A Great (Free!) Game For Kids

For most of you, I'll bet this idea will be more of a reminder than a new tip. Did you play this game as a kid? We sure did, and I loved it! The name of the game? "Grocery Store" (I know, I'm so creative). It's a great game for days when it's too hot, smoky, cold, rainy, etc. outside.

The general idea goes like this:

1. Grab "groceries" out of your pantry and encourage the kids to set up the living room/play room like a grocery store. Remind them that they'll need a place to pay for and bag the groceries as well.

(the canned and boxed foods isle)

(the produce section)

2. Encourage the kids to assign roles or jobs and then rotate after a bit so everyone gets a chance to be the checker, the shelf organizer, the shopper, and "the baby" (my kids' favorite role).

In this picture, Ben is the guy working the store. He met the girls at the "door", invited them in to shop, and then gave them a tour so they knew where to find what they needed (dang...can I shop at a store like that?!). The girls did their shopping, and then Ben bagged the groceries and they exchanged pretend money.



3. Some great ways to make this game age appropriate for older kids:
- Have the kids write out shopping lists (maybe even based on a particular meal or recipe)
- Put price tags on the "groceries"
- Teach them to stay within a budget
- Use real money to "buy" and make appropriate change (after doing the adding, of course).
- It might also be a good time to teach about sales tax...what is it, how much is it, and sales tax is used for (you know... senator parties, fancy airplanes, important business meetings at the local pub, etc.)

4. My only other suggestion when playing this game, is for the parents to stay out of the way as much as possible! I made some general suggestions, "Maybe you'd like to....", and they were off to the races! I didn't interfere when Ben said a zucchini was a "gazillion" dollars, and I didn't offer my advice when they were trying to figure out if it was appropriate to put canned stuff next to boxed stuff. Just let their imaginations run wild and have fun watching!

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There Goes My Heart...

...Driving down the road in a big yellow school bus! Today was the first day of school for my "big kids". It was a flurry of excitement and nerves and joy and a bit of fear. But it was good.

We had a wonderful time getting all gussied up for the big day. Clara with her new haircut, and Ben with his beloved new "tie shoes" :) Here, I'll let you look at some pictures while I go wipe my eyes and blow my nose...




Headed out to wait for the bus, which (thankfully) stops right in front our our house.


Here are the kindergartners. Did I mention that when I brought Clara in for her checkup last week the doctor estimated her at 120% in height and weight? She's a beauty...


I'm so very thankful that my kids have such wonderful friends. It gives me amazing peace to know that they're not alone out there in the big world. Without me. Their Mommy. The one who gave birth to them and has cared for them every day of their little lives. Who loves them more than anyone else in the world does, has, or ever will.



Oh! The bus is here! I meant to get a shot of Ben getting on too, but he was too quick for me. Look at my baby girl on that big bus!



My little ones were pretty interested in all the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the bus. And when it actually pulled up in all it's loud, diesel spewing glory and they watched their big brother and sister climb on? Well, it must have been a sight to behold for them!

Don't get any ideas, little ones. You're stuck with me for a while longer. Maybe I'll even home-school you. Or...not.



Yes, I am that mommy. That mommy who actually climbed ON the bus with the kids so I could get pictures. I figure I'd better do it now before the kids are too embarrassed by me. They're still hugging and kissing me in public...I'm hoping it lasts through this school year at least.

But the little love note I snuck in Ben's lunch box along with a surprise cookie? Hubby tells me that'll probably get my little Ben a beating from his buddies. I hope not...

(By the way, this is Ben waving...not him flipping me the bird!)

After we got them on the bus, we piled in the car and hustled on over to the school so we could be there to help them find their classes and get settled in. Here they are coming off the bus at school:

We got them all settled into their classrooms (Ben actually has a desk...a DESK!), and then we were off. Ben wanted me to stay for the whole day (awww, he loves me), but I knew I had to leave so he could spread his wings a little bit.

That, and the teacher was dragging me out of the classroom while I screamed "BEENNNN! I LOOOVE YOU! BE STRONG FOR MOMMY! BE A BIG BOY! I'LL MIIISSS YOU!"

Not really, but wouldn't that be funny? In sort of a sick, overbearing, my mom is a lunatic kind of way?

