*This week has flown by. Actually this whole year has flown by! I was so excited about having a week off from school and it went so fast I couldn't enjoy it. I did enjoy thanksgiving though.  Little Monster had his t'giving program the tuesday before t'giving which was great. He does such a good job "performing". Other kids were crying and getting down but he just sang and did his hand motions with no problem. They wanted him to be the pumpkin in one song but he wanted nothing to do with that.

*Little Bit and I got a lot of pictures edited and food cooked. We made some yummy pioneer woman mac and cheese (although I've ruined my poor children with kraft mac and cheese so they wouldn't eat it) and some SUPER yummy Jacques torres chocolate chip cookies. They did eat those :)

*Our friends from Ohio came down to visit family this week so we got to hang out with them one night. The funny part about our friendship is my husband and her husband grew up together but her and I are closer than they are. I know women are generally closer than guys anyway but the only common ground we had to start with were those 2 who only talk about once a quarter. Her and I have a standing phone date every weekend to discuss the past week's events. I don't know what I would do without her sometimes.

*B had his last rickshaw gig for the year. I am very thankful for that job but equally thankful when it is over. I hate it when he is  gone on the weekends.

*My photo shoots are still holding steady. I have had several clients move over the last year so I am a little slower than normal but I guess I could go out and try to drum up some business. I am so busy, though, that I am happy with what I have.
*I went black Friday shopping Thanksgiving night. I was gone and back home exactly 15 minutes. I saw the line and turned around. I enjoy a good deal but I enjoy my sanity more. I am basically finished Christmas shopping. That makes me happy.

*My mom, my husband, me, and Little Bit got sick this week. I don't know who has had it worse. Little Bit's was almost just a bump in the road. The rest of us didn't fare so well. B seems to have felt the worse. My voice has been gone for 3 days now. The weirdest part is that the virus was basically just a fever and achy yucky feeling for about 24 hours. The after effects have been the worst!! I have to say, I love my Zumba classes, though (and TurboKick). I whispered to them all that I had lost my voice and they told me not to worry about it, they could just follow me...and follow me they did!! And not only did they follow me, they were even calling for me. My front row divas (who I love) would randomly yell out "Keep your arms up" or "Don't stop moving". It was awesome and makes me smile inside and out.

*Last but not least...I ordered an iMac. It has been on my list for a few years but the prices have always put me off. Well, I have seen the "dumping physical memory" blue screen on my PC more times than I can count this week and I broke down and ordered it. It should be here Wednesday. Thankfully, all of my stuff is backed up. I finished editing my last shoot today (which was a slow process b/c the computer kept blue-screening me) so now I just have to wait...and then learn b/c I have NEVER owned a Mac. The only apple product I have is an ipod that is probably 5 years old and only cost me $10.

A few kid funnies:
*Little Bit told me she is getting Papaw grocery money for Christmas b/c everytime they go spend the night he asks if she brought some.
*Little Monster had the following shopping list today: A noodle for Mrs. Jean, Super Mario Bros for the gym, and a Christmas tree for Skylar's birthday. Little Bit asked him "Who is going to play with a Christmas tree??" his response..."Skylar"
*You all will be happy to know that Bowser was at Kroger today and ripped it down but "the people" fixed it (their pretend world is so funny to listen to)
*In the car the other day Little Bit was saying something with a sad voice and Little Monster responded by saying (with a big sigh) "Yeah, no one ever picks a pepper." Not sure how Peter Piper fit into that story but I love the randomness of it.
I know I am missing one but I will have to think on it and post it later. Until next time...

My son never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday, I randomly wrote a row of capital letters and a row lower case letters and he drew the lines to match them. I didn't have to help him once. We also talked about the words "cat" and "dog." I wrote them out yesterday and then tonight he asked me how to spell them. I sounded out each letter, he told me what it was, and then wrote it by himself. My favorite part was when he told me he didn't know how to write a "g" and then wrote it with no problem and no instruction.

I gave both of them octopus pictures today and asked him to put the correct number of dots on each leg. He never asked a question and got them all right. He also told me he was going to color something and everyone would "be so impressed."

Little Bit drew pictures of Peach, Luigi, and Yoshi. I love them. She also had to take a math test today and did a great job. She only missed writing the number 200 (she wrote 220) and reading one of the clock faces. I was impressed. It amazes ne how far she has come in 2 months. Hard to imagine where she will be at Christmas. Little Monster will probably be graduating from college by his next birthday.

Speaking of birthdays- Little Bit is supposed to have a party in 2 weeks and I can't get motivated. I think I might have too much going on in life. Just maybe.

My daughter turned 6 last weekend and we celebrated the weekend before with a big shindig. It is crazy how you invite a "few" people and there ends up being 16 kids and a bunch of adults (didn't count those). I guess all those friends and their siblings add up. They had a blast, though. Like every other little girl in America, my daughter loves Tangled so we had a Tangled themed party. A week before the party I wasn't motivated to even have one but thankfully I pulled it together in the end and put together a few cool things. Flynn Rider's wanted poster was posted on the front door. A friend's child got a Rapunzel toy a few months ago and I saved the small print on the back of the box. I used that as a guide and drew a bigger copy on posterboard. For her Fairy party last year I bought a TON of paper lanterns with the battery operated tea lights and never used them (didn't even remember that I had them until the party was over and they were the one thing that spurred the Fairy/Garden party idea). But I did use lanterns this year. Not all of the ones I had but a few. 

We hung posterboard on the fence and let the kids go to town with washable markers. I think this should be a staple at all parties and I plan (assuming I don't forget) to do this at every party from now on. If there's not an activity going on, just send them the fence to draw. We do have some marker on our fence now but it should clean off with a clorox solution. And if not, it adds character. Another option would be to use sidewalk chalk straight on the fence. I think I might go to our local newspaper and buy some unprinted paper. They sell the ends of the rolls for about $5 (and it is a ton of paper). Ok, back on track now--I am going to punch holes in all of the poster drawings and make a "book" for her. 

