the simple life

Cankles and elbow dimples

I had taken the kids to Culver's, a local treat, for a free scoop of Custard (frugalistas, unite!).  We arrived just before dinner time, and it seemed as though there was a convention in town for people with unusual shaped bodies. 

I am no small woman, so it really takes a lot for me to mention people with large bodies, but at one time I could look around the room and see an enormous man in overalls, sans shirt, a girl who was SO tall, that I'm positive if I stood next to her, she could use my boobs as a chair, and an elderly woman in a tank top, with arms so large and misshapen that I prayed that my children would not look in her direction, for they wouldn't be able to contain themselves from blurting out an unintentionally rude comment.

It wasn't just that she had large arms, but she had dimples along her arms in the strangest of places.  I'm familiar with fat elbow dimples, I may have a few of my own, but these were like nothing I had ever seen before.

Apparently, they were like nothing Ezra had ever seen before, as she caught his attention and he blurted out, "Oh WOW.  WOW Mama, look!"  I was doing my best to shush him, even though she sat too far away to hear him.  Before I could stop him, Ezra said, "She has BIG muscles!  Wow, Mama, I bet she's REALLY STRONG!"

It was one of the most precious compliments I had ever heard. He was in awe of this ladies muscles. At moments like that, I really appreciate his naivete, and will do what I can to cultivate it.

 

So...

Let's just act like I've not avoided my own blog for most of 2011...

 

Just wanted to share a few things from Facebook that I never want to forget.  

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Julian: "Mama, you know what's my worst enemy candy? Black licorice."

****

As I picked the twin mattress up off of the floor and placed it on Ezra's bed, he said, "Wow. You're the toughest Mama I never seen." Best Compliment Ever.

*********

Julian:  "Mama, Jesus probably gets hundreds of presents on Christmas, because it's his birthday AND Christmas.  He probably gets action figures that look like him."

Ezra:  "AND Barack Obama!  Barack Obama is one of the Beatles!"

Julian: "Ezra doesn't even know who Barack Obama is!" 

Ezra:  "Yes I do!  He's the American Flag GUY!"

******

All hopes of Julian being a famous Olympic ice skater have been tossed out the window. After our second time around the rink, he said, "Mama, it IS a school night, you know? I better go home and get some rest." 
It then took us 30 more minutes to get back around the rink to our shoes.

*********

Sitting in Subway with Ezra and a tall black man in a nice suit walks in. Ezra says, "Hey! Barack Obama! I saw you on a commercial!"

*************

We took the kids to see Gnomeo and Juliet. After it was over I asked the kids if they loved it as much as I did. The boys agreed enthusiastically. Annabelle said, "Yeah...but did you really have to laugh SO LOUD? It was kind of embarrassing". It was like she had never met me before. I'm the Mommy. I laugh loudly. Mindi in a nutshell.

*************

In Target Ezra is telling me everything about everything. I say, "Ezra you sure are smart. How do you know so much?" He says, "Acause I'm a genius, that's why". Any questions concerning Ezra's lack of self esteem can now be laid to rest.

************
 (While on Spring Break vacation in Arkansas) 

There is this big stray dog in front of my parents house so my Mom calls the kids inside as my Dad steps out with a bb gun. Julian, who doesn't know what a bb gun is, says, "Ew, this is gonna be GROSS."

************

Bella is talking in her sleep. She says, "I know definitely what I gotta do. I gotta get dry and get some food. Yep.". It IS raining outside, maybe she is dreaming that she is a hungry puppy?

**********

Ezra walks into the office and says, "Mama, what's for dinner?" I start to answer, when he crosses his legs and shrieks, "WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS LATER!!! I GOTTA GO TO THE BATHROOM!"

*********

 (After a week of being really sick) Feeling a bit better than yesterday and it must show, because Ezra just walked in and told me that I only look "a little bit disgusting".  

BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

This is my birthday "week".  We like to celebrate around here, and birthdays get at least a 
full week of celebration, sometimes longer depending on how persuasive the birthday kid (or grown up) can be.

I love that my kids celebrate birthday weeks.  If you look at the November Daily album, you'll see an..interesting birthday creation from Annabelle.  It was based on this photo that we saw online a few months back.

 

Bless her heart.

So anyways, here's a random confession: We've put together some kind of gingerbread house for Christmas or Halloween every year....only not until after the actual holiday.

For instance, today, November 8th, we did this:

And do you know why?  Because it was like, 80 cents, that's why.  I'm a cheapskate. I wait for Target to mark their holiday stuff down to 75%-90% off and then stock up on fun things for the following week or year.  I lucked out and found a CUTE Halloween cookie pan that we wanted the moment that Halloween stuff was displayed back in, oh JULY.  I waited and waited and ended up getting it for under $1.  I didn't even have to hide it in the Vacuum aisle, guys.  How awesome is that?

So yeah, the kids worked on decorating this bad boy. But they were impatient and didn't let the icing dry enough and the house started to cave in. And then some pieces broke.  And then, as I sat downstairs folding laundry I heard the commotion of devastation upstairs, which quickly turned into the commotion of a "NEW IDEA!" and within a few minutes, I was being called upstairs to celebrate my second Birthday treat of the week: A gingerbread house that has been hit by a tornado.  Also, there was a legless black candy cat underneath the house, which really added to the reality of the destruction.

My kids are awesome. I'm so excited to see what they'll "create" for me to NOT EAT on my actual birthday.

Happy Birthday month to the rest of you November babies.  Hooray for us! :)

Things to be happy about: First Week of Autumn 2010

WELCOME AUTUMN!!!

1. Rainy days, and lots of them.

2. pumpkin scented EVERYTHING.

3. cute new apron from Pier 1.  The colors are so much better in person.

4. When Bob Boilen or Pandora introduce me to an artist that I love SO much.

Jaymay, a new fall favorite.  :)  And

Sarah Blasko.  Her song "Down on Love" is so beautiful.

 

5. Wanting a second vacuum for 3 years (after moving into a two story house) and finally caving, going to Target and finding a perfect fit for $11, after 75% off. Target, my love affair with you continues.

6. The perfect weather for soups.  Oh I love soup. I'm on a quest to perfect my potato corn chowder.  Annabelle is happy about this.  The men in my house are not as fond.  Guess who cares: not me.

7. Playdates with new friends that are just so perfect for me and my kids.  It's hard to make new friends sometimes, but this little group of friends came together so nicely in Julian's Kindergarten year and continues to grow and that makes me happy.  And makes me feel like less of a crotchety old friendless hermit.

8. Julian, who is growing into a fun little first grader.  He fought me every morning for the first week of school, because he did not want to go.  Now he is up before all of us, waking us up for school.  I was afraid that school would be ruined for him forever after a few difficult experiences in Kindergarten.

He's also joined Cub Scouts and it's nice to see him SO excited over something other than video games.  I'll continue to encourage it for as long as he's excited about it.  :)

Ezra will start preschool Soccer next week (although I was called and asked to coach yesterday.  Apparently they will ask anybody, as I know NOTHING about soccer).

Annabelle is hoping to start piano lessons or swim lessons soon. 

Despite my nature to be a cozy little homebody for as much of my life as possible, I'm embracing this fun little busy phase.  It makes me feel like I deserve an iphone or something though.  haha.

9. Ezra, who tells me everyday that I'm sweet, I'm coming to his party, I'm pretty, I'm a sweet Mommy.  He also asks me constantly, "Mommy, am I cute?"  "Mommy, am I sweet?" "Mommy, am I funny?" 

10. Annabelle LOVES 3rd grade.  She's becoming very interested in Science and Art, on top of her usual interests. 

11. Talking to Ezra EVERY SINGLE DAY about our family's little mini-vacation to Minnesota's "Mall of America".

 

It's definitely on our list to do again next Summer.  The best part is that we paid for almost the entire trip with Dustin's scrap-habit.  He collects scrap metal and copper from dumpsters and craigslist, and saved it up for months, cashing it in right before our trip.  It's a messy (taking over most of our home) but rewarding habit.  :)

 

I'm so happy about changing seasons.  I have a feeling that this is going to be a good one.  :)

 

LEDERHOSEN!

Isn't "lederhosen" a fun word?  I wish we wore lederhosen in the US, just so I had more opportunities to use the word with a funny accent.  One of my Mom's friends brought these outfits back from Germany a few years ago when Julian and Annabelle were too small to wear them.  As I cleaned out my laundry room a few weeks ago, Ezra found the bag and claimed the "Leprechaun" clothes for himself. 

things to be afraid of

There are so many things about Annabelle that remind me of myself at her age.  She likes to be right, she's pretty argumentative with me, but an angel for her teachers, she's a tad bossy, she loves animals and she's super creative.  The one thing that really stands out, however, is her fear of everything.  Not fear, like being afraid of the dark, or afraid of spiders, but her anxiety that something bad could always happen.

Things I've noticed just this week that she has stressed or fretted about:

• not taking books back to the library on time
• not returning Spring photos to the school on time
• taking the Skittles from Aldi into Target (inside my purse) and her fear that somebody would accuse us of stealing them from Target.
• somebody kidnapping her from the backyard
• fear of jail time if somebody notices that Julian picked all of the dropped jelly beans from the Target candy bins off of the floor and stuffed them into his mouth. 

and on and on and on.

