Guess Who's Baacckk???

MR. PEEPS!!!

And the kids are so excited! I know I have alot of family traditions but its just something I am really into and this one is one of my favorites. A little history on Mr Peeps. He is one of Santas favorite elfs. Mr. Peeps comes to our house the day after Thanksgiving. He only moves at night and the kids are not allowed to touch him or he will loose his special elf magic. Mr Peeps watches the kids and makes sure they are doing nice things so that when Santa come he can report back to him and let him know who was naughty and who was nice. Santa then takes Mr Peeps back to the North Pole until next year.

Last year Mr. Peeps had an unfortunate accident at our house and we were unsure if he would be able to make it back this year. Mr Peeps decided it would be a great idea to hide inside the kitchen lamp but daddy forgot he was there and turned the light on only to have Mr Peeps catch on fire a few minutes later. The kids were devastated and crying when this happened but we did bandage up his charcoaled leg and he seemed to be fine. So this year he's back and with 2 new legs. So glad he was able to get fixed at the North Pole.

I do have to say Mr Peep has rescued me from a whole lot of tattle tailing. Its been heaven. Instead of the kids running to me they go and tattle on each other to Mr Peeps. In fact just tonight Peyton came all the way downstairs to have a talk with Mr Peeps and tell him that Lola was being a very mean girl by pulling down his pants. He said and I quote "Make sure you tell Santa about that Mr. Peeps."

Here is where Mr Peeps ended up today.

Hmm...does he enjoy Twilight too??

{On a super side note.....Billy and I were in a frantic search for Mr Peeps on Thanksgiving night. I was so sick but still searched for this elf. We couldn't disappoint the kids. I had forgotten where I had put him last year. It was late and I new I still had to sew 2 new legs on him. Billy literally tore apart the garage looking for him. No luck. He ended up going out at 9:30pm to go buy another elf. No luck. But luckily I looked in one last spot in our closet and there he was. Yay! The sewing began and Mr Peeps was ready for his arrival. Note to self "REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT HIM NEXT TIME!"}

Could He Be Any Sweeter

Luke and I were driving in the car yesterday talking about Mima (my mom). He was telling me that Mima knew that we had a foster child. I said to him,

"Oh did you tell her we had a foster child?" Which of course I had already done but wanted to play along with the conversation. He then says to me,

"No I didn't say foster child. I said I have a new sister because I didn't want to hurt "J's" feelings."

How sweet is my boy.

What 3rd Graders Are Thinking About These Days

Loriella was talking to me the other day and told me about something that happened at school. She was very serious while telling this story.

Loriella: "Mommy, yesterday me and my friends were walking and Taryn saw a piece of gum on the wall. We all looked and then told her to not touch it."

Me: "And...., what happened?"

Loriella: "She went over to the gum and squeezed it! We were like 'Taryn, don't touch that. What if the person that was chewing it has the swine flu.' "

Billy and I just started to laugh. It was funny but so sad that this is whats on their minds.

Let's Play House

While Peyton was playing in his room the other day with his new puzzle the other kids came in and asked him if he wanted to play house with them. His response to them was,

"Sure I totally wanna play. How about I be the brother who is playing in his room with his new puzzle."

Is it just me or isn't that kinda who he already is (the brother) and what he was already doing (the new puzzle) . Hmm just a thought.

I'm So Proud

A couple of weeks ago Peyton was one of the kids in his school that was chosen to receive this award. It was presented to him by the principle. He was so proud of himself. It also came with a coupon to a local pizza place for a free pizza meal. He went and had some boy time with daddy.

He's such a good kid.

My Man

Can I just say how lucky I am. Okay I know I say it all the time but I really mean it. I have been meaning to share this but kept forgetting and then remembered yesterday when Billy had asked me if I had checked the mail. It was raining so I never did. So he went out and checked it for me. His plans didn't exactly work out but it still was sweet.

There in the mailbox was a letter that he had dropped off earlier in the day thinking I would go check the mail. Wont share the whole letter but it pretty much summed up why he was so thankful for me. I have received alot of letters and poems from Billy but this one was so sweet and was just want the doctor ordered that day..............

Anyway with all that being said it made me think about something I wanted to blog about but forgot.

One day Billy and I were talking and I was telling him about how I use to love the pointer sisters. They reminded me alot of my childhood. My Aunt Lupe use to LOVE them.

About a week later I was going up to bed and found a letter on my pillow. In the letter he had creatively told me how much he loved me but he was using song titles from the pointer sisters hits to write it.

