Happy Halloween

Well, today is Halloween - but yesterday we went to a pumpkin patch with Spidey's class. Too busy to write much more - 3 parties to attend and 2 are being hosted by our talents - so gotta make like a ghost and disappear.............

They Be So Smert

We are Super Proud of Spidey & SuperStar. Today was teacher conference day and they both got high reports from their teachers. Spidey is having a special reading program developed to keep him challenged - some math stuff too. SuperStar is in the exceeding top percentages based on national test scores. Both are happy in class - excelling in the social aspects of school - and too darn funny!! Just look at this photo - it ooozes smertness!!!

Good Job Spidey & SuperStar - we are so proud of you!!!

Hey!!!

Hey!!!


It is almost Halloween!!!!!


What are you going to be?????

You're Really Losing It

Given the picture you probably think that I am about to write how Spidey is "really losing it" - yes? No. A few minutes ago he was sitting on the couch with BigGuy and SuperStar watching the show Cash Cab. Have you seen it? People get into a taxi cab in NY and then answer questions to win cash. Very cute - wish they had it here because we love trivia. Well, they went to a commercial. An advertisement for the Bow Flex came on. They are talking about how quickly you loose weight and tone up. I am listening from the computer room. A quick conversation begins...
Spidey says, "Wow, we should buy that for mom because she is trying really hard to do that, but it isn't working for her as fast as that thing worked for them."

Keeping in mind that the commercial was 30 seconds!! I guess in his mind those people were converted in the time it took to watch the commercial. I was just walking into the tv room to point that out when I hear him say..."You could use it too Dad (he is squeezing BigGuy's arm muscle), because you are really losing it."

I think what he said about me was a compliment compared to that. Better get BigGuy to the gym.

Borrowing.............

The other day I was working out and reading People magazine. Exercising on an eliptical is the best time to read magazines - how those people read books or newpapers while exercising is beyond me (because honestly - you are bobbing up and down and the big type in a magazine - and the short paragraphs of nonsense makes it easier to concentrate and follow). And Newspapers - dang - those are messy on an eliptical - too big - too flimsy - too black inky.

Anyway, in the People magazine there was a pictorial of Madonna and her daughter wearing the same clothes. It was cute. I thought about SuperStar and then thought that there are still a few years before I have to worry about that. Then.................the very next morning I was encouraging Spidey to wear his new fleece jacket Nanny gave him and SuperStar said she wished she had one. I pulled my red one that is WAY TOO BIG out thinking I would offer, but she would decline. She totally loved the idea and has been wearing it everyday since. She says that this way she can have "a little piece of you (me)" with her all day.

That is so sweet - and I really love that she loves me that much. At the same time, I also know that I really like that jacket and have seen where her jacket sits at school. Often on the floor under the hook being stepped on by the other kids. I love my fleece jacket, but it was only $12 (on sale at Target 2 years ago) - I love SuperStar more - so she continues to use my/her jacket.

Time to Vote

As I keep mentioning (in new and subtle ways) it is Voting Season!! And we did a little event at school that would allow our kiddo's the opportunity to experience "Voting".

Currently our school district is preparing to build 3 new schools. 1 of these schools is already named (a deal made by the family with the land it is being built on). The other 2 schools are being named soon. To do this the district is taking "nominations" of names from anyone that wants to make a suggestion. Our kids will go to the new elementary being built - and the new junior high being built (yes, they still call them Jr. Highs here - at the end I will tell you why). So we decided to use this as an opportunity to experience voting. We asked all the teachers to work with their classes to nominate a name for each school - then submit their nomination to us (the PTO) - then the Student Council was asked to narrow the choices down to 2 for each school - we created ballots for the vote with these names;
Deerfield Elementary - White Oak Elementary - Cedar Ridge Elementary (there were 3)
Hershey Jr. High - Harvest Jr. High

Then we held our vote during lunch...........

In the end the Winners Were............

White Oak Elementary & Hershey Jr. High

These names were then submitted to the district website to be considered by the Naming Committee. Who will then narrow down ALL the entries to 3-5 choices and pass those on to the School Board for the final decision. SuperStar is on the naming committee - so is my friend CB (our PTO Pres.) and our schools secretary - so perhaps our names might make it a little further????

