A Christmas Story

I have a serious love/hate relationship with this movie and watching it is not part of my "holiday tradition." It embodies everything that is wrong with how Americans celebrate Christmas and I cringe every time one of the little kids swear but who doesn't want a BB gun for Christmas? And who doesn't remember having those internal monologues as a kid and thinking your logic was perfectly sound?

However, some person (who, out of the goodness and generosity of my heart shall remain nameless) watches this movie and accused Erik of reminding them of Scut Farkus. Scut Farkus?, you may say, Who is Skut Farkus?

He's the really mean bully that Ralphie eventually beats up. I had to watch the movie to find this out and this name caller is totally wrong. Erik looks nothing like Skut Farkus! But Jacob does...
Coon skin cap and all, well, no yellow eyes. And then as we watched the rage well up in Ralphie's eyes as his dreams of getting an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time are dashed along with receiving a C+ on his homework and the "P.S. You'll shoot your eye out" at the bottom, and the final blow of a snowball in the face from Farkus, we realized, we know that kid too!

We didn't have any glasses so we had to make some. They're pretty boss right? Merry Christmas!

Dye-lemma

That's how a Texan would pronounce it and that is what we have. The dye-lemma is thumbsucking and the widely known fact that it is next to impossible to break. There is a steady progression of desparation to prevent buck-toothness and thousands of dollars of potential college fund money diverted to an orthodontist.

Step 1 "Yukky stuff" (followed by even yukkier stuff, not shown)

Step 2 Athletic tape combined with bribery (I will give you candy if this tape

is still on when you get up from nap...) Step 3 Duct tape over the athletic tape combined with bribery

for when child refuses to leave tape onStep 4 Sew gloves onto pajamas and safety pin zipper up to prevent

child from removing pajamas without authorization

Step 5...give up. Currently we are on Step 4.

As many homeschooling families are probably doing right now, we are in a push to get somewhat close to halfway before Christmas. Today we are learning about money and thus I have created "MomMart" on the dining room table. MomMart carries a limited inventory but the prices are all under a dollar since the customers can't count past one hundred yet. All prices are set based on the product's relative value to a 5 year-old. For example, hand soap is of limited value to Jake and thus is priced at 7 cents.

On the other hand, popsicles are our big ticket item at an astounding 99 cents.

Happy December

Well the tree is up and Jake has already taken part int he ceremonial "run around with Christmas stockings on your feet" 5K. We're off to a good start!

I Heart Mondays

Erik has Monday off and it is marvelous. Today we started off with homemade waffles and had a verifiable miracle occur. My waffles are never perfect, I have not figured out how to make a perfectly square waffle so the edges are always a little crazy. As I was about to partake in the last two bites from the edge of my gloriously imperfect waffle I noticed this.Erik and Emily, fight it out or sell it on eBay. I think you can see the face of a saint in the syrup too.

The boys had a big day battling evil. I think they gave up on defeating the powers of evil in our backyard because they suddenly switched gears and began building a ship. I was told that they were sailing to China and were simply waiting for the rain to flood the backyard and begin their epic journey. I was not invited on the ship. Noah's mom and I are going to be great friends in Heaven. He will start learning geography next year...

The Attack of Extracurriculars

Erik went out of the country for 4 days and came home to find that I had the boys signed up in all sorts of classes. Therefore: WARNING, this post is probably only interesting to grandparents and maybe a stray aunt or two.







Aligning these pictures properly is totally not happening so let's all just act like they are perfect. The boys just think this is amazing gymnastics, probably good enough to be on YouTube. They are thinking about doing their own Parkour video...

Libby is completely bummed to be left out and I am tired of the other moms who do the math as I am taking pictures of multiple kids and shepharding two other kids in the nosebleed section who ask if I'm running a daycare out of my home. But we love our boys!

Happy Day After Halloween

Jedi Birthday

Jake is a Jedi full time now and we had quite party. Check out all the mind tricks and craziness going on.

