Look Ma, No Hands

I love being off at Christmas time. Yesterday I got to play with my kids all morning while Paula did some last minute shopping. There was much swinging, soccer ball kicking, chalk drawing, and sliding. Allison ventured her first time down the slide with No Hands. She did this the first time just briefly and hesitantly to get by me as I was leaning on the slide. Then the 2nd time a spark got in her eye at the top and she stuck her arms out and slid the whole way down w/o hands. She never actually said "Look Dad, No Hands!" But her smile said it.

Then she, Jason, and Sophie repeatedly climbed the steps, slid down w/o hands, and ran back to the steps to start over.


Each time at the top she stuck her hands / arms out to the side.


Still smiling at the bottom.


Celebration as she runs back for another lap.


It was never clear to me what Jason was up to here.?!

What do you do with all the leftover Candy Corn???

Well, our kids asked to do some experiments....

What does the inside look like? Just like the outside!
Can they float? NO!
Do they melt?...

YES! And now they are making some icing for cookies, cupcakes, etc........does this mean they think that I am baking today?

Big Boys Don't Need Naps!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Here are some craft that my younger kids made at preschool the last couple of weeks and the cards where the teachers typed up what they said when asked what they are thankful for...Sophie was quoted the other day say "...kindergarten is just fun, fun, fun ... bunches of crafts ... fun, fun, fun. BUT, first grade ----NOTHING!!!!" So, after seeing brother and sister's crafts she set out to making some of her own at home.Then this morning, we make name cards for our Thanksgiving dinner.... Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

Sophie has been in a phase the last few months in which she likes to "make" books. Sometimes she thinks of a topic and makes the book; sometimes she finds a few pictures that she has drawn that have a similar theme and makes them into a book; sometimes they are books for herself and sometimes they are for others (car book for jason, colors book for Allison). Here is a book that she made for mommy and daddy....

I pray she never loses her creativity.

Performances -- Part II

Friday morning was the Annual Pumpkin Pie for Parents at Jason and Allison's preschool. Jason got into it quite a bit this year, but as many of the 2-year olds do, Allison just stood around most of the time.

For our friends who have had children that attended Rainbow in the past, I hope this next pic brings back some memories for you of the Turkey Tango...

Then all the 4-year old classes played the bells...

And, lastly we enjoyed the pumpkin pie!!!

Performances -- Part I

Thursday night was the First Grade Autumn & Thanksgiving performance at Sophie's school. The day was a bit hectic as Sophie informed me just a few days before that she was supposed to wear fall colors which was not really a problem until she insisted that they were supposed to be solid. We have several fall colored tops, but NONE were solid! Have I ever mentioned here before that Sophie is a RULE FOLLOWER! Most of the time this is a very positive thing, but sometimes...... Anyway, even though I knew many of the children would not be in solid colors, Jason, Allison and I headed out that morning in search of some solid colored tops. This was not as easy of a task as I thought it would be, but we eventually found these turtlenecks. Jason chose a red one and a yellow one saying "they are both fall colors and Sophie would look pretty in both." Sophie picked yellow.

We then headed home for lunch and naps. After nap, poor little Allison woke up with a fever which would put a bit of a damper on the evening....should we just draw straws to see who stays home? (Thanks, Nana...we'll break out the video over Thanksgiving!)

Then, we lost John! Ok, we didn't actually LOSE him. I knew he was at work. I just couldn't get in touch with him. He was supposed to be bringing pizza home for dinner, but as time was running out and the pizza had already been ordered online for pickup, I loaded up the kids and we went to get the pizza ourselves. Daddy finally made it out of work and met us at school. He got to eat his pizza in the parking lot.
Sophie seemed nervous up on stage until she found us in the audience. Then she relaxed and had fun....except when you could see that she was getting irritated at the kids around her who were doing things that they were not supposed to be doing like talking, turning around, not watching the music teacher .... I did mention that she is a rule follower, right???

