Wordless Wednesday 11/12/08

R on the "monkey wheels"

R on the "monkey wheels"

You know…

…you have played too much D&D Miniatures game with your six year old when you mention that the tree in your front yard has lost over half of its leaves overnight, and his response is “Cool!  It’s bloodied!”

Overheard 11/08/08

K, picking at a sesame seed on a sandwich bun: “I’m going to save this, and plant it so we have a sandwich tree!  But, the rule is, you have to eat the sandwich you pick off the tree.”

R: “Mommy, you are a really good yo-yo.”  Said as we were playing with said toys in the kitchen.  Followed slowly with a “…person”  And here, I thought I hid it so well 🙂

New Babies!!

R and C had their twin baby girls yesterday!  Congrats, guys!!  Yay Big Sister H!!!  And welcome to the world, C and L!!!!

Wordless Wednesday 11/5/08 (on Thursday)

err…yeah.  Sorry ’bout that.

R & K in the gondola driver shirts Auntie M brought them back from Venice!!!

Way to go, Amazon!!!

Wow…I just went to Amazon.com to look up some Christmas gift ideas for the boys, to be greeted by the information that they have started an initiative to get manufacturers to decrease the packaging for things wherever possible, and make it much easier to open stuff when you get it.  I LOVE this idea, can you tell???!!!

Wordless Wednesday 10-29-08

R & K picking apples

Pumpkinland

Magician and Dragon

Pirates, aarrgghh!

More party pics to come!!

More ridiculousness

Yesterday, I picked R up after school and he’s bouncing off the walls excited about a letter that’s in his folder.  He, and one other child in his class were chosen to perform in an upcoming concert but he needs the permission slip returned.

We get home, I dig the note out of his folder, and find this bit of loveliness:

Dear Parents of R:

Your child has been randomly selected to perform with a group of children from the school in a Gala sponsored by the School District Educational and Cultural Foundation on date & time at place.  It is a very special honor to be a part of such a wonderful event that raises money through ticket sales to fund many educational and cultural programs in the schools of our district. (and this is the same district where my kindergartner does NOT get art, music, phys ed, or recess.)

It is CRUCIAL that you return the permission slip below by Monday, November 3 to your child’s teacher. Tickets for this Gala go on sale November 24. I cannot impress enough that the tickets go very, very quickly.  I highly recommend that you purchase your tickets as soon as possible.  Please call the ticket office after 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for more information. Blah blah blah, rehearsal details, blah blah.

~~~~~~~

Anyone see what is missing here?

Like, how much tickets to this Fundraising Gala cost?  We’re supposed to sign our kids up for this great honor (which they’ve been told about and gotten worked up about already), without knowing how much we need to pay to see them participate!!!

So, I waited until 1:30 and called the number given in the letter to call for more information.  The conversation went as follows:

Me: Hi, I’m calling because we got a letter inviting my son to participate in the fundraising gala, and I wanted to know how much the tickets for the event were going to cost?

person at ticket office: Those tickets don’t even go on sale until November 24.

Me: Yes, I see that from the letter.  But it doesn’t say how much they are going to cost.

ticket person: We don’t even HAVE those tickets yet.  We don’t know what they will cost.

Me: I’d just like to know if we are going to be able to attend to see our son perform.

TP: (heaving a big sigh) Last year the tickets ranged from $15 to $65.  I can’t imagine this year will be much different. $20 for the side balcony seats, maybe.

~~~

Well, okay then.  Thanks for nothing.  Of course we are letting him do it, because he was just thrilled to be asked.  We mentioned it to mom last night, and she wants us to call and say we’ll let him perform IF we get free tickets.  I can’t do that.  The only thing that would get us is a reputation for being troublemakers & they would likely not ask R to be in anything again.

Overheard 10/24/08

It’s been a rough week.  I know I promised pictures on Wednesday, but I just couldn’t get to it.  Things have been busy, I’ve been driving myself crazy over what really should be a simple decision, and the boys have been overtired and having a hard time getting along with each other.

Which brings me to today’s story.

The other day, after being sent to bed for being mean to K, R comes down the stairs clutching his pillow.  Between exaggerated sobs, he tells me that he’s just come to say goodbye, and that he has to leave this place because he “just can’t live like this anymore.”

N says he gets his melodramatic tendencies from me.  I say that when you point a finger at someone, there are four fingers pointed right back at yourself.  And, remind me again, which one of us was in show choir and multiple school musicals? 😀

Sunday Catch-Up

We went to Linvilla today and wore the boys out!  They are both asleep, which means I have a little time on my hands…woohoo!  (Of course, what I should be doing is cleaning, but hey, whatever. 🙂

I’ll work backwards with the news.

Like I said, today was Linvilla.  I’ve got some great pictures, and can’t wait to share them. (Wednesday!!)  We went apple picking, and got pumpkins, and cider donuts…yum, yum!

Yesterday, we finally got the old entertainment center out of the living room.  It’s currently living on the front lawn with a big “Free” sign stuck to it.  I’m hoping someone comes and takes it, otherwise it’s getting dismantled and tossed into the trash over the next couple of weeks.  We’re getting a “new” hand-me-down couch to go in the living room, and moving the current funeral-parlor-looking couch (thanks so much, J, I have never been able to get that image out of my mind since you told me that our couch looked like it came from a funeral parlor!! :P) into the playroom.  That way the boys can do all the couch-jumping they like (just not in a creepy Tom Cruise kind of way).  One of them may eventually move upstairs into the “library” if we ever get that room put together.

Also yesterday, K got stung 3 times in the arm by a yellowjacket.  It got inside his shirt and went to town.  Ugh.  They were pretty light, as stings go, and this morning, there was more of a mark from the band-aids than from the actual stings.

We’ve been so busy with school & life & stuff, but it’s been good. 🙂  I volunteer at R’s school library, K’s been doing great in school (but we’re still having some potty issues at home…ugh!), we’re still playing D&D pretty regularly, and really liking 4th Edition and the new Living Forgotten Realms setup.

We haven’t settled on Halloween costumes yet…we need to get on the ball with those!!

We went camping a few weekends ago with T, K & D.  We had a great time…very relaxing.  Well…relaxing besides the hike D & I went on with the boys.  We got a little lost, and needed to get a lift back to the site from one of the rangers!

Other highlights of the weekend were:

~The boys and I found a toad when we first got there, and the boys were fascinated by him for a little while.

~I got the tent almost completely put up by myself! (I just needed help with the rainfly)

~D sang almost the whole soundtrack from “Once More With Feeling” (The musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for us as dinnertime entertainment one night.  R particularly liked the “I touch the fire and it freezes me” bit, and I still catch him trying to sing it occasionally.  N helped sing some of the duets.

~S’MORES!!!!

Pictures from camping:

When the boys and I first got to the site. It was PJ day at R's school.

We found this little toad while we were getting ready to set up.

The boys' little pirate tent. They played in it, but I didn't let them sleep in it.

Our tent. I actually got the whole thing up by myself, with "help" from the boys. I needed help only with getting the rain cover on later 🙂

The whole group 🙂

Me and R, at the top of a big rock 🙂

Me and K, at the top of the same big rock 🙂

What time is it? Dinnertime! K cooking his kabob.

T and his kabob!

D singing for us over dinner. Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!!!

Fire

R and T

Sunday morning, family picture 🙂

R back at the big rocks

Look, K's a bridge!

N on the rocks

Me & D playing games

D and K

Me and N at the lake

The boys played frisbee golf, too.

I’ll post a bunch more pictures from the past few weeks on Wednesday (or maybe over a couple of Wednesdays)  I need to go through them and figure out what I’ve got that’s any good.