Facebook Status Updates

Pat had duty today.  And even though I usually talk to him at the end of duty days, my thoughts end up as facebook status entries in my head instead of things I tell my husband at the end of the day.  Mostly they don't ever become status updates for a variety of reasons - I'm not near my phone or computer, I don't think anyone would really care about it or it's not really that interesting or it would have been too wordy to explain it all.  But I figured today if I put them all into a blog post, it would be little snippets of my day.  So here's what I might have posted:

8:50am - Why does it seem like everyone is late for dropping their kids off at school and early for picking them up?  I'd rather be the opposite and get a few extra minutes.  (Although I'm usually early for both.)

10am - Casey saw a man in the commissary who looked just like Santa - he had a red jacket and red hat on with a long white beard.  When he talked to her, her mouth just dropped open in shock.  It was the best reaction.  She didn't know Santa has a military ID.

10:30am - Quadruple whammy at the grocery store - diapers, wipes, toilet paper, and paper towels!

12:15pm - Jack said that he played knights and princesses at school today.  Then he said, "Casey you're always a princess!"  And she said, "Uh huh.  Yes I am."

1:30pm - I'm making homemade bread.

2pm - Jack can sometimes be way too crafty for me, as in wants to make elaborate crafts way too often.  I just gave him an egg carton and he has been cutting, taping, looking for cardboard and other crafty things while talking to himself me for half an hour trying to make a cow.  He thought the egg carton looked like it would work well for a cow's udder.

2:30pm - Holy Chatterbox!  Jack won't stop talking.  I've had to put Ruby and Max on to get a break.

3pm - Casey's not into napping today.  Time for some Dora now.

4pm - Might as well make some gingerbread men as requested by Jack.  I warned him that they have to go in the fridge before they become "men" so hopefully there are no meltdowns.

4:45pm - Started picking up all of the random construction paper/wrapping paper around the house and decided we should make festive paper chains.  It required a lot more work for me than I thought it would but Jack thought it was awesome.  He said, "Don't bother us Casey - we're working on an experiment."  We hung it from the mantle as Jack wanted.

5:30pm - My new go to meal when Pat is gone will be baked potatoes with broccoli, blue cheese and cheddar cheese.  Maybe some bacon next time, but that would add more work.  So yummy.

6pm - My new game is "How many toys can we pick up in 5 min?"  Jack thinks it fun and can't believe we can clean most of it up in 5 min.  Of course it helps when you don't hear the buzzer go off.

8:30pm - The bread is finally baking...2 hrs of rising turned into 4ish.

9pm - I'm baking bread and making a quilt.  Maybe later I'll sweep my dirt floors and you can call me Laura Ingalls.

10pm - Mmmm!  Warm bread fresh from the oven.

How To Be A Preschool Party Planner

Or at least how I plan a preschool party.

I volunteered to plan Jack's preschool Thanksgiving party.  The instructions for the party planning parents are "Parties begin at 10:30 and run smoothly with a story, finger foods, a craft and a game."

The original volunteer was unable to plan the party and I had seen the Halloween party and how it flowed, so I decided I could jump in and plan a great Thanksgiving party.

About two and a half weeks before the party, I started to browse the internet for ideas.  I thought I had it figured out pretty well.  I went to Jack's teacher and told her my plan.  Then I walked away and felt like my plan was only the start of a plan.

I think preschool teachers have a huge cache of ideas just in their heads.  Meanwhile all my ideas came from hours of searching the internet.  She started talking about making a teepee out of pvc pipes and how much the kids would like that.  The "finger foods" turned into more of a lunch.  She said we could go out to the playground for the game or move into a bigger room and that it would be great if it was something physical.  I think she said something about a high ropes endurance course.  Maybe.  Oh, and maybe some Thanksgiving music while you're at it.  I'm sure the library will have something.

So I did a little more planning.  Added some more food to my menu.  Decided I needed some help making all that food.  Couldn't decide what to actually ask other parents to bring.  Finally sent a note home asking for some food contributions.  Messed up when I put the notes in the lunchbox and not everyone got the notes.  Didn't want to ask parents to help at the last minute.  Ended up making all the food myself anyway.

