Overheard at our house...

Typically...these posts are reserved for things my kids say...

Tonight....it's about the things Dan says.

I wish most of you could see the "real" Dan. He is a complete goof, but I'm pretty sure he reserves his goofiness for late at night and ONLY around us.

I think Dan has a great voice and wish he would sing more. BUT, he is convinced he can't sing. The kids have even asked me "Why doesn't Dad sing at church?" yeah...we're workin' on that one...

Anyway, at home, in his "goofy" mood...he is often singing. His own songs. Familiar songs....but with a twist.

So tonight, the christmas song "Oh Christmas Tree" must have been stuck on replay in his head, because he kept singing it. At least, that opening line, but not with the those words.

I can't remember all of the different versions, but here are the two I remembered to jot down...

"Oh Stinky Feet! Oh Stinky Feet!"

and

"Oh Smelly Fish! Oh, smelly Fish!"....at which point I bust up laughing. I would love to see/hear what goes on in that head of his to randomly produce these sayings. He was a little upset that I messed up his song. Apparently, this verse was going to be a good one. :)

Psssssttt! Moms! Over here!

Okay, moms...

Just wanted to give you an idea for Christmas gifts.  (Just in time for Black friday...if you're crazy enough to go shopping...)

I am always overwhelmed with all the games, toys and activities being marketed right now. I've eyed these two games in particular for a while, and now, after purchasing them, highly recommend them!

We recently got these games for Michael's birthday and a Daughter-date and L.O.V.E. them!!!

This one is called scaterpilar scramble. (ages 4+) The object of the game is to place your colored marbles on the caterpillar's hands while he wiggles around to music. It's very tricky, and quite hillarious, to watch your kids focus on this wiggly insect. GREAT for fine motor skills. Dan and I have fun playing it too!

(I got mine for $14 at Toys R Us during a sale, but you might even be able to do better than that. I think regularly, it's $20)

This game, by Wild Planet, called Hyper Dash, is awesome as well! It has multiple levels, options for teams or solo, and two different ways to play.

There is a computer in the stick that calls out colors, numbers, and even math problems. You have to tag the disk with the stick to move on. You can place the disk wherever you want, and it becomes a physical activity as well, as you race to get to the next disk.

 I love this game, because it can be simple enough for Michael to play (color and number recognition) but also challenging for us adults (mainly the physicality of it), and a challenge for Chelsea. The higher levels also have you "reverse" so you have to remember where you just were, and it also asks you to double or triple strike a disk.

Another game is for memory sequence. The computer will call out an order of colors and numbers (depending on which level you choose) adding on as you get each sequence right. I've only gotten up to 9.

There are options to play by yourself, against up to 4 other players, as a team, or against another team.

Whenever we have little friends, over, these are the games that are most popular.

How old am I now, mom?

This is the question I have been getting from Michael, a lot, lately. He can now put up another finger to show off his maturing age.

Happy 4th Birthday Michael!!!

His celebration started off on Thursday, at preschool, where he received a birthday hat, coloring book, and was given a rice-krispy treat. They stuck a candle in it and let him blow it out after they sang to him.

The morning of, he was so excited. We've started a new tradition at our house (so new that we've only done it twice...) where you have to run and break through the streamers to make your new age official. 

We made him wait all day long, until Dan got home from work, to open his presents. Oh, AND he had to eat his dinner. AND wait until the kitchen was clean. AND the living room was cleaned.

BUT, he finally got to open them! He got some games, a spiderman on a 4-wheeler,  and these cool binoculars.

And of course there was the birthday cake...

er, I mean,  cupcakes....

....4 teeny TINY cupcakes...

He didn't care. After all, it's all about puttin' out the flamin' fire!

Oh, don't worry. He got his real cupcakes at his party the next day, but we'll get to that in a little while...

I  think I have a party-disorder. I go a little crazy and get a little too excited about birthdays. Oh well. It will be all too soon when they just want to order pizza and hang out with their teenage-buddies and the cutesy parties will be all over with.

