Monday, September 26, 2011

Man Of The House


So this is usually the man of the House.
But this week he is at a conference.
So.
What happens?
This man of the house, lines up the other two little men of the house and makes them look at him.
This man of the house says, as he leans down to the two little men:
"Where do your hands go, where do your eyes go?"
(much like a drill sergeant)
The two little men put their little man of the house arms behind their back and point their 4 brown eyes up to their dads'.
"What happens when daddy isn't home?"
"We're the Man of the House," the boys respond.
"And what does that mean?" the big man of the house asks.
The bigger of the two little men says,
"we ask mom what we can do to help her."
"Right, and what else?"
Silence.
"Ummmm"
"Oh, I know. We don't chase Naomi around the house pretending to be Zombies so she cries and screams."
"Right. And what else?"
The biggest man turns to the littlest man.
"We put our clothes away?" he wonders out loud.
"Good."
And with that the biggest man of the house leaves in his jump-started white thing we sometimes refer to as his car. We pray daddy makes it back home to us, eventually.
And I am left. With one little girl and two very strong, brave, and handsome little Man's of the House.
And just like their daddy, they took up my whole bed last night.


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

First day of School...In Denver!


Rough start. Uncomfortable polyester pants. Short sleeve white polo shirts. Bad combo for the Mooch. He hates both. I spent the morning drivinig around town looking for a PLAIN white long sleeve t-shirt that he could wear under the polo. He HATES short sleeves. I ran back to the school by 11:00 and had to get special permission from the principal for Jake to wear the long sleeve tee. Oh, brother. It could be a long year.
THis is the ONLY picture of mooch that I could get before school. He actually didn't even get dressed until we were all in the car.



Thanks for getting dressed Mr. 3rd grader.




After School shot of him checking on his pet snake. Making sure he made it through the day without him. You may notice Jake's long sleeve tee shirt in the after school shot, but not in the half naked morning photo. I am such a good mom.




The boys met their teachers a few days ago. They did not disappoint. Each one of the boys in their own way made their first impression. They were true to their personalities.

Jake was first. He didn't let go of me. Not once. We had discussed earlier in the day what we thought his teacher may look like. We decided on scraggly red hair and crooked teeth.
We met his teacher. Quite the opposite. As Hip as can be. Young. A Ms. not a Mrs. I tried to break the ice for Jake by telling his teacher what we thought she was going to look like. Jake smiled. But didn't comment. Again, he never left my leg. Really. My leg. His two little arms hung around my leg as if he were an ornament on a Christmas Tree. On the way out the door his teacher told him to choose a pencil and a sucker. What does Jake say for his first words. "I don't like those." Sweet. I took one.

Next was William. I mean, Will. Sorry. He walked right up and shook his teachers hand. "I have a really big goal right now. Do you want to know what it is?"
The teacher replied in the affirmative.
"I am going to travel as much of the world as a Monarch Butterfly."
"Oh, wow, replied the teacher." She looked at me. She whispered, "I don't even know how far Monarch Butterflies travel, do you?"
I shook my head. We both had an instant silent understanding of what lay ahead for this dear teacher. She turned back to Will. "So when are you going to accomplish this goal?"
"Oh, he responded, by the age of 10."

Welcome to another year my babies. I pray we all get through it together. We had better hold on tight, pray real hard, and get used to stingy, dingy, brown and blue polyester.


Animal Summer





Well, the boys have officially caught two snakes so far this Summer. It's disgusting.
I'm sorry, but it is.
We also housed five caterpillars and watched them transform into beautiful Pink Lady Butterflies. Now that was cool.


Yard Sale






It has been a long, very long Summer around these parts. The boys are going to a brand new charter school that just so happened to not be built in time for the start of school. We enjoyed a few more weeks. Honestly, we have spent most of our time playing in our front yard...doing activities such as these...

We are OBSESSED with making money at our house. We have had several garage sales with our very own clothes (that Jake said didn't fit in his drawer anymore...yeah, right) and of course we made this beautiful jewelry and miniature paper action figures.
We started out stringing Penne pasta onto strands of red curling ribbon and headed out to spray paint it. Did I mention that it has been a looooong Summer?
We sat out there from 10-6. Pretty much all day. I even brought their lunch out to them. By 6:00...no profit. The kids were devastated. Apparently no one wanted to pay $5.00 for a fruit loop and penne pasta patterned necklace.
Dad drove in at 6:00. Just in time to close up shop. He searched frantically for quarters in his car. Perfect. He found $2.00. William settled on selling him a plain pasta necklace for a dollar. James couldn't afford the fruit loo, pasta combo. He actually couldn't afford the plain penne either, but James taught William how to barter.
Jake, on the other hand...was a harder egg to crack. Apparently he didn't have any jewelry only worth only a dollar. All of his goods were worth at LEAST two dollars. James, tried as he may, tried to tell Jake he could either sell him a necklace for ONE dollar, or not make any money at all that day. Jake thought. He decided. His jewelry was worth way more than a dollar. He closed shop empty handed. He turned James; dolar down cold handed. We both laughed. That's our Mooch. The most strong-willed, never yielding child I have ever met. Even if it means he goes broke.