So my computer died. Again. Dad is trying to get ahold of a disk that would remove the virus so hopefully I will be up and running again soon. I have some great pics of the kids, too. I am really going crazy without it but have at least had Amanda and Elijah around to help distract me. She leave tomorrow and Elijah goes back to work so the craziness will begin!!

Sickness has hit the Sleigh house, and I am really feeling it. Amanda is on her way here and I have warned her, but oh well!
Elijah is watching the International Jump Rope competition on tv. I have asked him why he thinks the tv 'has' to be on, even if it's only crap. He said he is actually interested in this. It is pretty amazing what they can do. Ask him about it, he'd be happy to talk about it! He has explained some of the moves in detail to me. It's actually a documentary about the competition.
We went to the mom's club Christmas party yesterday, but I still haven't uploaded pics yet. It is on my list of things I want to get done, but I'm not feeling good and still have to go out shopping today. Blah. I used to love cold weather until I had children. I didn't ever wear a jacket out, I hate them. I would just brave the weather between the house and car and where ever I was going and then be comfortable inside. Can't do that with kids. Nooooo. Hats, jackets, sometimes gloves. Drives me crazy. That and they constantly ask where MY jacket is. So not only do I have to carry theirs, I have to carry mine, too. I am again looking forward to summer, which surprises me.
Here's a pic of the kids in the tub in our bathroom. I don't usually let them do that anymore, but Elijah was working late and I was all about multi-tasking.

Golf Outing

So I haven't uploaded the aquarium pics yet. But here are some from when we went to a little local golf course a couple weeks ago and spent the day. This was Avery's first attempt at golf. She did okay, we ended up in the club house about halfway through. It was just too cold for both of us. Elijah and Benjamin finished it out. Benjamin really does well playing golf. I'm sure he would do great if we could afford to take him more. HA!

Sleepy Girl

Over the last couple of weeks Avery has been falling asleep in random places. We don't let her sleep long, just long enough to take a picture of it because if she sleeps too long then she won't go to sleep that night until 9:30 or later. And no one wants that! Anyway, here are a couple pictures of her last nap on the floor. I don't get the whole 'covering one nostril thing. Benjamin got really jealous and popped into one:

We are about to start getting ready to head up to the Atlanta Aquarium. We are all really excited about it. Benjamin and Avery have no idea we are even going, which is my plan. They just think their dad took the day off for no reason in particular. I will post pictures when I get them uploaded.

Another Barbie Bites the Dust

I'm tired. Avery just wears me out!! Today we were at Susan's house for playgroup and the girls (Anna, Avery and Maddie) all disappeared upstairs so we decided to follow them up to keep an eye out. We end up sitting in a play area and the girls go in Anna's room. We are just sitting around discussing books and other nice topics when Susan looks up and calls Anna in to see what she has. Anna had apparently gone downstairs and retrieved some scissors. Susan asked why she needed them and Anna said 'For Barbie'. Susan looked confused but I immediately knew what happened. I told Susan that Avery had climbed up onto Anna's bookcase, pulled down the Barbie that was up there and they had opened it up and were trying to get the Barbie out. Susan yelled "oh NO!" and shot up out of the room. Malinda looked at me like I was crazy and we went in. Susan started going "no, no, no, no..." and I started to feel two inches tall. Malinda and I go in and sure enough, the girls are sitting on the floor looking soooo guilty and Susan was standing there holding the ripped empty box that the Barbie was in. They had gotten the baby loose but couldn't get the mommy out. I somehow just knew that was what happened. I looked down at Avery and asked if she had climbed onto the bookcase and gotten down the doll. She nodded and hid her face. Stinker knew she had done something wrong. Maddie threw Avery right under the bus, she said that Avery climbed up all by herself, so that was pretty funny. The opened Barbie by the way, is the one that the American adoptive parents get in China when they pick up their new babies at the orphanages. A blonde mommy with an oriental baby. I found a pic of one:






so at least it wasn't some once in a lifetime gift representing a huge milestone in Anna's life. I swear this child is going to drive me over the edge one day!! Susan said that the box is salvageable and isn't' too upset. I would be.

