The Thanksgiving Feast

On top of the day's sickness drama, it was the Thanksgiving Feast at Hunter's Preschool. Everyone got a line, Hunter's was "Its cold here, I'm not used to the winter." or something like that. He pulled it off, spoke loud and probably will be the actor in the family. Also of note is that of the three pilgrim girls directly behind him, two are his "ex-girlfriends". He is one hot ladies man.

It was an absolutely darling performance, the dress rehearsal went off without a hitch. During the actual performance one girl stopped and started with OK and then got the giggles. It was the most adorable thing. Then the kids started yelling the lines instead of speaking them. The teachers did an awesome job to put together a great play & get 14 four & five year olds to actually remember and deliver their lines. YEA TEACHERS!

Friday Night Chaos

While I was enjoying myself in Vegas, Mason took most of Ethan's soccer team to a Dallas Stars Hockey game. Something like 10 kids - sounds a little hectic to me, but what do I care I was in Vegas.

Tuesday's Adventures

For the next three weeks Ethan's PE activity is roller skating. For me this brings up memories of disco lights, and Gloria Gaynor's I will survive. For him it just brings disappointment because he can't skate the first week because of his finger. He doesn't quite get the you will injure yourself more if you fall on it while skating. His Coach was awesome this morning and suggested that he be her personal helper during PE helping everyone get properly outfitted. He looked a little more encourage to attend PE, but he was still not ecstatic.

Hunter on the other hand has "kind of" been my little helper today. We made the beds, he sort-of cleaned his playroom and he picked up a little in his room. We did several errands and did great except that he believes we need a "cat house" for the cats which really translates to big giant expensive cat-tree furniture. His favorite one was on sale for $143 which is just a little out of the budget. The cats would probably love it though. I think I will send this argument to his father and let them work it out.

Off to lunches and the next round of laundry and housework.

Field Trip!

Today Hunter's class took a field trip. There were 11 kids & 5 adults & let me tell you it was an adventure. I was in charge of two kids, Hunter & D - it was fun. We walked to the Dart Rail & then walked probably 6 stories under ground and rode the mass transit train down to the West End, had a picnic lunch, ice cream and headed back. Everything went fine for me, until we had to go to the surface. The first set of stairs - probably 2 stories was fine, we walked up the stairs. The second set of stairs - I think it was really 4 stories up the kids wanted to ride the escalator. YEA, you say. NO NO NO. I am terrified of heights. Now I'm sure most of you are thinking well, your going up its looking down that's the problem.

NO, NO, NO, this is not true. When I'm up and looking down and going down an escalator, I know I am getting closer to the bottom and that's OK, however when I'm going up I know that I am getting farther and farther from the ground and that's not good. I couldn't hold on to the rails because I had a kid holding each hand and by the time we got 3/4 of the way up I was almost on my knees and was holding on to sanity with my last breath. I started to hyperventilate while we were getting to the elevator - the full blown panic attack happened in the elevator. By the time we truly got to the surface I was better.

I'll probably have nightmares about heights tonight. Yippee!!

The power of playdates

Edwin came over for a play date with Hunter this morning. It was great fun. They played a little Wii, they played some board games, they played some Hot Wheels - what is it with boys & Hot Wheels, as a girl I will never truly understand. They also had some fun on the swings. Its always fun to have friends over.

Another one bites the dust.

Ethan greeted me this afternoon in front of his school with one of his front teeth in a Ziploc bag. It was very exciting, and I asked him when he lost it and his reply was "Travis punched me and it fell out."

CAN YOU SAY - MOM SEEING RED?

I immediately got to where I could talk to him about it and then when I had the story down, I called the principal. She was ignorant of the incident (even though Ethan said he told her, but then said I don't think she heard me.) She is currently in searching down the story with the teacher, the nurse and the assistant principal who supposedly were all involved. I am upset that no one from the school called me and not even a note was sent home. She's calling me back first thing in the morning.

I'll keep you updated.

Luke, I am your father

This is Luke, our beta. He's pretty and orange with a few red dots here and there. My children are into Star Wars so they decided to name the fish Luke, however it has morphed into Luke, I am your father. We love him and he's thankful the three cats haven't eaten him. We are too.

Mom 1, Kids 0

My children are insane - really they are just kids and they expect to get whatever they want. I instigated a new rule.

You have to earn your privileges, instead of just taking them away when they are bad. They want to watch TV they have to earn it by making their beds, cleaning their toys, behaving while we are running errands - oh, and not complain that we have to run errands.

