FOD: That Apple

I'm instructing Ryan to clean up the play area in the kitchen.  He had a tough time getting the floor straightened up, so when I told him that he needed to clean up the table, it didn't go over too well.

"Why!?!?!?" --Ryan

"Because it's a big mess.  Santa Claus is coming tonight and we need to show him that you're a good boy, so clean up the mess, please." --Me

"Oh, dag-gummit!" --Ryan

"Wow.  Where'd he learn that from?  Huh, Mommy?" --Aurora, implying that I taught Ryan that phrase.

I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, as they say.  Both my speaking children just repeated my lines back to me in perfect form.  I'm doomed! 

Doomed, I tell you!!!

Of course, it does make me feel better to know that they will have children someday and hear these same phrases repeated back to them, as well. 

Muahahaha!

Birthday Mayhem

Today was Ryan's 6th Birthday Party.  It was spectacular!

 
Apparently, the last full Saturday before Christmas is a GREAT time to have a party where lunch is served.  Moms were more than happy to bring their kids with gifts in tow and drop them off for 2 hours while they got those last-minute Christmas items.  We had such a great attendance, I think I might plan his party on the same Saturday next year.  Last year, we only had 2 kids come from his class.  This year, he had BOTH of his best buddies from school!  He was stoked!

 

We started off expecting only 8 kids, but had to change our plans when moms kept sending us their RSVP.  By the morning of the party, we expected 12 kids.  When you include our 3 kids, that means we had 15 kids in this house!  I've never been more glad for the square footage of this house than I was today!  It didn't feel overwhelming for a single minute.  Ok, maybe for a minute...  But, the kids were all well-behaved, played nice together and had a blast!  We only did one craft, one game and of course all the actual party activities (lunch, cake, presents).  The rest of the time, we filled up with free play.

I do have to mention, however:  Of the 12 kids in attendance, 5 of them were girls--at a Captain America themed birthday party!!!  I became even more suspicious when Ryan opened his presents and 2 of the girls wrote "I like you" in their cards to him....  I think we may be raising a little stud.  And, he may already be caught in a love triangle!  Oh, those sweet Kindergarten romances.

We turned this....

...Into THIS!!!

Our craft was a small red frisbee that we turned into Captain America shields (see above).  The kids just thought those were the best things ever and spent the majority of their free play using their shields against each other.  As far as I know, nothing is broken as a result of those little frisbees.

 

At the end of the afternoon, the kids were enjoying Ryan's birthday loot together.

Best Laid Plans

So, remember all those 10 Year Anniversary ideas I was playing around with?  Well, as it turns out, none of them were really feasible.

Originally, we were going to celebrate with my side of the family at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.  That is, until we tried to nail down a date that we ALL could go.  Since the kids are in school, Rob works retail, my sister is in college and my Mom and Paul have to work around Paul's crazy ship-check schedule with Northrop Grumman, we just couldn't seem to find a week that worked for everyone.

So, we thought about sending the kids to my Mom's house and heading off to New Orleans or somewhere else on the Gulf Coast near her house.  That idea lasted a whole 10 minutes.  You see, my mom's house wasn't child-friendly when my sister and I were kids, so there was NO WAY I was going to send my 3 hurricane-force children to her house.  I can't tell you how many Hummel, Lladro, and Capodimonte figurines I broke in my life.  I'm sure that I owe her a fortune!

Then, I found this great resort out in New Mexico that I thought looked like a great retreat for me and Rob.  It had a spa (for me) and a golf course (for Rob)!!!  And, it was 10 hours from everywhere.  We could go and pretend that the whole wide world didn't exist for a day or two.  Just the two of us.  We could make it if we try...  Ok, so I got carried away there.  Going to NM would have meant that Mom had to come here to watch the kids for a few days.  Since she's coming here at the end of December, she didn't think they could make a trip back so soon for our anniversary at the end of February, first of March.  So, we had to improvise.

