Questions for YOU!

So I really have no idea who reads my blog.  It might only be my mother in law! :)  But if you do happen to read this and you do happen to have small children, here are 2 questions for you.

1.  Where do you shop for shoes for your kids?  Bonus points if you can tell me where you successfully find shoes for multiple children at the same store.  And if you tell me to go to Stride Rite you're disqualified (like there's a prize or anything - I'm not that kind of blog, folks).  Stride Rite has a store policy that they make me wait for about an hour to be fitted, and then they only stock shoes 1 size up or down from what our kids currently wear.  Unless they are ugly styles.  And even more bonus points if you will pick up my three kids and take them shoe shopping for me at your favorite children's shoe shop, because if I have to go to one more shoe store, I just might lose my mind!

2.  How do you make long car rides fun and interesting and keep noise/bickering/"don't make me pull this car off the road"s to a minimum?  Bonus points if you have ANY other answer than DVD player.  I'm looking for about 12 hours of activity here.

'Cause my monkeys are going on a very long car trip to a place where they need to have good shoes!

Fun Run

Today was the annual Fun Run at the elementary school.  We had two runners this year!

warming up for her run.  guess the cheerleading practices are paying off!

racing around the track to collect her tally marks.  dressed more appropriately this time.  last time she went running with Dad, so dressed up in a skirt and church shoes.

how am I doing Mom?

He reached his goal - 11 laps!

I'm not sure what her goal was, but she did 10 laps!  woo-hoo!

Fancy's kindergarden class

Hi-Hat's first grade class

Belated Birthday...

...that we celebrated a day early.  Well that just doesn't make sense.  We celebrated Geof's 30-something birthday a day early this year to accommodate the kids' basketball and cheerleading practices, and I'm late in posting about it.  And now he's off on business (as EB said - "he got on the airplane and was holding on tight and he flew to baseball town."  She didn't get it quite right).

Anyway, happy, happy birthday to Geof!  We'll just have to count Disney as your time for big celebration! (have I mentioned it's SOON?!?)  I made the MckMama-recommended rainbow birthday cake for our little par-tay.  Fancy was home sick from school, so she was in on the surprise.  It really was very easy to do, just extremely time consuming.  We were baking and layering and freezing and icing all day.  But I'll pretty much make anything if the payoff means slathering it with 4 pkgs of cream cheese and eating it!

Would have been much funnier if I had put 30-something candles on the cake like I intended to.  Can't really remember why I didn't.  No rhyme or reason for why there are 6 candles on the cake - maybe that's all the colored candles I had.  Anyway, he's stylin' in his new birthday shades.  I guess.

our birthday party

the making of the cake.  'twas a lot of cake.  There's still a lot of cake in our fridge.  It was all just a little too much.  

Have a Nice Day

The weather forecast for the rest of the week is not great (rain, rain, cold and maybe even snow!). So enjoy today's gorgeous weather on me for the rest of the week!

i heart faces . . . excitement!

I ♥ this week's challenge. Not because my picture is technically great, but because I have rarely seen my son SO excited about something! My little guy is a drummer. He's been playing as long as I can remember, and he has beaten down 4 kid drum sets. Earlier this year, my husband called him outside to help "unload groceries." My son (blog name Hi-Hat), opened the hatch and was stunned (click to view the set up). A few seconds of stillness and disbelief. Inside the car was his shiny new silver Ludwig drum set, which Hi-Hat had NO IDEA was coming.

And a few seconds later I get my entry for the EXCITED! challenge:

Good Hair Day

Baby hair on a humid day. There's just nothing like it.

Mixed Up Holidays

So what would you do if you had spent the last few days designing Christmas cards and then decorated the front of the house with a giant spider and spider webbing? Why, make J-ello jigglers in the shape of Easter eggs of course! Made for one wiggly, jiggly, bouncy, giggly snack today!

Where's the best place to photograph J-ello? The refrigerator, of course! The lighting in there is great - white walls, lots of light. Your J-ello will glow! It paid off to think inside the ice-box this time. I have a feeling the kids would object to having their Christmas pictures taken in there, though.