It Was A.....

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

But a great day to get shots of the kids.

Saturday we took the kids to the Nashville Children's Theatre to see the play (you guessed it) - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. With two dressed up young 'uns we decided to break out the camera and take some pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Little Scientist

When you here horror stories about kids and the toilet you always hear about 2 year olds destroying the plumbing so I figured that with a 3 year old and a 4 year old I had passed that stage. I was wrong.

Last week after Greyson seemed to be taking forever in the bathroom I went to check on him and found the majority of his hand down in the toilet. When I asked him what he was doing he told me he wanted to know where his poop went. I explained where it went and then attempted to emphasize the importance of not putting body parts into the toilet. And I think I got through to him - sort of. I guess I forgot to mention the part about not putting anything in the toilet except poop and pee. Fast forward to Thanksgiving night...

About an hour before dinner we heard a blood curdling cry from Greyson. Apparently he decided to put the remote to his plane down the toilet and flush it. We don't know whether this was on accident or on purpose but whatever the intent the result was the same. Adios remote. Greyson was hysterical; Raif was furious. So for the next hour Raif juggled fixing Thanksgiving dinner and attempting to take a toilet apart. He continued that fun project after dinner and well into the night. After a couple hours of manual labor and a whole lot of cursing he didn't find a trace of that remote. Gone, gone gone.

We have a septic system in our house and so are a wee bit terrified that this thing has gotten caught somewhere in the system and that pretty soon it is going to start backing up. The remote was actually a sizeable chunk of plastic and neither of us quite understand how it actually got out of the toilet. I guess only time will tell whether we will need a visit from the plumber. Here's hoping for a little Christmas miracle....

Turkeys, Turkeys Everywhere

but not a one to eat....

For Thanksgiving we had....


Turkeys hanging from lights


Turkeys covering the windows


Handmade Turkey placemats


And of course the required handprint turkeys

Ironically, the only place we didn't have turkey was on our dinner plate.

We had a scrumptious dinner consisting of lobster stuffed cucumber cups, 5 powder roasted guinea fowl, potato gratin, glazed carrots, prosciutto wrapped asparagus bundles, and homemade bread. Greyson and Quinn were in charge of dessert and made us sugar cookies and from scratch chocolate pudding with real whipped cream. I am so happy that they love to cook with us and am excited that as they get older they will continue to have more involvement in our holiday feasts. And I couldn't have been happier when Greyson said his favorite part of Thanksgiving was the lobster. That's my boy.

Hope everyone else had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did.

Fall Fun

A sunny, brisk autumn morning where the mercury has barely hit 50 degrees - whatever should we do?

Ah yes, the obvious - bring out the hose and pour some freezing water into our trikes mix with mud and leaves (using our hands of course) to make 'apple pie' for Thanksgiving dinner.


The spirit and hardiness of youth...

Giving Thanks

As Thanksgiving is upon us it is time to reflect on what we are thankful for and one of the things I am most thankful for are my friends so this one is for all of you.....

Friendship is like wetting your pants - everyone can see it but only YOU can feel its true warmth.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I know it is a bit early to be writing you, seeing as how Thanksgiving is two days away, but considering we saw you at the mall this last weekend I guess you are getting a head start on the holidays so I thought I would too.

Speaking of seeing you at the mall, I first want to apologize for the fact that my children are still terrified of you. They really do like you - just as long as you stay at the North Pole or don't come within 100 feet of them. Don't worry they will be asleep when you come Christmas Eve as I am sure you don't want to hear those ear piercing shrieks of terror again.

But on to my list. I have only a couple of things I want this year and this long notice surely will give you plenty of time to put them under my tree.

I am sure (since you are Santa Claus after all) remember how for Christmas in 2004 I splurged on those really expensive jeans that made my ass look like a super model's. Then remember two short months later I got pregnant? Well I have worked so hard to lose all that baby weight but somewhere between giving birth to 2 kids within 15 months of each other and 4 years of motherhood my hips seemed to have widened a bit. The hip widening was a bit unneccesary considering I never actually used said birthing hips to actually give birth so I was hoping that you could find a way to sort of move them back to their original state. I wore those jeans like 5 times (I really don't want to do the math on the per wear use) and I REALLY want to wear them again. I can't bare to actually get rid of them and they are taking up valuable drawer space so if you could just fit me in them again that would be wonderful.

In a similar vein I would like you to make pizza and ice cream fat free.

I would also like one, just one, night where I sleep 8 consecutive hours in a row without being woken up by a snoring husband, a child's nightmare or insanely loud trip to the bathroom, a dog deciding my head makes a good pillow or a personal trip to the bathroom (a remnant of pregnancy that really needs to go away now).

Finally, I would like my memory back. I seem to have misplaced it and can't remember (ha) where I put it. I don't need to have a Rain Man memory but just enough so I avoid spending 4 hours tearing my house apart looking for my son's mittens only to discover that I sent them with him to school in his backpack. I want to remember where I put my cell phone and my keys on a daily basis. (I am embarrassed each month to look at my phone bill and see how many times I have actually called my cell to find it.) And I want to remember, someone's anyone's, name at school instead of constantly referring to people as "Anna's Mom" or "Finn's Dad" - it sort of makes me look like a tool.

Thanks Santa - can't wait for all my wonderful presents and I will leave you some cookies and liquor by the chimney - that is, if I remember.

Sincerely,

me

You know Dasher...

And Dancer and all of the rest of them but I bet you haven't heard of these two...


Yesterday afternoon Greyson found an old stick in the yard - well at least to me it was, to him it was a pair of reindeer antlers. As the sun set I tried to herd these reindeer in the house with little success. They both danced around the deck taking turns being the reindeer.

It is Thanksgiving time and what am I thankful for....that no one poked their eye out last night.