Because I am in fact one of THOSE kinds of mothers

When I walked through the halls at the kids' school today I saw a poster announcing the upcoming Literacy Night.  We are reading Frindle with some of the other schools in the district.  On the day of Literacy Night the kids are encouraged to dress up as a favorite character.  Some may recall the moment of insanity I had last spring when I made a Kirsten (from American Girl) dress for Samantha in 3 days while having contractions.  Well, this year is no different.  I asked the kids what they wanted to dress up as.  Samantha wanted to go as Samantha from American Girl.  So, after dance we stopped at JoAnns.  I didn't know if I'd be able to find any costume patterns because it isn't October.  Fortunately the McCalls patterns are currently on sale for $1.99 & they did have a costume section.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any patterns for a dress that looks like it was worn during 1904.  I did find a pattern that I could have altered to make it similar, but nothing exact to the pictures of what Samantha wears in the movie or the book.  I told her I'd be willing to make the pinafore to go to the dress I made last year and she could go as Nellie (Samantha's best friend).  Nope.  Nothing doing.  So, what does she end up picking?  Alice.  From Alice in Wonderland.  She hasn't even read that book!  (She will after this because I'm going to make sure she does if I'm making the stinking dress for it.)  So, we got all the fabric and the notions and the pattern picked out.  My mom is going to drop it off after work tonight.  As we were leaving JoAnns I told Samantha, "You know you're going to be Alice for Halloween this year, right?"  Her reply?  "Yep."  I'm just glad I got her convinced she did NOT in fact want to be the Queen of Hearts!

And what did my son want to go as?  Something simple?  Oh no!  My kids don't do simple!  He wanted to go as a LEGO man from one of the LEGO books.  I told him I had NO idea how to do a costume for that.  So, what is his second choice?  Darth Vader.  Dude, I can do that.  He was Darth for Halloween two years ago & still fits in the costume.  The only down side?  He can't wear a mask.  I kinda think a light saber might be considered a weapon too.

And while I was at JoAnns, I got a completely random (but totally funny text).  I heard my phone beep but didn't recognize the number.  I had been texting Trav's cousin earlier and thought it might be her, so I opened up the text.

Unknown Texter: Congratulations!  That's so exciting!
Me: For what?  I'm confused.
Texter: Your mom told me your pregnant!  Or is she crazy?
Me: This is Misty.  If I'm pregnant, I'm in big trouble because Travis is fixed.
Texter: Oh!  I must have the wrong number!  I'm SO sorry!
Me: No problem!

I thought it was pretty funny and it made me smile.

And on a random side note, baby sister got to be turned around in her car seat.  Yep.  My baby is almost (I'm in denial) no longer a baby.  She is, in fact, turning into a big girl right before my very eyes!

Picture Challenge Day 20 & 21

Little sister was being a ham again last night.  Don't mind my dork face in the photos.

This little girl LOVES her tub time.  I do believe I have another water baby on my hands.  Hard to believe after how much she screamed every time we put her in the lake at Lake Powell this past summer.  I think she's gotten over it now though!

Chewing on her piggy Mr. Sloshy

Yes, she's chewing on a cup.  It's the cup I use to wash hair.  Apparently, this one is going to be like her 3 yr old brother & enjoy drinking her bath water.  Disgusting, I know.

She kept standing up and then trying to decide if she wanted to sit down or not.  I thought she looked like a spider all hunched over like this.

Craft Night is BACK!  Wahoo!  I didn't go in December because it was canceled (too much going on with the holidays.)  I didn't go in January or February because I was too dang broke after Christmas!  I just couldn't stay away any more though.  I got some cute St. Patty's day decorations done tonight & Sam had a blast playing with one of my fifth graders from Millville!

I love this wreath!  The center board comes out (it's just tied onto the wreath with the fabric).  On The Avenue does a different center piece for each month/holiday.  Now I'll have to get those in addition to doing my bead board ones (above).  Can't wait to see what's on the blog for next month!

And, a random side note about On The Avenue.  They are doing doing a blog post on Saturdays on their blog (not the Super Saturdays with Mandy link, the actual On The Avenue link above on the left under favorite links) about how you can decorate your home using their products (or similar products).  Mandy said tonight that if we took pictures to show how we used our items to send them to her & she'd share.  She loves seeing how people use the stuff they make!  I told her I'd get snappin'!

