"Oh what do you do in the WINTER-time?"

"When all the world is cold?
Do you play in the snow?
Or drink hot cocoa?
Or watch as the storm goes by???

Is that what we do?"

NO!

We play with our Christmas presents!!

For Christmas this year, we decided to get back to basics. The kids each got a 300 count box of Citi-Blocks. 300 x 4 = 1200 Citi-Blocks. Yes, they are just regular ol' blocks. All the same size. Good ol' wooden blocks. Because no matter what your age - blocks are fun! Right?! Well, that was what we learned last summer in the Children's Museum on our San Diego trip. The kids played with those blocks for hours! And when Costco had them on sale for less than $10 a box - we knew we had to do it.

(And speaking of "back to basics"... the boys also got a 1000 count bin of Legos. EACH. I know, crazy. But totally worth it because they're actually playing with their toys - 2 months after Christmas!)

So, fast forward to the days after Christmas... and what do we find? The camera has been hi-jacked by the kids and several pictures taken of their masterpieces! It was fun to watch their process...

His expression says it all, "Check it out, it's almost as tall as me."

"Let me get out a chair so I can make this tower taller."

The ladder came out next and the competition began.

Then they took a few steps back...

That minor setback didn't deter their determination. Another Bigger, BETTER, tower was quickly constructed.

And finally the pièces de résistance was complete. That thing was probably 11 feet tall!!

And with one fail swoop... the madness was over.

Oh, what do YOU do in the winter-time?

Jackson and his accessories

It's Tuesday morning. Library day on our summer schedule. We must hurry to get there early to get a good seat. There will be a lot of people there today to watch the magic show out on the front lawn in front of our local library...

We're piling into the car and Jackson says, "I need my purse and my gun!" He runs back into the house and 2 seconds later comes running out with his purse, his orange potato gun, and his blue helmet. Classic. And he WORE that blue helmet the entire time we were there!

Jeremy LOVES it when Jackson does not embrace his manhood. It makes Jeremy squirm whenever Jackson asks to "put his dress on", or paint his nails, or carry his purse. I, personally, enjoy the fact that my son can embrace his feminine side and proudly carry a hot pink purse out in public - to the library - where there are at least 100 people there to admire his ensemble. He's confident. He's sure of himself. And he knows who he is. That's all that really matters in life. (And getting a good laugh out of how ridiculous my child looks in his get-up.)

And, just for the record, the gun and the helmet cancel out the purse anyway. It's a man's carry-all. It's not a purse - it's European!

Friendly pool friends

Here we are on an average day - 15+ kids in the pool and a few moms lounging/life guarding on the deck. There are 17 kids that live within our 3 houses next door to each other which accounts for most of the bodies in the pool on any given day. And when you add in friends and neighbor kids that quickly turns into a pool party.

We keep trying to convince our pool service to treat our pool as they would any other community pool, but they just won't agree to it. Something about a "residential contract" or something like that.

Here is another pool friend that showed up on this same day. Buffy spotted him on the chair next to me and all the ladies had a great yelp and squeal because of him. This grasshopper was HUGE! - almost as big as Buff's hand. Sorry for the picture quality - I had only my cell phone camera on hand at the moment.

Like I said, we are out there by the pool on most hot afternoons - grasshopper friend or no grasshopper friend, but definitely with lots of people friends.

lazy daisy day

One of the things I've always loved about summer are the plentiful grassy fields of those white dandelion flowers. While sitting at Logan's summer league baseball game we discovered huge patches of these flowers. I asked Lizzie if she'd ever made a daisy chain before and she said no. How did my girl come this far in life without ever experiencing a homemade flower necklace?!

We promptly set to work and made her a beautiful jewelry set. Tiara, bracelet and ring. It only took a few minutes to teach Lizzie how to make these gorgeous accessories. She got to hear "when I was a little girl..." stories while we linked the flowers together. By the time we were finished she felt like a beautiful flower fairy princess.

Thank you lazy summer days for these lovely mother/daughter moments.

Summer Sleepover

10 boys ages 6 - 12 (and Lizzie)
+1 trampoline
+11 PM bedtime
+5:15 wake up
= some tired boys

2 dozen ham bakes
+1 dozen bananas
+1 gallon chocolate milk
+1 loaf bread turned cinnamon/sugar toast
= full tummies for an hour at least!

video games from 7 - noon = one "happy" crew

All together make for memories of one great summer sleepover

Public Notice

A new sign has been posted on Lizzie's bedroom door. Please take note:

"Do not come in. Private. It is a secret. If you want to come in you need to pay $1."