At long last (at least it seems) we are finally home. I had probably one of the worst Thanksgivings that I can recall. I spent the entire day and night before throwing up, and started the actual day off still wanting to just not get out of bed. But of course Elijah set the alarm and we were up bright and early. Avery actually had already woken me up before the alarm went off. We talked about my just staying home instead of trying to make the four hour drive, but I knew Elijah wouldn't come home any earlier even if I was at home sick so I didn't really want to spend Thanksgiving and the days after home alone, so I toughed it out and grabbed a Gatorade and a pack of Saltines and we hit the road. We got to his mom's about 10 or 11 and I laid on the couch and pretty much didn't move until it was time to go to his sister's to crash. I ate one roll and a bite of mashed potatoes for my big meal! I think I am the only person to probably loose weight on Thanksgiving this year. The next morning I was some feeling better and ate a little. I was really tired but Avery wasn't much help, though. She decided that she didn't really want to sleep at her Aunt Julie's so she didn't. She just sat up all night talking. I don't understand that about her. It's like her batteries never, ever, ever run out. I wish that she got that from me. I was worn out. Elijah and Julie were going to get up around 5 to hit the Wal-Mart sale on Black Friday, but since we were all up anyway (thank you Avery) we just got dressed and all went. We got some good deals and started and almost finished all of our Christmas shopping for the kids. We spent the morning back at Julie's and headed over to his mom's for lunch because his brother Joey was coming in for lunch since he couldn't make it Thursday.

Overall it was a good trip, at least once I was able to enjoy it. Benjamin really likes being around all those boy cousins and wrestling and exploring the woods. I even found out that Elijah took the boys out into the woods and let them shoot (with much assistance, and with my full protest) a pellet gun. Benjamin didn't even get to hold it alone, he just pulled the trigger. But he had a great weekend of just being a boy. He was really disappointed when the rain came and settled in and he couldn't go out anymore. They all still had fun. Avery spent almost the entire time in her Grandma Pickren's room. This is Elijah's grandmother so it is her great-grandmother. Ever since Avery was small she has had an affection for her Grandma Pickren. I think a lot of it lies in that Grandma doesn't come out of her room and Avery can go in there and have some one's complete and total attention, and stay out of the way of all the wild boys. She climbed up in the chair with Grandma and watched cartoons and held the 8 week old puppy and napped along with Grandma. I was so sick that I only took a couple of pictures of them on the chair together and holding this tiny puppy:

Elijah's mom has started trying to give the kids all sorts of things to take home with them. It started with the blanket that Sandy started for Avery when she was born. It is a beautiful hand made pink blanket that she just finished, so I have no problem with taking that home. Benjamin saw that she got one and he asked his Granny where his was. She had never made him one so she goes to the closet and gets out a blanket that her grandmother had made. Elijah's great grandmother so Benjamin's great great grandmother. I adamantly refused to take it. I didn't want to take something precious to the family. Elijah actually says he remembers his MaMa (like our Momo!!) making this blanket. They insisted so we now have that. Grandma Pickren said that Avery 'needs' more babies so Sandy needs to get the ones from Rose (her sister) down and give them to Avery. I said she needed those like a hole in the head. They pull down these dolls, and they are a bride and groom porcelain doll set. I tried to argue out of those as well, but you can't argue with those two!! :o) The dolls are beautiful, but put away. She would break those in a heartbeat! We almost didn't have room in the car after Christmas shopping and Sandy giving us so many things.
We are home at last and trying to get back into our routine. The alarm going off this morning to get Benjamin to school on time was not welcome. I am really looking forward to Christmas break!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are just now about to hit the road to go to Elijah's moms, I spent all of yesterday throwing up so we didn't leave like we had planned. Keep us in your prayers as we travel (for safety as well as no more puking!!) and also remember my niece who is spending her holiday in the hospital.

