Mary Kate may have a future in Mary Kay

After dinner tonight we were all sitting in the family room watching The Flintstones movie. Mary Kate was sitting very quietly on my lap (well actually it was more like lying alongside my hip). It wasn't until I looked over at her that I saw what was keeping her quiet.
It was most definitely a picture moment. Thankfully, the camera was charged and hubby was able to find it.

Biden's job description according to Riley

Riley: Mom I know what a Vice President does
Me: What's that Riley?
Riley: Well if Obama is sick then the Vice President fills in. Kinda like a princess filling in for a queen.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy taking Ri to do errands on the weekends. You just never know what he's going to say :)

Add "shoe sales" to my job description

This Summer the kids have been earning quarters for doing different chores and as a way for us to recognize respectful behavior towards their siblings and (more importantly) me. It has been working pretty well. There are times when they have to pay me (yeah), if the warnings have been given and the negative behavior continues. When they start paying Mom miracles begin to take place, their behaviors improve dramatically.

So we've been chugging along giving and taking quarters for a few weeks now and all the while I've been tripping over shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. Not sure of what the change has been, but all of a sudden the kids have stopped putting their shoes away. It really isn't a difficult task. We pull the van into the garage and right there in front of us is a shoe rack on the door as we enter the house. Pretty straight forward - shoes off, hang them up, close door, done!

So now the new rule is if Mom (that's me) or Dad find the shoes, we will take them away and in order for them to get them back they have to buy them from us. Yesterday, we were getting ready to leave for an afternoon at some friends house when I noticed Andrew walking around frantically looking for his shoes. Cha-Ching! Pay up buddy. A quarter a shoe and momma just made 50 cents!

Do ya think this is a taxable income?

Would someone please tell my daughter she's a girl

I knew it would be tough raising a little girl to be girlie when she has 4 older brothers, but some days I wish I could go back to the times when she would let me put the frilly dress of my choosing on her. The day usually begins with her removing her pj's and putting on whatever pj's of her brothers that she finds laying around...

Then once the boys are off at school or camp, she likes to raid their rooms for a little change of clothes. Most recently that entailed going into Andrew's baseball basket and putting on his baseball socks to have with her morning cup of yogurt....

At least I got her past the stage of wearing Andrew's football cup all the time (can't find the picture of that one) and of putting Simon's pull-up over her clothes...

There are many a day that I'm just thankful she's wearing something, because she'd certainly prefer to live in her birthday suit. Why be restrained by clothes?

I think the picture that most accurately captures my little girlie-girl is when she was outside swinging Easter morning with her dress flying in the air as she was grabbing her gun....

Love note from the Hubster

On Thursday mornings, the hubster is out of the house at 2:40 am to go to a Holy Hour Eucharistic Adoration, back home around 4:25 and heads straight downstairs to workout. He showers and then is off to catch an early train all before we wake up. Surprisingly, he is able to do this without waking up the house. When I woke up Thursday morning, I found a sweet thank you note on the table for him since I had made his lunch the night before. When I sat down with my laptop to have my morning coffee and catch up on emails, I was greeted by an email from my hubster with the subject line that read "Don't be freaked out but...." Oh sure, I won't freak out. What the heck, what in the world happened?? Here is the text of the email from him...

There is something living in the workout room. I was riding the bike and looked up and saw a black figure scurry across the door toward the furnace. Real nice that when in the middle of my Rosary I yell "Holy S__t!" I went to check when I was done with my workout and didn't see anything. So we should keep an eye out. I think it is probably a mouse like we have / had in the garage (might be the same one).I am catching the 5:56 train this morning.BP

Note to self, exercise isn't really THAT important! I'll be sticking to walking outdoors.

Coloring Nolan's world

Nolan loves to color. That is actually an understatement. Nolan colors every day, numerous times a day and will color anything. As you can imagine, we have a lot of crayons and with 2 younger siblings that like to break crayons we have more broken crayons than whole. The quantity of broken crayons is a problem with Nolan because he will dig through our tub-o-crayons until he finds a full size crayon in the color he needs. Nolan's addiction to crayons is actually comical. He tends to hoard crayons. He has been known to hide a box of crayons up in his top bunk away from the crayon-breakers. Hmmm, maybe I should seek out a "CHA" group for him (that's Crayon Hoarding Anonymous to you and I). Anyway, so when the pencil boxes from school were brought home and the number of broken crayons greatly increased, Nolan and I sat down to a little crafty fix to this problem. We made crayons! Not rocket science, but fun nonetheless.

We started by separating out all the broken crayons. Then we started peeling all the paper off of the broken crayons. This is somewhat tedious and great fine motor work.

Did I happen to mention that we have A LOT of crayons?

Once we had everything separated, I took an old mini-muffin pan and sprayed it lightly with Pam. If I had paper muffin cups I would have used them in addition to the pan.

We broke the crayons into smaller pieces and mixed up some of the colors. Put them in a preheated 250 degree oven. The melting time will vary. You will see there is a big difference between Crayola crayons and the cheap ones that you get from restaurants. Yes, we are "those" people that take all the crayons with us that they hand out to keep kids happy before the meal arrives.

Voila! Here is the final product. The mixing of the colors makes it fun. It would be neat to try different shapes/molds. There a few crayons that all but a small area melted, so there is still a crayon stick in the circle (as can be seen by the yellow one on the bottom left). This is because of the varying melting times. The yellow crayon must have been a Crayola!

Note, the above picture is not Nolan's normal coloring! He was just trying out all the colors and scribbling. Below is a sample of Nolan's coloring....

MK's chicken is my kitchen.

Me: "Good job getting undressed Mary Kate. Where does your pullup go?"
MK: - walks into boys room and throws it on the floor -
Me: "No Mary Kate, it goes in the trash"
MK: - surprised look - "Oh da twashhh"
Me: "Yes in the trash in the kitchen"
MK: - questioning - "In da chicken?"
Me: "In the kitchen, the trash can in the kitchen"
MK - "Oh, ok. In da chicken"

She continued to mumble "in da chicken" the whole way down the stairs.

Spaced out on Spaceballs

While the kids were eating their not-so-nutritious-artery-clogging meal from Mickey-D's, I searched the tv for something for the kids to watch. I'm looking for a somewhat peaceful night before they head off to bed. Wishful thinking, I KNOW! A woman can dream though....

Me: Ok guys, I have a hilarious movie you can watch. It's called Spaceballs.
Ri: No.... is it cartoon?
Me: No
Ri: I don't want to watch it (with a lot of WHINE)
Me: Fine, I'm going to turn it on and if you don't laugh in the next 30 minutes then I'll turn it off.

5 minutes later....

Ri: Mom are you recording this?
Me: Yes
Ri: Good!

So I won, however now that I am hearing it, I'm really beginning to rethink who won? Too many words that they kids don't need to hear ;( Why did it seem ok 20 years ago and now not so much? It's amazing how much kids change things for you...

Nolan seeking bride. Must be Amish.

Nolan - Mom, when I get married, I know where I'm going on my honeymoan (yes that's the way he said it!)
Me - Yeah, where?
Nolan - Dutch Wonderland
Andrew - Don't you think you should take her somewhere more relaxing?
Nolan - Like where?
Andrew - The beach would work.