Save this one for the when his first girlfriend comes over.

So naturally as soon as bug got home from school he was jealous that sunshine got to have a tea party and not him.

So he then decided that he LOOOVED tea parties and next time we MUST invite him.

So I snapped this picture so that theres no way he can deny the fact that he loved tea parties with his little sister :)

Does this look like the face of a kid whose being "tea partied" against his will?

Tea for two and two for tea...

One of the many joys of being a stay at home mom is the fact that I basically get to stay home and play most of the day. I mean yeah I have things that I SHOULD be doing, but today I opted not to do "Real" work.

Instead I spent the majority of my afternoon having a tea party with my Sunshine. We had tea and crumpets and we worked on holding up the pinky. Plus we said things like "Lovely tea" and "How do you do?". Lessons in etiquette that are totally necessary for a tea party. The only thing that was missing was our gigantic Kentucky Derby hats. Maybe next time.

So my sink may be overflowing with dirty dishes, but we are all set if the debutantes come a knockin. :)

Dumbest pet ever.

So we are total pet people. Always have been. Currently we are running low on animals as we only have 5 right now.

Thats Libby the beagle,2 cats (Merlyn and Annabelle) and our newest addition...2 hermit crabs. Their names are Joe and Whitey. The kids named them by the way...isn't that obvious. But normally we have a regular ark under our roof. We've had numerous cats, birds , fish , turtles and frogs. We just like to keep Petco in business truth be told. It just doesn't feel like home if it's not mad chaos :)

Well so the kids are way into these dumb crabs and I'm just not quite sure what the deal is with them. Next to the pet rock, these just don't make sense. They are plain old crabs, but their shell has been painted so that they aren't as boring. Thing is....they do nothing!! They hardly move and it's not like they are cuddly or anything. But in true American fashion, if you sell sand and accessories and cute stuff to put in a tank in the mall....idiots like me will shell out money for a fancy shelled animal to bury themselves in their over accesorised tank.

What's kind of funny is the kids seem to think these are the cutest pets we have. Like they talk to them in baby talk and pet their shell like it's a kitten. These dumb things look at the kids with blank antennae eyes and just sort of shudder. It's all very confusing.

Sunshine played with "Joe and Whitey" today and had the best time. It kept her entertained for almost 2 hours. She kept telling me that "Whitey was a girl and needed to play with girl toys and Joe was obviously a boy and needed boy toys." Hence the pictures with Whitey and the Barbie doll. (you know...because she's a girl...duh) And Joe and the cars.

How did I not know this? Well in her mind it all works I guess.

mmmmmmmmmm!

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. But another one of my favorites is the first taste of eggnog of the season. I LOVE eggnog. You would think that after working at Starbucks I would be burned out on the taste or especially the smell. Which by about January I am. But for now I will drink it straight out of the carton and cream my coffee with it. This morning, every sip of my coffee I can't help but say out loud how good it is. Finally Bug (Tactful as he is) says "alright you love it...we get it. Now enough already!!" It totally made me laugh. Not because my kid is speaking to adults like that,(because that is a whole issue unto itself that may receive it's own blog post one day) but it made me laugh because I had already drank 2 full cups of coffee and probably made a comment with each sip. That WOULD be annoying. Duly noted.

"Sorry buddy. I'll lay off the "Bask in the glory of Eggnog!" talk.....But I mean really....have you tried this? I think it's better this year that it was last year. This is soooooo good!!!!"

Ok......I can hear your eyes rolling!!

Feeling a little bit better ** Please note that these pictures were from last year!!

****DISCLAIMER***** PEANUT IS FINE. THESE PICTURES ARE OLD!!!! THESE ARE FROM LAST YEAR!!!!
















I realized after I posted this that someone was just going to look at the pictures and freak out without reading this post. Not in the hospital again. Repeat....He is NOT in the hospital!!!

Peanut is feeling a little bit better. His cold symptoms are almost gone. But the asthma attacks just keep hanging on. I have emergency medication I keep on hand for this very occasion, so I'm pretty skilled in handling this.

Last year from the day he was born until his 1st birthday we accumulated 9 visits to the emergency room and a total of 8 days in a specialized pediatric ICU. Hooked up to breathing ventilators and feeding tubes. His first visit to the PICU was at 25 days old. It was really scary. I took a couple pictures while he was up there just to remind me how REAL it really was, because at the time it felt very surreal.

