Mmmmm, butter......

If you ever come to my house for dinner, you might want to avoid the butter.....

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

It's sort of embarrassing to admit, but Matt and I, until yesterday, had never taken our kids to the zoo. That's such a staple of childhood, and yet, somehow, we'd just never quite made it there. Maybe it was the fear of driving an hour with three kids who potentially might scream the entire way. Maybe it was concern over becoming one of those stories you read about where a parent looks away for two seconds, and next thing you know, a toddler's in the lion cage. (That actually isn't too far-fetched- y'all know how Will is.) Most likely it was the astronomical costs of taking a family of five to the zoo that's kept us away. $65 bucks for tickets alone- keeping in mind that the twins don't even need tickets yet- is enough to make anyone think, "do they really need to see lions and panda bears?" But since my mom was kind enough to buy us tickets, and we have, after all, made it driving 5 hours to the beach every summer without killing anyone, it was time to man up and take the kids to the zoo.
Saturday was perhaps the most perfect weather on earth, and my sister and her husband kindly agreed to meet us to help wrangle the children. And I think everyone actually had a good time. Hays LOVES animals, so he was in hog heaven. He greeted all the creatures enthusiastically, "Hi, famingos! Hi, zebra! Hi, gidaff!" And he really wanted to get close to them. He told the elephant, "I hold you? High five?" Unfortunately the elephant didn't seem too interested in letting Hays hold him. Neither did the meerkats. Luckily, the goats and sheep at the petting zoo were happy enough to have Hays love on them. Good thing since he insisted on kissing each one. Will, on the other hand, was way more interested in the hand washing station. Why pet a goat when you can play in water?
I thought that they would all love the panda bears, and I was sort of right. Hays did indeed love the pandas- the stuffed pandas in the gift shop that is. We passed the store on the way to the panda exhibit and he practically had a conniption fit trying to go in. I promised we'd come back after we saw the real pandas. Well, he took one look at those adorable bears being all cute with their bamboo, and was ready to head back to the gift shop. Sigh. At least I managed to talk him out of the $75 life size panda and convince him that the $8 version was even better.
Mason liked the zoo but he told me it wasn't like he'd dreamed. When I asked what was different, he told me "Well, I thought it would be one big building with lots of animals in different cages." I explained to him how animals are much happier and healthier when they're outdoors in areas that resemble their natural habitat, but he didn't seem too impressed. I'm pretty sure he would have preferred his version. Sure the animals are miserable, but you can see them really well!
All in all, it was a great day. We were whipped by the end of it, but it was worth it. We fulfilled our parental obligations to take our kids to the zoo, and nobody screamed the hour there or back- not even me!

The dreaded meeting with the teacher....

I had a meeting with Mason's teacher yesterday. It didn't come as a big surprise. I had the same meeting in kindergarten, and preschool, and I'm sure I'll have it next year. So what was it about? The same thing it's always about: "Mason is so smart, but he's not focused/doesn't pay attention/doesn't listen/doesn't follow directions. He is so capable but he rushes through his work/makes careless mistakes/ doesn't work to his full potential. Mason is a good kid and a natural leader, but he talks too much/ wants to do things his way/ wants to call the shots."

I've heard it over and over since he was three years old (and I've known most of it since he was about three days old!) We've talked to him, lectured him, punished him, rewarded him, bribed him, begged him...... And we do see improvement, but so much of that is just who Mason is. And I get it, I so get it, because you see, Mason and I are exactly alike. My mother sat through that very same teacher meeting every year of my academic career. She talked, implored, bribed, threatened me every school year of my life, all to no avail. (So you know that while she's sympathetic to my plight, she's also laughing her ass off just a little bit!!)

And because Mason and I are basically two peas in a pod, I know that he's compelled to rush through his work and finish it as quickly as possible, attention to detail be damned! I understand that unless it's something he finds interesting, he's going to do as little as he possibly can to get by so he can move on to other things. And am very familiar with the daydreaming that leads to missed instructions and a confused, "Now, what are we supposed to do????" I've been there. For 32 years now, I've been there. And I'm still a disorganized daydreamer. I still rush headlong into something without paying attention to directions or details. It makes my life harder than it has to be, and it will likely do the same for him.

