Slices of Life With Kids

Kids do not seem to support Darwin's theory about survival of the fittest. If I had a nickel for every time I have saved my kids lives over the past 6 and a half years, I would be rich. They put small, shiney objects into thier mouths (Have you ever seen what a penny looks like in the x- ray of a 4 year old's abdomen? I have.) , they attempt to eat "treasures" out of the cat's litter box when you are not looking, and they dart out in front of moving vehicles if given half a chance. Last week, as we were getting ready to go to the park, the kids and I were in the carport and Will was bouncing a ball. I heard a car start up, my mommy radar kicked into gear and I said, "Will, please put the ball in the car and get in and buckle up. If that ball goes out into the street and you run after it, a car might hit you." Of course being 6 years old and *much* smarter than me, he decided to ignore me. Not even a second later, the ball goes into the middle of the parkway and he takes off running after it. I grab him by the hood of his sweatshirt, dropping and breaking my favorite water bottle in the process. I suppose my firstborn is worth more than a water bottle, even if it was my favorite one, and even if he doesn't listen to me.

Ben is very busy planning his 5th birthday party. According to his preschool teacher, who has been priveledged enough to receive an invite from Ben, it is sounding like the event of the year. He says he is having this party at Pump it Up, one of those inflatable fun house places where kids can jump to thier hearts content on these huge inflatable bouncy houses and slide down slides that are at least 2 stories high. So I guess this means Brian and I better make good on this party since he has already invited about 15 4 and 5 year olds. While he is at it, he is also planning his 6th, 7th, and 8th birthday parties, right down to the theme and contents of the goody bags. Oh boy. He asked if we could make his birthday cake today and when I told him that it was actually mommy's birthday tomorrow, so we should probably make my cake instead since he has another month until his party, he asked me how old I was going to be. When I told him that I was going to be 30, he said, "Wow, mommy. You are going to be OLD".

Our December Activities

We've been really busy with the boys activities this season. Will made Christmas cards to send to the troops overseas with his Boy Scout pack earlier this month. I don't know what he enjoyed more- making the cards or fishing in the backyard of the person's house where we made the cards.

We also attended the Holiday Tea at Ben's preschool, where tea is not actually served, lol. Plenty of cookies, brownies, and cakes though! He was so excited to give his teachers thier gifts:).

Last weekend we went to Heritage Hill, this little historical area right up the street from here, with the boy scouts. They decorate for Christmas and give candlelight tours. We walked through 100 year old houses, an old one room school house, and a chapel. There was storytelling in the school house and singing in the chapel. I'd like to make it a tradition and go every year. At the end of it we got hot cocoa and cookies and saw santa. Will is the only one who isn't afraid of Santa, so he's the only one in the picture. Ben keeps trying to pscych himself up for the big event, but so far he is 0 for 2 on the Santa thing, since he would not sit on his lap at daddy's work party either. We will see how he does at the Christmas party tonight.

Brian just got his MCSE (Microsoft Certified Engineer) yesterday. He attended a bootcamp all week long from 7am-10pm so I was on my own with the boys for most of the week. He was able to get away long enough to accompany us to the Wonderware family holiday party, which the kids were really happy about. Santa was there, I helped the boys with craft projects and we all ate pizza and goodies.

I have been doing lots of baking this week. Peanut butter blossoms, Magical mint kiss cookies, fudge, peppermint bark, and oreo truffles, and then we will be doing our lemon sugar cookies cut out into Christmas shapes next week. These are the cookies I grew up making with my mom and we have continued the tradition of leaving them out for Santa on Christmas Eve, of course. We also built a gingerbread train with the boys yesterday.

Later on today is our annual family Christmas party with Brian's side of the family. The kids are really looking forward to that! Santa (or daddy, as he is known around here ;) ) will be at this party too. I am curious as to whether the kids will know who he is. The kids will also be doing various craft projects and just having lots of fun running around playing together.