I talk to her about her fear and worries quite often, and try to assure her that Mommy deals with similar fears, and that if I am sure that everything will be okay, she can believe me.  I talk to her about the stomach ulcer that I got when I was in 2nd grade, and about how I have to work hard to not let fear control my life and my decisions and that sometimes I fail, but I never keep trying. 

As we were wrapping up today's discussion in the car (after Julian's thievery of dirty dropped jelly belly's at Target), Julian said, "Mama, I'm scared of some things too.  Wanna hear them?" 

"Of course I do."

"Well, here they are:

Number one: bees.

Number two: That school is never ever going to end.

Number three: Someday I'm gonna have to get married.

Number four: That one day our entire house will burn down and I'll lose my family...BUT, the good thing is that I'll find some marshmallows and have a campfire. But the bad thing is that I won't have a bed to sleep in."

Oh sweet Julian, you seem to have issues that are ALL your own. 

Sledding on Love Day

Dustin really really wanted to take the kids sledding on Valentine's Day.  We geared up, and got the 5 of us completely decked out in our winter duds in record time...oh I'd say 2 hours, max. 

 

This included duct taping Ezra's broken gloves to his wrists, because that's how we roll.

Well, also because I've vowed to not buy one more darn pair of gloves this Winter.  If you lose and/or break your gloves, kiss them fingers goodbye, boys.  Or do as God intended and stick your hands in your pockets.  And move back to Texas, where they are complaining about their cold spell...all 42 degrees of it.

You noticed that crayon on the wall back there, didn't you?  Yes, that's called "living in the house with artists".  Artists that do time-outs in that very corner after coloring on the walls.  Landlords LOVE us.

We borrowed our neighbor's sled.  You know, that one neighbor that goes snowboarding at our local golf course?  He's awesome.  He tried to convince us to take the snowboard too, but Dustin (and his aching back, that hit the ice 2 minutes into his snowboarding lesson) politely declined.  Although there are talks of golf course boarding next weekend...

Annabelle dragged that darn sled all over town, huffing and puffing, but incredibly happy. 

 

see? 

The boys reaped the rewards of Annabelle's hard work.  Ezra's face was the color of his jacket by the time that we got home.  Speaking of home, the boys and I wimped out early.  Julian just wanted one good sled down the back alley behind our house before turning in, and Ezra decided that it was time for hot chocolate and Charlie & Lola.

I love Dustin's silly face.

Parking lot of doom, you just got owned. 

Oh, and PS, I WAS there.  See, here's some <blurry> proof.  Dustin, apparently, can't use my camera's focus button with gloves on.  Every photo looks like this.  nice. I feel like when my kids are adults they will say, "I seem to remember Mama being there...but my memory's fuzzy..."  Son, that's not your memory, that was your Daddy's sweet camera skills. 

sweet balentimes

December 6---ME SCARED!

The day after E's birthday, we celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese's.  It was busier than ever, but we had fun.  I really enjoyed sitting and waiting on the pizza while reading a DIY magazine, because that meant that Dustin was watching all the kids...and I was sitting, enjoying a magazine.  The good life.  :D 

Ezra enjoyed calling Chuck E. on this toy phone.  He told him that it was his birthday and that he liked his hat. And then something funny happened...

Chuck E. SHOWED UP.

Chuck E. Cheese was walking around in full costume tonight.  Freaked my kids right out. 

I tried to act excited, but I was freaked out a bit too, to tell the truth.  I saw him approaching from some distance, so I pointed him out to Ezra and Ezra almost fell for it.  Ezra got a big smile on his face and said that he wanted to go give him a high five!

Big Chuck saw the kid coming and approached Ezra, and once he got closer, Ezra saw just how huge he was, and turned right around like a little animated character with a spinning wheel for legs and yelled, "ME SCARED!!!!"  

As long as Chuck kept his distance, Ezra was okay.  I told Ezra how awesome it was that he called Chuck E. Cheese and he came right over to visit!  We shouted to Chuck E. that it was E's birthday and Ezra asked him to sing him a song.  And then Ezra worked up some courage to give a high five and spent the rest of the night camped out by the stage like a groupie, waiting for the concert to begin.  (The Chuck E. on stage was mechanical, not the real deal, but E didn't care). 

(For the record, Annabelle saw Chuck E. and hid near the ball pit, Julian saw Chuck E. and turned right around and walked the other way.)

We had a great time.  Julian hit a big jackpot, and won 100 TICKETS at one time!!

A lady came over to compliment us on Annabelle.  Apparently she was giving her little boy free tokens when he ran out of his, and she was quite impressed.

I was feeling like a pretty darn good parent, when I heard squealing and screaming, and knew right away that it was Ezra.  I was sure that Security must have been dragging him off stage, but no, it was Dustin, dragging Ezra by one arm and holding a plate of birthday cake in the other hand. 

Silly me, I thought Chuck E. must have found some cake for E. but nope.  That would have been too easy.  Ezra saw another kid celebrating a birthday and helped himself by digging into the cake with his hand.  HIS HAND.  Embarrassing.  So embarrassing.  Dustin tended to him immediately and a lady called him out.  She said, "It's okay, he's just a kid!" and gave Dustin 2 pieces of cake to bring back to our table.

I was so embarrassed, and Dustin even more so...but we sure enjoyed that tasty cake.  I even thought about sending Julian over to dig another piece out!  haha! :D And hey, nobody was farted upon, so that counts for something.

When we left, 2 hours later, we found a Winter Wonderland waiting for us outside! If we only knew that this little snow was just the beginning...

OH! And look!  Ezra got his cotton candy!  Thankfully Julian won LOTS of tickets, and we only had to shell out 200 tix for that bag of sugary goodness.

Trick or Treat!

For Halloween we did homemade costumes.  The original plan was to buy costumes, but Dustin has had truck problems for the past few weeks, and has missed several days of work to sickness and no vehicle, so our budget was cut drastically to zero dollars. :)

I felt like I was in a bad episode of Project Runway yesterday, when I realized that I had an hour and a half to complete 3 kids Halloween costumes, with zero dollars.   Oh, and the models were terribly impatient, constantly interrupting and cracked out on sugar from the day's earlier Halloween parties at school.

Ezra's was fairly easy. My parents sent this Razorback football costume to Julian last year, obviously in an attempt to see him beat up by children in Iowa football costumes. Ezra's pretty tough though, so if anybody could pull it off, it was him.  The hardest part about this costume was finding the darn shoulder pads, which ended up being in a Goodwill donation box on the porch.  Thanks for that, children.

The only negative part of his costume was that the shoulder pads kept shifting, giving him the impression of having breasts under his jersey, and his chin strap itched him after an hour or so.  He ended up taking that off and using it as his candy holder.

Annabelle considered being a kitty, a princess (always), a vampire pirate, or a ghost.  We went with ghost, because I found a solid white bed sheet in a box of old photo props. 

During the "fitting", she could see easily, but add in rain and strong winds, plus people in the mall constantly stepping on her costume and shifting the eye holes, and she pretty much walked blindly all night.  At one point, we were leaving a house to walk back to our car, and Annabelle was "floating" sideways away from us.  She had to be maneuvered by Dustin all evening.  It was really precious. At the end of the night, she said, "Mommy, I know you thought I was jokin, but I seriously couldn't see anything all night long."  Poor girl.  She gets extra candy, for effort and good attitude.

After ripping up the bed sheet for Annabelle's ghost, we switched Julian's costume from "Spooky Chef"  (a chef outfit that came with our play kitchen + a creepy ninja mask from the dress up box) to a mummy.  It was awesome.  One older man commented after entering the mall, "Now THAT'S a mummy!"

We did have to stop and re-tie strips all night, and he had to be immediately CUT OUT of his costume when we walked in the door so he could use the bathroom, so this is definitely a one-time use outfit only, but it ended up being such a fun and somewhat easy to make (and free!) costume.

Happy Halloween!

10 on Tuesday

1. I feel like I've been ripped off with this whole Autumn season.  We've already had snow, people.  SNOW.  Beginning of OCTOBER.  Boo to that.

2. Nearly all of October has been spent indoors, because we've all (all kids, and adults) had flu and strep throat.

3. Tonight, I demanded a tiny break from the madness, and left for the bookstore.  It's a good thing that Dustin was home early, because in my state of mind, I very well may have left the kids with or without a grown up. Not really, but it would have been tempting.

4. Well there's a cute boy:

5. Autumn redeemed itself a bit.  It was raining, but in a beautiful way, and I drove home from the bookstore with a clear head, new Iron and Wine CD blaring (thank you lovely library) and thoughts of a new Winter scarf that I am determined to make this week.  I NEED it, have I mentioned that we're already getting smatterings of SNOW!?  (Is smatterings a word?  Is it the word that I'm wanting to use here, because it doesn't look quite right.)

6. As I dug around the closet trying to find Julian's winter coat (which he affectionately nicknamed his "Puff Puff Pooh" jacket) I realized that the last time I remember seeing it was in APRIL, when he was wearing it to his first day of pre-K.  After some quick math, I realized that the winter coat is something that is worn 7 months out of the year in this lovely state.  Holy heck.   

7. However, I am still not giving up my flip flops.  I've been wearing MY puff puff pooh jacket + hat + flip flops.  I'm hard core like that.  ;) 

8. Something non-weather related:  Dustin and I made this in June, just after my computer tried to die and go to Computer Heaven, and I never got to share it here.  I still love it.  :)

I got the frames for $1.74 per 2-pack on clearance at Target when we lived in Austin.  I've been hauling them around looking for their purpose ever since.  Since I'm inept at quilt making, I made (with mucho assistance from Dustin) a picture frame "quilt".  I love it so much.  Just ignore the gappy places please.

