Monster Good Time

The rumble of rearing engines shook our seats as the plastic-covered monster machines flew through the air . . . and then crashed right in front of our seats. I have to tell you, my jaw hurt afterwards from being so tense ;) Well, that and the cold . . . they have to open the doors to keep the crowd from passing out, and we're

having sub-zero temps right now. We could literally see our breath, though we could not hear our words (thanks to effective ear plugs) INSIDE the building. Wow! 




We've talked for years about taking the kids to see the Monster Trucks smash and crash the little cars. I'm glad we waited until they were older! It was pretty intense, but really cool too! Once you (I) got used to seeing how securely the drivers were situated inside their revving machines, the flips and flops and rollovers and crashes seemed less heart-stopping :)


The kids loved it . . . the girls weren't so sure when we revealed our Dad Fun Day destination, but they were super glad they got the chance to see such a unique show in person. 

Afterwards, we stopped at the store to replace C's necklace (the nice one we bought her for her birthday). One of the links just fell out when she was sitting on the couch! It was crazy . . . but now it's all taken care of :)

We grabbed some dinner at a bbq place we like, since the preceding events brought us all the way to dinnertime. When we got home, I threw some laundry in the dryer, heard a THUD, and now the dryer's broken. Sheesh. My neighbor is drying the two wet loads I needed to get finished tonight . . . because our bedding is in it! Kind of a necessity there . . . in the meantime, the kids watched the new Minions movie with their dad. G$ said, "This is SO funny, and SO inappropriate at the same time." Lol--pretty much sums it up!

Sweet Boys

This little fellow was so excited for mom and dad to wake up . . . he made sure that all our morning beverage needs were met and left us these cute notes! He even put the sugar next to his dad's coffee cup (fresh from the dishwasher :) Awww! Love his thoughtful heart!

It wasn't easy, but we pulled down the Christmas tree today. It makes me sad every year! (Though the flurry of cleaning and organization that accompanies it makes me happy :) B harvested quite a crop of candy canes! He's an excellent sweets farmer :)

The kids are excited to play with our tree . . . they have the past two years' out on the hill and our neighbors' from last year. They were even trying to talk our neighbors' friends into bringing them their tree too! Ha! They're hoping to one year have enough expired Christmas trees to build a Christmas tree fort . . . it's good to have goals ;)

Just a Couple Things

We finished up (in pretty quick time, actually, once we got it started) the puzzle C received for her birthday. Little Buddy decided he didn't help enough to be photographed :) Now the Christmas gift puzzle from Aunt L and Uncle C is in the works! The girls just looked up stunned when I told them it was almost bedtime. I guess they lost track of time . . . we ran errands after karate. And accepted cupcakes from a stranger in the parking lot at Target . . . she seemed like a nice stranger (we were talking with her a bit in the check out line too, so there was SOME relationship there ;) She just really seemed to like kids and had a huge tub of leftover birthday party cupcakes that she wanted to share. They were very pretty and the container was clean, and sometimes, you have to bite your own fears to make someone else happy, don't you think? Anyway, she was very pleased that we were willing to accept.

Speaking of snacks, Little Buddy saw this cute owl bread/pb/banana/raisin snack idea in his Adventures in Odyssey magazine today, and decided to make a version of it himself. His is a little bit smaller than the pictured birds, but it was cool that he was inspired to try something healthy and creative with his afternoon snack :)

This is the *business* name C selected. We ran about a hundred past her Knit & Pretty, Tails from Yarnina, Ninja Knits, oh yeah, there were some good ones! She decided she liked Winter Blooms the best, and then Gabs designed a logo for her. She's including a little business card that looks like this with each order. I mean, how cute is that?! :) 

A First

Corporate events have a hard time keeping their audience after the food is gone and the prizes are handed out . . . but this was a fun idea! I've always wanted my caricature drawn :)

When the kids want to read, and the dog wants to snuggle . . .

Gift Card Dates Rock!

Last Sunday, when we were Christmassing at my parents' house, Buck decided to sleep in a little and then do some cleaning. He discovered we had maybe 8 or 10 unused gift cards--some fully charged, some with just a few dollars left. In the middle of the week, on a whim, he asked me out on a date ;) Our babysitter is home from college and she was available around lunchtime, so we headed off to a delish fancy cookin' restaurant to finish up a gift card we started in on about a year ago . . . truffle topped french fries, that's how fancy ;) With tip, our lunch was under $15.

