First Grade Halloween Parade

Today was our school's Halloween.  Such a busy busy day!  I probably shouldn't share all the details about this day, since it's all about me and my stressiness, but I think I'm going to anyway.  I can always edit it out later right :). 
I should start out by saying that Bradley has looked forward to this parade, the party and the carnival ALL week!!  Ever since he heard about them for that matter, and they have taken up the majority of his thoughts and comments.  It was a BIG DAY for Brad!  So anyway, the night before he started to feel warm (Erika, Noah and Luke have all been in and out of fevers for the past week too, so I saw it coming), well, he was really hot actually.  I started planning how I was going to tell him he couldn't go to his fun stuff the next day.  It was going to be hard.  He slept okay, and in the morning seemed much better.  He still had a headache, but he was "feeling better".  To which I added a grain of salt because I knew how much he wanted to go to his parade and stuff... I wasn't sure how much I believed him.  So I gave him a couple chewy tylenol before we left to take Nate to work.
Well, when I got back, Charity announced that he was throwing up!  My heart sank.  Now there was no option!  He would have to stay home!  I looked in the throw up bowl and all I saw was stomach bile and the pink pill dust.  It occurred to me that I had fed him medicine on an empty stomach and I wondered if that was why he had thrown up.  But either way, there was no way I was going to let him go to school when he had just thrown up. 
So the early morning went on, with Erika screaming and whining profusely.  It was a little chaotic for me even.  I had been so caught up in the whole Brad drama that I didn't make a decent breakfast.  About 20 minutes before we were supposed to be out the door I realized that we needed breakfast and put some water on to boil to steal the rest of Nate's Instant Oatmeal.  Nobody ate it of course, but I did feed them! 
Then, about 2 minutes before we need to go, someone mentioned that they were sad for Brad that he wouldn't get to do his parade, and all heck broke loose!  Brad's world just shattered.  Apparently it hadn't occurred to him that he would not be able to go to school.  He was FLIPPING out!  I completely lost it!  After a short deliberation, we decided he could go to the parade (it was first thing in the morning) and then I would bring him home and he would miss his party.  It was a mad dash to get his costume on and get everyone out the door, but we did it!  We were about 5 minutes late, but hey, we were there!  And then I realized WE WERE THERE!!!  I couldn't believe I had actually given in to that!!  I must be the dumbest mother alive!  And I know a million Moms out there who would shudder at the thought.... I apologize.  It was really crazy. 
So anyway, Erika, Noah and I sat there for about 20 minutes waiting for the parade to start.  I noticed I hadn't really washed the oatmeal off Erika's face (or the cream cheese from the night before for that matter) and Noah's hair was sticking up and he had booger smear too.... I was embarrassed.  I knew I smelled funny because I had missed the shower I planned on taking that morning.  It was just ulgh.  Do you know that feeling? 
Enough about me.  The parade was ADORABLE!!  Brad was so stinkin cute!  He was the only one doing the actions to the songs out of all his friends around him (they sang like 5 or 6 songs for us as they walked around the chairs in the lunch room).  I was so surprised to see him so active and having so much fun after having thrown up that morning!  But I was still so worried, wondering how many of his friends or teacher he'd told that he had thrown up that morning.... that would be so embarrassing!  So anyway.  We got some good video at the parade, lost track of Erika!  I couldn't believe she had wandered off!!  Luckily one of my friends found her and brought her to me.  It's moments like those that I think, "How did I end up with 6 kids??  I can't even keep track of TWO of them!!!"  But then I'm reminded that I was given Charity and Kelly first, and I realize that I ususally have their responsible selves with me.... so it's all good. :))  That also was embarrassing.  Then I took the class picture (Mrs. Trease asked ME to take it!  I was so flattered :) course then I forgot to have Brad take his mask off!!!!  duh.  That was embarrassing) on the steps outside, and it was "time to go".  Well, of course Brad went into his class to take his costume off, then came running out to me and said, "I want to stay!"  He looked fine.  I really couldn't help but feel like the throwing up was a fluke, it was from swallowing too much snot, or like I said before, just from his medicine.  I felt his forehead and he felt fine (with no tylenol).  Can you tell I'm still trying to justify my horrible actions!  I kept thinking, "If he is sick, he would have been contagious yesterday too, so anyone would have gotten it from him already anyway!  So what's the harm?"  Probably my shoulder devil, huh.  Either way, I gave in.  I let him stay!  I was so paranoid the whole morning that he was going to throw up and have to come home.... but he didn't!  I couldn't believe it! 