9. One of Dustin's customers yesterday gave him a MEGA HUGE stack of old Martha Stewart Living's.  Most of them were ones that I have never had, so I'm in magazine ripping heaven. 

10. When we went to the apple orchard last month, we were admiring the cute sheep and watching the funny goats play when Julian cried out, "OH GROSS! THAT SHEEP HAS A BUTT!!!"  

Why yes son, yes it does.  

He quickly left the sheep pen and headed over to see some huge horses.  As they walked away from the fence he yelled, "OH MY GOSH, HORSES HAVE BUTTS TOO!!!"

I think he KNOWS that animals have butts, it's just the actual (and I'm sorry, b/c I hate this word, but it has to be used...) butt hole that freaked him out.  We spent much of the day finding all the things that had "butts".  You'd be surprised as to how many things there are...

p.s. Updated the blog with a simple new blanner...you can peek in to see it if you'd like :) 

remember this:

As I was taking the kids to school this morning, Annabelle said, "I think I'm going to start a club today." 

I was a little envious, as my plans for the day are never as fun and full of promise as starting a club with my best friends.

I'd like to start a club today too.  

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The second that Julian walks in the door, he heads straight for his art box.  He normally asks for a snack or to play video games (even though he KNOWS that Friday is video game day) or to play outside, but this week, he's very focused on art.  Drawing and book making, mostly. 

After 2 hours, he emerged with a cardboard box full of art projects that he was giving out as gifts.  He had a paper that listed our names, and which gift we were to receive.  As he was giving Ezra's gift to him, Ezra snatched up Annabelle's gift.  Julian became SO upset.

He yelled over and over to "GIVE IT BACK!" but Ezra did NOT care.

Julian pointed at his "gift list" and threatened, "EZRA!  If you don't give it back, you're gonna be X-ed OUT and you'll NEVER GET A PRESENT AGAINNNNN!"

I giggled at the use of the phrase "X-ed out".  I"m going to remember that one for the future.

I really love that it's impossible to jump on this big air pillow (at our favorite Apple Orchard) without making a funny face.

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Ezra: "I'm a mean robot and I'm going to cut your neck open."

Mama: "OH NO! Can't we be friends, mean robot?"

Ezra: "NO. I GOT TO DRIVE."

Mama: "Where are you driving?"

Ezra: "CHINATOWN."

We've made plenty of threats to "take you down to Chinatown", but this time, Ezra meant business.

Yesterday I was skimming through a thread on one of my message boards, and this photo popped up in a joke about angry puppets.  Ezra happened to be standing at the desk when I scrolled past this photo, and he said, "WAIT!  GO BACK!"  So I scrolled back up to see the photo. 

He made a quietish scared noise, "AHHHHH! ELMO ANGRY!  ERNIE CARY! (scary)"  As much as I tried to move on to a different website, he kept begging, "GO BACK!  GO BACK TO CARY ELMO!"  It was like watching a child discover for the first time that Santa's not real. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You may recall that Ezra can't pronounce his "S" sounds. Today when I turned off the TV to leave for Target, Ezra said, "Mama! Don't turn off the TV! That wuh my favorite ho!" (show) I'm sure Dora is many preschooler's "favorite ho".

Goodnight John Boy! Goodnight Tupidhead!

As I am putting the kids to bed, Annabelle and Ezra run back and forth between each other's bedrooms, still engaged in their game of "Kill the aliens".  Julian is under the covers wearing nothing but Lightning McQueen chonies and Diego house slippers.  He informs me that is how aliens dress. 

Hm.  I never knew that.

Julian closes his eyes and tells me, "Mommy, when I go to sleep, the only thing that will wake me up is true love's first kiss."

Somebody's been watching a little too much Shrek.

Annabelle calls out from her bedroom, "Goodnight little aliens!"

Ezra shouts back, "Bella, you a tupidhead!" 

Tupidhead, is now used as a term of endearment, as well as an insult.

We're not quite the Walton family, but we do have a more interesting bedtime routine.

P.S.  I realized after posting this that I hadn't shared here about Ezra's "tupidhead" obsession. 
Quoted from my facebook page:

"stupid head= Ezra's naughty word of choice. I hear it about 4 million times a day. When he's angry, when he's happy, when he wants a reaction from somebody. Sometimes he lovingly kisses me on the face and whispers, "Mommy? You...'re a tupidhead." And I say, "Ezra, can you say "S"? " and he can't, so I say, "Now who is the Tupid head?"

animal clowns

day 3:  guess who lost his first tooth?

there has never been a child more excited about losing a tooth, i'm sure of it.  :)

When he discovered that it was "wriggly" a few weeks ago, Annabelle told him not to pull it until he was in Arkansas.  Apparently the Arkansas tooth fairy pays more. 

On the 3rd day of school, Annabelle brought this magazine to me and asked me to fix her hair like the girl's on the cover.

Julian thought that was so hilarious, that he brought me a book called "Animal Clowns" and asked me to make him look like the frog.

Ezra brought me a copy of Woman's Day and asked me to make the cupcakes on the cover.

7 smiley things

little things that made me smile today:

1. happy bricks that live in my neighbors garden.

2.  this cute girl's ability to strike a pose in a second.  I literally said, "Hey Annabelle, can I take a picture?"  and she turned around with this.  And 3 other completely different poses in a matter of seconds.   

3. Ezra's harmonica playing.  My Mom sent him his own, so he'll stop slobbering all over Dustin's.  He found an Elmo book that plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and pushed play, then played along with it on his harmonica.  After much trial and error, he can almost play the whole song.  He's got his Daddy's ear for music. 

4.  another unexpected smiley face, found on one of Dustin's tools.   

5. Julian's SUPER excitement about Kindergarten, and news of a fabulous 2nd day of school. Lordy, he's adorable.

6. My neighbor's kid came over today, sporting remnants of his dad's recently trimmed beard.  Hilarious, if not a bit gross.  (he glued the beard trimmings to a band-aid, and then applied the band-aid as a mustache)

As soon as Ezra saw him, he shrieked, "Hey!  You Mario!"  (Mario Bros.)

 

7. Finally, this lady makes me smile.  She drives her "Rascal-esque" (Dustin and I LOVE their commercial)  scooter like it's a car all over town, and occasionally walks her dog while riding.  There are a few other women that I've seen do the same thing, and they decorate their Rascals according to the upcoming holiday.  Their July 4th decor was fantastic.

p.s. I updated the blog with a new Summer look.  I don't *love* it, but it doesn't matter since I'll probably be updating for Autumn in a week or two.  :D

Happy Sunday!

more first day and ezra's awesome photo bombs

It was a dark, stormy morning.  I asked the kids outside to take photos, but it was raining too hard, so we headed to the porch.  Not a prime photo taking environment, but we did our best.

Notice Ezra's sweet face in each picture.  He wouldn't move.  Can you tell he felt a little left out this morning?

Isn't Ezra hilarious?  I have a few more pictures, none really worth posting, but he's making funny faces in every one.

Julian picked out his shoes.  They are so super sweet.  I expected him to pick out light up Mario shoes, or fast running tennis shoes, instead he chose these sweet, preppy, brown loafers.

He may not be able to run fast in them, but they are good for picking up the ladieees.

but then again, who needs shoes when you've got a face like this?

am i right or am i right?  or am i right? or am i right?  (movie quote trivia? from the first movie Dustin and I watched together before we were dating) 

anyways, it was a fantastic first day, both kids came home with smiles on their faces and stories to share.  this Mama can relax and not worry so much now, and instead focus on the little brother at home who feels incredibly left out and concerned about his big people while they are gone.

first day

no time to blog  yet, but a few pictures for the grandparents.  :) 

big tiger dweams

Last week Ezra woke up from a bad dream and walked into Annabelle's room.   He had a pouty face and slumped shoulders.  He said in his deep, nasally morning voice, "Bewwa, I have bad dweam.   I dweam BIG tiger chay me!"

She said, "Oh Ezra!  A big tiger chased you?  What did you do?"

He declared, "I POKE HIM IN DE EYE!" and made little jabbing motions with his finger.  

Judging by the ferocity in which he poked when re-telling this little dream to me later, I'd say Ezra won.  

That night, I was in the boys bed doing the bedtime routine.  After we read books, I sing the same 3 or 4 songs, give hugs and kisses, and then pray the same prayer.  They don't like me to deviate from it much, as it mostly consists of praying for good dreams and sweet sleep and fun days in the morning.

(Julian once misunderstood me say that he should "Play with Tata (his grandma)" and thought I said "Pray with Tata".  He stopped in the middle of my parents living room and said, "Jesus, I pray for Tata to have good thoughts and good dreams and SWEET sleep, so she can have a fun day tomorrow.  Amen." )

Anyway, on this particular night, I told the boys that I was getting sleepy and they should pray tonight.  Ezra laid his little hands on my face and said, "Jesus, Pway for Mama, have good dweam, and no dweam dat a BIG TIGER CHAY HER! Amen."

Little Farrell

My 7 year old asked for more "grown up things" for her room. When asked for an example, she said, "Oh, you know, maybe a Ben Harper poster or something?"

