blah..blah..blog

I am completely exhausted and my house is a bit of a wreck. We have had sickness from a wee lil sinus infection, to random "fancy france" rashes, to full on pneumonia up in here. Clearly the only thing for me to do is to ignore my stack o' dirty dishes and randomly decide to get on some blogging. Plus I had a wee bit of Binky amusement that was just a smidge long of a Facebook status so here I am...

So when Jake and then Ben both passed out on the couch, Josey went to his room for yet another round of Lego building, and Adam (the most recent wearer of the pneumonia badge round here) was in bed I decided to watch my taped episode of The Office before tackling our lovely Halloween themed mess.

This particular episode was about Micheal thinking he had herpes and trying to figure out who he got it from (if you watch the Office you know it was of course hilarry, if not trust me it was and by the way you need to get on some Office watching).

So I watch the entire episode completely uninterrupted (!) and then as it goes off out of nowhere Ben perks up and asks "So did he ever find out who gave him the hippies?". Yeah, Ben sleeping, not so much. I can only be glad he is a frequent mispronouncer. I told him Micheal was saying heebies, short for heebie jeebies and someone was just really "creeping him out".

On a side note Jacob has informed me that his favorite color is no longer red. It is "round steak".

Christmas 2009

Krabby Patty...yum

This is a wii pez dispenser, shoots out candy, sweeet

Ben surveying his stocking loot

I didn't force them to do this, I swear

Josey still has a wee bit of his space obsession left

I DESPISE this game, clearly Ben does not

Jakers has a bit of his mama's "sleeping with the enemy tendencies"

You'd think he'd appreciate it and quit messing with my cans

Glow in the dark stars and planets

The only thing Jakers asked for for Christmas -

"Triceratops cake!" I found this wee one with a Santa

on top and replaced it with a couple triceratops(es?)
He was very very very happy with it

Who wouldn't want a giant grasshopper

Legos, legos, and more legos - what I want to know

is how is it possible for such itty bitty insanely easy to

lose bits of plastic cost SO much hmm?

Thankfully so far he hasn't shot his eye out

We now have a laundry basket full of dinosaurs

So I have always always always wanted to have a Halloween party but with Josey's birthday being in October it was just not going to happen. But then two things happened. First Joseph decided to wait until November to have his birthday party so he would be able to have a firetruck come (it wasn't working out for October). Then one of his friends (and her mom) asked me if I could do a Halloween party. Um yeah!

So here tis'.....(hopefully with more pictures to come)

First they made a science goggle craft.

Then we had pizza and drinks while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas (which is the very best Christmas movie ever by the way).

Then a wee walk through the "Creepy Kitchen" -

In case you're curious - spaghetti & jelly = guts, cauliflower soaked in water and smeared with jelly = brain, peeled grapes smeared in jelly = eyeballs, two peeled roma tomatoes smeared in jelly = lungs, pebbles in liquid starch = teeth in spit, cornsilk = hair

After Creepy Kitchen they each got a sack and two glow bracelets to go through the maze. Inside the maze were 5 spots that they had to stop and pick up 6 different little glow in the dark critters (snakes, scorpions, ants, centipedes, etc.) from before they could exit.

Unfortunately I found this cage the day AFTER the party

The right hand is a glove so I could grab their hand when they reached in it to get a bug

Amy was also in there chasing them around with a freaky alien costume. Jacob did not like the maze. I played the X-files theme song for it and even just that creeped him out.

But onto the games....

The first game was Spider Web - They had to start on one end and move their spider ring through the web to the other end where it was attatched to their goody bags

Then they sat in a circle and played Love Potion #9. They passed around 4 little jars of ingrediants - Wax of ears, Tongue of Snake, Feather of Vulture, and Eye of Newt. When the music stopped anyone that had an ingrediant got to add it to their bottle. First one to complete their potion (John) won a mask. Everyone got little Love Potion #9 tape gum.
Next was Pass the Pumpkin - really simple one, when the music stops whoever has the pumpkin opens it up, picks out a Halloween eraser, then goes and sits on the step, the last person left (Josey) won a little grim reaper candy head thingy

Then they split up into two groups.

One group played Build Blood - Each jar already had plasma (light corn syrup). They had to follow the poster and add with tweezers 10 red blood cells (hot tamales), 5 white blood cells (mini marshmallows) and 10 platelets (sprinkles). The winner got a vampire rubber ducky.

The other group played two shorter games - Straw-o-lantern where they had to pick up the different parts of the jack-o-lanterns face with a straw and place them on the right spot. Everyone got to keep their straw and the winner got a jack-o-lantern rubber ducky.

