We Went There In January

This has been a doozy of a month.  I just looked at my January calender, and shook my head, wondering how we fit all that stuff in.  Brandon did two weddings, former youth students who got married.  I was once (twice) again thankful that I got married 13 years ago, in the days before Pinterest, back when you could just have a nice, boring wedding where 400 of your closest friends signed the sign-in book, and ate cake and punch in the church reception hall before throwing birdseed on you as you ran to the rental car.  Those were simpler times.  Now everything is very cute and creative, with ice cream sundae bars and gourmet mini-cupcakes and themed guest favors.  For one of the evening weddings, the bar served Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, and Mimosas before dinner.  Interesting choices, right?  Then the dinner started, and on the buffet?  Pancakes, bacon, eggs, buscuits and gravy with fresh fruit.  Breakfast for dinner at a wedding?  GENIUS.

For the second wedding, Brandon and I ditched the kids on unsuspecting friends and flew to Illinois for the weekend, spending a lovely three days in a hotel sans children, with friends.  It was heaven.  At this wedding, instead of a sign-in book, the guests wrote notes to the couple and put them in cute, color coordinating envelopes for the bride and groom to open later.  And the ring bearer rode into the room in a remote-controlled silver convertable to deliver the rings to the groom. 

Umm, yeah, same as my wedding.  Or not.  Look!  Us at the rehearsal dinner! 

And at the wedding!  Look!  It's us in a room full of grown-ups!  Don't we look well rested?

The weekend after that, Brandon had a retreat with our high school students, so I loaded up the kids and headed to Austin to see my GG for the weekend.  My parents came down and met us there, because Harper requires adult supervision because creativity+destructiveness+GG's house would not have gone well with just me and the four kids.  My parents got there ahead of me, and relocated some of GG's more breakable odds and ends into the closed-off dining room.  Since the beginning of time, GG's dining room is set up complete with tablecloth, high-backed chairs, centerpiece, chandilier, and multiple shiny tea sets on display at all times, with a large china cabinet and one of those giant "family Bibles".  Basically, a room Harper needs to be no where near at all times.  Fortunately, the room has a door and can be closed off and go largely unnoticed. 

Unless you're Harper.  Harper took one look inside the dining room, and was rendered speechless.  When she found her words again, it was only to talk about the "Beautiful Room".  She was pretty sure she had entered a princess castle.  She wanted to play in the Beautiful Room, and sit at the table, and drink from the beautiful cups, and pour tea from the beautiful tea sets.  Sunday lunch was a highlight for Harper, she got to eat lunch at the beautiful table, with a beautiful (china) plate, and eat her corn with the Magic Spoon (a little gold spoon from one of the tea sets).  She was in heaven, and we all got a kick out of someone appreciating the Beautiful Room so much.  We spent some much needed time with GG, and I set her up with an Amazon account so she can shop to her heart's content without having to drive in traffic.

We had a great time on our little Austin visit with GG and the dog.  I have a few more posts to cover Thanksgiving and December (you know, the busiest months of the year), and then I should be caught up by March :)

It Happened in January...

...so I must not be referring to "blogging".  I sat down today at Ye Olde Blog of Yore and realized I haven't even blogged about THANKSGIVING.  So, ummm, I'm a bit behind.  But I wanted to jot down a few January tidbits, just in case it's March before I get caught up on the last two months.

Harper has outdone herself these last few weeks.  We have a semi-strict "No Food Upstairs" rule at the Outnumbered House, because I don't want to be Outnumbered by ants, and Harper has become very adept at breaking that rule lately.  I have found her camped out upstairs with the entire contents of our refridgerator.  Cherry tomatoes, lettuce heads, apples, bananas, a jar of grape jelly with a spoon, a tub of fake butter with a spoon (yes, that's right), yogurt, a sleeve of Saltines, and an entire lunch box full of granola bars.  And most recently, a container of powdered sugar.  I PROMISE we feed this child.  She's just a snacker who apparently feels too restricted while eating at the kitchen table.

Every Sunday morning, Brandon heads to church about an hour before I do.  Something about it being his "job".  So I have the enviable task, each Sunday morning, of getting all four kids presentable looking, fed, and out the door on time to go to church.  This past Sunday, I achieved all of this, only to pull into the parking lot, unload all children, and notice Aidan walking across the parking lot holding his shorts up with one hand, and a long piece of black elastic with the other hand.  Okay, moms.  You know those kid shorts that they make for skinny kids, with the elastic and buttons on the inside of the waistband so you can adjust the waist to make them tighter, so they don't fall off of hip-less, butt-less little boys?  Well, did you know that with just the right amount of focus and determination, that a certain hip-less, butt-less little seven-year old can pull the entire length of elastic out of his shorts during the eight minute car ride to church?  It would be too easy to do at home, where you could just change shorts before you left the house.  What is the challenge in that?  So I did what any resourceful mom would do, I squatted down in the hallway, and laced that piece of elastic through Aidan's beltloops, knotting it in the front before sending him off to class.  Must remember to tell children "please don't disassemble your shorts on the way to church this morning".  Silly mommy.

Hide the silverware when we come over, friends, or Harper might try to steal it.  We went to Academy the other day for running clothes (ugh, I hate running), and Harper took her little Dora backpack in with her that she got for Christmas (another holiday I have yet to blog about).  When we go to check out, I see out of the corner of my eye a certain little girl carefully selecting candy from the shelf, then calmly sticking the candy in her backpack.  The cashier smiled at Harper, as I'm telling her, "Harper, I see you.  We don't take things from the store and stick them in your backpack!"  I sheepishly took the bag, setting it on the counter and retrieved the candy from the bag...and then proceeded to pull out a pink tutu and two pink leotards, all with price tags dangling from them.  Maybe they'll let her eat grape jelly from the spoon in her prison cell someday.

Dane brought home a poem he wrote in school a couple of weeks ago.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have:

"Friendship is Like a Warm Mug of Hot Chocolate" by Dane

Friendship is awesomeness.

Friendship tastes like a slice of hot pepperoni pizza.

Friendship smells like a warm jungle afternoon.

Friendship sounds like friendly laughing.

Friendship feels like a soft babies head.

Friendship looks like a person helping someone else when they fall.

Friendship is awesomeness.

Dane's got some stinky friends if their friendship smells like a warm jungle afternoon.

We also had a busy month of weddings, visiting GG, and high school retreats.  Stay tuned!  Catch-up in progress!