A Daily Dose of Mischief

Summer is almost here! Here are my boys enjoying some time in the sun!

We were up in Vancouver visiting family for part of the Memorial Day Weekend. On our way home we stopped at a rest area. It was very crowded, and there was a large group of motorcyclists there. D took two of the boys to the bathroom and I asked #1 if he needed to go. He thought I was crazy for asking him and said: I am not going to go someplace where a motorcycle gang is parked!

We live at the coast. Incidentally, we occasionally go to the beach, and usually end up tracking a lot of sand back to the car. It got to the point that I didn't look forward to going to the beach anymore because our van was getting so much sand inside, and our attempts to keep the sand out just weren't that effective. Then I got an idea. I really should credit my Dad for the idea, since he inspired it in the first place. My solution to the sand problem, is a garden sprayer. We went out and bought a one gallon yard and garden sprayer for less than $10.00. Its the kind that has a handle to pump it up with air, and then it has a hose and a nozzle, and you usually use them to spray chemicals on your plants. They have a nice adjustable spray so you can have a lighter mist, or a heavier stream. Now we just fill it up before we go to the beach, and when we are done we can spray the sand off of our hands, feet, and shoes. Since we bought our sprayer new, we don't have to worry ab

It is Pinewood Derby Season here. This year is #2's first year doing the Pinewood Derby and he is very excited about it. He is a hands on kind of kid that really wants to do the car himself with minimal help (which is as it should be.) In perusing our tools we realized that we needed a couple of things for him to complete his car, so he made me the above shopping list. In case his writing is hard to read it says: Moms Shoping List 1. coping Saw 2. Sand paper 3. graphite graphite cadbury 4. candy (m8ms, or cadberrey cream eggs, skittles, starburst , and any wonka candy I am not sure what the 4 th item/items on the list have to do with Pinewood Derby racing. I think he was just hoping I would get whatever he put on the list. Sneaky kid.

#4 loves to pretend. On any given day he may be a Cowboy, a Jedi or a Knight. He loves to be a hero. He is the one that asked me why I don't dress up as a Princess . Some of #4's contributions to this blog include Mashed Potato Shame , Weird Al's The Saga Begins , Telling Time , Star Wars is So Cool , Marriage Decisions , and What Happens When the Moon Gets Full . I think he is probably more involved in blog posts on this blog than the other four boys, partly because he is not in school yet, so he is home with me all day, and partly because he just has one of those personalities.

Today #4 brought came over with our wedding photo album in his hand and said: "Mom looks more pretty in this book." Its true. I was "more pretty" back then. That was 11 years and more than many pounds ago. (Not to mention I was wearing my wedding dress and a little make-up). I am going to choose to look at it optimistically. Pretty is pretty...I will take what I can get, so I will take it as a compliment. If he had just said that I was pretty back then it could be taken to mean that I am no longer pretty, and since he clearly said MORE pretty...that means he was definitely saying that I am pretty now...just not as pretty as I was all those inches and that wedding dress ago. Thank you son for the unintended compliment!

There are two things for sure that my kids seem to have a preternatural ability for detecting. One of them is me being on the phone. I can see it in my mind...all of them playing outside when suddenly they all stop at once and look towards the house. Inside...I have picked up the phone. They might leave me to myself all day and treat each other wonderfully, but the moment I am on the phone they are hungry, or fighting, or trying to talk to me. It drives me crazy. I have been known to take the cell phone out to the van and sit in the driveway to talk just to get some peace and quiet while I am on the phone (as well as better phone reception.) The other thing they always seem to know about is when I head to the bathroom. It never fails. The moment I am in there, almost as soon as I sit down, someone is at the door. Either they have to go...BAD...and can't possibly wait two minutes, or they are there to tattle on one of their brothers, to ask for a snack, or just to ask me wha