YES. YES YES YES, and also a poster that says, "I AM THE MOST AWESOME CHILD IN THE UNIVERSE". (that one's my idea, not hers)

Seriously, it was one of my prouder parenting moments.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This morning, Ezra stripped completely naked and went streaking throughout the house.  He came downstairs to our bedroom, with the kids right on his heels laughing and pointing. 

I told Dustin, "I think he's channeling his inner Will Farrell."  (We always joke about how Will Farrell always ends up naked, or in his undies in all of his movies)

Annabelle, who has no clue who Will Farrell is, laughed hysterically and said, "Exactly!  He's definitely channeling his Little Farrell!" 

Um, I don't think I want to know what a "Little Farrell" is.  :D

You can never hold back Spring

The weather this week has been incredible. 
While Autumn has always been my favorite season, I've realized that I've never truly appreciated Spring because I've never experienced a long, hard, bitterly cold Winter.
Now that I have, Spring is definitely battling for first place in my heart. 

Remembering to when we moved here last April, I know that it is likely to snow at least once more before "Spring!" can truly be declared, but the blooming pink tulip trees, along with the yellow daffodils, orange tulips and 70 degree weather has given me a ridiculous amount of hope. 

During Ezra's nap, Julian played in the backyard, as I folded myself  up onto our mini-trampoline and read an appropriate book, "The Year of Pleasures", by Elizabeth Berg.  This month has been terribly stressful for Dustin and me, but lying there in the sun, with a good book and a sweet kid, all I could think about was how grateful I am for days like this, and how imperative it suddenly became to find the perfect red nail polish to paint my toes.  I like to do that every year when the weather turns  nice, isn't that silly?

{Ezra, (forehead bruise from head-butting Daddy) apparently disappointed in his choice of vanilla sprinkle, after seeing Annabelle's chocolate chip donut.  or doughnut.  whatever.}

Because it is "Super Friday!" we found ourselves at our local donut shop (one of many Friday traditions) after school, before heading to Sonic for half price drinks.  We then headed to a new park, hoping to enjoy every drop of sun possible.  It's such a nice change to play outside, after several long months spent indoors at Mall play areas.

On our way home we crossed a long bridge, where I saw an older man, shirtless, skin browned like old, tough leather.  Cap on backwards, and scruffy faced, he struggled to hold his bottle of water, ride his bicycle, and carry what appeared to be 4 or 5 fishing poles.  I still smile thinking about this man's determined face. 

It reminded me of my kids, on the first day that it was warm enough to play outdoors.  They struggled in their rain boots (it was still muddy, of course) to carry soccer balls and bicycles and tricycles and special "outside toys" to the backyard, as though they couldn't possibly narrow down their choices.  They were clearly trying to make up for lost time, and this man with his bicycle and bounty of fishing poles seemed to be doing the same.

Tooties.

 

Sitting in the recliner with the boys, watching "Max & Ruby".
Ezra stands up, puts his booty in Julian's face and farts.
He then sits down, calmly says, "Tooties." and continues watching cartoons.
Ahh.  Boys.

Lulu goes to "French"

One of Julian's birthday presents this year was a big "art box". 
He loves to create and we have a special art time every day during Ezra's nap.  He can cut and glue and staple and draw with markers for up to 2 hours every day, and he uses the ENTIRE 2 hours to make art.

He fights me over every single thing that I attempt to "recycle", b/c he can find some way to use it in one of his projects.

On this particular day, he made a "dress" for Annabelle's puppy Lulu.

It's a simple green construction paper smock, and he said that this is her "dress for wearing at home", and the other dress (the one that came with the dog) is for her to wear "When she goes to French."  (France)

I think he would be an excellent contestant on Project Runway in 15-20 years, don't you think?  :)

(his lips are terribly chapped, although they aren't the shocking shade of pink that they were last week.  poor boy)

diaries and private parts...

Annabelle is my little writer.  She journals daily for school, but she has started keeping a "diary" and a "writing journal" at home on her own.

It is so sweet to see her scribbling away all day.  For the past few nights I've gone to tuck her in and she has to finish "just-one-more-sentence" before lights out.

I heard her talking to Julian in the hallway yesterday.  She said, "Julian, you know how sometimes girls have things that nobody can look at. It's private and they don't want anybody to see it?  Well, that's what this is..."

I quickly stuck my head around the corner to see just what exactly she was showing him, and saw him looking at her blue puppy dog diary in awe.  I was more than a little relieved to see that they were talking about diaries and not other private things that girls have that nobody should look at...like purses...or junk closets. 

A few nights ago she asked Dustin if he would read to her out of some of his personal journals.  He has (literally) hundreds of notebooks that he's filled with writings and songs and thoughts and other scribbles.  They are very personal and private as he doesn't censor ANYTHING in his writing, but he grabbed one to read to the kids before bedtime.  

He told me, "Luckily I found one from the time when Annabelle was being born. I read a few things to her but had to skip over a lot."

I asked him what he had to skip over and he said, "Oh, you know, things like 'Mindi's in so much pain right now' and stuff like that..."

I said, "Well, she knows that it doesn't really feel GOOD to have a baby.  I don't think hearing that I was in pain was going to scar her or anything."

He said, "Well, okay.  Stirrups.  I skipped over the part about stirrups because I just didn't want to have to be the one to explain all that...stuff."  

It's good to see that he does know how to censor when he needs to.  

12 bits of randomness on a snowy monday evening

1. it's been snowing this week.  before this, we really haven't had much snow since before Christmas.  Cold, yes.  Snow, not so much.

2. i LOVE LOVE LOVE waking up to snow.  i wonder how long it will take to get tired of that feeling?

3. i made no plans to leave the house all day...until I saw in my Sunday paper that K-Mart was doubling coupons again.  Up to $4!   Made a quickish trip for a few necessities.

4. also picked up chinese food from Panda Express  and a movie.  Picked the movie based solely on the hotness of the lead male character, and have no idea what the movie's supposed to be about.
 that's bad, i know.  I hope i don't hate it.
  

5.  Dustin helped me with the overwhelming stack of dishes in the kitchen.  I miss having a dishwasher.

6. First week back on WW, and I rocked it.  9 pounds down!  Booyah! <---a word that is so not "me", but I use it a lot with a silly accent.

7. have an addiction to a new breakfast type meal, that I've eaten for Breakfast, lunch or dinner almost EVERY day this week.  Whole wheat english muffin (toasted), spread 1 wedge of light swiss laughing cow cheese on that, fry or scramble an egg and put on top of muffin, add 1 Morningstar veggie sausage.  Booyah.  Best meal ever, and I don't miss McDonald's sausage biscuits at ALL anymore.  I was addicted to those rotten things also.

8. Two  nights ago I was doing my grocery shopping, and got a panicked phone call from Dustin.  Ezra's fingers were smashed in the bedroom door, and looked HORRIBLE.  I took him to the ER.  He's okay now, but we were so worried that they might have been broken.  They were swollen like little sausages, and they guaranteed me that they would turn all shades of ugly colors, but the next morning they were perfectly fine.  Thank goodness.

9. Ezra tried to scare me with another ER trip by attempting to stick a beater from my hand mixer into an electrical socket.  Caught him just in time.  Little stinker. 

10.  Ezra also says a new word (as part of a song that he loves):  "Bamboleo"

11. Dustin said that he finally understood a complete sentence that Ezra spoke today while I was at K-Mart. "I want my mama." He's a mama's boy and I rub that in Dustin's face a lot. I love it. ;)

12. Look at this cute placemat. 
I bought it at Target (of course) and when I was drying it, part of it stuck to my window.  So I stuck the whole thing on the window.  And now the table needs one more place mat b/c this one is staying here for now.  The colors make me happy (and also keeps my backyard neighbors from seeing me from the neck up when I'm washing dishes). 

 

the truth about Santa: he's your UPS man.

so hi.  :)

I added my daily web cam photo album over there ----> 
today's photo is showing a peek of one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year (that is currently 30% off at Target right now, in case you want some too).  It's the cutest blue/green/brown fingerless gloves. 

I've never understood "fingerless" gloves.  The little fingers are what gets the coldest, right? Being down here in our cold basement in the evenings requires some little gloves, but typing in gloves usually looks like this.  LKSDJEIU OWDK".  
 So I pretty much wear these things all night and I can still type.    :)

Aren't they cute?  I got a matching hat too, but I had to return it b/c it didn't cover my ears.  (code for "my head is too darn big") 

++++++++++++
Annabelle had a really good Christmas.  She got several new pieces of jewelry which she is really looking forward to showing off at school, and she hasn't taken her new MP3 player out of her ears yet.  It's really cute to watch her bopping around and singing along with totally made up words. 

The thing that she's been asking for all year though, was a Barbie dream house. 
She was so sure that she would get it, and dropped several hints to Poppy and Tata, since she doesn't believe in Santa Claus.

It seemed to surprise a lot of our family that Annabelle didn't believe in Santa, but she came to that conclusion entirely on her own.  We were at my Aunt's house when she admitted that she thought Santa was fake.  Julian adamantly declared that HE BELIEVED! HE BELIEVED!  (He really does and it's the most precious thing.  As far as Annabelle goes, I don't think she's ever believed in Santa, so having a child REALLY BELIEVE is kind of adorable.)

