School's Out Day 3 - Zoo/Party

On Tuesday when the kids were out of school we went to the Zoo with a group of friends. We had fun, although it was a little chilly and it sprinkled on us just a tad.

On the way home we stopped at Walmart to get a few last minute things we needed for the big day today. I do not recommend going to Walmart the day before Halloween. It was a mad house.

When we were at this is the place yesterday they were giving out candy. They gave Zac some brown looking candy corn and he didn't want it so he gave it to me. I was curious to see if it tasted different than regular candy corn so I had a piece. Then I proceeded to eat it all. Have you ever had caramel candy corn? Don't. It is like the best thing ever. So when I was at Walmart yesterday I bought a pack. Stupid. I never buy candy I like because then I eat it all. It's 1/2 gone now.

Last night the kids had a party at Zac's TaeKwonDo class. They had a blast. I have been playing this fun little game since last Thursday. It is called "See how many time you can dress your kids up in their Halloween costume". Sounds like fun, huh? Today will be my 4th time to dress Aubrey up in hers. Oh well, at least we are getting more use out of them than usual.

I better go. I have to be at the school soon for the parade and Halloween parties. It's going to be a long day.

School's Out Day 2 - Cookies/This Is the Place

The kids were out of school again on Monday. We went to our friend Betsy's house Monday morning to frost and of course eat sugar cookies with all our friends. Later that afternoon I took the kids and went to "This Is The Place" park to their "Little Haunts" activity. The kids had a great time making fun crafts, trick or treating, taking a hayride, running wild through a corn maze, and riding the train. The local weatherman was there and we got to stand right next to him while he was giving the forecast. He even asked Zac a few questions. I don't know if we were actually on the news or not, but the kids thought it was cool.

Monday Morning Musings

So I ate some cereal the other night. I didn't have any skim milk left and I didn't want to go out to the fridge in the garage to get some. I had a 1/2 gallon of whole milk that I bought to give to Addison. She wouldn't drink it so it was just sitting around. I used that on my cereal. OH MY! NO MORE PIE! It was like I was eating ice cream. It was so yummy.






Remember a few weeks ago when Addison bit the tip of my finger and it was numb? Still numb.





Remember several months ago when I got so mad at my girls for shoving stuff under their beds to clean their room? And to solve that problem I took their beds off the frames and put them on the floor. Now they have no place to shove things so their room is always a mess. I am considering bringing the frames back.





Last night I was watching an Oprah with Matthew Broderick on it. Mr. Ferris Bueller himself. It was so sad. Because he is so old. He has gray hair. And he was acting really weird. And for having a fashion icon of a wife, his too short black suit paired with the white socks and ugly nasty brown shoes was a little odd.





I am getting really sick and tired of my cell phone. I have another one coming in the mail. I hope it gets here soon. Otherwise the one I have now might end up getting smashed into a gazillion little pieces.





Why did I let my kids watch goosebumps last night. The girls are so scared they can't walk down the hall to go to the bathroom unaccompanied.





I have suddenly found myself in the middle of a huge battle. Sigh. I was just trying to be nice. Can I take it back?

School's Out Day 1 - Planetarium

For some reason we only had one week of real school for the entire month of October. The kids are out of school right now starting last Friday. They don't got back until Halloween. So in an effort to keep them entertained we went downtown on Friday to the Planetarium. The kids had a great time.

When we left the Planetarium we walked down to where there are fountains. They do a little show set to music. It is a fun place to go in the summer to let the kids cool off. It is not summer right now. When we got there I said, "ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GO NEAR THE WATER!". But there were other kids playing in them. There are paths through the fountains that you can walk through and not get wet so after a minute of watching how much fun the other kids were having I said, "Ok, you can walk through, but stay on the path were the water doesn't come out."

Right. They were soaked in no time. And it was maybe at the most 60 degrees outside. They had a BLAST. They were eating those rock candy suckers. The ones with the pokey dangerous stick in the middle. It took me a few minutes to figure out that they probably shouldn't be running on slick concrete with those in their mouths. Good mommy skills. Just slightly delayed. (if you don't count the soaking wet kids/freezing weather thing)

Flashback Friday - A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away

Princess Leia, Scary Baby, Little Orphan Annie, Groucho Marx, Angel Made In Heaven

AKA: Allyson, Earl, Farrah, Kay & Kristy

So I am looking at this picture and all of a sudden it hit me. My mother is probably the same age in this picture as I am right now. She has three children, one less than me. Zac is probably the same age now as I am in this picture. I am really getting old.

And mom, why? Why in the world would you let him out of the house that way?

The Bloggin' Blues

So because my brain turns everything into a song, when I typed the title of my post I automatically started singing the below song. I used to love this movie when I was growing up. I am glad I got a new song though. As much as I love Imagine and think it is a great song, it is starting to make me crazy. It's been up there (in my head) for a little too long now. I wonder how long this one will stick around:

So I really have nothing to blog about. And apparently my sisters don't either. So I am just here. With nothing really to say.