The very last sentence in the letter said,

"I cant make the point enough so I've invited some ladies to help me with it. Just hit play on the DVD player and know that I love you! Love, Your semi-'shy guy'."

I then went downstairs and hit play. There it was THE POINTER SISTERS GREATEST HITS.

I haven't stopped listening to it. Here for your pleasure. ENJOY!

(Just on a side note. Is she wearing fanny pack? Really?)

Is This A Dangerous Boredom Buster???

The kids came to me and told me that they were all BORED. I had a lot of papers that needed to be shredded so I thought it might be a good boredom buster and save me the time of doing it myself. After taking these pictures I kinda thought "Hmm, I wonder it that wasn't the best idea." I mean hello razors.....

Daddy Date

We have a little fun thing that we do with Loriella called Daddy Dates. The boys get to do it as well but we call that Boy Time. Billy has taken Loriella out on many Daddy Dates but this one was alittle different. Billy was going to be taking Loriella to a Piano Recital/Concert. Rami a friend we know from church was having a recital/concert featuring just her. She is amazing by the way. I didn't get to go but Billy and Loriella were amazed by her fast fingers as Loriella put it.

Anyway the evening of the concert Lola decided what dress she wanted to wear. We did her hair and I let her wear a little lip gloss. Then the door bell rang. When Lola went to go open the door there Billy was with flowers he had bought for her. It was such a sweet little moment. He actually reminded me of some family friends of ours Gerard and Karen.

I remember visiting them in Texas one time and Gerard showed up at the door with flowers for their daughter Madison. I remember thinking that it was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen.

Having a hubby do the same for our daughter and showing her how a woman or girl in this case should be treated was awesome! They had such a blast.

Peyton's Birthday Thank You's

This year for Peyton's birthday thank you cards I wanted them to be a little more personable. I had him draw a picture of a pirate ship. I then scanned it and put a thank you at the top and Ta-Da!

Then for the inside I had him write up a generic thank you and leave some blanks so that he could fill them in for each person. Then I scanned it again. It went something like this:

Dear ________

Thank you for the ________

It is ________

From Peyton

This helped with him to not get too bored or tired of writing thank you's. I mean come on he had 24 kids at his party. That's a lot of thank you's.

When it came time to him filling in the blanks this is how he decided to do it. Apparently this makes writing thank you's more fun. Okay my child whatever floats your boat.

Another New Obsession

Seriously need I say more.Except for ....... Move over Calgon. Nutella take me away.

Halloween 2009

Okay this will be the last of my Halloween posts. I'm a week late but at least its getting done right?

So the night started off with us getting ready for the big trick or treat night. Even though Peyton was a pirate the day before he wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween. Here's his best "Spiderman Pose."Loriella didn't change costumes this year. She stuck to the bride costume with glitter tennis shoes. Luke was a transformer the previous night but decided to be a Race car driver on Halloween.Joana changed from a cheerleader the night before to a princess for Halloween.We went to Uncle and Aunties house to meet up with the cousins for trick-or treating. Good times. We noticed something about 3 houses into the trick or treating fun. Luke would be first at the door and get his candy then go to the end of the line and get a second helping. Smart one. Halloween Cousin pic 2009Luke thought his costume needed a bit more character. A bald racecar driver. Much better. Our kids.Eating candy was definitely the best part of the night.....for the kids of course.The next morning I came downstairs to see this. Loriella had gotten everyone dressed for church and then got out all the candy for their annual "candy trading" session. Apparently she didn't want me to break up the session by asking them to get ready for church. Later I looked again and Peyton was in his words "graphing" his candy.

We usually only let the kids keep about 20 pieces of candy. Oh say what you want. Call us mean but I really hate having a bunch of candy around the house.

This year we made a deal with them. We let them keep all their candy only if they threw away their present bags of candy which consisted of (no joke) last years Halloween candy, Christmas, Valentines day and Easter. Yuck! Its so old. I needed a way to make it easy for them to get rid of it. They all agreed. Plus they have no idea that I am slowly getting rid of candy when they are not looking. Oh go ahead say it again. I'm mean but hey I'm a mom.

Halloween Class Fun

I am still trying to do the Halloween catch up. Last week at school Peyton and Loriella had a super fun time.

In Peyton's class they all got to dress up and then stand in front of the class to explain who they were. Peyton was a pirate. We had gotten this outfit at a garage sale for .50 cents. He wanted to wear it. After explaining what he was he then decided to show everyone what pirates "do." He started going crazy with kicks and swiping the air with his hook. They whole class including the parents were laughing. Do I have a class clown on my hands? Hmm... like father like son.