Oh boy, I sure hope I don't mess my kids up for good.


And here's my little Clara in her class. Oh, that girl. She's spunky and feisty and wild and she drives me absolutely nuts. But boy oh boy, do I ever love her.



So here I am...suddenly down to two kiddos at home with me (for half the day anyway). Hubby mentioned that maybe we should find a part time pre-preschool for little Sammy so she's not so bored without her sister and brother. Not a chance though. I'm not giving away this time with her for nothin'!

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that their pre-school years go by too quickly as it is. Before I know it, we'll be doing college graduations and weddings. But that won't be so bad, since then it will be time for them to move into that nice house across the street from us.

Right?...

Desperation. And Clean Baseboards.

"Mawwwm, I'm boooored! Can I go see if Johnny can play?"
"No, it's time to play at home now. I'd like to to play with your sisters for a bit."
"Why can't I see if Johnny can play?"
"Because I want you to include your sisters."
"But why can't I go to Johnny's?"
"Benjamin, you can choose: play with your sisters, or scrub the baseboards for me."
"Arg!"

Talk about a win-win. About 5 minutes after giving him his ultimatum, Ben came up with a game that involved his sisters AND cleaning the baseboards. I now have 3 busy, happy kids...and the cleanest baseboards in the west! Gotta love that :)

Vacation Mishaps, Lessons, and Beauty

Lesson #1 also goes with mishap #1: Remove thumb from path of very sharp knife before slicing into watermelon or you will have to live with a finger that looks like this and not go in the water for 4 days:

I thought for SURE I'd need stitches. I've never cut myself quite like that before. Turns out, it comes in handy for a Daddy to also have a nursing background :)

Here's some beauty for you. Well, it's beauty to me anyway. My folks' cottage neighbors were probably taking pity on my parents and their 'challenged' daughter who was staring at tree bark for so long!

Thomas learned something new during our vacation...he started pulling up (as long as he can find something short enough to pull up on). The way he stands cracks me up:

This also cracked me up...here we went all the way to Wisconsin for vacation, and I wind up peeling potatoes from my great state of Idaho. The joke around here is that they ship all the good Idaho potatoes out of state - proof!



Grandma and Papa bought sweet little kid-sized Adirondack chairs for the grand kids. They come a plain, unfinished wood. I painted Sammy's this trip:


She loved it :)


One not so fun thing about vacation is when the baby decides to wake at 5:30 AM every single morning. But I guess if he hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten this sunrise shot of the lake:

Little turd. Good thing he's so dang cute, or I might have to send him back ;)


One of the kids' favorite things to do is to "drive" the boat with Papa. They get to steer, and most importantly, honk the horn. Even Thomas got in on the action this trip:

Here I am with 3 of my kiddos waiting for some firecrackers to go flying...I mean staying safely and legally on the ground. Sammy would have been in the picture too, but I'm pretty sure she was hiding under a bed when she heard someone say "fireworks". She says they're "too caaareeey!"

Another favorite activity is dropping anchor in the middle of the lake and swimming. Sammy was so brave, she got right in with me! I thought for sure it would be "too carey" for her.


Mama's little sweet pea. Man I love this little girl.

Here's another vacation lesson for you: sleep with mosquito spray on. Never mind the supposed dangers of DEET. If you don't do it, your legs might look like Clara's did when she woke up. I count 16 on the back of her legs...and she had them to match on the front of her legs, her arms, and her face too. I knew she was sweet, but DANG!


One more lesson (and mishap): when you ask your 5 year old if she has sunscreen on, don't believe her when she says "Yes". I'm sure all the sunscreen applications just ran together in a blur in her mind...I don't think she intentionally lied. But she sure looked like a lobster after spending the day doing this with no sunscreen on! I felt terrible :(

Have you ever looked at a dragonfly?

I mean, really looked? Beautiful. And a little creepy in a buggy/alieny/don't land on me kind of way. But mostly beautiful.

That's it for today. I'm not on vacation anymore...housework calls :)

Best Parenting Tip Ever!

Today is Wednesday. I usually participate in Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer, but not this week.