Crime and Punishment

We aren't having a good afternoon. I have been trying to really clean the house because we are heading to Elijah's mom's for the holiday and I like things to be nice and clean when I come back home from a trip. SO this morning I headed into the hall bathroom that is really only used for potty trips and teeth brushing. All the bathing is done in my bathroom so I'm really not in this hall bath that much. Elijah brushes their teeth and Avery prefers my toilet during the day for some reason. All that being said, I haven't cleaned that hall bath in about 2 weeks. My mistake. I go in there this morning to help one of them brush and I see toilet paper all over the floor, because why in the world would you put in in the can 2 inches away?? Silly me. Anyway, I clean it up and then go get a fresh trash bag and begin to change the can. I won't get into the nasty details of how I noticed the can wasn't clean, but let's just say it was more yellow than white on the outside. I about gagged and yelled at Benjamin to come and explain it to me. We've had this fight a lot, he just doesn't pay attention to what he's doing in there. So I go and clean the trash can again and I moved on about my day. I just went in there a little while ago to clean the rest of the bathroom and decided that even though that tub isn't used for anything but storage, I should go ahead and scrub it, too. I bend down and started wiping it out when I noticed more yellow. Lots more. He has apparently been using the tub as a back up for when he's not in the mood to lift a lid. I am so mad right now. I sent him to his room until Elijah gets home. I know 'boys will be boys' and at some point haven't we all wondered things like this?? Like what would it be like to pee in a HUGE toilet? Curiosity gets the best of all of us from time to time, but hopefully a few hours in his room will make him think about it before he makes that decision again.
Now to Avery. She has been a pistol the last couple of days. It's like she's regressed to a toddler again. She dumped all the crayons, finger paints in her applesauce, strips all her clothes and runs around naked...just wild child. I let it slip that we were going to their Granny's last week, and ever since they have been going crazy!! I usually don't tell them anything we are going to do that is exciting until the day of, and this is why. Avery has been crying for her Granny for days now, and Benjamin is all ancy, too. I know this is part of the reason for the acting out, but good grief!! So I was making my bed and I hear Miss Thing jumping on hers. She knows she isn't supposed to. We talk about it all the time because she asks to all the time. I go in and pop her on the bottom for it and as expected she falls apart. She cries for a few minutes and then a minute ago she came out of her room with a baby doll and the doll was 'telling' her that she got a spanking from her teacher for jumping on her bed. Avery asked if she was okay, and the 'doll' said "yeah, she's just trying to keep me safe". That made me feel really good that they know I am really just trying to do that and I'm not spanking them out of anger or anything. It was sweet. But it's only 5:00, we have 3 more hours of wild craziness to go.

Santa Picture

Benjamin's school sent yet another flyer home a couple weeks ago saying you could bring your kids into school early and get their pictures taken with Santa if you wanted. They also allowed younger or older siblings to come along so you could use for your holiday pictures or what not. The main problem was you had to be at the school with kids picture-ready by 7:25 in the morning and that just wasn't going to happen. There is no way I was willing to get them up, showered and ready that early. I didn't send the form in, yet last week I get a proof. Had I known that they were going to take the kid's pictures regardless, I would have dressed him more appropriately. However this is what I get:

My son, looking pretty cute I say, but wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Oh well. I can't afford them anyway, but I thought I would scan the proof and show it off. Benjamin was telling me that Santa fell off his sleigh and broke his foot or ankle one so he had stay off his right leg. That would stink to be a professional Santa and not be able to sit kids on your lap!!

So just when you think life is getting back to normal...BAM!! Your kid throws up on some I-don't-know-how-expensive-rug. I feel bad for Susan, but she was really nice about it. My kids have impeccable timing. I had just sat down to try to be social since this whole outbreak began. I am a very social person, I need to get out and talk to people or I go mad. Now I don't know if we will even get to go to storytime tomorrow, which stinks. But Avery has thrown up 3 times since 11:00 and she didn't keep down the very diluted Kool-Aid I gave her. I didn't want to take her out to get Pedialyte in case she got sick again. Elijah is going to try to get home early and we can decide what to do. I also feel bad because I was supposed to go out to dinner with an old high school friend tonight, but that isn't going to happen, which is okay, she says she is in Atlanta all the time on business. The best part is, my stomach isn't feeling so great either. But that may have to do with the really unhealthy (but delicious) breakfast I ate too quickly and cleaning up someone else's puke all day. I haven't been able to eat since breakfast because Avery keeps asking to eat something and I know she won't keep it down so I'm not giving her anything. I hope we get over this soon. She woke up throwing up about 2 minutes after this was taken.

