Genie not included...

So our trip to target was not all spent in the tooth brush isle. We actually had some shopping to do.

A few weeks ago, I tripped over our floor lamp. It came crashing down and the globe splattered into a million pieces. Now, I am clutsy, but it was the middle of the night and I was half asleep, but still- a classic Jen moment that lead to us running the vaccum at 3 am.

Our trip to target was primarily to get this:



And while Jim was putting it together- our kids were having fun and doing this:





But we have a nice new lamp- that is less tipsy than the previous one and there is no glass to shatter into a million pieces- which is good. :)

Overheard in the tooth brush isle...

Ok- Jim and I are still laughing about this one.

It all started yesterday. The kids needed a new toothbrushs and so while we were out yesterday we picked up new ones.



Along with this we got non-minty toothpaste (which is a requirement in our house- as the kids hate mint)

Anyway, I realized when we got home today that Jim could use a new toothbrush too, and so while we were out we stopped at Target we're in the tooth brush isle.

Lilly is very excited about her new tooth brush and is adament that Daddy should get one like hers.

And so at the top of her lungs she starts telling dadddy (and I'm gonna quote here)

"Mommy bought me a vibrator" and kept talking about how wonderful her vibrator is.

Yeah...

Then Caleb chimed in with his .02 on how much he loves his Vibrator.

Meanwhile I'm trying to tell the kids that they are not called vibrators, they are called toothbrushes. That didn't go over so well.

It goes without saying that we were not the only ones in the isle. It seemed like all of target could hear our conversation at the time.

Yeah... Gotta love those kids...

Another Halloween preview

And so this was what Abby had in mind for a costume for halloween:


and since she is in adult sizes now, I was not exactly thrilled to spend $30 on a costume she would wear for only one night. (Middle school does not have parties or parades)

And so we used what we had and purchased a piratey sword for her and voila- Our own pirate

Halloween Preview

Caleb has a Costume party coming up soon, so we had to get a costume together for him.

THis is what he choose to be:



And since I was pretty sure that the school would have a problem with him walking around in his briefs for his school parade, this is what Jim and I came up with for him to wear.




Yeah... I think this is my favorite costume ever.... It's so... so... Caleb. :)

Monday is date day...

And today on our date day we went to Cabela's.



We're very exciting aren't we?

We're actually on the search for some camelbak's for the kids for hiking & Biking and we figured if anyone would have what we wanted it would be at cabela's.

And they didn't, so we're gonna have to get them online it seems. :)

Speaking of the kids, here are some pictures from the park today:







That's all for now!

Ace of Cakes, we are not.

We had another newphew weekend. This time Mally spent the weekend with us.

I have to admit- a lot of their weekend was devouted to Lego Star Wars. Mally doesn't have that game and he and Caleb love playing it when they are here together.

But I did pull them away long enough to take them shopping for some new clothes and then we played Duff.

Now, Duff makes beautiful cakes that look like this:





Ours? not so much. More like this:






Yeah. They looked bad but tasted good and that's all that matters. And the kids had fun with the "cake play-doh"

And I will leave you with this. Just a snipit of the chatter in house over the weekend.


Mally: Knock, Knock

Caleb: Who's there

Mally: Darth Vader

Caleb: Darth Vader who?

Mally: Darth Vader who's in the bathroom going potty.

*enourmous giggles from the back seat of the van*

Caleb: Knock, Knock

Mally: Who's There?

Caleb: Dorney Park.

Mally: Dorney Park Who?

Caleb: Mally went to Dorney park and his head got blasted off because he went into the potty that Darth Vader was peeing in!

*even more enourmous laugher*


Take the star wars lingo and the potty talk and multiply that by ten. Yup. That was my weekend.

And let me just say, thank God Lilly was a girl, b/c this whole boy thing is tiring. :) I'm just sayin.....

And that was my weekend. :)

Excited!

And just why am I excited?



Because the kids and I found these at huge clearance prices.

And I'm sure you all are wondering why I'm so excited about pool toys.

1. We have no pool
2. even if we had a pool it's getting too cold out to swim in right now anyway.

And I'd have to say, yup, you're right.

However, we just booked our vacation house for next year. A sweet house that has a private heated pool, a hot tub, a fire pit for a camp like experience, A/c For mom who doesn't camp. And so for 7 glorious days next summer we will have a pool and now we have pool toys that I didn't have to pay full price for.

We loved DC, and we're gonna go back, however, it was one of those Go-go-go vacations where we needed a day or two to relax afterwards.

This vacation is as close to camping as we will get (unless we get an RV- which is on our wish list for the future). We'll be in the beautiful state of Virginia. We're gonna roast weenies, make s'mores and then sleep in a nice air conditioned house. That's my kind of camping.

Very exciting- and I can't wait till we go.

And another exciting thing that happened was this:




Jim had Kathy and the girls over for a photo shoot. And as he was prepping the lighting we caught these pictures of Cat. She NEVER lets us take a picture of her and in the case that we do her eyes are ALWAYS closed.