The party had a "space" theme.

My crazy-talented little sister made these adorable invitations for his friends.

The written invitation folds up and inserts in a pocket on the back of the rocket. SO cute!

Thanks fri..., er...bud. :0

I tried to plan things out carefully, preparing things a little at a time throughout the week. For instance, Michael helped me make the moon rocks: We took some mini plastic aliens from oriental trading, covered them with a baking soda paste and baked them at 200 for 20 minutes, then wrapped them up with tin-foil.

When our guests first arrived, we started by decorating our own planets.

Then we went to the living room to go to astronaut school, where we learned a little about space, watched a you-tube video of a rocket launching, and made our own orbiting solar system.

Finally, the kids were ready to graduate and get become astronauts. I had fun making these backpacks from cereal boxes and and water bottles during the week...nevermind I can't spell my own child's name...

Now we needed to get into our rocket, so we played pin-the-Michaelnaut-on-the-rocket.

Now we were ready to launch. I got some blow up rockets from oriental trading, and we had the kids practice "flying" their rockets around various obstacles.

Then we were able to go into outerspace. Our laundry room is off to the left of this picture. We put up glow-in-the-dark stars and planets in the laundry room and turned off the lights to make it look like space. The kids really loved it and kept running back into "space" during the party...even when it wasn't time... :)

When we landed on the moon, we needed to gather moon rocks for our laboratory.  I placed our previously made moon rocks in this pile of balloons. (The original idea was to have the room filled with balloons, but I grossly underestimated the number of balloons it would take. Dan rigged this cage for me with none-other but dental floss and sport cones. :)

I don't have a picture of the "laboratory" as it got a little crazy at this point. We gave each kid a clear drinking cup with a solution of vinegar and water. They unwrapped the foil and dropped in their moon rock. After the fizz had gone down, it revealed their alien toy. I thought I had made a good ratio of water and vinegar to just let the fizz rise to the top of the cups, but I should have done a few more tests. The fizz overflowed the cups, and the plates that the cups were on, and made a HUGE mess.

(Note for next time: Just experiment on one rock at a time, together, as a group, in ONE large cup. )

Our last task was to destroy an asteroid that was about to hit planet Earth. Again, no pictures. I had a giant tinfoil ball with layers of tinfoil, pop-rocks candy, and colored tissue paper. We passed around the ball until the music stopped. Then whoever had the ball, unwrapped a "layer" to get to their prize. We did this until everyone had a turn and the asteroid was destroyed.

Finally, it was time for cake and ice-cream. yeah...these cupcakes looked a lot better in my head then in reality. But, I was pleased when the 4-yr olds said "Hey! Those look like Earths!"

Sweet. Mission accomplished!

Yes, it was a ridiculous amount of work. Yes, I had an extreme headache by the end.  Yes, I did fall asleep while watching Michael and Chelsea at the play place of McDonald's when we went there for dinner a few hours after the party. Yes, I did go to bed at 6:30 PM with my house trashed from the party. (My awesome hubby had most of it cleaned when I woke up to feed Brinly around 9...)

But...

 who wouldn't do such a thing for this sweet now-four-year old?

Happy Birthday "boy"! We love you!!!

P.S. Congrats! You made it to the end of this ridiculously LONG post! 

Halloween...

I am so horribly behind. Not sure if I'll catch up, but here are at least some pictures from our Halloween...

For Halloween, we got to have an extra special treat! Our friends, the McAllister's, moved out here, from Portland! We got to play with their kids while they unpacked, and then we all went Trick or Treating together. This was the best shot we could get of our group! They were a little anxious to get going...

But of course, I had to make my kids wait and take some more pictures.

