Okay, so it's been awhile...

Fall is here!!! This is my favorite season. I turned 32, celebrated 8 years of marriage to the greatest man on the planet, went on a scrapbooking weekend retreat with some girlfriends at a lodge in the mountains of Virginia, and got to put out my fall decorations! It doesn't get much better than that. Here is a photo of my little halloween ninjas...
We had a little potluck with some friends and family before we set out trick-or-treating. Noah and Ethan led the way with the trail of toddlers following close behind. We have more candy than I know what to do with! Our Friday night movie night candy drawer will remain fully stocked for some time (as long as I can keep Brad out of there!) :)
Our construction is done (almost). Brad is finishing up the work on the outside...grading the yard, burying drain tiles, and general hard labor! The boys are enjoying their new rooms, but everymorning I find them snuggled together in one of their beds playing gameboys or reading. How cute is that?!
We are gearing up for our Thanksgiving extravanganza!!! Nine very different family households will be represented here on Thanksgiving day. I'm sure if nothing else, it will be a day to remember!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Ethan had a great 6th birthday. Thanks to all you GOOD relatives out there that actually remember to send cards and gifts. Man, I really feel like a loser now! I even thought I was going to do better this year. Well, there's always next year.

Ethan insisted on having a Spongebob birthday. He watched a marathon of Spongebob episodes while my mom was babysitting them one day. That's all it took. Some gas jokes and underwear references and he was hooked. I think the show's really dumb, personally. Brad can't stand it. It did make for great party decorations and games though. Underwater theme...so easy to work with!

The funniest thing was that I was feeling lazy and tried to convince Ethan to let me shell out wads of money to have his birthday somewhere else...ANYWHERE ELSE...other than our house that is currently 6 months into an addition remodel. I suggested the movie theater, bowling alley, a bbq race car restaurant with a big game room, Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's...no. He begged me for a low-budget, home-spun, backyard birthday reminiscent of the only birthday parties we knew existed in the 70's/80's. Why? Because he wanted me to plan some games. GAMES! I had to invent games to go along with our Spongebob backyard birthday. There was no getting around it, I was actually going to have to work at this party.

And how could I say no...it was his birthday afterall. It's suppossed to be the one day a year I let him get at least some of what he wants. The one day all year I have to be the nice mommy he dreams he was born with.

So, I caved. I baked the cake. I planned the games. I blew up balloons until my jaw ached. I also convinced Ethan to branch out this year and invite all 10 boys in his class so he could get to know them. He resisted and I made him do it anyway. A few showed up and a few old friends too. And it really was fun. And he loved it. Except for a brief struggle during the waterballoon bubble toss, he will have great memories of his 6th birthday party. And just in case he has NO memories of all that I did for him that day, I will carefully be documenting it in his scrapbook...

Pets...

We told the boys yesterday that we (meaning I) will be bringing our newer dog Lucy back to the Humane Society next week. We got her in February as a companion for our dog Tex. Well, although she is a lover and a great dog, she is not the dog for us! She is really needy and won't let anyone give Tex or the cat, Penguin, ANY attention. If one of us even starts to talk to Tex, she runs over and starts biting at his ankles (do dogs actually have ankles?) and his head. She's also bitten at Ethan's face a couple times, and although he was probably being too rough with her and somewhat deserved it, that still won't fly with me. She's also really active (read: hyper) and desperately needs to go for long walks everyday to get some of that pent-up energy out. Unfortunately, we don't walk our dogs on any regular basis. I'm lucky to remember to "walk" our kids! She will be a great dog for a couple with no kids, no other pets, and that likes to take her for daily walks.
That's two dogs now we've had to test-drive and return (remember our brief stint with Charlie the severely UN-housebroken cutie?). I always feel like such a tyrant bringing home new pets only to send them away once everyone is attached to them. Fortunately this time (I keep telling myself) no one seems to be really attached to Lucy and mostly seems to be annoyed by her. Except of course, Brad, who loves all of God's great creatures and still dreams of owning a kennel full of crazy, wooly, barking maddness. Yesterday he even suggested getting a sweet, little PIT-BULL pup. He was only HALF joking. He has a great heart.
Unlike me. I will probably be taking Lucy back next Tuesday while the kids are at school. I'm preparing myself now for the sideways glances from the animal lovers standing in line to rescue that new, unwanted pet while I arrive to add to the list of available adoptees. I'll probably cry on the way home and then move on. I did reassure the kids that we would never return THEM, unless of course they start biting or peeing on our bed...

First day of school. 1st and 2nd grade. Yes, I made them bring an apple for their teachers! Does anyone do that anymore? Maybe it's not P.C. ...Oh well, too late now!

Day One...and then some.

Well Mindy, aren't you proud of me. I am trying out this blog thing. I feel so...current! I realized the other day that music that I still think of as my "newer" collection of CD's is actually more like 10 years old. When did this happen? When did I suddenly fall out of touch with pop-culture? I'm sure it happened somewhere around 7 1/2 years ago. Hey, that's funny...Noah's 7 1/2!...

The kids are back at school and I'm, well, I'm procrastinating going to work. The house is so quiet. It's almost eerie! Ethan was throwing up on Sunday evening and I was trying to figure out how he could not miss his first day of school. Fortunately he woke up feeling fine so I sent him off to 1st grade loaded down with 2 bags of required school supplies and a lunch box full of bananas, applesauce, crackers and gatorade. He made it through the day fine and then threw up one last time when we walked in the door afterschool. He did okay yesterday too and today hopefully the worst is behind us.

My heart broke for him today when I dropped him off in the drop-off circle. He and Noah have always walked in together, giggling, skipping, and schemeing I'm sure. But not today. Noah's class is in a "classroom cottage" this year (aka...trailer) behind the building, so I pulled out of the car line and dropped him off by the playground closer to his room. Then I pulled up and let Ethan out at the regular door. He just looked so lost walking in all by himself. I'm sure he was fine. I'm sure I'm projecting my own worry on him. I'm excited to see Ethan finally start blossoming into his OWN unique, zany, wonderful little person. Man, those old people weren't kidding...they DO grow up fast.