First day of first grade

And here she is- the big first grader. She has gym class today, her favorite.

She's at the bus stop with her backpack and her lunchbox (it's in her backpack) and she's got her nametag on. She's all set!

And Mama and Liam are wondering what in the world they will do all day without their Dee! Have a great day, everyone! =)

Instead of breaking into song...

Care Bear has been inventing poems on the spot. We went to Maumee Bay on Friday for the last beach trip before school started, and she announced from the back seat:

I love the Mama.
I love the trees.
I love the train tracks.
And I love the cheese!

So now, of course, at random times Dada and I blurt out, "I love cheese!" =)

Today they're still in their jammies eating their blueberry flavored frosted Mini Wheats and doing their usual morning arguments about anything and everything. They slept for 12 hours! I couldn't believe it. And Care Bear is getting another molar on her top right side. I didn't realize there were 6 year molars...

The plan is to get groceries, hit the library, and hopefully Dada will make it home for an afternoon at the zoo before we have preview night tonight. Care Bear (my head calls her "Dee", because that's what Liam's always called her) meets her teacher & takes in all of her school supplies & sees her room this evening. Fun times! School starts Wednesday. She'll be a big first grader, riding the bus to and from school on Mr. Mike's bus and staying allllll day. Yippie!

Tons more to tell y'all, but I have an immense load of laundry to hang & have gotta get this crew moving or we'll never be ready. Have a wonderful week! =)

Really, people.

I can't believe nobody reminded me to post about how the Christmas party went. I forgot all about it since I'd written on Facebook already. Sorry. Seriously, people, you need to remind me to post on here. I can't complete a coherent thought with these two and their shenanigans, so you gotta help me out from time to time!

The Friday the Christmas party started Dada and I were setting up tents in the yard. Care Bear comes rushing to the sliding screen door yelling, "Mama! MAMA! Liam has your purple makeup!" While pulling the top of the tent over the supports, I'm thinking, "lavendar mascara. That can't be too bad. Ooh, liquid eyeliner. That would be worse." I head in and find him upstairs with a unibrow. Yes, like Bert from Sesame Street. And a tattoo on his right knee. And purple nail polish all over our sheets!

My brain is thinking, "Carrie, nail polish does NOT count as makeup." And lots of pirate thoughts (you know, the incoherent skulls, lightning bolts, big black clouds, etc.) about how easy it is for 3 year olds to yield to temptation. And where in the heck can I keep nail polish that this kid won't find it. And more pirate thoughts about how we forgot to put the baby gate up to keep the kids out of our not-childproofed bedroom and bathroom.

So I clean him up, Dada makes him pay out of his piggy bank for the damage to the sheets, and you'd think he'd learn to leave nail polish alone...

We go back to party prep, had 56 people in and out of here throughout the weekend, and had way too much food. About 5 people came Friday night but only Muggin and Marmie (that would be my little brother's wife and her mom, for those of you who are trying to keep up with nicknames) camped out here. Most of the crowd came Saturday. We had a pouring rain very early Saturday morning but only the tents got wet and they dried out just fine. We had homemade snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, chocolate brownie cookies, gingersnaps, and chocolate chip cookies with pecans. A friend brought pasta salad and brownies. Another friend lent us huge roaster pans so we had pierogies, meatballs, and macaroni and cheese in those. Another friend smoked a turkey for us and his girlfriend made us cupcakes and a gorgeous, fruit-covered cheesecake. Yet another friend brought us hamburgers and buns, plus we had brats, hot dogs, chicken, and tons more buns, so we grilled, too. There were chips, beer, and pop everywhere. Dada even thought to get cashews!

We had a few couples trickle through on Sunday, but definitely the majority came on Sunday. Slowly, people are realizing that we really do mean we party all weekend. We've decided it was a hit and that we'll do it again in July next year. No set date yet ;)

The kids had a great time pestering the guests, Triskal got lots of belly rubs, and we were blessed to have some first-timers come along with lots of repeat customers. Thanks to everyone who traveled to come bless our home with another good time!

Weekend with family

We have family here this weekend who are all headed to a wedding. Carrie's been walking around with Dada's uncle Leon, who is dressed and ready to go to the wedding. He's in his dress pants and dress shirt and dripped some diet Pepsi on his nice, clean shirt. He made a comment about spilling on his shirt and needing to look nice for the wedding. She asked him, "why do you even need to look nice for the wedding?" He told her, "my wife said I needed to." Then she said, "well, why do you have to listen to your wife?!" He came in and reported it to his wife and the rest of us, and the general consensus was that I had to get it on the blog right away. =)

She also has been on his case about smoking and found a cigarette butt that she declared was a "smoking mint", to the general merriment here.

She yelled at Leon because he was holding a cigarette. He said, "well, this one is for Doug." And she said, "well, put it out. He shouldn't be smoking either!"

She and Doug were building with blocks and he made some kind of suggestion. She informed him, "I know what I'm doing- I've been building for years."

I can't tell you how often this crew has been busting up in laughter over her this weekend!

SIA or Scissors In Action

This kid apparently never learns. Rarely do I post kid info on both here and Facebook since so many of you are on both that I don't want to overdo it, but I am today. Apologies to all.

MY CHILD CUT HER EYELASHES OFF WITH SCISSORS. Did you hear that? No, not me yelling in the capital letters. The collective intake of breath from every single mother reading this who had this following thought: ohmystarsthatissodangerouswhatwasshethinking?!?!?!??!