The boys are so excited about Christmas. They have a chain that counts down the days until Christmas so they tell me every day how many days are left. My mom and Kevin are coming for Christmas so that should be fun. I think we will go look at lights on Christmas Eve. We did that last year and then went out and had Chinese food and it was a lot of fun. There is a house somewhere around here that goes all out with the decorating. They even have a Santa coming out of their chimney when you press a button.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving at Grandma's

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of lots of good food, good friends, and good family! We sure did! We drove out to Grandma Zukie's house on Weds. night so that Brian could get the brine ready for his smoked turkey. He started smoking the turkey last Thanksgiving and wanted to keep that tradition going. Aunt Laura and I took the kids to the park on Thursday while everyone was cooking, just to get thier wiggles out. We all made a bunch of side dishes to go along with daddy's turkey and just ate ourselves silly. We had turkey, roast beef, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, maple glazed carrots, creamed spinich, sauteed green beans, cranberry sauce, cornbread pudding, sweet potato balls, rolls, and salad with pumpkin pie, creme brulee, and gingerbread trifle for dessert. YUM!

The kids got to sit at the kids table, as per their request, and we all sat at the new HUGE table that Uncle Jon finished as a gift to Grandma Zukie for her birthday. I think we got 14 people around that table!

It's that time of year again!

Time to start thinking about Christmas! This time of year is so much more magical when you have kids. The boys ask every day when it's going to be Christmas. We'll have to make one of those chains for them to count down starting December 1st. We also picked up some chocolate Advent calanders the last time we were at Trader Joes. We have made it a family tradition to go out looking at lights on Christmas eve. Last year we drove to a house nearby that had thier whole yard covered in decorations, including one of those huge inflatable snow globes with "snow" blowing around inside of it, and a Santa coming out of their chimney that you can actually control by pressing a button out front. The kids got such a kick out of it that they didn't want to leave. The promise of Santa always gets them to bed on time though.

The night before last we took pictures of the boys, which we are going to use in our Christmas card this year. Uncle Jon shared with us the idea of taking a picture of them while they were sleeping, so we attempted it and are very pleased with the results. Staging this took quite a bit of planning on our part. We dressed them in thier matching Christmas jammies, put them to bed as we usually do, then waited for them to fall asleep. I then draped thier sheet over our queen sized bed, brought thier pillows in, then we carried them into our room. Brian took the picture standing on the bed and covered the flash with a white piece of paper. We thought we were pretty artsy, LOL. We hope you enjoy!

I have to brag on Will!

Hey, if you can't brag about your kid on your own blog, then where else can you?;-) I just have to take a minute to sing Will's praises. I had his parent/teacher conference this morning and Will is doing so well in school. She said that he is always raising his hand, ready with the answer when she wants to call on someone and he is eager to take his turn to read when they do reading groups. He has passed the tests so far for all of his sight words, he is good at sounding words out, and he is on the 5's in thier timed math tests, the highest they have gone so far. He has not had to take any tests over again and has no problem finishing in the amount of time allotted.

I'm so pleased that he's doing so well and that the teacher seems to like his personality as well. She's very sweet and patient. Today Will wanted to make an art project at home to give to his teacher, so I get the feeling he likes her too:-).

Happy Birthday Little Guy!

Our baby is two today! I remember every detail of the day he was born so clearly that it seems like yesterday. He was so tiny and so perfect. It's so bittersweet watching my last baby grow up so quickly, but we are also thrilled to finally be getting some sleep! If anyone ever tells you that babies sleep through the night at 3 months, don't believe them!

We celebrated on Sat. with Brian's family. Everyone came out and spent the night. It was a full house, but lots of fun. The kids had a blast playing with thier cousins. Sam was also really excited over his gifts and cake. He kept taking the little Telletubbie figures off of his cake, and then putting them back on again. It was hard for him to get through the stack of presents because he wanted to stop and play with each one. He was so cute, enjoying his new toys.

This Thursday my mom is flying out from Vegas and we'll do a little encore party on Sat. and my dad will come over too. We aren't having cake tonight, as we feel that THREE parties would be overkill. Sammy doesn't really know that his real birthday is today anyway.

We are just spending a quiet evening at home tonight and I'm going to make ravioli with pesto and chicken. It is finally cold and rainy, which I LOVE. Will came home from school with very muddy shoes today, which are in the washing machine as we speak. I think I'll send him in rainboots tomorrow, that way I can just hose them off.

The first parent/teacher conference at Will's school is tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. He seems to be doing very well in first grade so far. He has gotton A's on all of his spelling tests, his reading is really taking off, and he's doing well in math too.