As you probably know, we're in Wisconsin. Hopefully, we're sitting by the water on a sweltering day, sipping lemonade and dipping our toes in the lake. Maybe catching a fish or two. Not really missing the computer at all (okay, maybe a little). And hopefully we're not watching flood waters rise or a tornado coming our way. It can go either way in the great state of Wisconsin!

Even though I'm not participating in WFMW, I thought today would be a good day to tell you about the BEST parenting advice I ever got. It's as simple as this :

Some time before you need your kids to shift gears (i.e. stop playing and pick up, turn off the TV, say goodbye to their friend, get ready for bed, etc.) say "Hey kids, we're going to XYZ in five minutes, okay?" And then make sure they heard you by asking them to look you in the eyes and respond "Okay, Mommy."

The kids file it away in the back of their brains that the clock's ticking, and that they're going to do something different soon. That way, when you say "Okay! Time to XYZ!", they are MUCH less likely to have a meltdown than if you just spring it on them and expect them to cooperate immediately.

It's to the point now, where all we have to do in our house is say "Five minutes!", or get their attention and hold up five fingers (comes in handy when they're across the room or at the very top of the play land tunnel at McDonald's).

Give it a try...it works for me! (And it worked ON me too - this advice was from my parents) :)

P.S. It doesn't have to be precisely 5 minutes from the time you want to shift gears. It can be one minute...it can be 30 minutes. And BTW, this tip works on 2 year olds and 6 year olds alike (and probably older, I just don't have experience there yet)

And Who Says Being A Mom Isn't Exciting?

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm not sure why this story came to my mind recently, but I thought I'd share it with you...

This happened before I was blogging, or you can be sure I would have told it right away! It's one of those "I can't believe that just happened" kind of things.

Thomas was about 2 months old, so it was November last year. I took the kids to the health department for their flu vaccinations because I wanted to do the "flu mist" instead of the shot, and our doc's office only did the shot. Normally, taking four children ages 2 months, 2 years, 4 years, and 5 years old would definitely be something I'd do WITH my hubby. I don't remember why he couldn't be there that day...and I have no idea what I was thinking doing it by myself.

Sometimes I like to think of myself as Super Mom. "Hey, these are my children, there's no reason I can't take care of them all by my Super Mom self!" These episodes of extreme confidence and nerve are usually quickly followed by me throwing myself on my bed and crying until my eyes puff up for the next two days. Anyhoo...

So we were all in the waiting room, patiently waiting our turn. They had a fun little play center there for the kids, and Thomas was being his sleepy little 2 month old self. Life was easy. It was easy for 5 minutes at least. And then Sammy got that look on her face. You know the look...the look that is evidence that I will be changing an unpleasant diaper sometime in the very near future.

I wanted my few moments of peace to last a bit longer, so I looked away and pretended that I didn't see THE FACE. Maybe if I could just ignore her, we could get out of here and home before I actually had to change her. Or maybe it would just go away...maybe it was a false alarm? Hey, a mom can hope.

But "the face" moment was soon followed by my oldest child using his favorite word, "Oh, VOMITROTIOUS. Mo-ooom...you have to change Sammy NOW!"

I wasn't about to leave my kids in the waiting room while I changed a diaper, so I dragged myself and all 4 kids into the bathroom with me. Luckily, the bathroom was roughly the size of a postage stamp, so we fit just fine.

I started to dig through the diaper bag for the necessary stuff...changing pad, check...wipes, check...diaper...diaper...diaper...please Lord, a size 6 diaper...no that's a size 2...diaper...diaper?! DIAPER?! No diaper for Sammy. Only about 15 size two diapers.

Okay, this calls for some creativity. The poor child stunk to high heaven, so she had to be changed. It could not wait until we got home. My plan was to take of the diaper, shake off the smelly lump in her diaper, clean her and the diaper to the best of my ability, and then strap the diaper back on her until we got home and I could do it properly.

So I got her up on the changing table, got the pants off, got the diaper off...and uh-oh. There's no lump. There will be no shaking this gooey mess into the toilet and getting on with life. The diaper was a total loss, and oh so smelly.

It was really helpful when Ben, discovering the amazing echo resulting in screeching "VOMITROTIOUS!" at the top of his lungs, decided to do so repeatedly. My ears still ring.

