Hot Wheels

So, since Ashley was born, Andy has slowly started pulling out some of his childhood toys that he has been saving "for the kids". The train was first, as some of you may remember. He put it up in Ashley's room for her to enjoy. Here is a picture of her enjoying it.

She may not have enjoyed it enough because it took him until Charlie to pull out the next treasure. Or it could be that Abby seemed too destructive to be trusted with such collector items. Anyway, not long ago Andy got out his hot wheel cars, but his mom has since sold all of the track. (A sensitive subject. Don't bring it up) I can't go into all of the details (mainly because I don't understand it myself) but the hot wheels track that you buy today in stores is just not the same quality of the "original" track. (I believe he described it as "junk") So we put out an APB to our g-sale friends to grab up any of the original track if they found it. Leave it to my closet g-sale friend, Jen, to hit the jackpot. (she claims that she can't stand g-sales, yet she's secretly shopping at them and even having them at her house.) I think the key factor with her is that she is ultra competitive and she can't stand the fact that there is a challenge out there that she isn't participating in. Either way, she called me to say she had found some original track in the original box and she was dropping it by. The killer was that only Andy was home, so when he saw what she had found, it was like he was 8 and it was Christmas all over again. He kept saying "it's the red, white and blue track!" Apparently that is better. I am so a novice in all of this. And mildly bitter since my childhood toy "the kissing game" that used to be the kids favorite is now kicked to the curb. Anyway, it was all set up by the time we got home and Andy was thoroughly testing it out to make sure it would work "for the kids." He and Ashley played with it ALL afternoon. I'm talking hours.

Don't get me wrong, it is very cool. But it's just 2 hand launchers that shoot the cars around the track and you race to see who finishes first. Each lap takes about 2 seconds. 3 hours divided by 2 seconds is a lot of laps. Plus, no one seems to care that the inside lap is obviously shorter and therefore has a huge advantage. I was enjoying their fascination with it at first since Abby and Charlie were napping and I had a lot of quiet time to myself. Then it just got ridiculous. How many times can you crank a little lever to make your car shoot off - right back to where it started? Don't ask. When Charlie got up, he had had it as well. After all, this was supposed to be his toy. He did his best to stop the madness by blocking the track.

It didn't work though. They just used him as an obstacle to add more adventure to the race. I finally peeled them away for dinner, but it was like they had magnets drawing themselves back to it. Everytime I turned around one of the kids would be in there playing with it. (mainly the real kids, but Andy is included in this too) Between bites at dinner, after dinner, when they were supposed to be brushing their teeth, when they were supposed to be in bed. After a million "ok, just one more time" we finally got the kids in bed. Andy went in to "clean up" while I read, picked up, did laundry, etc. Around midnight, I went in to see if Andy was done cleaning up so we could go to bed. Of course, this is what I found.

Apparently racing yourself is just as entertaining. I have to admit, I did pull the shifter once just to see what it was like, and it was eerily addicting. I decline to comment what time of day (or night) it was and how long I stuck with it, but I do understand more now the power of Thundershift 500! Another testimony to this, Ashley had her friend Rhiannon over and they ditched the polly pockets for hot wheels.

They just don't make toys like they did in the good ol' days!

I just showed this to Andy and he said "you should have taken a video. You're not doing it justice." I don't know what to say to that. Except no.

Alarm clock deals 101

So, I've had my alarm clock since high school. My dad got it from work or won it through work or something like that. He got 2 and my sister got to pick which one she wanted first (since she was older and therefore I got the leftovers, as usual. I'm totally over it though.) Anyway, I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. It has a very loud, annoying alarm, but it actually woke me up, so that was a plus. When I got married, Andy made me switch the alarm from buzzer to radio. He couldn't stand the sound of the buzzer. I had to turn the volume of the radio up so loud just so it would wake me, so it was still annoying. But it was still a great clock. About 5 years later the tape deck broke. This only meant that I couldn't wake up to Huey Lewis and the News, but I still loved the clock. Then about a year ago the radio dial broke. One of our daughters, I won't name names, really likes to get into things and she decided to keep changing the dial past 108 or whatever it goes up to, and the clock really didn't like that. So you could turn the tuning knob, but the little stick inside was stuck so you couldn't tell what station you were listening to. No worries though, as long as I had a station that came in clear, I could turn it up loud enough to wake me. Then about 2 weeks ago the snooze button broke. Seems as though it gets used a lot, and it was not an option to go without it. But I was still stuck to this clock. I felt a little guilty getting rid of it and moving onto to another one. Think of all this clock has been through in 20 years! Anyway, the radio slowly died altogether, so unless I wanted to go back to waking to the buzzer (and sleeping in the playhouse) I needed to break down and do it. So last weekend I found an AMAZING deal on alarm clocks and got one for $4!!! Someone might say "it must be a piece of junk", but I say "what an amazing deal". So the first night I set the clock and the alarm, and in the morning it seemed to work like a charm. (snooze button and all) I had snoozed a few too many times, so I got up and got ready and went right into the girls rooms to wake them up. I was feeling especially proud that I was up before Andy because that NEVER happens. So I went into the girls room, opened their blinds and sang some annoying song about getting up, then came out to the kitchen. That's when I noticed something strange. The kitchen clock said 6:12am. (this may be normal wake up time for some of you, but I assure you it is not for me. And if I was up then, I certainly would not wake my kids up with me!) I went back to look at my clock, and it said 8:18am. Strange. I figured I must have set it wrong. I went back to the girls room and shut their blinds (they obviously hadn't taken my wake up call seriously anyway) and enjoyed a couple of hours to myself! That night I set my clock before I got ready for bed, made sure it was correct, and then went to get ready for bed. When I got in bed, I thought it was odd that it took me an hour to get ready for bed, so I timed the minutes. Seems as though a $4 clock has 34 second minutes. Bummer. I still have not decided whether I need to replace this one. I mean, I know I need to, but it's a little disappointing to have one clock last for 20 years and the next one be so short lived. And according to the clock, I got 18 hours of sleep last night! That made me feel rested in and of itself. I'm sure there is a way I could calculate the minutes and set my alarm accordingly for the morning. And there is NO WAY I would be able to calculate "real time" in the morning and snooze until the last possible moment. Could be some perks in this. We'll see.