Even though I completely empathize with Mason, I'll still stay on his butt to pay attention, follow directions, do his best work, etc. That's just what moms do. And no doubt I'll punish him for getting in trouble at school, or getting grades that don't reflect his full potential. But while I'm fussing at him, the schoolgirl inside of me will be saying, "Dude, I totally understand." Hopefully, he'll have an easier time of it than I did. But until he does, I might as well go in on the first day and schedule that conference for right about the second month of school.

Fire, fire!!

Will tried to burn the house down yesterday. Okay, that's not entirely true. I don't think he actually was thinking "Hahaha, I'm gonna burn this sucker down," but since it was his actions that led to a small kitchen fire, I'm blaming him.
I was making dinner yesterday and I turned on the oven to preheat so I could make some biscuits. While it was heating, I went in the playroom to waste time on Facebook. Mason said, "Mom, something smells like roasting marshmallows." I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, so I said, "Oh, that's just dinner cooking." I few seconds later, I got a whiff of something distinctly campfire-ish. I turned around to see smoke pouring from the oven vents. Uh-oh. I ran into the kitchen to find a flaming potholder burning away in the oven. After a moment's panic of "Oh God, fire, kids in the house, what do I do?!!" I grabbed kitchen tongs, told Mason to keep his brothers out of the way, pulled out the burning potholder, threw it in the sink and ran water over it. Crisis averted.
We have Will to thank for the smoky kitchen and blackened mess in the sink. He's discovered that he can open the oven, but I didn't realize he was filling it with kitchen supplies! Now I guess we'll have to get a lock for the oven and it can join the ranks of the locked dishwasher, cabinets and pantry. But until I get one, I guess I'll be checking the oven before I try to preheat it again!!

Facing my addiction

Chair before.....

chair after!

(the distressing looks better in person)

No one is safe from project mania!!

The footboard that we turned into a fabulous headboard!

Hi, my name is Cameron, and I am addicted to home decorating. It has been almost 24 hours since I have painted or reupholstered and already I'm getting antsy and anxious.....

If there was such a thing as home decorators anonymous, I would sooooo be there. In the last few weeks I have painted until my hands feel like they might fall off. I don't know what it is. I always like to have some kind of crafty project going, but lately, I've taken it to new levels. It all started three weeks ago when I decided that the deck on the front of the house and the shutters needed painting. Then I decided we really ought to install window boxes in all the windows. That fun little adventure stretched over two weeks, and it's still not completely done, we've got one window box left to install- trying to drill into brick is much harder than I thought. It was an insane amount of work, but yielded lovely results. I'd take some pictures, but it's raining, and like I said, we still have one window box to go.

But somehow that project started this whole ball of home improvement rolling. The next weekend brought the quest for kitchen chairs. My crappy, cheapo chairs were falling apart, so I decided to go junkin' to find some new ones that I could fix up. Sure, I could just buy normal, finished kitchen chairs that required no work, but where's the fun in that? The finding of the chairs was easy enough- found 'em the minute I walked into my favorite junk shop. And I didn't have any trouble finding the fabric to reupholster the seats either. But the amount of work it has taken to refinish them is insane. I wanted kind of a shabby chic look, so after I spent several hours painting them with three coats of white paint, I took sandpaper and scuffed them all up so they would look old and beat up. One might wonder why I didn't just buy some old beat up chairs to begin with? Well, duh, that would never do. I can't just have any old raggedy chair, they have to be beat up in a certain way! There's a science to this.

I claim no responsibility for the project that snowballed off the chair search. I blame that one entirely on my mother in law. After we found chairs, she mentioned that she had a seen a chest of drawers that might look good in Mason's room and offered to buy it for him. Sweet! But then we started worrying that this nice, new piece might make the rest of his furniture look crappy. Obviously that would never do, so what could she do but buy him a new nightstand and shelves? Which meant that he would need a new headboard. And we would have to paint his bookshelves. And hamper. And install new blinds. And while we found a headboard, it just wasn't quite right, so we decided to use the footboard as a head board and mount it on the wall- after I painted it. You understand right? We had no choice. It simply had to be done. On the upside, it looks fabulous!