Yeah. I dunno either. Scissors have been confiscated, both pairs. It has yet to be determined for how long.

Can I quit? How about now?

For those of you not on Facebook...

... it may interest you to know that we are doing the Christmas Extravaganza early. As in, we're doing Christmas in July. So bring your tent, head to The Best Nest on July 24, party all weekend with Christmas cookies, Christmas lights, Christmas carols, and general silliness, and go home July 26. Come one, come all; the more the merrier! Just let us know you're coming. We'll have lotsa pop and cookies, but will be grilling out, so feel free to bring chips, buns (the edible kind along with your own), whatever!

Kids are having a ball with PaPa being here. We went to Maumee Bay and played on the beach with our friends Stacia, Hannah & Lydia yesterday. We're eating way too many treats and are goofing around a lot. I am getting as many errands accomplished as I can while I don't have to take 2 kids in and out of car seats. Hehe! Have a great weekend, everyone. Enjoy playing in the rain! =)

One shoe off...

Liam is up and was complaining that he couldn't get his second slipper on his foot. He gave up trying and is running around with one Spider Man slipper on and one bare foot. I told him he looks like Deedle Deedle Dumpkin:

Deedle Deedle Dumpkin
my son John
went to bed
with his stockings on.
One shoe off
and one shoe on.
Deedle Deedle Dumpkin
my son John.

He told me, "I'm not Dumpkin. I'm Liam. L-I-A-M."

I'm glad he's around to set me straight. =)

4th of July weekend in review

Dada had off on Friday so we all headed to Maumee Bay to play at the beach. The kids had a great time chasing seagulls (yes, yes, Mary Alice... I mean lake gulls, hehe), playing in the sand, and Carrie did get a little wet, but it was cooler than last Monday when we went. It was fun to have Dada there with us! Nobody even got sunburned- yay!

Friday night we drove back out that direction to the Drive In. It was Liam's first movie experience in a theater (so to say) and they saw Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum 2. We had sleeping bags in the back of Pepe and Liam didn't make it through the second movie, but Carrie did. They enjoyed Ice Age and have been talking about Buck ever since.

Dada and Carrie ran errands on the 4th and came home with a 10'x10' screened tent! So we slept out in the yard that night. Liam fell asleep in his sleeping bag with his arms up over his head. When the neighbors started with the firecrackers, in his sleep he moved his hands to his ears and slept like that! I tried to take a picture with my cell phone but it was too dark. He looked adorable asleep with his ears covered up. The neighborhood quieted down around 2:30 and then the sun came blazing around 6, so we didn't get much sleep but had a good time... the kids did surprisingly well for it being their 1st time "camping in a tent." Even with it being screened in, Carrie managed to get munched on by some bugs, so the poor girl is all itchy with big red welts. Of course they nibbled her in annoying places like between her fingers, on her ears, forehead, back of her neck. Come to think of it, though, anyplace a bug bites you is an annoying place, right?

Yesterday we barely made it to the 10:45 service at church, I had babies at the 12:30, and then we had lunch and naps. The house looks like a tornado hit, PaPa comes to visit this week, and moms' group will be here Wednesday morning. Guess I better go get busy cleaning up! Have a great week, everyone!

Care Bear stats

I know, I know. I'm behind once again. I do have more to post, but since I'm already getting barraged with craziness from Carrie, I'll just give you her 6 year old physical stats:

She's 37 pounds. She's 44 and a half inches tall. She asked Dr. Jon when she could ride in the car with no car seat and he had the hardest time keeping a straight face as he told her, "Well, Carrie, you're what we call petite. Now, the law says, the law says, you have to be four years old and forty pounds. You're not there yet. And then the recommendation is to be in a booster seat until you're eight. But the law says you have to be in a car seat until you're 4 years old and forty pounds."

She interjects, "but I ride the school bus and there are no seat belts on the bus."

Poor guy. He starts, stops himself, and starts again with a laugh, "Carrie, Ohio is backwards."

Then he told her she'd need a shot and she wasn't pleased. But nurse Kim is awesome, stabbed her fast with her first Hep A round (the next one happens anytime after 6 months from now and within a year) and did her up with a Daffy Duck bandaid. Add lollipop and life goes on...

Fun at Manoj's new house

This is Jak. This is Liam. This is Liam lovin' on Jak. If you ask Liam what his favorite things are, he will tell you, "I love dogs and kitties and babies." See Liam's mama beam!

Lacking a photo booth...

...doesn't stop us from having fun! Love you, Dave, Meredith & Manoj!

Pretties for PaPa xxxxxxxx

Random pictures of life...

Dada in his new bomber jacket (thank YOU, Manoj!) by the lilacs...

Mama cleaning out something that died in the bottom of the fridge. Dada insisted on this picture. Boys.

Triskal hiding out from harmful UVA and UVB rays ;)

Liam with his fishie pillow (from Kohl's) that he was so proud of finding. I handed him the catalog when we first went in & told him to be on the lookout for that pillow. I never thought he'd actually find it. Sure enough, he did! He loves it!

Concentration

Dada's home! Tackle! Tickle! TRISKAL!

I think Triskal looks just like Janice from the Muppets' Dr. Teeth Electric Mayhem band in this next picture...

School days

This is how Triskal waits for Carrie to come home from school. She'd had her head down on the window sill, but moved as soon as I got the camera. She's so cute!

"Where's your girl, Triskal? Where'd she go?" Look at that face...

There she is! =D

Playground fun

Apparently clogs aren't the best choice for mulchy playgrounds. Liam kept having shoe issues...