Toys!

For Christmas, the kids both got gift cards (or money for picking out their own toy) from their Grandpas. They are JUST at that age where this is SUPER cool. A couple of days ago we went to Target and hit their toy Clearance Row. Yes, at 5-1/2 and 7 they KNOW and LOVE the clearance rows. Mattie ended up picking out this HUGE Matchbox brand boat that comes apart, floats, can be redesigned and was 60% off. He also got a couple of Imaginex creature things. That boy LOVES Imaginex toys.  Abby got 2 different BIG sets of Pokemon cards and a Pokemon toy. Both still had money left over.

After much debate, we decided to let them buy their own "weapon". Mostly because the boy REALLY wants to shoot something. Anything really. Wee boy picked out a Nerf gun (and extra amo). The first thing he does with it?? Looks right into it and shoots himself in the eye. The next thing? Looks right back down into it and almost does the same freaking thing! He's now on a "if you do that again" warning for a time out. For SHOOTING HIMSELF IN THE EYE. You would think that they pain aspect would have been enough to stop that from happening again, but nooooo.

Wee girl has opted to get a bow and arrow set. Oddly, Bed, Bath and Beyond (with a coupon of course) carries that for the best price. *Shrug* shows ya how much I know about the Bow and Arrow market. I would have guessed a sporting good store, Toys R Us.. Something like that. But No.. Bed, Bath and Beyond.

We shall see shortly how she wounds herself in this all, as we have yet to go get that. 

But, we figure they're gonna wound themselves somehow. May as well teach them how to maim themselves the least?? Or at least be able to take them to the dr. easily.

Christmas Day 2011

It's Christmas Day 2011

C got me this:

It's a 10ish week old kitten! We've named it Jinx.

 2 VERY excited kids!

A new video game - they each got a new (well, very used and cheap) DS.

Elastic Power Kit! Yay Science.

It's SO HUGE.. 

 Stockings!

Tengrams! 

 It's Lalaloopy..

 POKEMON cards. Wow do they like Pokemon! Thanks Wilcox Family!!!

Books. Books. Boooooks. A certain wee boy MAY have been cheering for books when he saw these.

The living room has officially vomited Christmas. It may never fully recover. But I guess sometimes that's the fun of it all. Well that and enough new toys for the kids to be amused for the next 6 months without complaining they are "Bored".

Christmas Eve 2011

We begin this Christmas journey with Christmas Eve. We did the usual traditions like decorating cookies for Santa, opening the 1 present of new pajamas, writing a note for Santa. Usually we HAVE been doing a gingerbread house as well, but being the ever lazy shopper that I am and my refusal to go to ANY store a week before Christmas, we had none. SO. Instead we made a pretzel log cabin and decorated that. Turns out the kids really just want to eat stuff covered in icing, gobs and gobs of icing. Pretzels, candy, candy covered icing pretzels apparently count as good.

The log cabin before candy decorations. 

Mattie dressing the cabin up with candies.

More icing and candies.

Triumph!

The finished Cabin!

A Date with the Kids..

Tomorrow C and I are dividing and taking 1 kid each for a "Special Date" time. I am taking wee boy and C is take wee girl. Daddy and girl are going to go see The Nutcracker for the first time. It was decided that a certain 5 year old boy would probably not enjoy 2 hours or so of ballet - at least not enough to sit still quietly for it. So I am taking him to do pretty much whatever he wants to do. I was trying to figure this activity out today so I asked him if he could pick anything to do with Momma, what would it be? He wants to go to Cherry Berry and get ice cream. That was it. He can pick ANYTHING at all. He wants to go get ice cream and that's it. I started to throw some more creative ideas out there for him because that is SO not taking up 3ish hours. (Well, with the way he eats, I suppose it COULD..) If I were to guess right now what we'll end up doing after that it will be either the Aquarium, meandering around Toys R Us to look at the toys, or playing Lego Star Wars video games or watching a movie at home. That kid is pretty easy to please sometimes really, at yet..

A Sweet Girl's Party!

Here are are some pictures from the wee girl's birthday party. She had a FANTASTIC time. Her friends are amazing (as always!), their parents are SPLENDID (as usual), and she's starting to get the hang of the "party" idea (which is a HUGE relief).

 A pose with some pals!

Getting sung to (without freaking out this year!!)

Candle blowing time! I have to admit I DO always wonder what they wish for though..