We will definitely be taking this announcement seriously. It is, after all, perfectly printed on spaghetti paper. How can you disrespect such a request?!

Jackson's Napping Place

Jeremy and Trevor were still out of town. It was time to go get some dinner. Just me and the kids. Mama was determined not to cook tonight! I began the round up of children. Logan? check. Lizzie? check. Shoes on? check check.

Now to find Jackson. I went next door to the Stoph's - up the stairs and down the stairs. No Jackson. I came home - up the stairs and down the stairs. No Jackson. Out the back door again to Grandma's house. Hellooooo??? Jackson???? No Jackson there either. One more time through the Stoph's - a deeper look into the garage and all the bedrooms. Really. No Jackson. I start to get a little panicky. Ok. He must've fallen asleep somewhere and that's the reason he's not answering any of my calls. Let's try home ONE MORE TIME. I go through every bedroom, every closet, look behind every door, and finally come downstairs having exhausted every hiding location.

"Has ANYONE seen Jackson?!" I sternly ask to the oblivion.

Lizzie quietly answers, "He's in the laundry room."

"Yeah, right." I think to myself. Of course she says the only room I'd overlooked.

I stomp back up the stairs and peer into the dark laundry room. Thinking to myself, "Why would I look there? He never goes in that room."

Lo and behold, there he was! Fast asleep on top of a great pile of stinky laundry - chonis and all. Look closely and see what is near his hand. He couldn't find any of his own goo-gahs and must've heard mama's silkies calling him from the laundry room.

We had lots of late nights since Daddy and Trevor had been out of town. Our sleep schedules were a little off (as well as the rest of our schedules!). Note our late dinner hour of 7PM. No wonder the child had to take an evening siesta - he was exhausted from our lack of a routine and scheduled week!

Panic attack over. Total searching time: a good 12 minutes. The pizza dinner we were late for was cold, but still enjoyable because we were all there together. No children missing. Priceless.

All she wants for Christmas is...

...her 2 front TEETH!

Stair Sledding

This is what happens when the kids have a day off of school and nothing to do. I think the technical term for this is PWT Sledding...

Chimp Lips

When Jackson puckers up....

...he PUCKERS UP!

This is Jackson's face whenever I ask for a kiss. He is not shy about it. It's always wet and smoochalicious! Sometimes he plants a good one on me and does not let go. He wraps his little arms around my neck and keeps his lips pressed against mine for a good 10 seconds. Whew! that's some love right there!

Does he not look like a little chimpanzee?

kids say the darndest things

Mommy: Jackson, do you want to go see Grandma Elizabeth?

Jackson: (Shaking his head yes) Gam-ma Biff!

Ha! I laughed out loud! He sure is a crack up sometimes.

Does that remind anyone else of Back to the Future movies? And do you think my mom would appreciate it if this new nickname stuck?

my house is what?!

here's a story inspired by a post by the pollack family...

it was a cold frosty fresno morning. (about 2 weeks ago - can you believe it?!) i had gotten up early and switched the laundry. the kids rolled out of bed around 7 and began the school day morning routine. it's almost time to leave for the bus - a.k.a. CRUNCH TIME. i'm freaking out as usual, blood pumping, yelling reminders, packing lunches and sculpting hair spikes. 7:30AM some lady rings the doorbell again and again and again. ok. something must be wrong. i opened the door and the lady says, "i think your house is on fire - there's a lot of smoke coming out the roof." i knew EXACTLY what she was seeing - the dryer vent blowing steam! i reassured her that everything was fine and she went on her way. of course i shook my head at her silliness, and was mildly irritated that my morning routine had been knocked out of whack, but then felt guilty because stranger lady was just trying to save our lives after all! and what guts it would take to knock on a stranger's door. so to that woman i say, thank you for your kindness - that must have been some serious stream coming from our overworked dryer.

Here comes the sun...

The sun finally came out this week! It has been gray and overcast for about 12 straight days and more than the weather has been gloomy around here. The sun is so refreshing after all that darkness! We took the kids to the park to soak up as much vitamin D as possible.


I think the kids were happy to be outside too - what do you think? Those happy faces say it all. WELCOME SUN!

Do you tint?

Years ago someone introduced us to these Crayola bathtub tints. They are so cool! Our kids are not into the bubble baths so much because they get bubbles in their eyes, then there's screaming, and the crying - bubbles are just not worth it for us. So these Color Dotz are a good replacement for bubbles. The kids love to take a bath in colored water. I also love that they can learn about colors: red + blue = purple!