Next, I had a $50 gift card his employees gave me/him/us last year to a fancy cooking oil store. We stopped by a couple times, but could never figure out when they were open, and actually, totally forgot about it :) But on our gift card date . . . we had a lot of fun picking out all these fancy little things! You taste test, and then the guy in the apron fills glass bottles with whatever you want. The fruit-infused balsamic vinegars are surprisingly tasty, and we couldn't resist a couple of flavored raw sugar crystals. I made the kids cinnamon toast and Buck made hot pears with the cinnamon sugar caramelized on top. Yum!

Strange, but true--a sporting/hunting goods store was our next stop. How we ended up with an unused card there, we can neither one of us figure out! We ended up, not with sporting goods, but with a puzzle and an original boy scout-type book of outdoor things kids can rig (like from the 30s? 50s?) Anyway, we tried to spend our gift card, but everything was half off and we didn't know it, so didn't even come close :) Good chance we'll get back there again soon though.

Let's see, next we had an unusual coffee shop gift card for $25. Buck wanted to use the whole thing up, so we found one that had a bakery attached too. The chai was eh, and the bakery items were eh (except the carrot muffin thing I brought home for later, that was yum!) . . . but, hey, they were free! We rounded out the purchase with a little bit of visa gift card we had left over from J&R from last year :)

After that we decided to pick up some coupons to a local event that we've been talking about taking the kids to for years . . . I'll let that be a surprise for after we go ;) Technically not a gift card, but coupons count in my book.

Finally, we arrived home to happy kids and our fav babysitter--and offered her the remainder of a mostly used restaurant gift card that we'll never be able to complete because the restaurants aren't really in our area (we'd have to drive to where we used to live). But, we thought she'd maybe have them near her college, so in addition to paying her, we gave her the gift card and said it was her Christmas bonus. She said she'd never had a Christmas bonus before, so that was exciting, lol!

We have more gift cards to spend, but I think we're off to a good start!

Merry Christmas . . . One More Time! :)

It was 7:10 a.m. when my alarm went off . . . 7:10!! That's crazy early, CRAZY! ;) But, how can you resist the energetic thumpings of four kids excited to go see grandpa and Maga and aunts and uncles and cousins and presents . . . :) So, into the van we piled, and off we rode into the sunrise (hee hee). We actually made excellent time, and I wasn't speeding. There's a big storm brewing, so we knew our trip would be fairly brief, but I'm so glad we went. It was good for my Auntie heart to see little Miss Tutu running around and being herself after her seizure yesterday. Ugh! I couldn't even all the way listen to my sister's account, because I was on the verge of tears just seeing the little peanut. So terrifying!! 

Back to the pictures . . . whew. Okay, so my husband thinks it's cool that my little bro is into participating in his school's trap shooting club, and found birthday and Christmas gifts focused on building this new interest (the Ritz were all me, lol!)

I've been told that there was a certain great-grandpa on Grandma J's side who would arrive at the table as soon as it was set and await a meal to arrive for his enjoyment. Looks like a bit of that DNA made it down through the ranks ;)

Yum! What a nice meal! Followed by more gift opening (I guess I failed to post pics of the other 3 birthday people opening their gifts, but my camera had a terrible time focusing today and almost all were blurry!)

 Funniest comment of the day, my niece unwrapped a beautiful Little Mermaid toy and my dad asked incredulously, "You got a fish doll?!" Ha! I think all he saw was the glowing green tail :)

 Several family members were talking to C about his gift, he looked kind of confused, then pulled the helmet away from his ears. He hadn't heard anything they said or asked, lol! I like this kid!

 And then ... a Wookie rode into town :) Yes! Funnest (that's my word) gift of the day!

 Somebody is super happy with $10 ;) G said later, "That's a lot of money to me in just one day!"

 Showing his bride childhood treasures from grandma's house :) They gave the kids each a nice group gift (our puzzle will be epic!) and then they gave each child an account of a little boy in India that they sponsored in honor of our kids (rather than giving them individual gifts, they blessed this little guy instead . . . most of the kids understood this was a good thing ;)

Boys absorbed in video game newness . . .

Exhausted, worried, and still adorable in her Mommy Needs a Minute birthday hat ;)

The Wookie shrunk into an adorable Ewok instead! :)