COUGHS & SNEEZES

Wee One sneezes.

(Imagine the following in a little tiny elf-ish voice spoken in a run on sentence behind a pacifier...)

"In peeschool (preschool) we learned to cough in elbow and bess you (bless you - sneeze) in elbow."


Darn that kid is cute!

POPCORN KID

(His little sign reads: SUPPORT SCOUTING - BUY POPCORN!)

Little bro' is now getting into the Popcorn Sales Spirit!

Actually, this was his costume for the Cub Scout Halloween Party last night. While the big boys were doing "Show & Sell" for popcorn last weekend, I happened to come up with this warped idea for a costume. He was a trooper & smiled & put it on... and won a prize! LOL! He was so proud of himself -- couldn't stop preening while he stood up there for the judging! Okay, so maybe he also got the sympathy vote (yep, I contemplated changing his costume to "Crash Test Dummy")...

Anyway, if you are interested, and REALLY - can you RESIST such a cute little salesman?? -- here are the online sales codes for the big boys:

Sullen: http://www.trails-end.com/estore/home_alt.jsp?_requestid=385593

Mouth: http://www.trails-end.com/estore/home_alt.jsp?_requestid=385615

Yes, it's expensive... but it IS good popcorn. Reason it's so expensive is because about 70% of the proceeds directly benefit the boys' council & pack.

If you're local, drop me an email if you'd like something. The boys are trying to fill their sales sheets -- if they do that, they get a ticket to a local indoor water park AND a marshmallow blaster, which the Fluffy One wants so that she can then run around behind them & gobble up the marshmallows & puke later & I can yell at the big boys that THEY have to clean up the dog puke blah blah blah.... LOL!!!

Anyway, the "lowest price point" is $10 -- a plastic tub (resuable for storage!) of caramel popcorn or unpopped popcorn for stove-top popping or an air popper. Let us know soon, PLEASE :) !!

YOUR POPCORN SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED :) !!!

BLACK-EYED BABY

Here is the highly anticipated picture of our little black-eyed baby.

No, we didn't beat him. Just the older ones. (Kidding!)

He fell out of the Expedition on Tuesday... resulting in his little swollen nose... black right eyelid... scratches & bruises on said swollen nose.... swollen & scraped upper lip.... and lump & abraisions on his forehead.

POOR WEE ONE!!!

(I can just hear Gramma freaking out right now in Myrtle Beach....)

HEY HEY HAYRIDE!!

Our MOPS group went on a Hayride recently & in the middle, we hopped out of the wagon & the kids got to pick out a pumpkin. Wee One wanted a "wee one sized pumpkie" so that's what he got. He was sooo cute hiking around with it!

He had fun hanging out with his friend, C. I actually need to get him together MORE with C, because as we were leaving that morning he decided to try out the potty so that he could go tell C that he had PEED! Woo hoo! Yeah, M&M bribes don't work, us all clapping & cheering doesn't work, but his buddy C knowing he peed - HEY, now THAT is worth doing it for!!

GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD

Wee One: Let's play Ghost Graveyard!

Wee One: You be ghost!

Mouth: No, you be ghost because YOU CAN'T COUNT!

GO FOURTH INTO THE WORLD, YOUNG MEN!

Fourth grade, that is!

Yup, Sullen managed to slip on a smile for the first day of school! He even let me comb his hair! (Gasp!)

Mouth, of course, was Mr. Pose. He was excited about the colors in his shirt matching the inserts on his pockets. SUCH a fashionista!! :)

PSCHOOL

Wee One recently started at "peeschool" at our church. He's been used to going over to the church during the week for "playschool" (childcare) once a week but this "formalized education" stuff is all new to him. We had to move him down from the 3 year old class to the 2-1/2 year old class because even though he calls it "peeschool", since he WON'T use the potty yet he couldn't go to big boy school -- which meant he wasn't able to be in class with his little friend, Ella. (However, he has another little girl-friend, Maggie, who will be in the class soon, so he's excited about that!) ELP does a good job of transitioning the kids; first the teachers come visit the kids at their own homes & read them a story, etc...
While she was at our house, his teacher, "Liepal" (his pronunciation) took his picture for his placemat. Then the week before school started, we went to an Open House where the kids did a scavenger hunt in the room, saw the teacher in the classroom, and they got to play with everything & decorated their placemats before they were laminated. Wee One, of course, did his minimalist schtick and we got the requisite picture of him refusing to show us his face behind a sign. LOL!