I went out with my friend Brandy to the movies last night and when we came back, Elijah was telling us how Benjamin had tried to take a running leap into the computer chair but missed and went flying underneath the chair and hit his ear and head on the side of the computer desk. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the poor guy wasn't black and blue across his face today. When he got up a while ago, this was all of the damage so far. His ear is a bit swollen and bruised, but his jaw line isn't too bad. It could have been a lot worse.

Avery finally slept through the night last night!!! I was up once, but she did great. I told Elijah that the only thing that changed was that he put her to bed so maybe he should do that every night from now on!!
We are going to try to have a nice family day with some Putt-Putt and such. Hopefully the weather holds up and we can enjoy this rare time.

I'm over it!

I was really looking forward to today. Avery is really feeling better, she only has an occasional cough and no fever. She didn't sleep great last night, she was up probably three times, but I think that it's a habit now and we are going to have a great time breaking her of it. Anyway, we were about to walk out the door to storytime...literally putting on Avery's shoes to leave and the phone rang. Benjamin's school. . Of course it was the nurse, and of course he had thrown up all over the classroom. Well, all over himself and in a trash can and some on the floor. Anyway, I had to go get him. We just got home, and he seems fine. I think it was he coughed and gagged and threw up his breakfast. He's already asking for something to eat, but I'm not giving him anything yet. I feel kind of bad for his teacher, but I'm glad I didn't have to clean it up for once. I would put money down that I'll be cleaning it up later, but at least I know it's coming. I'm disappointed that we don't get to leave the house. I have been shut in since Sunday. I put on make up and everything!! The kids keep passing the germs back and forth. I may have to dig some money up and go get some Lysol. My ear is starting to hurt, too. Hopefully I won't get this, we have poker this weekend!! I need the kids healthy!!

Oh, the sickness

Last weekend Benjamin started to get a runny nose and cough. Now with him and his allergies, if you miss even a day of his medicines he ends up with a sinus infection and if I'm not diligent, a respiratory infection that has lead to pneumonia several times. Well, being the best mom ever, I missed two days of his Zyrtec, knowing what it would do to him, but I guess hoping that it wouldn't this time. Well, he ended up with an ear infection and a sinus infection, but nothing respiratory. Now to Avery. I have already talked about how she had several croup attacks, well now she has gotten a double ear infection and some nasty kind of cold that has taken a strong grip on her little body. She is still having a really hard time breathing and sleeping. Last night was a bit better, she woke up about 3 times, but was able to get herself back to sleep twice. The one time I had to go in there was to take her to the bathroom, give her a sip of water and blow her nose. I did have to scrap the dried green goo from her eyes (enjoy that??) that had developed, but she was able to go to sleep after only 20 minutes or so. That is a huge improvement from where we were this past weekend. She is ridiculously clingy as this picture shows:

She's awake, but her eyes are just that swollen with sinus pressure. She looks a bit better today, and she is at least on the floor reading. She won't let me leave the room without her, and everything makes her cry, but hopefully we are on the upswing. I'm afraid we are going to have to miss playgroup this week. This is the highlight of the week for both of us. She gets to play and I get to talk to adults for 2 hours. Benjamin has his school Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow as well, but I think I am just going to check him out because I read the menu to him and he turned his nose up to it. We may have to try to do something fun, although I don't know what we can do. My plan today is to let Avery lay around and veg on the couch and try to get as better as we can so maybe we can do something tomorrow, but Benjamin seems to have gotten worse since yesterday than better, so this may not be good. He started to get mad at Avery this morning, saying "YOU gave this to me!" I told him she got it from him first, and he said "I don't want it back!!! YOU keep it!!"

What the???

So when did my sweet little baby turn into such a boy?? From sweet little round bald baby to lanky boy in a matter of, well, 5 years. This is the picture he drew for Elijah yesterday. .

