Go Ducks!

I suppose I should be watching the Duck game right now. Survey says it should be a blow-out over UCLA...and hopefully it is! However, we reside on the SouthEast Coast and enjoy? the Eastern Time Zone so there's no way I could stay up to watch the whole game. I think I'll blog instead. (Matt is in the living room watching the game so at least I'm able to listen to it.)

Yesterday, Tyler had his school Fall Festival. He got to wear his Halloween costume.

Well, hello Luigi!
(he made sure I had his hat centered just right)

Even Luigi snuggles with his blanket in the car pool line.

I spent my morning working at the Pumpkin Craft table but was able to take a break when Tyler's class came through to get some pictures.

Here Tyler concentrates on his Pumpkin Craft.

and gets Candy Corn painted on his hand.

This was not planned but Tyler's classmate, the one he calls "my buddy" dressed up as Mario.
Is that not the coolest thing ever?!

(Tyler came home from school asking what his phone number was because he and "his buddy" needed to have a playdate. I will most definitely get right on that!)


Every other week Lauren has a Girl Scout meeting. This Wednesday sure was a fun one.

They celebrated Juliette Gordon Low's birthday with green birthday cake.

They enjoyed listening to and acting out a Scary Halloween Book

Best of all...they got to stick their hands into bags full of teeth (dried macaroni,) witches fingers (carrots,) guts (jello,) brains (cooked spaghetti noodles) and eye-balls (peeled grapes.) I laughed so hard watching the Brownie's reactions. I will definitely use this game in a future Halloween party.
That was yesterday, today Tyler accompanied me on a marathon shopping trip after school. We hit up a couple of Halloween stores, shoe stores and grocery stores but by the end to the trip Tyler was just plain OUT. Here's a picture of when I first pulled into our garage.
And here is a (sideways) picture of at least 30 minutes later...still in the car seat in the garage. My boy was TAR-d. (Southern for "tired")
This evening we carved pumpkins. Tera and big Tyler brought their pumpkins over and Matt and Mr. Mike carved them up. Mike and Matt may not have had much fun but the children LOVED it. (And really, that's what carving pumpkins is all about.)

Just check them out. AWESOME!!

Super Spooky!

Happy Halloween...and GO DUCKS. (so far I've heard a couple of touchdowns...keep it up!)

Touchbase Tuesday

It's Tuesday so let's quickly touch base...shall we?

Not pictured:
This past weekend Lauren received her second mild concussion. (She may well have had more but this is only the second time she's vomited after bumping her head.) Her first was when she about a year old and fell over on my kitchen island in our Newberg, Oregon house. (Grammy, you probably remember this.)

This time around she was running around the house with a friend when she slipped and flat out smacked her head on the hardwood floor. After the initial blood curdling scream, she was okay for about an hour but after that she became tearfully miserable with a headache. "Mama, I just don't like this, I Want it to GO AWAY." Bless her heart. I gave her some children's Motrin but that didn't seem to do much. After she threw up (sorry for including the details) she slowly started to feel better. We kept an eye on her the rest of the day and she was just fine.

Lauren's concussion was not pictured but Tyler's latest favorite toy is.

This is the insert to our Super Mario Brother's Game for the Wii. He pulled it out of the case and it's been by his side ever since. I've watched him peruse if for over 10 minutes!
As you can probably tell from its wrinkled appearance (and Tyler's wrinkled hair) he likes to keep it in his bed with him during naps.

He also likes to bring it along when we pick up Lauren and friends from art club. (Christmas gift idea: Anything Super Mario Brothers)

Lauren and friends after art club
(don't worry I pulled over to take this picture)

This evening after Lauren practiced reading her weekly AR book. (I Need a Lunch Box by Jeannette Caines) I let L and T watch (part of) one of their new movies Grammy sent them.

Thanks Grammy!!

(Lauren's Christmas gift idea = footed PJs that actually fit)

They watched the movie right up until bedtime (8pm) and I promised them they could watch the rest "maybe" tomorrow.

Tomorrow Daddy will be home from his business trip to Norfolk, VA so maybe he can watch it with them.

And that concludes this quick edition of Touchbase Tuesday. I need to get busy on getting baby-sitters for our crazy plans we have for the weekend. Stay tuned.....

Mama's Tired

It's 8:30 on this October Sunday night, L and T are in bed (well one of them is banging on the wall but they both are confined to their bedrooms,) and I'm Tired. But, I haven't posted in awhile and I have some pictures to share. I know y'all just read this blog to see the kiddos anyway so without further ado/complaining let's get started.

We "borrowed" some 3-D glasses from the Toy Story 3 movie we went to months ago and we are still enjoying "borrowing" them. (In my defense we paid a dollar surcharge for them!)
Tyler is so COOL!

COOLER?

maybe COOLEST?!

