Upgraded

So the darth vader costume has been upgraded.

This was taken before Christmas, so it's been upgraded even more.....with a real light saber. Next project will be to make a real cape :)

Snow....or sleet days

Miss C really wanted it to snow for Christmas this year. Unfortunately this is all we got during the big blizzard last week (about 6 hours north they received 20 inches!). Anyway, the kids decided to get their boots on and throw sleet balls at the house. You may wonder why they don't have any coats, gloves or hats on. Besides the fact that Little J loudly refuses to wear a coat, it was actually quite warm that morning. If you blinked, the sleet was gone. Miss C keeps asking when is it going to snow. She really wants it to. Unfortunately, it doesn't snow much here. We might get lucky sometime in late January/early February. Let's hope for at least a few inches before the winter is over!

PS--we have a bag of sleet in our freezer (thanks Mee Maw). I want to throw it away, but Miss C still checks on it periodically, so I have to keep it awhile longer. I'm sure this spring when I'm cleaning out the refridge, I'll find it again!

What choo want?

Tonight while putting me C to bed, the kids started playing a favorite game of what I like to call "What choo want". They pretend to take orders from each other like we are at McDonalds. It's kind of cute, actually, and is pretty good entertainment for at least 20 minutes.

Little J: What choo want?

Miss C: A hamburger

Little J: ok. What choo want? Chicken nuggets?

Miss C: Ok, chicken nuggets. And a hot dog, and french fries.

Little J: Ok. And apple juice?

Miss C: Yes, apple juice.

Little J: What cho0 want?

Miss C: A salad. And no tomatoes and no olives.

All of a sudden J looks at me and says, isn't that what you usually order? Busted! I guess the cat is out of the bag that we lunch at Panera often enough for her to memorize what I typically order!

Here are my munchkins playing What Choo Want!

Playgroups of holiday past

So, I was just in the kitchen making the 8 dozen cookies that I need for tomorrow's traditional holiday playgroup/cookie exchange (and desperately thinking will anyone really know if I just go to the store and buy them) and that thought got me thinking about how much playgroups have changed within our group over the years (at least for me anyway). When we first started this playgroup (the kiddos were babies--like 3 months old), the mom's would take turns hosting every week. These playgroups were lavish, each mom spending hours in the kitchen before guests arrived making gourmet lunch spreads which included speciality sandwiches, fruit cut in shapes (ok, not really but it certainly does spice up the story) and desserts straight out of the Martha Stewart catalogue. No boxed macaroni and cheese (*gasp*) or PBJ sandwiches here. Then the pregnancies for baby #2 started happening, mom's got tired, kids entered the terrible 2's and the spreads became noticeably less fancy. Instead of gourmet sandwiches, chicken salad from HT started showing up (of course the mom hosting always put it in one of her own bowls to disguise the store bought packaging). The homemade lemonade disappeared, juice came in boxes, and crustables became a staple. If you are a mom out there and don't know what crustables are, then I salute you.

Now with all of us having two or three kids, playgroups are rare (boo!) and your lucky if you even get served lunch. If you do, it's a store bought muffin still in the plastic wrapping. You pray for that boxed macaroni because that means your kids will at least eat something. If you want a soda, better bring your own because the host mom has probably been to the grocery store at least 5 other times this week and has forgotten to pick up the diet coke.

Ok, ok, I'm being a little dramatic. It's not really that bad and there are still some mama's with homemade spreads (overachievers). I guess it's just how I feel when I host these days. And it's a little bit how I'm feeling as I made these cookies for the party tomorrow. They are no bake, which means I'm kind of cheating a little bit anyway. I've been to the store 3 times getting ingredients already and the recipe I used (and doubled) made 80 cookies. I need 96. Next year, I'm pretty sure mine will be store bought and of course I'll package them like I made them :)

10 on Friday

eh, who needs Tuesday! I feel like there is so much to catch up on....

1. Bye, bye binkers. Little J has been binker free for probably about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks now. Unfortunately the decision to cut it out was kind of rash one day, but it was easier than I thought to get rid of it. He had been playing games with it lately (throwing it out of the bed and then yelling for us to come pick it up, etc), so it was really time to go (for my sanity). I feel kinda sad about it, because it was his last "baby" thing and now it's gone. But I'm happy that the games have stopped. It was getting beyond frustrating and I think he was using it more for a power play than for comfort.

2. We got our Christmas tree last weekend. It's so pretty! Probably the nicest looking one we've had in the last couple of years. We got it at the same place we always go, a little mom and pop stand about 25 minutes away. We stumbled on this place when Miss C was only 3 weeks old (which was our first Christmas down here) and we love going back year after year. About 2 years ago we heard that they were going to close the business, but fortunately they were able to make it though tough times. They are the nicest family and they always help us find the best trees. Here we are during the process of selecting the tree.