And yes, that is him sitting on the commode with poop in it. It is disturbing, but he finds it to be the funniest thing ever.

Avery had another croup attack last night. All night. I was looking it up online and they described my night really well:

Symptoms of croup are caused by narrowed airways. They include a barking cough; a raspy, hoarse voice; and a harsh, crowing noise when breathing in. The cough is very distinctive, so you'll know it when you hear it. It is often compared to the sound of a barking seal.

We had a really, really long night to say the least. She was up about every 45 minutes with this. I got up with her all but twice when Elijah tried, but she would just scream and scream for me which makes it much worse. Last time it happened we ended up in the ER for almost 5 hours without seeing anyone. But last time it stopped around 3:00 a.m. This one held on till 6:00 or later this morning. Elijah was sweet enough to get up with her at 6:30 and let me get some rest, and now he's passed out on the couch with Avery on top of him playing baby dolls. I did find that website with good tips on what to do next time it happens. We did just about all it suggested, and considered the other options as well. That makes me feel good that we did just about everything we could have for her, and didn't have to go to the ER. She's feeling better now, her voice is still raspy and she's cranky from not sleeping, but we will probably take her to get ice cream or a milkshake soon to help her throat.

Benjamin just cracked me up. He's watching the Muppet Movie, and he was asking if the wedding at the end was real, or just part of their show. I told him that I thought it was real, or as real as it can be for a movie. He said it has to be real, because they hug and kiss and only people that are married can hug and kiss. I know he won't keep that ideology forever, but for now it's great!!!

Avery as Oscar

Avery has one of the most vivid imaginations. She is constantly pretending and saying completely off the wall stuff. She still talks about Sarah, but now it's a bit different because she had a babysitter named Sarah that she really liked and so now 'Sarah' is a real person, most of the time. The other day I was trying to sort her room out and give everything a place. I emptied out a large Rubbermaid container that had been filled with her stuffed animals and baby dolls and had just left it in her room because she asked if she could play in it. She started yelling for me to "come see, come SEE!!" and when I got back there, I couldn't see her. Then the lid pops up and she yells "I'm OSCAR!! I'm a grouch!!" She was pretending to be Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. It was pretty funny. I passed by her room later on and she was still doing it. She came out of the 'trash can' and said (not knowing I was listening, mind you) I'm SO nasty and dirty. I'm just yucky because I'm Oscar and I live in a yucky trash can. It was pretty cute. Here she is playing this game:

Benjamin got up on Saturday oozing green out of his eyes (yummy, huh?) and snotting all over the place. I finally got him into a doctor and he does have a sinus infection and an ear infection, but thank goodness we got him on antibiotics before it got into his chest and he ended up with pneumonia again. He does have a nasty cough, but it's not a respitory infection yet. I'm glad he's off of school today to give him a day to rest. All of his sinus cavities are swollen so he looks pretty bad. I may try to get a picture of it later, but it's cold out and I have a bad headache, so I'm not going to do it now!

This is how bored I am...

I'm not crafty. I don't normally do creative things that kids really get into, but the kids were asking for breakfast for dinner, and the last few days I have been so bored that I was willing to do about anything to pass the time. Well, except cleaning and doing things around the house that would be too productive anyway. So I remembered seeing in a kids magazine something about making a caterpillar banana thing with peanut butter and pretzels. I had all the ingredients, so I thought I would give it a try. I made up some oatmeal and toast and created these little creatures:

The kids loved them. It was worth the mess I made trying to get the pieces to stick together. Avery ate hers up, but Benjamin devoured the oatmeal and was too full to finish his. He did ask if I would make them again sometime, though. I am bored again, so who knows what I will try to come up with for dinner tonight. Here are the kids enjoying their dinner. I think they liked the fact they could actually play with their food!

Elijah has been doing inventory at work and has been working from about 2 a.m. till 9 or 10 p.m. He came in last night after 9:00 and sat down for a second, said he stank and went to take a bath. I found him collapsed on the bed when I went to bed myself later that night. He's tired. :o) I hope that he can take some time to recover, but I don't know how. Everyone there is working this hard I imagine. It should all end tonight at midnight.

