Upon arriving home early today, Bunny told him, “Cool! RipStik!” So, he did.
(just had to add in a few words…)
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
Cole is starting to looove gadgets. Basically, if it’s battery powered and makes noises, he loves it. If it takes photos, he loves it more. In the past week, he’s sneaked off a few times with my camera, (and my phone, ugh. that’s been found, but it’s not so much in the functional category right now. might be time to bite the bullet and go smartphone)
But anyway, the photos. I love ‘em. Kids have a knack for taking photos that 1) are totally weird but awesome and 2) make you realize you really need to clean behind the sofa.
Cole photo dump:
this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
I guess the official beginning of “The Holiday Season” is about whenever people start cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner, but to me it’s a parade that makes it seem truly “the season.”
For the 3rd year Bunny participated with her GS Troop in the Children’s Holiday Parade. For the 3rd year, the boys, Paul, and I parked ourselves near the end of the route, near the library, which has a grassy area where the kids can run a bit (they’re so not ready to sit in chairs for hours, thanks), and enjoyed it all pass us by.
Our usual spot just so happens to be by this low-end car dealership, so Paul always takes the boys to ogle the cars a bit.
I wanted to scoop up this curmudgeon and run without looking back.
But I was good, and watched and clapped and waved.
I wanted to scoop up these curmudgeons and run without looking back.
This car is an annual favorite. The key on the back turns as the car drives.
It’s wonderful to see people whose jobs are so inherently stressful getting to enjoy a parade. There were so many fire trucks!
This little elf, and his similarly cool companions were awesome. I want a remote controlled chair, dude. :)
Then… there are these guys. The Italian Gardeners Association Cucuzza Squash Drill Team. These nuts are truly out of this world. They wear old plain pants either hiked up to their armpits or nestled under their bellies, undershirts, and carry squash they call Sicilian Snakes while yelling, “Ay-oh!” Pure awesomeness. They even have a queen waving her gigantic squash like a scepter.
It was NOT warm enough to be dressed like this. :)
Carter said he wants a car like this when he grows up.
Then he saw—and smelled—THIS and said, no, this is the car he wants when he grows up. :)
And this, of course, was the whole reason we were there. Bun’s troop passed in a blink, and I was off chasing them to the ‘drop off point’ down the block at the high school.
Their theme this year was “Snow Day” and they all wore tunics they made themselves of various ‘winter animals.’ Bunny was a polar bear. :)
Didn’t you know polar bears love to ride the scooter? Little known fact, there.
Until next year… Happy Parade!
This year we had a simple Thanksgiving meal with only our little nuclear family, and it was so nice. I’d call it quiet, but my kids are far from quiet, and there might have been a moment, when the bubbly juice ran dry, that Carter stood in his chair and yelled, “Nooooooo!” to us all laughing at our silly middle boy. A roaring fire was built in the fireplace. We took turns tallying our blessings, sent the kids a’packing away from the table when they became too rowdy, and lingered over our wine before dessert followed by some time in the spa for Paul and the kids while I popped dishes into the washer and decided everything else was just fine waiting for its own ‘platters & bowls’ load the next morning then went outside to hang out with my soggy family. We laughed again at the steam billowing off Cole’s body as he climbed in and out, in and out, in and out of the hot tub, then went inside to get jammieifed and watch Elf for the thousandth time in less than 2 wks.
Simple Thanksgiving Menu
~*~*~*~*~
Ham (remember, we really dislike turkey!)
Homemade Bread
Corn
Macaroni and Cheese
Asparagus with Hollandaise
Fauxtatoes
Sour Cream Apple Pie a la Mode with Whipped Cream
Bubbly Cider
Pinot Grigio
Milk
We got a big honkin’ ham, and have already enjoyed the morning-after leftovers of toasty bread with jam, ham & eggs, and maybe a touch of hollandaise, too and have plans for tomato-okra-ham stew in a couple of days followed by red lentil & ham soup in a couple of weeks with the portion I froze last night.
I hope everyone enjoyed their special meal as much as we did and is excited about the upcoming holiday season that we’re now truly beginning. I have a bunch of ideas for what we can do to make it memorable and am dorkily excited about the new Lego advent calendar that we get to start playing with in only 6 days!
Ugh, now to pay the piper and do those last few dishes, I s’pose. They didn’t do themselves last night, dangit.
this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
Carter’s SIXTH birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and, since it’s the last time for years he’ll have the chance to have a party on his birthday, we went ahead and had the Sunday party. I spent the afternoon before hunting and gathering all the supplies and said I’d like to go to bed that day with the living room ready for the party so the next morning would be easy. Ha. I like to say things like that just to make myself laugh, because there is something in my genetics that prevents me from being really ready for anything more than at the last moment.
Soooo, the morning of the party, there I was, baking the cake, which I meant to do that morning because one of the best things about homemade cake is that it’s fresh. Thankfully, at 8:30—2 hours before I expected it—the bouncy house guy came to drop off the jumper. Instantly the kids had something to do other than ask me how long until the party or ask to eat candy from, the pinata. Yay!
Carter wanted his theme for his birthday to be… birthday. I floated Angry Birds or Star Wars (I really wanted to make an Angry Birds cake!), but nope, birthday. :)
Ready or not in the morning, by midday we were all in party mode, and ready to go. For small kids’ parties, I think 2 hours is PLENTY of time to have them running amok, so the party pretty much consisted of playing all over the place—bouncing a lot, but also making trains in the boys’ room, taking out whatever toys they wanted, and eating pizza and cake, then whacking a pinata.
Build up their appetites.
Fill ‘em with cheese and sugar.
Let ‘em whack things. Give ‘em more sugar to take home, plus some items Carter decided his friends all truly needed, like whoopie cushions and glow sticks.
Then send ‘em packing. That’s how I roll. I’m sure the sugar rush and whoopie cushions were endless fun for both guests and parents all. day. long. :)
I also think there is some kid circle of hell that involves being forced to pretend to care one iota about the gift opening part of a birthday—for anyone that is not the birthday kid, that is. I mean, really, how awful is that? Even at Bun’s parties we’ve thus far put off opening anything until after the party. Then the child is not forced to tear through the presents at some crazy speed, barely able to register what they received, much less play with it for a moment before they must open the next one. So, we do it at a slower pace. Carter opened a couple of presents right after the majority of the guests left, and played with them for most of the afternoon.
For months he’d been aching for the Shark Ship (if you have kids who watch TV beyond the no-commercial channels, you have seen this advertised heavily in the preholiday push). He was so happy to take her for a spin… and let that shark munch away on all the ‘guys’ in the boat, which is also pretty cool, since it can be made into more than 2 dozen different configurations. He pretty much opened this, and the Squid Sub, and that was all he wanted to play with all afternoon. In the hot tub, of course.
These poor sailors pretty much exist to be eaten, extracted from the shark’s belly, and then eaten again. It’s a rough life, being on the seas.
Fact: sound effects are KEY.
I hope Carter remembers his 6th birthday as a special, fun day. No party can come close to bringing anyone the joy having him in our family has brought to us, of course. ♥