I Love Tylenol

Last night Allison woke up coughing and crying. I went up and got her, hugged her, consoled her, and rocked her almost back to sleep. I layed her oooh so gently back in bed and she appeared to be drifting off to sleep.

But of course, at exactly the moment MY head hit my pillow she burst back into tears and wails. This time it was clear that her throat was hurting her while she coughed. We gave her a dose of Tylenol and went through the hugging, consoling, rocking, gently laying... All have now enjoyed a restful night's sleep.

I thank God to live in this time period where we have the blessing of simple pain killers.

Boy Scout Popcorn...

The Boy Scouts have all delivered their popcorn now. It turns out that my darling husband purchased, from various scouts he knows from the neighborhood, our church, and his office, ..... SIX tins of popcorn.

The best part of this is that none, NONE of my children will eat any of it. They were all so excited to give it a try after dinner tonight. Sophie chewed and swallowed one piece with a scrunched up nose and then declined any more. Allison chewed some then proceeded to make the worst face that I have seen in a while. John got her a napkin and let her dispose of her 'treat'. After watching both the girls, Jason stared at it awhile, gave it a few sniffs, then gave it a lick, .... and that was enough for him.

John now gets to provide his team at work with some snackage for the next couple of weeks!!!! Go TEAM!!!

Off to Work...

The last time that I took my kids to visit Aunt Rhonda at work was probably over a year ago before Sophie started kindergarten. As best as I can remember it, Jason said, "Can we go home? This place is booooowing (think boring)!!! Not like Aunt Crystal's work place!"

Fast forward to this past weekend and I think Aunt Rhonda's work just left Aunt Crystal's work in the dust....
Not much could top a forklift or two (or two hundred) for Jason right now! Thanks Rhonda and co-workers!

Future's so bright....

Fall Fun

OK, so I missed yesterday. It was a full and fun day, but I was still planning on posting late last night. So, now I will just blame the lack of post on the Dallas Stars. I would have had plenty of time to post before midnight had they not gone into Overtime and then a Shootout....at least they WON!!!

Anyway, here are a few pics of our fun yesterday...
This was the first time that we have ever raked up our leaves and the older kids, along with our friend from next door, loved it. I just wish I had taken a pic of Allison staring at them like they were crazy!

This week Sophie's school is holding their annual book fair. Last night the school was open for a Family Game Night/Pajama Night. The kids head up to school in their pajamas to play some board games and/or listen to the teachers and faculty read stories. Now, I have a bible study that I attend on Tuesday night, so Sophie and I asked John if he would take all the kids up himself. The kids seemed to have had a good time and even daddy got in on the pajama action (....what a COOL dad!!!!).

Cool Numbers

I enjoyed signing papers today and writing the date - 11/10/09. Hope you enjoyed the date / day also.

In an unrelated number incident, my favorite stock TGB closed at $3.31 yesterday. This of course made me smile as I married my bride at 3:31 on 3/31.

In an unrelated non-numerical incident, this afternoon I parked on the spot of charred earth where my truck caught on fire just over a month ago. No flames today. Thankfully, my truck was still just sitting there waiting when I got off work. Made me smile again.

Allowance

John tells me that not all my posts have to have pictures. So, here goes a pictureless post.

Sophie came home from school a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could do some things around the house to earn money that she could spend at her school's upcoming book fair. Hence, my pondering the topic of allowances. My initial thought is that I did not want to give Sophie money to do things that she is expected to do. We don't currently have to pay her to pick up her toys or put her dirty clothes where they should go. Seems this would set a precedent in our household that I'm not sure I like. I don't think that later in life I want to live with the messy house just because my children don't really need/want their allowance at that time. (Sorry, Mom....I DO see the irony in this statement!!!!!)

For this request for money, we came up with a project for Sophie. She is 'organizing' all the kids toys. Organizing in that she is putting all the pieces of a set together. We are hoping this will help us with our annual Thanksgiving task where each of the children picks a few of their older toys that they no longer play with, and that are in decent condition, to be donated in order that someone else may have a chance to play with them. In the past, I always seem to find some pieces of toy sets that were given away.

