On Prayer

We went to a party tonight and I took some apple cobbler as my meager contribution -- which just happens to be my kids favorite. Evan played so hard and so long that by the end of the night, he still hadn't had any cobbler. When we got home, he asked if he could have some before bed and I said no, since it was 9:30 and I needed a break, I mean, he needed his rest. Of course, Evan started to throw a fit, so I suggested it might make a good breakfast. No worse than a donut, right? He seemed pleased with that idea... eager, even. When he said family prayer tonight he made sure to include, "And please help us to remember that we can have cobbler for breakfast tomorrow. Amen."

Faith

Evan came running home from his friends house this morning to find his Webkins elephant, meas it was essential to some game he and Lucas were playing. It was also essential to find it quickly and get back to Lucas' house, as time for kindergarten was drawing very near.

I tried to help him, as best I could, though I had just gotten out of the shower and looked in a place or two in between stages of getting put together. I was looking around in my room between getting dressed and putting on makeup and I heard Evan should, "YES!" from the playroom. "Did you find it?" I called. "No," he replied, "but I know what to do!" Thinking he'd thought of some brilliant place to look, I walked out to the playroom and found him kneeling in the middle of the room, arms folded and head bowed, praying for help to find his missing Webkin. Not wanting to disturb him, I headed into Dani's room for a look around and he opened one eye and said to me, "This is the right thing to do, right, Mom?" "Yep," I replied, suddenly deciding that rather than telling him he was going to have to forget about it and go play without it, I would now HAVE to make sure he found it! The contrast in the placement of our faith was obvious less than 2 minutes later, when he went right to the location of the webkins pulled it out. "I KNEW it would work!" he shouted and took off for Lucas' house.

And now that I think about it, I seem to remember Heavenly Father being especially good with lost library books back in my own childhood.......

Party Day!

Jason has lots of vacation days left this year, so he has decided to take the day off whenever the kids don't have school. Our first family holiday was Columbus Day and we took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The kids thought the whole place was completely awesome. We did everything from have cow milking contests, to riding airplanes to splashing in water and driving combines. They can't wait to go back



Dani milking a cow

I was amazed at how big all the farm equipment was. Brendan is sitting in the wheel of a tractor -- and this was the SMALLEST of the farming vehicles there!

Evan might have been in trouble playing in this jet turbine if he'd been a superhero wearing a cape, but luckily, we have watched The Incredibles 4387 times and so we know all about the dangers of combining capes and flying...

For some reason this was Dani and Evan's favorite thing. Everywhere we went in the museum, they wanted to go back to the trolley. We returned to the exhibit after we'd seen everyting else and probably spend 30-45 minutes playing on it. The kids were trolley attendants and I was the customer and they brought me drinks and snacks until the place closed and they kicked us out!

On the way home, we stopped at IHOP for dinner and then, on a whim, passed a pumpkin farm and stopped to pick pumpkins.

After forking over $42 for 4 pumpkins (choke, gag, gasp, screech -- sorry, I still can't believe we spent that much on PUMPKINS). We went home and the kids declared it a successful day and want to bring anyone who comes to visit us to the Museum. Any takers?

Happy Halloween

We survived the day. I got party prep and costume finalization done last night, survived supervising a fifth grade Halloween party without looking like too much of an idiot, got pumpkins carved, handed out candy to a few hundred kids and even fed my family a healthy dinner -- well, healthier than bags full of candy, anyway.


Em just HAD to be a pumpkin this year. Did you know that they don't make pumpkin costumes for 9 year olds? So I had to use my very limited sewing skills to fashion one out of a huge t-shirt and a bag of batting. Its a little frumpy, but she loved it.

Dani really wanted to be Indiana Jones, but I wasn't too hot on the idea spending a zillion dollars on costumes this year and was trying to encourage the kids to come up with more creative, and inexpensive ideas. While walking through Party City, Dani glimpsed someone walking by with a handful of medals and suddenly, she wanted to be an Olympic Athlete. I loved -- we spend absolutely NO money on her costume!!!EEvan, for some reason really wanted to be a knight. His was the only costume I had to give in and buy.
Brendan wore a different outfit every time he got to dress up. For trick or treating, he selected a Power Ranger costume from the stash of superhero costumes we have, which made me happy because it hadn't been used very much up to this point and its one of the nicer dress ups we have

The kids stayed out trick or treating far longer than usual. Jason says that Emily and Brendan were the trailblazers, wanting to go on and on, while Dani and Evan skipped lots of houses and wanted to go home. At least it was a beautiful warm night, so that bitter cold didn't add to the conflict!

Some stories for Lani

I received a scolding email from my baby sister becuase I am not keeping the blog up to date. Admittedly, I'm a bit behind, but here are a couple of jewels that I heard today

We are driving in the car with the boys.... (for those who are unfamiliar with our midwest institutions, Menards is a home improvement store -- a la Home Depot, and Cicis is a pizza buffet).
Evan: (singing) Save big money.... save big money....when you shop Menards! Save big money, save big money, when you shop Menards! Save big money.... Save big money....
Me: Evan, you are a NUT!
Evan: What!?!?! I found this paper from Cicis!
Me: confused But.... you're singing the Menards song!
Evan: Cause Cicis doesn't have a song!


and later, driving to another destination
Evan: Mom, can we go to the store and buy a webkins today? I'll use my own money.
Me: Are you sure you want to do that? I thought you were saving up for a Batman Lego game.
Evan: No, I said webkins. WEBKINS. You know... webkins... batman... they rhyme, so you were probably confused.
Brendan: Mom, now you say, 'Ooooh."


And tonight, I was sitting on the couch with Brendan on my lap, watchin' a little Kim Possible together and Brendan twisted around to face me, put a hand on my cheek, looked lovingly into my eyes and said, "Mom, I like you."

Oh they have been in rare form today!

An excerpt

Evan: Mom -- I know what happens when you stretch your hands.
Me: Oh? What?
Evan: Your arms grow.
Dani: EVAN! In second grade you have to make your BRAIN grow! Its prrreeettty hard! You havve to write FIVE sentences!

First day

There were some concerns about a repeat of last years tornado warnings, but we survived the first day of school with no major mishaps. Dani has Emily's old 2nd grade teacher and Evan has Dani's old Kindergarten teacher, so we are all very comfortable and happy about the prospect of a new school year. Em's 5th grade teacher is new to us, but so far Emily loves her. Its crazy to have 3 of them officially in school now -- it doesn't seem liek that long ago that we took Emily for her first day of kindergarten. Just 3 more years and then Brendan will be in school too and then I'll officially be OLD!

Time for a change

This week I deciced it was time for something different. I haven't had my hair cut in over 2 years and it had gotten so long that it was kind of a pain to take care of, so what's a girl to do? Hack it! The stylist took off about 4 inches, so its still kinda long. I'm still getting used to it, but I think I'm going to like it!