Now - why do they still call them Jr. Highs in this area? Well, this is the story I was told. When they were making the transition to Middle Schools there was a school that had a name starting with a "P" - Parkside or Prarie or something - and if it were a Middle school the abbreviation would have been PMS. To avoid that they stuck with Jr. High.

He did it - He did it - He did it - Hooooray!!!

Spidey totally hit his target - well, close enough. He hit the target we thought was a bit more realistic. He sold $1,600 (exactly) worth of Popcorn for the Boy Scouts. While it is not official until tonight - we know he was/is the best seller in his "Den", and he is also one of the Big Sellers for his whole "Pack"! The top was $1,625. They both were awarded with a gift card of $75 to ToysRUs.

For those of you, like me, not so familiar with how it works - each Pack is made up of several Dens. In a school setting Dens are often determined by grade - so for instance, Spidey's Den is the Tiger Cubs and they are all 1st grade.

Spidey's personal goal was to sell $3,100 worth - we thought that $1,500 was a great first time goal - there were 14 levels to reach and I believe he reached level 12. So his "prize" will be very nice - in addition for every $500 he sold his name is put into a drawing for a Wii (which BigGuy would like to win) and for reaching $1,500 he automatically gets an iPod Shuffle.

Thanks to ALL of you who helped him hit his goal!!!

Way to go Spidey...........

Happy Birthday BigGuy!

Today is BigGuy's Bday!! I wanted to take a moment to celebrate him in the kids words.......


BigGuy is one of the most handsome men in the world - and Spidey says, "I like Dad and he likes me."


BigGuy is also a very great Dad - he is always willing to help the kids do whatever is needed. Babers says, "Dommadad works."


He is one of the best snugglers ever. SuperStar adds, "I will always love my dad. He always makes me feel like I am part of a group and I belong in it. He has always been very supportive like when he helps me practice my volleyball. Today we are probably going to do this Coke & Mentos experiment and he is really helping us by he is the one who is dropping in the mint so that he gets splattered instead of us. And I love him soo sooo soooooooo much - with extra ooooooooooooooooo's."

Happy Birthday BigGuy..........We Love You!

Did We Ever?

I do believe we forgot to post the full pics of Spidey's first big Boy Scout outing. BigGuy was injured - his back fell out when he was tying his shoes that morning - so I subbed and went as the Den Leader for him - although the Pack Leader was there so I didn't really do anything but take pictures.....

Still No Moskee-toes

The other night we had friends over to our house. They had never been here before (well, one couple had) and got the tour. Said how nice everything looked - which made me feel good because personally I believe we still need some color on the first floor to overcome the BEIGE that is everywhere!! However, I have put down a carpet in the dining room - put up the mirrors (finally) and unpacked all the candles (this had not been done because Babers was still in his destruction phase. He appears to have mellowed out a bit and isn't bothering the deco's I have put out - yet. If the candles live for a few months then we will bring out some of the glass stuff again).

Anyway, after we had dinner we lit a fire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows. As we sat the husband part of the newest visitors said that this would be the test - if the bugs didn't bother us. I mentioned that we weirdly enough don't have any mosquitos - to which he looked at me like I was a Fibber McGee - his wife said there are always mosqitoes that bother her and even if we didn't have any that bothered us surely they would bother her. I watched, but I didn't see her wiggle, slap or say "ouch". So we are still golden here. However, just like in our STL house we still seem to have problems with.................... SNAKES!! Not that this guy was very big - in this photo it is contained in one of the kids plastic Halloween Pumpkins - but he was in the garage slithering around when we got home Saturday night. Yuck. The kids LOVED it!! So did BigGuy. They caught him - he posed for photos and then we set him free. Most likely he is an escapee from the corn field - they are plowing corn now - and he is looking for a safe place, warm place, maybe a winter home. Yuck. Still no Moskeetoes though.

Pumpkin Guts Everywhere

On the lower right side of our blog there is a counter. This counter tells us who is hitting the site (not specifically, but rather where they are from geographically) and if they come through a search engine often we can track back and see what their original words to search were. Lately the blog is getting hit a lot for a phrase I used last year in an entry - "there were pumpkin guts everywhere". I was talking in reference to the pumpkin carving party we had. However, they are looking for the picture below - I know this because most of the searches include the words "beers drinking and throw up". So here it is.............