On Day One of "peeschool" he was sooo excited! We got all the benchmark pictures -- in front of the house with his sign... getting into the "school bus" (LOL!)... and then a sign picture in the lobby of school. Doesn't he look like such a little urchin??
Here he is once he walked into his classroom. They had the kids all wash their hands, and then they got them busy doing an art project. While I'm disappointed he couldn't be with kids more his own age, I'm actually relieved that he's in this class since they have an aid & the ratios are soooo low! It's 4 kids to 1 teacher, and right now, only 5 of the 8 kids in the class are old enough to be there (they have to be 30 months) so the kids get a lot of great interaction!

Now, all we need to do is pray for his teacher. See, she's actually a neighbor of ours -- I can even see her house across the pond while I'm sitting here at my laptop -- so she KNOWS that we are a nutso family. However, KNOWING she's getting the 3rd boy from my house and HAVING the 3rd boy from my house is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT!!!

POOR "LIEPAL" !!!!

TUGGING AT MY HEARTSTRINGS

I looked over yesterday & Wee One was playing with Fluffy One. She is sooo gentle with him when they play tug -- and he's actually the only one of the boys that WILL play tug with her (the older ones get scared that Fluffy will bite them -- although I do point out that there have been MANY times she SHOULD have bit them that she didn't....) I'm fairly confident that she likes Wee One best. I mean, after all, who else drops food to her all day long????

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

FOUND!

On the last day of our first week in St. Louis (Thursday) I made it my mission to find the elusive Creve Coeur Park. While there, we visited all three playground areas, one overlook where a really nice gentleman that we were disturbing with our rambunctiousness offered to take a family picture, and a water play area. On the way out we saw a deer, and that pretty much solidified my intent to take my kids to a zoo -- they were TOTALLY ENTHRALLED and I realized that we really haven't seen any "animals" since we left our old house (with our yearly baby bunnies & deer that would check out the fence).

The kids had a nice time running around the different areas even though it was a grey, sprinkling day. Yep - you guessed it. The kids who ran through the water area complained about the light drizzle that came down. Go figure... ?!!!?

After we left the park, we headed back to the Drury Inn and packed up the car, then we were off to Kansas City to visit with the rest of the family! (And Gramma is chomping at the bit to see THOSE pictures....!!)

FLUFFY'S VACATION

Figure I can't really call her "Bald Baby" anymore since her shave-down is starting to grow out... While we were off in St. Louis, Fluffy went to Camp Gramma Papaw. Apparently they had her on quite the schedule (I personally think it was the other way around....) She got to have some peace & quiet, long walks, and even longer naps!

She even got to practice her Papaw begging stance at the kitchen table! (At our house she doesn't put her head on your lap -- she only does that with Papaw!)

And speaking of being spoiled by Papaw.... You know how you find yourself shouting out phrases that you heard from YOUR parents while growing up? Well, one day I heard myself yelling to my kids, "Hey! Shut that door! I'm not air conditioning the neighborhood!" Now, if you all look closely at the above pictures, you'll notice that my dog is lying in an OPEN DOORWAY. Yes, Papaw would OPEN THE PATIO DOORS and let her lie there with her head hanging out the open door -- while the critters buzzed in, the air was running, and Gramma was crabbing about it. Why? "Because she likes it like that."

'Nuff said, right?

Hmmmph! And they say that *I* spoil the dog!!!

IT'S SIMPLY MAGIC!

Wednesday we met up with some friends that relocated to St. Louis in the past year from Cub Scouts (big boys) & MOMS Club playgroup (little boy). The kids had an AWESOME time running around with their friends -- I just wish our schedules would have worked out better so we could have seen them more & taken them up on their offer of hospitality! The kids played at The Magic House and really enjoyed getting to see their three friends & play with all the exhibits. We then took them across the street to Subway for lunch -- our thought was that it would be easy. And we thought taking six kid into a busy Subway was going to be easy???? LOL! I was about to break down into tears with the sub guys yelling at me, "Whaddya want?" while the kids whined about wanting pop and chips and cookies and.... LOL! Just too funny, but one of the reasons that I absolutely ADORE Friend Lisa because she sorta has the same "oh well" parenting style and just rolls with everything! We had a few minutes to catch up & I'm so glad to say that she is sooo happy to be in an area that she feels is "home"!

The fun for the evening was that we met up with a friend of The Man's from his client, "Mr. Mike". We went to a place named "Hodak's" which is known for it's fried chicken and then did a "St. Louis institution" by visiting "Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard" for dessert. Many of you know that we try to keep a somewhat reasonable sugar dosage for the Spawn, but if anyone wants to count, at dinner there was pop.... then they had big ole things of ice cream.... then Mr. Mike gave them a goodie bag which contained toys & candy that they started gulping down. (I told The Man that I wasn't sure how much Mr. Mike REALLY liked him....) Needless to say, Wee One was bopping around the hotel room until close to 11 pm. Oh well - that's what vacation is all about, right?