Killing Time

Long night of work. I had to list a couple of homes last night and it can be involved when I have to sift through many photos so I have yet to go to bed. Normally, after I finish working, I would go to bed, but I started jogging in the early morning (not sure you can quite call it jogging but...) with a buddy named Gigi. We just started the regimen too so I hate to break routine. Not to mention I don't know Gigi's cell phone and I sure as heck can't call this early at her home and say I'm not coming.

Plus, I really want to stay on regimen. My life is so fluid, it's hard to predict my schedule, which makes it hard to stick to any diet or exercise routine but hey... I'm sure other people suffer more than I have suffered in order to jog. So I type to stay awake the half an hour prior to my jog.

Does this seem like rambling? It feels like I'm typing gobbledygook. My brain is a bit cloudy. Anywho, things here are good. The summer heat has kicked in a bit. A welcome change from the cold rainy days a week ago. Something interesting happened though. A phenomenon of sorts...

My boys decided shirts are now optional. I'm not quite sure where they picked that up from. Bobby does not walk around with his shirt off and I sure as heck don't. They just started, as if they had a secret code or something and, as if on cue, the shirts disappeared.

And of course what's good for the ganders....

Is also good for my goose. She refuses to wear a shirt at home. Not quite sure what to do about that, if anything. I do feel like I'm at the French Riviera though....

15 minutes 'till jogging. Hopefully bed after....

Kiko's First Birthday

Yes, you did read that correctly. We had a party for our dog Kiko. Our dog turned one on Monday and the kids really wanted to celebrate her birthday. At first I was resistant, it just seemed a little weird and creepy, but decided that it would be a fun evening anyway.

I'm not sure the dog knew what was happening. Normally she only gets dog food and is discouraged from being near the dining room table (especially after the meatloaf incident.... she once hopped on our table and ate 1/2 of a meatloaf, rendering the remaining meatloaf inedible), but tonight she was royalty. She loved it too... queen for a day (Would she technically be queen bitch for a day? Not trying to offend, just a thought.).

So Kiko "sat" (see restrained- kept trying to eat her burger) at the table while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. In the middle of the song she blew out her candle because she was breathing so heavily from excitement... the kids were delighted....

Here she is enjoying her burger. We actually had to put it outside because she kept running away with it and eating it in the corner (she thought we would try to take it away). She was so thrilled after eating her burger she went back to the dinner table and stole Bob's burger and ran away with it. So she actually ate two... naughty dog...

The kids wanted to buy gifts, but we opted for a homespun birthday. We gave Kiko a HSBC freebie blanket for her crate (she had previously chewed up and peed in her original dog bed... here's hoping she has outgrown that!).....

The kids also gave Kiko a new ball to chew on. I was unaware of this but apparently the gifting of toy balls requires a gansta pose...

Kiko loves to chew on balls (she'll chew on anything really, she's destroyed at least six pairs of unattended shoes). It kept her busy all night....

By the end of the night she was completely wiped out (and her ball was already mangled)...

The best part was seeing how gentle and sweet the kids were to the dog. She really is a part of our family (albeit a destructive, sometimes annoying part of the family). They really love her. I sometimes wonder if she feels loved....

Maybe....

Here's Sam!

I realized that the last post had no pictures of Sam. There does seem to be an unequal number of photos of the younger two versus the rest of the gang. I do my best to have equal coverage, but let's face it, some of my kids are just cuter than others (yes... I was just kidding... they are all equally ugly).

This photo is from last Friday. Sam just passed level two in swim lessons. He was really excited. We now have Tom in level 2, Sam in level 3, and Matt in level 4. Good times...

New Camera and Random Photos

My old camera died. It worked well for me but eventually just gave up the ghost. I purchased a new camera (a Canon Power Shot SX110IS). I didn't realize how complicated it is to choose a camera now. I was utterly confused by the end. I hope I made a good choice. I'm still playing around with it a bit and sometimes my kids will just walk up to me and ask me to take their picture. I happily oblige, especially now that I'm trying to figure out how this contraption works. Here are some examples of the new camera's picts. Here's Matt with our first pear ever from our newly planted pear tree. He took a bite, according to Matt it did not taste too good....

Tommy has been working on making "Santa hats" lately. This was his most successful attempt (two triangles with strips of papers attaching the triangles together). The only problem is it didn't last too long....

Here's Pete with the dog....

Allie also wanted her picture taken with the dog...

The dog had other ideas though....

Here's Allie just waking up....

And here's a picture of *ahem* Tom. He was playing dress-up with his sister, thought he looked nice, and wanted me to take his picture. I know Tom has been more of a cross-dresser than the rest of my boys, but in his defense, the other boys did not have any sparkly, pretty clothes in the house that almost fit them. Plus, he loves any reason to have his picture taken. Of course I had to oblige.... this stuff is solid gold. I'm just waiting for the right moment to bring it back out....

