Old Meatloaf and Pinewood Derby

Well, since the onset of Facebook I haven't done much blogging. But I thought I would post a quick update.

Nicholas, last week won his pack pinewood derby race. Yippee!! He worked and worked on his car. He changed his design this year a bit too.

Here is his car:

And here is him and his trophy.

He had a good time though I think he made the assistant cubleader a bit upset that his child didn't win. I told Kenneth that he shouldn't have been surprised that Nicholas won because the cub leader was the judge at districts last year where Nicholas won.

Allie and Caroline are cheering now. They are having a good time but don't seem as "into it" as they were last year. Last year they had a fun squad and really fun coaches who were high school students. They knew what they were doing and they were really organized. This year we have two moms (on of which has been coaching for a few years) but they really aren't very organized. For instance last week at practice they are working on a dance routine and they were literally making it up as they went along teaching it to the kids. Oh my! It was really frustrating.

Nicholas is playing basketball for a more competitive league and again we have frustration in that area. We were given false info about the team we requested to be on and we are suffering the consequences. We thought the coaches knew what they were doing and they don't. We are the losingest team in the league I think . We have only won one game! And the kids aren't learning any skills. They haven't learned any thing really. So it makes it really frustrating for us sitting and watching the games and seeing the other teams stomp all over us. Next year we will know though.

Okay, now for the meatloaf. I received a bunch of really fun to look at patterns from my mother in law. These patterns are for crochet and knitting. She cut them out from magazines from the early 1970's through the late 1980's. The styles are so much fun to look at particularly once you hit the earlier years. Anyway, I found in these patterns some recipes for meatloaf. I thought I would share a few with you all, but you have to go here to find them. Once you get there click on Meatloaf on the sidebar to find them.

Our Brush with Hannah Montana

This past weekend our family went to Baltimore for my cousin's wedding. We went to the wedding and the reception and on the way out this happened to us.

The limosine driver was standing there in the parking lot next to the bride and groom's limo. It was a super stretch sedan. It was white with a black top and black wheels. It was pretty neat looking. He noticed that my kids were checking out the car as they walked by and he asked if they would like to take a peak inside.

Well, yeah!!! So they walk over and he opens the back door for them to see and suggests they get in and sit down. So the peeps do and they are in awe with the size and the fact that it had a tv in it AND a bar AND a big long seat AND neon lights AND a stereo in it. The driver goes around to the other side of the car and opens the other door and pokes his head in and says,

"you know, I have driven around a lot of famous people in this car."

The kids say, "really??? like who???"

He says, "well, I can't tell you any names of them because we aren't allowed to but I will tell you the initials of one rock star you might know. Do you know who HM is?"

Well, Alexandra about flips out of the seat and yells, "HANNAH MONTANA!!!!"

And that made her birthday, which was the very day that she got to sit in the same limosine that Hannah Montana sat in!!!

Nicholas's Birthday

Here it is in all its glory!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Caroline's 7th Birthday

Here it is in all it's glory!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I have been Xed out!

On Thursday I told the kids all individually, as it worked out that way, that we would be going to Mamaw's house for her birthday on Friday evening. When I told Caroline she was all excited, until I added that she had to wear a dress. Well, I just deflated her balloon then! She got upset, refused to put one on and stomped off. I continued to do laundry as I had been when we were having this conversation. A little while later, Caroline returns with this note to me. She looks up at me with her big hazel eyes and hands me the note, not saying one word. I immediately recognize that it is her attempt at cutting out a heart and that it is folded up. I assume it is an apology note. But not so. I open it to find THIS!!!

Let me decypher the photo for you. First it is a heart shaped blue paper. She cut it out herself. Second, the person on the left is clearly me. I have long hair, a smile on my face and I am wearing a dress and shoes. The man on the right is clearly a man, wearing pants. It is Kenneth. We can tell by the smile on his face the short, small head and the ONE eye!! To a stranger it would look like I am married to a cyclopse crossed with Edward Scissorhands but as I am an expert at analyzing Caroline's artwork it is clearly Kenneth. Notice we are holding hands too. Third, the person (that would be me) is Xed out! See the big X cutting through my body? Yup, I have been Xed out. Kenneth has a check by his picture. He is still okay in her book.

Now, I stood there looking at it and looking at her looking at me with her big hazel eyes, and I pondered what I should do. Clearly she was waiting for a reaction and the longer I stood there she was showing signs that maybe she would get into trouble for this. But she was standing her ground. NO DRESS!

So what would you do in this situation? would you start yelling at her? Would you get down on her level and explain to her why it was important for her to wear a dress to the party? Would you just hand the note back and tell her you were not accepting a note like this?

