Funny Mums

100 points to whoever can dig back into their brain to high school or college biology and identify the phenomenon that is causing my mums to bloom funny.

Princess Belle, A Jedi, and A Really Good Sport

I may not be the most enthusiastic participant in Halloween, and I honestly don't understand the fun of going door to door begging for candy, when we could all just go out and buy a bag of our favorites, tell a lot of lies (to ourselves) about not eating it, and then eat it anyway; but I tried to play along, and I do think everyone looked cute in their costumes:

Even dinner dressed up:

Now, onto some holidays I do get enthusiastic about - eating until we explode and dragging full sized trees into the living room!

Flat out of fun.

We just got home from Disney World. It was absolutely fun - I'll subject everyone to vacation pictures soon.

But right now, I have a problem. I've promised a room full of kids FUN games on Sunday after they sing and speak in church, and I'm out of fun ideas.

Please help - comment with some fun game ideas!

Many thanks!!!!!

Yo VIP, let's kick it!

Fall soccer season is in full swing, and Blue is playing on team "purple panther".  Here he is pumped up on panther juice (aka purple Gatorade):

Of course, no soccer game is complete without helpful advice from mom, part of the purple cheering section:

And finally, a purple sister practicing her own soccer moves - in case everyone on the team gets injured...at the same time.

Not pictured: purple dad, toting 10 pounds of camera equipment around to make sure we get good action shots (or maybe he's just not ready to be photographed in that purple shirt).

A Fun Weekend Away!

It's not often that we have a weekend without soccer, birthday parties, or church responsibilities (thank goodness for conference online), but somehow this past weekend, the stars aligned perfectly, so with her remaining swimsuit in hand, Pink (and the rest of us) set out for a little beach trip.

It's been almost 2 years since the last time we swam in water not contained in a pool, so this felt like a first for Pink. To say she loved ocean swimming (okay, it's a gulf, but it has salt water and sand) would be an understatement.

Perfect weather, sand to dig in, and waves low enough to adequately jump without being dragged around - Blue was in heaven.

Red loves spontaneous trips, and was happy to be someplace new (and without his phone and blackberry for a while)

Green loves salt water - and sand in between her toes - and mostly spending a relaxing weekend with the family!

Oh Crap, that sucks.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses their pants.

It was the last Saturday before schools started, and I had the great idea to not only buy the 12-pound box of plums, but also to feed some to my family for lunch. And then take them to the church pool party in the evening.

Poor Pink, her little system couldn't quite take it, and she...ummm....didn't quite make it to the potty. Out of the pool and into the bathroom, but not quite onto the commode.  Being an experienced mother, unafraid of body fluids (and really with no other options, standing dripping in the bathroom of the community pool, with everyone we attend church with swimming outside), I diligently stepped into another stall to rinse out the swimsuit bottom in the privy. To give it a good rinse with some swirling action, I flushed. Who would have guessed that our community pool has jet-force suction on the toilet flush? Certainly not me until I watched that swimsuit disappear with a whoosh.

I had to leave her there confused and half-naked while I retrieved her swim cover and then tried to explain that she could not, in fact, get back into the pool, and that she had to stand up very straight while we cleaned up the party.

Now she keeps asking where her butterfly swimsuit is...and I resist the urge to tell her that it flew away.

Back to School, take three!

Rounding out our week of first days of school, yesterday was Pink's first day of preschool. She was totally excited about the whole idea of preschool - although it might have been more about the new outfit and the princess backpack than the actually learning.

Once we got to school, and Pink wrapped her head around the idea that I was going to leave her, she was a little nervous - or maybe it was that her teacher asked her to find her nametag, and while Pink can name every disney princess and tell part of their life story, she cannot identify all her letters. Epic parenting fail.

Fortunately, she was able to catch up with 2 other little girls whose older siblings were all in a class with Blue at this age.  And really, red playdoh cures most ills, doesn't it?  Wait, not when it comes home on their shoes...

At final report, she had a great day.  Circle time was fun, playing dress up with her friends was awesome, and the snack of goldfish crackers and water was just perfect. Maybe if the teachers are willing to come in their Cinderella dresses, she might even learn her letters.