The Breaking Point

It's 4:50pm on Friday afternoon and I am waiting patiently for the authorities to either come and get me, or question me about the high-pitch screaming coming from my house.  Or more importantly the laundry room.

You see I have boys.  Boys play with trucks, cars, balls, or anything they can get their hands on that will turn into a vehicle of any type or more importantly a weapon.  Girls play with dolls and pretty things and they have trunks in their room filled with princess dresses and jelly high heels.  Girls are meant to play dress up.  We love it.  We live for it.  We actually, if given several chances for wardrobes changes, can play all day in this little world of make believe.  We're girls...this is what we do.  So why do my boys feel the need to do the same?

Now...don't freak out.  They don't have a trunk filled with princess dresses that they spend the afternoon trying on.  They have the bottom drawer of a dresser that is filled with every baseball, basketball, football, hockey shirt imaginable.  And they take turns, yes multiple wardrobe changes a day, playing each and every sport.  And of course when they switch sports, they must then go in and completely change into their new uniform because heaven forbid the next fourteen minutes of the made up hockey game in my living room would be played out in a soccer uniform!!!!

This is my breaking point.  The clothes hamper is my breaking point.  The thirteen piles of clothes on the couch is my breaking point.  The MULTIPLE wardrobe changes are my breaking point.

Did you know a seven minute basketball game warrants the need to wash an entire outfit?  I didn't know that.  I wasn't aware that wearing something for seven minutes meant it was dirty enough that it too belonged in the hamper along with the clothes that had been worn all day.  Did you know that?  No, you didn't?  Well, guess what...apparently it does.  Yes...everything that touches both Matthew and Ryan's body...if only for minutes at a time...goes right into the clothes hamper. 

Now, I know you think...Hello??!!  What is the matter with you, Heather?  You have successfully taught your kids to put their clothes in the hamper when they are done with them?  Yes.  Yes, I have.  But don't be fooled!!!!!  The hamper is round, tall, and in the corner of their bedroom which makes it the PERFECT BASKETBALL HOOP!!!!  They are simply carrying the game from the living room to the bedroom.

Because Mama hit her breaking point today, Matthew has been doing laundry all afternoon.  He screamed dragging the hamper down the hall.  He screamed while separating darks and lights.  He screamed when he put hangers on all his shirts and then hung them up.  And he screamed and screamed and screamed.  You didn't hear it?  Twenty bucks says my neighbors' did!!!

And before you send the hate mail...save it!  There were no children harmed during the process of teaching them how to do household chores.  They are fine.  Alive and kickin'.  And one day....in the VERY distant future...my daughter-in-laws will thank me for their husbands ability to sort, wash, fold and put away.

Halloween / Field Trip

So Halloween has come and gone again.  THANK GOD!  Why is this such a stressful holiday?  It really shouldn't be.  I give myself just a couple more years of making costumes, then I am done.  And this year really wasn't all that difficult, but there is the whole "I made it, so if it breaks thirty minutes before trick or treating, that's on me!" thing going on.

This year Matthew wanted to be a spy.  He wanted to wear this cool hat, dressed in all black, with all this spy gear tools and on and on and on.  When we finally started trying to piece the costume together, it was clear that I had no idea what he wanted, so I offered an alternative.  How about being a cat burglar?  Some would call it leading toward glamorizing a life or crime...I call it the easiest costume ever assembled.  Ever.  Black hat, black pants, black shirt, and a smudge or two of eyeliner.  Done!

Ryan has been asking to be a spider since last year.  There was really nothing I could do about this.  I had to make it.  And luckily it poured rain on Saturday afternoon and we bypassed the downtown trick-or-treating, because there was no way this costume was making it out for two separate trick-or-treats.  I wouldn't consider myself getting lazy in my old age, but the quality of work is DEFINITELY declining and I am totally okay with that.  So the spider is resting comfortably in the back of my car waiting for Ryan to forget it is there and then he will finally be at his resting place....the Waste Management plant on Turner Road.

 Had to get the devil ready too!

 WOW!!!  Isn't it amazing how much a spider and a cat burglar look alike????