Got Ben quieted down.
Got the offensive diaper sealed in a garbage bag and thrown away.
Decided to squeeze Sammy's size 6 hiney into a size 2 diaper.... squeeze.... squirm... grunt... groan...sweat...whimper. It's no use. Ain't gonna happen.

WHAT am I going to do?! I certainly wasn't going to let her go without a diaper. She hadn't even begun potty training, and after the diaper I just threw out - there was no way I was going to risk one of those without a diaper in place!

And...have I told you that I have a degree in engineering? I'm pretty sure that my superior problem solving and design skills were all meant for that very moment in time. Never mind the high tech world...it's all about the poopy diapers.

So, I looked at my sweet and ever-helpful Clara (then 4), and said, "Clara, sweetie, let me have your undies."

"My undies?"

"Yes, your undies."

"But why?"

"I need them for Sammy."

"But...no! They're my princess undies!"

"Clara, I really need them."

"But what about me? What will I wear?"

"You'll wear your pants. With no undies."

"I will?!?"

By this time, Ben was giggling hysterically in the background.

"Ben, would you like to donate your undies here?"

Instant...and I mean INSTANT silence from the boy.

So Clara, bless her little heart, took off her precious princess undies and handed them over. I put them on Sammy, stuffed a size 2 diaper in there like a giant, ill fitting maxi pad...and we were off!

We got out of the bathroom in just enough time for them to call our name, and no one was wise to what was going on... My Sammy with a maxi pad, and my Clara going commando.

When we finally got back to the office for the immunizations, the nurse was concerned that they'd never had the Flu Mist version before, especially with Sammy being so young. She wanted to give her, and maybe Clara too the shot instead of the Flu Mist.

"All we'll have to do is pull their pants down a bit, and poke them in the thigh."

"Um, no. We will be doing the Flu Mist. There will be no pulling down of pants and no shots. Really...I think it's in everyone's best interest."

I was ready to fight to the death. Ben had started giggling into his hand again...but a swift look out of the corner of my eye let him know that his life was on the line, and he quieted again.

Everyone got the Flu Mist that day.

We finally got home, got Samantha into a proper diaper, got Clara a clean pair of undies...and Super Mom had a good laugh...and then a cry...and then another laugh.

Next time Daddy's coming with us. Maybe he can donate HIS undies...

Our Little Graduate

Well, our eldest child has graduated...from kindergarten.

At first, it might not seem like a very big deal to you. It didn't to me. I figured I'd go, listen to a few cute songs, watch him get his special paper, have a quick snack, and head home. That's not exactly what happened.

It went more like: go, watch my baby walk in the room with a proud and grown-up look on his face, listen to a few songs that are specifically designed to rip a mommy's heart out of her chest and leave her gasping for breath, wipe some tears, watch him get his special paper, realize that he'll be in school ALL DAY next year, watch his tiny little life flash before my eyes, realize just how quickly time is passing, realize that he's 6 years old...a full THIRD of his way to 18 and out of my house, have a quick snack, head home, have a good cry.

How can my mama heart both swell with pride, love, and joy...and break all in the same day?

Here are some pictures from Benjamin's big day:

(I see you, baby boy)

(Ben with is teacher)

A Little Cousin Love

Okay, I just realized how wrong that title sounds...but I'm going to leave it because it keeps making me giggle. Some days you just have to put up with me!

We had some fun company visiting us recently...meet my kids' cousin, Sydney. Isn't she beautiful?! Look that those big blue eyes. And yes, those curls are her natural curls. I should add that I'm a bit embarrassed that I'm envious of a 2 year old's hair!



Here she is again in all her cutie-pie glory. Wouldn't you just love to pinch those cheeks?!



Here's Sydney's mom reading a Dora book to the girls. Sammy is pretty pleased with herself :)



You can see now where little Sydney gets her beautiful curls...



Here are my girls with their beloved cousin. How cute, eh? I have a question though...what makes cheeks red? My kids have the rosiest cheeks I've ever seen. Seriously...anyone know what causes this?




And then this handsome fellow happened by, so we dragged him into the picture too. My oh my. I don't know if it's because he looks like his daddy, or because he's my first born...but that young man steals my heart at least 57 times per day!