So my crazy morning continued.  I had been in charge of part of the party, just one game, I needed ping pong balls for it (we drew little eyeballs on them and then threw them into little pumpkin buckets and bowl).  So the two littles and I went to Walmart.  They were cranky. 
We got home, had some lunch, then Grandma came and I left to do Brad's party.  That was a fun party too!  I couldn't believe how much crap those kids were filled with!!  Candy and sugar that is.  They got 2 cupcakes (2 moms had similar ideas), donuts, lemonade, rice krispie treats, handfuls of candy, and THEN a little goodie bag full of candy also!!!  Isn't that nuts!  I bet the kids were in heaven :)  It was a lot of fun.  I got to talk with my friend Linsey the whole time too :)
Bradley survived the whole day and seemed perfectly fine during the party!  Either he's an awesome faker, or it really was just a fluke!  I was glad I let him go.  I would have felt even worse if I hadn't and he'd been perfectly fine at home!
When we got home, I crashed on the couch.  I must be a little sick too because I was totally out of it afterward!  Then Nate came home and we made a last minute run to the store for costume accessories, then we came home, threw some food in our mouths, and threw our costumes on and then we headed out to the School carnival!!  The carnival was a lot of fun this year!  Seemed like things costed more than in years past, but it was still fun.  We did lots of games, got lots of "prizes" and then topped it off with snowcones, cotton candy, donuts, nachos and creamies (not everyone had all of these :)).  Just in case we hadn't gotten enough sugar!!  Noah was stinkin adorable in his Iron Man costume!  Whenever he was just standing there, he had his hands on his hips!  He was Mr. Tough Guy all night, and when I had lost track of him for a second, then found him, I said, "Oh there you are!  What were you doing?"  He said, back to me, "I was flying."  Like it was this common thing.  Then I said, "Oh yeah!  I saw you!"  And he looked at me all confused, "You did?"  That kid is hilarious!  And it was cute to see how much Luke got into his Mario costume.  He really looked so cute and happy in it!  Only took the hat off for a little while :).  Brad was pretty proud of his costume all day too, when he saw his class picture he said, "It looks like Bumblebee is actually sitting there with the class!"  If only we'd had some wheelies for him :).  Charity looked like a cute black lab.  She seemed less enthusiastic about her costume, but I'm thinking she might be feeling a little old for this holiday.... seems soon to me, but not really with Charity.  Hopefully it's just a phase this year :).  Kelly loved her wig, and walked around like it was going to fall off :) but she looked adorable!  and just like Rapunzel if I do say so myself!  I was so relieved that Erika wore her costume all night and complained about it very little.  I think she might even do it again on Halloween! 
We did have a lot of fun!  I was ready to be home when we got here, and my house is completely destroyed.  I was so grateful for the unknown motivation I felt yesterday to clean my house (though the whole time I knew something was coming!  That's how it always goes for me.  I get this huge burst of energy and motivation just before the storm hits!)  So at least my house started out clean today!  We have all day tomorrow to clean it back up again :) 
Well, that's that.  My day was insane!!  Totally planned all of it out like this in fact, but because things were cancelled and then back on so many times, it seemed really hard!  My brain just doesn't do well with the on and off stuff.  I do love this holiday though, and I love watching my kids enjoy it!  Even if it does involve exposing people to bacteria or viruses that their parents will then have to deal with.... we'll just keep hoping against all odds that everybody caught it yesterday and not today when I carelessly put them all at risk.  There.

What the?...... How long has THAT been there?

Lukey found a handy dandy spot to keep his corn dog while he's not using it. 

Yes, that is the refrigerator door handle. 

He said, She said....

