Start to Finish

 

Here is how my day started.  Really lovely.  Husband agreed to take the little ones to preschool so that I could meet a dear friend for coffee  before she had to go to work.  We met a new place in our town which should and could put Starbucks out of business.  Delish.

Stopped briefly at home to find this…

Can you see the crazy look in her eyes?  Yeah, that’s from all the TINY MARTHA STEWART CRAFT GLITTER that she poured out everywhere.  All over.  The floor, the fireplace, the rug…it’s everywhere.  And impossible to clean up.  It’s even on the rat.  Poor, glittery rat.  Her daddy tried to wash her face before school but she went to school with gold glitter lining her upper and lower lids…very 80’s.  Oh, and it’s all over her scalp too.

Got everyone home from school and had impromptu play date at the park.  Finn hopped on a friend’s four wheeler and I really never heard from him again.

It was a really beautiful day, following a crummy cold, wet week so everyone was really happy to spend the afternoon outside with great friends.  I snapped this pic of Duncan with some of his greatest buddies and love it because they still look like kind of little and enjoying little boy things like just swinging. 

Came home, made a quick stir fry…tried something new. Duncan eating all of it, Claire just eating the steak, and Finn just eating the rice.  Works out well.

Happy weekend!

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 19

 

Got their first ribbons at gymnastics today for doing a chin hold on the bars for 13 seconds.  Glad Claire has started on the road to accumulating trophies and ribbons too!  Great fun. 

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 17

 

This was a day worth blogging about.  What started out fairly ordinary, ended up being one of our best, most fun family days to date.  We went to church, which was fairly routine.  Got everyone dressed and out the door with as few threats as possible.

After church, and a bite of lunch, we headed out to the rarely-if-ever visited city to our west, Ft. Worth.  Being tired from a party with friends the night before I had my doubts if we would survive with no melt downs.  And this pic was on the way THERE.

But we made it, thanks to Groupon, parked at hit the streets of historic Ft. Worth.  Wow!  What a great place!  Lots of people, and much to our dismay…no rodeo.  We had gone with the promise of the rodeo.  Kids chasing sheep!  Horses!  Steers!  Fun!  On Friday and Saturday nights!  Oh darn.  Well, hey!  Let’s make the best of it.  Let’s let the children have a pony ride to sooth their disappointed little hearts. 

Sweet ponies.  Until they are not.  Duncan’s pony got spooked at something, started kicking wildly and bucked him.  Off.  I watched as if the whole thing played out in slow motion…he flew up in the air, came down hard and the pony continued bucking and kicking.  I was terrified he was going to get kicked in the face, or the arm…ugh.  Thankfully, none of that happened but he was really frightened.  The old cowboy in the picture with Finn felt terrible and rushed to his side, walked us out of the pen, sat him down and talked to him the whole time.  We went to go use the bathroom and talked him into trying again.  And he did.  Got right back on…not on the back of Bad News Pony, but on Clyde…sweet pony.  That ol’ cowboy pony handler had tears in his eyes telling me how happy he was that Duncan came back and got back on.  He reckoned he was real proud of that boy.  Hurray!  Our big turn of events.

The cattle drive is amazing.

We moseyed on back to our car, and found some amazing Mexican food.  Really amazing.  Thank you Yelp!  Even promised the kids ice cream on the way home!  We were good parents!  On a parenting high!  Stopped at Braum’s on the way home and everyone collapsed into bed…including me who fell asleep at 8:00.  In Finn’s bed.

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 16

 

How can anyone say Nibbles isn’t cute?  Shocked how much I love this creature.  She is sweet, and truly affectionate.  Amazing compared to all the hateful hamsters and gerbils I had growing up.  Love the rat!!

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 15

 

Sometimes it’s hard growing old.  I need readers, and need them everywhere because I need them for everything.  Grateful that they come in packs of 3. 

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 14

 

Valentine’s Day was big around here this year.  But, after school we drove out to see Granny and Aunt Becky.  Stopped at Braum’s first.  Was a good day! 

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 13

 

Finn has been very excited about Valentine’s Day.  I’m not sure what he thinks is going to happen but we talk almost every day about how many sleep times it is until the big day.  Today (the 13th) was their class party at school.  So many cute, clever Valentines.  This one was from their teacher.  I did pretty good last year, but this year really mailed it in.  No candy.  Just those cheapy little cards from Target.  When I picked up Claire and Finn from preschool they were really pumped…bags of candy!  Love this day!  What will tomorrow bring!?

 

February Picture Almost Every Day–Day 12

 

I am so far behind on this project I’m not sure what to do.  But this pic is from Tuesday, Day 12, at gymnastics.  Claire on the beam.  I love watching her.  It’s something she loves, and I believe if she works hard could excel at.  But she is going to have to work hard.  Iain and I don’t really buy into the whole “gifted” concept…that some kids are given gifts that others are not.  That just seems kind of wrong.  We do buy into that kids who work hard can excel.  We try not to tell our kids how smart they are, or how good they are at something…but instead to praise them for hard work and effort.  So, I’d like to see her work hard at gymnastics! 

February Picture a Day–Day 11

 

Our dining room has been bereft of any color.  Beige walls, brown floors, brown table, brown chairs, brown light fixture…blah.  So, I finally got some drapes on the window and think they will lead me to wonderful, colorful places in this room.  I’d like to paint that awful light fixture (previous owners REALLY dug the Home-Depot-Meets-Pottery-Barn look, so not me.)  So, I think I will paint it a creamy white and get some colorful shades for it.  It’s a start.

February Picture a Day–Day 10

 

We have gotten into the habit of taking a picture every Sunday morning, when they are all ready to go to church.  It’s funny now, because if I don’t do it they start to bug me about it and get a bit ornery.  So, I do it.  And I am glad…because I simply cannot scrapbook and this will be what I have instead.  Snapshots of chaotic Sunday mornings that hopefully will be a good memory for them! 

