t'was the week before Christmas

Friday I attended 2 school concerts, Michaels and Olivias. They did a fantastic job! Friday night we went to Longwood Gardens. I had a good time as I always enjoy Longwood.

I just wanted a nice picture of Zach and I...I don't get it...

After walking around looking at the mass number of light wrapped trees and bushes and watching the fountains we sat for a bit to sing Christmas carols with an organist.

And here is my oldest adorning us with Christmas carols on the way home.

Saturday morning we had a Christmas party at 8 am (yikes!) at one of the dealerships Zach works with. I just wanted to stay all snug in my bed while visions of snickerdoodles danced in my head. BUT Cara woke us all up in hopes of St. Nicholas being there.
It was a good time. They had a magician to entertain the children.

Isaac volunteered to help with a magic act. The magician gave each of the children gum, they had to be really, really good gum chewers,

 he then pulled the gum out of the kids mouth (kind of gross!) It was awesome to watch, though. Isaacs gum must of been 9 feet long.

 

 ENTER SANTA...

Each of the kids had a gift specifically for them. Isaac and Cara received 25$ gift cards to ToysRUS. Matthew got a talking Elmo and the others received some really sweet toys. It was very thoughtful of everyone to think about us. I'm grateful I could watch the kids enjoy themselves, laugh at the magician, and participate in an enjoyable party.

Michael and Olivias holiday concert

One thing I love more than any other school activity is the music concerts. I have been so fortunate to sit through 7 years of multiple band, including the recorder, chorus, and other singing shows. I am one lucky Mom! The benefits of attending such performances is sitting in a room, usually standing room only, with other overly excited parents and grandparents....and uncles...and aunts...and cousins...and neighbors who can not wait to witness the show. Usually I sit in a row where I can't see my child. I try to take pictures but the photos end up out of focus or have someones big head blocking half the picture. I have tried to lift the camera as far as I can up and just keep clicking away in hopes of getting one (ONE!) good shot. Sometimes its very difficult to understand what the children are singing but I clap and clap and woohoo as loud as I can as if I was in the front row and there were captions across the wall.

Michael had a drum solo.

 Olivia is 3 rows up in a black dress. She did great, mostly looking a me and smiling.

 Mrs. Brooks, their music teacher.

lots of catching up

I am busy. There. Done. How funny that is when I am sitting here on the computer while a tornado, also known as children, have twisted through every room in my house. Oh, and it was in perfect order yesterday. I'm not busy. Just overly occupied.

We put the Christmas tree up this past weekend. I love my Christmas tree. After Olivia decided that ripping ornaments off the branches was no longer exciting, I took the tree and decorated it how I wanted. So all the old ornaments got packed up. Don't get me totally wrong I DO like school hand printed ornaments and pipe cleaner candy canes...on another tree. In their place I hung sparkly, glittered, glass balls, all color coordinated. Gold reindeer's and beautiful snowflakes.

Skip ahead..

Let's bring Matthew into the picture...

 

 The tree is only decorated 3/4 the way up. Four ornaments broken in the first hour. Absolutely no glass ornaments on the lower half and wear protection while in the living room, helmets, cups (for the boys), pillows, ANYTHING, because you will get hit with a flying ornament.

 

Wear protection.

Why?

Matthew throws everything

 

 

and he has an amazing throw. He's a natural pitcher. Amazing, I tell ya. He will hit where ever he aims every. single. time.

 

Olivia is still loving gymnastics. I went to parent observation week a few weeks ago. It's the one week they allow parents to watch. I totally understood why, all the children were standing, looking at their parents, and smiling. Supposedly we are a distraction. She did amazing! She twists and flips over the bars. Her cart wheels are perfect. She is a pro on the balance beam. She is working on head and hand stands right now.

Cara trotted around as winning "Miss. Devon". She is so funny. She is witty and quick like her father, with a sprinkle of annoying just added on top but she makes me laugh every time. She made her sash out of left over ribbon then walked around pretending to cry and batting her eye lashes while giving a "I would like to thank" speech. Cracks me up.

 

Isaac won his first wrestling match. He keeps getting better every week. Sam enjoys going to cub scouts every week. He is also doing fantastic in school. Michael is still so adorable. I love his smile and his laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



what goes around comes around

some ridiculous saying that is....

