Thanksgiving (Five Year Old Style)

Today I had the pleasure of attending Megan's kindergarten feast to celebrate Thanksgiving. No matter how old you are, or how much the world has changed, one thing hasn't: Kindergartners still make vests out of paper grocery bags, pilgrim and indian hats, and eat a feast on the floor of the elementary school hall the week of Thanksgiving. It does my heart good!
Pilgrim Meg...
Indian Meg...

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Blonde Hair is Spreading!

Yes, as some of you have noticed, Connor also let my friend, Tonya, put blonde highlights in his hair a few weeks ago. Jordan had her own hair highlighted the same day I did, but after mine turned out to be a little blonder than planned, she asked that hers be less dramatic. I think because she already has a lot of blonde in her hair, the result wasn't very noticeable. After Jordie, two of her friends decided they wanted to try some highlights. We were on a roll. Max, who has spent most of the past years with little or no hair, trying to please his Dad, I think, couldn't be left out of the fun. So, he really went blonde! It's amazing how far a bottle of bleach and toner can go and our neighborhood has definitely gotten their money's worth out of that little trip to Sally Beauty Supply!

All Kyle wants for Christmas

The other day while we were shopping for the basic necessities at our favorite place -- Super Wal-Mart, Kyle spotted his Christmas wish. A huge transformer that has been advertised on tv a lot and he has seen in the new hit movie that has recently been out on video. His eyes got really big and he looked at me and said "that's what I want for Christmas, Mom!" I said, "wow, that is pretty cool, Kyle, but it's a lot of money!" He asked me how much money it was. I answered "a hundred dollars".

He then replied "well, you have had a hundred bucks before, haven't you Mom?" I said, yes, but I never had spent a hundred dollars on one toy. I saw his little brain spinning and then he said slowly: "have you ever had a hundred bucks when you were at Wal Mart?"

I had to laugh at his reasoning:

I just love 4 year olds, especially smart ones!

Team "Mana" powers to victory

Today was the final day of Jordan's volleyball season. Her team won 1st place, and Jordan had the pressure of being up to serve at the very end of the third game, the tie breaker. The score was 13 to 12, and they only play to 15 on the third game. So, congratulations are in order that she made us proud and served those last two balls with all the skill, power and prayer that she could muster, winning the game and the tournament. Yay!

Her team's name was "Mana" which is a polynesian word meaning "great power".
Her coach was Hawaiian and she had a good experience with her first competitive volleyball team. She also played with her Young Women team at church, so she's definitely had a lot of practice and improvement this season. I'm proud of her for her dedication and perserverence even on the Saturdays when she had to play for both the church team and the Rec. Center. It's been a rewarding experience watching her improve and have fun! I have to admit the only part I'm not going to miss is all the taxi driving to and from the practices. But, I guess it's just something that goes with my job title so I better get used to it!

Costumes Revealed!

Will the real baked potato please stand up??

Here you go-- thanks to my friend and neighbor, Holly, who brought her camera to the school parade in the morning and went trick or treating with us on Halloween Night. The only person not captured is Jordan, who has entered the years where trick or treating is not done with Mom and the little siblings anymore, but out with a group of wild teen agers who are trying to prove their independence and maturity (by trick or treating -- now that's a little ironic!)

The baked potato idea came from a mad dash to find something that Connor would agree to being. He's got a "rep" to protect, as you all know. I think he's been a football player the majority of his life and last year was an army man. When I thought of the idea of wrapping him in reynolds wrap and going as a baked potato, we thought it was clever and quite original, however, he ended up being an incredibly HOT potato! When he removed the aluminum foil after the morning elementary school parade, his t-shirt was dripping wet from sweat. He decided to forego the uncomfortable mess and go as a "scary guy" (I guess) for night time trick or treat. I thought his make up looked kind of like Gene Simmons from "Kiss" but I think he was going for anything that might get a reaction from the girls!Max (or Maxine) was the best and most real looking red headed girl -- the daughter I always thought I'd get! His little freckled face looked so cute under that wig, and I was the most disappointed with losing the pic's of him because we had really good poses and up close shots, but we'll settle for the fact that the memory was at least captured for our future viewing pleasure.
Here's Megan and her side-kick- Arianah. Those two are definitely trouble with a capital T.Kyle was the ninja turtle, of course. Since he couldn't stand having the red fabric across his own eyes, we ended up tying it over the turtle's head instead, but it worked!

I think this turtle's main problem was keeping his candy bucket from dumping out at every house with steps! Gotta love halloween!

So many words of wisdom, so little time!

Today was one of those days when I felt like I repeated myself a million times trying to get the kids to listen, and basically felt like a broken record providing them with background noise, but not one of the requests or reprimands actually sunk into any of their brains.
I received this little clip from my niece a few weeks ago in an e-mail. As I viewed it the first time, I had to laugh, because I think I've said almost all of the things this woman sang about. I'm more than sure that I've heard them come out of my own Mother's mouth thousands of times!
Just a little fun for the end of a long and tiring day of errands, dental appointmnts, and too many "mom words" that left my mouth!