Finally an update!

Our new computer is ready and all set up, just in time for the holidays and cute videos like this.  The boys' Preschool Christmas Concert was last night, and I'll leave you with a taste of it before I'm able to post more later.  Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Well, the home computer finally died.  We refuse to be too upset about it since we knew it was coming and prepared - no sudden death where you lose all of your important documents because you haven't backed up in several months.  Still, it's frustrating and we had no idea how much we used that computer for all kinds of things until we don't have it; it also explains the lack of blog entries, which I'm sorry about.  But Black Friday and Christmas are coming. In the meantime, I'm using Tim's work computer and will just have to delete all of the pictures when I'm done.
In the meantime, we had the annual Thanksgiving feast at the preschool, one of the best events of the year.  It's about eating.  And fun decorations from made by the kids. I think that's a great perk to having kids - tons of table decorations!  Liam made a turkey, and Micah made the teepee in the background.

Here comes Liam, ready to eat - after he finds us, that is.

And next came our Indian brave!

His Indian name?  Written on his shirt.  Appropriate, don't you think?

Happy Thanksgiving to me and Liam!

And then we ate.

And ate some more.

And double-fisted the remainder of the meal.

Can't forget about dessert.

Daddy says we take this picture of him wearing Micah's hats a lot.  Well if you're an adult and you can fit into it, I think that warrants a picture, don't you?

One big happy Thanksgiving family!  Well, except for Micah, who insisted on sticking his tongue out.  I think it was Meatloaf who sang, "Three out of four ain't bad", or something like it.

Things to Do in Tampa When it's Hot (Still)

The last week has been beautiful here.  Not traditional fall, but beautiful.  Chilly at night, warm during the day, and much lower humidity.  So while much of the north is preparing for a winter storm, or still dealing with the consequences of the season's first, we thought we'd take advantage of such a great day and wash the car.  Any excuse to get the hose out and spray one another makes our boys excited.  Like Christmas excited.
Here's the dirty car.  Hard to tell, but the car was so filthy that I actually used it to help keep track of my laps around the block when I was running on Friday.  All I had to do was keep tally with marks on the dirty back windshield - an even lower-class way of writing "Wash Me", if such a class existed.

Micah taking his turn,

and then showing Liam how to do it.  I was impressed that Liam had the hand strength to do it all by himself, but he did, and wanted "No help, Mommy".

I'm not sure how much of the car he actually rinsed, but he looked the part!

When washing a car, it's very important to not just rinse all areas of the car, but also the driveway underneath the car, which was very soapy.

Look Mom - bubbles!!  Seriously, nothing makes this child happier than bubbles.

It might be Thanksgiving, but around here, we've got a lot of ham.

I've heard it said that you will always remember the first time a boy gives you flowers.  Well, I'm not sure I remember that, but I will always remember the first time Micah, on his own, picked me a flower and brought it to me.  Here it is.  And when he gave it to me, he said, "I know your favorite color is purple, but this is yellow."  I told him, "Mommy loves flowers of all colors."
But I love even more the heart of the little boy who handed it to me.

By the way, the lack of blog posts is not due to lack of trying to post.  Our computer is dying a slow death, and has begun to refuse to perform certain activities.  Like upload more than one photo at a time, if it decides to upload at all.  Or allowing me to browse the internet for more than 90 seconds before freezing.  Or turning on - that's the latest game. It turns on, but won't send any signals to the monitor.  We're holding out for Black Friday sales, so bear with me and keep checking back - I'll update as often as the computer lets me!

A Halloween Theme?

Yesterday was the Halloween parade at preschool.  Lots of cute kids in costume - and some teachers too!  Here comes the Director, Ms. Kathy, leading the way with (appropriately) SuperGirl.  And look who's coming down the hall behind them!

Immediately upon seeing me, Liam starts to cry.  And it quickly turns into sobs, which brings memories of last year screaming back to me, literally.

Halloween 2010.

So I handed the camera to Tim and did what I did last year at the daycare - I marched in the Halloween parade with my crying kid..

At least someone was happy to see us!!

Here's the 2-year-old class picture with all of them in their costumes.  God bless Ms. Pam (red bandana) and Ms. Stephanie (black bandana) for trying to calm Liam down.

Here's Micah's class with his bacon (Ms. June) and egg (Ms. Michele) teachers.  I think it's the first time I've ever seen bacon upstage a train.  But then again, bacon does make everything better.

We also went trick-or-treating to a few neighborhood houses that night, as well as driving to a few friends' houses to show off our trains.

Off they go, with Daddy in tow.