Which leads me to our newest plan: Here in Tulsa. Mom and Paul are coming in December 26th, give or take, and they will be here for Ryan's birthday on the 28th and Ellie's First Birthday on the 30th.  This will also mean that Mom and Paul will be present for all 3 of my children's First Birthdays!  That makes me happy--that they are willing to make the special efforts to be here for things that I feel are so important.  I know that my children aren't going to remember their 1st birthdays, but I will.

So, between the 2 birthdays, Rob and I will probably be staying at a hotel here in town.  If you see us out and about on the 29th, pretend you don't know us; we are pretending we're on a special anniversary trip and we don't want to feel "local".  Help us with the facade, ok?

I must end this post saying how blessed we are to have lasted 10 years.  Of course, I'm the blessed one to have found ANYBODY to put up with me and all my idiosyncrasies for this long!  Rob's so easy to live with (no matter what I say to the contrary) and he's a better husband than a girl like me ever dreamed of having!

Date Night aka "Yes, We're Married."

Tonight, our church had a Children's Party and all 3 of our kids were being watched by SOMEBODY ELSE!!!  So, Rob and I took this opportunity to go on a date.  Now, let me set the stage for our dating experiences:

Rob and I met in Feb 2001, started dating in August and were engaged by Christmas Eve 2001.  Then, we had a whirlwind engagement, getting married March 1, 2002.  We didn't really have a whole lot of time to create fun, exciting date nights; we really just liked hanging out and watching movies, or going bowling and playing pool.  Nothing overly exciting.  We've now been married nearly 10 years and have 3 kids (which means date nights are few and far between, but are much appreciated when they come).  Our date nights usually consist of dinner and a movie.  If there isn't a movie out that we are willing to pay to go see, we opt instead to go walking around the mall after our dinner--which is what we did tonight.

I got a little dolled up tonight, I'll admit that.  More so than usual... I guess, since I got asked if I was Rob's girlfriend not only once, but 3 different times!  When we were at the restaurant, the waitress asked if our check was going to be separate!!!  I smiled, stifling a laugh, and said it would be all on one ticket.  Now, I have a blingy set of diamonds on my left ring finger, but I guess I should have cleaned them up before we went out.  While we were walking around the mall, I had 2 separate people in 2 different stores assume we were unmarried again--one was just another customer and the other was a store clerk.  We were not hanging all over each other, sucking face and being all PDA, so I don't know what the deal was.  It kind of made me wonder if I was a little overdressed/made-up.  I was wearing dress pants (because they were the only ones that didn't cause muffin top) and a chocolate brown knit faux-wrap shirt, topping off my look with some copper-colored jewelry from Premiere Design.  Nothing overly fancy; even my heels were a simple brown.  Rob was dressed well, too, wearing khaki pants, a light blue polo shirt and his black wool jacket.

Sitting here typing all this in my yoga pants and fluffy slippers while Rob plays his video game kinda makes me want to giggle, though.  It's amazing that, after all these years, we still look like a couple very much in the first stages of dating--doting on one another and paying attention to what the other says as though it's the most wonderful feeling in the world to just be together.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself they saw.  Wouldn't it be awful if instead they were actually witnessing us being awkward together.  What if they assumed we were on a first date?  Oh, I don't even want to go down that train of thought...

I'm going to live in fantasy land and think that we looked very nice together and people assumed we were in puppy love.  That's where I live; that's how I roll.  In La-La Land.

FOD: The Devil in New Orleans

FOD: Funny Of the Day

I am attempting to find an alternative 10 year anniversary getaway, since our Disney vacation just doesn't seem plausible. In talking with Rob about a New Orleans, LA getaway, I mentioned that my mother said to stay away from Bourbon Street. Aurora asked why we had to stay away from Bourbon St. I told her that's where people get really drunk and we just don't want to deal with that on our anniversary vacation.

While I was explaining this, Rob said over me "Because that's where the devil lives!" Aurora started laughing and said "The devil lives on Bourbon Street!?" Ryan, not to be outdone by all the hoopla, said "The devil takes drugs!" Aurora's reply, "No, the devil eats your souls!" took the cake, though.

