Saturday, March 26, 2011

Saturday Night Movies...

I spent several hours organizing my pictures today. In doing that, I found some cool pictures and videos that I had completely forgotten about.


September 2009, Charlie 26 months
Charlie was really speech delayed so, this was exciting.
(Kiy means "yes" to Charlie at this age....shortenend from Okay.)


This is how we do "speech therapy" in our family...



And, in case you did not get your fill of PIE...









Friday, March 25, 2011

Flashback Friday...I'm ready for summer!!!

"Spring" Break started today. High of 37 degrees for this weekend and next week doesn't look much better.

Here's to looking forward to summer!!!
2009



Thursday, March 24, 2011

SHUT UP!!!

Have you met Mr. Competitive??



Jack is one of the most competitive people that I have ever met. I'm beginning to think that Jack brings "competitiveness" to a whole new level.


A couple of weeks ago, we attempted to go on a Cub Scout "hike". Unfortunately, we had the wrong day so, nobody was there except for our neighbors that strangely enough made the same mistake that we did. Since it was a nice afternoon, we decided to do our own hike with our 4 boys, and our neighbor's 2 boys.


While we were on our hike, we came across a baseball field. It was a really nice little league field with real dugouts. The 6 little boys were in heaven!! There was a lot of running around, and pretend baseball being played. Ben was happy practicing his form pitching and running around the bases. Drew was having a great time pretending he was a real baseball player on tv. Charlie was beyond excited that he was on the "Red Team". All he really did was sit in the dugout, the red dugout, and shout about 5,000 times that "I am on the RED TEAM...my favorite color!!".


And, then we have Jack. Now remember that we had no bats or balls on this particular day. This minor fact did not stop Jack. He was very, very into this pretend game of baseball.


At one point, Jack was "pitching" and Ben was "batting". Ben apparently hit Jack's pretend pitch deep into right field. Jack was NOT happy. He seriously could not believe that Ben hit his perfect pitch so far. Then, he really became irate when he realized that nobody was playing right field and Ben was surely going to score a homerun. I'm sure that in his head, he was mathematically calculating how this was going to damage his ERA in the pretend baseball league.


So, his arms started flailing, and his feet started stomping, and then in his most exasperated voice, he started shouting at all of his brothers and friends"HEEEEYYYYY!!!! WHERE ARE ALL MY OUTFIELDERS?!?!?!". It was like he was a crazy person.


He was actually so mad that Spencer had to yell in to remind Jack that they were playing a PRETEND game of baseball...that was supposed to be fun....and, that there wasn't actually a BALL!!


***In other news...


There was recently a contest at school for the "best authors". Strangely enough, this story is not about Jack, who, obviously, loves contests...whatever kind of contest it might be.

2005

Even more strange, this story is not about Drew, who actually WON the contest!! Before people start yelling at me, I promise that I'll blog his winning story another time. I just need the author's permission. ;)
2005
Nope, this particular story is about Ben... sweet, innocent, peaceful, gentle Ben.

2005
Most people do not realize this, but Ben is quite the comedian. He is very much into shouting, singing, dancing, goofball faces, silly humor.


Needless to say, Ben's story for the contest was a bit silly and crazy. The story was basically about a boy taking a vacation/road trip with his family and a few strange things that happened to him while on the trip. He worked very hard on his story and did a great job. I was very proud of Ben. His story was perfect.... except for one little thing.


A few pages into the story he wrote "3 hours later we were there. "Ohio" I screamed so loud that my mom and dad told me to "SHUT UP!". "


Why would he write that?!? And, more importantly, do all of the school people that read Ben's story think that we talk to like that to our kids. Hmmmm....no wonder those boys are so well behaved, their parents are evil!! I'm fairly certain that as much as my kids like to talk/shout/sing, I have never yelled at them to SHUT UP!


***Are you wondering why I decided to post these two unrelated stories together??? It's actually midnight now and I'm wondering the same thing myself. I'm worried that this might be a little weak, but here goes...


Last night, we had a Cub Scout Den Meeting. Toward the end of the meeting, we had a few extra minutes so the boys were playing Paper/Scissors/Rock in a sort of Star Wars themed tournament style. Everyone was having fun and were still talking about it as they were leaving.


I should re-phrase.... Everyone was talking about the fun as they were leaving and everyone (except JACK!!) was having fun. Jack was going on and on about how he was "wronged" in the P/S/R tournament. He was really worked up over a silly game that could not even have a winner. As we were walking out to the car, I got frustrated with his attitude and yelled at him about how he was being silly, and it was just paper/scissors/rock, and it was supposed to be for FUN...and that it didn't matter who won.