I apologized to my Mother the other day for all the hard times I gave her and my father while growing up. She sort of ignored my remark and started talking about Christmas presents for Cara. So officially I am apologizing for every dumb, stupid, rude, or totally obnoxious thing I ever did before today. Yes. Today.

Oh man, I was a rebellious and ignorant young kid, tween, teenager,adult.  Seriously. I can't even write the events of my life.

Why did I feel the need to apologize? It's my first born.

He is all the things I remember being. The not-so-good things and good. He's smart. Like book smart. I was always book smart. I didn't have to try very hard to get good grades. He doesn't either. He gets good grades. Won the 4th grade spelling bee then lost at state level. BUT won none the less. Teachers LOVE him. He waits until the hour before bed to complete a project he has known about for weeks and still scores an A.

I was caught at EVERYTHING I did. Ha! and he actually thinks he gets away with everything. I keep telling him I know everybody and everything.

But this is what I actually wanted to write about, Isaac has his own cell phone. (on the record, Zach completely opposed it). He's had it taken away several times. First month he had over 10,000 text messages. I am laughing while writing that. WHO can text that many times in 1 month!?!? Phone gone. So over the past year or so its been the "home" phone. Occasionally, I have to remind Isaac to take the phone out of his book bag-it's not yours. Tonight I went to upgrade my phone and to my little wondering eyes I see he has 7,500 text messages. Knowing he is in school ALL DAY I wondered when he is actually making these messages. I only looked at 2 days, yesterday and today. For 4 hours last night, between 9:30 (when he is suppose to be in bed) and 1:00 am there were over 400 messages...to the same number. His "I don't have a girlfriend" friend. I don't know her name. I don't know what she looks like. She obviously is nocturnal. Maybe a vampire.

I remember when my parents got me my own phone line. I was so excited. It was the cool thing. All my friends had their own phone number. I even got a phone that lit up when it rang. Very cool! So late at night I turned the ringer off and waited for the phone to light up. I would talk for hours every night. Probably to my "he's not my boyfriend" friend. I was so sneaky.


So the new age of communication is not different from when I was young(er). Here is my dilemma..do I let him "talk" to his friends and "pretend" I don't know, because my parents had to hear my yapping away all night, or let him know I know? Do I take the phone away or let him be dumb and stupid for many years?

I turned out just fine, right?

I'm not ready for those years. I remember what I was like. I had no choice but to apologize to my Mom.

Another joy of parenting.

what's your fear?

I actually have a  lot of fears. As I grow older the number of things that scare me increase. I don't like trees during hurricanes. I do not like the ocean. I love the sand and waves and the hot sun but I will not go in the water. There is just too much unknown. I would never go on a cruise for the fear of reliving the Titanic. I have only flew over the ocean in a plane once, well, once to and from, and that scares me the worst.

I have a few things that twist my stomach in knots. Mostly anything to do with the mouth. I gag and I don't mean that in a hypothetical way. I REALLY do gag and force my stomach contents to stay DOWN. I can't see blood in the mouth or even a loose tooth. I can't not watch shows like Fear Factor which makes the contestants eat foreign insects or worms covered in blood. I try to watch shows like Survivor Man up until the host starts eating or drinking... uhh I don't know...freshly killed Zebra...like a vulture or his own urine. gag.

Zach came home last week wanting to have a family fear factor night. I thought it was a brilliant and fun idea as long as I didn't need to eat anything. We got together with friends as he thought it would be more fun. Zach creatively put the whole thing together.

The first event was the ice bath. We had to put our feet in freezing cold iced water until they went numb and frost bitten. The water was very VERY cold. I made it to 90 seconds. The kids lasted about 45 seconds.

The second event was eating chocolate covered ants which Zach bought from the "Asian store" earlier that day. (We did go to the Asian store so the all totally believed him). Actually, they were eating Rasienets. This was one of a few eating contests. I should of known what was going to happen when one contestant spit all the ants out her their mouth and quit. Cara thought she was really eating ants and declared how yummy they tasted.

The next event was disgusting. Cara didn't even participate. Michael realized he wasn't scoring as many points as needed to get first pick of a prize and he had his eye on a special prize that he picked out for himself. He knew he needed to step up his game and that he did. If chocolate covered ants weren't bad enough how about mini marshmallows covered in mustard. Yuck! In cringed just watching them. Michael and Tia practically finished their entire cup. They were very brave.

