M - Backyard leaf play

Almost a year ago to the day, the kids and I were in the backyard playing in the leaves.

This year we continued our annual tour o' leaves and had a great time raking, piling, and jumping and then raking, piling, and jumping.

Shoeless Joe...

Attempting to tunnel through...and he STILL couldn't understand why we had to take a bath that night!

D - I Lose :(

Well, despite the overwhelming number of you who voted with me to keep Noah's hair long, it appears that this election is going to the other side. Mike protested unfair advertising in that I chose the only good picture of Noah since this whole experiment began. Hmmmmmmm.......he may be right. And apparently this election is determined by an electoral college in which Noah is California, Mike is New York and Katie is Texas. Since all of the rest of us are from Oklahoma, our votes are clearly not worth as much as theirs.

That, plus my son almost cried last night and told me he looks like a girl. Despite the fact that this is nowhere near the truth, I have conceded and will allow him to get his hair cut just as soon as I can get him an appointment. I'm not actually into scarring the youth of America - especially ones I love as much as this one.

D - Long or Short?

So, Noah's whole life he has had the same buzz hairstyle with Mike acting as his barber. He has a super-aggressive cow-lick (I've never actually written that word out. Is that right?) on the right-front, so when it grows out much, his hair really sticks up. We've always thought he looked good with it short, and it was free, so it worked for us.





This winter though, I've been doing a grow-it-out experiment. I have met with a great deal of protesting from my family so far with Noah being the most vocal because I actually have to comb it now. But I'm determined to stick it out.

So, what do you think? Are you, like his groupies above, in the "Keep the Buzz!" camp, or do you say "Go ahead with the experiment - it's looking good!"? I need your votes!!!

D - Little Miss Muffet

I have a rather sarcastic sense of humor and sometimes have to find ways to amuse myself when I'm home all day with kids who don't get my jokes. Yesterday one of the kids' shows made a reference to Little Miss Muffet, and I started entertaining myself by making up a story. Noah, however, is starting to understand what I'm doing and doesn't really find me all that funny. You tell me.

Me: You know, I know a Little Miss Muffet.

Noah: No, you don't.

Me: I do! She likes to sit on a tuffet when she eats her breakfast.

Noah: Mom.

Me: Once though, she got scared because this huge spider came and sat by her.

Noah: Mom!

Me: It scared her so badly that she ran away.

Katie: Maybe that's what this story is about!!!!

Noah: No, it's not. Mom's just silly.

D - A Very Merry Unbirthday To Them

Since I've not been the world's best blogger lately (thanks to blog-lurker Kelsey for noticing), I managed to miss discussing both of my kids' birthdays this year! So, despite how loooonnnggg ago they were, I'll post now for posterity's sake.

I'm not a big fan of throwing birthday parties, so we've gone to an every-other-year party plan starting at the age of 6. Meaning, Noah had a party every year 1-5, so Katie will get that too, but then we're trading off so I only have to have 1 a year. On party years, they don't get presents from us because the party is their present (and they get tons from their friends), and on their off-year we buy presents and they get to pick one (or maybe 2) friends and do something fun like White Water or a movie or something. We'll see. Anyhow, this was the last year that I had to do 2 parties. Yay!!!!

Noah turned 7 in July and chose to have a bowling party this year. He's really been wanting a trophy for a long time now and the bowling alley gives you a bowling pin if you have your birthday there. Exciting! Since that's as close to a trophy as he's gotten so far, that was enough to convince him that's where his party should be. It was a good time, but not my favorite party ever. He really enjoyed it though, and had a great time hooking up with some of his school buds that he hadn't seen all summer.

When trying to decide what to do for Katie's 4th birthday party in September, I complained to Mike that it was always easy to pick themes for Noah's parties because there was always something he was obsessed with at each year making it obvious what we should do. We have had fishing, swimming, bugs and monster trucks over the years - all things he loves. With Katie though (I continued my complaint), the only thing she likes is horses. Ding, ding, ding!!! That's it! After much searching and a last minute suggestion from a friend, I finally found a company that would bring a darling little pony to my house.

And she LOVED it! Most of the kids at the party rode the pony once or twice and then played in the back yard. Katie, on the other hand, did nothing but ride and get back in line to ride again. She has asked me several times when that pony gets to come back to our house. It was really fun to see her so happy.

Looking back on it all now, both parties were a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we did them. I can't believe my babies are getting so big! They are two of the most precious gifts God has ever given to me, and I thank him every day for the honor of allowing me to be their mother.

D - The Golden Boy & The Candyland Curse

Doesn't that sound like a great title for a children's book? Anyhow....

Noah is one of those people in life for whom things just seem to go right. He's cute, smart, athletic, positive, thoughtful, kind, competitive, and has a high self-esteem - just an all-around sort of great guy. You know the type. You love 'em, and you hate 'em. He's the kind of person who wins raffles, lotteries, etc. that you don't even feel the need to enter because you never win anything. Well, he does. I once introduced him to a former co-worker at a school function as the kid who WILL win the musical chairs game that was just starting with over 20 kids in the running - I was right. I just know in advance that he will always come out on top.

I say all of that to say this - The child is CURSED at Candyland. I can't even tell you how many times the kid has lost this game! He can be one square away from a win and get sent back to the front of the board every time. It is soooooooo frustrating for him (& for me who is constantly trying to find a way to throw the game). I keep thinking statistically he will have to start winning at some point, but I guess he must be saving up his wins to take out on his own children. Or perhaps the gods of winning are trying to school him in how to lose gracefully. He could definitely still use some work there.

D - Tired!

I guess Katie worked pretty hard at Sonshine School today. She fell asleep (HARD!) in the carpool line this afternoon while waiting to pick up Noah. The nap isn't entirely unusual, but this position was so I had to get a pic.

D - The Children's Museum

Last Friday, since Noah was out of school, I did something that has long been on my "To do with the kids" list and took the kiddos to the Children's Museum in Seminole. It was great! We have been big fans of Children's Museums ever since we went to Denver last summer and this makes our 3rd one to hit including the one in Houston. I really think this one is as well done as those in the big cities. It's smaller, but each exhibit is really great. The kids had a blast!

Here they are doing some excellent artwork:


Noah's favorite - the Bubble Factory

Katie's fav - Teaching Noah and I the ABC's in the schoolhouse.

Digging for dinosaur bones

Like I said, it was fun - give it a try!

M - Hangin' in the attic

Here's another post directly from my phone (geeky, right?). The kids and I are hangin' for a little while in the attic this Saturday afternoon. Noah has been BEGGING me to let him go through my foot locker full of football cards. I have many many many thousands of cards collected since the mid-80's.

I even found a few bubble gum packs of Desert Storm 'trading cards' from the first Gulf War. How odd is that?!

M - "As Is"

From my morning devo...

Psalm 11:6 - If they could be made God's people by what they did, God's gift of grace would not really be a gift.

"To whom does God offer his gift? To the brightest? The most beautiful or the msot charming? No. His gift is for us all - beggars and bankers, clergy and clerks, judges and janitors. All God's children.

And he wants us so badly, he'll take us in any condition - "as is" reads the tag on our collars....

He wants us NOW."

Having a GREAT time at the OU game!

Posted from the bleachers after yet ANOTHER OU touchdown!