Abby tales

Just this past weekend, it finally set in that Abby is 3. Granted, she's been 3 for 5 months now, but she's just a different kid than Ashley who seemed 3 when she was 1. Abby seems so much taller than even a couple of weeks ago, her feet are huge (she seemed to have outgrown her size 6 crocs she wears all the time, so we got her some new ones this weekend and she's actually in a 9! oops) and she is getting more and more clever in her speech - catching on to jokes, teasing people, etc. Last night Abby was keeping Ashley awake - again - and it went something like this.

tap, tap, tap

Ash - Abby, knock it off

Abs - I am so sorry

tap, tap, tap
Ash - Abby, I said knock it off
Abs - I am SO sorry

tap, tap, tap
Ash - Abby, if you don't knock it off I'm gonna get Dad
Abs - I am SO sorry

This went on for a good 5 minutes. She knows just how to egg Ashley on (which isn't that tough) and she's very good at it. She'll ask Ashley a question (again, when Ash is trying to go to sleep) and Ashley will answer it and tell her "this is the last time I am talking to you". Then Abby will say "you're not going to talk anymore, just sleep?" "yes, Abby" "what do you think you will dream about?" "I don't know, go to sleep" "You want me to stop talking so you can go to sleep?" You get the point. This goes on awhile as well, and of course Ashley answers each time. We need to tell her that Abby is winning.

Abby's speech is still being refined though. We were in Bend last weekend and Jim brought his fiance's dog over, which the girls LOVED, and Abby spent about 2 hours chasing her around yelling "maggie thit". The dog seemed very confused and annoyed. Apparently she doesn't understand "sit" with a lisp.

She wants to do everything that Ashley does, which includes going to Kindergarten. Ashley has a checklist by the backdoor (with pictures) for everything that she has to do before school (brush hair, brush teeth, get glasses, backpack, socks, shoes, etc). Well, Abby decided it was time for her to go to school (nevermind it was 9pm) and followed the checklist and got all ready to go (except for the pjs). Here was the result:

It was funny. She thought she was going to get to go to school this fall, but I am guessing we will have to nix that plan in light of me staying home now. She'd probably miss me too much starting preschool anyway. Or something.

Life with Charlie

Charlie is changing by leaps and bounds! A couple of weeks ago he started grabbing at stuff (purposefully) which has been fun. He especially loves hair and glasses. He is also rolling over tons so you put him in one spot and come back 10 seconds later and he is half way under the couch. He thinks it's pretty funny. Tonight he (somehow) got/climbed/crawled/wiggled his way out of the bouncy seat. Not sure what term to use because I'm not sure how he did it. He was sitting right beside us at the dinner table and he WAS seat belted in for all you safety police (Erika), but one minute he was sitting there playing in it and the next minute we hear a squeak and he is face down on the patio. It was crazy. Seems as though Abby is teaching him some tricks. The scary thing is that I don't even think Abby was escaping things this early. Oh well. I'll just locked them both up in a padded room. Actually two separate rooms might be a better idea.

Charlie also said his first word! Ok, it was really just a sound, but of course it was da-da. Here is the proof.

Here is another funny video I got in the process. It is a more accurate look into life around here. He goes from happy to mad to frustrated to conked out in a matter of seconds. Awesome.

