Mommathon

This was supposed to be pumpkin bowling, but many of the kids found kicking the ball a much more efficient way of knocking over the pumpkins.


Making a spoooky craft

Liam had his fall concert today. This was the first concert he has had with his new teacher. He did such a great job. We were all so proud.


Getting his violin tuned before the concert.


Photo opp with his teacher after the program.

Colm at the pumpkin patch with his preschool friends.


The neighborhood party


My little Jedi fighter


Even Spidey likes to color.


Getting crafty at the church Halloween party.

The boys both still have parties at school, we still need to decorate our pumpkins, we have a violin Halloween party, plus a party at Sean's work (which I don't think we will make it to, but we shall see). So many parties...so little time. :)

Such a good movie-a great celebration of family. Man oh man, bring your tissues though.

1. He has such a tender heart.

2. The way he gets into things. Right now it is Star Wars. Before that is was Rescue Heroes, then Thomas before that, before that it was Blues Clues and his first love was Sesame Street. There have been others, but those have been the big ones.

3. The way he absolutely will not do anything he doesn't want to do if he thinks he might get hurt or if he is scared (like swim lessons). The part I love about it is when he finally overcomes it and he is so proud of himself.

4. He loves to cuddle.

5. His love of learning and how he can just pull facts seemingly out of the air, but really it was something he read in a book two years ago and something he just saw reminded him of it. Random.

6. His smile.

7. His obsession with wearing slippers to bed.

8. How much he loves his friends.

9. How responsible he can be. He knows what days he has PE and he has to wear his tennis shoes. He knows when his library books at school are due and he makes sure his homework gets done in time.

1. He always says he is sorry. The funny thing is he usually says it long after the incident has passed. He has to take his time and say it when he is ready. I love it that he does it this way because it totally catches you off guard and because it is so sincere when he says it.

2. The way he chews gum. It cracks me up.

3. The dimples...gotta love'em.

4. The way he treats his friends. He is so loving and kind to them. He loves to hold their hand, give them a hug or just put his arm around them. He has found a little girl in his class who is touchy like that, too, and they get along great!

5. The energy he puts into playing witch. It is a game where a witch is coming. We have to hide from the witch. Sometimes the witch is outside, sometimes she is chasing us...you never know where the witch will be, but Colm LOVES to play this game.

6. His chuckle and the smile that goes with it...contagious.

7. His love of art. He loves to paint, color, you name it. If it is artsy, he'll do it.

8. How much he loves Sprite, vanilla wafers and chocolate. He loooooooves them and consumes them as often as allowed.

9. His current obsession with the various phases/shapes of the moon.

I got some new wheels this weekend. When we started the search, I knew I wanted a Nissan Pathfinder. We went and looked and test drove one, but they didn't have the kind we wanted. So we went down the way to the Saturn dealership. They have the Outlook which is comparable and had some standard safety features that the Pathfinder doesn't come with. We test drove one...it was a little noisy and seemed to rattle a little. So we made our way over to Toyota. We looked at their Highlanders and took one for a test drive. We got a bargain. It had more features than either of the other two cars and we got a 2008 AND it was on sale. Woohoo!!! Then again, the car I was driving before was almost nine years old and didn't have automatic anything, so it doesn't take a lot to make me happy. (A big thank you to the grandparents who entertained the munchkins so we could get all of that done, too. )

This is a book of short stories which took me FOREVER to read, but was well worth it. (I think I checked it out from the library three different times.) It is also the first book I have read cover to cover in a very long time. (Selling a house and moving are not conducive to reading.) They are mostly true stories written about sons and the relationships they had/have with their mothers. Surprisingly, not too many tearjerkers. There was one towards the end that got me though. For those of you who do not have a son, there is also a daughter version.

Note to all people who might work with my children...if you have a rule or a guideline that you have established that pertains to the admittance of children into your program-stick to it! We had this problem with Montessori and potty training. Every time I spoke with them about potty training they seemed very willing to work with him. No problem. Send him. But when it came right down to it (and when I read the parent handbook) their policy is they have to be potty trained and when I spoke with the teacher at the back to school parent teacher night she said that he didn't have to be potty trained, but that if he wasn't potty trained soon after school started then they would have to dismiss him. Why would I set him up to be kicked out of school? If you have a policy...stick to it! You have that rule for a reason and it is probably a good one. This week Colm's violin teacher and I had a couple of long talks about Colm's readiness (or lack thereof) to play the violin. She also let me know that she doesn't normally take students who haven't had at least one year of preschool under their belts. Why didn't she tell me this from the beginning? I would have been totally fine with waiting. We had already started with the other teacher and that is why she went ahead and took him, so I guess she had a good reason, but now I am left to make sure he understands that we aren't quitting, we are just taking a "vacation" and I also had to explain to him why he doesn't get to perform in the concert this weekend. He seemed okay with it. We'll see.

Check it out. Get rid of junk mail and plant some trees all at the same time.

We are now officially the proud owner of ONE house. The deal went through today. Who knew we would finally see this day. It's been seven and a half months...a LOOOOOONG seven and a half months, but we made it. Praise God.

I went to get my flu shot today and while the nurse was stabbing me in the arm she said, "Wow! You must work out a lot. Your arms are pumped." I couldn't even type this without laughing and I tried not to laugh when she said it since she had a needle in my arm. Obviously she doesn't know me very well. I don't thing anyone has EVER described me as pumped. Skinny, yes...chicken bones, yes...pumped, I think not.

Colm's parent-teacher conference was today. His teacher said he is doing great. He has some typical three-year old trouble with keeping his hands to himself, but other than that he checked out superbly. He knows everything that a three-year old should know and is a great cleaner upper. Smiles.

