Happy Halloween!!

Do you know how difficult it is...

...to take green face paint off a 6 year old??!

Ha ha!

I used mineral oil and almost got it all off (after about 15minutes). He looks a little under-the-weather, but otherwise we did ok. I'm not sure he'll let me ever paint his face again though!

Hoping for some better pictures soon (that my dad took) of us on the treat trail today.

Bedtime mayhem

We have had a steady routine with our kids when it comes to bedtime for YEARS! Shortly after 7pm, we get them into pj's, work on their Awana, their reading, brush teeth, stories, hugs, kisses and lights out by 8pm. Pretty regular...doesn't change much other than when we have company or something. I am still a little over cautious about their lack of expertise and usually I am the one brushing their teeth for them. But it is typically the worst hour of our day (dinner time is a close second). It is so stressful to be nagging them to pay attention (to their reading), to listen to instructions (GO PEE, do not play lego right now) etc. I think the problem is increased by the fact that we try to wrangle three children between the two of us in a tiny area of the house. It hasn't worked to stagger bedtime hours, as our oldest needs the most sleep, and with sharing bedrooms, the kids wait for eachother to come or can be woken up by the other. Thankfully we are quite strict when the lights are out and the kids will usually fall asleep in minutes. But both G and I flop onto the couch every night at 8pm as though we have just come out of a bull pen. It's tiring. It's daily. It's not much fun. I'm sure this is just a crazy phase, and I will laugh about it in a few years. Right?

Right?

Whoa the demands...

I tell you. I am not overly involved in much right now. But BOY is our life busy. And stressful. Especially between the hours of 7-8am and 2-9pm.
This is something I came upon the other day...thought it was funny...

The Toddlers Creed

by Dr. Burton L. White


If I want it,
IT'S MINE!

If I give it to you and change my mind later,
IT'S MINE!

If I can take it away from you,
IT'S MINE!

If it's mine it will never belong to anybody else,
No matter what.
If we are building something together,
All the pieces are mine!

If it looks just like mine,
IT'S MINE!

If it breaks or needs putting away,
IT'S YOURS!

Hittin' the pumpkin patch!

We like dressing up

People may think that I am a Halloween enthusiast...but I am not. Well, not exactly. I don't like the history of the "celebration" and why it even exists, but I do love the dressing up part. I wish there was another day that was just solely a day to dress up. Forget the candy and all the evil stuff. I trick-or-treated maybe two or three times in my childhood, as it was a mostly frowned on activity in the church. We did have harvest parties and did fireworks and apple bobbing though. But I always wished I had some of those cool costumes that the kids on the streets were wearing. We usually made up our own outfit (if we dressed up at all), like a princess, Little Red riding hood, an indian, and a popcorn vendor. I know my mom has pictures of the first two which I'll have to drag out and scan in for you to see.
I've had fun finding or making costumes for the boys in the past few years. I keep my eye out for clearance sales after Halloween and at the thrift stores. This week is bag day at our thrift store, and so I paid less than $2 for that elephant costume for Shea! He'll probably be a chicken for part of the day, and an elephant for the rest! We have quite the tickle trunk of costumes that the kids will play with on a regular basis. (Click on those links above to see our other costumes from years past.)

Hiking around the lake
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

Happy Thanksgiving!
We actually had our big turkey dinner last weekend with my parents and brother and a few friends. Today we had G's parents over for a big dinner of pulled pork (on my MIL's homemade buns) with carmelized onions, mandarin and pecan salad, corn on the cob, and cornbread stuffing. It was pretty tasty!
I hope you're all having a good old-time sitting around a table with people you love and sharing an insanely large dinner.
So thankful for so many things.

Blonde-ish

So I took the leap and went for major blonde foils put into my hair. Unfortunately I couldn't get it as white-blonde as I had imagined and had pictured in my mind...but it is getting there. I think where the hairstylist went wrong is by putting too much of the caramel tone in my hair which completely overtook and reminds me what I looked like with that old Sun-in product!! I should have avoided it completely and gone straight for the white and not bother for a second color at all which I had asked for.
Anyway...kinda fun and new.
Oh, and I had to add...in my comments after the stick it in yer ear post...my aunt had said in regards to Liam shoving a seed in his ear... "I think it's something that all kids have to do to get to the next phase of their life! Kind of like cutting their hair." Well...if you click on his school photos, to enlarge them, you might just notice the chunk of hair out of his front bangs. He cut them in school in the first week. The way he told us what he had done was absolutely hilarious. I wish I had a video of his story telling, as he had actions and was completely laughing his head off as he described himself wiping the hairs off his nose in hopes that his teacher wouldn't notice. :) Yes, so with that and now the foreign object in his ear, I guess we're onto the next phase. Phew. What next!?

Go stick it in yer ear.

I have one of those stories from this past week that is quite funny after-the-fact!
So my son (the 6yr old) informed me at bedtime on Thursday that he put an apple seed in his ear and thinks it is stuck in there. I tried to look for it and couldn't see anything, but I didn't want to leave it in there either, so off Liam and Greg went to the ER.

They had to wait 3 hours, and then the doc started looking and probing and using this water thing to try to squirt it out. He had had it, and his nerves started to kick in. Greg had him on his lap and suddenly the poor kid fainted and flipped right out of his lap and head first onto the floor! When he came to, he started vomiting. So then they had to treat him for head trauma!! (He reacted like this to immunizations too!) So they send him home...no seed found, and ya...what a waste! and it was one in the morning by the time they got back!

Anyway...I don't know if the seed is even in there, and if it is...what'll happen to it if it is? Hopefully lesson learned...I am quite positive that he knows to not stick things in his ear!!!
Liam went to school the next morning, but came home 2 hours later as apparently he was an emotional wreck.

Poor guy, hey?
Yes, kids. They like to keep life interesting.

School photos!

I love school photos!! (I don't always order them, but I think they are a hoot to look at!) Last year we did our own, but this year the boys/photographer did pretty good!



Which pose would you pick?