Bad Dog

My naughty "chug" dog loves a particular pillow. I've always been able to intervene in time to prevent any damage.... until today....

First, she's happily chewing away....

Next she realizes she's caught...

Then she won't look at me....

Only now does she shows true remorse...


What a stinker...

ps- It's my 200th post... hooray for me.

All Work and No Play

I found these photo's lingering on my camera. They are from last Saturday when we had a family work day. The day was met with mixed reviews....



That last picture of Pete cracks me up...

One More...

It's been a while, but Allie still occasionally falls asleep in odd places or in odd positions. Here's one more to add to my collection....

Tommy's Day - a Birthday Redux

Well, Tom's birthday was yesterday.... I see some light at the end of the "birthday marathon" tunnel... it's probably a train. I feel like I've been hit by one already. I'm beat. Even the small joys of having a birthday (i.e. snacking on the cake the next day) are waning.

I really, really love Tom. So hope I can recap his special day without sounding like a jerk (a tough task for me). I'll do my best though....

Tom basically wanted Sam's birthday with a few tweaks. He got his cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we went to the same indoor bounce facility that afternoon for his party....

There were a few differences. Tom invited a couple friends, Allie was asleep for the first half hour...

And Tom wanted a pinata....

Here they are gathering their loot...

Otherwise it was basically the same. They bounced....

They slid....

The rode on the mini-carousel...

Again....

And again....

Tommy did skip the rice krispy cake in lieu of a more traditional yellow box cake with canned chocolate frosting (yes!). Honestly, he really didn't care what the cake was made of as long as it said "Happy Birthday Kitty", had sprinkles, and some cartoon character candies on it (his first choice was care bears, but had to settle for sponge bob)....

Here's the big guy blowing out the candles....

Here he is opening his presents....

Yes, it was a standard day including the meltdown at the end. I didn't get a picture of Sam's meltdown last week but Tom was nice enough to melt down in the car where I had a camera accessible. His distress was a result of a balloon. Tom and Allie were each holding a bunch of balloons in the car. He wanted her bunch of balloons instead of the bunch of balloons he was holding. Ah, how I love petty fighting!....

One birthday left. Bob's been joking with me that he wants to celebrate his birthday at the same indoor bounce facility, just to raise my dander. I'm taking at least an eight month moratorium from that facility.

Silly Bob, he knows he can't escape the traditional cop out birthday celebration of a McDonald's drive-through and a store bought sheet cake anyway. Ugh, I shouldn't even joke about it...it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about more cake...the McDonald's part is gross too.

Happy 5th birthday Tommy, I hope you have wonderful memories from your special day!

Winter Challenge, My Eye!

The snow just keeps coming down. We had school canceled on Thursday and got another 10-12" last night. It took me all morning to shovel out. I have conflicted feelings about my "winter challenge".

On one hand, shoveling is really great exercise, I get outside, and it's nice that I have to do some form of exercise as I am a horrible exercise procrastinator. On the other hand, it's not always convenient timing, I don't like the stress of having to get out early to prevent my 74 year-old father-in-law from beating to the shoveling punch. Also, it's hard to be out for two hours shoveling and then see your neighbor across the street do his driveway in ten minutes.

Although, with the money I have saved from not paying for a plow contract, I have paid for the birthday marathon... lots of pros and cons. On a day like today though, it basically stinks. It's not novel, I'm still sore from the last batch of snow, and I only have more snow to look forward to. As my 11 year-old would say... it's Suckedy McSuck Suck....

Here's a picture of the snow from last Thursday... now imagine a foot more snow on top...

She's an It

Kiko was spayed on Tuesday. I had to catch up with my other things before I could post the big news though. She's doing fine now, but it was so sad the day she came home....


Poor puppy!!!

Sammy is Seven!!!

I can't believe Sam is seven. My baby is seven! I remember being pregnant with Sam during the events of September 11, 2001 and wondering what kind of world my child would be born into. That feels so long ago now.

I say it all the time, but I have no idea what I would do without my Sammy. He has to be one of the funniest, silliest, good-natured kids I know. Sam attracts people to him. He gets birthday party invitations from kids I have never heard of, and kids go out of their way to say "Hi" to Sam on the street. He's just an all-around great kid (I was bound to have one, right?). =) Joking... joking...

Sam had more modest requests than Matt for his birthday celebration. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I packed him a special school lunch, brought in popsicles for his classroom treat (he's in the allergy classroom so his options are limited), and went to an indoor bounce house facility in the evening with just the family. Sam picked taquitos for dinner but we were running behind schedule so we ate pizza on site and will eat the taquitos tonight. Here are some picts from the big day...

Here's Sam wearing the crown his teacher gave him....

Here we are at the indoor bounce facility. They give you tokens with the "family fun package". The kids opted for the arcade games first....

Bobby and Pete played "superchexx" which is rumored to be the best ice hockey bubble game out there...

Then they played some more...

Their game caught the attention of a strange little kid who seemed quite intense. Although looking at Pete's expression, pehaps the game itself makes you strangely intense...

Allie loved the mini-carousel....

Tommy wanted in on the action (he had used up his tokens at this point and was excited to get a free ride)....

They rode and rode....

Then the cake. I'm sure you're wondering if this was a rice krispy treat cake... why, yes... yes it was. I won't start extolling the virtues of the rice krispy treat. In truth, I'm getting sick of all things rice krispy and hope Tommy requests a regular cake (if I'm lucky he'll want a box yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting.... mmmmm....).

Then it was time to bounce and slide. I really like that there is a facility where they can be active and jump around....


We were having such a great time that we stayed until 8pm (little guy's bedtime). When Sam came home he had a meltdown.... ugh... I should have known better. He had a big day and was a little exhausted. It's hard work turning seven.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the meltdown... I should try to remember that for next time. All in all, it was a nice day... I hope he enjoyed it...