The Stuber Family Turkey Project

Ben's assignment: disguise his turkey with his family (I guess to save him from becoming a feast).

Everyone pitched in, and while I admittedly generally feel annoyed by this kind of stuff wriggling its way into our evenings, this one was fun. They all had fun with their different tasks and were really proud to take it in to preschool the next day.

When Ben marched in the next morning, the first worker we met asked him about his turkey, and he started to describe everything we had done. And then Nicholas jumped in more loudly and more quickly to finish. Ben automatically shut down and let his brother take over.

Then Laura asked Nicholas to politely be quiet and let his brother finish.
Nicholas stood like a cartoon character ready to burst with the need to provide the presentation as Ben stepped-up and finished what he was saying with a smile and excitement that we rarely get to see.

I am SO glad they are in different classrooms in preschool, and I hope it continues on through all of their school days. No, I will insist it continues through all of their school days.

It Is Legal, Right?

Aside: I read once that if your kid falls asleep immediately in the car every time you drive off, she probably isn't getting enough sleep. If she falls asleep, and then you heave her out of the car, and then she continues to sleep in your arms when you get to the park even though it is freezing and there are kids running around screaming and even poking at her, I think it's safe to say the girl needs to go to sleep at night.

On to matters of legality.

I have an obsession of sorts with finding the perfect school playground in our area.

They are always empty on the weekends.

(Nicholas rethought launching himself off of this.)

We found one last weekend, and the kids loved it.

Oh, Alida, you woke up. Join the party.

But I always have this little walk-a-mile-with-me speech prepared and waiting for the moment the police drive up and tell me we can't be on the school property or something. I think it is the absence of other people that makes me think we're breaking a rule I don't know about. But they're open (we don't go if we have to jump fences or anything), and I do pay taxes, so it's legal right? I just never see anyone else there...

Yes, she is running around the park with a play hammer. That might technically be legal...

The Saturday Outing: That Was A Brilliant Idea

Friday: We drove. We drove. We drove. We drove.

To get to this.

But it turned out to be this.

Still looks nice, but when you wind down the day huddled in the bathroom making strategies for the weekend to keep from waking the children after driving 8 hours across the state, it is disappointing. Never mind that we had to turn on the air conditioner because we were literally sweating sitting in this room. (I know I'm a fan of cold, but even he was getting angry stewing in his own juices. We considered not even putting pajamas on the children.) With no separate bedroom as we had requested and a gigantic family size jacuzzi tub IN the room with us with tiled, hard-edged stairs around it waiting for someone to crack their head open, we decided to abandon the very touristy Pigeon Forge the following morning.


But not before making a stop in the bit more lovely Gatlinburg to see some sharks. It was cold out and a group hug was in order as the ticket master demanded military id cards for all five of us huddled there. (Yes, five. Benjamin did not grow another pink arm.) After Patric nearly jumped the desk, Ticket Master let us get away with adult id cards for entry. And I will say, $9 for a family of six to the aquarium is a pretty darn good price.

And we stumbled upon these guys right inside the door.

And more.

And that was awesome. This time Benjamin was the only one willing to participate in my hopefully group of four shot.

Sharks. The highlight for me.

And then we stopped and saw Santa.

That's enough for that tradition isn't it?

And after saving money on the second night in the hotel, we let the children pick out something in the gift shop. And THAT kept them happy for about five minutes.

And then, we drove. We drove. We drove. We drove back.

And 15 minutes from our exit the Interstate stopped and the low gas light blinged on. And we sat for half an hour with a flood of toys, angry children, and thoughts of having to walk home. So we turned around, made it to a gas station, and put 19.2 gallons of gas in our 20 gallon tank. Yikes.

And Saturday evening we made it home and tucked everyone in and were so very glad we had the return trip out of the way.

The Saturday Outing: Target

Me. Four kids. Where do we go? Where do we go?

Target of course.

