What did you say?

This was a conversation that occurred in our van the other day:

Boo:  Can we get some ice cream?
Me:  Probably not.
Boo:  Probably yes.
Me:  Probably not.
Boo:  Probably sure.
Me:   A big no, got it?
Boo:   OK


A master manipulator in the making?  Probably sure.

Happy Turkey Day!

For Thanksgiving this year Hubby's parents came to visit.  We spent Thanksgiving Day driving to Ohio (my first time in Ohio!) to visit his grandparents.  That's about a 12 hour trip.  Thankfully we took two cars and spilt the kids up.  Hubby and I drove with Hiccup and we sent Crazy and Boo with my in-laws (hee hee hee).  Seriously though all my kids are pros when it comes to traveling.  Well, at least now they are.  Some of you may remember this post.  But that's in the past...  We made it to Ohio without any problems and we once again patted ourselves on the back for the brilliant decision to invest in portable dual DVD players for the car.

Grammie giving Hiccup hugs

We hadn't seen Hubby's grandparents in about 3 years.  The last time was after we moved back from Japan and Boo was about 4 or 5 months old.  The kids were excited about seeing their great-grandparents again and Hubby's sister and brother-in-law flew in for the weekend as well.

Aunt L reading to the kids

Hubby's Family

We drove about an hour and a half to Hubby's uncle's house for the day to visit with more of his extended family.  I'd never met Hubby's cousin and his wonderful family and the rest we hadn't seen in years.  It was great spending time with his family.  The kids had fun playing outside in the nice weather and we were able to catch up with everyone.

The Whole Gang

We stayed the night at Hubby's uncle's house and left about 5 am the next morning for the long drive back. The trip went smoothly until we got outside of Washington D.C.  Then the traffic was just ridiculous.  At one point a car two spots in front of us caught on fire.  I mean literally, there were huge flames coming out from under the hood.  I think by the time we made it home we had been in the truck for 16 hours.  Ugh!  Would we do it again?  Definitely!

The Next Karate Kid

After we moved to Virginia we decided to find an activity that Crazy could do to meet new friends and have some fun.  I vetoed Hubby's suggestion of sports because that would amount to me hauling three kids to an outside practice and game at least twice a week by myself.  Instead we agreed on karate.  We ended up signing him up for Taekwondo.  They have a program here called Tiny Tigers for kids ages 3-5 years.  After that they move up to the kids program.  Crazy loves it!  He has a belt testing every 3 months or so and in the Tiny Tigers program they get headbands instead of belts every other testing.  As several friends have pointed out, the ATA Taekwondo belt system is not the same as everyone else's.  He went from white to orange and then will get yellow instead of white/yellow/orange.  I say as long as he's moving to a different color each time, who cares?  They all end with a black belt!

 Crazy will be moving up to the kids' program for his next testing cycle.  We've signed him up for a Master's class so that he can use weapons.  It's costing us a small fortune for all the equipment but he likes sparring and "playing" with all the weapons.  The next belt testing should be interesting because he'll be tested on his form, sparring, and the short stick weapons (which are actually half the size of him.)  I'll be posting pictures of that when the time comes...

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween.  Not because of the candy but because of the awesome costumes my aunt makes for my kids.  I have never once bought a Halloween costume from a store for one of the kids.  Now that we have three kids I was worried that my aunt wouldn't have the time to make them costumes this year, especially because she has a new grandson to sew for.  Well I don't know how she did it, but she found the time and energy to make all four kids a Halloween costume!  I mentioned that she was awesome, right?

This year Crazy requested to be a dragon from the movie How to Train Your Dragon.  Not just any old dragon would do either, it had to be a deadly nadder dragon.  My incredible aunt had to design his costume from a picture in a children's book that we sent her.  He was thrilled when he got it.

Boo asked to be a butterfly, a green one, but when we were at Jo-ann's one day we saw a pattern for a Rupunzel costume.  Boo is fascinated with Rupunzel so of course she had to have those long golden locks.   This girl never wears dresses or skirts, so I was a little worried that she might balk at the idea of wearing the dress when she actually had to put it on.  I worried for nothing, she was jumping up and down at the thought of put her costume on when it arrived.  

Halloween at the aquarium

Crazy and Boo picked out Hiccup's Halloween costume.  They chose a sunflower.  I don't think I've ever seen a cuter sunflower in my life.

I think it's next to impossible to have all three kids looking and smiling at the camera at the same time.
Maybe when they get older it won't be so hard...

 I absolutely love this face that Hiccup is making.  It shows her frustration with me taking too many photos and makes me laugh whenever I see it.

We were invited to our neighbor's house for a Halloween party before we all headed out trick-or-treating.  Not long after arriving our little sunflower wilted.  I guess the excitement of her first Halloween was just too much for her!

 I can't wait until next Halloween to see what the kids decide to be!