So thier search isn't in vain. Only a few days left before Halloween - do you have your costume planned?

Voting is No Way to Make a Decision

"Voting is no way to make a decision!", or so we were told last night at our Girl Scout meeting. Hmmm..........this particular little one was/is wrong - I think. See, we are in the beginning 2 meetings of the year and there are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many decisions that we have to make. What we are going to do, how we are going to do it, when we are going to do it, should we ask the Boy Scouts to participate if it is a service project, and the list goes on.

Last night - after voting on a few different things (and apparently everyone being happy with the results - it was a hands up voting efforts for all topics) - we had a more serious and bigger vote. It was about what Insignia Badge to purchase to represent Who Our Troop Is. For the most part our girls get along. For the most part our girls even kinda agree on most everything (yes, we are super lucky) - but some of the girls tend to sometimes do a popularity vote about things. There are always those stronger personalities - and weirdly enough our troop seems to be full mostly of strong personalities - makes for some spirit that can get loud and annoying (at least to me).

A vote like this was going to be tricky - that was understood going in. Kinda like the vote our nation is currently looking at.

A vote like this could also end up being emotional. Kinda like the vote our nation is about to make.

We had all the girls circle 1 of the badges (I think there were over 30 to choose from). Then, we had a representative from each badge stand up to speak about why that badge would represent all the girls in our troop. This is a kinda advanced concept to understand, but it was worth the request. A few of the descriptions weren't really accurate responses to the request. For instance - the Unicorn Badge girl said, "The horse is something that everyone but MW likes. So we should pick the horse because we are all going to go horse riding." When asked to elaborate she repeated the same info. However, two girls hit it dead on!

The SeaShell - The Soap Bunny on the far right above told us, "All SeaShells can be the same type, but none of them are the same. Each one is unique and each of us are unique. So we are all Girl Scouts, but we are all different in our uniqueness." Now, I am not sure if "uniqueness" is correct grammar, but she was right.

The Shooting Star - The Soap Bunny on the far left above told us, "Shooting Stars are all individuals. They are all Stars that sparkle just like we are all stars." There was a little twirling as she said this and a big sparkly smile.

I of course am biased toward the Shooting Star Soap Bunny, but I had to give it to the SeaShell Soap Bunny - she was the first to break the pattern of representation based on what we have "done in the past" and representation about "who we are and our individuality". So I voted for the SeaShell. Sorry Shooting Star Soap Bunny.
These statements reminded me again - of the current candidates in our nations up coming election.

So everyone filled out their secret ballot. No one peeked and no one tried to talk anyone else into voting any "one" way. One girl abstained from the vote, but then when she saw it was really being taken seriously she got back in and placed her vote. We tallied up the results - and SeaShell won as the representative Insignia Badge of our Jr. GS Troop.

Then came the moaning - the groaning - the claims that it wasn't fair - the claims that "I just won't wear it" and "You can't make me put it on my sash". Ugh! Of course this passed quickly - except for one little one (who is not in the picture). She kept saying that Voting wasn't Fair and the earlier mentioned statement. We didn't recount the votes, but we did point out how when the results went in her favor the other times she thought Voting was Great!! Eventually she got tired of us and the fact that we were being rational and went away.

With all the other "similarities" to our nation do you think this is one we can expect next month? The "unfair" - "you can't make me" - "I won't recognize" attitude? Unfortunately it probably will be for some. I for one plan to vote (because I believe Voting is a Great Way to make a decision) - and I think anyone who doesn't because they don't want to blamed later for the result - is a fool.

Remember November - Make Your Vote Count (even if the other guy wins).

The Elusive Mr. Hanky

Now I have learned that people will Google things and that is how they sometimes hit this blog. So sometimes I am careful about what words I put in the title. In typing out Mr. Hanky I understand that there will probably be a lot of SP people hitting this looking for something about the characters - primarily the poop guy. BigGuy LOVES SP and for that I will continue forward and not worry about wasting peoples time - because this title is perfect for Babers.

