A Day of Gross

Today was a strange day.

It all started with rain. Boy was that unexpected, but sooo welcome. I miss having weather changes.

As I was rushing about completing 50 tasks at a time I heard James say " Oh Tella, what have you done?" And then start laughing. I stopped my hurried preparations and saw this:

A cream cheese facial. It was bad! She rubbed it in GOOD. It was so stuck in her eyelashes I'm sure there is still some in there tonight despite my vigorous wiping and bathing. Gross.

Then, due to Capri's recent obsession with spiders, my mom brought over a dead tarantula for her to examine. You read that right. My mom. Brought over. A dead. Tarantula.

What? Your mom doesn't do that?

Just kidding.

Where'd she get it? Oh, just from their new church.

Apparently, they've got quite a pest problem there. If I remember right, they've had two scorpions, a mouse, and now a tarantula walk through their bible studies.

She's got some of the church family on a mission to capture a live one now.

Please, no.

GROSS.

Capri is begging for a pet spider. I'd rather not. James keeps catching spiders and putting them in tupperware for her. Gross. She's so obsessed it's all she wants to talk about. I cannot have any more conversations about spiders. I just can't.

I prefer these kinds of pets:

the stuffed kind.

So, the rain continued, and as I was making dinner I had three little bodies begging me to go outside in the rain. I couldn't believe it, but, they each had a raincoat! Not that they needed it, it was really a warm rain.

So, out we went. Twice actually... once before dinner, and again after.

Please note JD's shoes. They are little rainbow flip flops. You'll understand why in a minute.

As if spiders weren't enough - they moved onto snails. At one point Capri had like 5 of them crawling all over her arm. Disgustingly gross.

If you wear rainbow flip flops outside in the rain they dye your little feet an ugly dark brown that is near impossible to get off. Gross again. Lesson learned.

this pic is after vigorous washing. Still gross.

I hate spiders, snails, and everything like them. I'm not afraid of them, just grossed out.

Aren't you? If you're not, I think I can manage to have a dead (maybe live!) tarantula delivered to your door. Interested?

What 4 yr old boys want....

....they get! Motorcycle bikes with homemade training wheels!

Doesn't he look like a big boy?

He can just barely reach the pedals now, but at the rate this boy is growing the bike will be the perfect size next week! =)

Fresh Bread

While cleaning out a cabinet the other day I came across a cookbook for a bread machine that my husband's grandma gave me an embarrassingly long time ago. The machine had just seemed too daunting! BUT when I looked through the cookbook and saw how easy the recipes were, and that I had all the ingredients on hand, JD and I decided to try it out.

Here he is hovering over the machine, hopeful that it will work. I was sure it wouldn't.

It just seemed way to easy. Easy doesn't always equal awesome.

JD's view through the window. Sort of a blurry view, but you get the idea.

And tah-dah ! It worked! And was fantastic! And it was so easy! This nifty little machine did everything for me.

Oh the possibilities!

Look at my proud little boy with his very own parmesan herb bread!

In this case easy did equal awesome!

Ten on Tuesday.. featuring a Fresh Look

1. We were out late at Jessica's wedding last night. It was soo beautiful, and soo much fun. The kids had a blast dancing and taking funny pictures in the photo booth. Capri did great as a flower girl too. Pics to come.

2. That lovely wedding last night did provide a lovely little meltdown for Capri as we were standing in line for school. She threw her backpack and kept collapsing to the ground and giving me nasty looks. Can't say I didn't see it coming. Did I mention today was school pictures for her too?

3. Dare I discuss the weather recently? I can hardly believe that we are having this great cooler weather. Usually bout now it's hot, hot, hotter than anything, and, that HOT usually comes with a good dose of dry, drier, or driest, air. That hot, dry heat is easily my least favorite part of living in CA.

4. Yes, Jersey is hot. Yes, Jersey is humid. But I'll take the hot & humid over my face shriveling up and my nose bleeding every time I walk outside. Not even gonna mention the chapped lips and headaches. You know what I'm talking about unless you live on the beach.

