Oh Tanenbaum!!!!!!

So last night we had an EPIC night of decorating our new Christmas tree! We had a great time picking it out - it was a Home Depot special because our usual source - the Boy Scouts - were nowhere to be found! So we had dinner at Jim N Nick's where it took about two hours to order and eat BBQ and baked beans. You would think we had ordered flambe of peacock it took so long ... but we got our tree on what, I am sure, could turn out to be the coldest night of the year, so it was perfect! We got the tree in and up in the stand and went straight to bed!

The real fun began Friday evening. Aunt Holley came over and we started to decorate, but we started drinking Pomegranate Martinis first. We were all lit up more than the tree by the time Auntie got to the house. Holley dubbed the martinis (correct me if I am wrong Hol, I can't quite remember!) "Train Wrecks" but I kept trying to call them "Homewreckers" which they are not ;)

DH spent a little too much time with the homewreckers and could not drive to meet his friends at the local bar. Never fear! Said friends sent a cab for him - bwhahahahahaha!

After DH left, Hol, Jen and I helped navigate the destruction, er, decoration, of the tree. It looks great! We watched Polar Express, Santa and Rudolph and Frosty and had drinkies and chocolate chip cookies. It was so fun!

At the crack of 2:00 a.m. DH came home with a snowball in his fist - it snowed! In the morning when we woke up the world was frosty white and beautiful! Jack Frost had visited and left us a gorgeous morning. The crazy part was that DH had agreed to march in the Homewood parade with his Ultimate pals from BUDA - so at 7:30 a.m. he bundled up E and S to march in the parade! Toes and I stayed home, snuggled on the sofa, read books, had hot chocolate, and cleaned up from the night before.

As if all this was not festive enough, DH and I took the girl to the library in the afternoon where we created Fancy Nancy "splediferous" hairdoos - E and S joined in and had their hair spray painted green - twine, pipe cleaners, tiny ornaments and tinsel were sprinkled in their hair. It was crazy fun!

On the morrow we will be heading to church then on to E's First Communion meeting!

Pics of our outings later ;)

k

Future Plans

On our way to Kentucky for Thanksgiving we stopped at a Cracker Barrell just outside of Nashville and had the following conversation(s):

Me: So, girls - what do you think you want to be when you grow up?

S: I want to be a doctor!

E: I want to be a championship swimmer or diver, because I LOVE the water!

P: I, um. I, um ... I want ... I want to be a Happy Howiday Sowng.

Later ....

Me: So, Essie, why do you think you want to be a doctor?

S: So I can help people. So they don't get hurt by terrible things like lightning. Or tigers and bears.

Then I thought ... do you think she meant Lions and Tigers and Bears?????

Also, Pop's latest invention is to torture me when she is angry by telling my that I am NOT her mother and I canNOT come to her birthday party.
Little does she know this does not matter much to me. But I let her believe she has the upper hand for a while.

Also?
Last night we were saying prayers and Pop has become extremely vigilant about her dinner prayers - mostly, I think, because she does not want to actually have to eat dinner. Here's what she said last night:
Dear God, fank you for my famiwy and my mom and my dad and for my sistews. Fank you for all my things I have and my famiwy and fank you for my bed and my mommy and nanna and pwease can you come to my birfday pawty? yes? fanks.
amen.

Nouns, Sometimes Plural Ones

Tonight E. was working on her homework when she said "Mom? How do I do woman plural?" and I didn't really have an answer for that b/c I honestly wasn't sure where the conversation was going ... but she finished her sentence with " I thought maybe womans or ladies" so I told her the correct plural form is "women". It seems the 2nd graders are working on plural nouns. Later as we watched Sponge Bob (of the Squarepants variety) a character was being buried and E. said "look, he's being graved" and I said "huh?" and she said " you know, they are putting his body in the ground!" and I said "oh, you mean buried, right?" - this is, in fact, what she meant ...

you wouldn't want to be "graved" alive would you?

In other news, I will soon upload photos of our AWESOME trip to St. Louis, it was really a great weekend with family! Also, Essie wants me to video her singing Yankee Doodle in costume. In costume, in this case, means Yankee Doodle-esque Revolutionary War cap and pajamas.

Lastly, I am working on DH's xmas present! It will be handmade by me and here's a hint - it matches his eyes (swoon).

xo

k

A Little Halloween

I have been so lazy about downloading my Halloween photos. Our friend Erin put hers on facebook, so I took them :)
Long story short, we rocked Halloween this year. We went to parties, parades, trick or treated at the library, then went on a Halloween Hayride in the neighborhood while the girls and their friends went trick or treating. Let's just say when daddy and his friend Joe are driving the truck that pulls the hayride there's no stopping. The kids were practically begging to quit trick or treating, but daddy and Joe were having fun! Toes eventually sat in the hay wagon with her twizzlers and ReFuSeD to get out of the wagon. The older two grudgingly agreed to keep trick or treating although E's bag (provided by Aunt Holley) was so overfull that it busted open. The down side to all this was we were TIRED! The up side? We have two rooster cookie jars and another wire rooster full of candy. If the apocalypse comes we will be eating candy till our teeth rot out, but we will be energized with sugar...
My photos will be here next week, promise!

How Columbus Came to America

by E.

