Happy Harvesting

It has become apparent to me, looking back on my blog, that it is possible I need to get a life... But, in the mean time, you get to see more pictures of my adorable girls. I'm sure that you all think they are as cute as I do. How could you not? Anyhoo... I asked the girls to pick me some tomatoes for dinner (toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches anyone?) and of course they all jumped up and did exactly what I asked, as soon as I asked it... Right. But Erin did run right out and was so cute picking them that we had to take her picture. At least one of the animals in this zoo are well trained! What a sweetie!

Quote of the Day:
I have been passing yet another kidney stone the last day or so and Brooke prayed for me this morning in family prayer. Later this afternoon, I was telling Tom that I was pretty sure it has passed (Horray!). From the other room, Brooke yelled,
"Has the prayer kicked in yet?"

The Puyallup Fair

I believe that in the case of the fair, pictures are worth a thousand words. Lucky for me, as my creative genius is on vacation for another six hours. We had a great time.

Erin, on the giant slide. She went all by herself, ever the first time down. She's fearless.

Giant Slide. Probably the greatest thing at the fair. Enough said.

Alix chose to ride with me. I burned at least six thousand calories climbing all those stairs over and over again. Why don't kids' legs get tired?

This is Alix eating her cotton candy.

Brooke and I on the Tilt-o-Whirl. Brooke and rode it so many times that I actually got sick to my stomach. At least ten times. Brooke LOVES this ride!
Here is ultimate in fair transport. Erin is in the front, then Brooke, then Alix. Sam got to ride alone in her stroller... (By the way, that's a heavy wagon to pull around for hours!)
Alix again, this time with her ice cream cone. Luckily, we were done for the day and the mess wasn't a problem.
Here is Erin with her cotton candy. She loved the blue kind and wouldn't eat the pink. Whatever. The sugar rush is the same, right?

You might ask yourself (you might not actually ask yourself anything, but it's such a nice lead in...) what great hair, expensive tickets, macaroni and cheese, fabulous music, a sweet husband, a great aunt (and uncle), great shoes (mine - not Tom's...) crappy parking, missed enrichment night, a babysitting grandma, singing in the shower and date night all have in common. Well. The common denominator (never thought I use that word outside of high school!) is PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!!!

Tom took me to go and see it on Thursday night. First of all, I LOVE the music from Phantom. It all stems from Trina playing it non-stop for the formative years of my youth. I had to pretend and hate it, but in my heart of hearts, I really didn't. Now, Trina has never privy to this news, so I am blowing my cover here! Then I got to play the music with the orchestra in high school, and then in 11th grade, Aunt Karen and Uncle Al took us to Phantom. That's the great aunt reference above. So, I have always said that I would go the next time it came to Paramount. It finally did! I almost wimped out and didn't get the tickets because I'm a cheapskate and Tom made me get them. And let me tell you, music isn't his thing... So, I got dressed - smokin' hot, of course (Did you know that it is easier to look smokin' hot in your head than in real life?). 5 inch fabulous heels really help... Anyway, I'm so glad that Tom convinced me to go. I loved every minute of it. I couldn't stop smiling. Here is a picture of us in the theater waiting for it to start...
And a picture of a chandelier. Not the one that actually falls, but it seemed applicable and I'm still working on my "artsy" pictures.

Girls & Dirt

As a mother of ONLY girls, you'd think that my life would be full of tea parties, rose petals and minimal dirt. You would be mistaken...
In fact, you would be more than mistaken. You would be horribly wrong. My girls LOVE the dirt! We play softball once a week or so at a place called the meadows. Sounds innocent, right? Wrong again.There is a mountain of dirt at the meadows. Not to mention, a spare baseball field. Covered in dirt. Did you know that you can take a "dirt shower"? And all that this entails is throwing dirt up in the air, over your head and then rubbing said dirt into your skin, as if you were taking a shower. You do not, however, get clean this way.
And did you know that after two hours of sliding down a dirt mountain, there is not one bit of you that is clean? I have given the girls baths after softball practice and had to change the water three times! There is a coating of mud in the bottom of the tub. And have you noticed how much hair my girls have? Yeah. Sand and dirt takes a LONG time to get out of all that curly stuff! But do I care? Nope. Should I? Perhaps. But I don't. Dirt is the best babysitter in the world. It's free. You don't have to drive it home (but your car will get full of the stuff!). It doesn't eat anything. It's a beautiful system!

So, in my girly world of dirt showers, dirt slides, dirt fights, dirt stains, and dirt mountains, all that is left to be said is...

Mud pie, anyone?

What a Day - (unfortunately...) Part 2!!