I am so excited though because I finally found Emily some shoes yesterday that she will wear. She has all sandals and one pair of boots from last year that are all beat up. It is too cold to wear sandals and her teacher sends home a note at the beginning of each week with all the things they are doing for the week and little reminders. In every note for the past few weeks she has said, "And please, no more open toe shoes. The weather is too cold." And I want to say, "BUT I'VE BEEN TRYING!!! REALLY I HAVE! (sob, sob). Seriously, we have taken 2 pairs back to the store, gone to about 5 other stores and tried on a gazillion pairs of shoes. I was so happy last night when she found a pair that she liked.

Addy (I think that is how I am going to spell it) has always given me kisses since she was little. But she would only give them to me when she wanted. In the past week or two she has started giving them to me when I ask. I say, "Give mommy a kiss" and she will lean over and pucker up and say, "Mmmmm". It is the cutest thing ever and it just melts my heart.

The other day I asked Emily who she played with at recess. She said she played with China, Korea and Soul. I said, "WHAT?! No you didn't". And she said, "Yeah, I did." And I said, "Really, who did you play with?" And she said, "I played with Chyna, you know her mom, she came to my birthday party. And Korea was the girl I was just talking to a minute ago. And Sol is really Maria del Sol but we all call her Sol." I was crackin' up. I am so glad we are so geographically diversified around here.

So I didn't say this before when talking about the dead body, but Steve was leaving to go out of town, noticed the street closed off, and called me and told me to call my friend who lives where the body was found and find out what was going on. Can I just tell you how that was not good info. for me to get as my husband was leaving town. I am such a baby when I have to stay by myself. Thank you to my dear sister Lauren who came to be my protector while he was gone. We all made it through the ordeal alive and well. Whew!!! He will be back tonight, just so you know.

For someone who has nothing to say, I just said a whole lot. About nothing.

Monday Morning Musings

It is FREEZING here and at the beginning of the summer I got rid of all my winter clothes and shoes. Oops.

I really don't want to go SHOPPING for new clothes and shoes. Kristy, will you come do my shopping for me?

Zac is suddenly OBSESSED with wanting to sell stuff on e-bay. He keeps looking through his room for stuff to sell and he keeps getting on e-bay trying to figure out how to list things. It's driving me crazy.

Why did I say I would be in charge of Emily's Halloween PARTY at school? I would love to help with it but after being in charge of everything that went on at the school last year when I was PTA president, I am thoroughly enjoying being in charge of nothing this year.

So, yesterday a guy in our ward was walking to church and walked by a car parked on the street and just happened to notice that there was a dead BODY in it with a gunshot wound to the head.

If you know anything about me, I don't have to tell you how FREAKED OUT I am right now.

It was about 2 blocks away from my house. The car was parked in front of my friends house. Had it have been parked in front of mine I would have PACKED UP yesterday and moved into my parents basement and the for sale sign would be up in my yard today.

I no longer have any wavering DOUBTS about building a house.

Current Song Stuck In My Head

Flashback Friday - SS&BST Please!

Kristy, Farrah & Allyson

What are we doing? I don't know. Being stupid. This room brings back a lot of memories though.

Spinach Brownie Anyone?

So I just finished watching an Oprah that I recorded last week. It got me so excited I just had to share!

I have always tried to be really healthy when it comes to eating and feeding my children. And I have even stepped it up in the past few months. That is why I was so excited to watch this Oprah with Jessica Seinfeld and Dr. Oz.

Jessica, who is the wife of Mr. Jerry Seinfeld himself, was tired of fighting with her kids every day to eat vegetables. So she came up with a way to sneak lots of veggies in without the kids knowing it.

Once a weeks she steams a bunch of vegetables and then puree's them. She measures out each puree and puts them in a bag in her fridge. Then whenever she makes something she matches the puree color to what she is making and puts it in there. So when she makes Mac 'n Cheese she puts in cauliflower and butternut squash puree. She makes brownies out of spinach and chocolate cake with beets.

Now I know that sounds gross, but it is not. I remember a long time ago, like maybe 10 years ago, I ate a cake someone made with shredded vegetables. Before I tasted it I was thinking, NAS-TAY! But when I ate it, it was like the best cake ever. I have thought about that cake many times over the years and have always wished I had the recipe.

Anyway, some of Jessica's recipes are on Oprah's website which you can get to by clicking here. I was watching it going, yeah that is nice but you still need to teach your kids that they have to eat vegetables and then Jessica said that she still always serves vegetables with each meal, which I thought was very important. I just love the idea of loading my kids and myself up on extra veggies everyday.

Dr. Oz was on the show and he was giving tips for feeding your family healthier. One of the things he said was that nothing should be off limits. Which means that you shouldn't bring the stuff you don't want your kids to eat into your house. He said if you bring a bunch of garbage into your house and then tell the kids they can't eat it, it creates a schizophrenic environment (we don't need any outside help with that). I really have been trying to be good about that the past month or so. It means I have to make several trips to the store each week to keep fresh fruit and veggies on hand, but it has been nice.

Another thing that Dr. Oz said is that this next generation will be the first generation in history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents and it is due to obesity and childhood diabetes. Wow. In the time that we live in can you imagine how sad that is that the life expectancy is declining. Americans are eating themselves to death. That is sad. He also said that to be a rich nation we have to be a healthy nation and we are raising up a very unhealthy generation.

Ok so enough said. I am excited and I am going to go out and buy the cookbook and start pureeing.