I then started the car and Abba's "Winner Takes it All" came BLASTING through the car radio. OMG, SERIOUSLY?!?! Now, Spencer is out of town, I'm exhausted, I just spent an hour with 8 - 8year olds and a 4 year old playing games, I just spent the last 5 minutes arguing/lecturing Jack about who won a stupid game with no winners and now, some dumb lady from Abba jumped all over me about how "winning is everything". And, at that point, I may have yelled "SHUT UP YOU CRAZY LADY!!" at the radio.


Hmmm.....













Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Extreme Supermoon!!!

Did you hear that tonight there was supposed to be an "Extreme Supermoon"? We were ready!! 7:26pm the moon was supposed to rise in Chicago and it was supposed to be HUGE...something about it being unusually close to the earth coinciding with a full moon. It hasn't happened since 1993 and isn't happening again until 2029.



The boys were ready...Charlie even got out his Owl Hat for the occasion.

Everyone was running around the yard, in the dark like a bunch of crazies. Maybe the "full moon" contributed to their behavior. Hmmm....


So, here it is....

In case you missed it, it is that blur behind the trees. Such a bummer...after a beautiful clear day, it got cloudy after the sun went down. So, that's it. Maybe we'll catch it again in 28 years. :(


How is this for ironic...my mother-in-law asked me TODAY if I wanted a tripod.

I'm not a photographer at all, so I told her that I didn't think that I would have a use for one.


HA!! I think that I'll re-consider. And, for what it's worth, these are the "best" of my bad shots. You can't even tell those are trees in my other pictures.





Finally, I'm just looking for a reason to use these pictures so, I'll tie them in with the "full-moon craziness" theme.
At the Cub Scout Pack Meeting last night, the boys earned their Bear Badge. For a fun ceremony, the scouts got their faces painted. The colors and marks represented "stuff" for their rank.
BTW, I don't know why I look tan in the picture. The only thing that I can figure out is that my face is flushed from the craziness of the Pack Meeting. All the chaos kind of stresses me out.

I guess the full-moon got to me too because after the Pack Meeting, I took the boys to McDonald's for treats at almost 9:00 at night.

Charlie especially deserved a treat for being soooo good at the crazy meeting. He sat quietly on the floor and played with his Magnadoodle. Daddy couldn't make the Pack Meeting this month and I was busy painting faces and trying to control some of the chaos. He did so good!






Friday, March 18, 2011

Flashback Friday...love those baby blues!!

Charlie, May 2007 (10 months)
I know his face is a mess, but the color of his eyes are gorgeous!!

Drew, April 2004 (almost 2)
He was not feeling well, but look at those beautiful eyes and lashes.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Paddy's Day Randomness...

Hmmmmm.....
Charlie had no problem with his cookie. And, for the record, Mom didn't have any problem with the 2...or 10, that she ate either. Shhhhh....don't tell the kids.Yup Drew, you're still cool!

I learned of a new Irish tradition today from the kids. If someone is not wearing green, you are allowed to pinch them. Look out!!!

Although he was bad for putting on a RED shirt after work on St. Patrick's day, Daddy earned some brownie points back for working with Ben on his homework. Ben read his weekly story to Dad in order to review for the test tomorrow. The story was about cowboys. (I guess it was a good week for me to miss.) Anyway, they were going over the questions at the end of the chapter. One of the questions was about how cowboys today would be different from cowboys a long time ago. Ben said "Well, if you wanted to watch cowboys a long time ago on tv, they would be black and white. Cowboys today would be in color." Yeah, ummm....good luck on the test tomorrow Ben.



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Family Feud

Have you seen the "Name something you pass around". Family Feud clip? If you didn't catch it floating around Facebook, you should really check it out. Steve Harvey is hilarious. Here is the link.

Jack and I were playing Family Feud the other night on Wii....finally a Wii game that *I* can win. Woo Hoo!! It was really a lot of fun playing with him and some of his answers cracked me up.

During the bonus round part of the show, I played first while Jack went and hid and then he came back and played the 2nd guy. Toward the end of the game, Ben and Drew came down to watch.

A question came up asking for "An occasion that you dress in formal wear".

I answered "a wedding". Ben and Drew were not impressed, and were really surprised when it came up as the "number one answer". I believe their direct quote was "huh?"

When that question came up for Jack, he quickly and confidently answered "First Communion". Drew got very excited and shouted "that was MY answer!!!". Ben agreed too.

These boys were TICKED OFF when it showed up as ZERO points. They absolutely could not believe it!!

Now that I think about it, I can't believe they didn't get any points either...
And, if you are in the mood for another Family Feud Funny, you HAVE to see this one!! We laughed and lauged about this. Watch both contestants...hilarious. Here is the link.