Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Kid Catastrophe Living Up to Her Name

Just when you think everything is going fine, BANG! Your daughter falls off the back of the couch, and almost goes out a window. I was thinking just moments before how my little daughter looked so grown up, and how she is becoming less clumsy and more agile (like her brother), and so I was letting her play up on the back of the couch with her brother.

Right after she fell, Kid Catastrophe started crying and Danger Boy immediately comes to his sister's rescue and pulls her up since her legs were hanging out the window. Score one for Danger Boy! I rush over (trying to remember to breathe! And not have a heart attack!) and expect to see BLOOD. I look over Kid Catasrophe and I see NOTHING. She's still crying, the entire bottom part of the window is busted out so I know she must have hit it hard enough with her legs to break it. I do eventually find a scrape (not bleeding) along one shin on her leg. Kid Catastrophe comes through another kid caused natural disaster with little/no damage!

You ever hear the quote "there's a separate god for children"? I think it might be from "How To Kill a Mockingbird". I don't think the quote means that there are several gods, just that God has a special place in his heart for our children and looks out for them especially. It seems like every parent I've talked to has a story where their children should have been seriously hurt, but managed to come out virtually unscathed.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Making Christmas

If there are Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween, I take full responsibility. My overflowing joy at the sight of all things Christmasy makes the store people do this, I'm sure of it. Tired Mom's super power must be making Christmas come earlier and earlier every year. This year, we got our first REAL TREE. It is AWESOME. I might be addicted to real trees, but we'll have to see how annoying the pine needles are by the end of the month.

As usual, Danger Boy & Kid Catastrophe were ecstatic to decorate the tree. They enjoyed looking at the naked tree for a day, but they were stoked when Paranoid Dad finally arrived home from work so we could start decorating.

Kid Catastrophe opened a box full of decorations and showed it to Paranoid Dad. She asked "what's in this box?" Paranoid Dad thought it was a funny question (since it seemed pretty obvious what was in the box) so he said, "that's where we keep the drugs!" Kid Catastrophe then walked over to where I was putting lights on the tree with Danger Boy and said, "this box is where we keep the drugs!". It was pretty funny. Paranoid Dad got the fake death glare as I said, "Daddy was just joking sweetie!"
Danger Boy kept trying to grab an impossible amount of the "glass ball" type ornaments and making Paranoid Dad go into Paranoid mode about how bad broken ornaments are, and how he does not even want to think about what would happen if certain events were to transpire involving lots of broken glass, flying elves, indoor tornadoes and other unlikely freak accidents ;)
One of my favorite moments! When PD picks up the kids and they all put the angel on the tree. I think this will be much harder next year when Super Spy might want to get on this angel action.
Stinkin cute kids!
Super Spy could not help much with tree decorating, so she mostly took turns watching from PD and TM's laps. Silly willy Christmas fun!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Danger Boy Turns WHAT? SEVEN?

Dun na na na, DINOSAUR, du na na na, DINOSAUR!
What every boy needs for his specifically requested DINOSAUR BIRTHDAY is a huge brontosaurus. Seriously, I thought everyone knew that? You too can make this wonderous (dare I even say SUPER?) party decoration with 3-4 hours, some tissue paper, flour paste, and a TON of cardboard. All of which we had on hand (except the tissue paper which cost only $1). Danger Boy of course loved it. What more could a Tired Mom ask for?

On a side note- who let Danger Boy become SEVEN years old? That's just crazy! Seven years old was when Tired Mom moved to our house (that Granny still lives in), we had a dog named Chibby (who tortured my 2-3 year old baby sister by nipping her heels), and my 2nd grade teacher was Mrs. Pokorny (pretty sure that's spelled incorrectly, but still, I remember the name). Anyway, rant over.


The cake did not come out quite so well, since Danger Boy insisted the dinosaur be a "rainbow dinosaur". It mostly just looks like the vague outline of a dinosaur instead. The chocolate chip spikes were a nice touch though, I must say.


And then, we were on to the presents. Surprisingly, What's a birthday without at least a few presents?

Trains! Danger Boy loved this train set. Tired Mom is always surprised by the wide range of toys the Super Kids will play with.

Danger Boy has never been given toy guns before. What were we thinking for this serious lapse? Every boy needs to learn the importance of some fake plastic semi-automatic firearms so he can dream of being a police officer, or a soldier, or James Bond.

And, of course, the obligatory, DINOSAUR!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Watch Out Nature, Here We Come!