Some more of the funny say-ings at our house:

Brad (in the morning to sleeping Nate): Dad, do you work today?
Nate:  No. Why?
Brad: I was just asking you that so you would wake up :)

I was yelling at the kids for the 90th time about their jobs (because everyone whines about the job I give them and then I have to nag them till my brains fall out) today, and Erika was standing behind me echoing everything I said.
Me: I AM SO SICK OF NAGGING KIDS TO DO THEIR JOBS!
Erika: JOBS!
Me: I JUST WANT TO BE DONE!
Erika: DONE!
Me: IT'S SO MUCH EASIER FOR ME TO DO THE JOB THAN IT IS TO NAG YOU GUYS!
Erika: GUYS!
Me: Erika stop it!
Erika: K.
Then Nate was sitting downstairs listening to it all and I could just hear him laughing his head off. 
Nate: I'm sorry, Christa but that is just too funny!
By then I was laughing too.  And Erika :)  It made me less mad unfortunately though, and I had to give the lecture again.  Fun stuff.


Noah: I almost big!


Erika came downstairs and Nate could tell that she had just loaded her diaper.  He said, "Erika, are you poopie?" And Erika realizing her guilt just gave him a "yep.....  Mom." And pointed at me and walked over for her diaper change.  Doesn't sound as funny here, but her face, and the way she insists that I change her and not Nate just makes me laugh.


Luke: One of the girls I like has a loose tooth!
Me: That's cool!  What's her name?
Luke: I!  DON'T!  KNOW!!!
(He's sick of me asking him what people's names are.  Boys just don't seem to care about names as much as girls do in this family.... makes me laugh)



Noah (after finishing his FHE treat): K Mom, I finished my ice cream, can I have a treat now?
Me: HA!


Erika: Dat MY bumb!


The first time I saw Tangled I thought it was lame that they make blond hair the magic hair, and brown hair the way magic hair looks AFTER it loses all it's magic!!  I'm a brunette, what can I say.  So anyway, I loved the movie, but it was tainted because of that.  Charity said something really cool the other day that made me realize I was looking at it all wrong!
Charity said: Wouldn't it be cool if everyone that had brown hair had MAGIC TEARS! 
What a smart girl!  And so optimistic!  Brunettes are the coolest!

Two other funny things about that movie in our house: #1 Noah LOVES it!!  And will request to watch it almost everyday, which I think is funny since it seems like a girl movie to me. 

and #2 Erika will say, "Fave-it one! Fave-it one!" when the "When Will My Life Begin" song starts.  It's cute.

This one's not so much funny, but sweet and cute (just like my Noah :) )
The kids were all talking about crushes at the dinner table one night.  Apparently Luke has a lot of girls in his class that have crushes on him, according to Bradley, who got his information directly from the source, Luke.  No, Luke does not talk to me about this stuff, just his big brother.  How nice.  ANYWAY.
As everyone was discussing who has crushes on who, and what a crush is, sweet little Noah pipes in and quietly, sweetly, with adoring eyes, looks at me and says, "I have a crush on you, Mom."  AWWWWWWWW  I totally melted.  Then of course, to top it off, he adds, "And I have a crush on Kelly too."  Is that not the sweetest thing ever!!  It is coming from Noah :)


And here's another sweet one from Noah, as I was getting him dressed for bed, he, just out of nowhere says, "I like you, Mom!"  Awwww I like you too, Noah!


Kelly is quite the comedian these days.  Maybe it's just the WAY she says things, and I really can't convey that in type, but I have to record a couple of th efunny things she's said lately because I want to remember them.  She's made me laugh so hard lately, simply by being her adorable, happy, carefree self.
On Brad's birthday, she came into the kitchen, saw his leftover cake and said, "ooooooo!!  Kelly wants some cake!! [short pause] No.  Kelly's had too much sugar today."  3rd person from a child always cracks me up.


The other thing I am remembering right now, we got some of those sugar wafer cookie things the other day (ya know, the cheapest cookies there are) and she was calling them "wahfers" (with the short "a" sound, not the long).... we had a good laugh, and I teased her about it profusely.  Supposedly she wasn't offended.  And hopefully so, but it was just hilarious!!  Maybe I am more like the wicked witch on Tangled than I should be....