Its kind of worked for today. We even took a long walk and Ethan didn't complain.

Otters!

My children are resting quietly in front of the TV after a long and tiring day. I was suppose to hold an open house this morning that was unexpectedly canceled, but I decided to keep the babysitter and made an impromptu massage appointment. It was wonderful.

They enjoyed themselves with Josephine from around the corner. Little sister of the famous babysitter Melia, and they were really excited to have her come for the morning.

It was nice to be able to run to Target and other places without one of the kids saying they wanted to go home.

I turned the sprinkler on this afternoon for a few minutes and let them play in it after I watered the garden. After a deluge of rain in May & June, we have seen none in the last 2 weeks and the garden was looking kind of blah. The kids enjoyed a good sprinkle and then ate a great dinner. Now they are eagerly watching the Fresh Water episode of Planet Earth. Currently talking about otters. A little science never hurt anyone.

See my Green Thumb

Tonight we had fresh fried okra picked from our backyard garden and steamed summer squash also from our garden. Ethan said, "Boy, this fried okra is really good." Hunter is not a vegetable man, but he ate a little of both.

As you can see the squash is creeping slowly across the driveway and the okra is chest high and is beginning to produce enough to eat on a regular basis. We should have some good vegetables for the rest of the summer.

Happy Birthday America & Katharine!

We had a wonderful 4th of July. The family went to Rodney & Leslie's (Mason's brother & his wife) for food, fun and more. Our niece Katherine celebrated her birthday and everyone had tons of fun.

The weather was actually nice and the kids enjoyed fun in the pool, the big boys enjoyed a game of pool volleyball. There was fabulous food and I probably gained a few pounds, but it was worth it; and this morning the boys actually slept past nine - so I guess they wore themselves out.

Thanks other Coplin family for a great bunch of holiday fun!! Can't wait for next year.

Sunshine? No, More Rain.

Well after a few appointments and a trip to the grocery store, my husband was off to the salt mine, aka a very busy and well known ER, to do some more clinical training for his degree. Anyway, I looked outside and OMG, I saw some sun. I didn't get to workout this morning, so I thought I could burn a little calories mowing the yard and then the kids could play outside.

Well, after about an hour and at least a quart, probably more like a gallon, of sweat later the yard was mowed I herded the children out the door and we set off to play I Spy. 5 minutes later it started sprinkling so in we went. I said I needed to take a shower and off they went to neutral corners with their gameboys. I got out of the shower and OMG again, there was more sunshine I opened the door to let them out and it thundered. I give up.

My 6 year old just asked to watch the news.

Its been raining for 7 days straight - I am not exaggerating. Its awful, the kids are going stir crazy and I'm going to take them to the mall and let them behave like heathens so that they can work off some energy.

Anyway, Ethan just asked to watch the news, Hunter doesn't want to and Ethan's comment "There might be a flood coming." I think I might have given birth to the reincarnation of Noah; or maybe he's watched too many Evan Almighty trailers.

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

I'm completely sick and tired of all this rain. I don't want anymore. I live in Texas, not the Amazon, I can't even take the trash out without bogging down to my ankles in mud. Its rained at least twice a week since April, and almost every day for the past 7 days. I know I shouldn't complain, but this is ridiculous. The mosquitoes are vicious! We have to mow every 48 hours and what's worse you ask?

THE KIDS HAVE TO PLAY INDOORS!!!

This is not a good thing, why? because you can never keep anything clean if they are constantly underfoot. Also, way too much TV. They get a little hyper after too much TV - I must get away from TV & Video gamed hyped up kids. OK, maybe I'll just lock myself in the bath when Mr. Mason comes home.

Rained out again!

Well, thinking that we could make it around the block before the afternoon showers started we stepped outside for a quick walk. It was nice and sunny in the backyard when I looked outside. When we walked out the front door there was a cloud off to the SE, I thought we would be fine. I should know better than to trust my own judgement. Well it started to rain as we rounded the last corner (of course it was the far corner) so we took off running. It was just sprinkling then, by the time we got two houses away it was a full on downpour. Well, maybe the kids don't have to take a bath tonight.

Sunset

After getting 1.5 inches of rain in about 1/2 an hour this afternoon we had a very beautiful and colorful sunset.

Aunt Susan's Here!

Our Aunt Susan came to visit today. We don't get to see Susan since she moved to New Zealand, but she is here to visit her Texas Family. We all gathered at Stehle & Robbie's house for a great steak dinner. She had fun visiting with the little ones: Blake, Hunter & Ethan.