All of those options came to mind. But I chose option number 4. CRY. Yup, cry. I started to cry and I hoped and prayed I could pull it off and actually make some tears. It happened I truly started crying and making tears. She didn't know what to do. She stood there for a minute looking up at me and then she hugged me. And then she told me that she was sorry. I told her that I was so upset and sad because I would never ever ever X her out of my heart and that I was so upset that she could so easily X me out of hers. That no matter how mad she made me or how bad she was she was never Xed out of my heart and that I would love her always (remind me of this conversation when she is caught skipping curfew with a boyfriend when she is a teenager okay?) and that I was so sad and hurt that just because it was Mamaw's birthday and we were going to a party and that I told her that she had to wear a dress that she could just X me out.

She told me then that she still loved me but she wasn't going to wear the dress.

Been a while and I need to update

So today you will be getting a video of the girls cheering!! This was their first game! Caroline is so cute. She says she gets really nervous at the games because everyone is looking at her.

Great Wolf Lodge

Gotta love a waterpark in the winter! It is a time to show your winter body to the world!! How much fun is that? Well, me and my white skinned body bared all that was necessary to all who happened to rent a room at Great Wolf Lodge on Saturday night. The kids had a ball as usual and it really is fun. No one really pays attention to you because they are all totally focused on their kids and whether or not they are having fun. If you haven't been and have kids it should be put on your "to do" list. If you don't have kids, don't go. Seriously, you won't have fun.

The best part about the whole experience you ask? Pierce's Barbeque! Yup! You heard me right. It is right next door and we pick it up on the way home. It is our favorite Barbeque. The place is out of the way and if you aren't going to Great Wolf Lodge then you probably won't know how to get there. They don't really advertise and they don't have to. If you are ever in Williamsburg it is a perfect place to experience.

Allie gets a haircut!

Allie got her twice yearly hair cut yesterday evening. Her hair was well below her waist and it was time for a trim. So I pulled out the scissors and started chopping away. I cut 3 inches off and it brought her hair back up to the top of her pants waist. This way she doesn't have to pull it out of her pants when she is getting dressed.

I asked her today if anyone noticed her hair cut. She said not one person.

A "NO TV" DAY...

Today is a "no TV" day in our house. The kids have recently gotten their brains sucked out by sitting in front of the TV for 3 and 4 hours at a time. I can't move them and when I ask them to do anything they literally don't move. They have become limp green beans.

So today I have declared it a "no TV" day in our house. In the three hours that my middle daughter has been awake she has asked me three times if she can watch TV. I tell her "N-O!". She isn't happy about it but hasn't whined yet either. Right now she is stringing beads on the back porch watching workmen take down part of a tree in our neighbors yard. Now isn't that better than getting your brain sucked out by SpongeBob Squarepants?

What my 5 year old thinks I should talk about today...

So I sit here thinking about updating my blog and at the moment can't think of a topic. I ask my 5 year old daughter, "What should I talk about today?"

"Scissors.", she says.

"Scissors?", I ask.

"Yeah, scissors"

"What should I say about them?"

"Well, they cut. They can make hearts.", she says with confidence. And hearts mean love. That is exactly what she means. If only it was so easy. Scissors make hearts and hearts are love.

5 year olds have the best insight sometimes. They are so innocent and curious about the world they live in. I love to watch her in her activities. Just today, she was working so hard to catch a butterfly with her hands. He was just a bit too fast for her and she thought it wasn't fair that he wouldn't let her catch him.

The other day we were sitting on the front porch and we were watching a Robin pulling worms from the earth. He had gotten a couple and would carry each one off and then return for another. My 5 year old got angry because he was taking all her worms. She stood out in the front yard and yelled at him as he took to flight, "Go away bird! Stop taking our worms. I like worms and bugs! Leave ours alone!"

Then she came to where I was sitting and said that we needed to fill our bird feeder so the bird could eat the seeds and not take our worms.

I love 5 year olds.

Don't get me Wrong!

I had a comment from Agent of Entropy and he said "A[n] intresting post. My wife are about to begin to have kids soon, and we were just discussing how they should be spaced. Your post provided another intresting presepective on this issue"

Please don't get me wrong. I love having my kids close together and I wouldn't do it differently if I had the choice. They are each others' best friends. They play so well together. The first two act and probably should have been twins. The youngest is just as much a part of the mix as the others. They seek each other out first to be with or to do things with and they always remember the other siblings when they are getting something special like candy at the store. They always ask if they can get one for their sister and/or brother.

There are days though when I feel overwhelmed but it is usually self-induced. I will have scheduled too many things to do or I get them overtired. Their interests are similar and their maturity levels are similar so I don't have to worry about a younger one watching inappropriate stuff on TV because an older one is watching it. They all watch the same shows.

I had a fear when Nicholas was one and Allie would be learning to walk that they would run in different directions but the reality was that Nicholas would run and Allie would run after him. Then I had the fear that I wouldn't have enough hands to hold each of them when we would cross a parking lot but the reality was that they were just as comfortable holding each others' hand when crossing the street so I would hold one or two hands and the third would hold a siblings' hand.

Currently our biggest problem is who gets the favored green cup to drink from. None of the other rainbow colors will suffice. They all want green. So we just take turns.

For the record: we would definitely have another one if it was possible. We tried three times for a fourth but it just didn't work out for us.