Erika's latest:
"Kewy did it!" (for Kelly did it)
No matter what it is, if anyone asks who did something, it was "Kewy did it!"  She's even said it few times just out of the blue, to pass the time or something.  Totally cracks me up.  Kelly does her little, "I KNOW!" when I tell her what Erika likes to say.  She doesn't think it's that funny, but she contiues to keep Erika up on the pedestal that she has her on.  Erika could really do no wrong in Kelly's eyes.  I'm afraid it will just have to be the other way around :)


Yesterday I made little notes for each of the kids and then placed them strategically so that they would find them.  I realized halfway through the day that Noah had not moved his so I thought I should point it out to him (Afterall, he is only 3 and can't read even his own name :) ).  This is how our conversation went:
Me: Noah, did you see the note I made for you?
Noah: Yes.
Me: Then how come you didn't move it?
Noah: Where is it?
Me: Over there.
Noah: I know!
Me: Oh, sorry.  Do you want me to read it to you?
Noah: I alwedy did!
Me: Oh!!  Okay then!
and then a few minutes later
Noah: MOM!  It says that Halloween is coming up!!!
Funny boy.  It didn't mention anything about Halloween, but now that I think about it, I might have to consider putting that in my next note to him :)  seems to be more intriguing than "I love you".  Especially if he never even lets me read it to him :)  The cute little know-it-all.
He actually carried the little notecard around with him the majority of the day.  Asking me to look for it for him, or hold it.... he was very attached to his Halloween reminder.

One more:
I was cleaning the bathroom (apparently this is even more rare of an occurence than I thought because Noah and Erika just stood there in awe at the sight.... kind of embarrassing, but still a little funny :) ).  When I got to the underside of the toilet seat, I said, "Oh gross!  What is this!?"  Just trying to add emphasis to the moment for Noah and Erika, not really asking them.  And Noah immediately chimed in with, "It's because of Brad and Luke!  It's because they shake my bootie!"  HAHA!!!  Part of me thinks this could be made up, but the other part of me thinks Brad and Luke need a little talking too!  The little pills!!  It was funny to hear him say the words "shake my bootie" though :)  Funny boy.

Cookbooks

Hey Everybody,  Nate's brother has a rare genetic disorder called Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.  He is currently in need of a liver transplant.  The family has put together a cookbook with 650 tried and true recipes from family and friends, to help raise money to pay for the medical costs.  It's a really nice, hard cover cookbook, it's only $14, if anyone is interested, please email me (christamaynes1@gmail.com), or send me a message on facebook and I can get you the rest of the ordering info.  They should be here before Christmas, so if you're looking for the perfect gift idea.... look no further!  :)  Thanks!

Maynes Family Halloween Party

Friday, the 21st was the Maynes Family Halloween Party.  Nancy and Mark were in charge of it and they did such a good job of making it an original activity.  Nancy made these really cute invites that looked like a chopped off finger in a box.  Very cool.  We did a fun little photo scavenger hunt around the neighborhood first.  Then came pumpkin carving contest.  Each family brought their own pumpkin to be carved and judged.  Nate really got into this with the kids.  I didn't feel like there was room for me, so I got the camera out (always looking for an excuse right :) ). 

I was sitting by Erika through most of it and couldn't get her to smile.  This is the face she made when Luke showed her how to smile :)  Oddly enough, she looks a lot like him :)

Then the two of them posed for a few pictures together.  They were SO SWEET to each other, kept hugging and kissing.... it was ADORABLE!!  I really couldn't get enough of it :)  That's why all the pictures I guess :)

I love how my big kids look in this picture!  Thanks Jen, for getting them to pose for your camera :)

This was Evan's incredible Tron costume that Mark made him.  It was having a few technical difficulties when I took this, but we wanted to capture how cool it looks in the dark!  It acutally has lighting fastened to it!  It's really cool.  Mark is so good at that stuff!

Eventually it was just Nate carving our pumpkin :)  He was so into it, it was cute!  It's not every year he gets to carve one exactly how he wants :)  We might still do that as a little date night here, but not sure :)... He did such a great great job on this one, it was the star of the night, everyone loved it.

