The Nudesies

Okay, so you remember that musical made a few years back called the Newsies? Well, in our house we have the Nudesies! These little bare cuties were too much to resist, the camera had to come out.

Doesn't Joseph look the part for the musical? He is even doing some dance moves! too bad the camera takes such dark pictures. Emma got some birthday money from her Grandma K and chose to buy a barbie swimming pool with a lifeguard chair. I was going to take a picture of all the naked barbies chilling in their pool on our bathroom floor, but their must have been a tsunami before I got a chance because it was all a wet chaos when I got back. Next time she will play with it in the bathtub and save me some grief:) It was all so fun though.

Happy, Happy Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Emma's birthday. The big 7 now. I know, I know, we were 3 days early, but we thought that if we did it on the weekend previous that it would be easier than during the week. We may have been mistaken. This is how it went.

6:00 Was that really the alarm? It's the weekend, turn it off.
6:02 Never mind, Joseph (on our floor woke up)
6:03 Never mind again, he is back in bed.
7:00 Kids bouncing on the bed. Time to get up. Breakfast? What's that? It's the weekend, find it yourself.
7:30 Time to go work on the roof. Work, work, work, (break for breakfast -thanks Sister Shea!)
work, work, work.
11:30 get kids read, make lunch, damage control.
1:30 we are late, get in the car. I SAID GET IN THE CAR! Fine we are leaving without you.
1:50 Everyone in the car? Check. Buckled? Check. Okay, let's go get to the primary activity.
2:00 Arrive at the primary activity (half hour late). Carve pumpkins. Eat ice cream. Get tackled by 15 5-year-olds (okay, it was probably only 6 or 7 kids, but it FELT like 15.
3:20 Go home. Clean up the lunch mess we didn't get put away. buy frosting, mix up and bake cake, send all the kids to time out so that we can get some things done and have some fun.
6:00 let the kids out of time out (just kidding, they were let out earlier). Eat hot dogs, fruit salad. Don't touch the cake sitting 6 inches in front of you. Don't touch that frosting. (they actually did do pretty good about it).
6:30 Happy birthday Emma! Presents. Smear lipstick on my nose and juggle.
OUCH! Ethan that HURT! Party is over. Stop the bleeding. Lay down to prevent shock. Do I go to the hospital? Are you crazy? Too cheap for that. It will heal. Eventually. Maybe.
7:00 Okay kids. I can tie balloon animals in bed for you. Frog. Lion. Sword. Muppet guy. Don't let Abby have them. She will choke if she gets them.
8:00 kids all in bed. Drinks of water all around. Drinks again. Again. That's enough. NO more. Again. Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom.
9:00 Done. Finally.

Okay, I did take a bit of poetic license. That is more how it felt.
I did get a pretty good gouge in my lip from Ethan's headbutt. It was unintentional, but it hurt like crazy. The kids really did have fun yesterday.

Pictures:

Emma posing with her new bike. Emma's cake It is a chicken man cake. Her design. The thing that looks like a frown is exactly that. Joseph was washing dishes and was Joseph Santa.

Illegal Aliens

To start at the ending...
Laura and I took a little jaunt up to northern Washington this past weekend and kept on goin'. We had decided that since we were only a few miles from the Canadian border it would be fun to go and see it. We drove up, got confused, and couldn't turn around until a trooper said "Welcome to Canada, Let's see your ID." We apologized profusely, and said that we just wanted to get back to the states, so he turned us through a barrier and sent us back up to the US border patrol. They were much more strict. The had us get out of the car, leave our cell phones, go into a building while they searched it (the car, not the phone), then they scanned our licenses and asked us questions about our birthplace and marriage place. We figure that by scanning our licenses it brought up other vital records and they questioned us about those. Anyway, an exciting ending to a trip.

We had originally gone up for a conference. It was at the Semiahmoo resort and spa. Boy was I glad the school footed that bill. It was nice. As any loving parent would do, we ditched the kids and Laura and I went alone (that is except for Abby who managed to hitch a ride with us). It was right on birch bay. We had fun looking at the herons, and the resident bald eagle. Laura saw a seal and of course there were gads of seashells. We even awkwardly ate at a very nice restaurant to the tunes of Abby screaming because we wouldn't let her pull the table cloth off the table. It was good food though.

We came home late Saturday night, picked up kids and fell into bed. That's it!

PS The grass in our back yard is starting to fill in a bit YEAH!!! Hopefully if we can keep the dog from digging too many holes we will have a back yard with a real yard by the end of next spring.

Ty

stress reduction

Okay, so, I am the kind of person that, when I get stressed I find something to do. Since I am far from a perfectionist, I happily engage myself in a multitude of things at a mediocre level. The thing is, I think I must be getting far too stressed out at work because I have found myself at times thinking "hmm... should I juggle, crochet, tie ballon animals, draw, go outside and play with the chainsaw?" and many other frivolous pastimes. But, having seen a snapshot of the things I like, is there anything new I can try that would not be life threatening (I know, I know, those crochet hooks can be nasty, but a guy has got to live a little right?)

Ty