For a week, it felt like I did nothing but prepare for this party.  Pat laughed at me.  I merely pushed by him to get the scissors to make crafty things.  The night before this party, my kitchen looked like this:

Something on every bit of counter space, a frozen pizza for dinner and obviously that was a great time to get some mopping done too.

Finally, it was time for the show.  And I think it went well although I'm happy I don't have to do another one until Easter.  (Probably should start planning that now.)

Craft:
Turkey headbands - I cut out strips of paper to wrap around their heads, turkey heads, eyes, beaks, and feathers.  Probably should have made a model for the kids to copy but I just told them to do what they wanted to.

Games:
Pin the feather on the turkey - I created a turkey out of posterboard and cut out a feather for everyone

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Roll - I got this idea from a website called One Charming Party...give two kids each a broom and a pumpkin and see who can roll the pumpkin to the other side of the room faster.  The kids loved it and asked to do it over and over.

Feast:
Ritz crackers with cream cheese or pumpkin butter spread with chow mein noodles on top to look like a turkey track
Turkey roll-ups
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
Pumpkin Butter Sandwiches
Pumpkin Pie Pudding

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

And finally, the part that got the most oohs and aahs, the turkey!
Another fabulous idea from One Charming Party...

Brown paper bags, filled with popcorn, scrunched up a little, placed in a roasting pan to look like a turkey.  I started off snack time by telling the kids that first we were going to carve the turkey.  Jack kept saying, "But I don't like turkey.  I don't like turkey!"  I told him I was pretty sure he would like this one.

I think the kids all had fun based on the decibel level in the classroom.  I came home, put Jack in front of the computer playing Sesame Street games and took a nap.  I couldn't even bear to think of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner or really doing anything except recovering.

 

Jack's Missile Defense

Jack is very interested in missiles these last few days.  I can't really remember what might have been the catalyst for this.  He keeps asking to look at pictures of missiles on the internet and wants to know what they are doing.  I explain as much as I can, from what I know and what I'm reading about the picture.

I just built him a missile out of a couple pieces of construction paper.  He's happily playing with it along with a Lego airplane and a plastic box.

"Mommy, do you know who Berker is?"

"No, Jack, I don't.  Who is he?"

"He's the pilot of this airplane and just shot the missile out of it."

"Oh, okay."

The plastic box is his aircraft carrier.  He's moved on to a bigger one because it's easier for the plane to take off and land.

"Mommy, do you know what a surgent is?"

"No, I don't Jack.  What does it do?"

"It helps the planes take off from the ship.  It gives them a surge."

"Like the catapult?"

"No, it's a surgent."

"Where did you learn about surgents?"

"I just know it."

Next question.

"Mommy, do you know what this missile is going to shoot?"

"No..."

"Think about it first Mommy, don't just say it.  You can think about it."

This has been going on for 30 minutes now.  His missiles are coming out of submarines, airplanes, ships and big places underground.  He has definitely been absorbing what I'm telling him.  Welcome to Jack's world.

What the Future Holds

Jack:  Mommy, Casey and I are going to get married when we get older.

Casey:  Yeah, and I'm going to be a princess when I'm married.

Jack:  Don't you want to be a ballerina when you get older, Casey?

Casey:  Yeah, I'm going to be a ballerine

Jack:  I can be a firefighter and Casey can be a ballerina.

Casey:  I want to be a ballerine

Jack:  ah, Casey, ballerin - ah!

Christmas Catalogs

"Oh, a new vaccuum" says Jack as he looks at the computer screen where I'm actually looking at steam mops.  I tell him it's a steam mop to clean the floors.  "I think I should probably ask Santa for one of those for Christmas too.  But...maybe in a smaller size for me."

The Christmas catalogs are arriving daily and Jack has a lot things that he wants from Santa.  He has been pouring over them and with a little assistance from some commercials he has seen on TV he thinks he has a pretty good idea of what he would like.  Just a few things from each page usually.  As he is looking through the magazines for the first time he'll say, "Mommy!  You're not going to believe this...come look at what's on this page."  That's pretty much for every page.   But he's so serious about it, like I'm really not going to believe it.

