In this sea of unruly boys, there is one girl who really knows how to host an event.
Today she gathered everyone together to partake of her amazing hot chocolate.
Pippi was loving the hot chocolate — and I’m pretty sure she wants to be just like her big sis when she is a bit older.
I love to be with my kids in most places. But when I am heading off to help in Scout or Navy’s classroom, I really don’t enjoy my littles with me. Actually, Dash isn’t too bad by himself, but Pippi is horrible by herself, and the two of them are awful! This day, I had a big talk with them, and they even gave me a thumbs up, illustrating to me that they were going to be on their best behavior.
When we got to the library, they got a warm welcome like always.
All of Navy’s classmates think my littles are hilarious…mostly due to their naughty nature.
But true to their reputation…they were awful!
At least the class was entertained, as I had Dash in time out while holding Pippi in one arm — while reading the class a book in the other.
My kids are hilarious!
With the exception of Pippi, none of my kids sleep in their PJ’s.
They are underwear sleepers — always have been, and probably always will be.
But first thing in the morning, with our house windows open letting the freezing air in…one by one, my kids show up in their PJ’s and robes.
This day Dash got Nonnie to help him put his race car pajamas on.
And for an extra boost of warmth, he climbed in Nonnie’s famous robe right afterward.
Just two awesome kids off to school.
In their short sleeves, shorts/capris — and their warm blankets to keep them thawed before the car heater does its job.
Obviously it was a rushed morning, because I am not proud of their hair today. Both of them look like ragamuffins.
But even though it was a rushed morning, I still got in my daily quote…”I love both of you…go and be heroes”.
I think the moment church is officially over, my kids think the church is a playground.
I reiterate that reverence is still important, but some Sundays all reiterations fall on deaf ears.
For example…..here are some snaps from after church today….
Just a little microphone fun, leaf jumping, and running in the parking lot.
I am so lucky that my mom saved a few of my dresses from when I was little.
First off, I have to say that I think the style then was clearly superior.
It was so much more girly — frilly and doll-like.
When I pulled these, and others out of storage, I took them to the dry cleaner we love.
When she saw them, she oohed and aahed over them like crazy. Then she asked where to buy such delicate and pretty things. I told her to invest in a time machine!
The only drawback — the styles were shorter back then.
So when my teeny tiny girl fits into my one-year-old things at the age of two, they are pretty short.
But again — I die over them, so who cares.
And the HUGE bonus — she got to wear a full slip underneath!
(Some of my greatest memories from growing up, take place with all of my sisters in our full slips, playing after church.)
So to honor the short length — I dressed Navy in her shortest dress also.
(Sidenote — Navy’s shoes were changed the moment I noticed them.)
This girl, with her silly smile was so happy to twirl and dance in her pretty dress.
She actually did a full dance in it, to the sacrament hymn for all of us!
Now it’s time to pack it up, for my future granddaughters.
And that’s rad!
Thanks Mom.
And thanks Nonnie.
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While snapping pics of her in my dress, I got a shot of her blinking. And for the first time, I got a really good picture of Pippi’s amazing eye lashes!
Check those babies out!
I’m jealous — as is probably every other girl who sees them.
In celebration of our Sanibel trip….I present to you:
THE SHELLEBRATION JAR!
Every single one of these shells was carefully selected out of the ocean, or off the sand by someone in our family. It may just look like a cheesy Pinterest idea, but it is much more!
Every shell in there has a story of how we found it, where it was found, or if it was the first of its kind!
When I showed it to the kids, we were going around the jar pointing out every little story.
For example, the large Whelk you see in the middle was the first Whelk we found on the trip.
It was at Bowman’s Beach on Captiva, and Scout fished it out of the sea with his toes. When he found it, we were all waist-deep in the water, and hurried over to see his gem — and all got so excited.
Like I said — this is much more than a craft.
It’s actually a shellebration in a jar!
After a crazy night of Santa Pics last night, I got up to see that everyone was still sound asleep. It actually looked like a people bomb went off, because there was someone in every sleep-able place in the house. I’m not sure how Scout scored the toy room couch, or the down comforter, but he was sleeping pretty this morning.
And lucky Navy has a reserved space in Nonnie’s bed — which doesn’t get any more comfy.
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I love the chaos of everyone together.
I love having a bazillion people in the house.
But this morning, it was a nice reprieve when those bazillions of people were all sleeping soundly.
No matter why he is saying a number, Dash always uses “fifty thousand” as his number.
Yesterday, he loved me “50,000 miles away”.
The other day, he said he wanted “50,000 toys” for Christmas.
And this morning, right after he told me he learned how to wipe properly, he said, “Mom, all you have to do is wipe 50,000 times until it is clean”.
(This picture doesn’t have anything to do with this picture…unless I told him he was going to get 50,000 hours of timeout.)
Santa Pics is one of my favorite nights of the year.
But this year…was the year of so much going right….and so much going wrong!
In the RIGHT category….
We got a sweet Santa Pic.
Compliments to Grandma for the PJs that made it extra darling.
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Uh Oh….we are already into the WRONG category?
The cousin picture was darling, but I didn’t focus my camera right.
Scout got a jump start on the fountain change — and I made him return it.
When we couldn’t find an open bathroom for Dash, I turned to see him solving his own problem.
At 2 hours in, our group photo was crazy. If you really inspect this picture — everything is going wrong with it!
This picture of Navy landing her spider man jump should be in the right category, but everything was crazy this night — so here it sits.
The exhaustion was off the charts for the Pips.
Things became the most wrong, when the kids ran out of the playground before Brett and I knew what was going on.
This is the scene we came upon.
And when we got a little closer, it was bad.
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Needless to say, we put an immediate stop to it, and scolded them the whole way out.
We told them that our tradition may be over.
And it just might be, because Brett got sick after two back to back late nights. (Black Friday and this.) So she has told me, I must choose one night when we go out.
Aaaaggghh!
Black Friday is the best!
But nothing tops Santa Pics.
I guess I’ll have to get a blood signature from every kid, that they will be on their best behavior — and that they keep their grubby little hands out of the fountain.
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