Ashtonism part 3

i woke up early today because it was my husband's birthday and i wanted to spend a little time with him and the family before returning to work. i made fried chicken, tator tots, fruit salad and jello cake for dinner. the kids were playing outside and i called them in to eat.
ashton hops up to the counter and looks at his plate.

i tell him, "its everything yummy, so please eat up buddy."
he says "oh yes, mommy, i remember this dinner to death."
i ask, "what about death buddy?"
he says, "its death mommy."
"ok buddy, just eat it, ok."
my husband chimes in and asks him what he means.
"i remember this to death daddy."
jeff says "oh, do you mean you love it to death?"
"yes daddy, i lub it to death." says the sweet funny little thing as he gobbled it up and asked for seconds.

a christmas carol

my good friend "A" and i decided it would be a rockin good time to go downtown to union station and see the disney train. it was in town to promote the movie "a christmas carol" which is coming out this winter. it did sound like fun, a big disney production, meeting friends and just enjoying the little kids for a morning.
i got myself dressed, maggie and ashton ready and loaded up the van. after fighting for a parking spot, we finally squeezed into one and headed for the station. it was a long walk, but we saw a glimpse of the train and were ready to go. "A" was on her way with her little guy.
I made it through the crowd to the train which stated, 1 hr wait from this point. Oh goodie, its only 90 degrees out with full sun, and my daughter has long pants on and winter boots. don't ask, it is really important to her to be prepared i guess.
we stood in line and waited. i had drinks for them, so they downed them, ate their snacks, met up with A (who illegally hopped in line with us) and checked where we were in line. almost to the one hour point. goodie!! did i mention it was blazing hot and i had sweat running down my stomach, back and legs? poor maggie was tomato red, but not about to part with her boots.
a few tantrums later, we made it to the train entrance.


(i thought a picture of the line would help remind me not to make these type of decisions in the future)

had we brought the older kids, it would of been pretty cool, but understanding the costumes and the making of the movie did not entice my children. it was a good thought though. we tried to be good moms and point out the interesting facts about the original charles dickens version, but it was hard to talk over maggie's screaming. heat stroke apparently makes you crazy.

(ashton and maggie checking out the exhibits they could not read or understand)


(maggie, ashton and "E" using the one finger touch rule to the no touch exhibits)

i did get a text from my other friend "L", but doesn't that girl know that i do not know how to text back? i read "are you at the train, its an hour and a half wait" but i was happily in my van racing towards home - sorry "L" i hope you didn't wait, or if you did, i hope it was fun!

little quarterback

My cute little Carson had his first "practice" game today. Maggie was puking on the sidelines - literally - but Carson was busy running in the touchdowns!

Party!

carson had his seventh birthday party today. it was just a bunch of sweet little boys from the neighborhood and school, playing quietly and eating cake and ice cream. pleasant and peaceful.
see below - two minutes after drop off.


after gathering in the living room, we headed downstairs to make some "gloop". its a little creation of borax, water, white glue and food coloring. not messy at all with all those sweet little boys mixing so nice and neat. i of course did not end up taking the whole mess and throwing it in the trash can after they left the room. and when they asked for their "gloop" before going home, i did not lie to them and tell them it didn't turn out right after all.

we then came upstairs and using our manners sat down for some seven pound chocolate cake and ice cream.

after washing our hands and throwing away our trash, we opened up presents.


the highlight was a giant rocket from mom and dad which we promptly went outside to launch.
great fun was had by all.


until of course...



well its all fun until somebody puts the rocket on the roof.

its beginning to look a lot like fall

its going, can you feel it? summer is slipping away.






no more lazy days in the sprinkler, staying up late and skipping baths.




football started a couple of weeks ago and its back to practices and ball games.


we met the teachers tonight, and its back to homework and packing lunches.



how cute is molly's teacher, posing AS IF molly was being scolded day one.
both teachers are MU fans which left us all quite relieved.
(they seem to be smart, kind and likable too.)

something funny.
jeff had to take maggie to the dmv with him the other day. you know how that place is like walking into an elevator, nobody looks at anybody, nobody talks, just crabby people sitting in silence waiting for their number to be called. well, he pulled his number and sat down with maggie. they were waiting and then she decided to stand up and do a rendition of you are my sunshine for everyone. she altered the words to go "you are me organs, you are me organs, you make me happy when skies are great. you neber know organs, how much i lub you, so please dont take me organs away." i dont know where that came from, but it did lighten the mood at the dmv.

something not so funny.
sometimes it is safer to just have one parent in charge of the children. when there are two of us, i think he is watching them and he thinks i am watching them. in reality neither are.
here is a pointer for you. when your two year old says "i go find mommy" and you say ok, that means she is going to find mommy. if she thinks mommy is outside running, she will probably head on out there.
she may put on her own shoes and walk out the front door. she may then walk down the cul-de-sac and then down the street. a minivan may see her and stop, and the mom may get out and walk her back to your door. oops. lesson learned, lock the doors.

something funny.
ashtonism part 2.
i was in mama's tummy before i was born, right?
yes buddy.
i was born in my swimming trunks, right?
no bud.
yes, we all were born with our swimming trunks on, right?
no bud.
well we were all swimming before we were born.
cute. he took us literal when we told him he used to swim around in mom's belly.

bennett springs

we met up with our family at bennett springs this past week for some relaxation and fishing.
since my cousin and i both have four small children, it wasn't really that relaxing, but it was lots of fun and there were no horrid incidents like this one.
i will say that every time i drove by, walked by or looked at that parking lot, i got physically ill and still can't fathom how a mother could do that.
anyhow - not this trip. no way no how would our little maggie get left behind anywhere.

so some pics of the happenings...


when you are too scared to sit at a table with eight small children, just put them all together and sit across the restaurant from them. they did surprisingly well without any pesky adults bossing them around.


oh it was somebody's birthday while we were there - i even got 35 candles on the cake and nearly burnt the cabin down.


when you can't fish, eat cheetos.


if you can fish, always fish next to grandpa.