Things you'd never imagined yourself hearing....

Paul: "Moooooooooommmmmmmmmmy!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "what?"
Paul: "Come here, you've gotta see this!"
Me: "okay."

I walked into the bathroom (with a sense of dread).

Paul: "Look! I made one big poop and one little poop!"
Me: "Um, good for you!"
Paul: "And I named the little one Cutie!"
Me: "oh dear."

Adventure!!!!!!!

Back in the days before kids, if I thought about having an adventure, it would've likely been something like skydiving. Or a big road trip. Not so much anymore.

Friday night I went on an adventure. I took 3 kids to IHOP for dinner. By myself. I know, 3 kids? Where'd the extra one come from? And why the heck would you go to IHOP? Well, I've been making the mistake of letting the kids watch Spongebob episodes on Nickelodeon, which has commercials. Lots of commercials. Most of them either for some sort of plastic junk, some sort of breakfast cereal, or IHOP. Right now IHOP has the "Horton Hears a Who" special menu. And the kids REALLY needed to go to IHOP! (their words, not mine.) On Monday, the kids asked if we could go there for dinner. This was in the middle of eating dinner, so I said absolutely not! And then they asked "can we go tomorrow?" I said "hmm, probably not." And so on. Until I finally decided that I'd take them on Friday night. Clark was going to be at a friends' house after work, so I'd be on my own with the boys. Perfect night to have pancakes for dinner. So, promises were made, and the kids started counting down the days (and minutes) until IHOP night.

Friday morning, a friend calls, saying that she has a client in labor, and nobody to watch her one year old. Could I please please watch him? I said, sure no problem! Then remembered IHOP night. I decided, what the heck, what's one more kid? Besides, IHOP is right by this little guy's house, so I could just drop him off at home after dinner. So I spent a good 45 minutes trying to wrestle 3 carseats into the back of a Civic, and off we all went.

At IHOP, the kids decided they definitely wanted to order off of the Horton menu, (except for the 1 year old who kept pointing to the menu and saying "kickin!" "kickin!" so I ordered him chicken strips)

Sam got the "JoJo's breakfast" which came complete with green eggs and ham (he ordered his eggs "without the green" though) and who-cakes.

Paul got the big order of who-cakes. Who-cakes are pancakes of varying sizes, stacked to look similar to a tiered wedding cake. With bright pink and blue syrup drizzled over the top. And colorful sprinkles. And a lollypop sticking out of the middle. Basically a giant plate of sugar.

And I decided, what the heck, and joined in the spirit of the night and had the mayor's breakfast.

Of course, Sam ate all of my ham, and the 1 year old ate most of my pancakes, so I was left with eggs and spinach. But it was worth it. The kids had fun.

It went amazingly well, the kids were fairly well behaved, and everyone had a good time. I may be brave enough to have more "adventures" although next time I want a bigger car!

Everything Old Is New Again.....

Sam went to a birthday party last weekend for one of his classmates. The party was at a bowling alley, and the kids all had a wild crazy great time. At the end of the party, the kids all got to sign a bowling pin for the birthday boy to bring home. Sam wrote on it "SAM BFF" As we got outside, Sam said "I bet you don't know what BFF means, Mommy!" I said, "believe it or not, I do!" Which brought back memories of passing notes in class in elementary school. Anyway, I'm happy that my kid has a best friend, and I thought it was awfully cute to see him write BFF and think that he was the first kid to think of it!!!

Free To A Good Home:

One Adorable 3 Year Old.

Very polite.

Loves to play and talk loudly, especially between the hours of 1 and 5 AM.

Yet Another Reason I Want To Move To Canada....

http://www.tsn.ca/oln/feature.asp?fid=10845

Ed. On TV. Flying a plane. Need I say more?

*This post is mainly meant for Liz and Sandy, who will get the reason why this would be such a big deal!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve celebrating with sparkling grape juice (alcoholic for us big people, and non-alcoholic for the little ones--who didn't drink it anyway because they hate anything with bubbles in it!) and chocolate fondue. Yum! We dipped pound cake, marshmallows, graham crackers (and made some little mini smores), strawberries, bananas, and um, spoons. (this was at the end when the kids were done--I couldn't let perfectly good gooey chocolate go to waste! We tried out a new recipe which was decadent and delicious. And totally not healthy. Although Sam decided the strawberries were better without the chocolate, and ate about half of the plate by himself!

Here's our new favorite fondue recipe:

Chocolate Fondue

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In heavy saucepan, over medium heat, melt chocolate chips and butter with EAGLE BRAND® and water. Cook and stir constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla.
2. Serve warm as a fruit and cookie/cracker dipping sauce or drizzle over ice cream or cake. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

I'll post pictures later if we ever get around to uploading them onto the computer!

The Twelve Days of Stressmas

Typically, this is my favorite time of year (well, tied with early October). I love the Christmas music, the cookie baking, the gift wrapping, the anticipation of the excitement on the kids' faces on Christmas morning. Well this year I've had a hard time even remembering that Christmas is coming up so soon. Life has gotten in the way. Things have been chaotic.

So here's my list of why I've forgotten the joys of the season over the past 12 days.
1. Doctor appointment where I found out that I have to have a needle jammed into my throat (aka "needle aspiration" of my thyroid)
2. Garage door breaks.
3. Phone call from Paul's preschool saying that we need to have a conference to discuss his "behavior issues."
4. I get all holiday spirit-y and decide to make a traditional batch of fudge. The old fashioned way. I spend 2 hours and end up with a chocolate flavored crumbly brick.
5. Satellite receiver dies.
6. Yoga class gets interrupted by gym childcare employee because Paul hit her.
7. I decided to make gifts for people, involving the sewing machine and fabric. I discovered when I was almost done that I'd sewn 5 out of the 7 items inside out. Spent some good quality time with a seam-ripper.
8. I got ready to take Sam to school (on a morning when he had a field trip) only to discover that the car won't start.
9. I finally got some dental work done that I've needed for awhile, and now I've got a slight lisp.
10. Sam's school called at noon today because he was claiming to have "chest pains" and said he needed to go home. Of course the chest pains magically disappeared the second he sat down at the computer at home. And of course this was on an afternoon when Paul was supposed to have school, and I had errands to run.
11. I got around to making chocolate dipped marshmallows, and as I was walking across the kitchen with a bowl full of 1 1/2 lb of melted white chocolate, the bowl slipped. Covering the entire kitchen in white chocolate.
12. As I was cleaning up the kitchen I heard the words "Mommy! Emergency!" in Sam's voice coming from upstairs. Never good news. Let's just say that finding poop on the floor isn't something that gets me in the Christmas spirit!