Butter on the Lips

It's Friday. Always glad it's Friday.

This morning, as we were munching our way through breakfast number 1, (Quick diversion: You see, I typically feed the "animals" 3 breakfasts, 1 lunch, 3 snacks and 1 dinner followed occasionally by a treat of some sort. Breakfast drags on and on and on. I guess that when you are up with the birds, you must inherently need to feed like birds. However, unlike birds who seem quite content with seeds and worms over and over, my little turkeys NEVER want the same thing twice...) in that sweet, scratchy voice of his, middle H. exclaimed, let's go to ELMERS!

You are on, sweet blonde boy, what a grand idea! That should nullify our next 2 breakfasts perfectly well. Besides, I had wanted to go to the library and it doesn't open until 10am. I might even be able to fit in a stop at the drycleaners.

So, off J, H and I went to Elmers. They love the pancakes and truthfully, I'm quite a fan of the french toast at our Elmers that is a mere hop, skip and a light-free jump from us.

We colored, we ordered (I don't order for middle H, he knows quite precisely what he wants), we waited oh so patiently, and we looked out the windows at all the "UCKS" (little J) driving by on Highway 99.

As predicted, our warm pancakes and french toast showed up in a timely fashion and we all dug in. Why did I write all of this? Because I actually took time to stop. After enjoying a decent part of my breakfast, I stopped. I adoringly watched these two darling little boys slather their pancakes in BUTTER (H) and dip their fingers in the syrup to get just the right bite and I let my breath be taken away. I ignored the drips, the over-adbundance of syrup and the little mess that would take a mere seconds for someone to clean. I watched their little faces so happy and so content with their breakfast. I thought about how lucky, I mean LUCKY I am to have these boys with me to take me to breakfast. To show me that the morning isn't about all the things we need to clean, or get done or pick up or do. They reminded me that life is about the here. The now. The health and happiness that we are so fortunate to have. Just the butter and the syrup. What beautiful boys I have. What a sweet morning it was.

3 Daddies... H's quote of the day

As we are hurriedly driving away from a picture perfect beautiful day at the park and I'm lecturing middle H. about not meandering somewhere I can't see him and NOT ANSWERING when I am maniacally screaming for him, we pass three workers mowing a lawn in front of a house.

I take little notice.

H. however apparently notices. In his precious little mind, he conjures up and exclaims, "WOW, THAT KID HAS THREE DADDIES!" no joke. He truly, cross my heart said that. He commented about it a couple more times and I simply had no ability to correct his innocence. It was just too sweet to ruin.

Sleepin' With Someone

this post is dedicated to Woody P. Our family loves him like he was one of our own...

As some of you know, Middle H is our gentle-souled one. He loves animals. He frequently shares our home with various live 'things'. He will literally pick bugs out of spider webs in a rescue attempt, he'll carry around a lady bug for an hour and will cry when she falls or leaves on her own accord. He cares for worms and many other unsightly creatures, and he's even been known to pick up spiders. Umm, hello?!?!

His greatest animal love, by far, is for our dog Montgomery. If I scold the Montgomery, I will quickly be scolded by H. "Mommy, he's NOT a bad dog" "Mommy he just wants some food, etc..." If he's waiting at the outside door, "oh, come in good boy, I'm so sorry you are cold." It's a beautiful thing to watch your own child have such a thoughtful heart. Which brings me to the tear-filled eyes that inspired me to post this today. I was gently urging H. that it was time to go in his room for his nap. Not surprisingly, he resisted. After a few more requests by me, he said, "okay, but I'm going to sleep on Montgomery's bed with him." My response, "H., honey, his bed is dirty and he's an old dog and just wants to nap and you can't sleep on the floor!" (Jeez, enough already Mom!) His response? "But you get to sleep with someone everynight and I don't." "I want to sleep with him." He really did have tears in his eyes. Well, off to get the blankets I went - the pillow, the blanket for the FLOOR and the blanket to put on top of my sweet 4 1/2 year old boy. Montgomery wasn't sure what the h. was going on and he entertained the idea for a bit and then much to H.'s sheer sadness, the 'ole boy got up and walked away. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.