My Mom said, "Annabelle, you really don't believe in Santa?"  and she said, "Nope."
Then Mom said, "But Madison believes in Santa Claus."
Annabelle said, "Not anymore.  I talked to her about it." 

So great, my kid is the one breaking the news to everybody about old Saint Nick.

On Christmas morning, we opened all of our gifts, when my brother CJ heard a "knock" at the door.  He went to the door, and said loud enough for us all to hear, "For Annabelle?  Okay, wow, I'll give it to her."

Annabelle ran into the kitchen to find a giant Barbie dream house box, and CJ said, "Annabelle, a man just dropped this off for you.  He had a big belly and wore a red suit and had a big white beard!"

Annabelle hugged my parents so tightly, hugged Uncle, turned to pose for a picture with her new gift, and I said, "Annabelle?  Who do you think this is from??"

She shrugged, still beaming, and said, "I don't know!  Some UPS guy with a big belly and white beard!"

safety first

Juju:   “Mama, what does a chimney mean?” Mama:  “A chimney means that a person has a fireplace or a wood stove or something inside their house.  The chimney is where the smoke escapes when the fire is burning.” Juju:  “Oh.  Mama, I was thinking of how Santa gets in chimneys, when you don’t have a chimney.  I’ve got an idea and my idea is safer.  Why doesn't Santa just start using the front doors?” Julian, you are wise beyond your years.  Safety first, Santa.  Safety first.

 

cotton ball tooties

Ezra's little pouty face, originally uploaded by mindibartell.

This is one of Ezra's pouty faces. Yes, he has more than one. He's like a french woman with those pouty faces. ;)

This one is when I tell him NO and he thinks I will change my mind if he gives me this pouty face. While doing this, he makes little sniffling noises, like he's about to cry.

Sometimes it actually works. He's so precious. :)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have to share a couple of quick funnies from tonight.

We were wrestling on my bed, and I jumped on Julian, and then Annabelle and Ezra jumped on me. Well, apparently Ezra farted and we all started laughing and saying "Ewwwww!" over and over. (because right now farting is one of Ezra's favorite "jokes". Farts and boogers, which he calls "bookies". such a little boy, i know)

Julian tried to blame the fart on Annabelle, and she said, "NO WAY! That was Ezra! It was too quiet, it had to be Ezra! It was so quiet, it sounded like a little cotton ball, falling out of a kitten's mouth."

WOW. THAT is quiet. So descriptive, right?

I asked her, "Well if Ezra's farts are so quiet, what do yours sound like? Bricks falling out of dog's mouths?"

She said, "No, my tooties sound like beautiful flowers, blowing in the wind."

That girl cracks me up. :)

The other funny was tonight before dinner, I asked Julian to clean up the dining room, and said, "Tell Bella to get a damp wash rag and wipe down the kitchen table. Julian, damp means it should be a LITTLE bit wet." (Because normally you can wring buckets of water out of their wet wash cloths).

Julian turned and yelled, "Annabelle!! BRING MAMA A DAMN WASH RAG!"

I love these kids.

scrappy feelings

I haven't scrapbooked in ages.  AGES. seriously.

Which is weird, because a huge majority of my "online friends" came to be because of scrapbooking.

I'm glad they all still seem to like me....  :) 

So I signed up with a group of scrappy friends to create a page for a 2009 calendar, and since I didn't have any printed photos, I had to do it all with photoshop.  Not my first choice b/c I have never done any kind of digital scrapbooking.   I decided to do something VERY simple, and the results weren't super terrible, so i'm happy to be done with that.

(we all chose a different cause to feature, and mine was for foodroutes.org's "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" campaign.  I think we'll be selling the calendar's soon, so I'll share a link as soon as I can!  You can click to see it bigger)

But the cool thing is that it sparked my desire to get some pages knocked out.  Julian was looking through Annabelle's scrapbooks, and then got to his tiny little book and said, "That's it??? Where's the rest of the pages?" 

And since Ezra doesn't even HAVE a scrapbook, well, big-time Mommy guilt inspired me to bust out the supplies.

Of course, it only makes since to start off with a page about Annabelle, but that's mostly because I didn't want to lose this little paper with her song written on it.

It's a bit rocky, but I'm feeling excited to scrapbook again.
Well, excited to buy new scrapbook supplies, mostly.  I have been on a spending freeze since I wasn't using any of it, but this definitely deserves a few new pieces of paper or some rub-on's or something.

Do scrapbookers still use rub-on's? 
I'm telling you, it's been a LONG time.

Feeding the frozen birds

i missed a day of blogging.  :(   i fell asleep in the recliner and didn't blog.  I'll make up for it with TWO posts today!

So, yesterday Julian decided that we should do something to feed the birds.
Not sure which birds, as the sensible ones have migrated long ago. 

But I had been a grump all morning and decided that if we could scrounge up some pine cones, we would make those peanut butter bird feeders.

We drove around the neighborhood until we spotted pine cones in a neighbors yard, flew out of the car and piled a few into Julian's hat, and ran home to complete our project.

Ezra wanted to help so badly, so I let him, but the poor boy couldn't resist the peanut butter.
Add the bird seed and he thought he had one amazing granola bar. 

I offered him fruit gummies and a real granola bar and he still preferred his peanut butter and bird seed pine cone. 

Annabelle was assigned to do 3 good deeds for Girl Scouts, so we decided that feeding the idiot birds who forgot to migrate was definitely a good deed :)

 

You shoulda seen the other guy ;)

Ezra's shiner, courtesy of Julian, November 2008

Details are fuzzy, as the little guy doesn't talk and the big guy isn't talking either. 

In other news: Ezra's moved into a big boy bed. 
Hello 6am, I haven't seen you in a while. 
I have to say, you weren't missed. 

Yesterday, he woke up and crawled into Annabelle's bed, which was the most precious thing.
Very unlike Ezra to wake up and go back to sleep without alerting the rest of the house first. 
Actually, it's very unlike ANY of my kids to do that.
Dustin too, for that matter.

Am I the ONLY person who believes in tip-toe'ing around when others are asleep? 
Maybe they just don't cherish the "alone time" like I do. 
 

goodnight :)

my hooman beeyeen

I mentioned a few days ago that Annabelle loves the cartoon, "Word Girl".

Well, Julian's most recent favorite is "Sid the Science Kid".

He just loves science and experiments, and creating inventions.  

Like Annabelle, he loves to try out new words and ideas on me.

Last week he walked into my office and said, "Mama, know what I am?  I'm a "homeo sampien". 

"A homeo sampien, eh?  Do you mean "homo sapien"? I asked.

"Lep (yep), I mean "homeo sampien".  That means I'm a hooman beeyeen".

He recently added "scientist" to his list of things to be when he grows up.

Julian at age 4 1/2  wants to be:

• a scientist
• a farmer
• a "bakerier"  (his new title for "bakery shop guy")
• a chef

a few Juju-isms

Just a few things about Julian that I don't want to forget:

*a chihuahua is a "Chiwala"
*he "weeds" things, as opposed to "needs" things
*weed-eater is a "meat eater"
*he still calls crafts "craps".  he no longer likes to play with the "crap box", b/c all that is left is pom poms and a few googly eyes.  he now prefers "Arting"  (painting)

 

Julian made this for me out of sculpey.  It's "Mermaid Mama".

(1)   One day Julian told me that he likes oranges because "they have vitamins and midrals in them"
Annabelle smirked and said, "Mama, he means minitrals". 

(2)  When I asked him what I should do about his sneaky behavior, he suggested that I take him to the doctor and let them look at him with a "bone TV".  After much explanation, I gather that a "bone TV" is an X-Ray machine.

 

(3)  I was writing an e-mail and Julian walked into the office and said, "Hey, whatcha writin?"

I told him that I was writing an e-mail, and then switched tabs to upload a photo to the blog.

He said, "Are you going to a different dot com?  And what does a 'dot com' mean anyway??"

For the record, I have NEVER used the words "dot com" to Julian, so I have no idea why he would know that terminology.

(4)  I came upstairs to find Julian walking to the trash can with an empty marshmallow bag in his hand.  When he saw me, he stopped, put on a very concerned face, and held up the bag for me to see. 
"Look what that sneaky Ezra did! I guess he can climb on the counters now."

(I know full well that Ezra cannot climb on the counters, nor open the cabinet and reach the highest shelf to get the marshmallows)

 

Julian made these "opera glasses"  (how the heck did he know what opera glasses are???) out of two ink pens, a small umbrella holder attachment, a bendy straw and some tape.

(5)  We were driving to Julian's soccer game last night, and Ezra got his feelings hurt and started doing a little fake cry/pouting noise.   Julian said, "Awww, Ezra's breakin my heart!" 

This is a phrase that I use a lot when Ezra's crying, and it was so cute to hear Julian use it too. 

I love this kid.  :) 

a close up of the "opera glasses"

Happy Halloween!

So after all the great input on Ezra's costume, I'll let you see what we decided on...

Ezra was  "The Greed of Wall Street"!  Scary, eh?  :D  

It's very similar to Julian's costume 2 years ago (he was "The Boss").

His constant demand for candy, and his impatience in eating the candy before wrappers could be removed, only solidified the "Greed" aspect of his costume.

The funniest part of the night was when we walked to one house and the lady asked what Ezra was.  
"He's the Greed of Wall Street.  You've probably heard a lot about him in the news lately !"  I joked.

She said, "Oh, I am very familiar with him.  I work for the Wall Street Journal!". 