A sweet baby Persephone! (I really hope I spelled her name right, but isn't she precious :P )

 Kalliope cheesin' it up big for us!

Wyatt near Jacob - I got smiles from them BOTH :)

 Pokeball cake.  It only caused a bit of a flaming ball of fire while it cooked! 

Wee Man Jacob! Totally taking after his big Brother Wyatt.

We had several other friends celebrate with us as well and greatly appreciate you joining us on Abby's big day!

She's 7!!

Forever with her brother and in princess outfits, but the best girl there could be!

Pets

The biggest news around here lately is the coming and going of pets, mostly cats.

 Jasmine is now living with Grandad. From all reports she is living a happily feral life.

Tamale has been rehomed to a really great family with no other pets. The hope is that he will not claw other animals or himself with no other pets.

 Gus is no longer with us. He curled up in his favorite chair and well.. Died. He was the best - and wheeziest-  cat ever.

Meet Squirrel. Squirrel is our 6(ish) week old addition. He enjoys cuddles, snuggles, being held and carried, and food. I'm not entirely sure that little kitten is willing to acknowledge it's position as "cat" and not "wee person".  It probably doesn't help that he gets carried, loved on, petting, fed, petted, and put in handbags continuously.

Hot Dog Dog!

We've gotten fond of dressing Timmy up in outfits. What dog would be complete without a hot dog??

And going with the theme of dressing up things...

1 and 2 have decided what they will be for Halloween! 1 is going to be an Enchanted Princess. And 2 is going to be a Ghost Pirate.  Dressing up things is F-U-N!

Super Puppy!!

The first episode of Super Puppy is complete!! It is however located: Here!  Keep in mind that the kids created it. I took the pictures and helped with spelling and that was it! Story line, words (other than some truly minor suggestions), punctuation, EVERYTHING, was 1 and 2!

 What's going to happen??! Will Super Puppy defeat the evil villain?

Timmy!

After much sadness over the loss of the Danes, we have added our newest "family" member: Timmy! He is about 12(ish) weeks old now and is full beagle. He has absolutely the best temperament of any puppy you could hope for including the important aspects of not peeing in the house, not chasing the cats, and not being TOO rough with Minnie. Minnie adores "her" puppy toy. She had gotten very, very depressed with the loss of Luke. She is so in love with Timmy and only chews on him a little bit when she gets climbed on and used as a toy.

Timmy will also be our super hero in the upcoming homeschool project "Super Puppy". Everyone else will have staring roles in the upcoming feature as well. *IF* for some reason you happen to know of a great, cheap, place to get animal costumes (or have some that come in either a GIANT mastiff size or a small beagle puppy size or even perhaps a cat size we could borrow for an afternoon and then return) let me know. I'm looking to make this into an epic story in multiple installments.

Our soon to be super hero: Super Puppy!

 Timmy and Minnie just playing a little.

This wee man has taken a particular fondness to holding the puppy on his lap. Mattie was never very comfortable with the Big Boys and the puppy is a bit more solid than the cats. Plus after a few minutes, Timmy just falls asleep. 

Snuggles on the sofa with his favorite kids.

 

Hiding under the sofa. THIS activity isn't going to last much longer. 

Luke

The last of our big boys has been put down. The kids are surprisingly ok with it. The grown-up are ok. Minnie. Minnie is struggling. She won't go outside by herself. She bays at weird stuff. She mopes. She has turned into a bowling ball of darkness at random times  in the house (wood floors + no stopping = bowling ball effect).  Basically, the last remaining dog is massively, horribly depressed. She lays on the sofa and sleeps or runs around like a loon. She's never really been into either of those before.

Soooo. A photo tribute to the big boy:

More recent pictures ARE available, I took several with the kids (they needed a way to say goodbye) on Saturday before we took him to the vet. The big guy wasn't looking his best though, so I figured I would put these up instead when he was looking lively and happy.

Sooo we don't really have a 'Zoo' anymore. We have a depressed mastiff and some cats and a fish tank and some gerbils. We've even trimmed down the fish tanks to 1. *Sigh* We are now on the hunt for a perfect puppy. My dear, sweet friend has a friend with a litter of beagles that we are going to attempt to get one of. If/when that occurs pictures will most joyously follow. Hopefully a puppy will help alleviate Minnie's ennui, because WOW.