Heading to Honduras

We are leaving this afternoon for Honduras. Yep all four of us. We'll be back on Jan 1. Excited!!!
I'll catch up on Christmas posts when we return!
It has been a wonderful Christmas filled with love!
Merry Christmas!

But I worked so hard...

That is such a relative phrase.

Imagine my thoughts when I walk outside on the porch to see the leaves of the Lamb's Ear plant "I worked so hard" to transplant picked off and laying on the deck. These plants have moved with me from our first town home. I planted one in the flower bed out back. It grew and grew so I dug it up divided it and moved it to our next home. They grew and grew, so again I divided them up and took them with us to our current house. I have been working so hard to keep these plants alive. For some reason they haven't liked the soil here and haven't been as easy to keep going. I have lost several but this one... well... it was doing so well. "It was working so hard".

Now this is all that remains...
Me: "Pierson what have you done?"
Pierson: "I worked so hard making you a 'salad' for our picnic. Isn't it awesome?"
Me: Shoulders drop. Heavy sigh. "Yes Honey it is wonderful"

Obviously he could see the disappointment on my face.
Pierson: "What Mommy?"
Me: "Well Buddy, Mommy worked really hard to get that plant to grow there. Now it is all gone."
Pierson: "It's OK Mommy. We'll put it back together again."

And so he tried.

It may have been futile, but he tried. He stuck those leaves back in the ground as best as he could.

Then he got water to "Help them grow even more".

He worked so hard.

He watered those plants several days in a row to no avail. 

I was proud of my success in growing Lamb's Ear. He saw something else.

He was proud of his salad. I was... frustrated.  

Lesson learned: The phrase " but I worked so hard" is only relative to the one who did the work.

Wordless Wednesday.

Random Photo Shoot... Just Because. 

doing his dog impression

yep they are nuts! :)

I am in love! I know I am biased but he is so handsome!

And talk about cute. 

And just like that... we were done. 

Cirque Du Maylin

I need to get this girl in gymnastics ASAP or I fear I am going to have a circus runaway soon.

She flips 

and flops

she bends backwards

She hangs from her knees

She contemplates how to get to the play house without touching the ground.

She hangs

and flips

and she dangles some more. Remind you of the girl hanging from a tree at the Renaissance Festival? 

Yep. Gymnastics here we come!

The Annual Pumpkin Chunkin!

Oh yeah, we are at it again. I don't know if you remember last years Pumpkin Toss (check out this link to see how this tradition began .pumpkin chunk  

A brief reminder: My kids are sentimental and attached to EVERYTHING. It is hard for them to let a little piece of paper go so FORGET just throwing away their awesome pumpkins. (even if they are starting to rot.) We have to have an event centered around getting rid of these stinky pumpkins. Even with all the 'excitement' they cringe before each toss as they say "Awe that is my favorite pumpkin". 

None the less the "tradition that everyone in America does" (and if they find out this isn't true I will find the culprit and they will be on the naughty list) is to get rid of the old things of the past to prepare for the coming of Christ... Soooo....

Away we threw! 

It was dark outside so we weren't sure who's went the furthest. But they sure thought the "thud" was awesome.

Maylin went for the soccer 'throw-in' technique.

Pierson couldn't decide if he was going with the soccer technique or

The track and field "shot put" technique. I think he decided the soccer "throw in" worked the best! 

They were happy to participate in this great tradition preparing for Jesus's birthday. I was happy to get rotting pumpkins out of the house! Win! Win! You just can't get better than that! 

Polar Express

Our church held a Polar Express night for the kids recently. The kids had a blast and the parents had some peace and quiet at home. It was a simple idea filled with lots of grand ideas! The kids came in their pajamas, brought blankets and pillows to lay on, ate finger food for dinner, watched the Polar Express and had a visit from Santa.

 Of course you can't just watch the Polar Express you have to "enter" the Polar Express. This is where I came in.

I got to build the train! It was so much fun... well mostly. Transporting it from the basement of my house, where I built it, to church... well that was NOT so much fun.  Lets just say that I learned that 27 mph is the top speed one can travel when transporting a cardboard train! This Polar Express actually took flight... twice!
I can laugh about it now after seeing the joy and excitement of the children. Rest assured I was not laughing then! :)

Gingerbread Village!

It still makes my stomach a little icky to think of all the sugar that was consumed while making this miniature village.

 Every stripe of frosting was ended with a lick of a finger.

 For every piece of candy added another was put in a mouth.

 one for me, one for the house, two for me, one for the house...

 And of course there was finger licking!

 And extra icing added so there was an excuse for more finger licking.

 There was "all hands in"decorating.

And there were cookies eaten.

 And more cookies eaten.

 After all the sugar Daniel decided he better check everyone's heart rate.

You OK Grandma?

 Bend down Daddy... I can't hear your heart back here.

 To say they were all proud of their creations is...

a bit of an understatement! Happy Gingerbreading!!!