tummy troubles

the big cheese put the girls to bed tonight

and a little while later i thought that i heard someone crying

i went upstairs and sure enough papaya was

she usually hits the pillow and falls asleep, so this is unusual for her

i asked what was the matter, since boo-boo was already sleeping

"i don't feel good, mommmmmmm! my tummy feels funny!"

next logical question "do you feel like you are going to throw up?"

"no, but i don't want to miss out on tomorrow and be all sick, and

not get to dress up and go trick-or-treating and have to stay home and.... and....."

well the big cheese and I figured out the problem pretty quick

no one is sick and the cure was remarkably easy, we asked

"how about you sleep in our room?"

there hasn't been a peep since!

don't you just remember those feelings though?

when one day seemed like forever?

when anticipation just about consumed you?

when all the little things, really were big things?

when you waited for the event and didn't think of all the work?

when you were in wonder about what tomorrow held?

bleary

you got it right, 2:30 a.m
i needed to finish paperwork for the accountant, year-end stuff
and i just finished
amazing really, because once i started
i didn't feel tired at all
but now it is settling on me like a heavy fog
if you read this
could you pray for me tomorrow
that i might be a graceful mother inspite of being tired
nighty..nighty

my 3 year-old tarzan

in the middle of school today, papaya says "i am going to see what's the matter with boo-boo, she has a sad look on her face"
so i follow papaya into the family room to find our 3 year-old dissolving into a bucket of tears
surprised by this seemingly unexplained emotion, i sit down on the floor, take her into my lap and ask "what's the matter?"
by this point, she has escalated to full throttle crying
i am completely wrapped up in this

and not paying attention to anything else
(this i learn latter was my mistake)
so i keep trying to find out what's the matter, i speak sympathetically and assure her to talk to mommy and say "tell mommy what's the matter, you won't get into trouble"
well, apparently that was all the encouragement she needed because she then freely offered, "well, i was trying to swing from those (my curtains) and that (the rod) broke" ahhh! i had been had! but the irony of it was so funny, i pulled her closer to me and tried to stifle my laughter
good thing she had the disclaimer "you won't get in trouble" because at that point it was too funny anyway
when asked why she would try that, she said

"i wanted to see if it would break?"

and "mom when my friend comes, it would break if she tried it too!"

sigh....next time mommy might look a little closer before she speaks...

cookie decorating party

here is one of our family's yearly traditions

some years we even do it twice

almost always in fall, and often again at valentines day

we started it a few years ago, and the girls absolutely love it

it is MUCH easier now that the girls are older

how it works is each of the girls invites a few friends

we had 12 today, including my kids

each friend needs to bring a take home box, container of icing and

decorations to share

i bake up a mess of sugar cookies, believe you me, it is a mess

spread out a disposable tablecloth, cookies and decorations

their friends descend upon our house for a couple of hours and create to their hearts content

and then they take home a container full of decorated cookies to eat and share with their family

it really is a fun tradition, one i think we will keep on doing for a few years to come

tea anyone?

feel like a spot of tea?

last night the girls set up a tea party for their special friends

before bed i asked them to move the china

so that no one would knock it over in the middle of the night

this morning when i glanced at the "party"

i realized that almost all the elements

were homemade except this pink bunny and the dishes

the pillow below matches papaya's new quilt seen in an earlier post

the dolls (first and third picture) were bought at a garage sale quite a few years ago,

i made new homemade clothes for them and the girls love them

the quilt (below) is papaya's baby quilt

a friend and i made the puppy dogs in mass a few years ago

for our kids, cousins and friends at Christmas time

and the dishes were given to bugsy by a friend of mine

who thought she would really enjoy them

did she ever guess right on that!

i found the tea party again this morning

after I had dropped my kids off for a fun day at the pool with their friends

since i am a homeschooling mom i don't seem to have a lot of time to get to projects around the house, so i came home grabbed my dust cloth and vacuum and went upstairs to clean! yay!

at some point during the morning i did wonder why i felt so satisfied to be cleaning, while my kids played...am i demented?...thoughts for another day!

so when i came to boo boo and papaya's room and found the tea party i was in a dilemna

i had a need to clean and it was spread out on the floor in a 3" x 4" square

hmmm.....what did i do? what would you do?

poor barbies

as the girls went outside today they grabbed their barbies

at first i kind of rolled my eyes (i know i teach my kids not to do that)

but i perish the thought some days of all the clean up

a while later though, i was walking past the window and it made me smile

to see them playing in the leaves and it made me laugh because the poor barbies were still dressed in shorts and capris with no thought of the season change!

good thing i put their summer clothes away

otherwise they might have been outside in shorts too

i took some shots of the front of my house

i absolutely love house flags and this might be my favourite one of the collection

unfortunately it seems like we whip through fall and into .....

oops, can't say that word yet! okay! maybe i just won't

no, i am most definately not in denial about seasonal changes

this is the front of our house

once we buy our pumpkins, no pumpkin patch here

the girls carve one each and we set it out on the front bench

then light them on Halloween

wordless wednesday..almost

our new haircuts

tuesday the terrible

today feels terrible
yesterday felt terrible
Sunday was bearable
i feel grumpy, unmotivated, blah and depressed
i have been sick
feels like i am the only person in this place
the weather is overcast and gray and i feel chained to the things i have to do everyday
the laundry is unfolded on top of the washer and another load is unfolded in the washer
i haven't vacuumed, i need to rake, haven't even considered what's for dinner
and i perish the thought of exercising today
i feel like an observer and wish i had that magic wand my daughter talked about
i just want to crawl back into bed
sigh...how do you get past this?
honest thoughts albeit not happy ones today

does God have a magic wand?

as we were finishing lunch

boo-boo looked out the kitchen window and commented in awe "look it is so beautiful"

after a quiet moment, she continued and asked

"mommy does God have a magic wand?"

i couldn't help but smile because even though God may not have a magic wand

the world he created is truly magical

and as i look at the pure wonder of my three-year old

i think, i need to stop, look, listen and wonder too

now as I re-read this post she is sitting in my lap wondering why God didn't make flying horses

so that we could fly over the mountains

this picture shows bugsy with her best friend, Jesse

the two of them share a special relationship all their own, its pretty neat to see how an 8 yr old can understand a dog so well

true confessions

okay here is a secret about me

about a week ago i made cookie dough

love to eat it like that

once it was baked i stuck it in the freezer

yesterday we took out the last of them

just now i found myself pulling apart cookies searching just for the chocolate chips

i love them like that, bits of cookie attached to the chocolate chip

i don't really care for the baked cookie

i had ripped through two before i realized i was even doing it

i threw the cookie remainders in the garbage and had to walk away

or i might eat the whole container...sigh!