Monday, November 30, 2015

A Very Formal Thanksgiving

This year we had no big plans for Thanksgiving.  It was going to be just the five of us and our five canine house guests.  The holidays are hard sometimes living away from family.  I still want them to be fun and memorable for my kids even if they don't get to spend them with their grandparents and cousins.  So this year I decided we were going to have a "formal" Thanksgiving dinner.  We pulled out Great Grandma Heaton's china, we had candles on the table (the boys made the candle holders), we had sparkling cider to drink, etc.  It was a fancy as it ever gets around here!  Next we pulled the kids aside and explained just how fancy this feast was going to be and the only thing that would make it better was if we dressed for the occasion.  So we all drew names and we got to dress that person for dinner.  The only rules were they had to have a hat or headress (we had to be historically accurate, you know, the Pilgrims and Indians wore these) and they had to look awesome!  My kids did not disappoint.  This will be a Thanksgiving to remember!  
 "Awww ya, that's some good turkey!"
I send what John calls "proof of life" photos everyday to the owners of the dogs we board.  Here's the cute pics they got on Thanksgiving : )
All of our furry house guests.
After dinner we played games and kicked of our list of mandatory Christmas movies by watching Elf. And that was our Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Happy Birthday Gabe!

This amazing kid turned 9 years old today!  For his special birthday dinner he wanted crab legs, so we went to Joe's Crab Shack and got him a bucket of crab : )
When the staff sang Happy Birthday to him they turned his bib around backwards so it became a cape.  Then they had him run around the restaurant saying, "I'm a super hero and it's my birthday!"  He was less than thrilled with this, but did it anyway.  Way to be a good sport Gabe!
New Pokemon stuff
Look out world, Gabe's got a BB Gun!
Happy Birthday Gabe!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Movie Dump

Gabe rocking out with the kazoo
This will be shown at his wedding someday:)

Porter and I have the same sense of humor.  The more someone is hurt, the harder we laugh. (We're twisted, I know.)  John and I watched this stupid, but very funny movie the other night and I showed a couple of scenes to Porter, just to see him to laugh.  Well, I got him to laugh and more . . . epic parent failure!
(Parental discretion is advised . . . you'll laugh about that in a minute, I promise.)


Quentin's sweet dance moves

Chexy playing in the yard

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Halloween 2015

The Enderman
The Dragon
and
The Grim Reaper
The Grim Reaper
The Dad and and his kids
The Enderman
 The Linebarker
The Dragon
The Oklahoma Sky
The friends we Trick-or-Treated with
 The End

Friday, October 30, 2015

It all started with suckers

I hate suckers.  You know, lollipops.  It's 6:50AM and the kids each had one in their mouth.  It's not even Halloween yet!  I'm trying to be all zen and not regulate my kids candy intake this year.  I'm also have every intention to exercise self control and not steal candy from them while they sleep.  Anyway, I tell the kids if they save all of their suckers and not eat them I'll buy their suckers from them.  They think this is great and start bringing me all their suckers.  I'm still in bed, so I say no, I'm only going to do this once after we trick or treat, trunk or treat, etc.  "But don't you want to eat one now," they ask.  No I don't like suckers, once I pay you for them I'm going to throw them all in the trash.  They grab their suckers like "I can't believe we almost fell for that" and run back to their room.  I then over hear my six year old say, "She's a real monster".  And suddenly this monster's desire to be all zen and have self control is gone, those Reeses & Butterfingers are so mine! I may not even wait until they are asleep.

I get out of bed and make scrambled eggs and Diet Pepsi for breakfast.  Looks like I'll be having just Diet Pepsi now since someone already snarfed down the eggs.  I pop a piece of bread in the toaster so I actually will have some food for breakfast.  I sort through some laundry because it's wear something red to school today and so of course the only color shirt we can find is blue.  Gabe's school is wearing hats today.  So he has a hat on that is actually a popcorn bowl shaped like a batters hat that came from a Red Socks game at Fenway Park.  But since it's actually a bowl, not a hat it keeps falling off his head.  I'm sure his teachers are going to love that.

John's leaving for work and it raining outside.  My car battery is dead, the kids have left lights on in the car.  Oh, and the sunroof was left open, but hey, let's not point fingers.  I don't have to go anywhere today, but he jumps my car even though he's late for work just to close the sunroof.  While I'm holding the umbrella for John,  Gabe (who is supposed to be waiting for the bus) starts crying hysterically because he dropped his painted "book report pumpkin" in a puddle outside and now all the paint is smearing off of it.  So I leave my hubby out in the rain and try to fix the pumpkin before the bus gets here.  I wipe all the wet paint off and quickly draw what I can onto the pumpkin with a Sharpie.  All the while Gabe is following me around with his hat falling off his head and onto the floor a gazillion times.

Kids go back outside to wait for the bus.  Gabe's hat fell off again.  Bus comes, kids are off.  Hubby finishes with the car and he too is off.  Now it's just me, Tiny, and the dog.  It's cold and rainy and we don't have anywhere we need to be, so I climb back into bed.  Tiny joins me, for some reason he no longer has any clothes on.  He watches a movie while I compute on my computer.  I keep thinking I should probably go turn my car off now, and I remember my toast, but it's just so warm and cozy here I think I'll stay a while longer.  Just another day in the life.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Fall Break in Durango, CO

Downtown Durango!
We rented a vacation house at
Durango Mountain Resort
Hiking behind the resort
Did I mention we were in Colorado?
This is how Porter vacays . . . dehydration & altitude sickness.
Wiped him out for a full day : (
We celebrated my birthday : )
First day of the trip we got up at 5AM to catch the train from Durango to Silverton.  It was early and cold, but riding the train was definitely the highlight of our trip!  We sat in the open air gondola car, by the end of the trip we were peppered with cinders.   

Silverton