Happy Birthday Jack

I didn't cut enough wrapping paper so I strategically left one part out. Emma said, "But mom now he'll know what it is!!!"
Me - "Don't worry Emma, Jack can't read, we just need to cover the pictures."



Emma noticed this little typo right away. Like Mike pointed out, those poor chinese kids putting this together don't read english.




I have to say that the legos were the hit of the party, they even had plans for loads of animals, we still haven't made all of them yet.



Emma and her ever present fashion sense.






We had a very small, very nice family party. We made a delicious pumpkin pie (everyone, seriously use melted ice cream instead of condensed milk - yummy) since we'll be in hot weather for Thanksgiving.

Two and A Half More Weeks

Until three weeks on this.

I know.

Me too.

And I'm going.

(No, I don't know those people)

Learning About Money

Last night was the book fair opening night at Emma's school.  I think parent attendance has been down a bit before this year, but this year the school has their market sold on all things 'after school'.  Who's their market?  The kids.  I think somewhere along the line they realized that the fliers they send home and the emails they put out don't always have the same impact as a six year old girl pleading with her daddy to take her to the school book fair.
So, I sent Mike and Emma off to the school with a small amount of cash for bake sale goodies and books.  The first treasure Emma happened upon was some overpriced book about fairies with wings and a wand and everything!!  Mike actually tells her that it's too expensive - "It's ten dollars Emma, that's too much."  Emma, the little sneak that she is, goes to the librarian to ask how much the book is.  Apparently all of the crazy facts he throws at the kids make him somewhat not-credible.  The librarian tells Emma, "That book is 9.99."  Emma goes back and gives her daddy the news that the book is NOT ten dollars.  Mike then has to point out that one little penny is the difference between 9.99 and 10.00.  And you can't buy anything with a penny.  Mike is not known for his will power where his daughter is concerned, and agrees to buy the book anyways.  BUT at the next table is a jeweled book mark and a rubber duck (1$ each) that Emma decides to trade her precious fairy book for.  (yippee!)  Her and her dad walk around, pick out a book for Jack and a couple of books that they can share.  Emma even got her first "chapter book" and this is when I LOVE movies.  She picked out the book because it's the story from Enchanted (A must see).  She was two chapters into it when she left for school this morning.  When my FIRST GRADER left for school this morning.
As I mentioned earlier, there was also a bake sale at the book fair.  Emma picked out an "Olivia" cookie.  A pink sugar cookie with a marshmallow nose - super cute.  Mike handed the cashier a ten dollar bill.  They gave him back a 5 and 4 ones.  "Wow!"  Said Emma, look at all that money we just got!  Let's go pick out some more books!!"
If only it did work that way.
And a great quote from my friend Heather, "Money DOES grow on trees, just not the way we want it to..."

Axe Men

Here's my two "Axe Men"
(For those of you without a TV, it's a show that takes place in Alaska about loggers)


First daddy takes a swing.


Then Jack gets a go.

It was pretty adorable. Unfortunately for Mike, all the birch was pretty wet and hard to split. BUT you could see the logs flying every time he put up a spruce. Very satisfying work.

One of my better ideas

I was reading balancing everything, one of my favorite blogs, and she had up this really cool chore chart that she made. We needed to do something around here so I made my own.



I've kept the chores very general. The cards read things like - "Jake" this can be brushing the dog, letting the dog out, feeding the dog... any of those things. There are also cards that say "help mom w/ a mess" those too, can be a million different things. I've kept the cards purposefully vague, otherwise the chart would be WAY more work for me than them.
The things that they still have to do are in a line on the left, this way they can see which jobs are left and pick and choose which ones they want to do first. When they've completed the chore we stick the card in the far right pocket which is bigger. You really can't see this in the picture but they love to see the stack of cards in the "done" pile grow and grow.
We LOVE it. If the kids get everything done by Sunday (which they always do) we have a dessert of their choosing. We usually have a dessert that day anyways. We have had so much fun with this, it's been one of those things that I was hoping would be a great idea and it totally was. We have a fun time getting things done together. Every time I find myself wondering what to do with my kids, I offer to help them move a "chore card."

Proof that even doing chores with little brothers can be fun.

Welcome Josephine

5.5 lbs of pure angel.
Congrats Melissa!



Just a few hours old. If that.
I was lucky to be a part of their day.
It's amazing.
I never want to do that again :)
I'll bask in the new mommy glow of others.

Profound Bits of Wisdom

I have never done this before and may never do it again, but here are some bits of wisdom that were passed on to me today.  Hope they change your life:


AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:

 1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

 2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

 3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

 4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON. 
  
 5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH. 
  
 6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE. 
  
 7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM. 
  
 DAILY THOUGHT: 
  
 SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.  

What the??

Okay, so I think this has been the title of several of my posts, but whatever.

Just in case you're having a hard time reading the very tiny (and somewhat blurry) print - here's the gist of it.

The first picture is a "Free Gift" from Gymboree.  They should totally do this more often.
The second picture is a warning "Keep Out of Reach of Children"

Really??

Can you feel the irony people??

Somewhere Out There

Somewhere out there are my recent blog posts.  But they're not here.  Getting them BACK over here is on my list.  Just probably not at the top.  I'll try to take some interesting pics of my adorable kids over the next few days and slap those up instead.  Have a great weekend y'all!  I'm going to try to go to Anchorage (55 miles, but only place with shopping near here) with a grumpy, tired husband, two kids and no money.  Wish me luck.

A Sad Commentary

I was helping out in Emma's classroom today.  I love doing that, I'd go in twice a week if I could, it's just hard to juggle schedules.  So, I remember when I was in high school and elementary school having fire drills (always on the last day of the month - they have to do them once a month) and earthquake drills.  You know, the ones where you sit underneath your desk in case the whole school collapses around you?  Because somehow that sturdy, sturdy desk will save your life.  
Today they had a "lock down" drill.  I did several of these while I was teaching.  We'd have some sort of a code word that would come over the intercom and would tell us teachers to lock our doors, hide kids from the windows and make note of any students using the restroom.
We did one at Emma's school today.  And I thought, what a sad commentary.  Schools all over the country are doing these drills in the hopes of saving some lives the next time a psycho comes running into a school with a gun.  Emma's teacher was great, she kept the kids really calm and was like, "Is this real?"
"No" they would whisper back and they all got to sit against the wall underneath the coats, kind of a fun distraction from their day.  
It's so hard to send your child off to someone else's care for 6 and a half hours a day.  I remember as a teacher when we had a fair sized earthquake in the Seattle area, the enormity of the responsibility that I had to the kids in my care.  I have been fortunate enough to love my daughter's teachers thus far.  I hope it continues.  Because there are days when I look at the world and am in awe of the loveliness and days like today when I'm in shock at what we're capable of doing to one another.


Next post will be something happy, I promise.  Maybe some more moose pics...