After the introductions the kindergartners marched around the school in a parade to show all the upper grades their costumes. This was really cute and exciting for them.When the parade was done they all lined up in a circle and the teachers called each of them in the circle by groups. This was so everyone could see all the "super heros" or "princesses" and so forth. I was a bit embarrassed when Peyton's group the "pirates" were called out. It was him and this other kid together. I mean seriously did this other kid have to totally show my child up. Look how much better his costume was. Maybe we wont go with the garage sale finds again. So sad.The class picture.After the circle time they got to have their class party. Yummy pizza and snacks.Next was Loriella's turn for the upper grades parade. This year Lola said she wanted to be a bride. Isn't she beautiful?Her moment in the parade.That night the kids school had a Monster Bash. We have gone to this every year and the kids LOVE it! I wish I would have gotten more pictures but we were too busy having fun. Peyton and one of his good friends Nathan at school. Nathan was a police officer.Loriella in her costume. She got to wear makeup that night. Maybe next time she could actually look like she is having fun. Here are J and Luke doing the cake walk. They both won. Luke picked out a cake with bugs on it and J picked out a plate full of cupcakes. Peyton actually won too. We came home with so much dessert. It was crazy.All in all it was a fun and very busy day and the kids enjoyed every minute of it.

Peyton's First Field Trip

Peyton went on his first Kindergarten field trip. To say he was excited would be an understatement. The first trip of the year was to the Pumpkin Patch. I remember going to this with Loriella and loving it. Its probably one of the best pumpkin patches I have been to. There is so much for the kids to do.

This field trip had originally been cancelled the day before they were suppose to go because of the weather which pretty much sent the kindergarten class into devastation mode. BUT they all recovered because they got to go 2 weeks later. Yippee!

When we first go to the Pumpkin Patch they all sat in this carousal thingy for their snack which was popcorn balls that the teachers supplied. Yummy!Here is Peyton with his pumpkin patch partner Jose. These two had be running all over the place. The class picture.Peyton and Jose inside the castle.Behind the castle was a haystack maze that the kids were suppose to WALK through.The corn maze. I remember last time I was here with Loriella that this thing was huge.Yep. I was right. The boys got lost. Such great supervision on my part. One of the dads had to rescue them.The corn husk teepee's.The boys loved sticking their heads in all of these things.Peyton and Jose climbed onto all the tractors. They were actually so distracted by these that they never even got a chance to go in the pumpkin jumpy house.Time to search for the perfect pumpkin. This is always such a challenge for me with Loriella. Finding the perfect pumpkin always takes forever with her but with Peyton it didn't end up that way. He found his in about 5 minutes. Lets just say he is not a picky pumpkin picker. No way. This thing had so many warts on it. Not my idea of the perfect pumpkin but 5 minutes I wasn't gonna convince him otherwise.Peyton with his friends Jose, Nathan & Raymond. I was so glad I was able to come on this field trip. I had such a great time with my Peyty-Peyt. Can't wait till the next one!

Pirate Birthday Party

This year Peyton wanted to have a Pirate Birthday Party for his birthday. Of course being his mom I wanted to give him the best Pirate Party Ever! So I did my best.

Before this party there was a alot of prep that went on. As far as making things that is. I didn't have much time and had to do mostly all of it at night because I wanted it to be a surprise for the kids. I really love the way everything turned out.

I get alot of people that stubble across my blog emailing me about parties that I have done so I decided with this post I would try to share some ideas that I did and talk about the party as well. Hope its not too much information. Anyways......

Here were the invitations for the party. I printed them up on our computer and then burnt the edges. I almost burnt our house down in the process but they did come out cute. And I was next to a fire extinguisher just in case you're wondering.The invitations opened up.I decorated the front lawn with a little play structure we have and did my best to make it look like a "pirate ship." Hey I did my best. Close enough right? I made a few pirate flags and hung one on a stick for the pirate ship. I also these signs out of poster board and stuck them in the lawn.

And isn't this big blow up pirate great! I found him at a garage sale about a month ago for $1! Perfect I thought.I'm not into the skull and bones thing but it was a pirate party so had to have them. I tried to make them look a little on the nicer side.

When the kids entered the house they saw this table which supplied them with everything they needed in order to become a pirate. I got such great deals on all this stuff. With Peyt having a birthday around Halloween there was a big Halloween sale at the fabric store. I made each child a sash, an eye patch and bandanna. The kids loved this part.The present area.