So, here I sit... Let me tell you about the latest in a series of joyous events that have occured today... (See my post from earlier today) It's bathtime. Finally! We've made it to the end of the day. No one has died and things had gotten better since the morning. We are going to make it! Not quite. Erin and Alix are in the bath together. Fine. We always do that. They are so happy that I leave them there to go and feed the baby. Fine. I finish up with Sam and go to wash their hair. First sign that things aren't as they should be... A strong odor of strawberry yogurt. I think to myself, "Odd..." Second sign - the shower curtain is pulled shut. I think to myself, "Hmmmm..." Third sign - Alix saying "I'm going to make the shampoo poop!" I think to myself, "What?!!? Uh Oh!" Fourth sign - I can hardly see the girls for the bubbles. I think to myself, "Now the yogurt smell makes sense - Their shampoo smells like strawberry yogurt" Fifth sign - the water is a lovely shade of pink. I think to myself, "At least they're clean..." Anyway, you get the picture. I tried to wash their hair (with a new bottle of shampoo) and then rinse it. Wishful thinking. Have you ever tried to get bubbles out of someone's hair in water that is more shampoo than water? It won't work. Ever. So... I drain the water. Fine. There are still three feet of bubbles in the tub. Great. Add more water. Get more bubbles. Re-drain the tub. Making progress, only two feet of bubbles left. Finally I just pushed the bubbles to the back of the tub and stuck their heads under the faucet. Not so fine. If you're one of the twins. But at least they're bubble free. Kind of.


Can you tell from all of my retro pictures that my camera is broken? I'm going through withdrawls, but it is fun to look at the girls from awhile ago. This picture was taken almost a year ago exactly.

Quote of the Day...

"Mom, what are fourthlets?"
"Fourthlets?"
"Yeah, what are fourthlets?"
"Brooke, what do you mean, fourthlets?"
"You know, babies that are born four at the same time!"
Oh. Fourthlets. Of course.

What a Day!

Have you ever had "One of THOSE Days"? Just a comedy of errors, repeated one hundred times? Let me tell you about mine.... It all began after a blissfull night in which Sam slept straight until 5 am. Miracle upon miracles! This is going to be a great day! Little did I know... It's now 8 am and I am sitting on the couch in nothing but my underoos feeding the baby. The doorbell rings. Fantastic. Tom's at work, the twins are running for the door (they are highly trained and would never just open the door to a stranger... Yeah right!), I'm yelling to Brooke, "Don't open it! Don't open it!" and "Who is it? Do we know them?" Turns out it was the cable guy. With suprising speed and agility I lept over the back of the couch - I couldn't go around, he would have seen me... I throw on Tom's dirty softball pants and a shirt with at least half a cup of spitup on the shoulder. Nice. "Hello sir, what can I do for you?" I'm sure I was pretty standing there with my great new haircut sticking up all over them place, yesterdays makeup under my eyes, my great clothes, the twins in panties, and Brooke with chocolate cake all over her face. Yes, it's true. I really am a great mother... Cable guy finally leaves. Ah, peace can reign once again. Dream on. Whilst I was shampooing the carpet in the girls room, destruction was taking place in the computer room. (Dum Dum Dum... scary music, cue here...) Do you know what two bags of potato chips (both orange of course, cheddar/sour cream and BBQ) look like when they have been poured out on your cream carpet and then crushed and thrown and played on? It's not pretty. Worse than I looked opening the door! "Girls! Get in here NOW!" In from the trampoline the happy little elves come. Never expecting the smoke and steam coming from my ears... To make a long story short, no yelling, long time out, no priveleges for the rest of the day, some name-calling (them calling me names, not the other way around) two tantrums, six tylenol and one twinkie (for me, not them) later, the situation was handled and we moved on. Terrific. What a great day so far! I love my life. It's a good thing the girls are so darn cute...

Quote of the Day!

"Alix, what are you doing?"
"Eating Boogers."
"Really?"
"Cause I always eat my boogers."
Nice.
Good to know...

Brownie Fix...

Have you ever wondered how new recipes are created? I learned today that it is probably a direct result of understocked kitchens... I have a new girl in my Activity Days group that recently moved and is having a hard time. So I thought, "Let's take the girl some brownies!" (In my world, brownies fix most things...) Out comes the KitchenAid mixer and off we go! I planned on making my friend Shelby's magnificent brownies. (They really are that good!) In goes the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, four, and WHAT?!!? I'm out of cocoa? Fantastic. I call my neighbor Karen (whom some of the brownies were for, for her birthday...) and ask if she has cocoa. She laughed at me. No. Oh joy. Two more neighbors, no cocoa. Wonderful. It's Sunday, I can't go to the store, and thus a new recipe is born! I learned that if you substitute melted semi-sweet chocolate chips for cocoa, you get AWESOME brownies! Gooey, wonderful, chocolately brownies... And then if you make a hot fudgy frosting and pour it over the brownies, you might have just died and gone to brownie heaven! Thus, Hot Fudge Brownies have officially been invented! You eat them with a fork, and diet tomorrow!

(The picture is of Brooke when she was three. What a cutie!)

First day of Kindergarten (And a new haircut!)

One new haircut, one sparkly headband, two pretty crocs and a beautiful backpack are all it takes to make Brooke happy. She was so excited to start school. She has been ready for kindergarten for about three years now... It's finally time! She looked so cute and was so happy to go. Not nervous at all. She got right on the bus and didn't look back. Neither one of us cried and I got a lot done while she was at school since Erin, Alix and Sam all now take a nap during that time! (Amazing what you can get done when no one is following you, undoing it...) The first day of school she said was, "Boring!" But loved the second day. She ran off the bus grinning and said, "Yes! I have homework!" Apparently that makes school not boring! If only that last until she's a teenager...

I got my haircut too. It was time for a change and I love it!

All the pretty ladies! Erin, April, Sam, Alix and the school-girl, Brooke

VICTORY!

I'll let the scoreboard tell this story to all of you. The other scores don't really matter, just look for Tom's score and my own... Sweet, sweet victory!