Pizza Surprise!

We took the boys to a corn maze saturday (post to come) and afterwards we went to lunch at a yummy pizza place down south. The highlight of the meal was the surprise when they brought the pizza out. We asked for half with no mushrooms...they brought out half with no mushrooms but added spinach to it! Our waitress was so nice and said that she was having them remake a smaller pizza to replace the mistake. About 10 minutes later was our next surprise...a pizza covered in tomatoes. Our pizza didn't come with tomatoes! So...the nice manager only charged us half price (they did get half the pizza right), we had a few giggles and a lot of left over pizza. And because the kids' side was messed up, he gave them all giant cookies with M&M's in it. I think they forgave him! And we had a good chuckle. Was the kitchen staff just making the pizza's up? Who knows! The pizza was still yummy.

BREAKING NEWS....

At approximately 10am this morning a Tornado touched down in a small Utah town. The Tornado, affectionately known as Ethan, was quickly followed by a smaller but just as powerful Tornado named Colby. These 2 Tornadoes single handedly destroyed all the piles of folded laundry in a suburban household, and managed to pick them up and force them over the railing to the floor below.

The owner of the home explains "there was no warning, not a sound was made during the catastrophic event". These silent Tornadoes, also referred to as preschoolers and toddlers, often use tactics like pretending to play well together and code words to hide the actual destruction they are performing. "We must be more vigilant and careful with the toddler and preschool variety, as they have been known in the past to destroy much, much more than just piles of folded laundry, I remember the flour storm of 1999, in which Tornadoes Jordan and Cameron totalled a whole bag of flour and spread chaos and more accross their Grandmother's kitchen in Washington. I hope to never have to live through anything like that again."

The good news is, Ethan and Colby, are no longer tornado force winds and are seen only as cloud bursts and strikes of lightning. These are expected to continue until for the next 16-18 years. With some careful attention storms such as these can be avoided in the future.

Below is an image of the devastation and may not be suitable for sensitive individuals.

Crisp Autumn Air

I'm not a morning person, but how long can one actually sleep in when she has 5 kids. Not very late! I'm up around 7am every morning whether I want to be or not. This is the one time of year I love being up early in the morning. Well, 7am isn't early to some of you, so go ahead and laugh at me. If I had my choice I wouldn't be up before 8am. Too bad school starts at 8am and I have kids to attend too.

I love the crisp autumn morning air and the changing of the leaves. Every fall we take a drive to see the changing of the leaves in the mountains. It's some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen. The colors that nature makes in response to the chill in the air and the signs that winter is approaching is amazing. We haven't taken our drive yet this fall, but hope to before the week is over.

The best part of autumn is even if it's a bit chilly in the mornings the afternoons are usually 70 degrees and perfect for being outside! Okay and the part where the kids are in school for part of the day is great too. I miss them, but it's so much fun to spend more individualized time with my 2 little ones at home! Soon to be 3.

Mrs Piggly Wiggly

I wasn't too much of an embarrassment to my children at school yesterday. But the other two moms were. I guess my kids don't mind their mom dressed up as a "Road Hog" with a plastic pig nose, piggy tails, sunglasses, and a tattoo shop t-shirt. I think the school kids enjoyed the skit!

Thanks to Shelly and Tiff, I didn't have to be the only mom up there making a fool out of myself. Although they weren't fools, but great actors. I may have looked a bit foolish with my almost 9 month pregnant belly. Most of the kids in the neighborhood didn't recognize me. So luckily it looks like I've avoided the nickname of Mrs. Piggly Wiggly!

The things we do to entertain and encourage our children to be excited about learning, right?

Butterfly Kisses

C, my 17 month old has the cutest little habit. He just might be the only child who hated pacifiers as an infant but loves them as a toddler. He just loves having a binky, and I love him to have one when he's cranky and tired. Recently he discovered two new parts of his body. His nostrils and his eyelashes. For about 3 wks straight he had his finger up his nose! Yes, our social faux paux child digging away and finding out where those holes in his nose went! Just today he learned how to blow his nose! Now we just need to train him to use a tissue when he does it! Eeeewww is the best word to describe it!

But my most favorite discovery he has made is his eyelashes. He loves to play with his eyelashes. I think it's soothing to him. When he is tired, we'll hand him a pacifier and his fingers go right to his eyes where he gets free "butterfly kisses" from himself. And when I tuck him in and night, he's laying there playing away with his sweet soft lashes. I'll have to see if I can sneak a pic one night.

C-O-O-K-I-E

E, my 4 year old is getting his fair share of press lately on my blog! And rightfully so! This kid is fiesty and funny! Short for his age, he packs a lot of spunk in his little body.

The other evening, B (my 7 year old) saw a box of cookies on the counter. Todd brings cookies to clients and whenever any are left over they come home to willing recipients. B thought he was being sly by asking his dad for a C-O-O-K-I-E. E heard him and comes running in the room....Oh I want a C-O-O-K-I-E too! Apparently he's learning how to spell and we didn't know it yet! Either that or he thinks their name changed! It's probably the latter!

A full moon last night!

We had a full moon here last night. ;)

Has anyone else noticed that kids' pants run bigger in size than shirts? And shorts run even bigger than pants? My kids always wear a size smaller in shorts than they do pants, and a size bigger in shirts than they do pants.