Michael actually wanted to be the big robot ball that Incrediboy creates from the Incredibles, but that was  a little too far from my creative abilities, so he opted to be the Black Spiderman instead. He got lots of use out of his costume this year with a costume Birthday party, the ward Trunk or Treat, a Preschool Halloween party, and then of course just wearing it in the house every day. He gets completely into character when it is on, and can shoot webs like a pro!

Chelsea wanted to be a witch this year. Not a cute-sy witch, but a scary one. Specifically, one with a black hat, black dress, and green face. She wore the wig for the trunk or treat, but wanted to leave it at home for the "real" night. Despite what she thinks, I think she'll be a cute witch no matter how hard she tries to look scary.

We didn't take Brinly out. I did buy her a cute Halloween outfit, but knew she would prefer to sleep instead of stay up late getting her cheeks pinched. The top picture shows her comfort position. She likes to lay on her stomach, suck her left thumb, and scratch her head with her right. It makes me laugh every time...which is a lot!

Dan and I switched places a couple of times during the night. One would go out with the kids, the other would stay with Brinly and work on church stuff for the next day (He's the executive Secretary and I'm Primary Chorister). Michael got tired early, so he came back and went to bed. Chelsea continued (running) on and got quite a bit of goods. She was even willing to share with Brinly!

I think Chelsea has inspired Michael's costume for next year. "Witch Jordan"

I've always wanted to score on the after-holiday sales, but never have. This year I finally did! Don't laugh, but I even have the candy for next year! (It's skittles...and expires January 2011...and is packed under ALL the decorations, so hopefully it will last!) This was supposed to cost me $130, but I got all of it for $29! SCORE! I even grabbed the same outfit Brinly wore, in 18 month size.

Pumpkin patch

The weather was awesome the day we decided to go to one of the two local pumpkin patches. It was a little pricey, but there was quite a bit to do...

climb a hay pyramid...

 ....Go up and down, and up and down a big slide....

( You can see how crowded it was, and at one point, we couldn't find Michael. A few minutes later, we seem him hop off the slide to run to the other side, HOLDING THE HAND of a girl who was at least 14. I have no idea who she was, but she became his instant best friend. I tried to get a picture, but was too slow.)

...get lost in a corn maze... Twice. Seriously lost. The first time we got out by re-tracing our steps out the entrance. The second time we had to get help by the "workers" who had to lead us out. 

We had to redeem our ego's by going through the hay-bail maze a few times. (Dan's in the lower left of the maze with Brinly...)

But this maze was too easy...so we played hide-and-seek instead....

There were animals  to see..

Silly faces to make....

Hay rides to go on...

(Look at me! I actually made it into a picture!)

And prize pumpkins to find.

And before we could leave, we had to on a "tractor" ride. Michael had been begging us to go on this since we arrived, so we finally bought tickets. When it came to get in their carts, he was chickening out. I  tried to convince him to go on it, but he just clung tighter to me and almost started to cry. Dan got him, whispered something to him, and the next thing I knew...he was in the cart and waving! Of course, I had to ask Dan what he told him. Apparently, Michael had to sit down, smile and wave, if he wanted to keep his pumpkin. There ya have it folks, the Perry Parenting Technique!

We had so much fun, that we were plum, tuckered-out by the end!

Brinly keeps us on our toes!

And, as if the toes weren't enough, she has to naw on the arch of her foot. It makes the kids laugh, but I just squirm in pain. (I stuggle to even get close to my toes)

My body hurts whenever I see Brinly do this.

On a more "comforting" note, I finally finished Brinly's "fuzzy" blanket. This is the term that my kids have given their blankets that have yarn tassles on them. Michael likes to twist the yarn in his fingers as he goes to sleep. I made Brinly's out of remnant fabric from pajamas the Perry's made for Christmas one year. It feels so good to have it done now!

I think Brinly likes it too! (phew!) the back is made from the super soft Minky fabric. Right before I took this picture she was sprawled out, like she had never felt something so soft. But when Michael saw me with the camera, he wanted in on the action, and dusturbed her peace. I had to wait for her to lay down again to get this picture....