merry christmas!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

guess she needs more bows now

pickle's bow collection has long since outgrown the original hanging contraption i made her. now she has a super duper bow holder.

leah - don't show wren. it will spoil the surprise of one of her christmas gifts.

toy story: a short play

buzz lightyear and zurg are fighting buzz: you killed my father! zurg: grumbles unintelligibly buzz puts zurg in a doll stroller buzz: take that zurg. you don't belong here anyway... this is toy story 3.

reindeer: a short play

a short play about three small faux-bronze decorative reindeer, by quentin in the living room reindeer #1: c'mon we have to go! reindeer #2: no! we have to get the other reindeer! reindeer #1: the other reindeer is dead! from the dining room reindeer #3: wait for me! i am not dead!

pickle's favorite book (right now)

"the saggy baggy ellflent"

thanks, boy

good luck finding it.

it's an emergency!

Q just came running in to the living room with the house phone. he shouted in to it: "hello? emergency? we have an emergency! the popcorn is popping! fix it!"

mall santa

thankfully they got a half-decent shot in before cheese-face came out in full effect.

remember thanksgiving?

we celebrated thanksgiving "down the shore" with good friends. i had hoped to get cute pics of the kids in their holiday best in the fancy hotel where we ate or on the beach, but caroline's digestive tract did not cooperate with that plan. (she rode home from dinner with nothing on, if that tells you anything.) so these shots from before we left will have to do. Q would not allow any photos.

all he wants for christmas...

that's one way to construct a snowman

more from the budding author

interesting. at least i didn't steal the penguins!

when life gives you lemons...

eat them?

way behind again

downloaded blogger app for my phone, maybe that will help?

take that puffy

to krissy's dog buffy who was defending her position on the couch:

"don't growl at me, puffy. i's a nice boy."

further proof

that buying expensive stuff for these kids is dumb.

hanging out in cardboard boxes and admiring our pull-ups is apparently awesome enough.

turkey bow

caroline is very excited that it is finally time to wear her turkey bow. what a ham.

speaking of being wretched...

over the weekend there was much bickering about monster trucks: Q won't let pickle play with them, she gets mad and tries to mess with him by taking the ones he is actively playing with. at one point she whacked him in the face with one and stomped off, saying, "i am NOT delicate!"

you would totally get that if you've seen "gnomeo and juliet" anywhere close to the number of times we have. it was hysterical (except for the hitting part) i had to leave the room so i could laugh.

he hit her in the face (also with a monster truck) later so they are even I guess. sigh.

santa on fire

the children have been wretched lately - fighting and bickering like teenagers. it is driving us insane. so i've totally been playing the santa card, telling them that santa can see them fighting and will put them on his naughty list.

it must be registering with Q. in the car on the way home tonight, caroline was trying to wriggle out of her car seat restraints. i told her to stay in her seat because she could get very hurt if we got in an accident. Q let out a very concerned gasp and told her, "and then the fire fighters would have to come! and they would call santa!"

in a galaxy far, far away

conversation in the car this evening:

Q: calder lives far away?
me: yup, he lives very, very far away.
Q: mimi lives far away?
me: yup, but not as far away as calder.
Q: calder lives ten far aways?
me: umm yeah, ten far aways.

(10 must be the highest number he truly comprehends because whenever he asks for something, like more tv time or candy, he always asks for ten.)

thankskitty

caroline's class made a turkey and told their teachers what they are thankful for. jackson is thankful for thanksgiving (heck yeah - holiday all about the food!) every other kid in the class is thankful for their mommy and/or daddy. except pickle. she is thankful for her kitty cat. which i wish i could say was her actual kitty cat, but most likely it's her hello kitty stuffed animal. or slippers. or shoes.

this

is what Q looked like when i picked him up at school today. we left it in his cubby for tomorrow but this evening he asked me, "where's my face like will's daddy?" (will is a class friend. his dad obviously has a beard.)

spoopy buppies

not only is Q heavily influenced by retail marketing, he also buys into advertising. any movie preview on a dvd becomes a must-watch flick. "spoopy buppies" (aka "skoopy puppies") is such a movie. it's in the previews on one of his favorite dvds and he begged for it. we got it and watched it. OMG it's bad. and somehow he's become aware that a whole "buppies" franchise exists and now he wants me to get "snow buppies." sigh.

the budding author

here is another short story written and illustrated by Q. riveting stuff.

i mean, the part at the end, where i took all the farm animals. did not see that coming.

start them young

these arrived from target.com today. caroline will be a very happy girl in the morning.

hams

back in september jeremy took the kids to a party at the hospital. they had a photo booth there and my kids hammed it up. (finally got the printer/scanner hooked up!)

look! it's framma!

we've been watching "tangled" a lot lately. caroline is in it for the princess action. Q likes the horse. at the end of the movie when rapunzel's hair is chopped and evil mother gothel turns back into an old lady with gray hair, Q always says, "look! it's framma!"

sorry framma. it's totally the hair.

went to red robin for dinner...

Q ordered pizza and a side salad. (yeah, the waitress said he was odd. we agreed.)

following dinner, he exclaimed, "that was the best pizza ever!"

color theory

according to Q:

"mommy, you and sister like pink because you're girls. me and daddy like blue and green."

when i told him that i prefer green he said:

"no you can't."

oh.

my pickle

today caroline's teacher told me she wished she had a class full of carolines, because she always listens and cooperates. that's my sweet pickle.

too bad she's not that good at home :)

inked

Q's toy monster trucks often come with temporary tattoos. here he models one he declared, "awesome!" it's monster mutt rottweiler. pretty cool.

pump it up

Q went to a classmate's birthday party at an indoor bounce house extravaganza a few weeks ago. he was so excited about it and talked about it for weeks. and i think it also means that his birthday parties going forward will need to be of the "invite the whole class" variety. it was really funny - when i RSVPed to this party the kid's mom told me how Q got her son into monster trucks just by talking about them so much. i'm sorry lady, it's like a disease.

the store

quentin is a marketer's dream. he recognizes and associates with logos more than any 4 year old should. (to be expected since he knew the dunkin donuts logo by the time he was two.) of course he knows the golden arches, as any self-respecting pre-schooler would. he also goes bonkers when he sees a geico commercial or a geico ad on the side of a bus. some of my other favorites:

"the pancake store"

"the letter store"

(because the logo is, well, letters)

"the ice cream store" "the cat-dog store"

"the tool store"

"the caterpillar store"

(i once bought him a cheap plastic caterpillar toy here)

"the train store"

(they have a model train running through the rafters of the dairy section)

"target"

(duh)

and this is what pickle chose to wear today

trick or treat!

and the main event... treat or treating around our neighborhood

the big event required bows on the pig tails in addition to the tiara

peacock princess fairy is ready to go!

posing with mimi who was in town for the big day futile attempts to get a photo of two smiling kids

posing with mrs. scarecrow

enjoying a pre-trick-or-treat treat

an interesting use of a candy bucket

our neighborhood is perfect for trick or treating - lots of house close together, and a seemingly infinite selection of blocks. we opted for a quick lap around our block. caroline was game for more, but after about 3 houses Q started declaring, "i want to go home. i think i have enough candy."

inspecting the loot. quite a haul considering we only did one of a gazillion blocks.

yup someone gave out generic-brand orange soda. we let the kids try it but they both declared it "too spicy!"