John Is Four

First, for a Halloween update.

I totally caved.

On Sunday afternoon I was getting ready to make cupcakes for John's birthday when I realized I was out of eggs. So, kind of an ox in the mire situation I decided, and I was off to the the grocery store...just to get eggs. But there was just something about the late afternoon ambience of shoppers at the store on Halloween that got to me. Before I knew it, I was loading eight large bags of candy into the cart along with my eggs. (I know, why did I get a cart if I was really just getting eggs?) Anyway, when I got home three boys were outside on the porch,sadly watching all the neighbors getting ready for Halloween. When they saw all the candy in the bags, they said to me, "Mom, what does this mean?" To which I replied happily, "WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS?" To be there, you would have thought those kids won the lottery. Mom was actually going to let them go trick-or-treating on Sunday?!? And trick or treat they did...up and down the street, around the block, even over the train tracks to the Robers. It was excellent. I was the most popular mom in the house...at least for the evening. And it felt good...at least for the evening.

The late night celebrations kind of exhausted our birthday boy. We had to wake him up at 9:00 a.m. so that he'd have time to get dressed before his friends arrived for his party. As you can see, John did not inheirit the love of early morning birthday celebrations from the Earnest family. But, bedhed and all, he gave it his best shot and opened up every single present.



But then, it was time to get ready to party...four year old style.



We took our promised trip to the auto junkyard, saw some cars moved around by forklift, saw an airbag explode, and John even got to help get this car down off the tow truck. Pretty much a dream come true for our four year old.





We finished up with lunch at the pumpkin patch, some bounce house fun, cupcakes and presents. By 11:30 a.m., we were all pretty much worn out, and in need of an afternoon break.

But by 4:30, we were ready to party again. This time with dinner at Firestone. Apparently when you're four you think it's fun to make silly faces when your mom is trying to take your picture. I didn't mind though...I was just glad we got to go to Friestone instead of CPK for a birthday dinner. Not that I don't love CPK, but with all the birthdays we have around here, even I can get tired of hawaain pizzas and chicken waldorf salads.



We finished off the night with cake and Coldstone. Can you believe we'd never done this before? We sat on the patio of our store, sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candles, and then everyone got to choose whatever kind of ice cream they wanted to go with their chocolate cake. Mint Chocolate Chip, check. Vanilla with gummy bears, check. Even pumpkin ice cream. We had it all.


And today, we are all totally exhausted. But that's okay, because in case you don't already know, today is TOY STORY Tuesday. And John and Jack and I are holed up in my room watching our first blue-ray on my fifty inch plasma t.v. Yes, I should be making bow ties for my sister's wedding...or doing any other of the million things I need to do before we leave on Friday, but, I find lying on my bed with my four year old and watching Woody and Buzz Lightyear save the day yet again is pretty much just bliss for me right now. Happy Toy Story Tuesday to you all...I hope you have a four-year old around to watch it with you...it's the best way to do it!

Halloween Bahumbug?

Can I just say right now how happy I am that Halloween is on Sunday? That I have a legitimate excuse to turn off all the lights on Sunday night and not pass out candy to strangers? I guess I've got a little case of Halloween Ba-humbug (if such a thing exists), and now that Trunk-or-Treat is behind us, I'm ready to put away all things Halloween and just pretend it's already over. Unfortunately, my children don't agree so much with me on this subject. At any rate, here's the Trunk-Or-Treat run down:

Maggie as SuperGirl.
She came home from school yesterday and said, "mom, remember I want to wear blue eye shadow and glitter in my hair." This was a complete shocker to me. She's NEVER asked to wear makeup or have her hair done up fancy. I've always thought it was kind of funny that my one girl is not very "girly" when it comes to stuff like that. But, after a quick run to the drug store, we were able to accomodate the make-up and glitter request. I'm not totally comfortable with this costume. It's a little too grown-up for me...which I didn't expect from Maggie. It didn't seem that way when she tried it on earlier this week, but between the lipstick and the hip-jutting pose she struck for the camera, I'm starting to get a bit nervous. When did this happen?


Anyway, on to an easier topic...Star Wars.

Here's Charlie as a Luke Skywalker...specifically, Luke Skywalker on the Planet Bespin, just like in number four. That despcription probably means more to some of you than others. As you can see, he took the role very seriously...

As did his older brother. That's Harry behind the mask there. We took some time to add some extras to the standard costume...he was pretty pleased with himself.


And this little boy is starting to look very grown up. Three weeks ago when he asked to be a UPS man, I never thought he'd actually stick with it for the big night. But he did. So, even though you've seen it before, here's John the UPS man.


