GI JOE: Fighting man from head to toe....again.

As a testament to my husband's ability to always take care of his toys his parents brought along Mark's old set of GI Joe dolls, or were they action figures? Whatever. They brought the entire set to pass along to Riley. These GI Joe's are 40 years old and look great for their age. I think Mark was happy to see these guys again too.


BTW. Did you see that Mark shaved his beard? He did it for me! I'm so happy.
Talk about looking great for his age.. I'm a lucky girl.

Pleased to meet you

You may have noticed that I've been a little absent lately. Mark's parents arrived last Thursday for a 10 day visit. The kids have been beyond excited. We live far away from both sets of grandparents. And, until last week, neither set had met Addison. The kids have been counting the weeks, days, hours and minutes until Grandma and Grandad arrived. And when you are a special visitor...bedtime doesn't really matter.



Now if only we could have the other set of grandparents arrive (you know who you are)!

Roger that, sickie!

Yesterday our plans to go to the park were altered when the school called with news of Riley having an upset stomach. He was all smiles when I picked him up so, initially, I was a little suspicious. All that changed with a nice little fever and some barfing in the shower (which is SO convenient to clean up).
In our house being sick means royal treatment. When I was little I didn't get sick that often but I do remember one time when I was recovering from an appendectomy I pretty much got everything I asked for (surgery really is one of the biggest trump cards). I got to laze in bed, sip ginger ale and watch whatever I wanted on TV, which, granted, was not that big of a deal since we only got 3 channels, but still..it was fun for me.


Riley has enjoyed playing that sick card.




There was ginger ale, a portable DVD player, crackers (ordinarily never EVER to be eaten in the bedrooms) AND the best of all.. a walkie talkie. He is loving that thing. He pages me for information (how am I feeling? who was on the phone?), drink refills, new DVD selections and also to tell me how much he loves me. Aww..

This little thing is starting to bug me though...

Clearly he must be feeling better and getting a little bored. He's paged me no less than 50 times today. Sounds like it's back to school tomorrow.

Chalk talk

Since August we've been regulars at this park. My kids get to see their friends, chase them and be chased. I get to see my friends and yell at my kids to stop throwing sand. We were there on Tuesdays after piano practice and Mondays and Wednesdays during soccer practice. And now..there's no more soccer practice and with the time change it's too late to go after piano practice. We are headed there today with our gigantic box of chalk. Did you know that a gigantic box of chalk is an awesome park "icebreaker"?

Pardon the interruption

It's a great morning. The kids are eating a hot breakfast. We are more than on time. We will be EARLY for school. Johnny Cash and Elvis seem to be taking turns on Pandora this morning. There is happy chatter all around. Addison is busy doing her own thing as well.

I apologize but I need to interrrupt this regularly scheduled program for a diaper change.


And a good day to you too!

I really was a scarey mommy!

Although the contest is over I could have won a Scarey Mommy award last night.
Introducing: Octomom

and yes...there really are eight babies in there.
Mark went as Dr House from, well, the show called House.

PS: I linked to Scarey Mommy's blog above because SHE linked to my Scarey Mommy contest post. If you click onto the link my post is listed under "heartfelt". Even though I didn't win I was excited that she linked to my post. Thanks for the blog love Scarey Mommy!

A little bit of childhood

Here are some children we found last week. We think they are cousins. They're either cousins or they are the Flying Wallendas.





They were getting some serious height on their jumps. I love seeing joy in their smiles. I love big belly laughs too.
Why are children in such a hurry to grow up, to be bigger? When I was little it was my lifelong goal to finally celebrate a birthday that had double digits. We try to explain why it's so much fun to be a kid. Maybe it's just their "developmental goal" to want to be more mature. Ugh. I wish I could be a kid again.
In other news, our cool October nights have finally arrived. This night on the trampoline may have been our last warm evening. Goodbye summer. Hello hot chocolate.