Then Macaroni and Teeth where they had to find three of their color of teeth in the colored macaroni. Everyone got gummy Pirate's Choppers. After both groups played both games the two winners from Mac & Teeth (John and Gracey) played each other to win a vampire sucker.

Pick a Duck - they picked I think 3 ducks and added up the numbers to see how many candies they got to pick from the Candy Drawer. If they got a duck that said Prize they won a pencil

Here's the candy drawer post party - clearly they are not big fans of banana laffy taffy

Rats in Trash - They got one candy for each rat they found in the trash before the timer went off. The winner (Ben) got to keep the big white rat and then everyone found one rat to keep.

Eyeball Toss - For each point they got to pick one piece of candyfrom the drawer and the one with the most points (Avery) got to keep the ball

Next were the three blindfolded games.

Digging for G0ld - I cut off little chunks of red, blue, green, and gold crayons and mixed them in with some nice lil snotty slimey goo. They got different points depending on the color.

Pin the Brain on Jane - Everyone got to get a skull sucker from Ned's Head and the winner (Gracey) got a squishy skull

Everyone got to pick a skull sucker out of Ned's Head

Can ya Catch a Pumpkin? - Whatever number was on the pumpkins they caught were how many candies they got to pick out from the drawer

Then there was the Knock 'em Down which Jake and Emily kind of made up one day. I set the witch up on the rail trying to decide where to put her and one of them threw something at her and knocked her down. Add a few more things beside her and there ya go, another game.

The last game was Assemble the Assistant - there was one rhyming clue for each kiddo to find two hands, a head, two eyes, and a heart. They added each part to the "body" on the couch/lab bed and then went outside to flip the switch. So of course whiles they were outside Adam put on the gloves and mask and such and replaced the body. We turned on creepy breathing on the mp3 player, uncovered him, he jumped up....and Ben for one totally freaked out. He went running screaming back and forth in the maze, till I grabbed him and said It's Daddy. "Oh".

Assistant Assembled it was time to go outside to the Laboratory -

Being the Nutty Professor or whatever and all I took zero pictures of the experiments. Adam was my designated picture taker but he was inside putting Jakers to bed so I'm hoping someone at the party maybe took some they'll send me. We shall see...

Here is the list of the experiments at least (most with Steve Spangler video links)...

Safety/Do Not Open bottle - poke holes in bottle, fill up with water and close, write DO NOT OPEN on bottle, water stays in bottle until you open the top, I did my whole lil you have to listen, don't do anything I say not to do, etc., then said I was thirsty, should I drink it? http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/do-not-open

Lava Lamps - http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/bubbling-potions

Runaway Pepper - this one you just sprinkle pepper over a bowl of water, stick your finger in and nothing happens but when I stick my (dipped in dish soap) finger in the pepper "runs away"

Nutty Balloons - aka screaming balloons http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/screaming-balloon-demo-video

Diaper Science - This one was by far my favorite. First just like in the video I had 3 cups (one had the polymer in it) pour water in one, move them all around, ask which has the water, you turn them all upside down and nothing comes out of any of them because the polymer powder has turned the water into gel, the look of total confusion on some of their faces was great but even better was the diaper. I showed them my measuring cup with nothing but water in it, let them watch me add the yellow food coloring into it before I poured it into the diaper but still a couple of them would not even touch the thing. I thought it was hilarious. http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/the-baby-diaper-secret

Oobleck - just the classic cornstarch and water, feels solid then liquid

Goo Jiggly - kind of slime then turns more into a gooey jiggly ball

Gas Bags - Put a small ziploc of vinegar in a big ziploc with baking soda in it, pop open the vinegar bag, shake and the bag poofs right up http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/experiment/puff-pop-how-to-make-a-co2-sandwich

Blow up Balloons - vinegar and baking soda again, vinegar in the bottle, baking soda in the balloon, attatch the balloon to top of bottle, pour in baking soda, watch the balloon blow up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmzBf3XGsOE&feature=fvw

Alka Seltzer Rockets - can't believe how simple this one was, 3/4 full of water film canister, add 1/2 tablet of alka seltzer, put on lid, shake, set down, move back, watch top pop off http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/experiment/00000068

Volcanoes - the classic vinegar and baking soda experiment, I had my big one that the boys and I made over the summer, and they each had their own mini volcanoe

Mentos/Diet Coke Geysers - short but sweet http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/mentos-fountain

Ze end (in weird mad scientisty voice of course)

Oh and pictures of the boys in costumes are here: fentrio.blogspot.com (my ramble-free (for the most part) photo blog, because two blogs is better then one..or something)

it's a facebook status morning

After I added my really really long facebook status this morning I decided it was really a bit more bloggish than statusy, so here it tis...