A few nights ago, after getting her hair braided, Lauren told me she wanted to write a book. "What a great idea," I said. I told her that I wrote a book when I was in 4th grade. (It was an assignment but a fancy one where the teachers sent it off to be made into a semi-official book.)

She responded back to say that she, however, wanted to write a book while she was still young.

When did 4th grade/9 years old become OLD?! In my mind's eye I'm still a spring chicken.
(wait...did that phrase just seriously date me?!)

When it's published I'll have her send all you faithful readers an autographed copy. =)

Saturday morning was Lauren's Fall Festival at her school. I volunteered for a shift at the Cake Walk. The Cake Walk is like Musical Chairs but everyone gets a chair and one lucky chair-holder wins a cupcake (or a whole-entire-cake on every half-hour.) This was not a relaxing shift. It became strikingly apparent that the Cake Walk was the favorite game to play. The bigger/smarter/more sugar savvy kids wanted to remain in their seats in between games to better their chance at winning. Eventually, I had to crush their sugar seeking little souls and tell them we would walk the Cake Walk every Five Minutes so go-do-something-else-for-a-change. I was impressed at how well these same kids could tell time...but it sure was a lot easier with the 4 minute break in between Cake Walks.

While I figured out how to turn the music on and off for the Cake Walk. Daddy took L and T around to play games and enjoy some sweet treats.

The sweetest being COTTON CANDY.

Lauren's cotton candy mustache

Today, Sunday, the day I'm so very tired, ...was FUN. We woke up earlier than usual (for a Sunday) to attend the first service at Southside. (Andy Stanley, Awesome Band...no need to say more.)

After church we stopped at Walmart to buy the finishing touches for our Halloween Costumes. Stay tuned to find out what we all chose.

After lunch the 'football guys' came over so I 'got out of dodge.' I went the the YMCA and enjoyed? an intense workout. 35 minutes on the EFX at a heart rate that the machine said was my MAX and then I did some weight machines. My computerized trainer told me I lifted a total of 22,000 lbs. (I'm hoping that's good because I'm pretty sore right now.)

After a shower at home it was time to head off to Eric's birthday party. The weather was perfect for an outdoor play party and we all took complete advantage of it.

Lauren and Tyler soared on the swing-set.

Eric tried to blow his candle out...

but his big brother flew in/blew in to save the day.

Here's a picture of the Pinata.
I was a little slow on the picture taking but the Pinata has just been knocked down.

And here's a shot not 5 seconds later.
The Vultures attack.

It's been a GREAT weekend and I've thoroughly enjoyed it but right now at 9:30pm (it took me an hour to write this post?!) this Mama is TIRED!

So seriously, which kid of mine is still banging on the wall?! I'm off to lay down the law ...and then lay down my head on my pillow.

Night y'all and Go Ducks!
(P.S. to the BCS: Who's this Oklahoma team anyway?)

Holidaze

This week so far has us in a sort of holi-DAZE. It's all I can do to make sure the right kid gets to school on the correct day. Lauren was off Monday and Tuesday but Tyler had to go to school. Tyler will be off on Friday but Lauren will need to go. To top it off Matt is working out of town for part of the week so he's not much help with my DAZE.

Our house is very close to the county line and Lauren goes to school in one county and Tyler goes to school in another. These counties for some reason adopted slightly different school calendars this year and here we are.

It has been nice the past couple of DAZE since Tyler doesn't go to school until 9am. We've gotten to sleep in (slightly.)

Lauren has enjoyed some special time with Mama and was able to attend a Mom's Club park day. We checked out a new-to-us park in the area and Lauren had fun playing with friends.

Lauren and McKenzie

She also felt pretty 'cool' getting to pick up Tyler from Pre-school with me.

They both felt cool this afternoon when they received their first Halloween cards in the mail. They went to work right away with the included Halloween stickers.
Thanks Grammy!

(This is the 2nd picture of Lauren. She had me re-take it because she thought Grammy would like to see her smile a little bit bigger.)

(if you are wondering, yes those are Harley Davidson tattoos on their arms...that's how we roll)

Dinner tonight was Greek Pita Pizzas
I thought they were very good (I love kalamatas, feta and all that other greek stuff) but Lauren thought they were too messy. She went through about 4 or 5 napkins during dinner. Tyler ate it but he was more interested in the applesauce and carrot sticks I served on the side.
Still I'd say give it a try...dinner in about 30 minutes start to finish.
(I used flat bread instead of pitas.)

I don't know if it was due to the mixed up holiDAZEy schedule but L and T were crazy this evening. Finally, I told them to go outside and get their giggles and wiggles out. They did this in a circular manner. Remember twirling around and around as a kid? Well it's still fun for the latest generation.

Tyler didn't quite get all his giggles out but we eventually settled down, got in our PJs and went to bed.

Speaking of bed...since Matt is out of town (and my house alarm is set,) I think I will hit the hay pretty quick as well. Have a good night and a good DAZE tomorrow.