According to E., Christopher Columbus came to America with his crew and soldiers on three ships:

the Nina, the Pinta, and the Sacagewea.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She told us this over dinner.

xo

k

Evie Knieval Meets Noccalula

Today is our 11th anniversary! To celebrate, DH and I thought about taking our kiddos to Chattanooga to see Rock City, Ruby Falls and the Tennessee Aquarium. Then we thought again. Maybe something closer to home - so we chose Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, AL. We had the BEST time! As you can see, we have had plenty of rainfall, so the sound of the falls was near deafening and so beautiful! We drive to Gadsden and the weather was perfect - fluffy clouds, partly cloudy, bursts of sun over the Appalachian Foothills. Gorgeous! Before we hit the highway, though, we stopped by Target where we got some snacks and spent some time in the parking lot where DH drove like a maniac. In fact, he was driving so *well* that I commented he was driving like Evil Knieval to which E. replied "only if Eviel Knieval is a really bad driver!" which we all thought was hilarious. Well, except DH.

Later, when we got to Noccalula Falls we rode the train, which was so fun! It was very cold though, much colder than I expected. The train ride took us through all the old pioneer homes and shops on the grounds. We stopped by the falls, climbed rocks, hiked to the bottom of the gorge, and then hiked back up. There is a nice petting zoo - we saw bunnies, a lion, lots of birds, goats, deer and chickens. Oh, and several BIG roosters. It was very nice and clean, and the landscaping was really beautiful. We took the girls down to the bottom of the gorge where we hiked along the riverbank and got to climb on some huge cool rocks. The waterfall was pretty, but the rapids and the rest of the river were so pretty! The trees were changing their clothes for the fall and all the leaves were BrIlLiAnT! There were some really cool rock formations too ... I would totally pay the $6 per person again, we had fun inside the park, especially on the train and in the petting zoo - so much fun, in fact, that we didn't really even get to see the covered bridge, pond, pioneer villages and some of the waterfall overlook. I couldn't believe we had never taken the girls, because it was such a nice park and so beautiful. It was also impressive because it was clean and seemed to be in great repair!

We finished our trip outside the park in the open area of the falls - there is no fee to see the headwaters. There were tons of ducks and geese swimming in the water and riding the rapids, and a nice wooden bridge over the river. We played there for a while and in the playground before heading home to Sol Azteca for margaritas and chips and salsa. While I went back for the car, DH stayed with the girls on the playground. This is what I heard when the girls got in the car, ready for snacks:

WHINE, whine, WHINE, whine ...

"Noccawuwa wouldn't tawk to me"

SOB

WHINE

"I am sad Noccawuwa would not tawk to me"

(this was all said by Toes who was red of eye and wet of face - I couldn't understand what was going on and waited for an explanation of some sort)

I passed out apples and cheese while Toes sobbed. She refused sustenance several times before she said "I will have some cheese but it's too bad Noccawuwa would not talk to me."

I say, this is a good thing. I mean, have you seen BIG? Toes could end up perpetually three years old. Or, the CEO of a huge toy conglomerate. The non talking fortune teller has REALLY upset Toes. She couldn't’ talk about anything else on the ride home.

We finished up our evening at Sol Azteca with a giant fishbowl of margarita and some cheese dip, it was perfect!

A Narrative Adventure with Toes

Here is a (sort of) narrative from Toesy

Toes: She was in my class where I was doing something and she kicked me in the leg.

She I mean she and her and he just kick me on the bottom of the weg and I didn't wike it and they did it to me again and again and Sunday they did it and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday they did it and Sunday and Monday.

Me (the Mom): So they kicked you a lot?

Toes: Yeah

Me (the Mom) Why?

Toes: B/c they invite me to their dance party and I didn't want to jump or do ice cream or cake

b/c i was ANGRY I didn't know so I didn't do anything but JUMP!

Me (the Mom): I'm sorry Toes.

Toes: B/c they said I couldn't do anything but jump.

Me (the Mom): Who was this persecuting you?

Toes: um. Sam kick me when I was in my party and he kicked me Sam my friend the big kid friend Sam the big kid friend was in the class and then he kicked me when I was in the party at school.

Me (the Mom): You sound angry.

Toes: I sound angry b/c I don't wike it in my class. I wike it at home and the beach. We can't go to the beach at our home b/c we don't know where the beach is now I don't wike it for the day of the week. mom. i wove you but don't want to stay here b/c its not my home. I want to go to my gramma's house to say there b/c I don't want you to kiss me. B/c I am going on a trip with my gramma and when I die I can't come back again.

Me (the Mom) No. No, when you die you can't come back again.

Toes: So if I die and my gramma dies with the me and she comes back with my I say thanks for buying me a present for my birthday and I kissed her but she kicked me b/c she's a baby again. But no more except I didn't want it to be something.

The End.

Bed Bugs & Ravioli

This is what we do every night:
get home
homewhirlwind ... er ... homework
dinner
baths
bedtime
Now bedtime is its own ritual and here's how it works:
E and S brush their teeth and get in their own beds for reading time. Toes either has me or DH read a story in her bed or she gets in ours, mainly because I feel like we are distracting E & S by reading out loud. After read aloud with Toesy, E & S usually get a readaloud because I'm their mom & I feel guilty.
Here's the cutest part. Every night after I tuck them in and get water and give kisses and help somebody go to the bathroom and run cats out of their room and retuck in and hand out more kisses Toesy says to me, very LOUdlY
"don't let the bug bites"
or sometimes
"don't let the bug bites bites"
it's never the right saying, but it's always the cutest.

Also DH says that yesterday Toesy told him she wanted ravi and oli for dinner. How funny is that?

Tomorrow is E's class Mass and she has a reading. Expect pictures!
xo
k