Halloween is over!!

Thank goodness. I'm afraid that as the kids get older, it's only going to get worse. It really wasn't too bad, we never got around to carving pumpkins or toasting seeds or any traditional stuff. We did have a busy week, though. On Wednesday I hosted our weekly playgroup and the other ladies brought craft stuff for the kids to do. They each got to decorate a pumpkin and also make a little spider. The kids had lost interest by the time we got to the spiders, so all the moms just made them for the kids. I made one for Avery and also went ahead and used some the extra supplies and made one for Benjamin, too. Here is Avery with her pumpkin and also eyeballing the spider I made for her:
For actual Halloween day we started out going to downtown Newnan and doing a trick-or-treat event down there. Avery's friends Anna and Maddie were there, along with Maddie's little sister Juliette (and their mothers). It was fun, but really crowded. I got some good pictures of the girls:Halloween night we went to my friend Susan's neighborhood since she had planned on us all riding on their trailer filled with hay and going house to house on a 'hayride'. They live in a really nice upscale neighborhood where all the houses are pretty far apart. It was a lot of fun. The kids all had a blast and didn't tire out too easily. We did get a chuckle out of Susan because I had assumed they had a work truck to hitch this metal trailer to, but it turns out that they didn't...her husband just hitched it to their Lexus SUV. Too funny. For the first part of the week Avery was a princess, but wearing that dress so much (and refusing to take it off once we got home) caused it to start to fall apart. It wasn't the highest quality costume to start, so I wasn't too suprised. We got a lot of use out of it. So last night I threw together a quick cheerleader outfit of things she already had. I put her in her Buffalo Bills outfit she's had and just put her hair up in pigtails. It all worked out. And if you can't tell, Benjamin was Peter from the Narnia series.

Out of the mouths of babes....

I was just coming back from taking Benjamin to school and was backing into our driveway when Avery started asking what that white thing was. Now it's early, I've had no caffeine yet, and I did not sleep well. Avery's voice tends to take on a very annoying shrill tone when these previously mentioned factors all take place at once, so I was pretty much ignoring her. She was insistent that I tell her what "That WHITE thing is!!" So I finally look up and start naming white stuff that I see. A house. "No." The mailbox. "NO!!" Clearly, I'm the idiot here. Then she looks up and screams "It's AIRPLANE POOP!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I look up at sure enough, way far off, there is a tiny jet with a small string of white coming out from behind it. She thinks this is the funniest thing in the world, while all I can think is at least she doesn't need glasses.

Halloween Party

Avery had her Mom's Club Halloween Party this past Friday. (I'm on top of it, huh?) She, and about 10 other little 3 year old girls, dressed up like a princess. The organizers planned all sorts of games and sing alongs. Avery liked the hop-scotch set the most.

Here they all are listening to one of the mom's put on a folk-style type story time with songs and stories. It was okay. Most of the kids were already hopped up on sugar so they didn't sit very still. Avery is on the bottom left in the purple.

For all the Mom's planning though, most of the kids hid in the coat closet the entire time. Any time anyone lost sight of their child, someone would go open the closet and call out which kids were in there. Here is my child getting in on the fun:

And if it all wasn't enough, there was a pinata!! That was an adventure. Avery got to hit twice, but she didn't have the pent up aggression that some of the boys held. Still, they were only three year olds so the adults had to bust the pinata open for them.

All in all, there were crafts, games, food...a LOT for 10:00 in the morning. The kids were done after only an hour and a half. I was, too. I will also post a picture of Benjamin in his Peter costume from Narnia. He just wants the sword.

Benjamin's Reading Skills

On Mondays, the school sends home this ridiculous amount of papers with the kids. I usually go through most of it, but it's always a fund raiser for this or that, papers that he has worked on, or some other useless paper that ends up in the trash. Today when I was sorting it all out, I found his "Oral Reading Fluency" assessment. I will type out what they say about it:

"The Georgia Performance Standard for 1st grade states that students should be reading 60 words per minute with accuracy and fluency (speed) by the end of the year. Please note that DNM stands for Does Not Meet, IP stands for In Progress, MS stands for Meets Standards and E Stands for Exceeds Standards."

