Spot Light!

Yesrday was a big day for Tadpole! Not only did he deliver his first ever talk at church, but he was selected to be the lucky kid to help with "If You Chance To Meet A Frown".
If you didn't know, that is the best thing that can happen to a kid all week.

Here's how it went down. Bro. Larsen (our Primary Chorister) chose Tad's name randomly from a cup full of popcycle sticks. Tadpole was shocked beyond imagination because when you are 4 years old it feels like you never get picked to do anything fun in Primary. Bro. Larsen asked Tad to show his "sad face". This is what he got:
Let's just say, it was a crowd pleaser.
This song is pretty much an amusement ride because when you get to the part in the song that says, "quickly turn it up side down and smile that frown away" Bro. Larsen picks you up and flips you upside down.
There is no way you can keep frowning then!

Then it came time for Tad to deliver his sermon on making choices. We opted for the "interview style" talk where I ask questions that Tad answers for the wonder and amazement of the children. When I asked, "Can you make good choices Tadpole?" He became pensive and with the expression of deep thought said,
"I don't make good choices. Sometimes I just don't want to be good."
At least he has honesty down.

Will It Ever End?!!

Just when we thought it was all over, Kit caught the flu bug. Abizella has been attending her faithfully, and even put out a barf bowl just in case. We're just hoping that it doesn't spread to Jenny, Mindy Lee and Baby Duckling! Just in case, Abizella put in a call to Dr. Beebster.

Busted!

No worries.
He knows the "Clean-up" song from Barney.
He'll sing about 3 rounds of "k-nup, K-nup" while picking up about 2 pieces of the offending cereal. The rest is up to the blind 4 legged Hoover and yours truly.

Can't Wait For The Next Episode!

We're hoping to lure our favorite New Englanders for another dainty-crust-trimmed sandwich...

Another extravagant slice of raspberry chocolate cake...

Another stylish debutant ball...

And another
Downton Abbey marathon party
sure to make every kid in the joint fall over dead with boredom.

...well at least the kids who are in front of the TV.
The spell is not cast on the wild rascals upstairs.

The Great Puke Fest of 2012

This is what I'll be digging out over the weekend...

...although *I* am not the hero in this story.
All kudos go to Pops who has been at the forefront of Puke-Fest 2012.
I have cleverly hid at work all week.
Pops has lovingly held the barf bowl as 3 out of 4 of our little ones have repeatedly heaved beyond their stomach's capacity. He not only comforted the comfortless, but scoured contaminated surfaces and pumped load after load of laundry. We're still waiting for Superkid to fall. I'm sure Pops will be there when the happy moment arrives. He is the better parent when it comes to barfy situations. I am paralyzed at the site of virus spewing into the air. Instead of caring for the poor traumatized child, I keep a mental log of each chunk's trajectory so I can do a thorough job lysoling the place.
Let's just say it is probably best for everyone that I was out of the picture for this one.
So like I say, the least I can do is help dig out. Thanks for taking one for the team Pops!

LOVING! JANUARY! WEATHER!

Don't come over to our house. It is a disaster.
There was no way we were going to spend the day scrubbing toilets and washing dishes with temperatures in the 60s. I suspect you probably will be unwelcome at every other home in town as well, from the looks of it at the park.
Everyone neglected their Saturday chores for a little sun-time.

We just PLAYED

and PLAYED
and PLAYED.
Abz opted to stay home. She had new fancy dressy shoes.
Pops said that she nearly went crazy waiting for us to get home.

We couldn't let such a fanciness go to waste, and we didn't have any clean dishes left to eat with anyway, so we opted to eat out. Mexican. We must have been mad from this crazy warm January weather. That was the bad decision of the day. Seriously, its like we can't learn.
Leave Mexican food for the West.

But at least the purple shoes got their stage
(and I didn't have to cook!).

Happy New Year!

The week between Christmas and New Years will go down in my memory as one of the nicest, most relaxing weeks of my life. The icing on the cake was that our very best good friends from New Jersey came and stayed with us for the weekend. They had lots of Grandma ad Grandpa time on the docket, but there was still lots of time for clowning around with us too.
When it came to the big night, only one game would do, Angry Birds, analog style.
Isn't adorable how Tad lines up the Red Bird, Speed Bird and the Bomb Bird?
It was tough to decide if it was more fun to be the birds or the pigs.
The best part was listening to Tad hum the theme song during the action.
And of course there was more food. We had a change in menu this year. Usually we wait in the 4 hour long line at the local Chinese restaurant.
This year we went the Nacho Bar route!
After a "Back To The Future" marathon (with 'Lil Chief narrating the last episode, "Choo! Choo! Uh, Oh!" ), the kids started falling like flies...
Once again, only Superkid make it to the Zero hour.
2012! Here Come the Toads!