After looking at the back page of the Target catalog, he said, "Casey is going to want those princesses and I want this [garage] and one of these [nerf guns] but I want it in blue because blue is my favorite color and I saw a blue one in here somewhere else."  When I asked him what he might do with a nerf gun, he said he would shoot it in the backyard.  I'm not sure Santa is going to be able to pull that one off this year.

This week I feel like Jack has been growing up before my eyes.  He seems taller and seems to be talking more maturely.  I just keep looking at him and wondering when he got so big.

Casey's New Boots

How cute is Casey in this outfit?  She had the dress on but the tights were still in the wash, trying to recover from getting trampled on during a rush to get Halloween candy.  Then I pulled out the new boots.  Daddy thought she was so cute that he took her outside to get a photo shoot.  I ran out with my camera and I think these are some of my favorite pictures of her.  Later Pat and Casey went on a date to the mall and Pat said there were some older girls in line who couldn't get over how cute she looked and the fact that she had those cute boots on.  I might be a little proud of myself for having purchased the cute dress and boots but it's really the model who makes them look so good.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend, but super busy!  It started off on Friday morning with Jack's class Halloween party.  Casey and I attended and the kids all enjoyed ghost shaped sandwiches, fruit, spider cupcakes, crafts, a story and a fun game.  It was cute seeing everyone in costume although I thought it was funnier watching the little kids in costumes tumble out of their cars in the drop off line.  We spotted another dragon right in front of us.

Oh yes, Jack was a dragon and Casey was a princess.  Since I bought Casey her costume, she's been asking to wear it but I had to hold off because I knew it wasn't quite durable enough to take on and off many times for dress up.  So on Friday morning, she was so excited to wear it and Jack was excited to be a dragon and it just started my day off right!  Casey was also introduced to tights to keep her little legs warm.  She's worn them before but I know she doesn't remember.

On Friday afternoon, we had a birthday party to go to at Color Me Mine, a pottery painting studio.  Jack had gotten a little warm in his dragon costume at his school party, so he opted not to wear his.  However, Casey wasn't missing out on another chance to wear hers.  Jack and the princess got to paint little pottery pumpkins.  I was a little concerned when Jack didn't pick out any orange to put in his paint tray, but eventually Casey got some and the poor little pumpkin got a little bit of it's real color.  Jack was pretty disappointed that he couldn't take his pumpkin home.  Wasn't too concerned about the whole baking and glazing process the pottery has to go through.  He wanted his craft!

On Saturday morning we headed to the zoo for Zoo Boo.  Different businesses hand out candy as the kids trick or treat around the zoo.  Sounds very cute and the line of cars to get there indicates that a lot of people thought it was great.  But, the cynical me notes that we paid money to trick or treat at the zoo for not very good candy and didn't even see any animals.  The kids had a good time though and don't really have a preference for "good" candy yet - it's all good to them.

There was a community picnic on Saturday afternoon where the kids bounced off a lot of their candy energy in the bounce house and had a great time.  I volunteered to help clean up after which meant that I came home with a car full of leftovers.  That was probably my main clean up function - try to take some of these leftovers so they don't go to waste.

And Saturday continued...we got a babysitter and went out to Homearama and dinner.  Homearama was a builder showcase of 10 new homes in an up and coming area.  We love to walk through the homes and get ideas as they are all beautifully furnished and highly decorated.  I actually like to pretend I'm moving into these homes and try to figure out where our furniture is going to go.  That might be taking it a little further than most people.

And then Sunday...dinner at a friend's house before trick or treating.  We were treated to a great Halloween feast and the best dessert I've had in a long time - Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  So yummy.  Jack and Casey were excited to get to the trick or treating though.  Pat took them through our neighborhood and I stayed home to hand out candy.  They came back dragging their bags because they were so heavy from the candy!  They got home and we had a few more trick or treaters.  Jack said, "I want some more customers to come so I can give them this candy."  He gave out our last two pieces of candy to some customers and we called it a night!  And a weekend!

 And now I'm going to wield the power of the candy controller for the next month.  Won't eat your dinner?  No candy.  Won't stop fighting?  No candy.  In fact, I just told Jack that if he didn't go to bed he wouldn't get any candy tomorrow.  And it worked.