The teacher sent home the paragraph they had to read and she marked all of the words they missed or stalled on. They had 60 seconds to read this paragraph:

'This is a good snack. I will try just one more. 'Mom, I need just one more.' 'Here's one more for you. Then it will be time for bed.'

'I saw one more, Mom. Can I have it?' 'This is our last one. Then you'll go right to bed.' 'This is good! I want just one more thing, Mom. I want a good night kiss!'

On Benjamin's sheet, there were no errors!! He read all of it, and she wrote that he had 23 seconds to spare! I'm impressed, anyway. He is his school picture proof. I did buy some, so if anyone wants a copy, let me know. The quality isn't good, but they did it intentionally so people won't scan them and send them out and not buy them. The pics should be here in the next two weeks.

Benjamin's Face!!

It was pointed out to me that I hadn't posted a pic of Benjamin's face in a while. It isn't on purpose of course, that kid just runs away screaming whenever I pull out the camera. I told him this morning though that someone has specifically requested a picture of just him smiling sweetly and he obliged. I may scan his school picture later, but it won't look very good. They put words all over it to make sure people didn't do that instead of buying them. Avery got really jealous after I took pics of just Benjamin so I took one of both of them as well. These were taken about 10 minutes ago, right before I dropped Benjamin off at school. And yes, Avery is still in her pajamas for the ride, but so am I!!

The Teddy hit the Fan

Benjamin came up to me in tears a few minutes ago. He had apparently been throwing his favorite teddy bear, named Teddy Bear, up in the air and it got caught on the ceiling fan. Now the ceilings in this place are about 10 feet in the peak. I had been in my room finishing a great book when all this was going down. I came out to see if I could help and there were all sorts of things all over the floor that he had used to try to get the bear down. Naming a few: a stethoscope, blankets, spatulas, etc. He was rather upset:


Here is the poor little furry guy up in the air:I was finally able to get him down using a stool and a pair of kitchen tongs. Now peace is restored...for a few minutes, anyway!!

Dora Pajamas

My mom sent Avery and Benjamin some clothes. Benjamin was happy about his football boxers, but I am having a hard time describing how Avery reacted to her Dora pajamas. I think that the dogs next door heard. It was loud, it was high-pitched...it was awful. But she likes them. In her words "DORA!!!! PRINCESS DORA!!!!!" She's happy. Now we are off to the library...

Extra Pics from the farm

Benjamin picked this flower for me from the gardens with signs that said "No Picking Flowers". I swear his ability to read just comes and goes! It was a beautiful flower. I really like my camera....
This was one I just took on my own. No illeagal picking here. Just a pretty flower.
The kids being still and quiet. I had to capture it. What's funny is I found this to be the most boring part, but this is where they were the most still.

I have a busy day ahead of me, I have to get ready for a yard sale we just decided to have. I guess I should get on it. Blah.

The Princess, the Pouting and the Peas

So being a complete glutton for punishment, I decide (during the week that Elijah works 20 hours days every day) that I need to get my kids to eat their vegetables somehow. I got the cookbook from the library about how to 'sneak' or hide the veggies into food, but I thought I would try bribery first. While making dinner, I made up some pudding. I also made peas. I came and got the kids for dinner from their 'boat' in the middle of the living room, but I told them I had a deal for them. IF they could eat everything on their plate, I would give them dessert. Benjamin was all excited because we never have dessert...then he saw his plate. God forbid I ask the child to eat something green. Now I remember being exactly like him. I can remember the mere thought of eating a green bean making me physically ill. Although let it be known, I ate a Healthy Choice meal for lunch yesterday that was 60% green beans, and I ate them all. Anyway, it didn't go well. Avery just hopped up in her seat and ate the peas first and asked for pudding. She had no issues. Benjamin cried and threw a fit like I had offered him rocks with a side of mud. I told him I wasn't asking him to eat the peas, he didn't even have to try them. Our deal was for them to clear their plates and they would get dessert. He cried for quite a while:

And then he pouted some. I told him I would never put anything on his plate that he didn't like, because when I was a kid I was even more picky than he was. He tried to argue with me, but I stood my ground and Avery ended up getting a little and he wouldn't even let one pea grace his lips. We had a nice talk about making choices in life, and how sometimes to get what we want, we have to do something we don't like. It all depended on how much we wanted it. He understood and decided that pudding was not worth eating peas. He still tried to get around it, but I figured last night was as good a time as any to teach some life lessons. He was only upset for a few minutes after dinner was over, he got in the shower and was fine. He didn't even mention anything about it after that or before bed. It helped that we had a huge stack of books from the library to pick from for bedtime stories. Now I know to just hide the veggies. Here are some pics of Avery enjoying the fruits of her labor:

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday was a Mom's Club field trip to Uncle Bob's Pumpkin Patch. I got lost getting there, even using my GPS. Apparently TomTom has no idea that a certain road has never been completed. Elijah got stuck in this same spot not too long ago. It takes you right up to a fence that is up against the underpass to I-85. Once we got turned around it still took us a while to find the place. There was only a hand painted cardboard sign by the road, and it had an arrow pointing, but there were two roads to choose from. Both were gravel and looked like driveways. I was behind a minivan and I just followed them. We went around a lot of twists and turns and finally came out by some guy wearing a bright orange t-shirt that said "Uncle Bob's". We had made it! I wished several times we had met up with the others and driven in the caravan.

It really was a great farm. It reminded me somewhat of the Museum of Appalachia. They had a hayride you got onto first that took you all the way around the farm. The man even pulled right up to the fences and let the kids throw hay out of the cart to the horses. He did this twice, so both sides could have a turn.

The girls loved it, but Benjamin seemed to get more out of the whole day. (We were with my friends Susan and Malinda, and their daughter's Anna and Maddie). After the very bumpy, muddy hayride, we were sent to a variety of stops, starting with a beekeeper who explained to the kids (all 3 year olds, only Benjamin and the mom's got anything out of it) all about how bees make honey and about the queen, etc. Then the kids got to watch a movie on bats and then we were sent on a nature hike. It wasn't a bad walk at all, I just felt for the moms that had strollers and babies. Malinda said it wasn't too bad, but her baby was being carried by someone else so she didn't have to worry about shaking the stroller. Anna, Avery and Benjamin took it more as a 'nature run' so Susan and I had a fun time keeping up with them. They were supposed to have these sheets with different trees on them to label, but again, 3 year olds have no interest. They just wanted to see how fast they could get through it.

After the hike, they gathered the kids for a story. It was okay. The storyteller was all of 15 years old and tried to read a pretty hard book to the kids. It had a lot of motions and such for them to do at certain points, and again, the moms and Benjamin got it.

After this they got to go to the chicken coop and learn about how the chickens lay eggs and how long it takes for the egg to become a chick. Benjamin stayed in there with the lady explaining things for over 10 minutes, all the 3 year olds just ran around the fence listening to the rooster crow. I wouldn't go into the coop, it was all of 4x3 and I wasn't about to go in. Benjamin would go in for a while, run out, tell us some interesting fact and then run back it. It was funny to watch. I really am glad he got to go because school was out for the day. Right next to the coop was the petting zoo. I wasn't going to go in, but it was small and pretty clean so I decided to head on in and make sure the kids didn't throw poo at one another or anything. The only thing worth mentioning about that place was this tiny baby goat that was actually cute! He would stand in the water dish and wait for kids to come pet him. If none did, then he would walk up to the adults and lightly tap your leg with his head. He was cute. We only stayed a few minutes, the smell was more than any of us could handle.

Then we went to watch a lady take a variety of things and show us how they could be woven into yarn or string or whatever to make clothes. She had sheep shearings, corn husks, soy products...a ton of different things. But at this point, the kids lost interest. There was another display to go to after that, but the girls were done. Benjamin enjoyed it, the lady was showing them how they used to husk corn with this old metal contraption, but Anna and Avery took off after the pumpkins. After that we all sat down and had a picnic. It was a really fun day. I am running out of time, so I may post more pictures of our day later.