This my friends is why we go to the grocery store

1 cent pony rides! How sweet is that?

Actually, what's really awesome is that I can let her ride 3 times, and suddenly I'm the best Mom ever.

Have I mentioned...

I really love this bench!

Josh has had several days off this month, which means lots of football in the backyard.

A few other things worth mentioning.

• The kids had their primary program at church today and James blew us away by actually saying his part from memory.
• Samm got to sing in a small group and was the only one you could hear. She loves any type of performing.
• I got called to be the relief society pianist. Scared? Yes!
• The oldest of my offspring turns 8 one week from today!
  
  

A for effort. F for procrastination.

Last night as I was reading a few blogs and getting ready to call it a night, a voice whispered in my head, "tomorrow is scarecrow day."

"Ugh. Really?" I totally forgot. All of kindergarten is celebrating the beginning of fall today by dressing up as scarecrows. Luckily for James, I wasn't about to let him go to school without a costume so I stayed up incredibly late scrounging around and hot gluing.

Unfortunately, just as I was finishing up the shirt and pants and thinking that was a pretty good last minute pull together, James woke up and came in to see what I was doing. When I showed him the costume he said "where's the hat? Scarecrows have straw hats."


So, how do you throw together a straw hat at midnight using only what you have on hand? An old baseball hat, minus the bill, raffia, and a lot of hot glue. I think I pulled just as much glue off my fingers as I put on the hat.

The hat ended up looking like some sort of safari hat gone wrong, but it's a hat and it's made of straw. Good enough. James got a little apprehensive though as soon as it was time to go to the bus. He told me "I don't think I need a hat. I'll just leave it here."

You better believe I made him wear it anyway. Don't worry he was fine. None of the kids at the bus stop laughed at him, and he even saw a few other straw hats (cowboy hats) looking out the window of the bus, which is when he happily plopped it back on and bounced up the steps.

Hungry?

This

Plus this

Equals yum!

...But only when the Doctor is away, because he hates tomatoes!

Do you hate tomatoes?

Good.

Grab a few, and mix it up with some fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. Throw in some garlic and olive oil, and top it with hot pasta.

Oh, and if you want extra yum, roast the tomatoes and garlic for 10 minutes first and then let the whole thing marinate for 2 hours.

100% finished

No more sanding, painting, or staining. And josh can finally park in the garage again.

Here is a reminder of what our very old and incredibly beat up table used to look like.

Here is our brand new "scratch it and you die!" table, sporting it's new bench. By the way, I LOVE the bench. I know it doesn't really match with the chairs, but I still love having it.

This is a more realistic view of what the table usually looks like. James is showing you all his dinosaur, in case you were wondering.

One of the many reasons why I love this bench.

Elmo loves hugs

And, having whatever the heck you want for dinner night. Which is exactly whats going down at our house tonight!

ps. Totally awsome giveaway at Modern Myrtle right now! My friend Joni is super talented, so you should definitely enter. Then again, don't. I want to win!

Really, Truly

There was nothing to blog about today. Not unless your interested in hearing about how we took Josh's car to get the oil changed?

I didn't think so.

I was almost in a cold sweat as 7:00 started approaching. I mean, the Monster must be fed. The Grandparents demand pictures.

Well, I certainly hope this picture snack will satisfy until a full course meal can be prepared and properly served.

There are perks to being the youngest...

Especially if Daddy doesn't have to be at work until 3:00 and it is a perfectly gorgeous day.

The Detroit Zoo is surprisingly nice and very large. You can't do the whole thing in one day if you are toting toddler legs. So we went and asked Macy what animals she wanted to see. Swogs, nakes, and cwockodiles were what she wanted. Sadly, the snakes and crocodiles were closed today, but we did make it to the frogs.

These frogs are in a circle and spit water at each other, but I didn't catch any shots of the water coming out. Josh and Macy were spitting water at each other though.

Macy really liked this guys. He was crawling all over the glass and she thought he was trying to give her a hi-five.

We grabbed some hot dogs for lunch. Not because I enjoy hot dogs, but because they were only a dollar. Macy had a hard time with bun though...