Finally, a little video to close out Halloween 2011.  It's video of Liam trying to catch up to Micah and Daddy.  What's not on the video is Liam assuring me that he would "be back later, otay?"  Then I remembered to turn the camera on, and if you listen closely, you can hear him saying, "Wait me, brother, Daddy!"  (For those that don't know, Liam refuses to call Micah by his name, only ever calling him "brother".  We have no idea why, but it's pretty endearing.)

Trunk or Treat

If it's Halloween, it's Trunk or Treat at First Pres!

This year, the boys wanted to be trains for Halloween.  Both of them.  I have spent the better part of a month trying to convince them that they want to be any of the other five costumes I already had from prior Halloweens, yard sales, herniated belly-button surgeries, etc.  But there was no swaying them.  So we faced up to the challenge.  The end result?  You be the judge.  But since I don't rate myself as very creative, I look at these pictures and think that it's actually pretty amazing what you can do with a cardboard box, some paper dishes, an oat container, a can of spray paint, some ribbon, glue, and a $2.50 can of blue paint from Lowe's. Oh, and two borrowed engineer hats.

We have to work on getting Liam's to stay up better in time for the parade at school tomorrow.  And don't you love how his engineer hat is a little ghetto, all off to to the side like that?

Gettin' some candy.

Some people went all out and decorated their cars in a really cool way.

At first Liam couldn't seem to manage maneuvering in his train costume and holding his pumpkin.  But as soon as he realized that's where people put the candy, he figured it all out.

People were really creative in their costumes.  Here's a refrigerator.

And Flo, from those great Progressive commercials.

Just like last year, there was a cake walk.  Just like last year when Micah won on his first try (believe me, not everyone wins), Liam won on his first try at the cake walk too.  This is the cake that I brought (the pretzels were just there to hold up the plastic wrap that covered the cake)...

...and this is the "cake" (actually five giant cupcakes minus the one Tim has already eaten) that Liam got to bring home.

Micah, sucking on a lollipop and picking pumpkins from a bucket while Harry Potter looks on.

Happy Halloween!  More pics to come from the parades and parties at school tomorrow...

Scary faces - or future dental bills

For the record, I think this was a peanut butter and banana snack one night.  At least, that's what it looks like...

Touchdown, Steelers!

Start 'em young!

Dinosaur Fun Courtesy of Half Off Depot

I'm not sure who originally thought of the Groupon, but he should be rich, if he's not already, for this fantastic brainstorm. I get several of these offers a day from different groups and most of them are junk.  Really, how many massages and facials could one woman get, even at half price??  But every once in a while there's a gem.  We got a fantastic deal on Liam's big boy mattress.  We go to the movies for $20, which includes a large popcorn and two large drinks.  And then, at the beginning of this month, there was this deal for Dinosaur World.

Dinosaur World is an attraction that's about 20 minutes from our house.  We pass it all the time because it's on I-4, the main drag from Tampa to Orlando. Micah went once with some friends about a year ago but the rest of us hadn't gone.  Frankly, I didn't want to pay full price to go, but then Half Off Depot said we could go for $4/person - meaning Micah, Tim and I could go three for the price of one. (Liam's still free.)  I thought I would buy it for a Christmas present for the boys, but then after I purchased it, I noticed that the expiration date was October 31 of this year.  Not so much working for Christmas.  So in our crazy busy October, we squeezed in a visit Dinosaur World on a beautiful "fall" Florida afternoon.

First up was the fossil dig.  Every kid gets a sifter and a small container.  Then they get fifteen minutes and sift through the sand to find three fossils.  They actually find a lot more, but they get to keep three.

Micah finding some good ones.

Liam got the hang of it too after first trying to just play in the sand.  They each walked away with a shark's tooth, a fossilized clam, and a fossilized piece of plant.

Then it was off to walk around and see the dinosaurs.  I have to admit, it was kind of cool.  Not annual-pass cool, but cool just to see the size of what the dinosaurs might have been.  Some were disguised in plants,

some were already fossils in the ground,

some were in the water,

and some were terrifyingly close to us on land.  Don't worry - Liam and I scared this one off with a roar, while Micah covered his ears.  I don't blame him. Our roar was pretty scary.

He got into it at the next dinosaur.

The T-Rex was pretty scary up close,

especially as close as Liam got!

Wooly Mammoth Micah and some orange dinosaur Liam.

In the middle of the park was a boneyard with a big dinosaur skeleton buried in sand.  If you could deal with the hundreds of mosquitos inside, you could use brushes and shovels to find the skeleton.

Our archaeologists.

Getting to "roar" inside a dino head.

Monkey see, monkey do.

We ended the afternoon with a visit to the pumpkin patch.  The boys each got to pick a pumpkin.  Liam picked the little one in his hands.  Micah picked one similar to the one next to him, so it's a good size pumpkin.

Next up? Carving the pumpkin!