no one is ever eating on the couch again

This is what happens after a year of 5 people eating, doing homework, and playing on the couch...

pumpkin patch outtakes

These may be as good as the "good" one on the bottom...

pumpkin patch time

This year we managed to hit not one, but 4 pumpkin patches.

Z and I got invited to go along with the kindergarten classes because he has "Pez" (J's teacher from last year) wrapped around his little finger. After some hay bale climbing, cow milking, farm animal petting, tractor riding and potato digging action, he got stung by a bee. We hit the road shortly thereafter since he quickly developed a fear of anything small and flying. Although, at one point, Z managed to highjack my camera and take some pretty amazing pictures of me...

This may be my new favorite picture of myself.

This is definitely one of my favorites of him. Love those boots!

Last week J's class went to another pumpkin patch and Z and I tagged along. I'm not sure if the highlight at this one was feeding the horses or watching the kids scream in disgust as they tried to feed the cows...

Those cows had some seriously huge, slobbery tongues.

This weekend we managed to make it to two pumpkin patches in one day. The first one was near our house and involved...

an incredibly expensive session of bounce house jumping,

crazy wooden cutouts that have nothing to do with fall,

and pumpkins that were even more expensive than the bounce houses.

After a few tears when we informed the kids there was no way we would be paying $25 per pumpkin, we headed up the highway to farmland and the best pumpkin patch yet.

The pony rides were the highlight. (Really, how could they not be?)

Z tried on a pretty stellar hat.

Biggest pumpkin she could carry!

ugh

I guess this is one way to clean the fridge out. Also, I thought Pyrex containers were supposed to be pretty much unbreakable.

week at uncle jed's house

Let me just say that I love vacations. The vacations I normally love are the fly-somewhere-new-and-see-as-much-as-you-can sort of vacations. This year we drove north to my brother's house. A went to summer camp with her cousin while J and Z spent the week running around outside with the other cousins. Mr. D and I spent the week sleeping, reading, eating, talking and laughing at the kids.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

My favorite things:

Swimming.
The kids running outside as soon as they wake up.
Hearing the kids playing and laughing outside until they collapsed at 9 or 10 at night.
Impromptu soccer games with the dads.
Sitting around and reading. And eating. And eating some more.
Uncle Jed taking the kids fishing.
The snowball fight in swimsuits after fishing.
Neville the Deer Stalker.
A (aka Miss Independent) having a fabulous time at camp.
The many hours the kids spent on Uncle Jed's tire swing.
The kids riding the little Jeep until the battery died.
Z plowing over the plants and into a tree while driving the little Jeep.
Having the entire family together on Friday.
Staying up until 1 in the morning multiple times, talking and laughing with Jed and Casandra.
No RA for the entire week.
Resting.
The amount of love I have for my family.

Seriously. Next summer I think we are just gonna move in to their house.

I'm waiting for the camera battery to charge so I can upload the hundreds of photos and post a few. Or twenty. In the meantime, here are a couple of the trip up and back:


Z had to stop and pee about 7 times.


Mister never-take-a-nap slept almost the whole way home.

walk

The boys and I took a walk along the water today after dropping A off for a sleepover (on a houseboat, nonetheless). The walk soon turned into rock skipping then crab hunting. J was determined to find as many crabs as possible, but had a panic attack every time we did. Go figure.




One of the giant, killer, dog eating crabs.

so far today

6:04 am: Get shaken awake by the 5-year old who wants to get in bed with me.
6:09 am: Have my nanas* grabbed and fondled by the 2-year old. (*It's a hold over from his nursing days. Think about it.)
6:14 am: Shake my head as the 2-year old starts trying to fly off the bed. Literally.
6:16 am: Comfort the 2-year old who gets mad when he discovers he can't actually fly.
6:20 am: Fend off a jumping dog as I stumble to the kitchen in search of coffee.
6:25 am: Take markers away from the 2-year old who is drawing all over himself and the table with no paper in sight.
6:27 am: Peel off stickers the 2-year old has now adhered to the table.
6:29 am: Help the 8-year old finish her math homework.
6:45 am: Try and clean out the massive amounts of cars that have accumulated in the boys' room.
7:01 am: Find blocks the 2-year old has put in the dog's water bowl.
7:02 am: Wash off blocks.
7:05 am: Try to pick up in living room.
7:09 am: Get distracted from the picking up by the 2-year old who has opened the pencil sharpener and is scattering shavings everywhere.
7:10 am: Sweep up pencil shavings.
7:16 am: Take bag of chocolate chips away from the 2-year old.
7:18 am: Help the 5 and 8-year old finish packing their lunches.
7:21 am: Explain to the 5 and 8-year old why they can't take candy to school.
7:24 am: Fill two grocery bags with cars to give away.
7:27 am: Remind the 8-year old that it is winter and tights or leggings might be in order.
7:32 am: Comfort the 2-year old who again tried to fly, this time off a step.
7:34 am: Say goodbye to the 5 and 8-year old as they head off to school.
7:35 am: Turn the TV on for the 2-year old so he can stay out of trouble for at least a while.

time to whine

So far today I have...burned my hand, picked one sick child up from school, discovered that another child threw a baseball through the front window, been locked out of the house by the same child, and spent way to much time on the phone with my insurance company only to find out that we no longer have prescription coverage through them.