Trick or Treat preview!

Just a little Halloween preview of the kids in thier costumes. They just *had* to try them on as soon as they got here so I took pictures just in case I didn't get any good ones on Halloween. I am going to atempt to get a good one of the three of them together on Halloween too. We have decided that even though we'll only have 5 days to enjoy the decorations, we kind of owe it to the kids to make the last ditch effort to decorate a little. So we're going to get the box of decorations out this evening when Brian gets home from work. We'll definatly do better at Christmas!

Will is a Clone Trooper, Ben is Obi Wan Kenobi, and Sam is Yoda.

Our scout

Will is now an official cub scout with the full uniform and everything. A couple of weeks ago he participated in the raingutter regata, where they raced little wooden sailboats at the park. Will's had a spiderman theme. Daddy was quite proud of the way his (um, I mean Will's) boat turned out. Then on Monday we all went to the new firestation here in Lake Forest and were given the grand tour by one of the firefighters there. He is now collecting canned goods for Second Harvest, a local charity that helps to feed the hungry around Orange County. So far scouts has been very good for him and he is enjoying it. Thanks so much to everyone who supported his pack by buying popcorn!

Jogathon pictures!

Thanks to everyone who supported Will in his Jogathon! He jogged last Friday morning. Brian and I were both there along with his brothers, to cheer him on and pass out water. They also had a dj encouraging the kids and playing upbeat music. The kids had a great time, got some excersize, and enjoyed the popsicles after it was over!

Pumpkin patch and painting pictures

Our trip to the pumpkin patch!

It's that time of year again. We are all still wearing shorts and t-shirts, but Halloween is fast approaching! The boys are doing the countdown and they tell me we have only 5 days left until the big day. I don't know if it's the candy or the costumes, but the kids just LOVE Halloween. Last Friday we went to Tanaka Farms with MOMS Club. It is a small organic farm in Irvine where they have a tractor ride, petting zoo, hay bale maze, vegetable picking, and of course, pumpkin picking. The kids had a great time petting the animals, jumping on the hay, and picking thier very own pumpkins. Then on Monday, our MOMS Club got together at the park to paint the pumpkins. Even Sam got in on the action.

We have still not managed to drag our Halloween decorations out of storage so I don't know if we will get to that this year. Fortunatly the boys haven't really mentioned it. We are planning on going trick or treating with a friend of Will's from school in his neighborhood, so we won't be home anyway. We are also going to a little Halloween party in the park this Saturday also with MOMS Club. There will be trick or treat stations there as well, so of course- more candy!!

Well, he's an official two year old now...

almost. He will actually be two on Nov. 14, but he has been acting very "twoish" lately. He has even thrown a full fledged temper tantrum, lying on the ground, fists pounding. I have to keep myself from laughing.

His new shtick at the grocery store is this: We get out of the car and he starts pointing and making that "ah, ah, ah" noise until we get to the front. He sees the car cart and goes nuts, attempting a daring leap out of my arms in order to get into the coveted cart. I buckle him in and we're off. He then points to the general direction of the bakery where he knows the free cookies reside. We grab a cookie and I race to do my shopping in the time it takes him to finish his treat. We then get in line, where he knows the balloons are. He gets his balloon, I finsh checking out, and I try to make my escape before he realizes that he's been cheated out of the free lollypop in the basket by the door. No such luck. The whining and pointing commence until he gets his sucker. It's amazing to me that one so small, with so few words can be so smart!

He did it!!!

I'm so proud of Will! After much struggle, he has finally learned to tie his shoes! It's so much fun to get to see things like this "click" with the kids. He does it the bunny ears way, which wasn't my first choice, but seemed to be easier for him. He stayed home sick from school today and with the extra time we had, I decided that he'd learn to tie his shoes if it was the last thing I did! So I think this turned out to be a day well spent. He's so proud of himself and can't wait to show daddy when he gets home from work.

Aren't kids kind and considerate...

The back story:

Will is sick with the stomach flu today. He had to stay home from school and is hanging out here in the playroom, alternating between watching t.v., playing video games, and wretching into a large bowl that I gave him.