I have some more fun cousin pictures to share...stay tuned!

A Quick Tip: Getting Picky Kids To Eat

(Just look at my tiny little 2 year old Clara!! She is such a doll :) She was also notorious for taking a bite of food, and immediately spitting it back onto her plate. Little stinker!)

My bloggy friend, Amanda at The Stumbling Christian, does a "Mommy Tip Tuesday" carnival...I thought I'd join in this week with one of my mommy tips.

This one is for all you parents who have a hard time getting your picky eater to do the impossible: put food in their mouth, chew, swallow, repeat.

I have two words (or should it be one??): TOOTH PICK.

This tip is especially useful for 2-3 year olds. I cut their food into bite sized pieces, put a little dollop of "dipping sauce" (we use lots of ketchup, ranch, and pizza sauce around here), and serve it up with a toothpick. The kids have such fun poking the food with their new utensil and choosing which sauce to use, their food is gone before they realize that they actually ATE FOOD :) Give it a try!

UPDATE: This post has been modified for submission to Works For Me Wednesday.

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My Boy's Very First AutoCAD Drawing

This is a picture of my hubby's brother and my two big kids. Uncle Nick is showing them how he draws things using Auto CAD (a computer-aided drafting program). Ben is absolutely enthralled! That boy of mine is always trying to figure out how things work, how to make things work better, and how to draw all of his ideas so he can tell us about them. I'm pretty sure that if there are water-powered cars in our future, my son will be the one who invents them, so this is right up his alley.

Let me tell ya...I can't wait to see what God has planned for my Benjamin's future! The brain that kid has...man...it's going to be something amazing! Or maybe he's just doomed to geekdom since his dad and I both have engineering degrees. I'll just choose to go with the super smart thing ;)

Ben worked hard, and with his Uncle Nick's help, he made his very first CAD drawing...of his Mama! (((BIG, PROUD, GLOWING SMILE)))!! He said that he tried to make a smile, but couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe he'll get it figured out along with how to draw a perfect hour-glass figure ;)



So, if it is 10 years from when I wrote this post, and you are looking at this post, and you are a teenaged girl who is interested in my son...you just remember, young lady, I was this boy's first love! So there! And by the way, I've worked hard to raise a gentleman who loves and lives for the Lord...so don't you mess it up! Be a lady. And one more thing...if you want to marry him and have 12 of his babies, that's great. But know this: you'll be living across the street from me until I'm dead...you'll have a built in babysitter, and I'll get to see my baby on a daily basis. If you want to date my Ben, then you'd better be OK with all of that.

Meeting Cousin Milo

Isn't Milo a great name? I love it.


Cousin Milo and his parents (Hubby's brother and his wife) are here for a visit. They drove all the way up from California, and are staying with us for a few days. We're loving it! I love the change of pace during the day - not quite so lonely and boring. The kids love getting to know their little cousin.


Milo is about a month older than our Thomas. It's so fun to watch them together:

Hey, what's going on here? I thought I was the king of this carpet!?

He's about my size...where did he come from? And what does he think he's doing with my toy?

Mom? Dad? Can someone please explain this to me?

Hey- Thomas isn't looking - I think I'll just reach over here and...

Hey! That's mine! What do you think you're doing?

Oh- Busted!

Two can play that game, buddy. Let's see how you like it. No? OK then, let's just keep our hands to ourselves. By the way...why does MY mommy keep calling you 'cutie'?

We have this all worked out - we're good. But mom...if you don't stop loving on this new dude, we're going to have a problem.

Don't worry, baby boy, you're still Mama's main squeeze.

Quotes From Today (So Far)

Kids are just so quotable. Here are a few of my favorites from today:

"Yaya?!?" (every one of my speaking children)

"Move Mommy! I want to snuggle with Daddy" (Clara)

"Hey Mom! Thomas puked! On Daddy's slipper!" (Ben)

"Fwipper?! Daddy's fwipper WET!" (Sammy...her "s" is pronounced with a "fw" sound)

"That Daddy could be home every day." (Ben, when asked what he wanted to write on his 'star of the week' poster for his 'one wish')

We Told Her Brett Favre Retired...

