December

What a busy, busy month!

First we celebrated my birthday with a fun afternoon bowling and later with a super yummy Baskin Robbins Chocolate Chip ice cream cake. What a treat. We had so much fun bowling. Brendan fell down on his first turn, Kaeden was awesome about taking turns and he loved pushing his ball down the lane. Audrey did very well practicing to walk and roll the ball down the lane.

Sunday was Kaeden's birthday party again and he was thrilled to see his friends and have cake! He liked his presents too. The kids had fun playing in the backyard and the ones that harvested the most limes won presents. And Brendan didn't have to do it for days! The extra limes went to friends and to the food bank.

The next weekend we drove up to Williams Arizona for a ride on the Polar Express - what a wonderful trip that was. I posted pictures for friends and family at Flickr. The kids were so mesmerized by watching out the window, it didn't bother them that it was dark out, or that it was chilly. We all snuggled up in our pajamas with blankets and enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies while we listened to the Polar Express book being read. All the children were so excited when we arrived at the North Pole and they all crowded the windows on our side of the train to see - it was such a pleasure to share in their joy. There was a huge decorated tree with lots of presents, and buildings made out of Christmas lights - and Santa on his sleigh with his helpers and the reindeer. On the ride home we sang Christmas Carols, Santa came through the train and all of the children a jingle bell, and it started to snow! The children woke up the next morning and opened the drapes of our hotel room wide and shouted about the snow! We bundled up and went to play in the snow - Kaeden did not like his sleeves getting snow on them. Audrey and Kelden had fun running around with other children but we were freezing cold!

The next weekend we drove around to local Big Train Operators that opened their displays to the public for Christmas time. The three we went to had beautiful train set up in their backyard. Kaeden was jumping up and down squealing and Kelden was mesmerized. One yard had a set up so large it filled have their backyard and was running 6 different trains - including a miniature Polar Express.

Christmas Eve Audrey and Kelden really enjoyed tossing out the Reindeer food. Audrey put so much oatmeal out the Reindeer couldn't eat them all and we have had a lot of feathered visitors stopping by for snacks!

Christmas was great fun and the children enjoyed all of their presents. Audrey woke the boys up at 5:30 AM and they kept busy with their recorders - Kaeden calls it his "whistle". They sure were noisy! About 7AM we opened presents and the kids had already sorted them all out into piles of what belonged to whom. Audrey was very excited about her Electronic Snap Circuit set, colored socks and especially her umbrella, Kelden enjoys his board games, and loves his sleeping bag and umbrella. Kaeden was ecstatic about his fishy game, new "Leapster" and football.

Things to Do

On Thanksgiving morning I used our last two eggs to make Pumpkin Pie.

On Friday night about an hour after we put him to bed Kaeden came wandering down the stairs, his excuse was "but. we need eggs. we need to go store and get eggs."

We had a good laugh after we gave him a cuddle and tucked him back into bed.

He must have missed his pancake breakfast that morning!

Go To Sleep Mom!

I know! I know! I should be in bed but I just can't stop laughing about the candles on the cake last night.

Brendan could not find a lighter (which isn't a bad thing in a house with small children anyway.)

So he used matches to light the birthday cake. He had about 5 candles lit when he was running out of match and blew it out. And all of the candles too. We were giggling so much.

So he started over. He had the whole cake lit when Kaeden leaned in and blew the candles out.

So he started over.

Finally Audrey was able to make a wish and blow the candles out all by herself.

Good thing we had enough matches!

I should be....

....clearing off the clutter of the kitchen bar top in anticipation of our birthday guests arriving. We made it simple by allowing Audrey to invite 5 classmates to a sleepover party tonight and only 2 can make it. She is jazzed though.

I decided earlier today that the kitchen floor is not getting mopped (maybe next week after the kids are back in school after Veterans Day - they will just get it all crumby and sticky again fast.)

The garage sale was a bust. I'm kind of bummed about that. I took pictures of some of the large ticket items so I could sell them on Craigslist (the treadmill found a new home last night.) Otherwise I will try again in the Spring when everyone starts getting their income tax rebates. I stored everything in plastic bags and most of it is already priced so hopefully it won't be such a chore to get everything set up again!

The funny thing about garage sales is the "stuff" I thought would never sell sold the best and the stuff I thought would be easy to get rid of is still in my garage.

The true relief is that it is all over. The election on Tuesday went well for our local candidates and I look forward to a quiet two years before the process begins again - by then I will be looking forward to getting involved again.

This week I get to finish my Christmas Cards, spend Veterans day with the kids and hopefully get over my cold.

But first we need a birthday girl........
(her Girl Scout event went late)

Ice Cream - you scream

Audrey was told in October that her tonsils must come out. The things are so darn huge she can't breathe around them while she sleeps. The doctors keep implying that her tonsils (which were fine when they removed her adenoids 18 months ago) will keep growing bigger.

So the doc advised to allow our little patient to eat all of the soothing soft foods as she will eat during her recovery - specifically ice cream, popsicles, yogurt, jello etc...