Here's Logan in his aqua blue bath (2 blue and one yellow tablet). Doesn't that water look so refreshing?

Lizzie loves the red color - it's actually more hot pink than red.

The only uncool thing about these babies is the yellow tablet. It looks a little strange taking a "yellow bath". Hmmmm.... someone should have thought that one through a little better.

Do not worry, they will not stain your tub or floor. The water goes right down the drain and the tub doesn't even need to be rinsed out! You can find these Crayola Color Dotz near the bubble bath and bath salts at Walmart or Target type stores.

Does anyone else use these things?

Jackson's Monkey Business

Every morning he wakes up (still in his crib) and calls in his loudest yelling voice, “MAH-mmy!” No matter if it’s 6AM or 9AM - the whole house can hear him. And if I don’t answer right away it turns into a stern, “Mo-m!” (And why has he not learned how to climb out of that thing yet?)

Yesterday he pulled out the bottom drawer of the dishwasher and pushed it around the kitchen/family room for a good half hour. The other kids would walk through and say, “What is Jackson playing with?” They recognized it of course, but could not place it. When it finally clicked that it was part of the dishwasher they tried to correct the problem, but 2 minutes later he had it pulled out again rolling on the brick floor.

He sneezed a big productive sneeze right into his hand. And what else is there to do with a big booger mess than to lick it off your hand? He had himself cleaned up in no time.

It was one evening just before bed. I go downstairs to collect Jackson and what is he doing? Filling cups of water and shamelessly pouring them onto the ground. Not into any container – straight onto the ground! All for the sake of watching water flow from his cup.

Fiber what?

So Jeremy's sister, Kari, has been talkin' up these awesome granola bar things called FIBER ONE BARS. They are only 140 calories each and they taste like a candy bar! And they have 9 grams of fiber in each bar. Whew! The Christopherson kids lovingly call them Fiber Fart Bars. Classy. I put one in Trevor's lunch yesterday and when he came home from school he said, "Mom, I like those Fiber One bars, but please don't put them in my lunch anymore." The look on his face implied that I should know why he wouldn't want to consume one of these bars at school. He got that embarassed grin on his face and turned away from me. Um. Yeah, I got it. He doesn't want any embarassing noises flying from his general direction while he's at school. Mom is clued in!

Then this afternoon he downed 2 of those bad boys. 2 hours later he was pretty proud of the noise machine he had knowingly created. Dinner at the Ward house was definitely an experience to remember. Or not.

So, if you have not tried this delicious, tasty, fiber-filled, fart-producing treat then you need to go out and get yo'self some.

Lizzie's movie pick this week

Lizzie has a great love for anything retro. She loves the old songs, the old fashioned clothes, old dolls etc. She recently discovered this movie at my parents house: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It is a timeless classic musical. She is wooed every time by the love songs and fun dance scenes.

There is one scene in the movie where the 7 brides are all singing about their loves as they dance around in their petticoats and corsets. Her first time watching it here at home I had to convince her that the girls were actually dancing around in their underwear. Lizzie rolled her eyes at me and gave me her teenage attitude, "Nu-uh", she said - like I was trying to trick her or something! She thought it was just their play clothes. She got a little lesson in the evolution of undergarments that day.

I was sure she'd stick out the princess phase a little longer, but nope - these days she's just an ol' fashioned girl.

"Bless her beautiful hide
Wherever she may be.
We ain't met yet, but I'm willin' to bet
She's the girl for me!"

Mommy's shoes

All our boys have had a little fun with mommy's shoes. I think it's so cute. Jeremy does not. We had to record this one for Jackson's posterity and his future girlfriends.




I'm hoping this cross-dressing is a normal thing for a 2-year-old boy. Did anyone else have boys that did this? I know the Minnick boys still like to wear their mom's shoes and they're 10 and 8 years old!

Packing sure is hard!

Jackson passed out on the living room floor as we were packing to leave town. Logan thought it'd be funny to put a hat on him and some Pokemon cards in his hand. You can even see some water drops where Jeremy dripped bags of melting ice (for the ice chests) right over his sleeping body and he didn't even wake up! Sleep on babe - you'll need it for the week you're about to experience!

breakfast cuties

Lizzie and Jackson were too cute this morning. They love to eat breakfast outside every day. (This is mostly because mommy pushes them outside so she doesn't have to clean up a huge mess in the kitchen.) You just can't beat pancakes, scrambled eggs and chocolate milk on a lovely summer morn.

That chocolate milk made the best mustache. Strike a pose girl!