More Junk Drawer...

Sorry I have been a bit negligent about this little blog as of late. Turns out Mitch has discovered computer games.

Here are some more of the random haps from around these parts...


Lisa!
Guess who came to visit? My Lisa! And her daughter! And her mom! Three generations of GIRLS in my house! After living in this locker room full of boys, I was so excited! We had tea and crumpets. And went to the powder room. I channeled my inner Scarlett O'Hara! Well, not really, but it was nice to have some people of the female variety in my house! Especially people who are this adorable!



Mitch would only humor us to take this picture if he was allowed to hold on to a tool. Whatever.

Muffins!
The boys love to cook (read: create kitchen disasters). We go through a lot of green food coloring. These are muffins. Don't they look...well, green?

Fashion Police

When left to his own devices, this is the outfit that Matthew will pick out for himself. There are lobsters on the shirt and crabs on the shorts. I guess he was going for a low country boil theme. His devices are going to land his little self on TLC's What Not to Wear...Toddler edition. I guess the bigger question is, "Why are you letting a two-year-old pick out his own clothing?" I have no good answer for that.

Thanks. Thank a lot.

Mitch came home from school Monday with this little gem:

"Mom, Ms. Pam says that when you get sick, it starts in your hair and goes down your body. So, she had to look through all of our hair today to make sure we were not getting sick. Because "Tina" has something growing in her hair that made her sick and she has been missing from school for awhile, so Ms. Pam had to make sure that none of us got sick in our hair, too."

You're Hired.
We have been really encouraging Mitch lately to speak appropriately, especially to adults. Make eye contact. Speak slowly. Answer their questions. Perhaps we can now back off on this.

At the Farmer's Market on Tuesday, Mitch (clad in his favorite John Deere shirt) marched right up to a lady selling veggies.

Mitch: "How is your corn ready to harvest already? Do you have magic corn? Ours is not ready yet. Anyways, I have a garden you know!"

Farmer lady: "Oh, isn't that cute! What are you growing?"

Mitch: "Well, it has a lot of weeds right now. I have been hoeing to get them out so that they do not drink up all of the water and make it so my plants can't get any.

Farmer lady: "Well, you know, sweetie. You should try to grow something called 'squash.' Have you ever heard of squash before?"

Mitch: "Oh, yeah. I have three squash plants already growing. You have to make a little hill out of the soil and then plant the seeds in the hill. I am making compost. When it is ready, the squash will really like the compost."

Farmer lady: "Do you want a job?"

Folks, I think you are witnessing a card carrying member of Future Farmers of America in action. You heard it here first.

Dennis

Matty is a menace. An absolute menace. Remember the even tempered, good natured little baby we used to have? I do. But now he has been replace by an even tempered, good natured little hellion. He is magnetically drawn to puddles. Like getting away from me and running out into traffic to stick his feet into a puddle drawn. He possesses the power to completely tune out anything and everything Mike and I say to him, unless, of course, it contains the words ice cream, cupcake, or cookie. He frequently uses, "I don't want to" as an excuse to get out of anything...including cleaning up, eating, and bathing. Good thing he never needs to bathe.

Wal-mart

Mitch: "Mom, God uses lots of stuff up in Heaven, but when he is done with it, he sends it down to Wal-mart so we can buy it, right?"

Shalom

We are very multi-cultural around here. We encourage our children to experience a variety of cultures and viewpoints, while trying to see the world through different perspectives. We use literature as a means for opening their eyes to various world views. See? See what book Matty picked from the library?

He certainly did not select it because he thought was a book about rainbows. Nosiree.

Owen loves his mama...

I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Mother's Day Luncheon at Mitch's school this morning. I was really looking forward to some special time with just the two of us, and NOT having to chase a two-year-old around. Matty, I love you dearly, but you are hell on wheels.

This morning, I laid out a charming outfit for Mitch. Nice khaki shorts, a brand-new polo shirt, respectable socks that matched...he came down dressed in a fire truck T-shirt and old shorts. Whatever. So what if the girls all had sundresses and sandals and the boys were wearing church clothes...I even saw a sweater vest, and there was quite a bit of darling argyle to be seen. But not my child. Fire trucks it is!

When we arrived, he presented me with a handmade necklace, and escorted me to my seat. I knew it was my seat because it had a picture of me taped to the back of it. See?



The funny part is, two portrait rejects were sent home this week. They did not make the cut. One had a giant green Kleenex attached to my face, and the other one had a huge purple spiderweb all over my face. Asking around, I realized that no one else had to redo their portrait, let along twice! That's Mitch for you!




We had a very nice lunch, where he showered me with gifts. Here is an excerpt from a darling book he made. This is the Q & A section where he lets out our dirty family secrets.

What color is your mommy's hair? Brown

What color are her eyes? Brown

How tall is your mommy? 689 feet

Do you know how much she weighs? Ummm...I think 600 pounds.

Your mommy is really smart. What is something that she knows a lot about? Fixing cars...and I'm really, really good at fixing lots of things.

What is something that really bothers her? When I am bad to my brother...I push on him. But he does some things wrong and I need him to stop.

What is mommy's favorite color? I'd say pink. Girls like pink and boys like blue, except me...I like green best.

What is soemthing your mommy likes to do for fun? Play with me...that's the best answer I think.


What is mommy's favorite food? I don't know. I never see her eating.

What is mommy's favorite TV show? Cartoons- Mickey Mouse and Bob the Builder

How old is your mommy? 600, that's how old her is

When is her birthday? June- yeah, June I think.

What is your favorite food that mommy cooks at home? Corn on the cob.