Anyway, back to allowances....any advice?

Today...

Today, I am being a bit reminiscent. I took Jason shopping to get some new jeans. Now, I keep telling these kiddos to "STOP!" ...as in STOP growing UP! But, today when we went to get jason some new jeans, we had to move up into the "big boy" section. It seems like just yesterday, here he was....
...in a cute little pair of jeans. And now, he no longer fits in the toddler sizes. "STOP!"

Princess for a Day

Sophie, along with most of her troop, took part in the Daisy Princess for a Day. Here are a few pics...

They did some crafts, decorated some cookies (and then ate them), played some games, and, most importantly, got to dress up as little princessess. Sophie should sleep well tonight!!!

Cheap entertainment...

Ok, so this would have made a much better video, but I only took photos.

Jason has taken to everything relating to trucks (monster trucks, daddy's truck, etc.), tractors, and anything construction. Allison has taken to anything that Jason likes. So, here was our morning yesterday. It seems that our neighbor at the corner is getting a new roof and yesterday morning, the supplies were delivered. Jason had never seen a forklift up this close and he spent much time figuring out how it worked. Here, he is pretending to be a forklift....

Now, they need a closer look....

Last night telling daddy all about it, Jason started out by telling him that there was an elevator in our circle.

Stars WIN!!!!

Well, our last adventure of the Suprise Chicago Trip was to venture on over to see the Chicago Blackhawks get defeated by the Dallas STARS!!!!!!Planning this part of the trip went actually quite smoothly thanks to the best Stars Season Ticket rep that Crystal has ever had!!!!!!! Whenever we have gone on trips to see the Dallas Stars, Crystal has always taken care of getting the tickets. This was going to be tricky because we needed 7 tickets, not just 2. Rhonda found out Crystal's rep's name and I gave him a call. I told him who I was and explained to him what we were wanting to do for Crystal for her birthday and that it was a .... suprise!!! Daniel is AWESOME!!!!! We had great seats and Crystal never found out that he was in on it ---at least, not until we got to Chicago. So, if by any chance you are reading this Daniel ------- thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!!! We had a great time!

Now, only Sophie really had appropriate attire to wear to a Stars Away game, so we headed out to get the rest of us suited up...including the face art!

And, no sporting event can be complete without some sugar!

Happy 40th Birthday, Crystal!!!

Around Chicago

After we arrived in Chicago, we headed out to wait for the Go Airport Express Shuttle that I had reserved in advance. This was NOT a successful experience and I would NOT ever recommend this company. We waited and waited...and waited. Shuttles came for the north end of downtown -- shuttles came for the south end --- of course, we were right in the middle and .... NO shuttles came for us. We waited some more. Did I mention that I reserved this in advance?? THEN, we went down and got a taxi in about 5 minutes. I am very thankful for the pic below as it will always remind me how patient my children were during this whole time. There were many smiles and very little complaining ... at least from the kiddos. I know for sure that I was not as patient as they were when I was a kid (or now) ...just ask my mom!!
We finally got to the hotel, dropped off our bags and headed out for dinner at Giordannos(http://www.giordanos.com/). Stuffed Pizza -----yuuuummmmmmmy! I forgot to get a pic of the pizza, but here is Allison enjoying some Sprite -- which was a treat from their usual H2O or milk.

On Saturday of Crystal's Birthday Celebration Weekend we spent most of the day doing the touristy things. This is us on the top of the Double-Decker tour bus just moments before it started to rain and sleet on us:

We passed the hotel that we wanted to stay in, but they were booked by the time we got around to making reservations.

After getting totally drenched on the way in, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. Here are our little penguins:

Later, we sent John and Allison back to the hotel for a nap while the rest of us went up to the Sky Deck of the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). Rhonda and I refused to venture out, but Crystal, Sophie and Jason all step off the solid steel part of the building out onto the glass ledges. I held the queasiness in check to take these pictures.

Then, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the last part of our celebration! Check back tomorrow.