Scenes from Christmas 2007

It was a very jolly day in the P home. The kids were all nestled in their beds until 7:30 am (they awoke much earlier than this but had strict orders to not leave their rooms before the magic hour), they had a joyful time spreading cheer (and paper, and tags, and boxes - but not ribbon and bows as I learned my lesson a few years ago) all through the house, and I didn't hear one complaint for about a good 2 hours that morning. I think that is a record and makes for a very merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

My Little Elves

We got elfed! (click here)

Week In Review

Nothing much new here...guess it's been a typical week in the life of the P's. I rescued N&J from their bus stuck in the snow on a narrow icy road - 2 hours after it was due home. I finally got my new glasses - seems the old ones have disappered. Must be with all the missing books and toys we can't find these days. Endured another snow storm that resulted in one day off from school and 2 days of delayed openings, no morning Kindergarten (too bad for J - he's afternoon k-garten). Had a nice little soiree with the P clan at our home. Ken took the boys into NYC for some shopping at Toys R Us in Times Square (thank you grandpa) and then N & Ken watched the Rangers bite it while J baked cookies with auntie A. And M has been up to her usual shenanigans. I must find a better hiding spot for our crayons and markers!

She looks so innocent...

But oh how looks can be deceiving...

You see, my little miss M decided to paint her nails all by herself while I have otherwise occupied. She pushed the chair to the counter, grabbed the nail polish, went to town with it in the family room (fortunately none got on the carpet), and the was SO INCREDIBLY PROUD of herself! After my inital scream "AHHHH, M WHAT THE *$%%* DID YOU DO??" I realized I needed to back down a wee bit and let her show off her handy work. She modeled so very nicely for these photographs and held her little hands out perfectly so her nails would dry nicely. What a classic little girly thing to do I thought to myself. But then my dainty little darling shot me in the eye with the Superman disk shooter.

Disney

Some random photos from Disney last week. Great time was had; went by way to fast. Unfortunately no pics from Thanksgiving with my mom - guess we were all too hungry to stop and take a photo (as I had the timing wrong and the turkey took 2-1/2 hours longer to cook than I planned on. Seems some little fingers turned off the oven in the middle of cooking the turkey!) Plus, the kids are now adverse to the camera...they look in every direction BUT at me or the camera.



Buzz Lightyear ride. A fav - went on it twice.



Magic Kingdom at night.



Fireworks display (that M HATED!!! Too loud for her.)



Hanging out poolside at the resort.



Lion King meet and greet.



Magic Kingdom at daylight.



Waiting for the 3:00 parade (no nap this day).



Yet another Magic Kingdom photo.



Lego family at Downtown Disney Village.



M playing hide & seek while waiting for the boys while they were on the Lilo & Stitch ride (and not a highly recommended ride, by the way).



Flying on Aladdin's Magic Carpet.



Lion King photo #12

Insanity!

While sorting through all the mail that has accumulated over the past 10 days we've been away, plus the handful of days before that when I didn't feel like looking at the mail, I came to the alarming realization that we get too much mail! Too much junk mail to be precise - and catalogs are the main culprit. When all was totaled up, we received 56 catalogs in just about 2 weeks!!!!

I know Christmas season is upon us and all, but why in the heck do I need 3 copies of the Discovery Channel catalog? Or 4 copies of Land's End? Or Pottery Barn TEEN? Ah, not yet thanks. Or any copy of American Girl??? There is no way I'm going to spend $150 on a doll for my 2 year old. Criminey, you should see what she does to her $5.00 doll - I think it has tattoos on it! At least it still has it's hair although I'm sure she'll chop that off at some point like all good little girls do.

So, I've spent the morning opting out of all these catalogs. That alone had a small level of insanity involved in trying to find the customer numbers on each one, but hey it was pretty painless and should save a forest here and there. If you want to stop the insanity as well - go here:

http://www.catalogchoice.org

It's that kind of day

Oh, it is a doosey of a day for sure! We've been in sunny Florida. We left on 11/16 - DROVE there with 3 little kiddies and 2 doggies - and just got back yesterday. Seems that laundry piles up, mail piles up, dust piles up, plants wilt, and life must go on. I've got tons of photos to upload, proof and then I'll share them here. Have to do that later though as J just went through a couple of disney bags (after I told him to leave them alone) and found some Christmas gifts I bought for him - hmm, do I explain who "Santa" really is now or come up with some crazy story that is crazier than the whole Santa tradition???

Oh well, we did have a wonderful trip. Stayed at Disney for a few days, with my mom for a few more, and it all went by way too fast. Funny how vacations do that.

Off to see why M is being so quiet...

Face Lift

No not me, but I sure could use one! My website, however, finally got a much needed face lift thanks to Ken. So if you know of any health professionals who need educational materials or anyone who wants some groovy food and nature photographs for their workplace, point them my way!

http://www.nutritiousways.com

Nothin' much here

Not much going on. M is napping. J & N will be getting off the bus soon. I'm procrastinating. So I figured I'd update the old blog, but can't think of anything to say!

N bonked his nose the other day...went head first off the scooter board in gym class and I had to rush to the school to take him to the dr. Everything is ok...not broken, just bruised pretty well. J thought it was cool that he got to leave school early (I had to get them both because of bus issues). M thought the swivel stool at the dr's office was cool and refused to get off of it for the dr. to examine N. They all thought the lollipops at the end of the visit were SUPER cool. Never mind the 10 pounds of candy still sitting at home from Halloween.

Few pics from yard work this past weekend...leaf clean up #2. By the looks of the trees, I'm sure we'll have leaf clean up #3, 4, & 5 pretty soon!

Oh Joyous Gimme, Gimme Day

Err, I mean Happy Halloween! The kids had a very fun night trick-or-treating in our town along side the other 1200+ kiddies last night. You see, we live in a strange area. No subdivisions really, no close neighborhoods that allow "outsiders" (yes a couple of the neighborhoods block off their entrances to people who don't live there on Halloween)and lots of dark wooded areas with narrow roads and no side walks, street lights or other pedestrian-friendly things. Houses are somewhat far between for today's standards so many people head to Main Street for trick-or-treating. This is a well known fact, and even potential buyers of homes on Main Street are told that it is pretty much "expected" and "a responsibility" that if you buy one of the multi-million dollar homes on Main Street, you will treat the masses that come running, screaming, pushing, and shoving at your door on Oct. 31.

So like every other good parent in town, we took our kiddos to Main Street. We waited in lines 30-40-50 people deep at peoples homes to get the full size candy bar or whatever other goody they may be sharing. M caught on VERY QUICKLY to the whole gimme gimme scene. The kids smiled, laughed, and were in awe of some of the decorations, especially the house with the circus tent and music on their front lawn (we did convince the kids to skip this house though because the line was a good 20-30 minutes long! Even the old-fashioned popcorn popper thing-a-ma-gig giving bags of popcorn to the parents didn't entice us to wait.) Bummer that we didn't find the house handing out the "beverages" to the adults.

So, thank you Main Street. The children had a wonderful Gimme night!

PS. N was Dracula, J was a power ranger, and M was a lady bug. Their choices this year. Sadly I can no longer bribe or otherwise coerce them into being what I deem best. Last year was the end of it I guess...Raggedy Ann & Andy will only live on in my photos!

PPS. We had our chili cook off/Halloween party on Sunday. I'm sure you will all be heartbroken to hear that I was not crowned chili queen again this year. Some dead cow loaded, mouth on fire, sure to make your heart cry concoction won. Sigh. I guess some people don't know good chili when they savor it. :-) But it was still a good time!

Our Lake

The view this time of year from our house...