Weekend Window...

I always thought I was patient, but I would never attempt this...

I really dislike Monopoly.


People get mean when they play Monopoly.

Thankfully, the boys are not "mature" enough to be "mean" when they play Monopoly. But, they do wear on your patience....dice everywhere, bent cards, money everywhere, singing, dancing, chanting...and whining. Actually, the whining is just Spencer.

Yes, I think I'll just stare at my computer and pretend to blog a little bit longer....

Flashback Friday...Mascot Day

After posting Charlie in his owl shirt the other day, I couldn't let this Friday go by without including pictures from when Ben, Jack & Drew were in preschool and dressed up as their "Mascots". Thanks for the reminder Jen!!

Looking back, I'm kind of embarassed that I sent them to school like this. I was a newbie mom and had been told that a lot of families get really into this and all of the notes sent home made it seem like a big deal. I remember the note came home just before Spring Break and recommended working on a costume with your child over Spring Break for this extra special "Spirit Day" at school.

I couldn't come up with a "great idea" so, I just bought pillow cases and a bunch of paint. I cut head and arm holes in the pillow cases and then "let them at it" with the paint. I can't believe my kitchen survived the mess. Three 3 year olds full of paint...YUCK!

I wonder if the boys even remember doing this. After re-living the memory in my own mind and looking at these pictures....I'm kind of hoping that for their own sake, they don't remember a thing. ;-)

BTW, just for the record (in case you couldn't tell), Drew was an Ant, Jack was a Bear and Ben was a Snail.

I'm all over this preschool stuff...

This is how Charlie looked when I picked him up from preschool today. How cute is that!?!?!

He cracked me up with the owl shirt, the owl hat and the noodle necklace...it's like he's "Mr. Preschool"!!

Today was "Dress like your mascot day" at preschool. (As a side note, I'm liking this "mascot day" thing a lot better now that I don't have to dress a bear, an ant AND a snail...that was HARD and at the time, I wasn't very good at it). So anyway, Charlie and I made this shirt last year. Actually, Charlie and I made the shirt...like, bought the materials, looked for a picture of an owl to copy, drew an owl on the felt, cut it all out, made some eyes, cut them out, and then glued it all on the shirt... and then Charlie and Daddy finished it off by gluing on a few feathers when I had to leave to teach RE. It turned out very cute and when it was done, I was feeling pretty good about my creativity. The "funny" part of that story is that the next day, whenever anyone commented on his shirt, Charlie proudly told them "My **DADDY** made this shirt for me!!!".

Nice.

Well, until today, Charlie hadn't seen the shirt for a year...not too many occasions have come up where we needed a homemade owl shirt, I guess. And, well, too bad for "Daddy" Charlie didn't remember the part of the story where Daddy did all of the work. So, I was able to re-write history (the way it should have been written to begin with) and I take some of my credit back. :-)

Jamie Lee Curtis is Cool!!!

Last week, Jamie Lee Curtis came to our elementary school. How cool is that?!?! Of course, it was for the kids...not the parents. And, since our school is sort of "overcrowded"... 850 Kindy-5th graders with a classroom trailer in front of the school, it *really* wasn't for the parents...because we wouldn't all fit in the gym. :-( So, all of the *coolness* of meeting Jamie Lee Curtis was lost on my 8 year olds, who had no idea who she was.

Thankfully, Ms. Curtis (as the kids called her) give us moms a "booby prize". To go along with her book, My Mommy Hung the Moon, all of the kids came out of school at the end of the day wearing a sticker. The sticker said "My mommy's name is _______________" and, "My mommy is good at _______________________________". Yay Me...I love Jamie Lee Curtis. ;-)

"My mommy's name is Kelly.
My mommy is good at taking care of me!"

Awww....isn't he the sweetest boy ever!!

"My mommy is Kelly.
My mommy is good at blogging and driving!"
Yippee...this is fun. Ben, make sure to tell Daddy about the driving part!!

"My mommy is Kelly.
My mommy is good at giving advice!"
Oh yeah...everyone should listen to ME!!! I hope Jack still feels that way when he is 13, and 17....and 35!!

That is why Jamie Lee Curtis is my new favorite actress!! :-)

P.S. And, if you notice something a little bit different about Jamie Lee Curtis, the next time you see her, it is because one of *my* Cub Scouts gave her the "cheese touch". Too funny!!

Here comes trouble...

Can't you tell?!?!

We went to the local high school football game last night. As we were walking in, the Greeter Lady at the gate to the stadium said (directly to US!) "Welcome to the Home of the Mustangs...please control YOUR children!!"


