Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all our friends and family a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 In school, all the kids did projects to say what they are thankful for, here are their answers:

Cecilia:  I am thankful for my family, our home, and dance.

Colby:  I am thankful for recycling because it helps keep our earth clean.

Brayden:  I am thankful for roller coasters!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gift of Giving

For CC's 9th birthday party, we had an American Girl Doll themed party.  It was great fun with fancy cupcakes, a doll fashion show, and making fancy bracelets for the dolls.  Instead of gifts, CC decided she wanted to make a donation to the children's hospital.  She asked all her friends for a donation instead of gifts so that they would be able to buy an American Girl doll for someone at the hospital.  The generosity of her friends was overwhelming, and she had raised enough money to buy two dolls and two outfits.  Grandma Sue completed the gift with making an adorable pair of pajamas for each doll.  We delivered the dolls and clothes yesterday, and CC beamed when she told the nice lady in charge of donations her story.  The hospital  will be saving these dolls to give to two special girls on Christmas Day.  We are so proud of CC for her insight to those in need and giving spirit.  It was a great way to start the holidays!

A Cake for Cookie

Cookie has been a part of our family for about a year.  He is, as Brayden often reminds us, a cookie, and we are not supposed to eat him!  Cookie is Brayden's little friend.  We can't see him, and he doesn't live in our house, although he visits often.  Cookie is often to blame for any number of things that happen in the house concerning Brayden.  For example, when Brayden has something he really shouldn't have, like the hammer or screwdriver, and I ask Brayden how he acquired that object, the answer is often, "Cookie gave it to me!"  Cookie is also to blame for eating extra M&M's, messing up the bed, and forgetting to put away toys.  Brayden even discovered one day as we were making chocolate chip muffins that Cookie doesn't like chocolate chips.  After I had given each child a small pile of chips to eat, Brayden reminded me that Cookie needed some too.  I quickly apologized, gave Cookie his pile and went on with making the muffins.  It wasn't long before Brayden chimed in to tell me, "Mom, Cookie doesn't like chocolate chips, he said I could have his!"

So here Brayden is making a cake for cookie.   Maybe Colby's friend Brownie will come to help eat the cake!!  :)

The Big Brag

Ok, so I don't want this to blog to turn into a "look how great my kids are" blog...but sometimes we parents have to brag just a little bit!  And since it is really meant for our family and friends, and since I will post the bad things too, like when the kids shake their a@@, and say "shake your booty, shake your booty", I feel it is ok to brag every once in a while.

  So here it is, CC came home from school the other day with a huge smile on her face and was anxiously awaiting to tell me something that was clearly very exciting.  She took a certificate out of her backpack that was for a "4 STAR FITNESS AWARD" and proceeded to tell us that only 2 girls  and 13 boys in the whole school received 4 stars on the physical fitness tests in PE.  They have to do push ups, sit ups, a stretching test, and the pacer test (think shuttle run, but 31 times-ugh!)  We are very proud of her, it's a great thing to have a sense of accomplishment and she certainly felt that on that day.  She was very proud, which is so important; especially in these sometimes overbearingly positive times where everyone gets a trophy for everything, and kids often don't get rewarded for actually excelling at something.  I believe that everyone is good at something, so I say let's point out everyone's somethings and help kids feel good about their real talents, not pretend to make them feel good about things they stink at.  So CC, great job, you are extremely strong, flexible, and fast!

"Mom, do we have any Reddi-Whip?"

There was a lot of whispering, planning, and many questions about whether or not we had reddi-whip from CC and Colby for the last couple of days.  Last night, we discovered what they were up to.  They had found some yummy desserts in CC's American Girl Doll magazine and couldn't wait to surprise us with what they made.  After dinner was finished and cleaned, we were sent to the basement while CC and Colby went to work.  We heard cupboards banging, the timer being set, and Colby came down to find another parfait glass.  After about 20 minutes, we were summoned upstairs to have, "The best dessert you will ever have", according to Colby.  They had made these cute little parfaits, with crumbled up graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate pudding, M & M's, and Reddi-Whip.  They had them all nicely presented in our little parfait cups, and the best part was that the kitchen wasn't even that messy!

Microwave S'mores-Absolutely!!!!!

After 6 days of being in the house with sick kids, the rules have begun to fade away.  This morning at 9:15 when Brayden decided he needed a snack, I was thrilled.  After all, he hadn't eaten much of anything this week besides glasses of orange juice and the occasional piece of peanut butter toast.  His request for s'mores normally would have been immediately denied at 9:15 on a Friday morning, but today I thought it was a fantastic idea.  It would give us something to do other than play with legos or match box cars, and besides that, let's face it, they  taste great.  I'm not sure why we don't make microwave s'mores more often, they are easy, quick, and really good!

2 Sick Boys

The boys are home again today with a low fever; just enough of a fever that they can't go to school, but not enough to really make them miserable. Which, in turn, makes my days very long! We shouldn't really go anywhere, after all I have kept them home from school, so we are stuck in the house-again! Today we filled the day with lots of Wii-probably more than they play in a month-books, and Legos. Colby has become such a great reader, he will often sit and read book after book to Brayden. Reading is one of those milestones that when they begin to effortlessly read any book they choose, it makes you take a step back and think, "When did that happen?" I often find the boys sitting together in that little glider, that same one I rocked them all to sleep in as babies, reading books, laughing and having a great time together. Could somebody please figure out how to slow down time?

Halloween...a tad late

Halloween at our house is always an exciting event. This is in part due to Grandma Sue, who makes the best costumes each year, and in part due to our pumpkin-carving tradition. Every year, we have a night when we transform our carefully picked pumpkins into amazing works of art. Troy really has the carving mastered, his pumpkins come out great every year, his witch this year was AMAZING! We also have a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating. We get about 150 trick-or-treaters each year, (yes, I count them, it gives me something to do while I am handing candy to all the cute, and often scary trick-or-treaters!) This year, the weather was perfect for a dreary, eerie, and bit spooky Halloween. The wind was blowing, it was misting outside, the dark clouds were rolling over head and the best part was that it was fairly warm, so nobody minded the dreary weather. Hope everyone had a great, fun-filled Halloween!