So Ben asks me if we are going anywhere today. I tell him no, that Will is sick and we are just going to hang out here. He says, "ALL day? We aren't going ANYwhere?". I say no, Will is really sick, we have to stay home, sorry. He ponders that a minute and looks up at me and says, "Will can just bring his bowl and stay in the car while we go out". Jeez, what kind, caring children I am raising here, huh?! ;)

Get down Will!

Last Saturday we went to an anniversary party for Brian's uncle Gilbert and aunt Linda. It was really nice and we all had a great time (open bar, how could you not?!?). Will is not usually one for dancing. Even at home, he's pretty shy when it comes to singing and dancing. I don't know what got into him, but he was out on the dance floor for hours at this party. He was break dancing, he was doing a dance that can only be described as the "snow angel" where he got down on the floor and started moving his arms and legs. He was doing moves I'd never seen out there before! Of course we took pictures and even borrowed a video camera for the occasion. The best part was when he let me pick him up and have a slow dance with him.

The aforementioned taekwando pictures

For your viewing pleasure!

Sammy updates!

Sam is turning into a little boy right before our eyes. He's losing the last of his yummy babyness but it's being replaced with the cutest big boy mannerisms. He still isn't talking all that much, although he's gaining more and more words. Still not stringing the words together too much. One thing he does that is really adorable is when he poops and you ask him if he pooped, he nods his head and runs into his bedroom and stands by his changing table, waiting for me to come in and change him. He still has that little toddler shakey butt run, you know, where they don't really bend their knees, so they kind of waddle side to side really fast. I love that run. We'll be so sad to see it go.

He is really starting to respond to questions or requests that we give him. He will bring us a book if asked and can point to things that we ask him about on the pages. So even though he might not be saying much, I can tell there's a lot going on in that little noggin of his! Hopefully age 2 will bring some more speech his way!

Here's to the newest yellow belt!

Today when I picked Will up from Taekwando, he was proudly wearing his new yellow belt and carrying a certificate!! He tested in front of Master Choi and the judge on Friday afternoon. He was really nervous, but he did so well! I was so proud of him. He knew all of his fighting stances and his blocks and was able to demonstrate them in front of not only the judge, but a room full of parents and kids, most of who were twice his age.

The climax of the test came when he broke a board using his fist. He looked really surprised when it actually broke! Of course I took pictures, but I seem to have misplaced my digital camera so you'll all just have to close your eyes and imagine how cute he was until I can find it, then I promise to post lots of pictures of his testing. I wish I had been able to take video too, but we had run out of tape.

Will's first soccer game and spelling test!

Brian and I have decided that we will take turns taking the boys to their respective soccer games. So this week Brian took Ben (And actually ended up getting roped into coaching simply by asking the person in charge of the U5's for a ball since he had forgotton Ben's. I will not be making that mistake!) and I took Will to his game. Saturday was Will's first soccer game of the season. His team is the Hotwheels and they wear bright orange. He had a lot of fun running around out there. He didn't actually score any goals, but he did get a couple of good kicks in there. The cutest part of the game (yes, when we are talking six year olds, we are talking about the cutest part of the game rather than the most exciting part) was when they all were out on the field about to start play after half time and they got into a little huddle! Of course I took a picture.

This Friday will be Will's first spelling test. The words to practice were sent home yesterday. I tested him on them today and he got 100% correct! This Thursday is back to school night so I will get a chance to hear all about the curriculum for this year, which I am looking forward to. First grade looks like it is going to be a challenge, especially with respect to all of the writing they will be doing.

Will

Another Ben funny

Ben is definatly the little ham in the family. On the way to our first MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting, we got a little loss. With me in the drivers seat this is no big surprise. We showed up at the wrong location (the business office rather than the actual church) and the guy there gave me a map and said that if I just follwed it, it would take me right there. If he knew anything about my history with maps, he would have realized that he may as well have given the map to my two year old. Anyway, after my second wrong turn I was getting frustrated. Ben pipes up with, "Mommy, if I were you, I'd just turn around and go home". This is said complete with big arm gestures, palms up, eyes rolled skyward. Then he adds, "But... I'm just a little kid".

Then on Sat. we were all at baby Sophie's birthday party. The kids had just hit the pinata and collected a couple pounds of candy each. Ben had his bag and was sitting on the couch next to Carmen and Monica. He looks at them and says, "I am going to set this bag down. Don't touch it." Puts his index finger up for emphasis. Then he walks a few steps, turns his head over his shoulder, narrows his eyes and gives them a look as if to say, "I'm watching you!".