 

 

 

Trampoline, balloons, and children under the age of 6. Nothing more even has to be said. And I'm not sure if Little Monster is thieving the balloons here or taking back escaped balloons. I have a feeling he was thieving. Maybe we should have dressed him up as Flynn Rider. 

 

The cake was fun to make. Two weeks before the party I had decided to just buy cupcakes or a cake from somewhere. A week before the party I decided to ask my mom to help me with it. And 6 days before the party I decided I just needed help with flowers. Those are not my specialty but my mom is amazing at it! Hints on decorating a tower cake: use a dense cake (ex...I used THIS TRIPLE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE...oh so amazing!! Double the recipe though...maybe even triple it), use the the inner tube of a roll of aluminum foil to stack the doughnuts on (it is a great size and really strong cardboard. I wouldn't recommend a paper towel roll since the cardboard is kind of flimsy), use moldable chocolate for any other figures that need to be created (I didn't even do a Rapunzel...just had her hair flowing out the window. Of course, every child wanted to know where Rapunzel was but I just told them she was hiding inside), and use dense doughnuts for the tower. 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure where this tradition started but I always get something for the sibling of the birthday child (my parents and one of my friends do as well). Little Monster has been having fits wanting the Mario/Sonic Winter Olympics Wii game. I found it cheap on ebay so that was his present and I don't think anything else could've made him happier. I wish I had his reaction on video. We probably could've won money off of it. But here he is examining the game with Papaw   

 

After the party was over we drove to a park to release real lanterns (just like the movie). These were so stinking cool! I got them off of Amazon and they were worth every penny. We only released 2 (which means we have 8 more fun flying lanterns). A few people were really afraid of them catching on fire but they work just like a hot air balloon. So if there's a flame, they float up. When the flame goes out, they come down. I wouldn't suggest doing them around trees b/c they could catch a tree on fire but after they are above the trees, there is no worry (well, maybe birds?).

I have great memories of soft pastels. I don't have messy memories but whoa! Mess was everywhere when we ventured into the soft pastel world yesterday. Little Bit's assignment was to draw something she enjoys doing. When I came to check on her I saw a picture of a princess going home to her castle (bottom). Now, I love her drawing but seriously?? How do you teach a child to follow directions? So then it was the principle of the matter and she had to do another one. That one ended up being her playing on her swing set (also--soft pastels are hard to do neatly...not just the mess they make but trying to color with a rectangular block of...stuff). Little Monster wandered in and drew a "cominent." A comment? Nope. A cominent. No clue what that is but I asked him again last night and he told me the same thing. I'm not questioning it. It must make sense in his head.
p/s--can't get the font size to go back to normal. It looks like I'm super excited about this post but in reality I just can't work the computer.

...brings on the beginning of the next--the "holiday season!" I am semi-excited about Christmas but still not where I need/want to be. I do feel good about the jump start I've gotten on buying/getting/making gifts. And if nothing else, I have a pretty good list of things for the people I haven't already bought for.

Tonight was trick-or-treat night. The kids had a blast. We went with 2 other families so there were 7 kids total. Little Bit (also known as Princess Peach) had another girl her age (which made her the happiest child on the block) and Little Monster (also known as Mario) just ran with the crowd. He sticks close to his sister, anyway.  I only got to see them hit about 4 houses because I had a Zumba class to teach but the great thing about T-or-Ting is that once you see one house, you've pretty much seen them all. I mean, how much different can it get? One difference that I didn't know about until after T-or-Ting had started is that Little Monster decorated his bag with every sticker he could get off of a sheet that he found in one of his workbooks. I didn't even take them off :)


School was good last week and so far so good this week. This is a big grocery shopping week so I've decided that school is having to be shifted around for that. We are couponers (not the crazy extreme people but one of the normal coupon families just looking for a good deal) and Kroger has a GREAT ad this week.


I'm not sure what is going on with the Android software but I am having issues with photos that I take "disappearing" from my devices (whether it be my phone or my galaxy...which are both Android devices) so I had pictures of the kids doing their school work dressed up but they are MIA. If they return, I'll be sure to post them. Here are our pumpkins. We carved Rapunzel and Perry the Platypus this year. I think pumpkin carving is such a waste. I know it is fun but surely there is a more cost effective activity. I'm such a stick in the mud.

Here is our watercolor art from 2 weeks ago. The one on the left is Little Bit at her friend's birthday party. It is her on a waterslide. The yellow thing is the deck with a table and the cake on it. The blue is the slide and she's in the pink bathing suit. Little Monster colored the pumpkin I drew and then made his own lines and squiggles.

One cool thing Little Monster did today was try to write words. Little Bit did her journal entry about going Trick-or-Treating so Little Monster decided to write it too. He wrote "I M G" and to translate--the M is "am" (but you say it more like 'em') and the G is the beginning of "going." He wanted me to help him with the rest but when I asked him what he thought was next, he proceeded to just draw lines. This is the beginning of learning to read. Again...just something else I haven't taught him. I have no idea where he comes up with stuff. One thing is for sure--he is constantly listening and absorbing everything we say!! When Little Bit was in preschool and I asked her if anyone got in timeout and what they did her response was almost ALWAYS "I don't know but at least it didn't happen to me." If I ask Little Monster, his response is "well, I was standing in my chair and Brody was on the floor beside his chair, and Caroline and Chandler were under the table but they had their hands on the table and we were supposed to sit down and so we got our apples flipped (their equivalent of a green/yellow/red system)". It is so funny the details he notices and remembers.