Jason Mraz

my latest melodious fixation...

Gardening and Hanging Out

G saw some plants and this watering can at Lowe's and said he wanted to start a garden. Ok, so hopefully he is a better gardener than his mom...

ABC Club Halloween Party

The ABC Club had a Halloween Party today! The librarian read a story about a monster. Here is Gabriel listening attentively...
There were games - and at each game station there was candy...



Here is Dr. Hotdog driving an ambulance...

Future Rock Stars

Cursed point and shoot throwing bloody shadows! For most of these I just turned the flash off. Not this one though. Despite the shadows, I love how saturated the colors got after I applied the boost. The other ones didn't get this brilliant bc of low lighting.

PW color boost
PW Vintage and Dave's Midnight Sepia

PW's color boost
Prof. Retro

Midnight Sepia

natural

Prof Retro


PW color boost

i made up some atn's here

natural

PW boost

TGIF

It has been a long time since that acronym has escaped my lips - or fingertips.

As a SAHM all the days tend to blend together and when B is working the difference between the week and the weekend is the amount of meals I make for an extra person. But this week Friday represents a benchmark more than anything. A chance for me to say adios to last week and hola to an awesome weekend.

This week has been crazy! It has been an overload of problems - problems with one of my coworkers causing a rift in a friendship (solved, btw), the toilet exploded causing a waterfall in the kitchen, my identity was stolen and a bunch of fraudulent charges were made to my debit card. And a pimple the size of a chihuahua grew on my chin. (I think I will name him Chuy)

So most of the week my diet consisted of chocolate, coffee, Advil and water (health food).

My kids though are awesome! The joy of hanging out with them this week, surprisingly, was my saving grace for keeping my sanity! They are so funny and sweet. They have given me lots of reasons to be thankful and count my blessings, not to mention hugs on their own accord. They are an incredible joy. And they have prompted a lot of games and reading of books. Since I love them sooooo much and since my week was sooooooo crazy, I decided to play with them instead of do housework.

When I finally decided to stop moping and eating junk food and get back into my routine, Gabriel thought it was a Kodak moment. I guess he forgot what what mom looked like when she was cleaning!

the face of one frazzled woman

Late Night Snack

The boys were scrounging for a late night snack. I really need to go to the store. Really Really Really need to go to the store. In the spirit of making lemonade from lemons, I made virgin strawberry daiquiris for them from a mix that was stashed away way far in the back of the freezer and forgotten about. Ok, so without the rum they are no more than strawberry smoothies but it was fun to pretend together.

Boys Room ReDecorating

Its almost time to redecorate the boys room. Ethan will soon be moving out of his crib and into a big boys bed.

We have been doing a lot thinking about their colors: Elmo Red walls and Grover Blue curtains and ceiling fan. Its cute but not very versatile.

Also we have been shopping for a bunk bed and since they are so doggone expensive B is going to BUILD one for them!

this is the bed he is building

So, here are my questions for any of you who happen to stop by:

1. any color suggestions? I'd like something sort of muted and neutral so we can change the theme by adding accessories (The Hulk or Skateboarding or Spongebob or Transformers, etc). Maybe even add a chair rail?

2. B and I are in disagreement about the bunk bed. I don't think bunk beds use box springs and he thinks they do. Neither of us ever actually had a bunk bed growing up so we are disagreeing about something that we know nothing about. Does anyone know for sure?

Little Scholar

Yo Gabba Gabba

Any Yo Gabba Gabba fans out there? This is what I caught my kid doing.



"And that's my cool trick."

BTW: that's his little brother dj'ing for him.

Bridgewood Subdv Fall Festival

My MIL and FIL live in a super fun neighborhood where the HOA fees go towards fun activities like the Fall Festival. Here are some shots of my boys enjoying the bouncy castle:

this makes it worth it....

Ethan spilled an entire bowl of (dry) cheerios on the kitchen floor while I was in the restroom.

Gabriel got the dust buster down and cleaned the mess up before I returned to the kitchen.

But I wasn't far away and heard the dust buster...

Me: What were you using the dust buster for?

Gabriel: Ethan spilled his cheerios.

Me: So you cleaned them up for him?

Gabriel: yes.

Me: Wow! You are such a good brother and a good helper for mommy. I'm so glad you are my son!

(pause while I was registering what just took place)

Me: I love you, Gabe.

Gabriel: I love you too mommy, and I am glad you are my mommy.

You may now feel free to barf! Meanwhile, I don't ever EVER EVER want to forget that moment.

WARNING!

I AM NOT WEARING MAKE UP IN THESE PHOTOS! Nor have I done my eyebrows in a long time, let's just say I'm on the verge of cave woman status. Consider yourself warned, proceed if you dare.

This one was taken after bath time. He had already rubbed some bubbles off by the time I got my camera.



The following pictures were taken during bedtime. We were being silly.

Gabriel took this one and even though the boys' room is a disaster I told him it would be on the blog. Isn't that funny how our kids ask, "Are you taking a picture for the blog, mommy?" No other generation before heard that question.



I applied Dave's Midnight Sepia to this one. Just trying to hide some of my imperfections. The camera doesn't lie - but photoshop does!



It actually rained in SA today! So we played Cooties.



And B made me a latte with french press coffee (my favorite).

Mr. Muscles

bench pressing the children

Happy Day!

Drove past HEB and saw this:


You can imagine my excitement since I drive this:



I nearly peed my pants when at the pump I saw this:



So after we filled up we treated ourselves to one of our all time favorite activities, a car wash:

rocket

Brandon treated Gabriel to his own rocket to build and launch.





G is making farting noises on his arm. Why do they do that?

video games

After breakfast, Gabriel ran up to his room and came out looking like Joe Cool...

Then he and his brother sat down to play Pac Man...

They look like such big boys...

more dorky mom moments

As predicted, I could not resist taking more photos of my brilliant son and his treasure chest.

[Just to fill you in, I am home schooling G for Pre-K and whenever he finishes a workbook he gets to pick something from the treasure chest.]

Now there is a new and fancy treasure chest compliments of Ma'amaw.


And here is my little brainiac with his prize.
This treasure chest business really motivates him. Hopefully it will all the way through high school (although he will be blowing away the public school teachers by then, not little old me). I'm sure at some point the treasures will be more high end than dollar store trinkets. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. In the mean time, I will save my laundry money (that is all the money I squirrel away from pockets when they go in the washing machine).

Going back to my thoughts from the playdoh post, today the upstairs really needed a good sweep and mop but instead the kids and I went in the yard. G and I drew an alligator with sidewalk chalk. I'm talking a really big huge alligator. We read in a magazine that they get to be 12' long so we drew it that long and then some as we talked about what a really BIG alligator might look like. Then we did some alphabet crafts and more work in the workbooks. E was happy drawing and playing with stickers the entire time. I really don't regret not sweeping the upstairs.

I must say, that while I was teaching my classes tonight Brandon took the liberty of some major cleaning of the upstairs. Thank you, B!