Tired Mom and the Super Kids put on our walking hats, grabbed our Nature Walk Kit we ordered from the library, put on our walking back pack, and set out to the Watershed Nature Center to celebrate Veteran's Day.
Super Spy needed to be nursed before we left, so I took some pics of the kids hanging out in the car. Is this one of the cutest baby pics ever or what???
Tired Mom suited up with the baby sling, and off we went. (Danger Boy took this picture, can you believe it?)
Part of the nature walk kit included a big catcher, a pair of kid sized binoculaurs, magnifying glasses, and a ton of books. The books stayed in the car after Tired Mom had to go back to the parking lot TWICE for Kid Catastrophe to use the restroom. The idea of reading books about nature out in the woods sounded good, but fell to the inevitable cold hard truth that carrying a baby and a big plastic case with 13 books in it was going to be too tiring.
Every view on the nature trail looks just as cool as this. The whole place looks like something out of a travel brochure, and we enjoyed it immensely. The weather was perfect!
It was funny that the binoculars matched KC's hat. She looked like quiet the stylish little nature lover.
The kids found tons of things to climb on and play with on the many little side trails off the main path. Danger Boy thought this little creek was great fun. He "accidentally" got his feet wet a few times.
Super Spy was more interested in gnawing on Tired Mom's sunglasses than looking at nature, but she was good the whole 2 1/2 hours we were out, so no complaints here!

Yep, I made the boy take his turn with the Tinkerbell back pack!
Danger Boy found a giant leaf and wanted me to take a picture. He was pretty proud of it. This Tired Mom cannot think of a better way to spend a day off from school with her kids. Plus, we came home and read the books out of the kit. We snuck some learning in there too!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Super Candy Farm!

We attended the church Trunk or Treat party again this year. This time it was at a farm! Sadly, Paranoid Dad could not come because of a prior commitment. Tired Mom became extra tired with three kids to herself, but we still had tons of fun. So much for two active Super Kids to do on a farm! Running around kept them happy until we had the food.
Danger Boy dressed up as Spider Man with his Spider Dog, Wiley (who is actually a multi-colored stuffed elephant, but I guess since he was named after Grandma's dog, he had to be a dog?). Kid Catastrophe was a Fairy Princess riding a Unicorn Pegasus. Super Spy was a Jack O'Lantern, but I did not get a good picture of her since I was carrying her in a baby sling all night.
Then it was on to the CANDY! Which is half the fun of Halloween parties, really. This guy tried to give Danger Boy a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but DB politely said, "This one has peanuts!" Danger Boy always says, "Trunk or Treat, no peanuts please!" but this guy was not listening I guess. One lady told us how cute Danger Boy was the way he said "no peanuts please" with a big smile.
Last but not least, a hay ride! What fun! The 6 and under crowd got to go first, but Tired Mom opted to let the older kids ride alone (with several friendly dads to supervise). Danger Boy said the hay ride was the best part, but then he revised it to add that the Trunk or Treating was his favorite part as well.

More Halloween hijinks will be forthcoming!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Kid Catastophe's Apple Adventures

Tired Mom and Kid Catastrophe braved the far reaches of the Apple Farm in search of THE PERFECT APPLE! We actually found several. We had to dodge bees (Tired Mom's kryptonite) hold our noses at the stinky rotten apples, wind our way through treacherous fallen apples ready to trip us at every turn, duck under low branches (while also dodging fallen apples at the same time), and climb a slippery grass hill in our perilous search. Oh, but it was wonderful.


Kid Catastrophe was armed with her pink hat to keep the sun from burning us in our quest.

Ah, the sweet taste of success!!! We ate some of our perfect apples right there in the apple grove.
After our triumphant return from the apple groves, we enjoyed the rest of our time at the Apple Farm with various other adventurous things.

Such as feeding very slobbery animals...(yes, that's a camel in there)

Riding on a scary swing ride (well, scary for a four year old)
And riding back home on the bus. Which, was very tiring after a hard day in search of apples and adventure.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Super Spy's Happy Places


Super Spy is a very happy baby (Super Power-ULTRA HAPPINESS!!) but there are certain places where she seems especially happy. In the above picture she is on mommy's lap, and obviously very happy.

Daddy's lap as he listens to music and browses the net. "She's an 80's music girl," says daddy.

Her bouncer/walker thing gives her access to toys, and lets her sit upright to see the world better.
Her floor toy/baby jungle gym gives her access to toys she can turn herself to, and grab (and sometimes even put in her mouth, where everything is starting to go).

And one of her many favorite things to do in her walker is to watch the older kids play in the back room (while also looking at the ceiling fan in the back room too).
Such a happy baby with so many happy places, what more could a Tired Mom ask for?