Ironic, right?  

She thought he was adorable, and gave him a little extra candy...you know, to satisfy his greed.  :)

I apologize in advance for the terrible photos.   I was in a rush the entire day, and never really took time to take any good photos.  :(  

Here's the link to a few Halloween'ish photos! 

Autumn'ish things of the week

Autumn'ish things we did this week:

*Went to the pumpkin patch (same place as the apple orchard)  and took a hay ride around the farm.  Became a huge fan of their cider doughnuts. 

*Carved a pumpkin.  it was the kids first.  they "planted" about 8,000 pumpkin seeds. 
i'll be super excited if even one of those seeds grows us a real pumpkin.  :)

*Made a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread, and have eaten pumpkin bread with dinner, breakfast, snack, lunch, and seriously comtemplating having it for dinner again.  

*Planned our Halloween costumes  (thanks for all of the GREAT ideas!)  We've narrowed Ezra's costume down to two, and Annabelle changed her costume from a princess to a puppy.  I'm secretly excited, as this may be the last year where she won't be embarrassed to wear such a "little kid" costume

*Mapping out our "trick or treat" spree for the week.  Starting with a costume party before Julian's soccer game tomorrow night.   :)

*Had a nice campfire with our neighbors and a few of their friends last night.  Ezra wore my neighbor's cowboy hat and looked ADORABLE.  Considered switching his Halloween costume to a cowboy, because he was just so darn cute.

*Froze our toesies off at campfire.  The wind was ridiculous last night, and today's weather forecast calls for "possible snow flurries". 

*This southern girl thinks October is WAY.TOO.EARLY. to worry about "snow flurries".

*Worrying about our electric bill next month...

How about you?  How are you enjoying this lovely month? 

he's gonna be a socca playa (said in my best Adam Sandler voice)

He was nervous, and declared that he changed his mind and NEVER wants to play soccer, EVER. 
He quickly changed his mind.

It's his new favorite thing, and the hardest part was keeping Ezra off the court, and convincing Julian that it was time to leave.  I can tell that my soccer nights are going to be exhausting.

 

the kids after practice.  I bribed Ezra (during practice) with Juicy Juice, granola bars and a few smarties candies.  I can tell that this will become a habit.
look at that picture.  don't you want to gobble them?  i do.  often.

caramel apples

We made caramel apples last week.  I talked it up all day, but the kids weren't super excited about them, until they saw me dipping the apples into the caramel.

"OH MAMA!  THOSE ARE CANDY APPLES!" 

apparently my children didn't know what caramel was.  what kind of mother am I?

Julian helped decorate the apples with walnuts, chocolate chips, or coconut.  or all three!

and then, apparently, we were supposed to wait an hour for them to cool.  um, yeah right. YOU try telling this little bossy pants that we're going to just sit and stare at these apple treats for an hour.

Annabelle wants to "pose" for every single picture these days.  Her posing consists of a lot of cutesy smiles and hands on hips. 

but this little wrinkled up nose shows her real personality and i LOVE it.  i can't convince her to stop the fake posing, but i can sneak in a shot or two when she's distracted by "candy apples".

in thinking back, the last time that i can remember making caramel apples was with my Mom when I was in the 4th grade (or 5th?)!  It was for my first boy/girl party for Halloween and it was one of my most favorite nights of my little girl life. 

apple orchard

we went to an apple orchard today.  it was our first time and the kids were out of their minds with excitement. 

I won't post all the pictures here, but you can go to this album to view the pictures and a little commentary. 

a few of the things not pictured include:
*mini-petting zoo that Ezra LOVED
*rubber duck racing
*several little silly farm yard games
*our trip into the store to purchase honeycrisp apples!  the store smelled so sweet and warm, especially with the smell of homemade fudge and cider doughnuts in the air. 
*hay ride around the farm.  it was a 20 minute ride, and Ezra was ready to go, so we'll do that next time
*the big corn maze (i am not insane enough to attempt this alone with 3 kids)
*apple trees.  how did i not get one single picture of the tons and tons and tons of apple trees?  they were gorgeous
*Julian attempting to wear his "farmer's hat" to signal to everybody that he belonged here.  Coincidentally, it was "Farmer Days" this weekend. 

we got season pass tickets, so we're planning a few more ventures out there before the weather gets too cold!

If you're near Des Moines, I highly, highly recommend the Center Grove Orchard.

*fingers crossed* for peach trees

 

 last night we had the yummiest farmer's market peaches for dessert. 
 we also got a huge bag of apples (made apple crisp!  delicious!) local honey, which i'm obsessed with, raspberries & 3 huge gorgeous tomatoes that Julian has been eating with every meal

i've had a hard time getting back into the routine of eating vegetarian meals at home since our Arkansas trip.  Decided this week to just do it like last time, cold turkey.  ;)   Although it will be a little harder, since Dustin and I discovered a delicious authentic taco stand, less than a mile from our house. 

The kids have said that they're fine with eating mostly vegetarian, as long as they can still have bacon sometimes.   Wonder who they get that from? 

do you have a local farmer's market?  what did you buy this week?
Apparently September is a great month for Iowa produce.  I intend to enjoy  as much as possible this month :)

Dollar Tree Drama

I know better, really.   I avoid Dollar stores like crazy, because i know how quickly those dollars add up.  But tonight, I felt generous, and guilty.

You see, I promised the kids that if they were on their super duper best behavior while I ran an errand, and didn't make me want to leave them in the parking lot of Target, I would let them each pick out something from the Target $1 spot, a very fun and affordable (usually candy-free) treat.  win/win/win, right?

except for when they are switching out inventory and there is nothing worth looking at in the $1 spot.

i loaded up 3 disappointed kids into the car, promising something good.  something fun, something exciting, and realized that in all of my promising, i had over commited on my end, and nothing short of Chuckee Cheese would satisfy the kids now.  And knowing how much I hate Chuckee Cheese, I scoured every strip mall between Target and home, looking for ANYTHING that would turn the kids boring day into a super fun one.

and I spotted a Dollar Tree.

we walk in and the kids are mesmerized.  this is the BEST. PLACE. EVER.  there are lots of school supplies, and Elmo sticker books and light up toys, and CANDY!  Halloween and other fall decorations are coming out, reminding kids of one of our favorite seasons approaching, and the kids are just so happy.

I announce that they can each choose TWO things, instead of one, which results in outcries of "BEST MOMMY EVER" and "HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE"  (i'm lucky that my kids are pretty easy to please).

Annabelle, after much deliberation, decides on a toy trumpet and two toy flutes (to go with her favorite new yard sale find...a pink Barbie guitar!)  She is going to start an amazing band and needs all of the instruments that she can find.

Julian buys a two pack of remote control type cars and a cell phone.

Ezra picks about 30 things, but fortunately, his chubby hands can only carry 2 or 3 things.  He ends up going with a light up baton, that he uses like an old man cane, and a mylar balloon, declaring "Get Well Soon".  He also carries a pink Bugs Bunny ball that I secretly slide to the end of the counter, shaking my head to the boy behind the counter in the universal way of saying "I don't want this, but I don't want the baby to know that we aren't getting this". 

The kid behind the counter hasn't learned this sign language, and holds the ball up in front of Ezra asking, "You don't want this?"  thanks, man. thanks a lot.

We are all mostly happy and ready to go, and as I am digging in my purse for the hefty $6.35,  I realize that my wallet must have fallen out in the car.  I leave Annabelle and Julian next to the register with the goods, (as a line of probably 15 people wait ever so patiently for me to return).
Ezra and I run to the car to grab the wallet.  When I return and pay, Annabelle told me that if anybody had tried to hurt them while I was gone for 7 seconds, they were going to bludgeon them with Ezra's light up baton.  I loved that they took safety precautions while I was out of sight for such a short time. 

As we went back out to the car three things happened:
1. Ezra's balloon slipped off the string and floated lazily into the sky.  As Ezra sat in his carseat, he looked at the string wrapped around his wrist, trying to find where the balloon had escaped to.
2. Annabelle's trumpet made no noise, whatsoever.  Now, given the extremely loud noise of the flutes, this wouldn't have been such a big deal, but apparently a band without a noisemaking trumpet is no band at all.  So I take the trumpet, trying to see if something is blocking it up, and promptly snap off the top of the trumpet.  instant trash.
3. Julian opens his cars to find that they require some super special type of battery that we don't keep in stock, and lucky us! the batteries are NOT included.

Shortly after, the car was filled with two flutes blowing noisily, a surprisingly loud beeping cell phone, and Ezra's discovery that his baton is just long enough to hit me, Bella and Juju in the heads with very little effort on his part.

I did consider breaking the remaining three toys, while the kids slept tonight, until I pulled up this blurry photo on my computer of Julian playing one of the flute's tonight in a one-man parade the front yard.

Watching his crazy dancing and flute playing all around the neighborhood was worth a lot more than $6.35. 

Dollar Tree, it will be a cold day in you-know-where before we visit you again, but it's good to know that you are there if i want a 1 in 6  chance of finding a fun toy for my kids.

Pottery Barn episode

i don't know why i walk into Pottery Barn Kids.  I know that the second that I enter the doors, my mind is going to start buzzing and running and scheming and severely underestimating how much things actually cost. 

we enter the store and Ezra wants OUT. RIGHT. NOW. 
he sees a mini shopping cart and lunges for it.  he zips around the store like a crazy woman during those after Thanksgiving sales.  he fills  his cart with cloth sandwich and banana toys, wooden pots and pans, the occasional flip book.