Lisa Aleman Fenlaw
Jake pulled Ben's glasses off and threw them in the gutter at the bus stop - ran back to the house thirty-two pounds of terrible two in tow, threw every item out of the dress up trunk to find no lil robot grabby thing in sight, hightailed it to *Read More* ...the new playroom which is currently two-thirds playroom - 1/3 toy dump, dug through said dump, finally found grabby thing, hoodlum Jake into the stroller, motor back down to

(I had to comment on my status to fit this all in)

Lisa Aleman Fenlaw
the bus stop - the boys having already been picked up of course, park Jake in the grass next to stop sign, lay down on side of the road and stick head down in the gutter, my own glasses almost fall off, decide to keep head out of gutter which leads to feet in the road, get hold of glasses just as I hear car, decide I value feet over glasses, sit up... *Read More* till car passes, find I have knocked glasses out of side, decide to stick head back in minus glasses - cant see, glasses back on, flail grabby thing around in gutter till glasses come back into sight, grab glasses - another car, sit back up, see the boys bus has made the turn around and is headed my way, hope feet remain intact - stick them slightly in the road, grab the glasses, jump up and wave at bus driver like a maniac, run out in road, hand bus driver glasses through the window - ridiculously overpriced robot arm thingy - $16.99 - spending the morning with your head in the gutter and feet in the road - ah, priceless

awesomeness

This past month has been purty stinking good to me. It can possibly even justify my extreme overusage of the word awesome. I don't even know where I picked that word up but I can not stop saying it. So what is so awesome you might ask? (Or you may not ask but me being me, I'muh gonna answer anyhow.)

First of all this was getting so long on just the first thing I was rambling about that I went ahead and gave it it's own lil post (http://pbrambly.blogspot.com/2009/08/visit-to-our-own-world.html).

Second awesome thing this month, I won twenty dollars. Ok, that's maybe more swell then awesome. I won it for being runner up for Birthday party idea of the month. I'm not gonna lie I was really really hoping to be the winner and so kind of bummed out about the runner up but I read the winning entry and I have to admit it's pretty stinking swell. Still, I have won three times before, twice actual winner and once for runner up but when I was the winner the prize the first time was like 20 dollars and a certificate for ice cream, the second time was either 25 dollars or three birthday/recipe books (I chose the books), this time the prize was 50 bucks. I really wanted that fifty bucks. But ok, its just an honor to be nominated or some such thing right? By the way, fyi to any of ya'lls that don't know I totally want to be a childrens' birthday party planner when I grow up. Oh, also if you're interested, here is a link to my runneruppy idea - http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/new_reader_ideas_3.html and pictures are here - http://fentrio.blogspot.com/2009/06/bens-6th-birthday-may-31-2009.html. And the winner's idear is here - http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/winners_0.html.

Ok, awesome thing number three, if you don't know I'm obsessed with Twilight. I stinking love Twilight, and I am very very much Team Jacob. As such I designed a whole bunch of Team Jacob tshirts and whatnot on zazzle.com www.zazzle.com/teamjacob108*- It's very nifty because all I have to do is put the shirt up for sale, they make it, they ship it, I get a 15 percent royalty. It's not nifty in that it takes ages and ages for them to actually pay you. But I am due for my first payment, 47.27 this week and have 19.66 earned towards my next payment. So basically I'm getting paid (albeit very belatedly) for loving Twilight.

Which brings me to awesomeness number 4, which happens to be my favorite number and very very very very stinking awesome. A few battery charging hours from now I'll be able to add a photo to my very awesome, very autographed TwiTour poster. Did I get to go to TwiTour or TwiCon or any of the like? No. Does that royally stink? Yes. But do I have the most unpsycho bestest most awesomest sister-in-law ever? Um, yeah I do. Though I know in reality she actually came to Texas to get her 100 Monkeys concert fix, I like to think she came just to hand deliver my poster to me. I may or may not have gotten a lil flipped out, I'm really not sure, but there was very nearly tears, and there was definitely hugging involved, it was not pretty. So I now have a TwiTour poster with photos and autographs of...(Hi Lisa -) Billy Burke aka Charlie aka Bella's dad, (To Lisa - ) Ashley Greene aka Alice Cullen, (To Lisa...) peter Facinelli aka Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Catherine Hardwice aka the twit director, and Holy Stinking Crow! (Lisa I *heart* U!) Kellan Lutz aka Emmett ridiculous hotness Cullen. How happy am I about this? So happy that I am also about to be the not very proud owner of an autographed Iron Maiden poster hanging in my living room. Whatever Adam, tape your silly lil poster up. It's not like anyone will even see it with my on the shelf with a wooden and brass apple autographed awesome TwiTour poster.

