Our Fun House

I found this neatly folded brochure in our dining room. I never realized how much we have to offer here.

Giving thanks

I briefly polled five small people that I am so thankful for. "What are you thankful for?" here are their replies -

V - flowers (same as last year)
Pa - the whole world. and cheese.
Pe - I don't know!
L - Mom and Dad
D - computer

Carpool

One of the fun "extras" that comes with driving carpool is the great quips from the back seat.

"Gee, Peter's mom, your car goes as slow as MY mom's." I also love the fact that we no longer have names. I'm "Peter's mom."

On a different day, Mark took the kids in the car I usually drive. "Hey kids, do you want some rock-n-roll?" They were quick to reply, "no, Dad. This car doesn't have rock-n-roll."

What were they giggling about?

This picture of Virginia and Patricia (one of my favorites) is 5 or 6 years old...Lorraine INSISTS that it is Lorraine and David instead of her two older sisters.

Virginia’s drink cool out

My kids love parties...we're having a batman party on Friday (I'm not sure what that means, but I still have a little time to figure it out). And Virginia passed these hand written invitations last week, complete with sketches of drinks.

Dear Mom
We (meaning me and Patricia) are having a drink cool out. It’s going to start in the kitchen at 2:30 p.m. The part in the kitchen is to make our drinks. Next we’ll pull it outside depending on the weather. If not outside in dining room. The date is Sat. Sept. 29th. I JUST CAN’T WAIT.
Please bring Lorraine cause we can’t make so many invitations.

Cheers, clink, sip.

Talk like a pirate day!

Aarrrr!
Who thinks of these things? Talk like a pirate day? Anyway, thought today would be a great day to post a couple of pictures from Peter's Pirate birthday party. Here Lorraine an' Patricia be lookin' fer booty.

------

Pirate Peter had asked for a treasure hunt (perhaps the reason that he wanted a pirate party in the first place).

Big Day for Little Ones

Lorraine and David went off to school for the first time (first time EVER) yesterday. David liked riding in the truck, and Lorraine liked getting a name tag.

Back to school

Our three "big kids" got to go back to school yesterday.

A great, sunny, happy day for all. You go, guys!

Patricia, Peter, Virginia

She’s so smart

Thank you, Patricia – always the first to help out, solicited or not. Thought I’d share some simple words of wisdom via my 7 year-old sweetie. I had asked her and her sister to make their beds and put away their laundry yesterday. They both made beds, but only Patricia managed to put away her clean clothes. Not that I was surprised, but I asked her how she did it and she offered this smart advice for all of us wrangling with tasks that we don’t really want to do, but know that we should:
- “I did it right away to get it over with.”
- “I thought I might forget if I didn’t do it first thing after you left.”

And thank you, Lorraine – she made dinner last night (not bad for only being 2!). It must be the influence of visiting her new preschool and spending about an hour in the toy kitchen: “I’m not done!” I wonder if I need to tell her that none of us are ever done, but I guess she'll figure that out.

Happy Golden Anniversary

To my mom and dad....married 50 years ago today. They are celebrating in the same town where they honeymooned. Too cute.

Getting shorter

“Are you sure? Could you check again?” I asked the medical assistant. She laughed, but I was dumbfounded. I didn’t think that it was really possible at a mere 41 years of age, but it’s true. She measured (twice) 5 feet, 3 and a half inches. That’s half an inch shorter than the 5’4” I have been my entire adult life. Trying to make me feel better, the MA mentioned that “people tend to be shorter in the afternoon. Your other measurements could be morning measurements.”

Can this be happening? I suppose that my grandma got really short in her later years; we tease my mom about shrinking. But not me, I am way too young. Admittedly, I noticed at a meeting last night, that, indeed, I had less of a backbone than usual to speak up....maybe half an inch less.

Go Brewers!

So… we went to the Brewers game yesterday….our hometown team playing the Cincinnati Reds, all the while competing with the Cubs for the pennant race. Although the Brewers ultimately lost, it was a super day for the kids: a swim the night before, tailgating in the parking lot, a sold out game, four home runs (and fireworks each time!), a chance to run the bases after the game, and playing with birds in the parking lot. What else could a kid want?

The game, indeed, was sold out. So to get 13 seats in a row, we were at the very top of the stadium. Mark made some quip about how tough it was to reserve the last row of seats. Peter replied, “No Daddy, we were in the first row.” Peter (he’s 5 – as you can see in the picture) is a “glass full” kinda guy.





“We love tailgating!”
Peter, Robert, Samantha, Virginia, Ben, Lorraine, Patricia, Jacquelyn, David

Everyone is doing it....

Thought I'd try a blog. Why not?