What? No pictures of Sam?.... hmmmmm. I'm going to have to work on that...

More Pokedueling...

One of the disadvantages of posting pictures months after the event occurs is that I can hardly remember anything that transpired. It's really a wonder I know my name and phone number. That said, a few months ago the family piled into our van and drove up to Toronto to attend a regional pokemon competition. Pete, Matt, and Sam competed while Tom and Allie hung out at the hotel and played at a local playground. The traffic coming and going was rough. It made me grateful to live in a depressed economy where the mass exodus of people has decreased traffic volume significantly. I take that for granted sometimes...

The tournament had its regular large collection of socially maladjusted people in t-shirts that often had awkward sayings on them. My kids fit right in. ;) All kidding aside, it was a big group (over 150 people) and my kids were eager to see how they stacked up. Here they are waiting for the tournament to start...

Thankfully, the tournament officials (the guys in the yellow shirts) did not allow parents beyond a certain point. While some parents were really nice and there for fun, there were a few obnoxious parents who would have stood behind their children and coached them. Here's Matt and Sam competing. Both are facing the camera on the left side. Matt's on the back row and Sam is at the front table...

Here's Pete. He's on the end on the left....

They competed for several rounds. We enjoyed the lovely Toronto scenery and took shifts with the little guys....

Our kids did well but we did not think they would make it to the final cut. We were ready to get out of there by the time the regulation rounds finished up, however, Matt made it to the final round. He did really well and tied for 4th. Here he is with his prizes.....

The extra wait for the final round was worth it. He was so proud. =)

Dolls and Tea Parties???

Allie is a tough cookie, but she is definitely a girl! More and more it is becoming evident. I'm not sure how she discovered this (most likely from a "Max and Ruby" cartoon), but she's a big fan of tea parties. She likes to have her little friends over and entertain. The problem was she didn't have a tea set and was using my dishes (bad idea).

I've been having great luck with free items and garage sales this season and was lucky enough to find a plastic tea set for $1! Plus we added some extra seating (found at a garage sale, of course) for guests. Here's Allie with her new set...


Here's her first guest...




It was a delightful afternoon for all...

Pete's Birthday Wrap-up... aka.. I Need a New Camera

A few weeks ago Pete celebrated his 12th birthday... yes... 12th birthday. It's really hard to believe I am old enough to have a 12 year-old. Wasn't I just 12? Where does the time go? *sigh*

This year Pete opted out of a friend party and honestly, after last year's sleep-over, I was very relieved. Pete wanted a family overnight party to a local indoor water park. I happily agreed. Of course there is no photographic evidence of this event, nor will there ever be any photographs of us (me) in our bathing suits. However, I did take photos of his birthday night. We made some cupcakes and had a family gathering to mark the big day. Here's the gang acting goofy...

Hmmmm. Houston, we have a problem. Ok, let's try this one....Here's Allie drooling over the birthday cupcakes (lemon flavored)....

Ok, then I think I need a new camera... =( Anyway... Happy Birthday Pete!!!

Sammy's Zoo Trip

Sammy's class went to the zoo this year on an end of the year field trip. While I couldn't be a chaperon due to my extra little ones, I was allowed to tag along with his group, join him for lunch, and even drive him home. Tom and Allie loved being with the big kids, brought their backpacks, and even wore red to blend in with the rest of his class (their class color for field trips was red). The standard animals were there...

The kids loved it. They had a really good time...

I was a little worried because this was our first outing, perhaps ever, that I did not bring a stroller. They were tired by the end, but they did great. Nice day...

Big Girl Bed

It was apparent a few months ago that Allie's pack and play just wasn't cutting it for suitable bedding. Honestly, it was probably never suitable, but that's just how we roll... pack and plays for all the babies.

I was lamenting over the decision of whether I wanted to purchase a regular twin sized bed or a toddler bed. I had decided on the twin and started shopping craigslist. I had even found the bed I wanted to purchase and just not had the chance to drive the twenty minutes to pick it up.

Everything changed when I drove by a street I don't travel too often and saw a perfect toddler bed with a sign that said "free". I immediately pulled over, folded down my back seat, and crammed the bed in. Those are the days I love having a minivan... I can stuff any junk I discover at a moment's notice. So here are the fruits of my trash picking labor. I really love free stuff....


Allie was so excited to have her new bed she wanted to go to sleep right away. Here she is "sleeping"... very cute.

Mea Culpa

Ok. It's been a while. I'm very sorry. Life has been quite busy and work has been really crazy too. Plus I can play mafia wars with my nephew on Facebook. It makes it tough to keep this blog up to date. I'm going to only look forward now though and make no more excuses.

Actually, I'm going to look back a bit... I have a bunch of pictures to upload.... starting tomorrow. =)

ps- Isn't this stock photo so dorky? I think it's funny...