I do not like this game

A Christmas Carol

At the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (perhaps the only reason left to ever enter Montgomery).

 

At intermission, a woman stopped and remarked that she was so pleased to see such a lovely group of children.  It turns out that she and her husband had watched us at the restaurant we'd been to just before the show.  We had been their dinner entertainment.  The children looked her in the eye and said hello.  Ben even got up unprompted and shook her hand, said "I'm pleased to meet you."  What a lovely family she said, and we were so proud.

 

And then during the ride home, the children wouldn't stop cackling at themselves while they made jokes about body functions.

 

(Sigh)

 

The Game of Life

There was no minivan option for Ben, who had a set of twins, followed by a set of triplets.

We didn't laugh too hard.

Synchronized Flexibility

I find myself constantly rolling my eyes around here.

Tired

3,000 mile road trip, a week in Minnesota, a few days in Kansas, a business trip to Washington thrown in, pink eye, first day of school, and daddy out-of-town again for a few days. 

We're wiped out. 

And then I lost the cord to my camera somewhere in there and can't get the vacation, first day of school pictures loaded.

Argh.

Sam's Club

Just me and the brood. It had to be done.

That was fun.

Funny to everyone watching us though.

Photo Shoots

This would be more realistic, than the ususal posed group of four pics we flash up here.

Still staged really, just much more accurate in their staging.

 

Even when one tries to smile nice....

The Car Wash

Fun for the whole family now instead of terrifying for the girls.

As we drove out, it started to rain...

Infiltrated

As I walked by a co-worker's office yesterday afternoon, I hear this:
"I've been reading your blog."

Oh.

Oh, well let me explain...

If I'm late to work in the morning, it probably wasn't because I was sleeping.



If I seem too quiet, it is all a reaction to my life outside of here.



Ever notice I don't have a picture hanging in my office of all four of them together?



No, they don't nap on the weekends.



When I make it to work on time, I've probably screwed up.



If I seem too quiet, it is because I'm trying not to whine about my life.



If it seems too clean in here, it's because my house is generally trashed and I'm attempting to stay sane.



No, I haven't slept in over four years.


Remember that week that cookies kept showing up in the break room?


But then they do things like this, and I really don't mind being so shell shocked all the time.

Fake Halloween

I think we had more fun on fake Halloween than we did on real Halloween...

Why We Call You Gentle Ben

What'cha doing Ben?

Giving Bakugon a bath.

By the way McDonalds, when a mother regularly comes through your drive-through (yes, regularly) and orders 4 kid's meals, be nice to her. You know me, I'm the one with the van whose window won't roll all the way down. I apologize profusely every time because I don't want you to think it is some sort of statement of fear of the drive-through workers. It's just that my window doesn't roll all the way down anymore, and I don't want to pay to get it fixed. Yeah, me. When I order 4 kid's meals and ask for 2 girl, 2 boy meals, it means I have 2 girls and 2 boys at home. Do you know what chaos you introduce to the house when you grab into your toy box and come out with different toys for each of them? Inevitably one of the toys becomes a favorite and the other one is deemed crap. Then the negotiations start. That all falls apart after about a minute, and we just run around the house yelling at each other. Yes, me too. I fall in line and start chasing them around in circles like I'm 3 as well. And really, I'm too tired to be doing that. I am chasing them around trying to grab that little bitty piece of plastic junk so that I can threaten to throw it away. Or so that I can actually throw it away--it really depends on my mood. Meanwhile, Elaine has pounded down 2 1/2 cheeseburgers, and once I take the toys away the boys, who were no more interested in eating than they were watching HGTV, suddenly fall into histrionics over their lack of food. So, after the un-cool toy had been deemed junk by one-and-all in the Stuber house, I inevitably have the same conversation at daycare sometime in the following days because some other single child has gotten what the Stubers consider the junk toy but he considers the great toy because that is all he knew. And when he got that junk-to-the-Stubers-but-great-to-me toy, he stuck it in his pocket and hauled it to daycare. And yes, they always get taken away at daycare because three-year-olds do not have the good sense to try to keep their secret toys secret. They will ALWAYS haul them out of their pocket during circle time. And suddenly there is a reconsideration from the Stubers as they deem the junk toy to be the cool toy because Aden had one too. Then I spend that evening digging through abandoned toys looking for the now cool toy that was once deemed junk, and then I remember that I had thrown it out already. So the appropriate thing to do when I come rumbling through your drive through, and I will trust me on that, is to go ahead and have two of every toy you have available ready for us. If it will help I can start bringing a piece of fabric and we can just make a slide from your window to my window to ease the passing of toys from your business to my toy infested car and home.

You Called It Dukes

Our first haircut.

No, not the girls.

This would be Nicholas playing barber to Ben.

Thankfully, Ben has a whole stack of hair, and Nicholas just took a little off the top.
You can hear them nearly chant now: "We will get scissors again when daddy gets back."

Elaine's Turn

Fever Thursday afternoon.

She is home with Grandma Airplane today, who graciously offered to spend her first day of her weekend with us taking care of the girl and working from our house.

And In The Last Hour Of The Last Day Of The Weekend

Nicholas didn't whine.

Benjamin asked to go to bed before Batman was over.

Elaine ate a second dinner.

Alida only washed her hands once.

And they nearly let me get a good picture of all of them together.

The Definition of Stupidity

Fresh peaches from the side of the road and a recipe from Nancy that includes a gingersnap cookie crust.

Top it with sugary goodness.

And watch the table clear.

That's not even Alida; that's Elaine.

And she asked for more ketchup.

Patric did not even make it through his 3 desserts I served him.

Now, if I want to clear the table at the end of a meal, bring out dessert.

If I keep trying to give the dessert and actually expect them to stay and eat it, I have the definition of stupidity.

Some Days

You know how sometimes you walk around with something in your teeth or a smudge on your face and no one says a word to you about it?

Some days, you get in such a hurry in the morning that you go ahead and leave the boy in his pajama bottoms under his clothes. No one mentioned it to us until he showed us later that night. Good grief, it's too hot to be making these mistakes!

The School Playground Two Blocks From Our House

Still as ugly as it ever was.

This Is A Rocket Ship

The crew looks like they are enjoying themselves on their space flight after Nicholas gassed it up and Benjamin fixed some holes in the exterior. The fun lasted a minute before a fight broke out over who would be in the pilot seat. In the beginning it was just Ben's rocket ship. Then Nicholas joined in the back. Then the babies joined and not having the ability to truly understand the seriousness of the matter they climbed in the front, they hit their brothers, they stole the front portion of the rocket ship and attempted to drag it away. And then we all just fell apart. Alida has apparently been shot into space over there.

This is typical.

Typical

Wake up in the morning and wrangle everyone into clothes and out the door if we can in a reasonable time. Every day. Bring home children with messy clothes that have had a blast making a mess all day. Typical.

Come home and start entertaining ourselves. This was a good day when they got their hands on daddy's clothes.

Take Ben to the dentist. Typical. We went last week for the boys' 6 month visit. We went again with Ben this week to the pediatric dentist to have a more careful look at some weirdness that built apparently when he was forming in the womb. Guilt. Typical.

But they have fun. That is thankfully pretty typical.

Go have laser eye surgery. Yep. It's getting typical. Last week he had one eye done. Today he is having the other eye done. The first eye hasn't come back fully so he is anticipating another zap to that eye. So typical.

Typical. Twelve years ago tomorrow we were engaged. And after that one big Valentine's day, the gifts have become, well let's just say, creative and bordering on typical.