 

Zach planned 2 more eating contests but after the meltdown from these he eliminated them. So on to the third event...

This was fun. Nothing had to be consumed. Everyone had to scoop out 10 goldfish from one container to another. Whoever scooped the fastest won the highest points.

The final event was the Pick a Cricket. Crickets were dumped into the bucket, blindfolded each of us had to feel for and pick out 5 peanuts.

and we ended with a dance off.  A few scared cries, "I'm going to throw up" yells, and minimal pain led to a fun night.

Now I know I can withstand cold water and I no longer can eat mustard.

 

hello candy

I'm not a fan of Halloween. I really don't know why not. I mean who wouldn't totally enjoy dressing up in any costume you want and walking from door to door yelling Trick OR Treat and receiving candy. As I child I liked Halloween...I think. I remember being a cheerleader and a pick and black leopard, which was favorite costume. My mother let me walk out of the house in a hot pink and black leopard leotard (never realized those two words are a letter apart. Fun fact.) with fish net stockings and a homemade furry tail and ears. I must of been in 6th grade. Besides those two things I have no idea what I disguised myself as.

I tell myself it's too much work with so many children. Not true, even when it was only Isaac I huffed and puffed and picked the easiest thing to throw on him. He was a pumpkin the first year and a lion the next. One year he was a ghost made out of a sheet. Pathetic, huh? This year my mom so graciously, and I am beyond thankful for, bought all the kids a Halloween costume. I told them if they don't find a costume in the dress up box, they need to make it themselves. I'm not buying or helping. Guess I'm not a helpful mother this time of year. Oma to the rescue.

These pictures are from the ward Trunk or Treating party.

Cara as a zombie waitress. Let it be known that she DID have fishnet stockings on but her father made her change them since the skirt was up to her rear.

 Zach with his rockin' 70's mullet or Joe Dirt or a hillbilly. He's been called a few names. And he will probably call me a few names for putting this picture on.

 Olivia is a cupcake (again). She got bunny ears, a bunny nose and a tail because she wanted to be a bunny dressed up as a cupcake but forwent that idea 5 minutes before leaving. Michael the mummy.

 Isaac as nothing. It was a hard Halloween for him. He didn't want to go with me the day the others picked out a costume. He then wanted to order the most expensive costume, at which I opposed. THEN he was suppose to get a homemade costume but it never happened. Intentions were good but that's it. From the looks of it his friends they didn't dress up either so he wasn't totally out of place.

 Matthew was a dragon. He screamed and ripped his costume off for the trunk or treating but kept it on, even with the dragon booties, on Halloween night. Matthew was SO adorable. By the third house he knew to pick the candy out of the bowl and put it in his bucket. He then tried to go into the houses. We will need to work on that for next year. He is squash bowling here at the ward Halloween party.

On Halloween night we had a few friends over for dinner and trick or treating. Cara changed her costume to a pretty waitress instead of a zombie. I personally think the zombie was better but whatever. Her friend Nicole was Cleopatra and my sister, Somer was herself.

Sam dressed as a Ninja and he looked awesome. I think he saw the other kids' costumes at the trunk or treating and decided his was stupid. He didn't wear it for Halloween and went door to door as himself. Of course, he opposed all pictures. I walked around with Michael and Olivia and eventually the neighbors who we met on another street. They were cute running from door to door discussing what candy was their favorite and what they were going to eat when they got home.

Candy Favorites:
Mom: Junior Mints/York Peppermint Patty
Dad: Swedish Fish and Twizzlers
Michael: Whoppers
Olivia:Whoppers
Isaac: Hersheys
Sam: Reeses PB Cups
Cara: Twix and Milky Way

Curse you Sandy! Curse you!!

Well, Hurricane Sandy came by and left without incident. No fallen trees. No power outages. No in-house water. My corn stalks are still hanging and the bushes are still intact.

I get a phone call today from Brandywine School District saying all schools will resume tomorrow EXCEPT for Hanby. Are you kidding me! Seriously, out of ALL the schools the one 4 children go to is closed again because of no power.

CURSE YOU!! (fist shaking towards the sky) CURSE YOU!!