Will is a Tiger Cub:-)

Last night was recruitment night for cub scouts at Will's school. He has a couple of friends who are joining so we thought it would be fun for him. They had a presentation where we all watched a slideshow of pictures of the boys at various activities over the past year. He was really excited about the prospect of getting to go fishing and camping and participate in the pinewood derby. I think Brian was equally excited about the pinewood derby;). He keeps asking me when his next boyscout meeting is. I'm happy that he's so excited about something other than video gaming!

I am supposed to go over the local boyscout store to get his uniform, so I will put up pictures of him in it as soon as I can. Be prepared to get hit up for popcorn sales in the near future! he he he

Our crazy schedule

Lately I am feeling like we all just run around non stop! The boys are in school, plus they have Tae Kwan Do and soccer, Sam has swimming and Music Together, and Will as of tomorrow, has cub scouts. I am also going to be doing MOPS on Fridays which will actually be a nice break because the kids go to the nursery while I go hear speakers, have breakfast, and do projects. We are also in MOMS Club so there are activities that go along with that. It's fun, but hectic.

I am actually having nightmares about having to be somewhere and forgetting about it, lol. That actually happened on Sat. Will and Ben both have soccer, but they are in two different divisions. Will is in the U8 division and Ben is U5. So Ben's game was at 9:30am and then Will's was supposed to be at 10:15. They overlapped, but I thought it wouldn't be a problem since Brian was there too and we could just divide and conquer. Well, for some reason it did not stick in my brain that Will's game was at Rimgate Park and Ben's was at Heros. All our games last season were at Heros so I just thought that is where all the games were. I was getting worried as to why Will's team wasn't showing up and then I had a feeling that maybe we got the place wrong. Sure enough, we had and by that time there wasn't enough time to make it to his game. I asked him if he was dissappointed about it and he said, "YES. I WANTED rice krispy treats!". It was his friend Matt's moms turn to bring snacks and she had said that she was bringing those. Apparently the best part of playing soccer is the snacks!

Here are some pictures of Ben. Hopefully we'll get some of Will next week. Anyone who wants to come see a game on Saturdays through this fall is welcome! We will probably do basketball in the winter, at Will's request.

Our trip to the fire station!

Our town just got a brand spanking new fire station and our MOMS Club was the first group to tour it! I took Ben and Sam there today since Will was in school. Ben was scared and cried and I had to work hard to get him in the door (no big surprise there). He would not let me take any pictures of him, but I got some cute shots of Sam on the fire engine and wearing the fireman's boots. Benny did warm up to the whole thing eventually and was interested in seeing thier rec room, where the firemen hang out on these lazy boys that are all lined up. The kitchen is right off the rec room and houses 4 big stainless steel refriderators and a HUGE Viking stove. They said that they have to spend their own money on the t.v. They have a fund that they all contribute to for things like that. They do have some sort of an allowance for food but it only covers the basics. Things like ketchup and other condiments they have to buy. The things ya learn!

Anyway, the kids had fun. Sam enjoyed playing with the excersize ball in thier gym and Ben was excited about the pencils that the fireman handed out afterwards.

What's that SMELL?!

Six year olds can be quite entertaining. Will had this little gem for me today.

We were all piling into the van this morning trying to get Will off to school and I'm leaning over him helping him buckle his seatbelt over the booster seat. He says to me, "Mommy, what's that SMELL?" wrinkling up his nose. I tell him that I had to borrow daddy's deoderant this morning because I left mine at Grandma Zukie's last weekend. He then starts asking me all sorts of questions about deoderant. Why grownups have to use it, when he will have to use it, do all grownups use it (the answer to that one of course is "no, but they all SHOULD!" LOL). I tried changing the subject several times, but alas, we ended up discussing the merits and pitfalls of deoderant the entire way to school.

Fast forward to the afternoon. Will had a playdate scheduled with his friend Matthew. I picked Matt up from school along with Will and brought the boys back here to play. As we are all getting into the car, Will leans over and tells Matt, "If you smell something stinky, don't worry. That's just my mom's deoderant!".

Will's 1st day of school pictures!