A Tea Party

Every year, the Saturday before Mother's Day, our church hosts a Tea Party. In previous years it has been known as a Mother/Daughter Tea, but it is now known as the Ladies Tea. Mollee and I have been going to it together since she was 7 months old. It is a tradition for us and she looks forward to it each year. Here we are today:

I didn't have time to scan any old pictures, but here are two previous years that we attended the tea:
2003

2007

Field Day

Today was Field Day, but it actually turned into Gym Day. It was raining so they moved it to the gym. All 300+ students, grade 1-5 in the gym with the parents trying to find a place to watch on the sideline. Each class was divided into four teams: white, blue, green and yellow!They didn't get to do all the activities (such as the big races) because of the lack of space, but they did have fun:

Here are my athletes waiting on the sidelines for their turn:

Go Blue!!!

Go White!!!

Washing Machine Excitement

Should you really get that excited over a new washing machine?

When Jason and I got married, we inherited my Grandmother's washer and dryer that she had for 15+ years. It worked fine for us, but when we sold our previous house, it was part of the contract to leave it. When we moved into our new home I was excited to purchase a new washer and dryer, but Jason sent me on that task by myself and, being a bit stingy, I just got something cheap. It has been fine, but no bells and whistles. Since October (only 4 years old), it has leaked during the draining process. Thankfully, our laundry area is in the garage so it just drains out under the truck. Jason has taken it apart a few times to try to fix the problem, but couldn't figure out what was wrong. Again, I'm fine with it draining into the garage because I didn't want to spend money on something new.

A friend of my younger sister is getting married and she and her fiance both had a washer/dryer set. She had already given the dryer to someone else in need, but was looking for someone to take the extra washer. My sweet sister thought of us. I wasn't sure what to expect. Coming from a single person, would it be too small? At least it wouldn't leak, right? Well, Jason picked it up last night and I was so excited. The protective covering hasn't even been taken off yet and it has so many options!!!!

Before:

After:

The Brown Dictionary

OK, so I was thinking the other day, if something were to happen to Jason and I, how would anyone know what my kids are asking for? Strange question, I know. Over the years, different items have adopted different names for various reasons in our household. Let me give you an example: The first time I bought Life cereal, Curious George was on the box. Now, it is known as Monkey Cereal. To be honest with you, I'm not sure the kids even know the real name. Here is our dictionary: (just in case)


Papa's Cereal = Cheerios
White on Top = Frosted Mini Wheats
Daddy's Sauce = Ranch Dressing
Daddy's Cheese = Parmesan Cheese
Go Bar = Granola Bar
Snacks = Fruit Gummy Snacks
Bears = Teddy Grahams
Pops Candy = Smarties
Circle Crackers = Ritz
Crackers in the Yellow Box = Wheat Thins
Spicy Chips = Salt and Vinegar Lays
Triangle Chips = Doritos
Moon Chips = Pringles

For Fast Food:

Papa's Chicken = KFC Mall Chicken = Chick - fil - A Pizza with the funny guy = Little Caesars or Pizza that comes to the house = Pizza Hut or fake Pizza = Frozen Pizzas The Breakfast Place = Hardees Breakfast Chicken = hashbrown rounds (if it is fried and you dip it into ketchup it must be chicken, right?)

I like to treat the kids with chicken and fries when we have run a lot of errands and they have been sooooo good. Well, now (maybe we've gone too much) everytime we go through any drive thru (even if it is the bank), Mac yells "Fries, Please" as soon as we drive off.

Others, not in the Food Department:

Muddy Puddy = Silly Putty
Moo Moo = Mollee (that nickname started on her first day)

And my favorite:

Punch Bug = Volkswagen Beetle
The kids love to play this game in the car, although they don't punch as I remember we did when I was a kid. The kids are always yelling PUNCH BUG YELLOW (or whatever color it is). Now Mac randomly yells "Pun Buck Elmo" randomly on car rides - it brings a smile to my face everytime!

Competition

Mollee lost all her teeth throughout Kindergarten and First Grade. Now the boys are very excited to start losing teeth. Tavis (age 7 and about to finish up First Grade) has lost only two teeth. Yesterday morning Daegan (age 6) lost his second tooth. It was a big discussion at the dinner table last night that they were tied, etc.
The kids go to bed at 8:00 (or a little earlier). Tavis is usually the first one asleep, while the other two younger ones are goofing off and getting into trouble. At 8:30 last night, Tavis came up to our room with a tooth in his hand. He said it was wiggling a little and he just got it to come out, but now he was ahead of Daegan. UGH! I wasn't even aware that it was loose????

Monday Morning Blog

It seems that the blogs I follow (see sidebar) always have a new blog entry on Monday morning. Maybe that is because the weekend is too busy to blog and then you have a lot to tell? So.....
My weekend was good. We had some new friends over Friday night, that I somehow didn't get a picture of - Sorry Pearce family! Saturday I went to Wal-Mart and did a massive grocery shopping (Jason had work this week=$$) in the pouring rain - that was fun :/ Saturday afternoon I went and got a new purse for me and Mollee at a friends monogramming Open House. Sometimes it is fun to have at least one girl! I came home and watched the NASCAR race which was a really great race. My favorite driver won (Kyle Busch), but it was mixed emotions because the guy I really want to beat in the fantasy league had picked him and I didn't want him to get the points for Busch's win. UGH! Busch did win (yeah!), but I had a terrible week in the Fantasy League (boo!). Sunday we celebrated my sister, Ruth's, birthday at Mom and Dad's.
This morning, as the kids were getting ready for school, we were looking at the May calendar and it is hard to believe the kids only have 18 days left of school. With a lot of 'exciting' things coming up I know it will fly by - Field Day, Zoo Day, 2nd Grade Chorus Concert, Insect Project (Mollee has to catch 10 insects and display them, sounds fun - doesn't it?), etc. Can you believe summer is almost here??? Daegan is looking forward to summer because it is one step closer to kindergarten. I think he has a strange idea that the first day of summer we will go school supply shopping - he can't wait to get to pick out a new lunchbox. I remember my kindergarten lunchbox, it was Strawberry Shortcake. What is the earliest lunchbox you remember?

blah...blah...blah

When Daegan was about 1 1/2 he started talking and I don't think he has taken a breathe since. I'm a little worried for his kindergarten teacher next year. He just talks and talks and talks. I actually am a little amazed by it sometimes (Jason is not amused). When Mollee was little she had a lot of cute phrases and I always said I should write them down, then Daegan came along and is always saying things that crack me up. I said the same thing about writing things down, but it never happened. Now I have 'blog world', maybe I'll do better.

Here are two things he said today that made me smile:

We were discussing college and if you had to go or not, how old you were when you went, did you have to live away from home, etc. Then, after much pondering, Daegan declared that he wanted to go to college and he wanted to study to be a Daddy.

Every night at bedtime I, jokinly (cough, cough) say, "And now it is time for my favorite time of the day - bedtime!" The kids don't always think it is too funny, but tonight before I could say anything, Daegan said, "And now it is time for my worst favorite time of the day!"

What a nut!