I think I'm going to go take a nap and see if I can't start my day over.

mr. d, rat killer

We had a rat in our house a few weeks ago. Not a cute little mouse. A big. Fat. Long tailed. Rat. Normally I'm not too troubled by rodents. This, however, put me over the edge.

Z and I were trying to take a nap when I first heard it under the bed. It's just a binky, I thought. Somehow rolling around and around on the floor. I almost convinced myself it was true. Then I looked up and saw it climbing the bathroom door. Of course, the first thing I tried to do was take a picture of it with my phone so I could prove how big and monstrous it really was. But I wasn't quick enough and it ran back under the bed. At that point I couldn't get out of the room fast enough. I almost left Z behind. I mean, who wants to wake a sleeping toddler up? But, the images of the rat climbing on him were too much so I grabbed him and fled, slamming the door behind me. I was sure it was confined to the room at this point. The space under the door was too tiny for it to crawl under, right?

For the next week I slept in A's bed, not wanting to be anywhere near it. By the time I had finally summoned up the courage to sleep in my room again, Mr. D had been banished to the couch, due to a cold resulting in excessive snoring. 4 days later I found out that he and the rat were having late night rendezvous' in the living room. And that he saw it crawling under the door to the kids rooms. That's when the trap came in. No more nice, humane, super sonic noise makers to chase it away.

It took one night to catch it. It stole the cheese bait 3 times before Mr. D put the peanut butter in the trap. Thwack! Twitch, twitch, twitch, scratch, scratch. Not wanting to get up and see what happened, I actually texted Mr. D at 1 in the morning to find out if it was dead. It was, after being thrown across the room and twitching feebly for awhile. Mr. D waited until it was stiff until scraping it off the floor and entombing it in a plastic bag. In. The. Kitchen. Trashcan. Not outside, mind you. In the house! It sat there all day because I was afraid to touch the trashcan. Yuck.

So, the rat is gone. And a skunk has taken its place. Not in the house, thankfully. Maybe underneath the house. Or somewhere close by. I thought we left the rodents behind in Washington when we moved here.

today

I know I shouldn't be, but sometimes I am amazed at how different our kids are. Take today, for instance. One child spent the entire day reading and playing quietly in her room. Another child followed us around, asking us to play Legos with him, read with him, play a game with him, watch a movie with him, etc. The third child was somewhat self-sufficient, though he was a bit like a tornado, causing mayhem and destruction wherever he went.

Truth be told, sometimes I wish they could all be like the one who can sit and read all day. But, then I wouldn't get so much snuggle time with the 5-year old and I wouldn't be constantly amazed and entertained by the 2-year old and his industriousness.

a bicycle built for 5...

We spent Saturday in the city. A started circus school (and learned how to do a bit of plate spinning along the way). We then proceeded with step 2 of our Awesome Day in the Sun which was a picnic by the lake. After the picnic, the kids wanted to rent paddle boats. Luckily, the boats were all rented out and they only seated 4 people (because honestly, pedaling 3 kids around a lake sounds kind of like a nightmare to me). We compromised and rented one of those ginormous bike surrey contraptions and pedaled around the park for an hour. Well, pedaled and pushed at one point when someone, who was navigating, missed our turnoff and we had to push it up a steep path. (They key thing in this story is that the kids weren't tall enough to help pedal, try as they might, so it was just the two of us making this enormous thing go.) We followed the "bike" ride up with some Icees and tree climbing.

It was a really, really good day.







now listening to: sesame street theme by elmo via rhapsody

it's not even december yet...

J already has his Christmas list done and hanging on the fridge. Among the items he's asking for this year are:

- Star Wars sheets
- a Star Wars sticker book
- a Star Wars poster
- an Ugly Doll
- a globe
- a Millennium Falcon that really flies
- and a little penguin statue

(A few thoughts here... a) evidently the Pottery Barn Kids catalog was open while he was writing his list, b) this kid kind of likes Star Wars and c) I have no idea what a "little penguin statue" is.)

J and I were reading "Where's Waldo" tonight (wait...is that something you can actually say you are reading?) when I noticed one of the pictures had Santa in it. I told him he had to think about what to ask Santa for this year. "Well, I already made my list" was the reply. "Yes, but Santa only brings you one thing," I countered. "But I want Santa to bring me everything!" Then the tears came. For 5-minutes. Sigh. We tried to convince him that other people would buy him gifts (hint, hint to any grandparents, aunts or uncles out there) and that Santa had far too many kids to deliver toys to, with a limited amount of space in his sleigh. "But Santa's toy bag is SO big!" How can I argue with that?

Meanwhile, A successfully cleaned her room by throwing everything into her closet and Z had reoccurring meltdowns for 2.5-hours straight, with a small break to tuck Curious George into bed (thereby looking completely adorable and helping us to remember that we actually like him.)


now listening to: i'm yours by jason mraz via rhapsody