Aunt Carol and her Boyfriend

Last week my Aunt Carol and Uncle Dale came to visit us for a couple of days during their 2-month-long cross-country road-trip with a couple-of-cruises-thrown-in vacation. ( jeal-ous!)

Aunt Carol is Grandpa Bob's (my Dad's) sister and Lauren and Tyler were able to understand that but Uncle Dale really threw them for a loop. Tyler was more confused than Lauren. At first he called Dale "that boy" but after a couple of days "that boy" became Aunt Carol's "boyfriend." We're making progress.

However, we are not making progress in the "keep your opinions to yourself" category. Dale has a slight bulge to his belly (like most Americans) and Tyler (after learning it's NOT polite to call someone "fat" (or as his southern accent pronounces it "fa-yat.")) has decided that "pregnant" is the nicer word to use. So he let Uncle Dale know that he thought he was "pregnant." We all had a chuckle but now I'm back to the parental drawing board on how to better explain the subject of "keep your opinions to yourself." Suggestions?

Aunt Carol is a newly retired Kindergarten teacher so the kiddos were just naturally drawn to her.

A lot of books were read.
(Uncle Dale, you ARE having fun here!)

They even brought a couple of books for L and T.
The Snow Tree
and
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

Other than reading books we made a trip to Atlanta to check things out. We met Matt for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall but pretty cool restaurant downtown. Carver's Country Kitchen, although being in the middle of industrial nowhere, had some Fantastic Southern Cuisine. Don't tell but I kinda want to go back to try the Dolly Parton chicken breast (did I just say that?) and the Coca-Cola cake. After lunch Dale and Carol did some obligatory Atlanta sightseeing (namely, the Coke Museum and the CNN Building) and then it was back to our house for a poker night (boys) and some TV (us girls.)

It was fun to catch up and just share where we are in our lives. I look up to them for many reasons and was glad to get to reconnect. Currently Aunt Carol and her "boyfriend" are cruising the Caribbean and I hope they are having a great time.

la cucaracha

GROSS! I found a cockroach in my house last week. EVEN GROSSER! Matt found another one in his closet Yesterday! (ewwww) I had dreams about cockroaches and bed bugs last night and didn't sleep well at all. I thought both of those were only found in New York City apartments and hotels. What do bed bugs look like anyway? ...now I'm really concerned.

So today I began phase one of my Roach Extermination plan. I bought some roach bait and I also cleaned out my bathroom drawers/cabinets, our closets and Tyler's room (where I found la primera cucaracha.) I will continue to hunt the ugly suckers down but I'm pretty sure the Roach Extermination plan will end with me calling a professional Roach Exterminator. Yuck.

Now I will happily change the subject.

We had a fun weekend of soccer, friends, food, and football... and Mommy time as well.

Tyler sure loves soccer. He is not aggressive per se, but he will chase the ball and kick it if he gets close to it. He loves that Daddy is his coach and if you ask him he will tell you that he has scored TWO GOALS so far. And he has celebrated each and every one.

Here he enjoys a water-break from the game.

Back home L and T do a little dance.
(wow, they sure love each other)
This quickly turns into a wrestling match.
(ah, that's more like it)Saturday evening we had some friends over for the Oregon v. Stanford game.
(the Ducks rocked it!)
I only have two pictures of the fun evening so they'll have to do.
Matt, the grill and chicken kebabs
-delish-

Kelli and Cole represent the Green and YELL-0

Around this time of year Sunday afternoons are synonymous with FOOTBALL. Since we have the most TVs (I guess?) the "football pool" crowd always ends up at our house. Matt loves it because he can enjoy football and his friends in the comfort of his home, the kids love it because there are always friends to play with and I like it as well because I can get the heck out of dodge.

Before I got the heck out (to do some shopping for cold weather clothes (it's supposed to be cold this week (cold = under 70 degrees,))) I took this photo of four blondes playing in the sandbox. For some reason it reminds me of the American Gothic painting. (You know the one with the Woman, Man and pitchfork in front of the cottage?!)

can you see it?

It was a fun filled weekend but now it's time for me to hunt some more cucarachas so I can sleep peacefully tonight.

Pictures of the Week

For some reason I didn't take many pictures this week. Here's what I did happen to snap.

Saturday evening
Boise State v. Oregon State

Go Team Zzz Zzz

front yard playtime
Jake and Tyler

Tyler and Lauren

backyard playtime
Tyler, Dylan & Lauren

(yes, we checked for ticks that evening)

Fall Festival poster contest
Lauren wanted to participate (and Tyler wanted to pretend.) The winner in each grade receives $2 to spend at the school store among other prizes.
Go Lauren!!

Tonight's Dinner
Hummus (Family Circle, pg. 208, Sept. 2010 issue) and Pita Bread

Italian Edamame

And that's all I got. Bring on the weekend!