How does she cook it? She cooks it ahen you get it out of the garden. But I don't know how she'd get it from the garden...but it didn't ever grow yet.

What do you andyour mommy like to do together? Play farm.

What does your mommy do during the day? Go places, but I don't know where. I'm at school and she doesn't tell me. She likes to go to Walmart. We go every day. She likes Walmart, but she goes to lots of plces to buy things.

What does mommy love to do? Play with me.

If your mommy had one wish, what do you think she would wish for? I;d say to be a farmer...oh yeah, or a dancer...a farmer AND a dancer!

You mommy is the best mommy because....her plays with me a lot.

HUGE bonus points, my son, for saying that you never see me eating. Very nice. I will overlook the 600 pound comment. For now....

Then the children performed two songs, in which they were instructed to look at their mommies and sing to them about giving them hugs and kisses and love. Totally cute, right. I glanced around to see all of the little girls staring right into their mommie's eyes, singing their hearts out, mommies everywhere dabbing at eyelids with Kleenex. My son stared straight at his best friend, Luke, and sang to him the whole time. In a weird robot voice. During the second song, in which they were singing, "I believe that Jesus...." Mitch and Luke engaged in a we-are-so-not-into-this-headlock. Nice. Typical. Whatever.

All in all, it was a lovely morning. I feel very blessed to be the mother of two wonderful boys. They fill me heart and soul...all 600 pounds of it.

Apples Falling From Trees...

This, while dropping Mitch off at pre-school the other morning:

Mitch's beloved teachers: "We've been talking. Is your husband kind of..well...goofy and strange? Because we know you pretty well, and we think you are normal, so we were wondering where Mitch gets it from."

Me: "Yes. Yes he is."




Two minutes ago:

Matty: "Mom, what's a hooligan?"

Me: "It's a crazy little person."

Matty: "I'm not a crazy little person!"

Me: "You're not? Who is?"

Matty: "DAD!"

Feelin' the Love....

For Mother's Day.

Here is a portrait Mitch drew of me.

Sorry it is sideways, but I think you can get the gist. Yes, that is my nose in the middle of my eyes...slightly higher on my face than my eyes. Attractive, huh? And, I have no arms. No explanation was given about my sudden amputation. Also, the green on my face is a Kleenex, as apparently I am sneezing. It must be stuck to my face, as I have no arms to hold in there. Are you just feelin' the love? And the hair, don't get me started on the hair...

I had some important errands to do recently, so I took a shower in the morning and put on a button down shirt. Mitch walks in and says, "Mom, are you getting your picture taken today or something?" Nice.

Mitch: "Mom, they gave us some fruit snacks at school but they are the gross kind I don't like, so I brought them home for you for Mother's Day!"

Matty: "Mom, your hair is too bumpy!"

See, I am feelin' it this Mother's Day. You know who else is feelin' it? The man who just was here to install some more blinds. "The Blind Man," as Mitch calls him. And, The Blind Man has been here so often that Mitch is totally comfortable with him and follows him around, watching him with his tools, and talking incessantly while giving a complete play-by-play narration. Here is a brief excerpt from the verbal landslide that is my son with "worker guys-" and for some reason, he had to say BLIND MAN really, really loudly each time...

"Mom, the BLIND MAN is getting out a drill! Mom, the BLIND MAN is drilling! Can you believe what the BLIND MAN is doing, Mom? Can you? Hey, BLIND MAN! It rained here a lot last night. We had lots of lightening and thunder. Did you have thunder at your house, BLIND MAN? Did you? Did you? Good job, BLIND MAN. Good job putting up the blinds today. See you next time!"

Feelin' the love...

Because he asked...

Matty just informed me that he would like to be in a movie, with, "just Matty, and not Mitchy." So then he colored lots of beautiful pictures with a lime green crayon, and would like to show them off. Think of it as a digital gallery opening, if you will. So, please grab the popcorn, sit back and relax. Prepare to be riveted.

My Apologies....

to the children who live here. They actually stepped up to the plate last night and did fairly well in their Spring Music Program. Mike and I expected the worst, sat in the last row, and carefully stowed our brown paper bags with the eye holes cut out in case it all went south in a hurry. Now please do not judge and say that we are terrible parents, setting expectations too low, blah blah blah. Mike and I have suffered through many public events, watching our goofballs in action. It is taking it's toll on our sanity.

Matty's group performed first. And, despite not actually singing a single word, and playing with his plastic dolphin toy the entire time on stage, he was...respectable. His dolphin made circles for "The Wheels on the Bus," but he did not run off the stage. He did not cry. A couple of times, he put his dolphin on his head, but all in all, we will take it! Here he is, happily NOT singing, chewing on his dolphin.

During the three-year-old performance, this little girl turned her back to the crown, pulled her frilly dress over her head, and pouted. HA! Ours would not be the worst kids there!
Then for the four-year-olds. Mitch did...fine! Now, he did yawn approximately 37 times while on stage. Apparently he found the whole performance somewhat boring. And he did not do many of the motions, but, really, he was hampered by injury. Just prior to leaving for the school, he had an unfortunate run-in with an apple pealer. He lost. He ran upstairs to put on some Band-Aids. While only one finger was bleeding, he got blood on every other finger, and so he just put Band-Aids everywhere. Black Band-Aids. Black Pirate Band-Aids. In his defense, every time he tried to do a hand motion, he would get distracted by his 14 black pirate Band-Aids. Here is some footage.

I was so excited to see the boy next to Mitch pull his arms inside his shirt and proceed to flop his empty sleeves around! Yes! We could hold our heads up high and claim the kids as our own, not plead, "We're not red-heads! He's not ours!" Way to go, boys!