And now we know why. It seems that she's such a diva cat that she had to wait until she was photographed professionally to show the world her eyes. What a quirky, quirky, cat. She fits in our quirky, quirky family.

That's all!

You might want to spray your computer down...

... so you don't catch my germs via the computer.





I've been sick, sick, sick and then sick again. It's been horrible. I'm finally starting to feel better and my voice is coming back. And now I get to be well (er) in time to be nurse to all the other sickos in the house. :(








Anyway, We had a newphew weekend last weekend. We had planned a hike at a local park to get the kids worn out and away from the game cube-










Unfortunately it rained and poured all day long. And so when this started going on:













I decided it was time to bring out the big guns.











We made paper bag puppets





And then we decided to go play lazer tag. It was the perfect rainy day activity. The boys were thrilled by lazer tag. The picked out their star wars names and teamed up to try and get the girls. Surprisingly enough Momma Mia (that would be me!) came out on top. I was Number 4 in the group of 35. Considering the last time I played I was dead last, and I'm just not very good at any kind of aim and shoot kinda game- it's a big thing for me.

On Sunday, the weather was nice and clear and so we went to the tennis courts. Jim and I volley'd for a while and the kids played for a while and we wore them out. Before taking Zach home, we stopped at the mall and got him his own pair of Donkey Kong Bongos.

And so there was our newphew weekend. We have another newphew weekend coming up with Mally and so I'm gonna have to come up with something fun to do with him. :) Perhaps we'll go on that hike/picnic we had to postpone before.

I love Newphew weekends- these kids love to come and play and I love having them here. :)

This is the kids this past July at the pentagon memorial. They are all too young to remember September 11th - (Lilly was not even thought of yet) And so I know they don't get the tears in their eyes like we did when we were there. We were in a whirlwind vacation visiting monuments dedicated to long dead people and wars that have been over for years. If you look close at their faces, C&L were both crying in the picture. Not because they were sad- because we were walking and it was hot and they were not in picture taking mode. And so I don't think that they really understood this memorial like Jim and I did.

Jim and I visited ground zero on the fourth of july weekend in 2002. It was so eerie. The place was packed full of people. We had to wait in a line that was nearly a block long to get to see. I have never seen so many people in one place- let alone in NYC. And the thing that made it eerie is that there was no noise. Everyone was silent and you could hear crying and it was as if we were at a funeral.

Anyway, today is not just about remembering all that is sad.

It's also a day to remember the good. 9 years ago today Big Sexy and I got married and started our own little family. We moved to the town we live in and we've been living happily ever since. I wouldn't change our life for the world. Love you babe!

Boy Band Bonding. Seriously.

So, Abby and I were upstairs while foot ball was on watching music videos.

Her main objective was to watch The Jonas Brothers un-interuppted. And thanks to Daddy's head's up to let her know that 8 new videos were uploaded on Demand for her viewing pleasure she was in heaven.

I must admit for a boy band, they aren't that bad. They write most of their music themselves and for that I have to give them credit. And really, I can totally understand the pre-teen boy band craziness- as I was part of the new kids on the block generation.

And so when Abby was flipping through her video choices she came upon a NKOTB song and I asked her to play it- so she could see that I was into this stuff too.





I knew they were having a reunion. I did not know thye were putting out new music. And you can imagine the shock Abby and I had when the video that was playing was a song that she KNEW AND LIKED- and I hated!!

Yup, she knew almost every word of their single Summertime.

Yeah. Talk about weird.

Personally, I think that came back skank-i-fied (for lack of a better word) and so at that point I had her search for some of their older stuff.

And here's the amazing part: she liked it!

Go figure.

I don't see her going all fruit loop when she hears their songs like I did 20 some years ago- she'll save that for the jo-bros. But I think that she got a better understanding tongiht that I'm not just a mom- and that I had a life very similar to hers once upon a time and tonight we bonded over boy bands.

And I think that's pretty cool.

I was just playing with the new Picassa upgrade we got this week.

I must say, I'm impressed. They took a lot of the things I wished the program could do and made it happen.

This is a photo collage of Abby's Party last week.

As for us, We're having a cousin sleepover and Hurricane Hannah took my plans for a hike and threw them out the window. It's just starting to rain as I type.

I'm gonna have to come up with some rainy day activities or else they kiddos will be on the game cube all day long.

How very convienent

Abby's birthday is always right before Labor day and so lately we've been putting the two together and having a labor day birthday party. :)
She's 11 now. And I'm freaking out. One more birthday before we hit the teens. How can it be that I'm old enough to have a teenage daughter?? I mean really, It just can't be possible when it seems like only yesterday she was the little toddler running around the apartment . Time sure does fly.
And these were ice cream cone cupcakes. Specially requested by the birthday girl, made by Me, decorated by Abby and One of her friends.


And that was how I spent my labor day. Tacos and birthday cake.... followed by several hundred rounds of Uno. (and I am loathe to say that I did not win one round. )

That's all!