E was wearing his 3T shorts yesterday. Todd took him to the pizza place to pick up our pizza for our weekly family movie night. E got upset at something and threw a fit and his pants slid off!

Todd comes home and I'm sitting on the front porch and I look over at E pushing his tricycle. His pants fall down again! I busted up laughing. At least he was wearing underwear right?

The night in which I almost have a heart attack.

Yesterday evening, while my 12 yr old was at a church activity, we loaded up the rest of the boys in our gas guzzling HOV and headed to the local membership club where we could buy packages of food large enough that, if we were lucky, just might last a week or more at our house. We soon realized that after hiking what felt like 2 miles of rows of mass packaged goods, that we weren't going to make it out of the store before our 12 yr old boy returned home from his activity. We called him up to let him know we'd be home in 20-30 minutes depending on how many other large families, daycares or small nations at the warehouse club were in line at the checkout.

After maxing out our cargo area with giant bags of apples, cases of diapers, a box of laundry detergent (that I just may need a forklift to get up the stairs of our house), 4 loaves of bread, 4 cases of drinks for lunchs and enough lunch meat and cheese to turn your stomach imagining the mile long sandwich we could make out of it...we FINALLY headed home.

As we pulled into our neighborhood and rounded the corner down near our house we were greeted by red lights, lots of red lights! As our SUV roared around the corner, we saw the red flashing lights were down by our house. Attached to those red lights were 4 fire trucks and an ambulance. Spotlights had been set up and fireman in their full gear were out...IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE!!! "That's by our house!" I shouted at Todd. He said, "I know, not good!" I tried to jump out of the car, but kept panicking and hitting the lock button instead of the unlock button on the door. The vehicle had trapped me in long enough for me to notice the trucks weren't in front of our house rescuing our 12 yr old, but across the street. Calm down, breath, relax...Kirsten! It wasn't our son. They were at the house across the street that is still under construction. Uh oh! The house being built, you know...the one where the kids like to slide down the giant dirt pile and sneak in the house and play in the basement and holler to hear their echo!? Yes, that house! I looked for flames? No flames. Good,it's not a fire. Panic strikes me again. Whose child is it? It has to be a child! It's dark outside and the construction workers have all gone home. My mind goes there. It couldn't be my son could it? He wouldn't leave the house to play outside would he? He knows it's against the rules if we aren't home. He's a good obedient child. Relax, I tell myself it's not him.

WHO IS IT!?!? My mind is racing. I try to get out of the car one more time. This time I hit the button in the other direction, freeing myself from the prison that trapped me in and held me back from discovering the horror just feet from our house! Waddling down the street to the nearest emergency vehicle, I find a man. I don't know who he is and I don't care. He's the first person I see and ask about the scene. I try to pretend I'm calm, but I'm practically shaking. I ask, "What happened?" Bracing myself for the answer, he calmly replies..."It's a fire drill." "Just a drill? That's all? I live across the street and my 12 yr old is home by himself and I was very scared there for a minute". "Yes, ma'am, it's just a drill". By now I had noticed the fire department ensignia on his clothing. He would know this is the truth. I trust him that this is the case. I'm 2 doors away from our home, they had let my husband through at this point.

I head back to the house, and as he's getting out of the car I share the news. His face relaxes. I go inside to check on our son. He's putting his trombone away. "Jordan!" I say, "Did you see what's going on outside?". "Huh?" he replies. "There are 4 firetrucks in front of our house". "Oh, really?" he casually replies. "Oh boy! You didn't notice?". We all go outside and watch the drill together. I sit on the front steps of the house. Colby is making a fire truck siren noise. Whhooo, whoooo! He giggles and croons over and over again. Ethan is on his scooter circling the driveway watching the fireman climb the roof of the house. We sit and watch and I think about what could have happened. I'm glad no one is hurt. I think of the family building the house, and wonder if anyone called them in a panic. I grab my camera to document their "house fire".

Last night, I held my boys a little tighter before they went to bed. Grateful the incident was just a drill. I wonder why we weren't told about the drill. That's a question for the fire department that will have to be asked.

My birthday!

Today I turned 25, again! I stopped counting how many times I've turned 25 according to my boys!

For my birthday the boys decided they would make me dinner and a cake. My wonderful husband decided to take on this challenge! However...they are boys. I'm not sure planning and preparation has been instilled in them yet. Todd arrived home at 6pm tonight. I bit later than I thought as he "left work early because it was my birthday". Translation: He left work early to go shopping for my birthday.

Here are a few birthday FAQ's for you!

Q: How long does it take 3 boys and a Dad to make a Taco salad and a birthday cake?
A: Aproximately 55 minutes! Probably twice as long as the Dad by himself.

Q: Does a birthday cake still taste good if your 10 yr old forgets to put the oil in it?
A: Yes, it sticks to the bottom and is a little dry, but it still tastes good.

Q: How long does it take 4 boys to wrap 1 present and write birthday cards?
A: 30 minutes, if you include the foam sword battle in the middle of the task.

Q: How many boys remembered to bring up the present they had wrapped just minutes before?
A: None! It did take 2 reminders from their dad before they realized I hadn't actually opened their present yet!

Q: How many boys made my birthday special today?
A: 6, including the big boy that I married!

Thanks for the great birthday boys!

Here are my party planners.