Joe IV is gone this week at Outdoor school. This kind of snuck up on me...he left Tuesday morning and won't be back until Friday afternoon. I ran around all day Monday getting physically ready for him to be gone, (buying bug spray and rain ponchos, and all the things you need to go to outdoor school) that I kind of didn't have time to get ready emotionally for him to go. Which was probably a good thing. By the time I realized what happened, he was already gone...so he was spared of having a big blubbering mother at the drop off.

To demonstrate how really bahumbug I'm feeling about Halloween, here's a little confession... I didn't even really dress Jack up for Trunk or Treat. At the last minute, I put the Old Navy monkey costume top (which is really just like a big sweatshirt) on over his regular clothes, but he had it off by the time we made it too the church. I know, are you so shocked? Me too...but just a little bit.

Really, it's not that I don't like Halloween. Honestly, I usually like the holiday. It's just that this year, we have a couple of REALLY big things to look forward to after Halloween...like my sister's wedding in Arizona in 10 days, and Johns fourth birthday (which will involve a trip to the car crushing yard) on the first of November. I think we're just so excited about getting ready for these two things that we don't have an extra energy to extend towards Halloween.

So stay tuned...I'm sure you can't wait to see pictures of six little boys visiting an auto junk yard....

From Baby To Boy

Went to Oregon last week....five childless days....a lovely day at the temple...didn't take the camera...returned to find my baby not a baby anymore....



And yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet...but when you're only one and can put your own shoes on, nobody complains...

Only A Matter Of Time

Really, you could have seen this one coming from a long way off...



Brachs has some serious issues with quality control...these are all the "unacceptable" ones. They are still, however, and unfortanately for my diet, very acceptable for eating.



Now, if it would just stop being 106 deegrees at my house, we might actually start to feel like Fall!

I Heart Technology

Can I just say how much I love technology?



Because today, instead of cutting and pasting in the literal sense, I just clicked a few buttons and ordered this poster for Charlie's "ME" board at school tomorrow!

A trip to Costco in the morning and $8.99, and I am done!

Not So Regularly Scheduled Programming

We now take a break from our Regularly Scheduled Programming to bring you....

The Hunger Games....

According to my Kindle, I'm 66% of the way through book number two. Which means, (if my calculations are correct) I'll be back to my regular life by sometime tomorrow evening.


I know I'm late jumping on this bandwagon, but is it just me or do these books feel like a teenage version of the Ayn Rand books I read in college? Except that I read those when I was a teenager....so I might have to go back and read those very "adult" books again now that I'm so much more adult. :)

I did take an ever-so-tiny break to whip up this little creation....and then spent my evening clearing out all the "packages" that had to be delivered. Oh well...as UPS men go, this one's pretty cute.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like.....

Birthday Season!
That's right, these next six months are when we celebrate all six of our childrens' birthdays. I know, super smart parents are we! So, what does birthday season mean at our house? Lots of cake mixes, lots of easy frosting cans, plenty of sprinkles, and even more candles. It's the time of year when the birthday banner goes up and pretty much stays up...even through the christmas holiday.







So already this month we celebrtated Charlie's sixth birthday. He's officially celbrated HALF of his birthdays in the Super Mario Brothers style. I was hoping this year we'd cycle back around to Star Wars or Indianna Jones, but no, we were still stuck squarely in Mario World. We counted his t-shirts. He has 15 Mario T-shirts, 12 Star Wars T-shirts, and 5 of Indiana Jones. I used to take real issue with message t-shirts for kids...as in...I didn't like them. Somewhere along the way, my viewpoint on this issue changed....I don't know why...something about the complete and utter joy you see on a kid's face when they put on a t-shirt that so completely portrays their current passion. At some point, (as we all know from Stacy and Clinton) message tees are not appropriate for adults. So I say to all you six year olds out there, "live it up!". And sometimes I wonder what message would be on a shirt I would wear....something like "I love to sew!" or "I have six kids and they're driving me crazy today!" It might make for a more interesting world sometimes.




Four days later we celebrated my birthday....complete with cupcakes made COMPLETELY by Maggie and a new Kindle for me (Which was backordered and actually just came today...so I'll let you know how that one goes)



And finally, we here in California celebrated Grandpa Joe's birthday with a traditional CPK dinner. I thought this picture was funny....you could see all the kids but barely half the adults. Just a little glimpse of what my family looks like when we go out to eat at somewhere other than McDonalds or Taco Bell. Closely contained chaos is what I like to call it.



So, one kid birthday down, only 5 more to go! Plus Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas...oh...and my sister getting married in November. We're gearing up and getting ready....it should be a bumpy but celebrated ride!