See what I mean!  And Erika doesn't kiss just anybody!

Kelly got a hold of the camera, these next few were hers.....  The Taylor's pumpkin.

This oen is awesome!  I love the idea!

I guess I looked away before she took this one... lame.  Oh well.  I love Meg! 

After pumpkin carving we did the donut eating contest.  The kids all had a good time.  I went up against Jen, and I just couldn't bring myself to beat her!  So I let her win (and i am sticking to that story :) ). 

There's Nate's masterpiece.

I just thought this was a sweet picture of Jen with Samantha and Grandpa Russ. 

It was a really fun party!  More fun than we've had in a while at a family party (if that's okay to say).  I really enjoyed it. 

I think the funniest thing of the evening was Erika's constant "guy. pint. chee.!"  Telling me, and showing me, how (the accused) Darren pinched her cheek.  While I wouldn't put it past him... he seemed convincing when he said he really didn't.  I can only assume that it was someone else and that they meant nothing by it, but she was completely offended!!  Even looking at these pictures days later, that's all she can think about that evening!  So funny.  She is hilarious. 

Next time you see her, ask her to show you how "that guy" pinched her cheeks.... she does a great reinactment!

Happiness is....

- Luke screaming through the whole house, "I BEAT DAD'S SCORE ON THE BUBBLE GAME!" at 6:00 in the morning.  And then watching him running around rallying the troops to come be a spectator to his next victory.

- Erika and Noah playing house together where Noah is the Dad, Erika is the Mom, and the babies all have LOTS of blankets on them, "so that they don't have dreams!"  And Erika's cute fingers pointing to me as she talks.  So sweet.

- Finishing Kelly's book report.  It only took us like 20 minutes to do, why do we put those things off.

- Brand new lights in the Family Room.  The homeowner finally had mercy on us!  Lukey says he might go blind from it.  I love it!

- Walks with my sweetie, every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wouldn't trade them for the world.

- Watching Erika try to lick the freshly fallen ketchup off her knee at Wingers.  That was A D O R A B L E!

Random Pictures

I love how these two are with each other.  This would have been cuter if I could have grabbed my camera quicker, Noah had his arm around her.  He does that all the time though, so I'm sure I'll get it again sometime.  He's SUCH a gentleman!  So sweet and loving with his little sis.

Last week when I was trying to organize my craftroom a little and the office, Erika caught a glimpse of these "beads" and immediately wanted to use them.  They're the plastic ones that are used on the little peg boards to be ironed and made into cool pictures, but that's a little to much for this little 1 year old crafter.  Instead we decided she could make a necklace or "necked" as she says it :).  I decided I needed to put my organizing on hold for a little bit to help her and make this a special little time for she and I.  We sat down and I completely expected to have to make the thing for her and just haver her get excited watching, but nope!  She insisted that she do it and even though she got frustrated a little here and there, she was able to do it!  Her cute little fingers were just the right size for the "beads", and she was able to get quite a few on her little boondoggle necklace.  I loved this time with her!  I think she liked it too.  She didn't last too long, so it was short, but she felt like she got her "me time" in and was able to come back to helping me organize.  It was a fun little afternoon for me and my little girl.

Got Seeds?