I keep this picture in my bible to remind me to count my blessing and remember gratitude. Sometimes it's easy to get caught in the "drama of the moment" with silly day to day squabbles. When you get faced with life threatening moments regarding your child, nothing else really seems as important. I don't care if my cable bill gets paid on time or my laundry sat wet in the washer overnight. Nothing is quite as important as making the most of my time with my kids and husband and truly appreciating them.

Of course I say that as I have my back turned to a giant pile of dishes and about 75 loads of laundry that still needs to be folded and put away :) Tonight I am going to ignore that stuff and play with my kids.

Poor little Peanut...

My poor little Peanut has asthma and even the smallest twinge of a cold sends his lungs into overdrive. He was a little sniffely last night, but because it was Halloween and all I didn't let it spoil the night. But we all paid for it today. Poor Peanut had been wheezing all day. I have been giving him breathing treatments every 4 hours all day. Then I gave him some cold medicine to hopefully let him sleep it off. He's a sad little camper though. When he gets grumpy, he cries and when he cries he gets worked up, and when he gets worked up it sends him into an asthma attack. It's sort of a vicious cycle.
So if you're the praying type, I just ask that his little lungs heal fast so that he can get back to laughing and playing like he normally does. He's a little trooper. He's so used to these breathing treatments, he doesn't even fight them anymore. I'll keep you all updated on how he is tomorrow.

Harvest festival at the church.

So after all our trickn and a treatin we went to a harvest festival that our church was doing. There was bean bag tosses and musical chairs and pumpkin races. Fun things and treats for the kids. They had a lot of fun. Sunshine discovered she is a musical chair champ. You know...because it takes skill.

Best Halloween house ever!

So there is this house in my in law's neighborhood that we hit every year. The people that live there really know how to decorate in a way that is really spooky and genuinely scary, but not satanic scary. In years past they did a scientific laboratory, alien invasion and mortuary themes. This year it was psycho clowns.

You have to walk into their garage past all these creepy images just to get your candy. They have things like fog machines and mirrors to throw off your perception. Just when you get in there and grab your candy, something jumps out at you. it's really impressive and elaborate for just somebody's house. Plus they use a cast of like 3 or 4 people in on the act.

This is a house we go to each and every year. Bug each year gets just a little closer to going in. But isn't quite there yet. The people that live there remember the kids from year to year and go easy on the little ones.

This year Bug marched right up to the house, which really surprised us considering he's been terrified of most everything these days. What's really cute about the whole thing is he grabs his little sister's hand and drug her in too. repeating over and over like a mantra "Don't be scared, it's not real. Don't be scared it's not real. Don't be scared it's not real."She wasn't too keen on going in. But he wouldn't go in unless she went with him. I offered, but he assured me ...

Bug- "I'm not scared or anything, I just wanted to make sure that she got this whole experience along with me"
Me-"Yeah ok."

So we made it up the driveway and almost into the garage. The garage is where the action is. But he stopped dead in his tracks right in front of the garage door. Where I might add an ax wielding clown was waiting for us right around the corner, ready to distribute candy. (I looked around the corner to see what was waiting.) But I am proud of him for being so brave making it that far. I know that wasn't easy for him. So one small victory in the battle of Bug's fears.

Maybe next year we'll make it into the garage :)

The most epic holiday in the kid universe.

The big one...the highlight of the year...the holiday to end all holidays...Halloween night!!! What kid doesn't love Halloween? There's costumes. There's creeping through the streets after dark. There's candy. What's not to like?

We dressed up ,we tricked , we treated. We hit our neighborhood, then we hit my Aunt and Uncle's house. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's.

We have been "trick or treating" in my in laws neighborhood since we've had kids. They have the better candy and more money to blow on "over the top" decorations. Plus it's a lot more kid friendly than our "meth fueled" neighborhood.

There is one specific house that deserves it's very own post ...so more on that later.

But in the meantime here's some pictures of our Halloween adventures.

I mean C'mon!!!

Can you really have Halloween without the "It's the Great pumpkin Charlie Brown"?

I guess you COULD...it just wouldn't be the same.

** Note the sporty ensemble we are wearing here. I call it bedtime chic.