Martha Stewart Jrs I, II & III

For those of you that know our boys, well, they typically leave little doubt that they are in fact, BOYS. They are most often dirty, loud, hungry, outside and holding or using some dangerous object (ladders, screwdrivers, hammers, mallets, scissors to name just a few. ) Now, work with me here, use your imagination and add TAPE, SCISSORS, GLUE, CONSTRUCTION PAPER, PAINT, CRAYONS, GLITTER, BEADS. Oh yes, since Friday we have collectively used every single one of the items listed above. In most abundance? Tape.

The oldest (we'll call him G) picked up a Halloween craft book at his school library last week. I was thrilled! What fun to add to our already festive mood. So, Middle H and Little J and I headed to "stinky" Michael's on Friday to pick up the required items to some of the projects they had chosen to create. By the time we got home Middle H was chomping at the bit to get started on his brown bag witch. I tried to hold him off until Big G came home from school, because oh, did he need a nap, but there were tears and screeches and pleads, PLEADS to get started on the project. Little did I know, this was NOTHING compared to the passion in which big G would create witches, bats, haunted houses, ghosts and everything funny/cute and dare I say scary, he could. Middle H started off with one brown bag headed witch. It was. . . funny looking to say the least, but he is oh-so proud of his witch.

When Big G got home, they cut. They taped. They painted. They pulled yarn. They glued yarn. They taped some more. They added glitter. Tape? Tape you ask? Oh, well, not only do we secure everything together with tape, we secure it to our painted walls and windows with loads and loads and more LOADS of scotch tape. So, my friends, our home is OFFICIALLY decorated for Halloween. We have spider webs, ghosts hanging outside in trees, witches and bats hung and strung and taped everywhere. Is it weird that I actually find this decorating just a tad more fun than Christmas decor? Maybe it's all that wrapping that we DO NOT have to do for Halloween. Just cleaning up bits of yarn, black paper, brown bags, glitter and of course, tape scraps.

One might wonder though, after all this, why we all ate our Friday dinner together wearing "diaper hats?"

Points to ponder about this wacky family out in the 'burbs.

Halloween Part I

The boys LOVE Halloween! Well, the older two do. Jennings probably has little recollection of last year but obligingly answers "Emo" (translation, Elmo) when anyone asks him, "What are YOU going to be for Halloween?" I haven't located the Elmo costume yet, but we figured if you are going to spend the money on costumes, why not let them get some good use? Let me introduce you to BATMAN and the Unknown Phantom (cue ah ah ah ah ah...) Hey, it beats the grim reaper, right?? Yes, that was his first choice. Elmo coming soon...

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The Great Pumpkin Harvest

The boys look forward to it all year. We started our pumpkins from seeds back in the spring. I even took a trip to HDepot to buy "grow lights." (Felt a little weird asking for those!) I installed them on our rarely used big dining table and within days, out popped the seedlings of Atlantic Giant, Long Island Cheese, Big White, Big Green and so on and so on. Well, today the day arrived. Their favorite part about growing "the world's largest" pumpkins. Harvesting and moving the treasures from out in their not-so-safe spot in the garden to their new home IN THEIR BEDROOMS. Yes, the boys sleep with zucchini, pumpkins, squash, large apples. If they could sleep with eggplants, tomatoes and beans, I'm sure those would be in there too. Not even I can let that slide! Here are some pictures from the harvest. Is there a more beautiful season than Fall? I don't think so.

Quintessentially American...

Is there anything more American (other than apple pie) of a elementary school Jog-A-Thon? It's so fun being the beaming mom of the fastest boy/most endurance in the whole first grade. I'm so proud of my big man. He may not be the best at everything, or anything for that matter, but he will always be my little STUD!
Off to the park we go. Happy boys playing in the sand and water? Is there anything better than an empty park with a sand pit and water fountain? It was a perfect day, nicely overcast, high 60's and two healthy happy boys to make me laugh. Oh, nothing like ending the afternoon sittin' on the pot of the park restroom for an "I had to go poo a WHILE ago" failed attempt. Oh well. Lucky me to have our boys.

Trying this Blogging Thing

I'm just trying this out for the first time. Not sure what I'm doing, but I better do it fast because the bus is about to come and I need to get there to pick up big boy #1. Also trying to figure out what's for dinner. Enchiladas? Green Pork Chili? Hmmm, what to do.