My kids have been glued to The Little Rascals lately. I usually don’t let them watch anything in the car unless it is educational (Leap Frog, Scripture movies, Chinese), but when I hear belly laugh after belly laugh, I sometimes give in. And since The Little Rascals is new to Dash, it is especially fun to see him loving it.
But there may be some adverse side effects.
#1. I was upstairs when I heard Dash getting frustrated with his magnets. And then I heard, “I hate your stinking guts magnets!”
#2. I think he sees Darla as cute, which unfortunately introduces “girls” to my sweet three year old.
#3. When I asked the kids who they want to be from the Little Rascals, Scout said either Spanky or Alfalfa. Navy said for sure Darla. And Dash — without hesitation — said he was Butch. When I asked him why, he said, “Because he is the bad guy!” Uh oh.
And when he intentionally hurt Pippi yesterday, and I asked, “Why in the world would you do that?”, he responded, “Mom, it is because I am BUTCH!”
Here Butch is with his meanest face.
Life is a little like Deja Vu right now. Five years ago, as I would sit at my computer, Scout would spend his time next to me, jumping from the counter. And then I would stop what I was doing and take a photo shoot.
Now…five years later…
It is Dash jumping for our photo shoot.
And Pippi ruining it all — just like Navy in the good ol’ days.
Each morning, as I make the kid’s lunch, I tell them to eat their fruit and veggies first. According to the kids, they always do. But as I opened Scout’s backpack this morning to retrieve his lunch bag, I smelled the strong stench of a rotten banana. I asked him why he hadn’t eaten his banana, and he gave me some song and dance about why it was still in there. I told him I would give him another chance to eat his banana first.
And then I packed his lunch.
One…
Two…
Three bananas.
And that was it.
I figured that if he only had bananas to choose from, it wouldn’t be a hard decision.
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After school, when I picked him up, I asked him how his lunch was. Then he started cracking up and said, “Mom! Why did you only give me bananas? I NEVER want a banana in my lunch again!”
I love Dash’s DayDay almost as much as he does. And each time I grab it and cuddle it, I say, “Oooh! I love this DayDay. It is my favorite.” And then I give it a few good smells while oohing and aahing, and then say:
“It smells a little bit like…”
Dash — “Potty.”
Me — “And a little bit like…”
Dash — “Sweaty boy.”
Me — “And a LOT like…”
Dash — “Dashy!”
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And although I would cuddle that thing all day long, he swipes it back from me, and rubs the fabric between his right hand, while he sucks his two pointer fingers on his left.
Scummy is the Instagram rep for the local Old Navy.
Apparently she needed two of the best models around, so she begged me to use Navy and Dash.
I reluctantly obliged.
Navy turned out so cute, and loved the star-like attention.
And this boy was a perfect gentleman I was told. And you would think that he was just modeling extra cute, but the real deal is that he slept on his neck wrong and walked around for two days with his head like this. Scummy was cracking up when she took him because he never had his head normal.
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Payment you ask?
They were paid a See’s Candy sucker.
These three Sumos loved Halloween.
And the Little Emporer loved all of the candy attached to the crazy holiday.
I love that Pippi is wearing Scout’s same costume from his first Halloween.
(Technically, this is her second, but she had just gotten out of the hospital last year and only weighed 5 pounds.)
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We did our drill….
We went to Auntie Gails, and then Grandmas, and then the Tackys.
Where they met up with a bunch of their friends.
Scout went with Mack, Grey, Trey, and Blue.
Navy went with Reagen, Broccoli, and Henley.
they both had a blast.
You’ve got to love the “girl picture”!
A bunch of sweet and cute girls…and NNNAAAAAAVVVVVYYYYY. (Said in a deep Sumo wrestler voice.)
The kids wanted to be a bit more independent this year on the pumpkin carving.
Scout was into it until he realized that his hand had to get all of the goop out.
Navy wasn’t really into it until she realized she got to put her hand in and get all the goop out.
That being said….
Tah Dah!
Two homemade pumpkins by our 5 and 7 year olds.
This year, for some unknown and crazy reason, the class parties were held for both Mandarin classes for each grade. In other words….I was put in charge of a Halloween party for 120 kids. 60 in Scout’s grade, and another 60 in Navy’s grade. There is only one word to describe it all….Mayhem.
It was so crazy, the only picture I have is from one of the moms of Scout’s friend.
This was Scout’s team in the Halloween Relay.
The kids had to get in teams of five, and each kid had to be a mummy/wrap the mummy/blow up and tie and pop a balloon, walk with a pumpkin on his or her head/carry a pumpkin on a spoon/run the length of the field.
It was so ridiculously crazy, but the kids loved it.
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And in Navy’s class, we had the Mummy Olympics.
Each team created a mummy, and that mummy competed in a few challenges.
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I was so wiped after these parties, I can’t even tell you.
And in the future we are limiting it to one class each.
But kids….I hope you know that I adore each of you, and took one for the family team on these parties!
XO
You don’t even want to know.
Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to the pumpkin patch last week, but I hated that I didn’t get to be there, so we revisited with the Pips.
I made Nonnie come along, and it was really fun.
But something really interesting happened.
I told my kids to pick one ride because the pumpkin patch is a rip. But before we knew it, one lady came up and gave us about 35 tickets. And then another lady came and gave us several more. I couldn’t believe how nice these ladies were.
But why???
Was it because my kids collected all of the animal food pellet by pellet off of the ground because I wouldn’t give them a quarter?
Or because Navy turned the knob back and forth 100 times to get a teaspoon of feed one piece of dust at a time?
Was it because Scout was trying to put Pippi in with the ducks?
Was it because my kids all jumped onto one ride, so that they could all get to experience it?
Or was it when Scout said, “Mom, take this picture of me grabbing onto the tail of this horse”?
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At first, I thought we were getting pity tickets.
But then, when she came back to give me a second batch, she told me that she thought my kids were so cute and that they looked like they were having fun. And she wanted to unload her extra tickets on kids who looked like they would appreciate them.
These three appreciated the swings, as they high-fived Nonnie along the way.
This one appreciated a little driving freedom.
Nice ladies…
Yee Haw!
From these four appreciative kids….
we say…
Thank You and Happy Halloween!
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