5. Somebody turned 4.

and he had one awesome pirate party! Mommy's a little sad because he already seems a lot bigger. Four just seems to old for my baby boy.

6. Tella fell face first onto the concrete this morning, with her hands behind her back, leaving her no opportunity to brace/stop the fall. She was walking with a hula hoop behind her and tripped. It was awful. She has a huge black bruise on her forehead and a couple of scrapes on her face. Just awful.

7. My 30th birthday is this weekend. My hubby got a party together for me and I'm really looking forward to it. The party that is. Not turning 30.

8. I'm dying for the first couple days of October, when I get to go on the Pastors' wives retreat. It's my favorite 3 days of the year, except for when we get to go back home to NJ to visit, then those are my favorite days of the year.

9. Guess who's in the midst of a hair crisis again. Fortunately, my mom gave me a quick trim and dye, but that was just a temporary fix. Wish I was a hairstylist.

10. This is what Capri's hair looks like when she's done swimming:

If only we could dip her hair in the pool before we went to school. Then her hair would look great all the time!

The Cobby & the 3rd Day

Donatella has taken an interest in the "cobby". Or, as you & I might call it, the potty. Well, adults really don't say potty, but just go along with it.

She likes to just sit there. Sometimes for extended periods of time. When I try to get her off she shakes her little hand at me and says " I no want it." In other words, leave me alone.

There hasn't really been a whole lot of success. BUT, she stays in one place, and for a few minutes isn't causing trouble or being wild. So, I'm going with it.

See my new shower curtain? Everyone hates it but me. I think it's nice.

Anyway, it's Capri's 3rd day at KG today. I don't think she's diggin' it. Especially this early morning business. When I woke her up yesterday and told her it was time to get ready for KG she said " Mommy! I already did that yesterday!" In other words, she wanted KG to be a one-day deal. No such luck, and she knew it. She does like her teacher though. And she made a friend called Gia.... and I like Gia's mom! Hooray! Gia's mom has a 4 year old son too.... playdates on the horizon! No 18 month old wild child in Gia's family though. Bummer.

We're off to Sea World this morning. JD's BFF is meeting us there. Should be good!

The 1st Day of Kindergarten

Capri's first day of Kindergarten got started a little late this morning. It's going to take us all a while to get back into a routine after the craziness of summer. Here she is ready to go!

(I know it kind of looks like her hair is wild. Believe it or not, I blew her hair out the night before and flat-ironed it this morning with some nice product. The headband gave her a ton of confidence due to it's "sparkliness" so it is what it is. Plus Capri loves wildness, so I went with it)

A quick pic with the little brother....

Not so happy to pose with Mommy....

Can you tell this Daddy loves his daughter?

And that the feeling is mutual??? She's looking up at that Daddy of hers in this picture...

She hopped into line and stood there perfectly still. Can you see the nervousness in her face?

A little unsure! She was quite serious the whole morning.

Here is her Kindergarten class & teachers. Fortunately there are a handful of boys that she knows from last year. Apparently, one of them fell out of his chair and under the table today, which according to Capri was hilarious beyond words. I hope Henry thought so too, though I doubt it! Poor Henry!

Saying bye to Daddy.

And here she is when I picked her up! A happy successful Kindergartener! She said to me regarding the whole thing " I wasn't mad. I was happy!" She also said " mistakes are OK in Kindergarten". Pretty deep for the first day right?

We went for lunch and frosty's at Wendy's after school. This is what I got when I told them all to look and say cheese!

In case you didn't know. Backpacks are not only good for school use, they also make great mouse pilgrim habitats. How funny is that?

In my opinion Capri is a rockstar. And she had the cutest shoes in her class. I'm just sayin'.

Tomorrow she stays 'til 2:45. I don't think I like that. I wonder if she will? It's so cliche to say, but I can't believe she's big enough for this.

Anyway.

Here's hoping tomorrow morning runs a little smoother. Though if I have to be honest, the problem this morning was me. This ridiculous lions mane of hair I have going on takes FOR-EV-ER to dry. Forever. Lesson learned, shower and do hair the night before. Duh.