I had some left over pirate hats that a friend had given me so I put them on the kids pictures to make them look festive.Some more decorations!Peyton asked for a Pirate Ship Cake. Here was my version. This cake was probably one of the easiest ones I've done. And fast! That was the best part.For the food I tried to make everything Pirate themed. I know it doesn't look like it but if you look closer everything had a little sign to go with it. For instance the jello with mangerin oranges had a sign that said "Ocean with sunken treasures" or "X marks the spot" for the "X" bread sticks. Instead of ants on log for the celery and peanut butter it was "pirates on a ship."Here were the kids as they got ready to play "Pass the Skull." Creepy I know but they had fun. By the way can you even believe how many kids were at Peyton's party. I always invite whoever the kids want and usually have a good count before the invites go out but this time around I was doing everything under such a timeline that I didn't count how many kids we were actually inviting until after the invitations went out. And then on top of that pretty much everyone came. We had 24 five and six year olds at our house. Crazy but lots of fun!We also played Pin the Flag on the Treasure and then they all got to go on the TREASURE HUNT! I was so looking forward to this part. Billy came up with the clues for the treasure hunt and I typed them up and then wrapped them like the invitations.

The whole idea of the treasure hunt was to find the MAP that would lead them to where the treasure was hidden. Billy read the initial clue in his best piratey voice and then Loriella read the rest of the clues to the kids when they found them. I gotta say that Billy did such a great job with the clues. They were so fun. The first clue led them to the kitchen. Where they were told in a rhyme that the clue was hidden under a seat where we eat.

The clues led them all around the house and outside the house. Clue #5 led them to the pirate ship where the map was taped underneath.

Here was the treasure map that showed them where the treasure chest was.We fortunately have a secret hideout on the side of our house which was so perfect for the hidden treasure.

This is what the kids found when they found the treasure.

I looked all over town and to buy a treasure chest was going to cost alot so this was the next best thing. Its a Styrofoam ice chest for $2. With just a little work I thought I could give it a little makeover to look like a treasure chest. So I painted it with some left over paint we had and once again headed over the sale at the fabric store for some leather.

I lined the inside with velvet and whoa-la! A Treasure Chest.

I made each pirate a booty bag with some treats and then filled the treasure chest with them.

The kids went crazy when they opened the treasure chest. Lets just say they didn't really care about all my hard work and just decided to rip the thing opened like a pinata.

Cake Time

Present time was chaotic as usual. It seemed like every pirate wanted Peyt to open the present they brought first. This part of the party seems to always stress me out.

But it definitely is Peyton's favorite part of his parties. He had a blast opening his presents but this was the best smile I could get out of him.

I really don't think he got enough gifts. Do you? Gosh we still have Christmas coming. Looks like I am going to have to go through all his toys in his room when he is at school to make room for these.

At the end of the party the kids got to take home their booty bags which had a few piratey things in them and they also got these favors that I made with photoshop. I bought some Hershey candy bars that were also ON SALE!!! I wrapped them with gold wrapping paper to make them look like bars of gold. It was a really great party and we had so much fun. Now I need to get through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas so I can start planning Luke's. Can't wait!

Peyton Turns 6

This past Tuesday we celebrated Peyton's 6th birthday. Am I wrong or didn't he just turn 5? A year goes by so fast.

The morning started out with Peyton coming into our room and waking us up to remind us it was his birthday. Gosh! Good thing he did that or we would have forgotten. I mean we had only been reminded about 10 times a day for the last 7 days that the day was coming.

I got out of bed and began making him the birthday boy pancake. Every birthday person gets a special pancake on the special plate.Peyton was lucky to be Star Student this week at school AND have his birthday the same week. I made cupcakes and brought them into the class to celebrate. Luke picked out this balloon to bring to him and his teacher gave him this crown to.

For dinner that night he requested once again Swedish Meatballs and NO VEGES. Can you see his excitement about the no veges?After dinner the kids got to decorate his cake. They always love this part. I think it makes them feel like they are really apart of the celebration.

The end result of the cake decorating. Don't know if you can tell but the cake does say "Peyton" on it This year Peyton wanted to wait until the cousins came over before he went on his birthday present hunt. All the kids hid his presents around the house and yelled hot and cold for him to find them.

One of Peyton's gifts was a pirate ship. He loves this thing.

Cake time! Make a wish!

This is how the day ended. Billy and I had already put the kids to bed but when I went upstairs a little while later I heard some noise in Peyt's room. This is what I saw. He was playing in the dark with his new Nerf Target Shooting Game (another favorite gift.) I turned the light on so that I could take a picture. I really didn't want to miss this moment. Too funny.

Now for his birthday party. Its tomorrow and I have so much to do. Should be fun though. I know he is looking forward to it.