Soon after the doctors visit Audrey was with me grocery shopping and began requesting her flavors. I reminded her that we can not buy anything that is not on the list so she said:

"But mom! I want to practice!"

That will make you smile for sure. And everyone I tell that story to is shocked when I stand firm in that I did not give in. Poor kid, it's not going to be a fun recovery. But it gets her out of eating Thanksgiving Dinner which she only picks through to get to the pumpkin pie anyway.

That Audrey, she's a bright one!

It's Past That Time of Year Again

For those of you who receive my Christmas Cards and never noticed, they are all handmade. All 60 of them. I do not sew Halloween costumes and I do not make class treats for every grade school event. I rarely even make a family dinner - however, if my family would agree on one dinner that they all like I will make it. Cheese Fondue comes close and we do have that for fun occasions.

What I do make are scrap books, full of stories about our day, places we enjoy and friends we love. Card making is the younger sister to Scrap books, same papers, same glue, similar creativity.

So every summer I endeavor to make 60 Christmas Cards before September, and have as many pre-addressed envelopes as possible. The year Kaeden was born I was rocking the process. Not only were all of the cards completed in mid summer but the birth announcements were mostly planned - except for knowing if we would be using blue or pink paper. Both sets of envelopes were preaddressed. So when baby Kaeden came home he snuggled in my lap while I printed letters for the birth announcement and letters for the Christmas card. And then assemble and glue them together to be mailed out within a few days of his glorious arrival home. I felt so accomplished. Being sent back into the hospital for Christmas and not able to see the children was a punch in the gut but at least I felt I could rest because all of the work I needed to do had already been mailed.

I believe this is the sixth year of home made Christmas cards, I am sure I have a sample of each one here some where but not in any organized fashion. I thought the Oh Christmas Tree card of 2007 was spectacular and I was pleased with how well it looked. This year the style is different but I think it has a formal look and I can't wait to get the first one completed so I can see how it matches my imagination. I am probably 50% complete with the whole process.

This year is the first year in a long time that I have been working on Christmas cards so close to Christmas. I used to always have them complete before September because October, November and December are really photo months and Scrapbooking becomes a priority!

But this year the local city elections threw a wrench into the timing. And on top of that the community is hosting a garage sale. We have tons and tons of baby gear and toys that all needs a good home. So this week I am sorting, dusting, pricing and hunting down anything in my home that we have not used in the last year or two. A lot of the good toys are going to go but they are in good shape and they bring much laughter and play to children who like it.

Audrey is the hardest child to buy toys for. She loves to check them out once and then she moves on. The science kits that challenge her require adult supervision. If any of you knew Brendan as a child you would understand how very very important it is for any of his offspring to be well supervised when around chemicals and opportunities of science.

Between the garage sale and furniture posted on Craig's List we hope to make a little cash cushion for our checking account. We had decided to buy Audre and ipod shuffle for her birthday - unless Brendan buys a lot of songs for it, it should come out to be a cheap present.

But we can't have a child with a cooler gadget than "ours" so Brendan got "him" an itouch so he can surf the internet and listen to books on tape at the library and other fun stuff. So now the goal is to make enough money on the garage sale to pay for the new gadget!

So the Christmas Cards - I am half way done with making them. So thrilling. Tuesday is the election and our one last push to get the voters to recognize our candidate in the hopes he'll get the vote in the polling booth. So Tuesday will be a busy day - but we've done long hours of walking door to door in many neighborhoods so I have put my time in for certain. Audrey even had fun helping too.

My life will change dramatically after November 9th. The election will be over, the garage sale will be over and Audrey's birthday sleepover party will be done. Leaving me with 2 weeks to finish making any of the rest of the Christmas cards completed before Thanksgiving.

Once that is done I will debate if I want to make another afghan for the family room - if I can find a good After Turkey sale!

First Day of School

Yike - I need to make a detailed post about our recent vacation. In the meantime, here is how the morning of the first day of School 2008 went! Kelden started Kindergarten and Audrey started 2nd grade - she thinks that is big deal!


Kids were up early and got themselves dressed - Audrey even helped Kaeden.

They ate breakfast. Sandwich was so excited about his new backpack he gave his sports backpack to Kaeden. It was so cute until Kaeden refused "No! Don wan it!" hmph.

Then as the morning wore on and breakfast was done Kelden was frustrated about how the stuff in his backpack fit (because he has to bring a few supplies that were bulky but really light) so he sat on the tile and cried. Kaeden came over to him, wrapped his arms around him and said "it's okay, it's okay Ke-den".

Then it was off to school and Kelden was convinced every car on the road was trying to make us late. I took some fun pictures in front of school and we all got to say hi to other families we haven't seen all summer.

Kelden did fine in his classroom and was ready for me to leave (I didn't linger I just walked him through the procedure of putting his stuff away). Kaeden and I popped into Audrey's classroom and said goodbye to her. Kaeden ran over to get a big hug and I got a picture of them giving each other a kiss.

Then Kaeden and I headed home and I heard this small, tiny, sad voice from behind me say: "where's Ke-den?"