Oh My Goodness! :D

So sorry, Blog Fans...!! ;D LOL!! I hadn't realised it's Thursday already and my last entry was SUNDAY!!! GAH!!! Well I blame Alicia. She totally hogs my computer when she is visiting and even when I begged and PLEADED for a few minutes online, she would slap at my head and hands and scream at me. Naturally I just went back to the closet under the stairs and sobbed until they went back home.


Anyhoo!! They left yesterday and I spent most of the day resting, napping and Henna~ing my hair!! WOW it's RED! : D

Brown, before....

 

Red after!!! :D

 

 

 

Here's a bit of an update on everything we did last week! ;D
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Firstly we went to the Star City Parade!! We had a HORRIBLE time trying to find parking ( I left it too late... ) but in the end we got a great spot where we could watch it from above. We also got to go into a walkway and watch it from the warmth... only it was TOO warm and I thought I might die!! Ah well... the kids liked what they saw and Santa waved to us personally which made my day! ;D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the parade we had to stop in at PetSmart and buy some dog food! My kids LOVE the pet store ( I do too! ) and we spent ages looking at all the stuff and getting to hold a neato Chameleon! We all loved how he could look all over the place with his oddball eyes! He was very happy to be held by all of us and I was so grateful to the guy who works there who is so patient with kids!

 

 

 

On Sunday morning we were sitting around and chatting when out of the blue a van pulled into our driveway. Out climbed a woman holding a "dog". We thought it was a dog... silly us......

 

 

Yeah... turned out to be a fainting goat named Oreo!! :D She was a hoot and enjoyed butting my dogs in the bellies if they startled her! She never did faint but still provided ample enjoyment!! ;D

After the thrill that was the goat we got ready to go out to the holiday Open House that I mentioned earlier. The kids were all dressed up so Alicia took some pics of her children and mine got in on the act too.....

 

 

I just think this one is cute!! ;D

 

The girls are old enough and wise enough that they immediately get to playing together whenever Alicia comes for a visit, but the boys take longer to warm up to each other. I think it's that they are younger and change more often in the short time between trips. Well whatever it is, it's usually a few days before they will play together and Jack really never wanted anything to do with "Baby Alex" ...! However, how things change.....

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday we had Gingerbread House Making Day... but because we had been so busy up until then, our gingerbread had not been made in advance and was going to be really soft and difficult to work with. I told Alicia on Sunday night that we HAD to bake the gingerbread... the thing is she got all "hopped up" on chocolates and Kahlua and was basically impossible to work with!! I may have had to drink some too, you know, just to be social and I made all the roofs too small. Ooops. "}

 

 

 

 

 

The Hopkins gang came over though and they made a church... it was super!!! :D Ah well... we had fun too and the kids got to eat lots of frosting and candy! ; D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best part of the weekend for me came at the very end as the kids were leaving.. I'd checked with Alicia a while back and asked what the kids would like for Christmas. I'd been able to order the gifts which came whilst they were here, so I'd sneakily wrapped them all up and hidden them in my room. I'd shared my secret with Jessie and we were both pretty excited about it. As everyone was getting ready to leave we had them all sit on the couch and we said we were going to do a double check upstairs to make sure they hadn't left anything ( they ALWAYS leave something! ;D ) Jessie and I went upstairs and came back down with our arms FULL of gifts! "You guys left ALL THIS!!!!!!" we said!! Oh you should have seen their faces! I wish I'd been able to get a picture of it!!! It was wonderful! The gifts were pretty big so they really had their arms FULL !! Kids LOVE big boxes, right?!! :D As we were leaving the house and heading for their car, Jackfella said to his Mom..."Next time I'm going to SEARCH!" !! He wanted to be SURE he didn't leave anything like that NEXT time!!!! Cute!!!!

 

 

 

Anyway, to sum up, that's what we've been up to the last few days!! :D Alicia got home safely after a BIT of a detour though Nebraska... ( ahem )... and they will all be back again on the 29th !!! Until then it's time for us to rest up a little, clean up a little and prepare for the arrival of Garry!!!!!!!!!! She flies in on Monday!! Whoooopieeeeee!! :D ...

*** I need a nap.....!! *** : D

AP Moment of the day ~ Communication is a two way street OR I love a parade!

Today should have been the Star City Parade which we have been going to for years. Sadly and for the first time in it's history, it was cancelled due to an ice storm. We'd been watching the weather forecast for the last few days and it was looking ominous to say the least. I had begun to prepare the children that perhaps, sadly, we may not be going to the parade this year. I knew they would be HEARTBROKEN. I was prepared for perhaps some tears, maybe even weeping and pounding on a pillow.... I know the kids LOVE the parade.

We always get ready to go in a calm and peaceful manner, there's NEVER any shouting or anything like "Comeoncomeoncomeon we're going to miss the start, we won't get anywhere to park, we won't be able to see anything.. all the good spots will be taken comeoncomeoncomeon......" or anything else approaching that insanity.... weeellllll... I say never.... I mean, not often.... not every time.... ok, every time, but I don't MEAN to do it like that...something just takes over me!!....

Anyway, I know they love the yummy treats I make to take with us, like that one time I made some delicious brownies..... what??!?!... they WERE delicious. Ok, they were a liiiittle dry. And sure, we didn't have anything to drink with us that time..... oh come on... we only gagged a little bit.....what a fuss...!! The chocolate dipped pretzels were delicious though!! They were GOOD!! and only a little messy. I mean everything came out in the wash after only two rinses!!! The hot chocolate made it though!! THAT was really nice... and only burned the first couple of sips and after that your tongue and lips were numbed to the pain...!!

But the best part was standing on the sidewalk and watching the folks walking by!!.. it wasn't THAT cold...! Oh you could SO feel your feet!!!! Ok, so you lost sensation in both your big toes. Who needs big toes when you can watch yet another small town marching band go by?!!? :D And as for being able to feel your nose, ....eh, it's over rated!! So yeah, it's cold but then isn't it so much nicer when you get back inside and start to thaw out!!!!

What about the marching bands though?!!?!? and the DRUMMERS?!?! And the FIRETRUCKS!!! WOW EEEE!!! THE FIRE TRUCKS?!!!? With the sirens...and the horns... and the drums...... and the very noise sensitive son... who screams and cries with his hands pressed to his little ears!!!!

Hmmmmm.......

So I very delicately approached the subject of perhaps skipping the parade this year, due to the storm....... I got down to their level, looked them in the eyes and very gently said..

"honey....Beans, Jackster, listen, the weather is going to be really terrible for the parade today and it has been cancelled....... I'm sorry but we won't be able to go this year......"

I waited, ready for the storm. .....

"OK!" said Beans!! Unphased! Jackster was equally nonplussed.

"WAIT!!" I called out as they ran off to get on with playing or what ever else they thought they were going to do... "aren't you going to miss the parade? I thought you loved going? It's a tradition!!!!!!!......"

"Nah!!!" said Beans. "It's too cold and noisy. We only go because you tell us we have to!"

Oh. I guess it's just me who loves a parade.

It's funny what you go through and what you put others through because all the time you think it's what they want, and in the end it turns out to be what you wanted and sometimes, even worse, it turns out no body wanted it at all!!!

I suppose the lesson here is listen to your family, your children, and make sure that what you are hearing is what they are saying!!!

" .... Seventy six trombones led the big parade.....one hundred and four cornets close behind...."