STOMP!

This mother of four made one of the biggest mistakes to date last week.  She watched STOMP, Live on Netflix with them.  The show was amazing.  I vow to do whatever I can to take my children to see them one day.  The boys especially fell in love with their amazing skill and performance. 

My entire house is a giant instrument now!  It's rather ridiculous how loud it is.  Notice Maya is not in this picture.  When this trio gets bangin' Maya and I head for the other room.  We agree they are "annoying".  ;)

The Volcano Beast (and other disasters)

I was doing laundry today and the girls were "helping" me.  I sent them upstairs, each with a pair of boys underwear in hand to put up.  Time went by and I went on folding laundry downstairs.  I figured they got distracted with Lego's or something else forbidden by their brothers if they were home from school.  I should have known the trouble those two mess makers could get into in only 15 minutes!

When I finally got around to checking on them I found every single article of clothing my two boys own on the bed.....how thoughtful of them not to throw it on the floor, right? 

I walked in the room and squealed in horror.  They looked up at me proud and said "We're doing laundry Mama!" 

Yes, those are flower print sheets on my son's bed.  When you wet the bed at 3 AM, well, you get what you get and don't throw a fit. 

In other household news, Zander is studying space in school.  He had to create an Alien and write a report.  He loved this assignment!  He got into my recycle box and made his creature out of 4 paper towel tubes, an egg crate, and a raisin container.  Then he added a little paint, a lot of duct tape, and the top of a pineapple and I present to you...

THE VOLCANO BEAST

A few facts about his alien, which he presented in front of his class:

• The Volcano Beast is from Venus.
• He is 18 years old.
• When living on Venus the Volcano Beast usually got hit by lava.
• He likes to eat lava and bad guys.  (Hints the bad guy wrapped in his tail.)
• He likes to dig for fun.
• Zander hopes that one day his alien will teach him to breath fire.
• In return, Zander hopes to teach his alien friend how not to eat people. 

Floating around the backyard

We've had gorgeous weather lately.  The backyard is like an extension of our home with weather like this!  The kids found a long box in the garage and Z thought it would make a great canoe. 

They took great pride painting their boat.

After all their hard work they had snacks on the sea and then went fishing, of course. 

They played so well together this afternoon using their imaginations.  I lOVE to watch them pretend.  It just melts this mama's heart. 

Giant Playpen

G has been saving his money for a while now.  He saved $130!!  We helped him out and he bought this trampoline this weekend.  The kids lOVE it!  And G is SO PROUD to buy this for his family. 

Inspired.....again.

Survivng 4 Kids is BACK by popular demand! or maybe it's out of pure guilt of being a horrible blogger compared to all my dedicated blogging friends. Regardless of why I am making a commitment to blog more often. I'm not gonna make any crazy EVERYDAY promises like some of you....but I think I can do at least weekly updates.

Good Samaritan

I have the most amazing story to tell.  I was at walmart on day and struck up a conversation with a complete stranger in the baking aisle.  Eventually we parted ways.  The remainder of my trip was hetic to say the least.  The girls were in rare form.....pretty much evil....they would take off their shoes and socks and throw them out of the cart.  They were hitting one another and bickering non-stop.  I was almost in tears from their uncontrollable behavior.  It was not a smooth shopping trip to say the least. 

As I was about to leave the woman I spoke to earlier came up to me, handed me an envelope, and said "I hope you have a very merry Christmas." 

I blurted out a confused "thank you" as she walked off.  

I opened it.  Inside was a Christmas card with TWO $50 bills!! 

Immediately, I burst into tears and chased after her.  Once I caught up to her I hugged her neck and thanked her.  I was so grateful and shocked by the whole thing. 

The day before we were down to only $2 in our checking account.  My hard working husband was paid the day I went shopping and met the generous stranger, but still, money was more then a little tight.  We wondered how we were going to buy a Christmas tree with the morgage coming up. 

So here are the picures of my beautiful children decorating our beautiful tree all thanks to a beautiful stranger.

I am looking forward to the day when I am at a place in my life where I can financially "pay it forward" to a complete stranger like this lady did to me and my famliy. 

Have YOU ever been on the recieving end or giving end of something like this??  What happened??

Thanksgiving

Yes, I realize that it is 5 days until Christmas and I am just now getting to post Thanksgiving picture.  The 2010 official worst blogger award goes to yours truly.  *sigh*  Honestly, I just don't have it in me lately.  Hopefully I can get in the grove again soon....

Without further adu, the much anticipated Thanksgiving photos....well, a couple of them anyway....

Gavin, Zander and Jace enjoying what they refer to as "the feast!"

There we all are. 

The 2 amigas, hamming it up.