This is what breakfast at our house looked like the other day
3 different kids
3 different breakfast cereals
Mom taking a solo trip to the grocery store…definitely needed
Category Archives: Andrew
Christmas Pics: A Little Late
I realize this is late but I figure better late than never.We managed to decorate our house a bit for Christmas so I thought I’d show you some of the pictures and a few of the activities we did.
Here’s our Christmas mantle. I decided to go with a red, silver, and blue theme. I thought those colors might be a nice change from the typical red and green. The JOY letters were stuck on the wall until they came crashing down one night at 3 am. They have been sitting on the mantle ever since. I bought them at JoAnn’s, painted them red, and modge podged them with glitter.
I took a frame and hung snowflakes in it. I placed it next to my Pier 1 glitter trees. Boy oh boy I wish my sister still worked there. The only thing I bought bedsides the JOY letters were the blue ornaments.
These are a couple of branches I took and spray painted white. I hung various blue ornaments from the branches. I placed some white and silver Mardi Gras beads inside the jar to keep the branches stable. 
Here’s our cheap and easy Christmas card display. I wanted to create this elaborate yarn and metal display that I have floating around in my head but it never happened so I’ll keep that in mind for next year.
I took a 3M Command Strip (which failed to keep my JOY letters up) and placed them on the wall. I took strips of ribbon, punched a hole at the top, and hung the strips. We then hung the cards with clothespins.
Getting ready to visit Santa. Alex was feeling very sick that day so only Caroline and Andrew went. Turns out they were only willing to look at him and neither one would go close to Santa.
Making gingerbread houses – yes, it’s a pre-made kit, they loved it
Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas as a family.Who knew I had six chins?
The Action Nativity Set
A wise man watching from the trees, ready to attack
Every day Andrew would move the figures around and have a whisper dialogue with them. I desperately tried to hear some specifics but never could get close enough. All I know is that one day the wise men were on their sides, the animals were on top of the stable, and baby Jesus was behind the trees.
Family photo I took of everyone before we went into the ICE exhibit in Grapevine.
Hope your holidays were wonderful!
Sweets for School
I decided at the last minute to make some treats for the boys to take to school for their friends. Usually they come home from every holiday celebration at school with bags of goodies. There have been cellophane bags filled with miniature puzzles, themed pencils, candy, and even a stuffed animal one year. I never make these goodie bags because I kind of thought they were a waste of money and unnecessary. But I thought…new schools…new traditions.
Since I thought this would be a wonderful project to take on at 9:00 the night before the parties, I went to the pantry a little doubtful. I looked up into our dessert box and found marshmallows and chocolate chips – perfect!
I had seen something in blog world about using marshmallows as ghost poop during Halloween so I thought I would do something along those lines.
I scooped little handfuls of marshmallows and chocolate chips into plastic bags and tied them off. I attached a note that said,”Enjoy your Texas snow and snowman buttons.”
Alex wanted to put “Enjoy your Texas snow and reindeer poop.”
Clever, but I was afraid that wouldn’t go over so well at Andrew’s religious school so we went with the other version.
Now I say I implemented this plan at 9:00 at night but the thought about doing a treat had occurred earlier in the day. When driving through the car pool line I asked Andrew’s teacher if he could bring something for all of the kids in his classroom. She said sure, “As long as it doesn’t have too many sweets.”
Could she possibly be referring to the large box of Christmas candy I gave her the day before? I choose to think not. But I’m not too sure.
Listening Around the House
“Poopy face”
“Go poop in a bucket, pooper”
“Why did the chicken cross the road?…to get poop”
What? You are not laughing hysterically?
You must not be an 8 and under boy.
The above is what life at my house is like right now.
Wait till I introduce them to: defecation, excrement, stool, and dung.
Then we’ll really be having good times.
Just Like her Brothers
Caroline loves Alex and Andrew more than anything in this world.
She also has a love for clothes.
She is always trying to take things off the rack and try them on in stores.
Folding laundry at home with her is difficult because she’s always trying to put things on.
Today she insisted on combining her 2 loves.
I drew the line when it was time to leave the house.
Kid Art Display
When our kids were in preschool we had a tremendous amount of artwork coming home. Andrew actually still has a ton of artwork coming home. I wanted to display their work since they were so proud but wasn’t sure what to do.
In our old house we hung two of these IKEA magnetic boards. This system worked okay but we quickly had 3 layers of artwork on the board. I would surreptitiously remove artwork every couple of weeks.
Sometimes the pieces went into scrapbooks while other times we would place them in the recycle bucket. Somehow the day the artwork would go into the recycling bucket was the day the boys insisted on ransacking the pantry where the bucket was kept.
Of course, they would come marching out, “Why was this in the recycling bucket?” I always pleaded innocent and said, “Your dad must have put it in there. He has no appreciation for fine art.”
So once we moved I had the same predicament. What to do with the artwork? Well we went back to the great Swedish wonderland and found these. They are actually curtain hangers. We bought 3 of them and placed them up on our playroom wall. I love it and I think it gives the artwork it’s proper respect.
So far Andrew has allowed one piece of artwork to replace another each time a new one comes home. If he ever resists I know what I’m going to do.
I’m going to walk straight to the recycling bucket in the garage all the way to the garage and place the art in there myself. It is 4 ft high and out of his line of sight.
It’s Just a Number
Yesterday while driving around in the car Andrew (5) announced, “Liam’s dad is 44.”
Me: “How do you know that?”
Andrew: “He told me.” Liam is a friend of Andrew’s at school. Andrew thinks the world of him.
Me: “How old do you think Liam’s mom is?”
Andrew: “Probably 17 or 18.”
Me thinking: Well, since Liam’s 5 that would mean she had Liam when she was 12.
Me: “Ah, probably not. I think she’s a little older than that.”
Andrew thinking for a moment: “Yeah, she’s probably 78.”
Probably.
I Wouldn’t Do That
Picture the scene:
*A horse show at City Park Stables
*A beautiful fall day with the sun shining and a cool breeze
*6 eager observers of the horse show (2 parents, 3 children, & 1 grampa)
After only being at the event 15 minutes the following conversation can be heard:
Alex (8): “Let’s jump to Mt. Everest.”
Andrew (5): “Okay. Let’s jump.”
Parent looking at a muddy ditch: “Please don’t go through there.”
Boys: “Let’s go.”
Parent: “Please don’t go through there you might get dirty.”
Boys: “Let’s go.”
Result:
1 very unhappy 5 year old who is screaming and crying
2 picture happy parents”Hold still, let me take a picture of your leg”
very understanding parents
1 laughing older brother
1 clueless baby sister
& 1 grampa shaking his head