So eventually we ditched it and went for plain hot dog dipped in ranch.

Josh got a goose to eat Macy's bun out of his hand...and then we got in trouble for feeding them!

It really was a beautiful morning! And so quiet with all the older kids in school.

All the kids love this underwater tunnel where the seals swim. Josh was tired of me taking picture of him so he grabbed the camera. I guess I should post a few pictures of me at least so the kids remember what I looked like when I was still semi-young.

Macy being a prairie dog.

Yes, I got in too!

We don't have a stroller anymore, so Macy was pretty pooped by the time we left.

How cute are they!

My Boy

I had homework tonight from James' Kindergarten teacher. Nothing to hard, just your typical cut and past stuff. A picture of him and five words to describe who he is. And as I was trying to take the above picture of him and he could not for the life of him hold still, the only word I could think of was "Youmakemecrazy!"

Shamefully, I have to admit that over the last year or so most of the things that have come out of my mouth in regards to my boy have been negative. To him and others. He doesn't think about anything before he acts, he won't stop teasing his sisters, he doesn't follow directions. I keep trying to remind myself that he is a typical boy, but in the moment I usually just want to pull out my hair and wring his neck.

My goodness though, how I love him!

Sad that it took a little homework assignment for me to remember that, but I'm thankful for the reminder.

I remembered the day he was born and how scary it was. We heard the beeps of his little heart rate monitor go from slow to stopped completely and I suddenly didn't care how he came out just as long as he was OK. And when I heard him cry for the first time, I cried too.

James is a lover! He loves to love people and give kisses. The older he gets, the fewer kisses I get, but I still take them as often as I can. I especially loved his kisses when he was two.

James is also fun. He loves to be silly and make people laugh. These days he leans towards the bathroom humor, but after growing up with four brothers I know for a fact that is a boy thing.

He is also energetic and busy. And constantly hungry these day I might add! If he can eat two sandwiches for lunch right now, how much bread will I be buying when he's twelve?

And can I just say he is still stinkin cute! (He looks just like his Dad) His smile gets me every time.

So. That's my James. The boy who has my heart! And tomorrow his teacher will know that about him.

Lights out

Today Macy woke up at 7:00 am and at 9:00am asked if she could take a nap. Actually, she was whiny so I asked her if she needed a nap, and she said "yes!" So I put her in bed and she slept for two hours.

After her nap we headed to Target to do some light shopping and browsing. Of course I did the browsing first, instead of taking care of my list. And the second I headed off in the direction of my first item, without warning, the entire store went pitch black. I think my heart actually stopped for half a second, and I'm pretty sure I reached down and grabbed Macy's hand much harder than was actually necessary. You never know though how many crazy people might be wandering around stores just waiting for a random power outage so they can snatch a kid! It could happened.

Anyway, it only took about ten seconds for the stores generator to kick on, but I decided to abandon my list and get out. Dark stores are just a little too spooky. And not a quarter of a mile down the road we discovered the reason for the outage. The power company was trying to get rid of a tree that had tangled itself up in the power lines. Phew! no terrorist or child snatchers on the loose!

After that we headed to Pier One to drool over their pretty couch pillows and Macy was so good that I bought her a little tiny container of pink goo. It's harmless right?

Fortunately for me, Samm did the exact same thing with silly putty when she was that age so I already knew to not panic. Unfortunately, we were only half way through our grocery shopping at that point so I got to walk around for 30 minutes with the kid who stuck pink goo in their hair.

And should this ever happen to your child...

• Spray liberally with cooking spray
• Let sit for 20 min
• comb out

Of course once you comb it all out you have to sprinkle their head with cornstarch to soak up all the oil and then wash their hair several times. But hey, the goo came out and they probably needed a bath anyway.

PS. I got my bench yesterday. I'll show pictures once it's painted to match the other chairs. I'm very excited about it, and all three kids can fit on one side of the table now. I told Josh all we need is one for the other side and we could manage six kids. He didn't even laugh, which is how not funny he found my little joke.