See, it's like a drug habit. You try just a little bit, then you need just a little bit more.... then it spirals out of control and the next thing you know you're standing in Lowe's with a cart full of tools and supplies begging the guys at the paint counter to mix just one more color. And if I'm not redecorating, I'm thinking about it. Sometimes thinking about a new project will literally keep me awake at night. I know, I know, it's ridiculous. But I can't help it, it's an addiction!!

But I'm trying to get it under control. I'm nearing the end of project-palooza. All I've got left to do is refinish the kitchen table and reface the kitchen cabinets, and then I'm stopping. I promise. Maybe. Unless the the gussied-up kitchen starts to make the playroom look shabby and tired.....

Pay up, Tooth Fairy!!!

Today is a big day for the Mase-man. He lost his first tooth!!!!! And since he's one of the last among his friends to lose a tooth, it's a really big deal. He'd been worrying about it for about six months, and I promised him that if he hadn't lost one by Christmas, we'd go to the dentist and ask her about it. But no worries now! He is officially a member of the snaggletooth squad!!

I'm a little worried about the Tooth Fairy's going rate these days. In our house, she will be giving $5 for the first tooth and $2 for subsequent teeth. I think that sounds reasonable, but who knows? I swear if he goes to school on Monday and some kid goes, "Five dollars? All you got was five dollars? The tooth Fairy left me a twenty." I'm going to go to that kid's house and punch his/her parents in the face for being an idiot and setting a bad precedent!

Mason's actually had lots of big days lately. He's playing soccer again, and this year he's on a team that actually wins sometimes! I mean, sure, it's all supposed to be fun whether they win or not. But let's be honest, winning is always more fun.

He's also joined the cub scouts. I signed up to be the assistant leader- partly because no else volunteered, and partly because I need to learn some boy stuff. As a girly-girl with no brothers, a have a shameful lack of knowledge about stuff like campfires and bb guns. If you need somebody to put tiny shoes on Barbie's feet or braid My Little Pony's tail, I'm your girl, but tell me to tie a square knot and I'm sunk! Hopefully this way I'll learn some useful skills.

School Daze

How cute are these? I did the letters myself!

No, Mommy! No picture!!!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school I go

Come on, Mom! Let's gooooooooo!!!
(And that's where the pictures stop. No cute going in the

classroom shots, because there are two of them and one

of me, and that equals not enough hands to take pictures!)

Since I gave up blogging for the summer (it was too hot and boring- nobody wants to read two months of posts complaining about the weather and my whiny kids), you haven't heard about the twins latest adventure: preschool!!! Three weeks ago they took the first step down their educational path and began preschool one morning a week for three hours. Thus far, it's been glorious- three beautiful hours to myself (and I think they're having fun, too!)

I was a little nervous about starting them so young- Mason was three when he started and they're only 2 1/2. But I figured, they've got each other, so it's not like I'm dumping them alone in a roomful of strangers. Of course, the sobs you hear as I walk out the door would make you believe otherwise. This is a typical drop off: We get ready and they're all excited, "Yay, backpack! Yay, school! Yay, Miss Angie, Miss Diane!" We get to school and they dash to their classroom, run in the door, wave to their teachers, and...... burst into tears, but according to their teachers, they settle down quickly. And I get to walk out the door, free as a bird, for the first time in, well, ever. See, when Mason started preschool, I was newly pregnant with the twins. So instead of enjoying three hours of freedom each week, I used his school days for the 900,000 doctors appointments that crazy, medical mystery of a pregnancy required. But not this time, my friends. These three hours are mine, all mine!!!!

Sadly enough, three hours goes far too quickly and I generally use them to do something totally boring, like clean house. (And the fact that I can't manage to finish cleaning it in that three hours should tell you something about the general state of my house!) But still, it's three hours of quiet. Three hours of bathroom doors that can stay open, three hours of pet food that can stay on the floor, and sometimes I can even carry on an entire phone conversation without having to stop and yell at anyone!! And then, before you know it, it's 12:00 and I have to pick them up and the peace and quiet fades to a lovely memory. but I have the promise of next week's preschool morning to sustain me!