Pintimidated - Hair

 

So, I read this and pinned it on my Pinterest board, thinking it was just what I needed.  My hair is long, and I have a lot of it so a fresh wash and blow dry just isn’t going to happen until 2027.  Hopefully.  So I twirled up my best Princess Leia hair. 

And the next morning?

Interesting.  Kind of worked.  And gives me more time to put on make-up, clearly needed.

February Picture a Day–Day 7

 

I know I am missing days 4-6 and will put my pics in separate post.  Because I really did snap away on those days!  So today was the twins 4 year check ups.  This picture of Claire just about sums it up.  5 shots each.  2 of them, intramuscular and “real stingers” according to the nurse.  We tried to calm the storm of tears with suckers and prizes and donuts, and eventually everyone regained their composure.  Off the hook for a few years!

February Photo a Day–Day 1

February Picture a Day–Day 3

 

On our way home from seeing Aunt Becky.  Claire totally passed out in her seat, Duncan in his Cub Scout uniform “just because” and Finn not crying.

February Picture a Day–Day 2

 

We think Finn might have a future in engineering.  Or professional organizing.  Or parking attendant. 

Pintimidating...Rainbow Waffles

Finn, lover of rainbows. Lover of waffles. So, when I saw this on Pinterest I really thought I’d hit the jackpot. Well, you can see that mine look more like somebody’s flag than a rainbow. 

Did not have red food coloring…nor is my waffle maker round. It’s old and it’s square and it works great. I got it for six bucks at an estate sale! Anyway, mine don’t really look like the Pinterest ones but they were a big hit anyway. Duncan and Claire ate them pretty quickly, but Finn…my rainbow lover and waffle lover…was really hesitant. So he tricked his up the way he wanted, then ate it. Maybe I’ll put that on Pinterest.

Take me to your eater

 

In order to distract Finn from one of his recent, epic melt downs about nothing in particular, I told him we could make sugar cookies.  After rolling about six, he was bored so we just plopped the rest of the dough on a pan and baked it and frosted it and drowned it in sprinkles.  Then Duncan added some folded up bubble gum and Red Vines and voila! 

The hanger massacre continues. 

Sunday morning was going just fine until the drapes got pulled down.  Then it was not so fine.  But we all survived.  It was a really nice warm day so the kids could be outside afterwards.  Thank you, Jesus.  Literally.

No school today so we went to see my sister and my mom for a bit, and the shorties fell asleep on the way home.  Glad the biggie did not because seriously.  Early bedtimes.  I love being with my family but sometimes the long weekends are hard.  I feel like C and F look.  Duncan had a friend over this afternoon to watch the big Wild Kratts Premier…which was kind of a huge deal to Wild Kratts fans everywhere.  I fed them all kinds of kid food and let them make pizzas.

Snippet

 

Claire cut her hair the other day.  Quite a bit of it.  Kind of gave herself a half mullet.  After my initial panic, I took her to my sister’s hair dresser and decided that a Dorothy Hamill was the way to go.  After all, I’d always pined for one as a girl, and even though I did have Short & Sassy shampoo as a girl, the hair cut was but a distant dream because of my cowlick.  But hers looks pretty cute! 

At gymnastics today, I decided that she looked like a little Mary Lou Retton and have decided that she will indeed pursue a gymnastics career.

Finn, on the other hand, has not cut his hair but did run into a door…or the corner of one…and has a nice bruiser.

It has been quite eventful here over the holidays.

Rats!

One thing I am going to try to do is blog daily. For a week. And we will take it from there. It's Sunday morning and Claire is at my sisters. The boys are watching TV and I'm playing with the blogger ap on my iPad. So, just a few pics to recap...and introduce our new pet, Nibbles.

Whew

 

I really love Thanksgiving.  And while I am convinced I cannot host it until I can send Duncan to the store, meaning 9 more years, I love the holiday.  Having little ones brings its own joys like little Indian/Native American head bands and handprint turkeys.  But it is also pretty exhausting.  Not as exhausting as two 2 year olds, though, so I’m grateful it was two 4 year olds and a 7 year old this year.  My contribution to the meal was a pumpkin pound cake that I found on Pinterest.  Loved the cake but did NOT like the glaze….too gummy and flavorless.  Just a straight-forward powdered sugar/water glaze would be fine.  See my cake below.

Oh yes, that big chunk taken out?  Well, I am sure that needs to explanation to any of my regular readers…all three of you.  I tried to gussy it up a bit with some fall sprinkles that I had.  It was delish (minus the glaze that everyone picked off.) 

We went to my sister’s and mom’s for the day, along with various aunts, uncles, cousins and such.  We ate, watched football and talked.  Not any more or any less great than any other year, really. 

Until that night when Finn started yacking…then it kind of went downhill.  We were supposed to have other family over on Friday for dinner, but that changed…I said no kids and it turned into lunch with grown ups instead.  Kids got to see Grandpa who now lives in Michigan, and the weather was great.

Saturday is a bit of a blur…I’m having a hard time thinking about what we did as I sit here.  Oh yes, Duncan had a birthday party so that was a nice way to break up the day.  Again…perfect weather.  About 70 degrees and sunny.  I must admit, I am grateful to live in Dallas when we have these days that the kids can so easily be outside.  We took them to the playground across the street before dinner, did baths, fed them, and put everyone to bed.  Then I went to bed because I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

Today I have mostly felt like I’ve been hit by a less huge truck, and we’ve gotten the tree up and lights on the outside.  I have a lot to do but I love looking at the tree at night.  It just makes me happy.  Everyone goes back to school tomorrow and that is a very good thing!