Jack-O-Lantern Carving.

When Halloween creeps closer we like to give its pending arrival one final preparatory nod.  

The selection process is a delicate one and every bit a part of the tradition.

Then we gather at Uncle Sam and Aunt Lindee's house where we eat chili, mummy hotdogs, and deviled eggs. 

When the kids start getting too restless we pile into the garage where the real fun begins.

We only had one sliced finger this year (Cali, of course), because apparently it's hard to remember that knife rules still apply when you're encouraged to stab at a pumpkin with a sharp object.

For the record, this is one sliced finger more than we usually have.

Casidee was happy to sit in the background with her book and I was happy to help the kids so ours never got carved.

Tayler, the ambitious soul, picked a rather large pumpkin and by the time she had finally, finally finished cleaning the guts out, it was time to go home.

She never got around to actually carving the face into it, even after all that hard work of gutting it.

Sorry Tay.

Maybe pick a smaller one next year?

Sean's

Brynn's

Jayme's

Cali's

Jayme Has a Birthday Party. We Met Beyond 5. Christmas Eve Eve. A Catching Up Post.

On Friday (the 20th) Jayme had her birthday party.

She invited a few friends over to watch Harry Potter.  Along with her food requests (pizza, root beer, brownies, cake balls...) we threw in some jelly beans and called them Bertie Bott's every flavor beans.  The girls made up a chart with their own flavor names, which included earwax, vomit, and prune juice, among others.

Pictures to come, as soon as I can steal them off of The Man's phone.

On Saturday we got to go check out a new band called Beyond 5, which my girls instantly fell in love with.
We stopped and grabbed Panda Express via drive-thru and then hit the road for our 2 hour trip to the concert, which was up in Logan.  Yeah, you heard me, 2 hour trip, one way.

That right there makes me mother of the year.

Since they're a new band we hadn't yet heard much about them.  They've just released their first cd, and have just gotten back from touring Asia, so the girls didn't quite know what they were getting into (check out some videos on them on the post I did here).

But as soon as that first song started, my girls were smitten.  Completely, number one fans.

And that might even be an understatement.

I waited with the girls for an hour after the concert for a chance to meet the guys of Beyond 5 and get some autographs.  We bought a poster for each bedroom and while standing in line one of the crew from the band walked up and gave Tayler a cd.

We had both posters and the cd cover signed.

And the girls snuck some selfies with their favorites.

I was so impressed with these boys, watching them interact with everyone after the show.  They were polite and genuinely nice.  Their music was upbeat with a good vibe and none of their songs has anything that would make me uncomfortable having my daughters listen to it.

I'm behind this group of guys 100%.

We listened to Tayler's cd on the entire 2 hour drive home.

Obsessed.

On Monday we celebrated Christmas eve eve.

Since it wasn't our year for Christmas with The Circus and we needed to take them to their other parents the next morning.

I left work early and went home and made wassail, and put a ham, rolls, and funeral potatoes in the oven.

Papa Mike, Granny Suzann, Lindee, Sam, and Morgan came over and spent the evening with us.

Granny made fancy hot coca.  Papa gave the kids his two cents worth.

We talked and laughed, and chilled.  And opened a few presents.

We thought about joining Lindee and Sam to go see the lights at Thanksgiving Point, but we didn't make it that far.  We stopped at a gas station for slurpees or hot chocolate, and then went home to let the kids open presents.  We wanted them to have some time in the morning to fiddle with their new stuff and check it out before we had to take them to their other parents.

This year I put code names on the presents. (I wrote a guest post on that here).

Tayler had some suspicions on a couple of presents and was hoping that she was reindeer.

When we sat down to open presents I told the kids to grab one present and make sure that they each had a different name.

The kids grabbed presents they had guessed could be something that belonged to them.

Cali grabbed reindeer before Tayler could and Tayler was not a happy camper about that.

I told them to open them and then we would see if they were right.

Cali happened to grab a present that could have been for her so she guessed that she was right.  And we went around the circle, the kids saying who they thought the present they had opened was for.  It finally came to a point where we told Cali she was wrong and the reindeer present was not for her, but the candycane presents were.

Tayler, misunderstanding what was said exclaimed, "She gets to be both reindeer and candycane?"  She was completely frustrated.  But then we told Tayler that no, Cali wasn't reindeer and Tayler's Christmas became perfect as she realized she really did get to be reindeer like she'd been hoping.

This was such a fun way to do the presents, especially as they unwrapped them and tried to figure out who had whose.  I'll definitely be doing this every year.