Now, I'm thinking that we should look for a more demure location for our romantic anniversary getaway... Perhaps somewhere that isn't infested with local soul-eating, drunken, drugged-out devils.

Houston, We Have Ignition

Ellie has been making huge progress in the mobile department lately. She's been crawling for over a month now and just started pulling up onto the furniture last week. When I caught her walking along the couch while holding on last night, I thought it was time to bring out her walker-thing. Sure enough, she took off like a champ today. Here's the video of her first few moments:

Gearing up for Halloween 2011

Gosh, I can't believe how fast the past few months have flown by! School started in August and it just seems like I'm finally being able to take a moment to update everything now--and it's the end of October already!

Aurora started 3rd grade this year. She is enjoying her new teacher, Mrs. Cipolla. Having had the same teacher for 2 years in a row, getting a new teacher required some changes and she's doing great. This year asks more of her in the area of organization and homework, both of which she does NOT enjoy, but she's working at it and we're holding her accountable for it. I can't control what her desk looks like, but her teacher is very patient with her.

Ryan started Kindergarten in August. His teacher is a very patient woman! His first couple weeks were rough. He didn't want to follow the rules. Ryan has no volume control--something we struggle with here at home now that we have a baby--and he was constantly going in time-out because he wouldn't be quiet when asked. Rob got the brilliant idea that he should bribe Ryan. If he got a "Green Light" each day of the week, Rob would take him to the comic book store and buy him an age-appropriate superhero comic. He now has about 6 comic books and last week he earned a Hulk action figure! We have a parent/teacher conference next week and I'm hoping to hear good things. Cross your fingers!

Ellie is a completely different baby from the last update on here. She started rolling everywhere at 8 months old. Not too long after that, she started getting up on her hands and knees and now she is crawling everywhere! She's started pulling up onto her knees and pulling up to a standing position is the next step. It won't be long and she'll be running everywhere! Ellie can now say "Mama", "Dada", "Rora", "Bubba", "nana" and her own version of "Sassy" (which actually sounds like "chi-chi"). She loves blowing kisses and giving smiles to anyone who looks at her. She really is a happy baby and the older 2 just adore her! Ellie started sleeping through the night, finally, just a few weeks ago. We're starting to transition from breastmilk to a cup. She absolutely loves chocolate milk--the sugar free Nesquik kind, of course.

Here in a few days, we're going to dress up for Halloween. Last year, Aurora got to go Trick-or-Treating for the first time. Ryan was sick and I was very pregnant, so we didn't get to go with her and Daddy. She would like to do it again this year and hopes Ryan will get to come with her. As you can see in the picture below, the kids already have their costumes.


Aurora wanted to be a witch this year, but since we go to our church's Fall Festival, we thought maybe we should go with a less controversial costume. So, she found a really cute black cat costume and it suits her perfectly! The mask outlines her eyes and it's so pretty on her!

Ryan is the black Spiderman--when he was being taken over by the symbiote, "Venom" from Spiderman 3. We thought he wanted to be Captain America, and then we saw a Thor costume, but when he saw the Spiderman costume, it was all over. We had to buy him some new shoes (his feet are growing so fast right now--they're already bigger than his sister's feet) and he even wanted the black Spiderman shoes. So, he's set from head to toe for Halloween.

Ellie gets to be a really cute ladybug this year. A friend of ours had a daughter a few years before Ellie was born and we are the very fortunate recipients of this well-dressed little girl's clothes. When I saw the ladybug costume, I fell in love! She's so adorable in it!

Halloween usually marks the end of Daddy's free time. From the beginning of November until the middle of January, he's so busy with Christmas shopping and returns, etc. Before we know it, Thanksgiving will be here and then Christmas--and then Ryan's 6th birthday and Ellie's 1st birthday! We can hardly wait! Ryan is already planning his party. I better catch up!