So Many Things To Be Thankful For

I have so many things to be thankful for. Here's just a few iin no particular order:

• Two beautiful boys that make me smile
• A great husband that I love so much
• A job that pays enough for M to stay home, but doesn't stress me out
• Diet coke in the morning
• Warm blankets on my bed
• Hair scrunchies to hold my hair out of my eyes
• A calm between two snow storms that allowed us to drive to M's parents house for Thanksgiving
• People who read my blog and make comments
• A safe car to drive in the snow
• Hot chocolate with little marshmellows
• A son who loves to do crafts with me (T)
• A son who loves to watch airplane shows with M (R)
• A great elementary school that teaches R music, art, and art appreciation, language arts, gym, Spanish, as well as the three R's
• Family all across the country
• 8:00 bedtime for the boys, which gives me a couple of hours before I go to bed
• Songs, singing, and a family who loves to sing
• Dolly Parton, who gave us "A Coat of Many Colors" -- the current bedtime favorite"
• "Too many kisses" - a game both boys play with me in which they compete with each other on who can give me the most kisses
• Books, libraries, and Scholastic book orders
• My comfy red chair
• God who loves me even when I haven't even started looking for a church yet
• The boys' prayers at dinner time -- T usually thanks God for "having a wonderful day" and R asks that God "make sure our family gets home safely"
• M's love for me and all the sweet things he does to show me he loves me

I hope every one had a great Thanksgiving!

You Can Infer It

R, T, and I were reading a new-to-us book by Eric Carle (a wonderful children's author) called "Slowly, Slowly, the Sloth" about animals from the rain forest. We came across an animal that was hard for me to identify, so I asked the kids, "what animal is this?"

R answered, "well, the author doesn't tell us with his words, so we have to infer what the animal is. I think it's an anteater."

I said, "'infer' is a new word for you. What does that mean?"

R said, "well, authors use words and sometimes drawings to explain what they're trying to tell you. Sometimes they don't tell you exactly what they mean, so you have to infer it from the clues they give you."

Yep, he's six and knows what "infer" means. Some adults I know get "infer" confused with "imply."

I love his school :>

Two Happy Boys

R and T are having a nice weekend. R had a playdate yesterday with a boy from his class (who is also on his hockey team.) They had a blast. They even played with T, which is great. R had hockey this morning and made a goal playing "D" (defense). He says that he likes playing "D" because he can stop the other team. Just for the record, there isn't a position that he doesn't like at this point. He just loves the game. He said, "I'm just so happy when I'm out there on the ice!" Gotta love that.

T and I read some books and did puzzles during our "mommy and T time." I'm giving him some special time because he's been feeling a bit left out with all of the activities that we do with/for R (scouts and hockey). He likes having this time together -- he's such a lover (when he's not being a snit -- there's no inbetween with him!)

Good Fall Fun

T is dressed for winter even though it's just fall(dressed himself, of course) to show grammie and papa the "nature trail" that M blazed with his lawn tractor through the field just past our woods. The boys love to go out and get "lost," each with a walkie talkie in hand. They communicate with each other to find thier way. Good fun.


Below, you see a proud R. He designed this vampire jack-o-lantern, which M drew and grammie helped cut out. Notice the sharp fangs, which every good vampire must have.

Trick or Treat

What a fun Halloween! I took the day off because my mom and dad were in town and I had a lot of fun doing the mom thang all day (with the help of grammie!) Here's my day:

• 7:00 up and at'em - get R and T dressed and breakfasted
• 8:00 send R off to the bus (with costume in backpack)
• 8:30 leave to take T to preschool
• 9:00 to the grocery store to get eggs
• 9:30 bake two batches of brownies with newly purchased eggs
• 11:15 pick up T from preschool
• 12:00 make lunch for mom, dad, T, and M
• 1:30 go to R's school (with newly baked brownies) to do the room-mother thing (Grammie went to) -- Halloween bingo, costume parade for the whole school, and a party with many sugar-laden treats
• 3:40 Take R to the doctor for his annual check-up (I know, I know, M made the appointment on Halloween)
• 5:00 Go home and make two boxes of mac n cheese for kids' dinner to go with M's homemade and delicious chili
• 5:15 the H's arrive for chili and trick or treating (they live in the country and have no homes near by to go to for trick or treating)
• 5:45 Get kids in their costumes and apply appropriate make up
• 6:00 trick or treating around the neighborhood (grammie and papa stayed home to give out candy)
• 7:00 Back home where the kids got to eat two pieces of candy each
• 7:30 H's go home
• 8:00 Kids in bed
• 8:30 three games of Pegs and Jokers (a perfect ending for a busy, but fun day!)
  
  
  
  

T loved his dog costume. He was also a dog last year, but wanted to be a different dog this year. He's a golden retriever, just like Mackinaw (he even let people call him Mackinaw for that one night.)

R LOVED being a vampire. He got to wear this costume three times this "season." He was especially excited to use the "real" fake blood on Halloween night (the other two times we used a red make up crayon for the blood.) The "real" fake blood was drippy and never dried -- he loved it!