But she just doesn't seem to care!

The Language Of Love

As you know, my Mom is in town for a visit this week. She's been working hard at spoiling all of us. I got to sneak back to bed yesterday morning after a really rough night with Thomas. And Samantha has her tongue-tied with all the books they've been reading...no less than 20 just yesterday! And the big kids...coloring, reading, swing pushing, walking, etc. And Thomas. Well, that kid just can hardly tolerate being put down, and he weighs almost 18 pounds...quite the little back-breaker, he is. I'm not even going to talk about the dishes and shopping and laundry and vacuuming she's been doing. Yes...I make her earn her keep when she visits ;)

I'm afraid mom will never come back if the work load doesn't lighten up a bit!

I was tucking my kids into bed last night, and I was asking them about their day. I always ask, "Did you have a nice day?", "What was your favorite part?", and "What was your least favorite part?" Benjamin took me by surprise with his answers last night.

Yes, he had a good day.

And his favorite part? "Getting a big scratch on my arm"

"No, I said you favorite part, not your least favorite."

"I know! Getting a scratch was my favorite."

"What?! Why? Didn't it hurt?"

"Well, yeah. But then Grandma helped me. She kissed me and hugged me and said I could have a band-aid. And then she said I did a really great job of putting the band-aid on."

"So you liked getting hurt, just so Grandma could help you?"

"Yeah. Grandma could have just said 'oh, it's just a scratch, you're fine'. But she helped me instead. That's how she loved me - by taking good care of me. Grandma loved me - that's all."

Well...I was pretty much out of words after that exchange with my little 6 year old man!

But he got me thinking. He had never articulated so clearly before just what makes him feel loved. I tell my kids all the time...I mean ALL. THE. TIME. that I love them. But it sounds like my little Ben speaks a different "love language".

I know...the "love language" thing has been done already. Honestly, I haven't read any of the books on the subject yet. As I understand it though, the general idea is that we all feel the most loved when someone shows their love for us in our "primary love language".

There are five. Here they are:
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving of Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

What is your primary love language? You can click HERE to take a quick quiz and find out. It might be fun to have your kids or spouse take the quiz too and compare notes with them.

Good thing for my Hubby and our budget...I scored the lowest on Gifts. But hey...if he ever gets sick of emptying the dishwasher or giving me foot rubs...diamonds are always good.

Nothin' Good For You Today

Sorry for my absence today...I'm sure y'all missed me terribly ;)

My two little ones had to get shots today...terribly traumatic! I'm thankful that Hubby was able to take the morning off of work and go with us. Sammy started whimpering and trying to get away the moment she realized that we were at the doctor's office - poor kiddo. And my little Thomas - what a sport. All smiles and giggles...until the big stick.

I'm feeling a bit neglectful, actually. My Thomas is 5 months old, and he had is 2-month shots today. To be perfectly honest, I've been procrastinating because I'm so afraid of autism! Dang media.

I talked to the doc about it though, and he reassured me that there is absolutely NO scientific correlation between immunizations and autism. He even cited some data from European countries with national health care systems...he said their data was even better than ours since they have data on nearly 100% of their population (given the national health care system and all). I guess there (maybe) is one good thing about national health care. No, I will not be voting for Hillary.

So I let them stick my babies with all kinds of scary stuff. Ahhh...what to do though? It's a statistics game, really. It's statistically more dangerous for them to not have the immunizations. Maybe it's the engineer in me...I like data. And I guess it's the Mommy in me...I cry about it anyway.

They were troopers though. Hey, here's a tip for those of you with little ones...I brought a Life Saver for Samantha. I broke pieces off for her to suck on (trying to make the thing last - shoulda brought more than one silly little Life Saver!). It really helped calm her down for the doctor to look at her, and even helped while she was getting her shots. I'm definitely going to try and remember that for next time!

I'll write more tomorrow. I'm getting in to chapter 3 of the book I've been telling you about. Although chapter 2 was pretty good, chapter 3 is looking like it'll be even more of a disaster than chapter 1. I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

Have a great night everyone.

Oh, and by the way...please...if you have a horror story about immunizations and autism...forgive me for being so insensitive as to not let you share, but please do not tell me about it! With little ones who still need regular shots, I have to be able to sleep at night!

