The rugrats ankle-biters lovely children

I somehow got roped into going to JC Penny on Black Friday to have pictures taken of all five kids.  At the same time.  Smiling.

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

We did manage to get a few taken, but those will remain a surprise for the semi-annual Christmas New Years Valentine's Day (if I am lucky) letter.


The Black Friday deal was a large discount on the CD and digital rights, and they slipped in a few extras from previous sessions.

So in no particular order, the munchkins...

(not sure why Sophie gets two pictures and every one else only gets one.  But she does.)

Santa in the park

Santa usually stops by the park at the end of our street each year.  This year, for whatever reason, our kids were really into writing out their Christmas lists for Santa.  So Saturday we walked over to deliver the lists.

If she were in Ethiopia, they probably would have had her dressed in about 3 more layers.

Luke would get near Santa, but wouldn't sit on his lap.

 

Sophie didn't have a choice, for the obligatory "kid screaming on Santa's lap" picture.

 

She recovered quickly though.

 

Levi and Noah had no interest in even talking to Santa, but they did stuff their letters into his mailbox.

 

They are convinced that since all three of them wrote Press Dough (as seen on TV!) on their lists, that Santa would just have to bring it to them. From what I gathered, "Santa" may have been suckered into it. Dang Qubo TV channel...

Friday night drags

My boss built himself an awesome hot rod.  It was a '30s Chevy.  Not that there is much left on it that is original.  A bunch of us from work spent Friday night at the drag strip watching him and others run.
The traffic director wouldn't get out of the way for a good photo.

We didn't see many cars that night that could beat his low 11 second and 120+ mph 1/4 mile passes.

I got to take a few rides down the strip as well, unfortunately not in the hot rod. Rode in a co-worker's Nissan Z, where she got blown away by this Nissan GT-R. We were doing 90+ mph at the end of the 1/4, and that GT-R took off like we were standing still.

Welllllllll, that was a bust.

Paige got us Groupon tickets to the Arizona Balloon Classic.  From the description, it sounded pretty cool... "more than 50 balloons", fireworks, balloons lit to music, food vendors.  Just the kind of thing for an enjoyable evening with the family.  It sounded like so much fun, Paige invited some friends and their kids, and I invited a guy from work and his wife.  I mean, take a look at the beautiful balloon pictures, and it says right there... "more than 50 balloons."  Fifty.  Five zero.

Ummmmm, yeah.  They barely had enough balloons there to make their logo truth in advertising.  Really, I think we counted a total of about 5 balloons.  Only a factor of 10, but who's counting?

I think we still had a good time though.

The kids got to see a balloon get filled up.

They all got surprised looks on their faces when the giant burners shot flames in the air.  I mean, really?  You would think they would be used to that around our house by now.  I have some parenting ground to make up, apparently.

Sophie was terrified by the noise of the burners.  Every time one went off, she would burrow down and grab whatever piece of you she could.

Luke was clearly entralled by the excitement of seeing soooooo many balloons.  I think he got in a good 90 minute nap.

We did get to see a very pretty sunset.  Of which my phone took a better picture than my actual camera.  Technology blows my mind sometimes.

Then the amazing light show.  This was seriously it, unless you include the one other balloon off to the side that was giving rides to the dizzying height of 50 feet.

If only I had looked at the website and the exhaustive list of balloons that would be participating in this innaugural event, I might have been able to mentally prepare myself for the mind blowing spectacle that was the evening light show...

At least they had deep fried stuff though.  Even if they did run out of meatballs and wings, seeing as that there were only about 10 food vendors for a few thousand people and I waited in line for at least an hour.  Good thing our kids love corndogs!

Our kids did think the skydivers were pretty cool (way too hard to get a picture of) and they did have a fireworks show.

We also discovered a new skill.  You know how sometimes people call Mountain Dew... "Weasel Pee."

Yeah... or Luke.  Kid has pretty good aim.

We handed it to one of our friend's kid (who didn't witness the act) and he was totally excited to finish off the Dew.  Until he felt just how warm the bottle was, and then the look on his face as the realization hit him was absolutely priceless.

A good end to a marginal night.  Sorry we dragged you out there through hours of traffic for a pitiful show.  We did have fun hanging out though...

Maybe our parenting is sinking in...

... a little?  Just a ray of hope that we might possible be instilling some small amount of civilization into these tiny barbarians?

The background:  Levi and Noah typically don't participate in household cleaning well.  Not willingly, and not without significant.... temper tantrums protest.  So when I asked them on Saturday to help clean up their giant mess in the playroom, I expected an "Occupy the Upstairs" type protest, complete wailing about how they shouldn't have to take responsibility for their own actions.

Instead they happily cleaned the playroom.

And then surprised me with this...



And they actually meant it.  I gave them more cleaning to do... and they [gasp] did it.


Maybe... just maybe... we are slowly getting through...

It's an amazingly accurate portrayal

They came out of our bedroom the other night, barely able to speak between the giggles.  Ella had played dressup with them, and dressed them like Mom and Dad.



That's pretty accurate, really...

If you can't get over someone...

The other day we were going to pick the big kids up from school.  I was listening to the radio and this song came on...

Listen to it at least to the chorus.

From the back seat, I hear Luke say:

"Mom, if you can't get over someone, maybe you should go under them."

Hilarious, that little kid is.

Shocking (Shocking!)

At the park on Saturday, the big'uns discovered static electricity.  Well, not discovered in the sense of Marie Curie, or really even the first time they'd experienced.  More like they discovered the joy of blasting your sibling with an inch long blue arc.

Nothing brings a smile to your face like electrocuting your brother.  See?  That is joy on their faces right there...

Of course, boys being boys, it didn't take long before zapping each other's fingers progresssed to more, ummmmm, sensitive regions.

If a finger zap is joy, then a successful spark to your brother's nether-regions is just pure bliss.

Especially when successfully repeated.

"Oh my goodness Dad, he zapped me right in my bits!!!  Awwwwk-ward!"

I have no idea where they could have learned to take such joy in inflicting electricity on their fellow humans.

Much less members of their own family.

"Dad, it's like there was force field around me this big!"

Then they got soaking wet in the sprinklers.

While Sophie played in the puddles...

... and drank from them.

Go to sleep...

Attempt 1... squeaks from the bench at the end of the hallway...

Attempt 2... giggles from the bathroom...

Finally in bed... even if he is roaring like a tyranosaurus...

Grrrrrrrrrr.. this is most definitely the downstairs couch, not his upstairs bedroom...

He'd be in far more trouble if he weren't so darn cute.

He gets this from his Aunt Gina

He's like a combination of Elton John, Willy Wonka, and Scuba Steve.

And possibly a bit of Aunt Lindsay as well...