 The only tree in our neighborhood that has turned.

 The boys in motion...all business!

Here are some pics from Ryan's first field trip.

Ryan...from his dad's point of view.

 First bus ride!

Baby Bonanza

When you come to that realization that you are no longer going to have any more kids,  it's a bittersweet moment.  Because you realize that you'll never bring another baby home from the hospital, you'll never have night feedings again (which I love--I know, it's insane), you'll never have a lot of those monumental firsts again.  And for us it was a easy decision because we knew that we only wanted two kids and never questioned the fact that we didn't want to continue parenting being outnumbered by children.  As long as there were two of us, and two of them....Rich and I had a 50% chance of being right and in control.  If we had one more....my money's on the kids at this point.  It would be like the inmates taking over the insane asylum. 

And with this decision of not adding to the brood, I then turn to my friends.  The ones still having kids.  I need them.  I need them to have babies so I won't have one just for the purpose of smelling like throw up and rocking back and forth while standing.  I need to get my fix on other peoples babies because being around them and smelling them and loving on them is something that I need to do.  So, this weekend, two of my very dearest friends did the honors of letting me get my fix. 

On Saturday the boys and I headed to Pleasanton to go to Andersen's first birthday.  Emilie had a fantastic kid friendly party supplied with a bounce house and crafts...that made my boys' day!  It is so hard to believe that Andersen is already a year old!!!  He is absolutely darling!!!

Andersen stealing some ice.

Matthew and Ryan loved the craft area!  Huge score Emilie!

 Em and Andersen

 I think he likes it!

What a fantastic day!!

The other favorite part of my weekend was my dear friend Christie coming to California for the first time with her daughter Lauren.  I had to go and see her twice!!  Christie and her husband Brad live in Chicago and I am lucky her mom and dad are still here because she has to come back and see them...so I sneak over for my visits!
I could really just eat this girl up!  She is so sweet and loving and loves to cuddle and sleep...a girl after my own heart!  On Friday when I was holding her she spit up and I didn't change my shirt until bed.  I know that sounds repulsive and gross...but I loved the smell and couldn't bring myself to change it.

Just look at this girl.

Matthew was just a bit smitten.  He tried to play peek a boo with her.  Someday, not just yet!

Love.

Meemaw (Debi) with the girl.

 Debi and Mark.

Chris, Lauren and me.

 My favorite picture....I look at this and I think..."When did we turn into adults???"  We did good Chris!

 
To two of my dearest friends...Emilie and Christie.  My heart swells to watch you as mothers.  You both are so fabulous and I love seeing you with your beautiful children.  Andersen and Lauren have no idea how they lucked out in the mom department!  Congratulations to you both!

On Sunday we headed to Fog Willow Farms.  I am a newbie to this place.  It was my first time going and I will say that we will definitely be back!  I loved it!  I loved that it was inexpensive to get in, I love that it was so huge and spread out, I loved all the different areas that the kids could play in and I loved that it was a cool 60 degrees when we went...so it actually felt like FALL!!!!!

 Here's Ryan playing a pirate from Pirates of the Pearabean (that's Caribbean to EVERYONE else). 

 I loved that everywhere you looked, there were pumpkins covering the ground.

 There was a huge hay stack pyramid that the boys loved climbing.

 Let me explain these next couple of pictures.  Ryan had no fear going in and petting the goats.  He loved it.  As you can see in the second picture down he was even a little too close at times.   Right as he was just about to come out of the petting area, a goat charged him.  I think he charged Ryan's chest with his horns and then maybe knocked Ryan's leg with his hoof because Ryan complained that he bit him.  Needless to say when Ryan turned around the shear panic in his eyes told us to grab him and get the ^%$& out of there.  When he got over the initial shocked of what had happened...he started screaming.  I don't think there will be another petting zoo in Ryan's future.

 This might be my favorite picture of the day.  It is right after he had stopped crying and calmed down.  He was about 100 feet from the goat pin and you can just tell he is staring down that goat and saying...you just stay over there, and I am going to stay over here.  He never went close to the area again for the rest of the day.

 Pumpkin jumping always makes you feel better!