We did our annual pumpkin carving FHE this week!  So exciting!  Nate has Mondays off so we decided to get an early (VERY early) start on FHE and picked the kids up from school.  We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, the Walmart parking lot, and everyone picked out their favorite one.  As we were grabbing some Halloween window stickers and spider web, a lady (I believe she works there) came and whispered in my ear that the pumpkins at Harmons were only 10 cents a pound, so WAHOO! PRICE MATCH!!!  We got our 6 pumpkins for about half the price we were planning on paying!  Kinda nice.  Sorry to all you SUCKERS out there who have to pay full price!  I'm totally kidding, I only say that because i"m usually one of them these days and I feel like a sucker everytime I go shopping without coupon scouting first.  So anyway.  Nancy told us that she saw a truck dropping off pumpkins at their favorite pumpkin patch (a real one where you pick a pumpkin that's laying on the ground in the supposed spot that it grew), and it kind of ruined the experience for her... made me feel better about buying the cheaper ones from the cheap grocery chain store.  A pumpkin is a pumpkin right?  ANYWAY!  Here I go, rambling on about nothing.  So we got home, and got started! 
Everyone did so well!  I say this every year, but this family impresses me with how well we work on our pumpkins!  Such a cool thing to me!  Even in really cramped quarters like it's been these last couple years.  I was on lid duty, anyone that didn't want to cut their own lid, I think Brad was the only one who did his own.  Then we scooped, and most of them did their own scooping!  Even Noah and Erika were on board for this part!  I helped a little though.  Then it was time to design it and this is where Nate really comes in to play (though Nate did a lot of the scooping this year as well).  We had some little templates that Bradley, Luke and Erika benefitted from, they came with our little kit.  Charity kind of sat there just enjoying watching everyone else, trying to decide what to do.  She had a brilliant idea to put the word "HALLOWEEN" on hers!  Way cute!  And totally her.  She reminded me of me being all indecisive about what design to do.  You want to do the perfect thing, but it just never comes to ya.  She got a little frustrated after a while and then changed her mood pretty quickly back to her cheerful self.  I like it when she can do that.  Nate helped her with the carving.  Kelly did a very complex decoration on four sides of her pumpkin.  She had a very ornate eye with a fancy eye brow, which she actually figured out on her own that she couldn't cut the whole thing out because it was circles within circles.  I thought it was really smart of her to figure that out.  We decided to do a "3D carving".  That is what Kelly calls it after watching hours of Halloween Wars on the Food Network.... fun show btw.  It's when you just dig out the outer layer of the pumpkin, not going all the way through to the inside of it.  Sometimes you can make it glow if the layer is thin enough.  She had a lot of help from Nate and I on the eye, but she designed it!  On another side she had a bat that she did a great job carving herself.  Then a cat, great drawing again, Nate did the 3D thing for her, and then a ghost on teh last side.  I did the 3D part and she carved out the eyes which I ruined and turned into a connected-eyes look.... I hate it when I screw up on their stuff.  Hers was very creative, I was very impressed!  Brad's was a bat, as I said before, he did the whole thing by himself.  I was so proud of him!  He really wowed us all with his pumpkin and he seemed pretty proud of himself as well.  Lukey picked out a 3 Ghost template, Nate did most of his, but he looked really cute watching him and he was very excited about it!  I think he did do some of the scooping too.  Noah's was a Noah Original!  He drew his own pumpkin face (he calls it a Ghost) on his pumpkin with the marker and had me cut it out for him.  There was some confusion during the process as to which holes were which facial features, but we got it all worked out!  He did a really long smile :)  I love his because he made it.  I love it when they get to design their own.  Gives me insight into their personalities that I love.  And last but certainly not least, Erika!  She picked out a "Kitty One" template, and stayed very close by as Nate did the poking through the paper and then as I was carving.  She LOVES her pumpkin!!  She even had a hard time (I say 'hard time' but I mean H A R D  T I M E!!!) leaving it out on the porch.  And I did a pretty good job on it if I do say so myself :) 
Everyone always seems generally happy during this FHE. I always love how they all compliment each other and talk about how good everyone's doing.  It's just sweet.  We took an intermission to enjoy the yummy chicken pot pie Linsey gave us... mmmmmmmm!!!!  And kept at it!  Took us about 3 hours altogether!  Glad we got a head start!
6 pumpkins (averaging around 20 lbs each) make a LOT of goop and, my favorite, LOTS and LOTS of SEEDS!!!!  MMMMMMMMMMMM  Took me a while, but we got them all cleaned, dried and baked!  We'll be eating them for days, I imagine.  HA!   Good stuff.

I took these last ones the next night, after the Reflections night.  When we got home from ice cream with Grandpa Hatch, the house just reaked of pumpkin, and even though I hadn't located our little candles yet, I needed to get them out of the house.  And I have a tradition of taking pictures of our pumpkins with everyone afterward and hadn't done it the night before, so this was my chance :)