What's with that?!?! I bet that mean lady was a mom of all sissy girls. Grrr.....Boys can be sweet and well behaved too. Blah!

Funny thing happened while I haven't been blogging....

...the kids all got older. Specifically, Ben, Jack & Drew turned 8 on May 28th.

Of course we had to have a birthday party. Remember the party that we had when they turned 7? Well, it doesn't matter if *you* remember because *they* remembered. "Hey Mom, this year, can we have a real Wipeout Party??", "Hey Mom, how about a Super Mario Bros. Party??" (and yes, they actually pronounce it "Broz"...I've corrected them many times, but they still say "Broz". Now, they've got me saying "Broz" too. Oh well, you win some, you lose some) As hard as I tried, I could not figure out a way to make the "Big Balls" and all of the ideas that they boys had for a Mario party were kind of "out there". So, in the end, we decided to take advantage of the great summer weather and our neighborhood pool.

So, the boys and 22 of their "nearest and dearest" friends came to our neighborhood pool on a beautiful Friday night and we called it a party!

There was lots of swimming....and sliding....
and a very little bit of "games".
There was pizza and cake....lots of pizza!

Eight year old swimming boys eat A LOT of pizza!!!

There was also this cool undershirt game. The night before the party, I wrote a whole bunch of silly sayings on undershirts. Then I folded the shirts up so nobody could see what they said and then Spencer dunked them in a bucket of water and put them in the freezer overnight. I re-dunked them and re-froze them again in the morning so they would be good and frozen. Then, the "contest" was for each kid to take a frozen shirt and try to un-freeze it. The first kid to put the very cold t-shirt on would win the game.

Good and frozen....

The "winner"...wait, does your shirt say that you "want to be a ballerina when you grow up"??!!

Yup, I did my best to get in the mind of an 8 year old to think of things that they would think would be funny and/or embarassing. We had...

...Girl Rule, Boys Drool

...Is this Party almost over, I miss my MOM!

...I've got the Cheese-Touch

...I love my princess underwear

...oops, I just tooted

And, the winner got a Silly Band. Actually, any kid that was willing to put their shirt on got to pick out a Silly Band.

Most of the boys were very willing to wear their silly shirt. There was also a lot of shirt trading going on and I'm sure a lot of confused moms at laundry time. It worked out to be a perfect game...easy and the boys sure got a lot of laughs.

Happy Birthday Ben, Jack & Drew...a bit late. :)

I Love Separate Classes...

Separating twins/triplets in school is always a huge debate in the "multiples community". We decided to separate the boys when they went to 3 year old preschool and never looked back.

First Day of 3rd grade

August 2010

Giving them their own class and teacher just seemed like the right thing to do for us and it has worked out very well. Even the "challenges" of having different classes haven't been bad for us. The separate and different homework doesn't bother me. The majorly different spelling lists from last year made me laugh, but didn't really bother me. The different "specials" schedule doesn't bother me...heck, I don't even know what their "specials" schedule is...they wear gym shoes every day, just to be safe. Dealing with different teachers doesn't bother me.

For 364 days and 22 hours a year, I love that they have their own class.

Today, was 1 hour and 40 minutes of it being not such a great thing....

Tonight was "curriculum night". There are 2 sessions of curriculum night at our school... I have 3 classes to hit. Which means that I either miss one of the classes entirely, or I bounce from class to class...and miss bits of each of them. What made this "curriculum night" even *better* was the fact that the preschool...our district's preschool...as in the same DISTRICT as our elementary school decided to have their "curriculum night" on the exact same night. Hmmmm... 4 places at the same time.

Lovely.

Charlie...first day of 4 year old preschool.

August 2010 And, Spencer was in New York today. And, I had to attend another curriculum night meeting before real "curriculum night" because I have one extra smart kid. AND...Ben had soccer practice.

So, I just did the best I could...

Picked up Mickey D's For dinner.

Dropped Ben off at soccer.

Brought Jack, Drew and Charlie back home for the "best sitter ever!"

Skipped Curriculum night at the Preschool...sorry Charlie.

I'm sure he'll be just fine. ;-)

Then, I just went to curriculum night and took in as much as I could. Spencer came in from NY in the middle of it so, he was able to cover one of the classes. So, it all worked out really, really well. Except for afterwards when I asked him about what he learned about Ben's class, he said "nothing, pretty much regular 3rd grade stuff...he does spelling, math, reading...". LOL, as a side note, that is why MOMS go to Curriculum Night!! ;-)

We survived. Tomorrow, I'll go back to being very happy that they are in different classes, but for now, I'm tired. Good night. :)