Eyebrows raise all over the store.  Look at that poor woman with her wild children.  Let's hope they don't steal anything.

i notice nothing.  NOTHING.  because my eyes are focused solely on the new line of girls bedding.  it is perfect.   colorful, beautiful little trees.  my most favorite thing.

it would be like sleeping on scrapbook paper, only softer and more resistant to drool.

i want it so badly, but all i see are crib sheets.

"Does this come in a larger size?"  A question that, for once, I have no shame in asking.

"Yes, they're over here.  The largest is a Queen".

Oh holy mother. 

The sales lady smiles at Annabelle, who is currently sprawled across a green polka dot bed with a stuffed bulldog and a toy phone. "This is MY room Juju, and yours is over there with the firetrucks in it!"

Julian needs no more instruction, he zooms across the store to his bunk bed, climbs on top and tries to touch a hanging airplane, while banging these awesome but obnoxiously loud bells.
  

The lady asks Annabelle, 'Do you like trees?"

Annabelle raises an eyebrow, and I quickly mention, "I'm not looking at this for her, this would be for MY bed!"

The lady chuckles until she realizes that I'm serious and begins looking at me like maybe I shouldn't be out of the house alone, and do you have papers that say it's okay for you to have these children with you?

but seriously. look at these sheets. 

and the quilt with the stitched trees and flowers and occasional birdie.

the owls are a bit much....unless you are the a little girl, who they are intended for.  but look at the cute sham :)  oh i love trees. and color.  and sheets that cost way more than their thread count would indicate.

so i will wait until they go on sale, and realize that the only thing left at the affordable price is a stupid dust ruffle for a crib, and sigh and look at these pictures and think about what could have been.

and Dustin will be thankful that he escaped sleeping in a bed made for an 8 year old princess.
Pottery Barn Kids, I love you and I hate you.

this week in arkansas:

this week i've:

*bought a copy of "Breaking Dawn" at midnight, and read the book cover to cover in a few stolen hours in the evening.

*the last time i went to a midnight release for a book, it was here in Arkansas also, and it was for Harry Potter.  my dad rolled his eyes, obviously unimpressed with my love for Harry Potter.  when he asked what this book  (Breaking Dawn) was about, i hesitantly said, "vampires and werewolves".  another exaggerated eyeroll.

*lots and lots of family from California, Georgia and Texas came to visit for the weekend.

*we spent many late hours visiting, playing board games and watching a new generation of cousins interact and play (and fight).  also, drinking an interesting assortment of mixed drinks.  (what could we do with diet 7 up to make it taste better?  vodka and sunny delight.  sweet.)

*took an army of children to the local pool, got nice and brown.  love my little pink cheeked, sun kissed kids

*enjoying some lovely thunderstorms.  Annabelle declares that a tornado is coming at every wind gust.

*not enjoying the 110+ heat.

*became addicted to Guitar Hero 3.  i'm not a video game person, and haven't been so obsessed with a video game since Tetris. 

*falling in love with a boy named Jonas.  he's delicious.

*dealing with a very jealous Ezra.

*undoing all of Julian's random organization projects.  found a plunger in the office last night. 

*took the kids to a local arcade type pizza place.  the kids dubbed it "Little Chuckee Cheese"

*back to school shopping for Annabelle.  can i just request non-baby clothes for a 6 year old, without Hannah Montana or High School Musical on it?  also, no stupid phrases like "too hot for you", or "tell your boyfriend i said hi". 
seriously.  she is SIX YEARS OLD.

*groomed Charlie MYSELF.  realized why having somebody else do it is SO WORTH the $35.
took my little helpers (Juju, Bella and Madison) out for ice cream treats afterwards as a thank you.

*lots and lots of Cruizzers (local drive in place) drinks.  they really are so much better than Sonic, and i love Sonic.

*filing taxes.  finally. 

*enjoying the random garden gifts from neighbors and friends.  more sweet corn please!

*also enjoying my Dad's nightly dinner creations.  he's becoming quite the cook.  Ezra and I request more asparagus almost every day.  it's THAT good.

*waiting and waiting and waiting for CJ's arrival.  (TUESDAY!!!!!!!!)

*MISSING MISSING MISSING dustin.  so very much.

*also miss keeping up with my online friends.  i miss you guys and i'm sorry that my email and blog have been so neglected this week.  slowly but surely, i'm trying to catch up and hopefully things will be back to normal after we are back in Iowa.

i'll try to add some pictures tonight, but no promises.  ;)

a place for everything

julian 2, originally uploaded by mindibartell.

*sorry for the old photo, i have none on mom's computer so i swiped this one from flickr*

i've mentioned before that Julian is a big fan of organization.

he enjoys cleaning his room, although much less cleaning is done than i would hope, as much of Julian's attention is focused on "arranging things".

since being in Arkansas, Mom said that she comes home from work each day to inspect the house, looking for objects that have been "organized". she has found things that were hidden in the deepest, darkest cabinets that she was sure was out of the kids reach, now plainly on display. my Mom, a confessed pack rat, has sadly announced defeat, telling Dad that she has no more hiding places, all being found by Julian in the name of organization.

if the bathroom mats look good in the bathroom, imagine how great they will look around the bed in the guest room!

why are you hiding this gigantic jar of change? we can display it proudly on the entertainment center, with handfuls of coins lying around it to sparkle gloriously!

objects from the fridge have been moved to cabinets under the sink, bathroom cleaners moved to dressers, everything should have a home and Julian has spent much of his time here finding BETTER homes for everything. EVERYTHING.

he really outdid himself today though. since my parents don't have a fenced yard, Charlie has been placed on a long line, that is located at the front of the house, alongside a dog house and several bowls of water. this morning, before everyone was awake, Julian busied himself feeding and watering Charlie, playing games with his new dog toys, and just being a big helper.

30 minutes later, Annabelle walked outside to play with Charlie, only to return near tears, exclaiming "Charlie's GONE! GONE!! He's not in his house, his chain isnt even there anymore!!!!!"

After searching frantically, sure he had run away, we found Charlie, toward the back of the house, with his line wrapped around a tree, food and water relocated to a cooler part of the yard. When we questioned Julian he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Charlie just looks better there."

my little activist

My parents visited this week, for a couple of days and then returned to Arkansas with the two big kids.  Dustin has been pouting for the last 24 hours, occasionally walking down the hallway muttering, "Where's my Jujee?  Where's my baby girl?"

*photo by Annabelle

Fortunately he has a baby monster (ezra) and a yard full of baby bunnies to keep him occupied.

While my parents were here, we introduced them to the bunnies, by bringing one inside.

My dad made several "animal eating" jokes, mostly at my expense.  Since switching to a mostly vegetarian diet, I haven't tried to eat in an actual restaurant, so it was fun trying to find something on the menu at say...Dave's Famous BBQ joint, or a local Mexican place. 

So he made several jokes about the bunnies, mostly revolving around "Rabbit Stew!", and talking about how his Granny could whip up something amazing with those little guys.

The kids took his joking to heart, and Annabelle began to lecture him on the poor manners of people who kill living things.  (this from the child who had bacon and chicken strips earlier that day)   Julian, however, took a different approach. 

He ran downstairs and grabbed a few notecards, and "wrote" several notes to Poppy.  He returned upstairs and said, "Poppy, I made something for you and ONLY you."

We thought it was going to be a sweet birthday card or something along those lines. 

Instead, it was a notecard with 6 stickers of baby animals (rabbit, chicken, duck, etc.).

Apparently this was a list of animals that Julian didn't want Poppy to kill or eat anymore.

The notes included several small drawings of Poppy loving animals and a giant exclamation mark (to show that he was serious).

on the drive to the BBQ place, Julian piped up (quite randomly) to say, "I don't like to eat on the side of candy.  I like to eat on the side of healthy things.  Like my favorite foods are tomatoes and avocadoes and berries and corn on the cob...(and continued listing all of the healthy foods that he could think of)    Upon entering the restaurant, however, he launched into a campaign about why I should give him quarters for the gumball machines.

He really made us laugh with all of his little healthy "nagging". 

Later that night, Dad made another joke about the rabbits and Dustin threatened him with  "Don't make Juju get out the animal flash cards again!"

three little bunnies!

look what we found yesterday... (insert high pitched squealing here)

i was in my office and i heard some tapping at the window.  i assumed it was a bird, because they fly into the window a lot, but when i looked over, i saw a tiny baby bunny thumping to get inside. 

my office is in the basement, and there is a deep enclosed pit like thing around the window to allow light inside, so the bunny must have fallen inside this pit.  it's hard to describe, sorry.

anyways, i told Dustin what i saw, so he went outside, and next to the pit like hole, he saw a little baby bunny under our electric meter.  he caught the bunny and we all went crazy for it. 