This is a follow up to the potty training process. He is doing GREAT!! He is totally into this. Not everytime, but most times he will announce, "Mommy I go potty." meaning that he wants help to get the process going. He is a totally naked from the waste down kinda kid. He won't stand and aim, he wants to sit backwards with his legs straddling and facing backwards. Yes, this is probably my fault, but the first time we did it we were going for speed to make sure it happened and not form.

Now, there are some things that I will not admit to BigGuy and the kids are funny. Why? Well, because I think someone in our house needs to represent for the "socially acceptable reactions to things in public". What does that mean you say with a funny face? It means that if we are all chuckling intil milk squirts out of our eyes at farts and monkeys who throw poo our kids won't realize that there is another side of the world that does not think it is as funny. They need to be guarded a bit in my opinion. For instance - last night we are all watching America's Home Video's. A video of a horse drawn carriage and then the camera pans over to a woman walking up to her husband saying, "Honey we have been married for 1 week now." You get the sense it is romantic - then you get this really long farting noise and the husband pans over to the horse drawing the carriage - his/her tail is up and he/she is obviously tooting - very long. My kids and BigGuy were rolling!! I put on my "oh that is totally sad and gross face." I feel the same way about Mr. Hanky (the kids have never seen SP - this is BigGuys thing). No one needs a living poop walking around teaching morals - although I do see the irony.

However, Mr. Hanky seems appropriate for this next story. As it is kinda tongue in cheek funny. Babers is taking a bath last night. He is on his own and I am in the other room sorting clean laundry. He says, "Look Mommy it under water." He had swim lessons and his teacher had commended him for being the only kid willing to go under water without a fuss - so I assume that is what is under water. I don't go see. He becomes more insistant. I go see. He is holding his penis pointing at it saying, "Look it under water" and tugging a bit to try to get it above. I tell him it is his penis and he seems happy enough with the answer. I go back to my task. A few minutes later he is crying that there is poop in the water. He is apparently upset and I am thinking that now I will have to drain the tub and get a shower going to clean him. Only upon looking he now has his testicles and he is saying his poop is stuck and he can't get it out. So I assure him this is just another part of his body. He is insistant that I do not know what I am talking about and keeps pointing. I have never had to argue with anyone about what testicles are and Spidey and BigGuy are not home so I can't pass this one off to someone correctly equiped to explain. He is crying because as I said in an earlier post - he really wants to see his poop in the potty and for him it is now in his bathtub. At a loss I just keep telling him it is part of his penis. He seemed okay with that, but looked doubtful.

At this point I really want him to successfully poop in the potty so we can get the elusive Mr. Hanky out in the open for Babers.

Go IronMen!!

This picture was taken a few weeks ago at the Cheerleading Performance that SuperStar and her friend, MP, participated in for their future High School (crazy thought - it is only 4 years away!!). It was a clever fundraiser - $30 per girl - they practice 2 nights for 2 hours with the Fresh, Soph & Varsity cheerleaders. They learned 3 cheers. They received a cute tshirt (as you can see) and they performed the first half of the game. Plus, they had a great time. Here is a cute video of one of the cheers.............

Patience is his Virtue - not mine

Guess who is Potty Training!!! No, BigGuy is already done with that...... Babers is!!! And guess who had the bright idea to do it?? Babers did!!! Yep, one day recently he just said, "I go on da potty mommy" and he did. At the moment it is about 3 potty successes a day. Very exciting considering he is only 4 days in now. However, poopy remains elusive to him - and he is totally looking for the poopy. He will sit on the toilet for 20 minutes (this is the top length to date - although if I had not made him stop he would probably have stayed there) waiting to "see the poopy" as he likes to say. He will point to his tush while he is sitting and say, "Here it come" and then strain with a little moan and Nothing. Today as he sat there he began to cry because he wanted the "poopy come" so he could see it. Later it did show itself, but unfortunately we didn't see it in the pooty.

On the same line of thought - today the preschool we plan to enroll in called and set an appointment for us to come visit soon. Babers will be 3 in December - prerequisite #1 - prereq. #2 is that he be pooty trained - Cross Your Fingers!!