Fun at the Park

We should have taken pictures yesterday since we got out to play and the weather was so AWESOME! They're calling for a wintery mix on Saturday. What's that all about? Here are a few images from one of our recent visits to a favorite park.

Bikes!

Both kids got bikes for Christmas--Santa brought Breck a great orange bike that matches his dragon helmet and My Carolyn and Papa John got Meric a Big Wheel. To say they love their bikes is an understatement. Over the break we have gone on at least one bike ride each day and sometimes two. It's pretty cute!

No Nap for Meric

National Boards are getting the best of me right now. It doesn't help that it is requiring 2 hours of my time each night to get Meric to bed...well, not to bed, but asleep. In an effort to recover National Board working time and not to lose it on a 2 year old, I've decided to alter my schedule to accommodate us both. If I'll just go ahead and go to bed when Meric does, then I won't be angry with her for preventing me from getting my work done. Plus, I'll have gone to bed early enough that I can get up at 4:00am and work for a couple of hours before kicking in gear to go to work.

I tried it this morning and it went just fine. I drank a pot of coffee and reread the standards (about 70 pages) for Entry 3. The kids were on the perfect schedule to get their naps on time and I was planning to work again through nap time. That was, until Meric entered the office, dropped a lap board from the chair onto my open laptop and busted the keys off.

Bridget the Awesome Great was calm and collected and continued to remind me, as I freaked out and cried, that I do have options. We have our desktop computer and I haven't lost any of my work. As the kids crawled into beds for nap, I got ready to work again...only no nap for Meric. What is up with this kid not sleeping? Is it developmental or is it intentional to drive me crazy!?

"No"hawk

So we get the Parents of the Year award because when our 4 year old decided he needed a mohawk, we said, "Go for it." Did either of us really want him to have a mohawk? No. Was it worth the battle? No. It was fun for the one day that he liked it but I think he grew weary of the attention. After that he just wanted to wear it down. That means he looks like he's got a 1989 mudflap. Nicccce. And we can't get back into the beauty shop to get the rest of his hair cut until....you guessed it....after Christmas. It's all good and truly it's not THAT bad. So he "won" and now he's over it...so WE won. Like I said, Parents of the Year!

Why is the rum always gone?

This weekend was AWESOME at the cabin. We traveled to my old stomping grounds for some relaxation with our bestest buds, the Joheims. And while they truly are our friends and not our relatives, Breck thinks Sydney is his cousin. Go figure.

Those two roamed around and explored everywhere their hearts took them. When Sydney showed back up at the cabin with an actual deer leg my first response was, "Where are your mothers?!" I'm know Breck was a little jealous but that subsided very quickly when he found a "coon" tail...really it was a squirrel tail. Oh yeah, good times! Syd was so funny about the doggone deer leg.

Breck: "You should give that back to the deer because you know it hurts to not have your leg."
Syd: "Breck, the deer is dead, he doesn't need this leg anymore."

We had lots of alcohol and Breck was thrilled to see that we (just the adults, no kids) were drinking Captain Jack Sparrow's favorite, rum. He loves the line in the movie, "Why is the rum always gone?" And then Jack stands up, swerves and says, "Oh, that's why."

When I felt hung over this morning and Jess had a belly ache and Bridget discovered that there was hardly a shot left in the bottle, well...oh, that's why.

A lot of great pictures were taken, just not by us. You'll have to check out the pics from the real photographer: Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Halloween

We celebrate Hallween 365 days a year...well, maybe 364. Christmas morning gives us a break from Hallween, but the next day we're back at it. Hallween is Breck's all time favorite time of the year, so we have Hallween stuff going all the time. Usually it's just costumes. Breck does, however, discuss with one of us EVERY DAY what he's going to be for Hallween and we still never know what he'll be until he's actually in the costume. His mind changes every day. Here are some great pics from previous days and the actual day. We had a LOT of fun with the Joheims trick-or-treating around their neighborhood and then hanging out around the fire pit while our children became comotose on candy. Good times. Enjoy the pictures:

Wish I Had Something to Do

We've been so super swamped with my National Boards, and B's PhD prgram, and kids that we seriously don't know if we're coming or going most of the time. Everything seems nonstop these days. Here's a snapshot from yesterday, the day after Halloween. We were in the car on going to pick up my car from the shop. In the span of one week we have spent $1000 on general car upkeep for two cars (break pads, oil changes, realignment, new shocks and struts, etc.). Meric has worn her Hallween costume as clothing for two days straight. There's something in the kitchen that stinks. It's either trash that needs to be taken out or it's dirty laundry waiting its turn to be washed. Breck hasn't bathed in three days and Meric has a chunk of candy in the back of her hair. There are dishes in the sink needing to be washed and everything in the house in a nasty mess. No one has eaten a truly healthy meal in days. B says I'm overexaggerating, but her threshhold for messineness is much stronger than mine. Breck didn't take a nap yesterday, which isn't a general problem. He ended up falling asleep in the car and went to bed for the night at about 5:30. Meric was in a pleasant mood and just chilled out watching television. We all got something to eat, the dishes got washed, the laundry got started, the trash taken out, Halloween decorations started to come down, the house got in better state. Meric ate Mac and Cheese and then retired to the play room while B and I, get this, actually watched television! Our new season of The L Word came in the mail and we actually got to watch it. All is good now. Messy house and all.