Where I can get a cart that will hold all four, make a stop at the dollar isle first thing, and feel like I've accomplished something even if I didn't let Ben get the Spiderman shoes that he was still talking about this morning and opted for a basic blue tennis shoe instead.

Can you find Elaine in the mess?

The conversation with Patric on the phone going to Target:
Guess what we have?!
What?
A Panera Bread!!!!
Guess what I have?
What?
Representatives from The First Army right here.
Yeah, yeah. We are getting a Panera!
To the side: My wife is a bit excited that Memphis is getting a Panera Bread.

Note To Patric: Don't answer calls from your wife when you are meeting with important people.

That girl was a bit tuckered out by all of the shopping.

It's going to get a bit worse as Operation Bottle Drop began last night.

And like some people we know, we're gearing up for Christmas.

Okay, maybe not as quickly as those people.

My Pre-schoolers

Yesterday my boys joined the ranks at daycare of what they call "pre-schoolers." Transition is complete, and they are off and running. There hasn't been a single potty training accident at school since we started wearing big boy pants a month ago, there is handwriting curriculum, and Benjamin exclaims at least once a day now that he is a "big boy." Stop. Did I just say handwriting curriculum? Are you kidding? They are 2! I know, not for long, but technically they are still 2! Yet here they come every day with sheets from school where they have been tracing letters. They purposefully sing the alphabet. They count things. Last night Benjamin was looking at a shark book and explained that the whale shark does not have big teeth. (I'm so proud of my shark lover--he may have got some coaching along the way...)

And then this. As we picked up our mound of papers yesterday (really daycare, we don't need two of every announcement for their class and four of every announcement for the daycare. We just don't.), out fell two envelopes. Our first birthday party invitations. After I finished snickering because the party was for Jack and we were to RSVP to Jill (I take my amusement where I can), I started wondering who in this mass of people was Jack? They've been in this class officially for one day, who is Jack? Was I supposed to learn every one's name that fast? The boys have only recently started referring to their classmates by name and the girls are still "baby."

And then I noticed the date of the party. Oh good, we'll be out of town. My blood pressure over my many opinions on this issue can lower. For now at least.

It's Coming, I hope

Even if it was probably too warm for jeans on Saturday and the sun was shining and being near the water didn't bring even a hint of a chill,

we are beginning to see signs of my favorite time of the year.

And these little guys are just waiting for a Saturday football frying pan with a little cornmeal.

But if it keeps up the way it has around here, I will resort to turning down the air conditioning some more and creating a false sense of Fall in this house if I have to.

Eat Your Veggies Please

I apparently have a bit of an obsession with corn on the cob. I cannot resist a display of it at the store, pulling back the stalk a bit to pinch a kernel and see if it shoots juice in my eye.

Then I know I must load my cart.

So what could be better to top off an oh-so-healthy meal of corndogs, peas, and Honeycomb (yes, Honeycomb. I typed that right.) than corn on the cob on a cool September evening? Hurrah for having the necessary teeth to jump in ladies. When they are teenagers, I imagine it will take a very large pot to prepare the twelve plus ears that we'll go through in one meal.

Did I Already?! Um, YEAH...

As the exhausted children went to bed on time without vomiting nor complaining. I tore into that box that had been sitting there. As a model of efficiency, I made my own didn't-pay-a-million-dollars-to-Starbucks-iced-chai and THEN I changed into my perfect for relaxing Quintons T-Shirt (and started getting hungry) and THEN I took in the rest of the care package: breakfast M&Ms, double packages of Double Mint gum, and yeah, she even thought of the children with some treats for the maniacs. Then an e-mail of thanks, and she wonders did I really already make myself chai? Um, yeah. I was already on my second by that point... Thanks Dukes. But don't worry, I will still be getting my coffee exclusively from here. My mind is trying to form a Quintons/J&S/Chai bar in my neighborhood that would be hooked to the daycare with a drive through at the moment.

Later: Why potty training two with two in the wings is complicated, to put it mildly.

SHARK WEEK!

Thank you Gracie for remembering that it is Shark Week all week long!