Veteran's Day

We had that parenting moment when you realize that your kids don't really understand something that they should... like when your kids think Christmas is Santa's birthday... that kind of moment.  Only this time it was for Veteran's Day and our kids, albeit pretty young, had no idea why we celebrate this holiday.  In fact I was told rather emphatically by Joey that the next holiday was to be Thanksgiving and this could not possibly be a "holiday" at all.

So, since they do have a teacher for a father after all, Jeff was adamant that we attend the Veteran's Day parade as a learning experience and a patriotic experience as well.  He offered to take them alone, since I am constantly tired, but I wanted to go too and so we headed out that morning not sure what to really expect.

Our neighbors joined us and together we sat and watched the various marching bands, a ton of corvettes, multiple branches of the armed forces, etc. walk by.  In the end we are both really happy we went.  The kids understand a little more of what Veteran's Day is and they had fun at the parade, especially when candy was thrown at them!

Confessions of a Preggo Pescatarian

For over 10 years I've been a pretty good Pescatarian, meaning I don't eat meat but will eat seafood. I cheat occasionally for my weakness - carnitas- but otherwise am pretty good. I'm not perfect and it's an entirely personal decision that I don't push on anyone else including my kids and hubby. I happily make a pretty awesome meatloaf for my family (if I do say so myself!). And have tons of other meat recipes that I make without complaint. I don't eat them so I pester everyone for feedback at the table - Too salty? Overlooked? Needs more sauce? 

When I was pregnant with Logan I spent the first two weeks craving and eating cheese burgers. Then went back to my Pescatarian ways. With this pregnancy I find myself craving all kinds of different meats now that I've got the morning sickness under control in month 5!  

Chicken taquitos, beef soft tacos, cheeseburgers, roast beef sandwiches, etc. What's worse is that I have no desire to deny these cravings. Not even an inkling to say no. I'm not sure if it's the power of the craving (pregnancy cravings are no joke!), or if it's because I was so miserably sick for so long that I don't want to question wanting food now, or what!  In any case I am happily enjoying a  beef soft taco from Taco Bell now. I am just going to go with it for awhile and enjoy it! Maybe I will go vegan for awhile after I have the baby to make up for this...

Emmie Turns 4!

Our beautiful little princess turned 4 this weekend. She requested a ladybug party so that's exactly what she got, to the extreme! 

Princess getting ready for her day!

Ladybug nails

Jim got her 1,500 live ladybugs!!

Her brothers were very excited to go shopping for her. Logan had a hard time picking the perfect gift for her and spent a good 20 minutes in the "girl aisle" at Target. He wanted to get her everything!  Joey on the other hand had a hard time picking a gift that Emmie wanted, as opposed to a gift he would want.  In the end, Logan settled on a Princess Sofia doll and Joey got her a robotic fish. 

Her ladybug party was attended by friends and family and included strawberry ladybugs (strawberries with mini chocolate chips) and ladybug cheese appetizers.  Since Emmie loves tomatoes we did an Italian themed dinner with lasagna, spaghetti, tomato salad, etc.

Since Emmie's hatred of the "happy birthday" song continues, she requested we sing the "ABC's" instead.  I have no idea why she has such an issue with the "happy birthday" song, but I have to admit that I do love that she puts her own unique spin on birthdays.  She blew out her candles when we sang "...next time won't you sing with me!"

Halloween 2014

We did it - another Halloween in the books!  I took the day off to clean the house, get prepared for the evening, etc. and instead fell asleep and took a long nap.  Pregnancy really screws with your ability to get stuff done!

I did manage to wake up in time to head to the elementary school and watch the costume parade.  Logan decided to go with astronaut for school, and vampire for trick or treating.  Joey was a skeleton for school and a ghoul for trick or treating.  Emmie was the cutest witch on the planet for both!

Costume Parade

Kindergarten class pic

Seriously the cutest!

We got home to find a pumpkin full of chocolates at our front step from neighbors we don't really know. So sweet of them!  Logan immediately began working on a thank you note for them (I was so proud!).

Trick or Treating with our neighbors and their extended family was a ton of fun as usual.  We are so lucky to live next door to such wonderful people.  They have become great friends to all of us, we have never in our lives had neighbors like this and it is awesome!

At every door Logan said, "trick or treat!  Do you have Kit Kats or M&Ms?" and Emmie made sure to say, "thank you" then proudly informed her daddy (after every single house!) that she said thank you.  Two solid hours of trick or treating and Logan proclaimed this was, "the best Halloween ever!" - Until next year!

We missed Cheri last night though!  A bad cold had her out for the night which was a total bummer.  Hard to believe next year we will have another little one in tow - actually two more little ones in tow since our friends Easy and Christina are expecting too.  How fun!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving with little kids is basically them telling you how they want their pumpkins to look and you having to do all the work.  We had 7 pumpkins to carve this year thanks to various field trips, and despite our intentions of purchasing a fancy saw (they were out at Lowes and Home Depot) we were stuck with those little kid-safe plastic pieces of crap to carve them with. Needless to say my hand was cramped for hours after I carved 5 of them!

At one point Joey actually said, "okay I drew the face, let me know when it's done" and went back inside to watch a movie.  Oh well, it was still fun and the fire pit and hot chocolate made it even better than last year. 

Dave's Pumpkin Patch ~ 2013

We did manage to squeeze in a trip to our local pumpkin patch before Halloween.  We are lucky to live 5 minutes from a pretty cool one, so a Sunday night trek was totally doable.  Plus I got a Groupon so had to use that!

Emmie was more than happy to let her brothers bury her in corn kernels.

And then she decided to take a nap all snuggled up in corn...

Corn Angels