Our boys love the computer. They love the computer so much that they will turn away from a new DVD they have not seen yet to watch someone play a computer game they have seen played a hundred times. (I am not exaggerating on the 100 times either). Lego Star Wars and Lego Star Wars II are our current games of choice. It is going on four months of playing/watching, and even though both games have been beaten by someone in our house at least once, they are still a source of entertainment for the boys. Because of their obsessive tendencies over the computer, they each only play one day of the week, and they can earn up to an hour and a half of time over the course of a week. Usually it ends up being about an hour a week per each of them on average. I also enjoy playing Lego Star Wars I and II on the computer. However, most of the time I would rather be blogging, or reading someone else's blog. The boys frequently ask me to play so that they can watch me. I get stressed out when someon

For Mother's Day #2 gave me a book of poems. The first one was a name poem. I am not including all of it but it included words to describe himself such as Hungry, Dangerous and Electrifying. The second one was a poem about video games. Each poem he wrote was assigned to be in a certain style. This one is the two word style. Video Games Video Games, are awesome, have exploding, have ratings, are fun, are easy, are cool, are hard. See how he captures the dual nature of video games being easy and hard? Next, a color poem... Green Green is a light saber. Green is the color of my eyes. Green is the color of Yoda. Green is my Mom's favorite color. Then a poem about the sun which was written following the shape of the sun, including words going off into the rays of the sun. Just writing the words would not do it justice. You would have to see it. Lastly, a diamond poem titled Mom Dad Mom Nice, Happy Cooks, Sleeps, Works, Eats Tall, Smart Dad See why its called a diamond poem? I also

I am sometimes an impulse buyer. Okay...I am often an impulse buyer. It is one of my weaknesses. I also think that martial arts are very cool, and I have wanted to be a Karate champ ever since my days on the playground playing Wonder Woman. I still love to watch martial arts. I was at Costco the other day and I was ALONE! Ah, the wonder of being alone at Costco, not having to hear little boys begging for samples, and not having to try to keep them within sight and out of the way of the reckless cart driving customers in the vicinity. I took the time to really look through the book and DVD section. While there I came across a DVD packaged with 30 double sided flashcards. I couldn't find a picture of the exact set they have at Costco, but the book and DVD pictured is done by the same people. Its just in flash card form rather than book form, and the DVD with the Costco set is longer. I am overweight. I have been for several years. I often toy with the idea of getting in shape.

I usually reserve this blog for talk about funny things my boys say or do....with occasional guest appearances by other people's kids. I actually have a few people that read this blog, but don't read or know about my other blog . That is okay, since I have been writing in this blog more often than the other one. However, I got some Good Mail today and I wanted to thank Annie for sending it my way. To tie this in with the kid theme of this blog...I will tell you all that kids like Good Mail too! My boys love getting mail, but unfortunately they usually only get it around their birthdays. Here is a challenge for you to get your kids involved in some Good Mail as well!

No...not Personal Digital Assistant...Public Display of Affection! One of the funnest things for us to do is to gross out the boys by kissing in front of them. Its not like we make out right there or anything. Even just a very brief kiss on the lips is enough to prompt groans of disgust (and sometimes even screams) from some of our boys. Some of them just look away, and some of them are not bothered by it...yet. We recently bought a new (but inexpensive) Digital Camera. The boys are hoping that we will like the new one enough to give the old one to them to use. The other day #3 was asking D how the new camera was working and wondering if they could use the old one. He said he could take a picture of D and me kissing. #4 piped right up and said: Yeah! That's what I would take a picture of too! #1 came into the conversation at this point and said: I would delete it. He seems to be the most disturbed that we like to hold hands and sometimes kiss in front of the boys. However, we think

#3 commented the other day that he wished that school was only one day a week. He decided that Wednesday would be the best day for this (interestingly enough, Wednesday is the shortest school day of the week here. They get out of school a whole 40 minutes earlier than on the other days.) For some reason he has just been having a difficult time with school lately. I personally think it is just the rapid approach of summer. Everyone gets a little bit tired of being cooped up inside this time of year. I had to drop something off at the school the other day and #3's Teacher saw me there and took me aside to talk to me. She was concerned because she said #3 called her evil. I told her I would talk to him about it. Later that day I asked him if he had called his teacher evil. He immediately said no. Then he paused, and said, "I didn't call her evil. I wrote it down." Apparently he wrote it down in reading class (which he has a different teacher for) and another