Overuse of the word awesome justified. Awwwwesome.

*Batteries charged*...

visit to our own world

So Adam got switched back to night shift. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bummer.

He "temporarily" started having to leave for work at 4:30 pm and not getting home till 6am when Ben was a baby. Ben is 6 folks. Temorarily my boot. But whatever, I goes with the flow. Or something. Make it work (oooh when will project Runway be back?).

Then school started and night shift it just flat out sucked. The boys would barely get home from school and it'd be time for Adam to leave for work. If it wasn't for their car rides to and from school he'd basically never see them. Stink suckitty stink stink. But there again, we just kind of got used to it and hey they did have some interesting little doozies of conversations on their lil car rides.

Then Adam got to switch to days and he was getting home right after the boys, they were on the same school night bedtime, up early on the weekends. I never realized quite how much I hated nights till he got switched to days.

Then bam the LeBus gods frowned down upon us this summer and tada Adam's back on nights. A big stinking ack and phooey on that. But then as the boys and I stayed up later and later to catch some time with Dadam, Josey had a straight up brilliant idea.

Back in the day those hours were pretty sweet. Midnight grocery shopping, hide and seek at 3 in the morning, when we'd go out to eat or to a park it'd be nearly deserted because of the hour, it was just this crazy magical feeling of just us. I was telling Josey about those times one day and he said I wish we could do that now so *poof* the fellas and I officially switched to the night shift.

We have gone out in the pool at midnight, drawing with chalk in the carport at 2am, Spongebob Bash till who knows what time in the am, charades at 3am, brownie baking at 5am, some just regular ole boring stuff made ridiculously swell just because of the hour. We went to a yard sale at 7am the other morning, then got a late breakfast/supper at McDonalds before finally going to bed at 9am. We went to the last show of G Force the other night and were the only ones there (we may or may not have danced around like maniacs, talked really loud, and let Jake run around all over the place just because we could). To quote the always brilliant Josey "it's like it's our own world".

There have been two downsides to these hours though. For one, woohoo, the boys are up late too so we can do all kinds of stuff with them is also um yeah we can't watch this movie because it has bad words and the whole crew is awake. But clearly some of Josey's brilliance has worn off on me because I have ever so brilliantly created Kid Island. Kid Island is a king size mattress on the floor of our bedroom. The fellas have a plank (aka broken closet door) brought in onto the island. On Kid Island nights only they are allowed snacks and drinks in there. The first time Kid Island opened I was trying to get Jakers back to sleep and I heard Adam back there talking all pirtey and talking about loot and swashbucklers. He took them their drinks in a little wooden treasure chest. Once I got Jake settled he took them a "little stowaway". Meanwhile over on Grownup Island no one is fake coughing to cover up unexpected curse words. No kids are allowed on Grownup Island except in an emergency or Kid Island gets shut down. It is totally completely awwwwwwwwwwwesome. So problem one, solved.

Then there's woohoo, we're the only ones up, very cool on the weekends but on the weekdays when Adam is at work and the fellas and I are homebound its no we can't call so and so and no no one can come over an no we can't go to the library. But alas just as that one is really starting to stink Adam is supposedly getting switched back to days next week. It's midnight now and Jake went ahead and went to sleep (after pouring out a bag of shredded cheese in the hamper) and the boys look like maybe they could go any minute, so it looks like we are all headed back to the real world.

Thriller

First Josey spotted a single glove on the dining room floor. Then he felt a chill and couldn't stop dancing. Then Ben realized *gasp* he was wearing white socks (for anyone that knows Ben, the sock thing is pretty weird, he normally wears patterned and purposely mismatched socks). That's how Josey knew for sure that we were being haunted by Michael Jackson.



What really scared them though was a commercial for Uncle Ben's rice. They've never heard of Uncle Ben's, I'm a Great Value gal. All they know is there were all kinds of boxes of rice (Ben LOVES rice) and the word Ben on the television. Apparently Michael Jackson loves the way Ben dances so he sent him a message.



I didn't actually think they were serious about the whole thing until Josey flipped out over the shadow of my vacuum.



It was a little Off The Wall.



...when I googled Michael Jackson discography to find material for my ridiculous closing pun (at least I decided "Pretty Bad, but nothing Dangerous, mostly just a little Off The Wall" was a bit much (yet still feel the need to type it anyway)), I found this album cover -