss Fun the whole day.

Presents

Waiting for the cake

Blowing out the candles

Chowing down

Itsy-Bitsy Spider

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Last week, we went for an afternoon adventure to Bauman Farm. It was during the week, so the zipline, hayrides, and apple slingshots were not accessible that day, but there was still plenty of fun to be had. There were mazes, pirate ships, obstacle courses, animals, swings, slides, forts, and a playground to boot. This is one of our favorite fall activities, and between family trips and school field trips, we average about 5 visits to the farm each year.

Slap on the sticker

And head for the Pearl!

First one through the maze!

Heading down a hayslide on the obstacle course....

Ending with a tube ride

Our future climber

Getting ready for a swing

A couple of crazies

Where's the off switch?!

The never-ending debate: Do the "terrible twos" really exist? They certainly seem to where Miss Independant is concerned. Although she has definitely been building up to it, the day she turned two seemed to flip the switch. She will get her way, whether everyone else likes it or not. Her favorite thing to do all day is grunt. Yep, that's right, my little princess is a grunter. You're holding something she wants, she grunts.... You take something from her, she grunts.... You ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she grunts.... She keeps eating toothpaste, pulling all of the toilet paper off of the roll, breaking crayons (she now has her own special already-broken crayons, so that she doesn't continue to ruin the boys'), stripping multiple times a day, refusing to let me do ANYTHING to her hair, beating up Rogue, refusing to sit in her highchair, saying "What?" about a thousand times a day, and leaving me utterly exhausted at the end of every day! The 12-24 month is my absolute favorite stage of their lives, so I suppose it's only fair that it all gets evened out by following it up with a year of the most difficult stage. Don't get me wrong- I always have and always will absolutely adore my daughter. I just sometimes wish she had an OFF SWITCH.

The "Tap 'n' Sway"

I love music. Not all music genres, just the good ones. What are the good ones, you ask? Well, there's classic rock, hard rock, punk rock, alternative rock, acoustic/soft rock, ska, folk, indie, and the occassional R&B... and never, never, NEVER any country. I know, many disagree with me where country is concerned (hubby included), but I never have and never will understand its appeal. Anyway, I have been on a real hard rock kick for quite a while now, where it's all I can stand to listen to. As of today, however, I discovered a new favorite artist- Jack Johnson.



I know he's actually pretty popular, and I have heard his name thrown around quite a bit. I may have even heard a song or two in the past, but it was today that I sat down to create a new playlist, and started listening to all of his songs. Without realizing it, I was sitting in my chair doing the old "tap 'n' sway"- you know, tapping your toes and swaying back and forth to the music while imagining you're on an island, gazing at the sunset over the water and...oh, sorry, um... it's very soothing. There are a few of his songs that made my playlist down below- you can scroll down and click on any song to listen to it, if you are so inclined.

Help, Please!

I wanted a change, that's all. Is it really so much to ask? I was tired of the red, and wanted something new and muted to look at. Apparently, in changing your html coded background, it erases all of the additions you've put on your site. So, I lost everything on the right hand side, except for "About Me" and "Blog Archives". I've tried to recreate it all, but I am still missing some friends' blogs. PLEASE, if you don't see a link to your site on the right, send me your site address. I was only able to post back the ones that I could remember off the top of my head, or was able to get off of other people's sites. Just leave me a comment with your address. I am going to have serious withdrawls, if I don't get to look at everyone's blogs! Help! Thank you!

Happy Birthday, Alexandra

Yesterday was Alexandra's birthday. We celebrated with sprinkle covered pancakes for breakfast, a trip to Bauman Farms, some new boots up at the Woodburn outlets, and a dinner with Trav's family at Outback (the dinner was actually celebrating Shane's birthday, which was last week, but Lexi got in on the action, too). You'll notice some similar pics from last year. Bauman's just might become a traditional family venture on Lexi's birthday. Her party won't be until next weekend, but for now, here's some pics of her on her special day.

Devouring her brithday breakfast:

The face she makes when she's flexing her muscles- makes me laugh every time:

Eating some candy corn:

And sipping some cider:

Playing at the Woodburn outlet treehouse (and sporting her birthday coat and boots):

Outback birthday dessert (boy, she had a lot of sugar!):

Special Moments

It's only 9:30, but two things have already happened today that I wanted to record somewhere, so I remember them:


On our ride home from the grocery store, Rogue said, "Mom-I'm proud of you" (I can't remember exactly why he was so proud- something like, "for putting the thing between the places"). I thought it was sweet.


Then, the mischevous Lex struck again. Rogue came running downstairs to tell me that Alex had gotten into the toothpaste. I ran upstairs, and she was nowhere to be found. Then, I heard a sound coming from the boys' room. I flipped the lights on, and saw two little legs sticking out from under their bed. She saw me coming, and instead of depending on her invisiblity, she paniced, and frantically started crawling further under the bed. I caught her leg just in time, and got the toothpaste back. Needless to say, she was none too happy about it.

My Smokin' New Ride

It's ready to be broken in. Perhaps I need to call "Mom My Ride":

Minivan Madness

I know. I know. I vowed I would NEVER drive a minivan (no offense to anyone who does, I have many friends who do)- it's just soooo not me. I have laughed and pointed fingers at my friends when they gave in, but I forgot all about those other pesky fingers pointing right back at me. Well, apparently the pigs are in flight, folks. I may soon be the not-so-proud owner of the dreaded minivan. It's not finalized yet, but crossroads have created the possible necessity of one- agh! I've surrendered, I've given up the fight, and left the car decision up to Travis. He is in favor of the minivan, of course, it all sounds wonderful from the perspective of someone who won't have to drive it- you get the gas mileage of a car, the room of an SUV, and numerous built-in conveniences. I don't anticipate being lucky enough to avoid it.