My Theme Song...

You know the song from "The Apprentice"? It goes something like: Money, money, money, money, Moooneeey.

OK, have that tune in your head? Now all you have to do is substitute some different words, and you have my theme song. There are several variations...

"Poopy, poopy, poopy,poopy. POOOPEEEE"

"Boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie. BOOOGIEEE"

"Stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky. STIIINKEEEY"

"Whiney, whiney, whiney, whiney. WHIIINEEEY"

You can also substitute "Hungry", "Grumpy", "Sleepy", and my favorite, "Wipe Me".

I might need to call an agent to get these songs recorded. I'm sure that other mom's would relate to this brand of music!

Bath Time

I thought I'd better get some pictures of the grand kids up before the Grandparents revolt!

Thomas LOVES his bath. With four kids to bathe, bath time is an event at our house. We all gather in our master bath, where there is, mercifully, a huge tub and a shower. Ben likes to shower "like a growed-up man"...the girls like the tub. Thomas joined the girls in the tub the other day. It was fun for everyone :)

Getting ready for the bath~
I'm ready...get my cold and naked hiney in that tub!
~OOOOO
Hey, how's it goin'?~
I love my bath! I think my eyes might pop out of my head...what did you put in that bath water anyway?~
Hey Big Brother!~

Thanks For Your Input

Thank you to all of you who commented on my post about letting the kids watch Biggest Loser. And a special thanks to "Anonymous" who said I'm beautiful inside and out ;)

After thinking about it some more, I think I'm going to take BL off of my list of shows that are OK for my kiddos. At their young age...I don't want them mulling over the idea of people winning a bunch of money because they lost the most weight.

Is anyone else out there terrified that they're just going to completely screw their kids up forever?! Whew...sure glad we have someone watching over us!

Teaching Kids: Which Foot? Which Shoe?

Does anyone else's kiddos have a tough time trying to figure out which shoe goes on which foot?

I came up with this simple idea to help them. Using a permanent marker, I drew a small smiley face on the inside of each shoe.

When they ask me "Mom, is this right?" I just remind them that the smiley faces should be facing each other..."smiling at each other." It works every time!

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Thanks A Bunch, Biggest Loser!

We like to watch a little TV before bed at night. We all snuggle in, have a snack, and watch some family friendly TV.

Lately, we've been enjoying "Biggest Loser". I figure it's good for my kids to see people working hard to have a healthy body. The only part I don't really like is the commercials! Man, it's incredible...what they can put on TV at 7 in the evening!

Well, I might be rethinking the idea that BL is good family TV.

Tonight Clara turned to me and said, "Mom, you should exercise more."

"What? Why?"

"You just should."

"Well, why do you think I should?"

"So you can get skinnier."

"Why do you think I need to lose weight?"

"I don't know. You should just be skinnier, that's all."

"Well. I think I'm pretty good, actually. I'd rather be healthy and strong than skinny. How about you? Which do you think is better, being healthy and strong or being skinny?"

"Healthy and strong."

"Yeah, I think that's a good choice. Pass the popcorn, please."

Now, I'm not what I used to be. Truth be told, I'd like to lose at least 10 pounds...15 would be even better. But from the time that Clara was toddling around, sat on our bathroom scale, and saw numbers flashing, she heard the words "You weigh (insert #)...Just right for a healthy and strong Clara!"

And then it would be my turn. I'd step on the scale, and read the number to her. Then I'd say, "Just right for a healthy and strong Mommy!"

And I do not obsess about my weight. I weigh myself MAYBE once per week, and it's almost always in private. I've been very careful to try and instill the "healthy and strong" mantra into my kids' heads! My goal is for them to look at whatever their number is when they're adults and automatically think "Just. Right. Healthy. Strong." I want them to focus on the blessings of their body and all that they can do in this life with the incredible gift of their body...not always be focusing on "better, more, exercise, not good enough, should be..."

So needless to say, I was pretty surprised to hear Clara saying that I should be "skinnier".

I don't know...I guess it was a good teachable moment for Clara tonight (and for me too!). But what do you think? Do you think "Biggest Loser" is a good show for kids to be watching?