The rest of the week has been pretty quiet for us.  The Circus doesn't come home until after the New Year and I miss them so much.

I'm not used to them being gone for so long.

We usually do pretty good in how we handle the holidays that we don't have kids for, but we haven't quite found our groove with Christmas yet.  We visited with family on Christmas Day, but we'd already opened our presents with the kids so we kicked back with all our Christmas treats and the pile of new movies that I'd given The Man and enjoyed the holiday the best we could.

Next kidless Christmas, we're taking a cruise.  I'm pretty sure I might feel better about it if I'm sitting on a warm beach somewhere.

Mr. And Mrs. Ert.

Remember Brynn's party and how I took over the kitchen with a diy subway sign for a wedding?

Remember this, my solid argument that I need a craft room?

And just for the record, The Man is not arguing this point, in fact, he agrees whole heartedly.  I even have a space in the basement I can turn into "my" spot, it's just a matter of doing it.

So my solid argument is actually not an argument that I need the room as much as I need to get going on setting it up.

Details.

The finished product for Lindee and Sam:

They're both cops so I thought it was fitting.   I found the original idea on pinterest and tweaked it for my own needs.

Happy Wedding Mr. and Mrs. Ert.

Even though the day started off in a torrential downpour of rain, it cleared out quite nicely by the afternoon and left temps, white, fluffy clouds, and fresh green scenery for the most perfect day.

I don't think it could have been more perfect.

Lindee spilled her sand all over the table instead of in the jar, and it just so happened to be right as I was taking the picture.  The look on her face is priceless.

I loved that they had bubbles blown at the end of the ceremony.

The most handsome groomsman that there ever was happened to be my arm candy for the night.

 Brynn decided sweat pants under her skirt was called for.  Though after the ceremony, but before the reception, she asked if she could take her skirt off now?  And was surprised when I told her no.

The waterfalls all over the property were gorgeous.

I'm thankful we got to spend the day with Lindee and Sam and show them our love and support.  I wish them all the happiness and love that a marriage can offer.

Pasta Coming Out Of Our Ears In The Name Of Celebrating Cali, A Video, And A Bad Lip Reading

I realized something that was quite obvious.

But I'm a little slow so it's taken me a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Twice a week I'm lugging myself out of a warm bed and to a cold studio for yoga before the sun comes up.  And lately I've been craving a good hard run routine.

My body's been feeling soggy.

I'm craving the feeling of strength.  Of feeling solid.

It occurred to me...

I can use the work out facilities on campus for free with my student i.d.

And I'm already going there a couple of mornings a week anyway...

My struggle is that I'll have to get up even early than I am and that is a hard struggle for me.

I need to talk myself into being okay with mega-early mornings.

I think I can, I think I can.

We celebrated Cali's birthday with her yesterday.  I've started doing mommy and me dates with the kids on their birthdays.  Just a way to get them some one on one time.

On their birthday I go check them out of school for lunch and take them to where ever they want to go.

Cali wanted Olive Garden but I nixed it because we were already heading to Macaroni Grill for dinner, at her request.

So she chose Noodles & Co.

Because that's so much different.

I think this girl loves pasta.

We made this video on a new app called Vine.  I'm kind of in love with that app right now.  If you happen to have it, you should find me so I can see what you're doing on there.  I'm The Circus.


I watched her order mac and cheese and asked her if she was going to eat that again at dinner.

She looked confused.

"Do you even know what kind of food they serve at Macaroni Grill?"

No.

She saw on the commercial that they got to write on the table with a crayon and she was all over that.

The only reason she picked Macaroni Grill for her birthday dinner was to draw on the table.

And for the record, she ordered ravioli.

She got a free desert of her choice and the waitress sang happy birthday to her in Italian.

As a side note, beware when you sit Granny Suzann next to the kids.

She does a lot of encouraging.

I was introduced to bad lip readings today.

I was probably laughing a little too much at this, but it seriously cracked me up.

For you on a snowy Tuesday:

(at least it's snowy here.  If it's not snowy where you are I'm going to come visit next week, yeah?)

(it is Tuesday, right?)

(that reminds me of a time when I thought it was Tuesday but five year old Casidee was adamant that it was Wednesday.  Our schedule was different depending on which day it was and suddenly Cas had me so confused.  So I called my ex.  "What day is it?  Tuesday or Wednesday?"  He laughed, somewhat unkindly, and answered, "Why don't you just look at the calendar?"  "What good is looking at the calendar when I don't know what day it is I'm supposed to be looking at???"  Dang five year olds who think they know everything.)


Oh geez, that's funny stuff right there.