My poor kids probably think I am a liar! Yesterday was flu shot day and I told Liam that he did not have to get a shot this year, that he could get the kind you inhale. (Because that is what the nurse told me last year after they got their flu shots.) Phew! He was relieved. Liam does not like shots and that is a HUGE understatement. He kicked the nurse when he got his five-year old shots. (Not on purpose, he was just flinging himself everywhere.) So, we mosey into the dr's office and it turns out he HAS TO HAVE THE SHOT because he has asthma, but Colm can get the inhaling kind. UGH. Double Ugh! Let the crying begin. They were both sobbing in the waiting room. I decided to make them both get the shot, since that only seemed fair. Then I had to decide who should go first. I don't know if I made the right decision, but Colm went first. He screamed bloody murder and then recovered in seconds. Liam on the other hand had to be bribed with the loss of computer time if he didn't get up on the table and even then he fought us after he realized we'd gotten him up on the table and there was no turning back. Liam screamed bloody murder and then whimpered for the next 20 minutes.

Now, back to the title. When Liam was three and Colm was about nine months old, I took them to the dr for their checkups. I had been told previously that Liam would not have to get shots at his three-year old checkup. So, on the way there, I assured Liam that he would not have to get a shot, but that Colm would since Liam had to get shots at his 9 month visit. Guess what? Colm didn't end up needing any shots and Liam did. They had changed things since the last time we were there. I think from now on I am just going to tell them they have to get a shot every time we go to the dr. That way when they don't get one they will be happy and if they do have to get one at least they were expecting it.

I just got done staring at the boxes in our garage. There are too many and I can't handle it. Seriously. What's left is the stuff we could easily throw away and live the rest of our lives and not even notice anything was missing. We went through all of the trouble of putting it in boxes and huffing it over here though so I feel like I should atleast peek inside and see what's there. Ugh. It's too overwhelming.

I can't decide if the shoemakers in this world are taking me for a ride, or if Liam is just really hard on his shoes. Last year I bought him a pair of shoes and he had broken the velcro closure within the first two weeks of wearing them. (The shoe company sent us another pair in the mail, but I had to buy another pair for him to wear in the interim.) He started wearing another pair of tennies at the beginning of September and the shoestrings are trashed and they can't be laced properly because the plastic thingy that goes at the end of the shoelace has come off. (I have to go buy him some new shoelaces so he can continue to wear those shoes.) Then, today, I sent him to school in another pair of shoes, fresh out of the box, and the elastic/bungee closure thingy had broken by the time he got home today. He hadn't even gotten one full school day out of them! And these are not cheap shoes, folks! Lucky for me, my children have super wide feet that cannot be squeezed into cheap Target shoes. No, I have to search the internet and go to children's specialty shoe stores to find shoes that fit them. Hmmm....Liam claims he was just running around at recess when they broke. Uh, huh. Likely story.

Poor Colm has really gotten the short end of the stick with our move. He has been dragged to countless appointments, meetings, etc. Liam has missed out on all of the "fun" since he is in school all day. So I decided today we were going to not unpack any boxes, we weren't going to go to any appointments, we were just going to have fun like three-year olds are supposed to. Poor guy. I can't remember a day recently that has been free from something house-related where we could just go and spend the entire morning and part of the afternoon having fun. He definitely deserved it, too, with all he has put up with recently. We went to Paradise Park and Colm had a great time. I know he had a good time, too, because he is snoozin' away right now.

In this day and age, you would expect there to be a few food allergies in a class of kinders...wheat, peanut butter, eggs, dairy, etc. Liam's class doesn't have any of those, but there are two kids who have some kind of strange allergies, one of them being life threatening. One of them is allergic to juice, yep, juice. Okay, he's actually allergic to the preservative that is used in juice, but it cuts out a lot of foods he can eat. The other is allergic to a specific red dye, but that also means she can't eat things that are orange, purple, pink or red. Again, that cuts out a lot of foods. When you put those two allergies together and you are trying to buy snacks for the class and it has to be non-perishable, you are left with pretzels. Actually, there are a few other foods that are okay, but not many and I think Liam is getting tired of eating them already and it's only October.

It is so lonely in our new house. We are the only people on our street. There is no one across from us anywhere up and down the street or anyone beside us anywhere up and down the entire street. We are, literally, the first ones on the block. The soonest we might have a neighbor is January. It is kind of spooky at night, too. I guess we ARE the welcoming committee. :)

In Liam's kinder class, they are encouraged to spell words to the best of their abilities if they are at that point in their learning. Today Liam was spelling the word beret, only he spelled it bra. I can see that. I hope his teacher knew what he meant.

I know I love Miss Jan. Today I love her even more. When describing Colm, she said he has a "strong personality." I love it. I know what she means. Go ahead, say it, he is demanding, strong-willed, bullheaded, a pain in the hiney at times, I am sure I could come up with more if time allowed. She is such a pro...strong personality...I can read between the lines.

I have the flu. Ugh!

Crazy people re-did their math! :)

They have given us another offer. Clearly they want our house.

Crazy people came to look at our house again today. They have been to our house four times. They gave us another ridiculous offer.

People think I am crazy for repeatedly teaching Sunday school to three-year olds. This is why I do it:

1. Today when we were having a potty break, we lost one of the girls. In my last ditch effort to find her, I looked in the boys' bathroom. There she was, sitting on the urinal, facing out with her dress hiked up. When I told her that it was for boys she looked at me like I was crazy and told me that it was just a low toilet.

2. One of the other girls thought my name was Amen.

How can you not love three-year olds?