2nd Pinterest recipe gone bad

I attempted my 2nd recipe from Pinterest.com tonight. Since we've been working on decluttering our house so we can sell it, I've been looking for ways to make life seem a little more fun around the house for the kids. I found an idea on pinterest to make hot dog octopus (sp?)...basically you insert spaghetti noodles inside of hot dogs and cook. The idea completely freaked ME out at first when I told her about it and she wanted no part of it. But then she saw what it was and saw how much fun Benjamin was having when he was holding the squishy little things. But that fun lasted long enough for both of them to let me take a pic of them. :)

Afterthought...I think they didn't like these creatures either because of the hot dog I used. Drew purchased hot dogs from Kroger's 10 for 10 sale yesterday. All I need to say is that we were up early this morning cleaning up after ME getting sick all over our bed! :(

House for sale!

Well, it's official! We have finally decided to purchase a larger toy storage unit (aka a new house). Ha! We put a "For Sale" sign in our front yard this past weekend and are now having to keep our house clean daily. Yikes!!! Luckily, we're selling it ourselves, so I don't have to worry nearly as much about the house being spotlessly clean.

Today, D-Dub came over to help Drew replace the front columns on the house. The kids had a great time just sitting and watching the boys to make sure they didn't make any mistakes. ;)

100 days smarter

Even though I'm a teacher, I never really got the whole "100th Day of School" bit until this year. ME's teacher, Miss Meagan, is fabulous and does everything so much like a real school. She had fun activities planned all week for the kiddos. They were asked to bring 100 pieces of their favorite cereal...ME doesn't eat a lot of cereal (probably because I didn't really like it when I was preggers with her)...so she chose Trix cereal. Miss Meagan also asked them to bring 100 pieces of a favorite snack...ME chose popcorn. Then they had to wear 100 pieces of something. Our precious little artist chose to paint a shirt with her fingerprints with her favorite colors (pink, purple, blue, and green) and sparkles. The best part about her choice was that she completely came up with that idea all by herself!

She barely let me help her with decorating her shirt. I love her creativity!

My little 100th Day of School Princess with her 100th Day tatoo on her forehead.
Yes! That's a Target popcorn bag you see in the pic, too!

Benjamin was even excited to show off his sissy's 100th day outfit and share their Target snack. ;)

Benjamin's 1st Dentist Visit

I took Benjamin to his first dentist appointment today. Let's just say that it wasn't any better than ME's first appointment. ;)

Notice that his head is on my knees. He wouldn't let poor Miss Julie look inside of his mouth at all. He did, however, point to his teeth for her. Ha!

Somehow they both managed to still get a prize from the toy chest.

At least I tried, right?

ME's River City Field Trip

One of the BIGGEST downfalls of being a teacher is not being able to always be there for my own kids very easily and this is something that I'm going to have to deal with the rest of my teaching career {insert please let me win a gazillion dollars so that I can be there for my kids whenever I want and not on someone else's schedule}. Luckily, I have a very helpful room mom this year and a supportive principal, so I can occassionally sneak up to ME and Benjamin's school for a few activities like today. I got to meet ME's class for their field trip to River City Gymnastics. I had the best time being a parent and not a teacher on a field trip for a change!

ME loved jumping into the foam bricks. I loved watching her face everytime she landed!

We need a trampoline floor in our house!

ME so patiently waited her turn for everything. She makes me so proud!

ME and Davis in the foam bricks=trouble!

PRICELESS!

Davis: "Get me away from all of these girls!"

So much for a group shot.

Reagan's mom offered to take a pic of me and Mary Elizabeth...Reagan joined us...I love it!

Trying out her skills on the obstacle course. Every parent needs one of these in their house I think.

Super Davis took a little break to show off his muscles.

Playing Freeze Dance...one of her faves!

Kids and technology

Wow! Technology sure has come a long way!!! A few nights ago, the kids did Facetime with Daddy Mike. I mean how cool is that?!?!

At first they weren't quite sure about the concept and couldn't figure out why they could see Daddy Mike in their Living Room.

But it didn't take long for Benjamin to realize that he could actually show his objects to the person he was talking to on the phone...anytime he is talking on the phone to anyone, he thinks he has to point the phone at whatever object is near him to show to the person on the other line. But this time it really worked, so he showed Daddy Mike his new cowboy boots!

ME showed him how she could dance.

Fastforward to tonight and the kids are sitting on a chair together at LaLa and Dandy's house playing Starfall.com on their laptop. ME was so proud to get to show Benjamin how to do it since she plays on that website at VeVe's all the time.

How did we survive growing up without iPads, iPhones, or laptops?

Messy Benjamin?

A lot of times I give ME a bath while Drew is cooking dinner so that her hair will be dried before bed (a huge benefit of having completely straight hair!). Benjamin, on the other hand, HAS to wait after dinner to take his bath every night. Can you guess why from the blueberries all over his face? :)

Little boys=big messes!

I was going through my camera tonight and apparently I have a fascination with how messy my son can get. Ha! But apparently he loves to get messy, too! The top 2 pics are Cheetos and the bottom 2 pics are blueberries...2 of his favorite foods!

2011 Cedar Ridge Christmas Party...a little late

All of my "neighborhood" friends finally found a date that we could all get together with the kids to exchange Christmas gifts...2 weeks after Christmas. Better late than never, right? And what better place to hang out than at Chick-fil-A? :)

The boys were not at all interested in what Miss Mary Elizabeth had to open since it was Strawberry Shortacke until...

 

they saw that it was a remote control car!

I love that I have this group of girls that I've been able to share a lot of memories with in just a few years. And I love that we have all of these boys and then there's ME and now Baby Aubrey!

I'm an aunt...again! (Part 2)

The kids got to come meet Baby Annie at the hospital today. They were so sweet with her!

 

ME showed Annie her piggy bank that she's been working on so hard for her.

Do you need one? I know a great artist that can personalize one for you!

They  were just soooo sweet!

This is one proud big cousin!

I see babysitting in this girl's future!

She kept this pose for quite some time!

I'm an aunt...again!!!

My sweet little niece was born today! I don't know who's more excited about it...me or Mary Elizabeth! I sure can't wait for all of the little bits to grow up and play together!

Annie Marlowe
6 lbs. 9 oz., 19.5 in.

Talk about one proud Big Sister!

I'm in love with her already!

ME painted this pig for Annie's arrival. She's had this ceramic piggy bank sitting in her art stash for about a year and all of a sudden she decided she was going to paint it for her new baby cousin. She literally worked on it everyday during Christmas break while Benjamin was taking a nap. I heard this everyday..."Now that Benjamin is sleeping, can I paint Annie's pig?" The best part of it is that she purposely left white spots so that her new baby cousin could paint it when she gets bigger. ;)