My first attempt to "do hair"

How do people do these fancy styles on these little tiny heads. Heads that, I might add, don't stop moving the whole time you are trying to work. Add to that the screaming as if I am tearing her hair out and I think I have a lot to learn. But between the screaming and wiggling and my total cluelessness- I think it turned out kind of cute







Coming soon (maybe tomorrow???) Photos from Halloween.
Yeah Yeah- better late than never

A Witness to History

We have witnessed the election of the first African American president. And while two of my kids can't (at least now) become president, they can see that a person who is brown like they are can be President of the United States. That positions of power are no longer held exclusively by White men. It gives me hope that eventually all people will be judged, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. What an amazing day yesterday was. We rejoiced at every state that "turned blue" and watched as the American people chose a leader, not based on the color of his skin, but on the content of his character. People from all walks of life came together to change the course of our nation, Time will tell what that course will be, but I am optimistic that this is the beginning of something remarkable and that Barack Obama will be the one leading our country back to becoming the amazing country we can (and should) be.

In the words of an anonymous man who was a preacher and a slave

"Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be; but thank God we ain’t what we was.”

Today we are one step closer to being what we ought to be and today I am truly proud to be an American

Apples and Pumpkins

It is apple picking time around here so we took the kids to the local orchard. They had a blast snacking in the orchard. We aren't sure that K really appreciated it, but next year we figure she'll be munching away with the other kids. The weather was perfect- cool and sunny. I am not sure why X wanted to wear the mittens for apple picking though







The kids then went pumpkin hunting in the field.





The three little kids also got to attend two field trips with my preschool class so they got another visit to the orchard and a different pumpkin patch- we had much cooler weather though so it was time to break out the winter coats. But how cute is K in her coat?? It is too big right now for her (it used to be A's back in the day). K spent the trip riding in the backpack carrier. The week before she discovered that a fun game to play while in the backpack carrier is "pull Mommy's hair" In the winter coat though she couldn't get her fingers out of the mittens on the sleeves so we had a pain free field trip.

Gratuitous Cute Kid Picture

I finally picked up the photos- I think they are well worth the wait

If my head wasn't attached

First of all- the backstory...

I have always had the kids photos taken professionally (well at JC Penney's so professional is a relative term) at 3, 6, 9 , 12, and 18 months old and then on each birthday. For D and K we took the first set right after they came home and then get on the "schedule" for the next level. So K was almost 8 months old when we did hers in August and I picked up the photos at mid September (cause it takes a couple weeks from photo shoot to photos printed) But because I wanted her on the schedule and she has learned to sit up in the interim between 8 and 9 months, I scheduled her 9 months photos for around her birthday date- which happened to be about a week after I picked up the other photos.

So...
So last week I realize I can't find the new photos anywhere. I remember (I thought) picking them up. B and I tore the house apart looking for the photos when B says "are you sure you picked them up"

Well of course I picked them up- I remember taking the 3 little kids with me and we had dinner at the mall and I put the envelope with the photos in the car.

After a phone call to the studio the next morning, turns out the photos are still at Penneys waiting for someone to pick them up.

Several times I left the house to do errands, including picking up the photos but for a host of reasons (like they are only open to 7) I never made it to the mall to get them. And since I had just picked up photos a couple of weeks ago I "remembered" picking up these photos too. Apparently I am not the person you want in charge of anything that requires memory of actual events.

Oh and the photos are still at Penney's waiting for me to come pick them up.

Breakfast with Elmo (or how to traumatize a child)

D loves Elmo. In fact, his name is one of the 3 words she can say clearly. We had an opportunity to attend a Breakfast with Elmo as part of a museum exhibit developed using Sesame Street. Everything was going great- D was enjoying the food and having a good old time, until Elmo arrived.



Not that we were surprised but she would not go near Elmo. She would wave from a distance but that was it. X was more than willing so we hoped that would push D and convince her but no such luck. K isn't sure what to think at all.







We did eventually get all four of them to pose, with B's help, for a photo with Elmo.



We tried to get D to get near Elmo one last time before we left breakfast but as you can probably tell from her body language she wasn't go near him



In the exhibit, the kids posed in front of 123 Sesame Street and D visited Elmo's World, where she was fascinated to find Elmo's fish Dorothy, just like on TV









But of course their favorite thing was the digestion exhibit, complete with burps and poo. Not that I am surprised by this at all...

Never a Dull Moment

The kids noticed the other day that there was a small hole in the window screen right by the kitchen table. It didn't take long before Arizona noticed the hole, too. And it took even less time for X and D to realize that food can pass through the hole to Arizona. Now we have a much bigger hole...










When you have four kids you would think that a moment of peace and quiet would be a welcome event. However... what it really means is that it is time to go see what is going on. This initially appeared to be a fun game with my laundry hamper... Turns out they have D trapped under the hamper. And before anyone calls child protective services or anything- she was laughing her head off. When I told them to let her out, their response was "why- she likes it" Who could argue with that logic so I pulled out the old parental stand-by "Because I said so!"