3. After naps, the kids helped decorate the tree. This year Miss C was really into the ornaments. I personally love trees that are adorned with unique ornaments, ones that are collected by a family throughout the years. As we unwrapped our ornaments, Miss C wanted to know the story behind each one of them. And every single one brought back the memory of a special point in our lives. From the bride and groom one, to Indian fertility ornament that was given to us the Christmas before we conceived Miss C (which this year was purposely left off the tree), to the two that we have saying "baby's first Christmas", to the foot and hand print homemade ones from when they were babies, to the hello kitty one, to lightning McQueen and Sally, to the one that says 2009 with our family picture in it. Each one represents us, who we are as a family and the journey that we have made over the years. I just love sharing that with her. Now Little J, he could have cared less. He just wanted to play with McQueen and Sally. Maybe next year he will be into a little more.

Here are my babies hard at work decorating the tree. look at that concentration.

And I just love how little kids decorate trees, with all the ornaments bunched together in the same spot. Here we have 4 icicle type ornaments, Sally, McQueen and a tractor all fighting for precious branch space. J wanted to move them around and spread them out a little more after the kids were done. I told him he better not dare. I love them right where my babies put them, bunched up and all.

4. I have the itch to clean up and redecorate my office. Over the past 2 months, I've probably spent 99% of my time in there. So I want, no need, a change. It's so overcrowded with a big desk, 2 bookshelves and an armoire that we converted to storage. With all the big furniture I have very limited wall space, and I've been ordering pictures like crazy and I need a home for them. I'm also lusting over these chairs and just can't decide what I want to do. The black and white one is so me, but the others are so pretty. My colors du jour seems to be green and orange, so I'm kind of thinking maybe I would go that route. But I'll certainly take any opinions! Do you believe these chairs are from Target?! In true fashion, I will probably order 3 of them (free shipping), try them out in the room, and then return 2 of them. That's just how I roll.

5. Little J pronounces hamburger like hanga-burg. Makes me giggle every time. He also calls J's car "daddy work". Any other car is "like Mommy's car" or "like B's daddy's car". Not J's. It's "daddy work".

6. On Thanksgiving day we took the kids uptown to the parade. This is the second year that we've gone and they love it. Their favorite part is these cheesy trumpets that they sell there (of course for a small fortune). That was the first thing they requested when we got there. This picture reminds me of THIS. Man, what a difference a year makes.

Someone should probably tell twiddle dee on the left there that you won't get any sound blowing the horn that way

Much better

The dueling trumpets

Waiting for the parade to come by

7. Well, I was going to try to make it to 10, but it's now Saturday and I figure I better get this posted!

It's just too good not to blog about

So I'm not exactly sure where this is coming from, but lately Miss C thinks she is Darth Vader. It's been going on for a little over 2 weeks now and it looks like its here to stay for a little while. Mee Maw's birthday was this past weekend and she even wanted to go to Mee Maw's "party" dressed up as Darth Vader. We've even made several appearances around town in the Darth Vader get up, light saber and all. Of course, I just love it. I love letting her express her own style. When else are you going to be able to walk around town as Darth Vader and not get those, "you're a weirdo" stares?

I also love that she's unique. Definitely not a girly girl, but just girly enough to love purple, and jewelry and all things that sparkle. By the way, purple is the color du jour. Not pink. Nope. Not anymore. Now she wants to redo her room because it's pink and she loves purple now. This mama is only going to let her express her style so far. I spent a lot of time painting that room and unfortunately for her it's going to stay pink for awhile. Now, when she suddenly loves a nice burnt sienna or some other yummy color like that, then we'll talk.

For now, here's Darth Vader

We're keepin' it real with the pink blanket cape (made with a binder clip) and backwards pink polka dotted rain boots. Oh and the light saber is her own design. She helped J color it in and was very specific on the color combination. She asked, no begged, me to take out my camera and take pictures of her as Darth Vader. Mommy loves you baby.

And because Miss C wanted her picture taken, guess who else wanted his picture taken? This face is so him. To a T.

This is the usual pose I get when I ask them to stand together so I can take their picture

before we ran out of light for the evening, I made Darth Vader go put a bow in her hair. After all, I'm still the mother. She was none to pleased with that request and it was like pulling teeth to get any photos after that.

And finally the piece de resistance. The main reason (in my opinion) for this post. This is just too good not to blog about. A little backstory. J is like a kid at Christmas now that the kids are a little older and are getting into the "cool" toys. He just can't resist. When Little J opens any sort of gift, J is in the background telling him, "let me show you how that works." Ok, it's a matchbox car. I know my son isn't a rocket scientist, but I'm pretty sure he can figure out how to roll the car back and forth. If Little J takes too long to open a gift (or finds it amusing to just play with it while it's still in the box) J goes crazy. J is also prone to showing them the "right way" to play with something. So when Miss C was out for her photo shoot as Darth Vader, J had to butt in and show her the right way to pose with the light saber. Practically grabbed it out of the girl's hand because it was driving him nuts that she wasn't holding it just right.

**as a note, I did give fair warning that this would be posted**

Serves you right :)