Dustin is so much like a kid when he sees baby animals.  he is convinced that we can take care of it and keep it as a pet, regardless of whether it is a bunny, a bird, a baby snake (ick).  he went CRAZY for this little guy though. 

i told him that i saw the Mama bunny (who is ALWAYS in our yard)  hovering around the window, and i'm sure she wants her baby back, but Dustin was convinced that the Mama kicked the baby out of the house, and told it to go live on it's own now. 

after much loving of the baby bunny, we took him back to find his Mama, when we saw ANOTHER baby bunny in the corner of our porch.

so of course, we had to hold it too.  this one was a little smaller and much more nervous, but i cupped her in my hand and held her close to me and she calmed down immediately.  oh they were sweet.

the kids (Dustin included) were begging begging BEGGING to let us keep them, but I saw the Mama eyeballing us from the corner of our yard, so we decided that they could be our "Yard Pets", along with the baby bird we found a few weeks ago, and we placed the bunny back under some bushes so the Mama would find them.

and then Dustin remembered the bunny that i had seen outside my window, so he hopped down in the pit thing, and sure enough, buried and hiding under a pile of leaves, was the third baby.  he scooped the baby up, the kids begged to hold it one last time, and then we released it to be with it's family.  the cutest was watching them hop, they were just so tiny.

we went  back inside so the Mama could tend to her babies, and as I left the house to run an errand, I saw the three babies and the Mama under the bushes, snuggling and hopping around.  i think we'll enjoy these yard pets quite a bit.  :)

i'm not pulling a george washington, i don't want to CUT the tree...

in a nearby town, surrounding a small city hall/police department, there are about 12 cherry trees, full and ripe with cherries.  it doesn't appear that anybody picks the cherries, as there are cherries all over the ground, and really heavy branches full of cherries.

would it be wrong for me to pick them?  should i ask permission first, and if so, whose?  the receptionist at the city hall?

the kids go crazy, begging to pick the cherries every time we see them, but i always say no. 
i really want some cherries.  :)

what would you do?

this is juju's pouty face, because i told him no to the cherry picking.  there was nobody in the office to ask permission from on this day)

this was on a Farmer's Market day. 
yes, i let the kids pick their own clothes.
Julian wears this hat to Farmer's Markets, hoping the farmer's will recognize him as "one of their own".

**typepad is doing weird sharpening things to my photos.  i am not enjoying typepad's upgrades as much as i thought i would**

july 4th in summary

a good day including:

1.  a picnic with an impromptu (self-timer) photo shoot

**Dustin had been doing yard work with the kids, so he was not so interested in a family photo, but i insisted.  and i usually win. 

2. S'mores

3. fireworks  (not really, just "snakes" and sparklers).  
 
4. many many declarations that this was the "best day ever" before the kids went (quite easily) to sleep.

Julian sang a very sincere,  "Happy Holidays", (a made up song for the 4th of July), while roasting his marshmallows.

we also had frozen watermelon balls treats. 
instructions on how to make them found on my new (work in progress) food blog! :)
check it out here: eating elephants!   not sure if i'm loving wordpress, this may move to a different location in the future, but for now it works. :)

happy saturday! 

bleach, it does a body good. i hope.

i love hearing all of your summer loves!
**all of you bloglines and google reader users need to click through more often and say hello, i miss you guys!  (and i realize that i am preaching to myself, as i am an avid google reader user.  i promise i'll do better.)**

as you may know, i'm a compulsive list maker, and a huge lover of seasons.  i have notebooks full (from as early as junior high) of lists of things i love, and among my most FAVORITE lists, are lists of my favorite things about each season!  Autumn is my absolute favorite!

*did you follow that run-on sentence?
*did that run on sentence reveal too much of my junior high nerdiness?  because i really thought i was cool in jr. high, but i'm coming to realize more and more each day, that i was NOT.

so among all of the lists,  several of you mentioned swimming pools, and it reminded me of something super cute, although a little hazardous, that happened last week.

i have been trying to clean with "natural and safe and cheap" cleaning products, like vinegar and baking soda, but after Dustin's refusal to enter any room that has a vinegar-y aroma, combined with the disgusting kids bathroom, i broke down and grabbed my bottle of bleach/water mixture.

i spritzed down the bathroom, top to bottom, scrubbed vigorously, opened the bathroom window, and called it good.

a few minutes passed, when i realized that the children were eerily quiet.  i heard a few giggles coming from the bathroom, and fearing that they were destroying my hard work with muddy feet and hands, i threw the door open to find Annabelle and Julian breathing deeply and flapping their arms around wildly.

"What are you doing?"  I asked, as the smell of bleach took over my senses.

"IT SMELLS LIKE A SWIMMING POOL IN HERE!!!!"  they both declared happily.

Annabelle cupped her hands and did her best to get more of the bleach filled air into her nostrils before I threw them out of the bathroom and checked their vitals to make sure that a doctor trip was unnecessary.

Dustin's a little paranoid when it comes to our kids and toxic chemicals, so I mentioned it to him only after determining that the kids were completely unharmed.

Where was Ezra during all of this?   Downstairs eating toothpaste.

Along with my jr. high nerdiness, I may also be realizing, as I type this post, that I am not a very good Mom.  Either that, or my kids have some weird pica-like behaviors.

food photography gone wrong

i am slightly obsessed with photographing food.

my kids do not understand why.

annabelle and julian mostly ignore this obsession, but ezra.  oh ezra.  he has such a hard time understanding why the food strewn about the living room or dining table or whatever is not to be eaten.

which is why i usually have one chance to get a picture that i want, such as:

before this happens:

there's another funny picture of his little chubby hands sneaking a pear, in my new blog banner! 
yes, i've finally cleaned up the blog a bit for a fresh, summery look.  if you're reading through a blog reader, click through and check it out! :)

and while you're here, stop in, say hello and tell me what your favorite summer treat is!
mine is berries, (especially raspberries), which is why i currently have about 298 photos of berries on my computer to sort through...most of them with ezra in the background, trying to sneak a few bites. ;)

happy thursday :) 

whew!

sorry bout that, we had a little internet disruption and i'm so happy to be back online, especially because i got to see new 4D ultrasound pictures of my little baby nephew!

coming soon! 
he keeps his hand and foot smooshed up against his face at all times.
he has lots of hair.
he looks like his Daddy, as far as we can tell.
he will possibly be baby "Jonas" or "Jonah". 
i'm going to attack him with kisses and my camera at the soonest available moment, just you wait.

a little rundown on us:

*Dustin's had the flu for about 4 days now.  ugh. 

*Charlie has joined the "late night club" that was reserved for my night owl, Ezra, and my occasional bed-wetter, Juju.  Charlie has decided that 2 am is the most appropriate time to bark and howl to be let outside to pee, and then beg for a treat. 

*planning a trip to Arkansas to meet my new nephew in a couple of weeks, plus my bff Mika had a sweet baby girl last week that i cannot wait to meet!  love "baby" season, especially when i'm not included.

*annabelle and julian have been begging for a picnic, so tonight we ate watermelon outside with the mosquitoes, and then left some leftover watermelon for a mama rabbit and her two babies that live in our yard.  they LOVED the watermelon.  i sure hope that watermelon is an appropriate food for bunnies...

*googling watermelon & bunnies

*lots of chalking going on

*bought S'mores fixings for this week.  the kids have been playing "camping" a lot this week, so i plan to surprise them with a little campfire (maybe that will ward off a few of the vampire mosquitoes too)

*Julian can spell and write his first name.  if you understood Julian's temperament, you would be as amazed as I am.  spent a few dollars at the Target $1 spot on a couple of workbooks for the kids (pre-reader for Julian and phonics for Bella) as well as an eraseable placemat with capital letters of the alphabet on one side, and lower case alphabet on the other.  Julian loves copying words that i write out for him, so maybe this will be fun for him too.   also a US and world map.  the kids LOVE LOVE LOVE maps.  Annabelle was quite proud to find China on her own.  Julian wanted to call Poppy with directions for the shortest route from Arkansas to Iowa.  "Just go straight up!"

*Annabelle is about to lose another tooth and she is quite dramatic about it.

*fun errands tomorrow!  (farmer's market & library)

*During a phone call, Mom mentioned to Julian that we would have a pool party for (cousin) Madison's July birthday.  "Would you like a pool party, Julian?"

Julian screamed, "THAT SOUNDS LIKE A PERFECT IDEA, TATA!!" 
He was quite proud of Tata for coming up with such a brilliant idea like that, on her own.

Ezra talked to Tata (about Elmo) for a few minutes and then said "Tata Tata Tata" all night long.  (I hope nobody thinks he's talking about boobs as he randomly babbles about "Tata's" in the grocery store)

I said, "Yes Ezra.  Tata.  Tata.  and Poppy.  can you still say Poppy?"

Ezra smiled at me and barked.

"No Ezra, not PUPPY.  POPPY."

another bark.

An Arkansas trip is definitely needed.  :)

Julian's cafe

i made it to bed at 6:50 this morning, and woke up to Julian asking for breakfast at 7:30.

i told him that there were three new green pears in a bowl on the counter and he could have one of them for breakfast.  he asked if there was anything else, and in my sleep deprived state, i muttered, "just get anything you want that you can reach."

so when i woke up at 9am with Ezra's help, i was a little surprised to find the entire kitchen floor covered with shelled sunflower seeds, which i keep in a pretty high cabinet.

Julian took the great task of "kitchen chef" to heart, and prepared a feast for himself and Annabelle.

they each had a juicy pear, a handful of walnuts and sunflower seeds, and a bowl (which he retrieved from the cabinets himself) full of dry cereal.  then he took the last small bottle of their yogurt drinks, and poured it in fair amounts into two small cups for he and bella.

it was a mess, but his insistence on preparing everything without help for the two of them was really precious.