Not the greatest picture on this one.  I took the picture with my phone because I didn't have my camera.  We gave my mom this puzzle for Christmas.  It's hard to tell, but each piece has a picture of a tiny tractor on it.  You put all the pieces together & you get a picture of a big tractor.  My mom loves doing puzzles.  In fact, she got about 6 for Christmas.  I hate puzzles.  They drive me nuts!  Especially ones like this where you have to look at only the shape of the piece and nothing else!  Guess I get it from my Grandpa Russ!  Well, mom finally got this put all the way together last week & if you look close, there's a piece on the lower left that's missing!  When we gave her the puzzle I told her we wanted to glue it together & put it in a frame so we could hang it in the boys' room.  Tonight she told me she was going to take the vacuum bag & dump it out to see if she could find it in there.  I hope she finds it.  The boys (or at the very least Caleb) would love having this in their room!

Sam decides school assembly is "unfair"

Before Samantha even got in the Expedition after school today, she asks, "Where's Nash?"  I told her he was already in the Expedition.  As she's climbing into the truck she says, "Nash.  I am SO sorry you didn't get a certificate at the assembly today.  You totally deserve to get one.  I think your teacher should have picked you to get one."  I was completely baffled by what she was talking about.  Come to find out, the kids had an assembly at school today that was a Student of the Month sort of assembly.  Apparently certificates were given to students for things from "Best Cursive Handwriting" to "Reading" and "Math".  Not sure what the basis was for the awards or how students were chosen.  My daughter however, felt the outcome was, all in all, unfair.  After her statement about how unfair it was that her brother didn't get a certificate I hear, "I can't believe my teacher didn't choose me to get a certificate!  I'm an outstanding reader!"  I had to smile at that comment.  I told my kids, "Just because you didn't get a certificate this time doesn't mean you should quit trying to do your best."  Hopefully they will come to understand that life isn't about certificates, it's about learning simply for the joy of learning.  But, once again, I'm their mother (who also happens to be a teacher) so what the heck do I know?

Caleb & Bob

Ever since Brookelyn was born, Caleb has been adamant that Brookelyn's name was Bob.  Not Brookelyn, not Brooke, and certainly not Brookie.  We joked before she was born that her name would be Bob.  After she was born and she sounded like the snorting pug nose dog that my dad had (whose name was Bob), Travis started calling her Bob.  Thus, Caleb became convinced his sister's name was in fact, Bob.

Today Caleb took a poster to preschool to celebrate him for his birthday (he's a July birthday so we take it when we get it).  It was designed to look like a beehive and the very bottom hive said, "Something I can really "buzz" about is..."  Well, when I was working on filling this poster out, he was very into whatever it was he was doing and wouldn't give me the time of day.  So, I filled it out for him.  On this bottom piece of the hive, I wrote "I am a very good helper with my baby sister."

Today at Preschool when he was sharing his poster, his teacher (who we are friends with and know quite well), asks Caleb, "Caleb.  What is your baby sister's name?"  Knowing full well that his answer would be Bob.  To her surprise (and mine) he looked at her and said, "Um.  I can't remember."  What?!  So she asks him, "Caleb! What do you call Brookelyn?"  He looks at his teacher and smiles and says, "Oh yea!  Bob!"

What a kid!  I can't believe he said he couldn't remember his little sister's name!  I have been telling myself that he was probably trying to remember Brookelyn, not Bob.  But, who knows?!

Picture Challenge Day 18 & 19

Brookelyn's reign of terror has officially begun:

She gets so stinking excited these days & just huffs & puffs & grins from ear to ear.  I was trying to catch the grin so some of my pictures are a bit blurry.

Did I mention sister bounces when she gets excited?

She loves her puffs.  I got her some of the freeze dried bananas & strawberries the other day.  She actually got most of them in her mouth rather than on the floor.  She was funny because she picked out the banana ones & left the strawberry ones!

This is her "Who?  Me?" face.

I love her big cheesy grin.  Notice the raised eye brow?  She is going to be a mischief lovin' girl!

I love these cheeks!  I could kiss them all day long!

I only got one picture today.  I ended up going to the dentist, taking the dog to the groomer, stopping at JoAnn's fabric (shocked gasp I know) and then running kids to piano.  However, I did manage to finish this baby present finally tonight!  It is fleece & ragged.  I thought the puppies were super cute.  I thought about stitching it in red and I think I would have liked it even more if I had done that.  I've been making them kind of big for a baby blanket, but I figure that way they can be used a lot longer!  This one is for Caleb's preschool teacher.