First days of School 2010

The kids started school this week. Michael is in 1st grade.

Adam is in third. Do you think he is happy I am taking his picture?This is them walking to school.

Adam was sad because his best friend, Jack, is not in his class. He had been for the past two years.

Here's all the kids before we left for school. Nate really wanted to wear a backpack too, so I got one of Adam's old backpacks. Adam wasn't sure that he could let Nate use it, because it was his special Superman backpack and Nate might ruin it :)

Ellie got to start school on Tuesday. She is in pre-k this year. She still goes to Miss Cheryls and gets to go three days a week.

Nate also gets to go to preschool this year. He goes once a week for 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately not at the same time as Ellie, but that's okay. At first he was very unsure of staying, but after he saw there was play-doh there he was very happy to stay.

I love how big his backpack is on him. So cute!

The Toy That's Worth 2000 Pages

Round about May Adam and Michael went to a friends house who had air soft guns. They played with them and decided that they REALLY wanted some. I, however, was not too keen on the idea. They talked to Joe who thought that they could probably get some. I decided that if they were going to get some they had better work really hard to earn them.

We decided that they would have to read to earn them. We found out the price of the guns and found that they were about $25. Then we told them they could earn money to buy them by reading and they would earn 1cent per page reading. For those of you a little math illiterate, that means they would each have to read 2500 pages ( and they had to be somewhat on level). They set off, and it ended up taking longer than I thought it would. A couple of weeks ago Joe told them if they could get to 2000 before school started he would count that as enough. Sure enough, two days later they had. So here they are with their new guns and masks. Don't they look happy that I am taking their pictures?

Home Depot

For anyone that knows my husband, knows that he likes to do projects. In fact, sometimes he buys things that need fixing just to have a project (he claims this isn't so but I am sure of it). His favorite store is "the Depot." I try to avoid going there with him if I can help it. I used to think it was fun, and sometimes it is fun to look at the tiles and the kitchens and see how things go together, but quite often I will get stuck with Joe in the bolt aisle for about 20 minutes while he looks at the bolts and thinks about them and sees what they have and...really, that gets old. Now I try to avoid it, especially if there are 4 little helpers involved.
Today we went together to look for tiles for a backsplash, so I happened to have my camera. When we walked in the door all the kids quickly ran to a cart like this and proceeded to jump onto it. Joe walked around looking at all of the stuff on the aisles and pushing the kids as they alternately stuck their feet out and down and climbed from side to side. Somehow no one got hurt and they never ran into anyone (but there were several close calls when the kids feet would stick out).

Whenever Joe goes with the kids and then comes home I ask him how they were and he replies..."great, they are good kids!"

I have to wonder, they don't act like good kids when they go to the store with me, usually I barely make it out of the store without having to put myself in time out so I don't do something I would regret later.

Oh well, he can take them every time he goes to "the Depot," maybe he can take them the next time I need to go shopping...sounds like a win, win situation to me!

Big T is for Trouble

He may look real cute and innocent, but just yesterday I found him:

1. Taking handfuls of Legos out of the big bins of Legos and throwing them around the gameroom.

2. Taking a pipe cleaner worm Michael had made him and putting it in the toaster and turning the toaster on.

3. Attempting to stir the pot of boiling noodles on the stove (luckily I caught him before he succeeded)

4. Plugging a cell phone charger into the wall, the end that goes into the phone he attempted to plug into the empty outlet above the charger.

5. Wielding a 12 inch serrated bread knife. Upon closer examination I found the loaf of bread with 2 suspicious cuts in it where he had attempted to cut himself a piece.

Seriously, I guess I need to follow his every step every hour of the day. Today has been a much better day, so far no major incidences.

Do you think I could keep him penned up in a pack and play all day? It would be for his own good.

Does anyone want me to watch their child?

What do 10,000 airsoft BB's look like?

...all over the floor?

I'm sure I will still be finding them 4 weeks from now.

3 2 year olds

While Joe's sisters were here, we had 3 two year olds (well two were two and one was almost two) running around. Most of the time it was cute, but we often heard the words, "MINE!" and "NO!". It was nice to know that two year olds are universally all the same and they all do very similar things.
We saw the commercial for the denim colored diapers, so we bought a package and stripped the boys down into them and tried for a photoshoot. Nate wanted to keep his clothes on. The pictures were mostly just pandemonium because what two year olds will sit still for a picture, but I think the chaos is cute!



William, Ben and Nate. William and Nate were okay with this, but Ben was not, which shortly made Nate not okay with it.

Ben was two in October, Nate in May and William this August.

Its cute to see how differently these three boys are built. Really they don't look much like cousins, although they all have a fair amount of Frost in them.

What is there not to love in these boys?

4th Child Parenting

The kids had a sleepover at their cousins house last night. This morning, I had to take Adam to a cub scout event. When we got home, I walked in the front door, right past Nate's room and then went out back to talk to Joe. I asked Ellie and Michael where Nate was and they said outside with Daddy. I went outside where Joe was weed-eating and he said Nate had gone inside a while ago. I quickly rushed inside and started yelling his name, sending the other kids upstairs to find him. He didn't respond, he wasn't anywhere and so finally I rechecked his room.

I guess if you don't put your tired child down for a nap, they put themselves down for one.
Poor baby.