Zanders Survival Pack

For Christmas Oscar gave the kids pop-up emergency tents. They are about the size of a twin bed and they fold up into a flat little 12 x 12 pouch that soldiers can clip to their packs and carry with them. Today Zander took the pouch for his tent and packed it with his emergency supplies.

His survival kit consists of:

1. The repair kit for his tent
2. Two empty cookie tins (his survival food because he can't take food upstairs)
3. His favorite stuffed dog
4. Two reflector that he took off the trailer
5. A bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade
6. A lightsaber
7. A dinosaur
8. A whistle made out of drinking straws
9. A valentine from his best friend
10. A letter from his sister
11. The handle to the basting brush (he doesn't know what it's called but it's a weapon and he knows how to use it he said)
12. An M&M
13. A large cardboard tube (his rocket launcher)
14. A telescope
15. And two tubes of bubbles from yesterdays wedding

I'm not sure where he learned about rocket launchers and how to hold one but his cousin Jacob was here today and I think he spilled the beans about where their daddies are and what they're really doing there.

No Wonder

Hannah lost her tooth at our house last night. We were watching tv and she said her tooth hurt so i told her to brush her teeth but her tooth was bleeding. and she kept trying to clean the blood off with a tisue and it fell out. When aunt KK picked her up this morning she said they don't have a tooth fairy at this house. No wonder Sarah still has all her baby teeth.

-Sarah

Snow!!

When the weatherman said there was gonna be a lot of snow I didn't believe him. This is Texas after all and it doesn't really snow here, not real snow. Well it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. The kids had a blast and made a ton of snow men. They didn't actually know how to make real snow men so one of our neighbors had to show them. We didn't have a snow man kit (because this is Texas and it doesn't snow here) so we had to use our pumpkin kits for snowmen faces. We had the scariest snowmen on the block. I don't do cold and wet so all of the pictures I took were from the front porch and from the window upstairs.

Happy Valentine's Day

Moo goes the cow and the cow goes moo. Happy valentine's day!

Love,

The kids

(A note from the mom - I didn't feed all those treats to just my kids. We had four other kids to share with.)

Gone Crazy

Zander has gone girl crazy. He's been picking fights with girl so that they will chase him and he let a girl kiss him on the arm(this is a big deal when your 7 because kissing on he cheek is just gross). I told him he better not be kissing girls anywhere, ever and the girls better not be kissing him either. Last week he came home from school and asked how old he has to be when he could go on a double date. I asked why he was asking and he said that this was very embarrassing to talk about it so could I just answer. I reminded him that the rule is 16. None of the other kids were ever girl or boy crazy so I called my older sister for help because my niece has been boy crazy since she was two. Her daughter is only eleven and it hasn't gotten any better so she had no advise. What ever happened to cooties? her answer was penicillin. Not helpful Jen. We recently had to have a family home evening on dating and girlfriends or boyfriends because Tanner likes a girl at his school. He said he doesn't want to date her, she's just cute that's all. Sarah thinks boys are gross or so she says and Brendan says there's no hope for him because all the girls are bigger than him so I don't have to worry. Zander on the other hand likes all 7 year old girls. I'm going to lock him in the closet.

Christmas Concerts

Sarah had her first concert just before Christmas. She was so excited. She started band this year playing the french horn but it was too heavy for her to hold up. They decided to switch her to a clarinet because it's not as heavy but she is too small for the clarinet, her arms aren't long enough to reach all the levers, button and holes and she doesn't have enough lung power to play some of the notes. They suggested she switch to percussion. She decided band is too stressful and she would rather switch to art.

Brendan was a little less excited but he was exhausted. He had three concerts that week and another the next week. He played in the 5th and 6th grade beginner band concert, he was invited to play with the middle school band and was asked to play in a district wide concert, and then his school had a winter celebration that he had to perform at. He was so exhausted from all the extra practices and concerts that when he came home from school the day after the last concert he went straight to bed and slept until it was time to wake up the next day.

I think Brendan was the shortest kid at the district concert and they put him in the back so we couldn't see him.

Puppies!!

This is how I get greeted every morning.

I try to keep the puppies in the bathtub so that I can wash the puppy mess down the drain every day but some of the little terds have figured out how to climb out. They weaned really fast so we were able to start giving them away at 6 weeks old instead of 8 but we still have five left. The kids may have suckered me into keeping one. I told them no but they are just to darn cute. Every time i fall in love with one i give it away so that I won't keep it. Nobody likes Leah, not even the kids so I just have to make sure that Leah is the last to go. I know that sounds terrible but she is very irritating and she wines all the time so we won't keep her.

Happy Birthday Sarah

The only thing Sarah wanted this year for her birthday was a slumber party. After 28 girls showed up last year we told her we would never do that again. But she was very insistent and she swore that we it would be better this year. We waited until two days before the party to pass out invitations hoping that most kids would already have plans. It worked because only 10 girls showed up and half of them were cousins.