My children totally do not understand the whole "look at the camera" thing.

Soccer Boy

Jake was the most improved player this week because he 1) had a uniform and 2) willingly played the game. I think his idea of soccer is just running and knocking other children over or just falling down for fun...oh yeah, and there's something about a ball...

Randomness

I'm struggling to find the energy to blog with the newfound craziness of four children and homeschooling. We have had so much fun lately but at the end, although I have the time to blog there is just no will left. Maybe I'll get addicted again if I just push through the pain. It works with brownies...anyway, here is some homeschool goofiness (which starts with a G).
And here is Jake's first soccer game. I signed him up pretty late so his uniform wasn't ready and he was ticked off about it. It kinda looks like he may be the keeper but trust me, there is no keeper in Pee Wee Soccer. All players all playing the "mayhem" position. Out of control and totally hilarious.
Our new little bundle of joy must currently remain nameless and faceless on the internet but here are her cupcakes from her first birthday! We love her a bunch and can't imagine life without her after only two months. Such a blessing...to most of us. One in particular is still brooding about losing her prime spot as the baby in the family. She spent some special time on a Daddy Date this week to try and remind her that all is not lost.

Then Jake turned 5 and we are contemplating putting bricks on his head to stop the growing. He will be having a Star Wars party complete with costumes and his first viewing of the movie this Sunday. It'll be something and we'll keep a paramedic on call to deal with light saber injuries.
This is just some good Reynolds' fun. You may not want to let your children see this because most households do not allow such activities for good reason.

Libby the Mighty

Libby has somehow learned about flexing muscles and I think it is both adorable and hilarious. You are also required to think so.

Church Campout

We had a super fun weekend with church folk at Buena Vista "Lake"(?) I don't know what to call it but it was fun! It was so fun and there were so many little kids that I have a new game for you all called "Can You Spot the Reynolds?" Easy one first...
Now the tough one...
Closer in for those who don't have their bifocals handy...
Lots of nice people brought boats and shared, can you tell who is excited and who is less than excited?
Libby really stepped up on this trip and went from being terrified of water to asking to intertube with me behind the boat, she did amazingly well and then spent the rest of the boat ride like this.
Which quickly turned into this.

She also conquered her fear of dogs and walked (or asked to walk) most of the dogs on the campground by the end of the weekend.
We played lots of silly games and just had a grand time altogether. I have so many cute pictures that I can't show because our sweet new little one can't be shown on the internet yet. We eagerly await her debut!

While Daddy is Away...

...with his shaving cream we will play. Not that he ever uses it anyway. When you need to inject a little craziness into schooltime it seems shaving cream is just the thing!

Super Jake

Jake is obsessed with superheroes, Roman soldiers, pirates and all manner of people who do battle. Each day he dons his warrior uniform of hiking boots (no laces) and a cape (Libby's yellow and green polkadot apron) and searches out injustice.

He was on a particularly dangerous mission the other night that apparently required him to fly from the man chair (Erik's lounger) to the far end of the sofa. Had I been around I would have strongly recommended against this mission but maybe that's why superheroes don't take their moms along.

The take off went well, he caught some major air but the landing was sticky. It appears the first part of Jake to hit the arm of the sofa was his front teeth. Specifically the tooth he landed on and killed (requiring a root canal and cap) almost 2 years ago. Much bleeding ensued, a dental appointment was necessary, antibiotics are yummy and the supertooth will soon be making an early exit.

Here is the hero in his first interview after the incident. Notice the nice purple color of the gums, the superwatch he chose from the treasure chest at the dentist office and Grandmas, please, help us with the cape!!!

Bowl-A-Rama

What do you do when it's too hot to go to the park?

Libby runs faster than her ball travels down the lane. Sometimes we had to help her ball get down the lane.

It's all about form...


Style he has...backwards shirt and a big finish.