When Daddy's Away

We play.

Monopoly. All day long marathon game. We'd play; we'd break; we'd play. Nicholas would lead, but then he'd realize that Elaine had bought everything.  Alida started as banker and then when Ben got bored she took over for him.  Elaine's tactic--buy everything.  Nicholas's tactic, buy Park Place properties only.  When I tried, as poor mommy, to get Elaine to sell me a yellow property at some point in the game, she looked at me and said, "NEVER!"  Then, at some point a crawfish boil started across the street, so she unloaded everything and took off out the door.

 

It came down to Nicholas vs. Mom.

And do you know that boy took me out with Park Place in the end...

Well played, Nicholas.  Well played.

Daddy Back

I don't even remember anymore when it was exactly, but daddy was away for three weeks recently.  He returned to a pile of kids, and with the crazy (and greying) 'stashe.

Getting up for school the next morning--everyone a little tuckered out from turning crazy when he returned right at bedtime, and mustache gone.  Normalcy returns.

More Weird Eating

Three cinnamon rolls.

One hard boiled egg, plus some fruit please.

Ah, Nick.  It is your week to be remarkable.

So Funny The Tooth Fairy Woke Me Up

From Nicholas:

"Leave 100 Dollars, Thanks."

Bubbles

Waiting

for your waffle is so hard.

The Day We Became Cannibals

Dear Everyone I know, who all decided to text me last Thursday around 7 pm, except for the folks I work with, which may have actually been useful this one time,

I'm so sorry I didn't respond.  I had just sliced off the tip of my finger.

Sincerely, Susan

We never found the tip of my finger, which went missing while I was slicing cheese for the children's dinner.  Um, they wound up eating all of the cheese. 

That evening for prayers, Nicholas closed his eyes and prayed the following: "Dear God, please help mommy's finger to heal by next week."  Ben followed quickly, "Dear God, please help mommy's finger to heal by tomorrow."  Not to be outdone, Nicholas responded dutifully, "Dear God, please help mommy's finger to heal right now!"

Everything a competition, even prayer.

When I Grow Up

Conversations with Alida while I scrubbed the little hair of the fourth child that evening, after dinner and wrangling of homework, fighting them to come back inside and stay there, refereeing a game on the Wii, asking why are all of the toy horses stacked in a pile in the hallway, and then follow-on asking when we got so many toy horses?  And why can't you all pile up your shoes so effectively instead of leaving a pair in the backyard (socks thoughtfully tucked inside) and a pair in the park across the street and boys' randomly flung wherever they came off of their feet on multiple levels of the house.  And then asking, "What is this?  This is gross,"  to whatever was stuck to the bottom of my foot.

"Mommy, when I grow up, I'm only going to have one baby."

"Well Alida, we all have our plans for our lives."

Easter

Cupcake baking

Our brightest blue smiles for church after attacking the Easter baskets for breakfast.

I'm unclear where they picked up the military at-ease stance for picture taking.

Egg dying

And the fastest, rainiest mad dash of a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt ever.

Nicholas still managed to find the egg with the cash in it during the downpour of course.

And daddy away, working hard in El Paso, or some very far west Texas place of some sort.

Dinner with the Brood

I brought them in for dinner the other night from playing outside.  Nicholas sat down and started inhaling things.  A couple of questions later, it came out that there was a friend "he hasn't seen in years" playing outside that he wants to get back.  So I told him to get out of my kitchen with his bad manners and go play, he could eat dinner later.  These other three jokers filled me in that this was Nicholas's old girlfriend that he hadn't seen in years, and he was going to marry her.

(Yes, Ben is raising his hand to talk.  This is not usual, neither is it usual that Elaine is eating, so we'll chalk it up to a strange night.)

Eventually they all traded places when the girl had to go home.  So Nicholas came in for dinner, and the other three tore out the door. 

Him: "Thanks mommy, for letting me play with my friend."

Me: "No problem sweetheart, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.  What's her name?"

Him: "Oh, I don't remember, and I forgot to ask."

Me: "Okay.  Well if you plan to marry her, as your brother tells me you do, you'll probably want to find that out.  You'll also never land her if you eat with your knees above the table.  I'm just sayin'."

And down slid the knees.

Conversations with Ben

"Ben, I'm going to take a quick shower.  Can you and your brother keep from killing each other?"

"Nope, mom.  We'll kill each other.  I guess no shower for you."