Not so sly after all

Abby is starting to take after her sister in the sense that she is becoming a paper generator. If I can't purge fast enough with one, there is no way I can keep up with two. Anyway, while Ashley and I were out running errands today, Abby made some "pictures" for me and left them on my nightstand. (She wanted me to be surprised and find them on my own when I went to bed, but she could only keep it a secret for about 7 seconds, so she ended up showing me where she "hid" them) The best part was after I oo'ed and ahh'ed over them and told her that they were so special to me and how thoughtful it was of her to make me SO MANY pictures and how I would treasure them, she looked at me and said, "when they end up in the trash, I will make you more." I didn't quite know how to respond, so I just smiled and said, "thanks".

Busted.

National Donut Day 2009

For those of you TOTALLY out of the loop, today was National Donut Day. (ok, Erika did have to inform me this morning, but on we go) Some of you may remember NDD 2008 which was not so much of a success. I had promised the girls that if they were warriors through the NINE errands I needed to run (I remember because I made such a big deal of it and the girls remind me of it frequently) that I would reward them with a FREE WHOLE donut from KKD. Well, they did rally, but by the time we got to KKD, NDD was over. Apparently some bus drivers got wind of the promotion and started driving busloads through the drive thru. So they canceled NDD. How can you cancel National Donut Day?! Anyway, Ashley was NOT pleased. Abby, I think, was just content that she got a hat.

Being the great mom that I am though, I let them each eat the free sample they were handing out though, equivalent to 1/64th of a donut. It don't think it really made up for much.

Fast forward 365 days later. We did things a little differently today. We called KKD first to see what the deal was. Apparently you have to mention the words FREE DONUT and NATIONAL DONUT DAY together and they will give you a free donut. Easy enough. We were headed out garage sale-ing with Erika and Jackson, so once they got here we voted to hit KKD first because Erika loves free things more than I do - hard to imagine, I know. We hadn't told the kids ahead of time, but once they saw where we were going, they were 100% on board with the plan. The parking lot was not too full, so my visions of having to plow people over to get to the free donuts faded. A small part of me was still holding out hope that it would be mass chaos inside though. Anyway, we stopped for a photo op on the way inside by the KKD van. This is my dream car.

Then we got the deal of the century, 5 variety donuts and 1 large coffee for...

fifteen cents. Score. The kids loved it. Ashley had some chocolate filled gooey something, Abby stuck with sprinkles, Jackson and I got the biggest bang for our buck by ordering the most expensive donut they had (which is actually baked coffeecake) and Erika, being the sweet wife that she is, got a donut which she did NOT eat, and we later delivered it to her husband at work. She got the $1.75 coffee for 15 cents. Apparently the 5 free donuts counted as the purchase necessary for the coffee deal.

Charlie kept popping up in these pictures but was otherwise oblivious to the history being made here. One day he'll appreciate it.

Anyway, we were having huge success and hadn't even hit the g-sales yet! Despite the off and on rain, we found a few sales and a few deals, including these hats which we did NOT buy:

But nothing beat the free donuts.

Summer cuts

The girls got summer haircuts. We usually go to a place called Kids Castle Cuts where they can pick between various cars, motorcycles, whatever to sit and and get your hair cut. Complete with movies, horns and other noise making devices. They love it. Here are a couple of pictures from past visits. This one is of Ash when she was 2:

And Abby at 16 mos:

Funny at 16 mos, Abby already looks "leaner" than Ashley at 2. Keep in mind that the term "leaner" is VERY relative here.

Anyway, the place is fun and all, but it's 16 bucks a pop. I found a new girl that would cut them for $5 each, so I gave them a choice - go to KCC or go to Niina and get to play with her kids, and their chickens and then go to PANERA afterwards. I'm not above bribery - especially when it involves Panera. So, of course, they chose option 'B', which actually turned into haircuts, coffee cake at Starbucks and then hash browns at Arby's. Don't ask, it's one of those where you're driving away asking yourself, what just happened and I think I just got manipulated by my kids. Anyway, here are their cute cuts:

Ashley was VERY excited that her shirt matched the flower pot she was holding. It's all about the hook-up.

Charlie or CPK - you decide

The girls LOVE to share their dress-up stuff with Charlie, and for the most part he really hasn't minded at all. This was the first time he got to sport the treasured wig though:

If you ask me, I think it makes him look like a cabbage patch kid. What do you think?

Did you know these dolls are close to 80 bucks now?? If throwing a wig on Charlie saves us 80 bucks, I'm game - and he will be too. :-)

The park

I took the kids to the park today. It seemed like a good idea at the time, it actually wasn't too hot...when we left. Both girls wanted to bike there, which was fine. Abby decided it was "too hard" to bike home, which was not fine. I didn't carry her bike for her so she would realize what it means to "bike to the park." That includes biking home. A few people walked by us on the way home and just smiled at the sight. Ashley barreling up the hill on her own. 20 feet later me pushing Charlie in the stroller (asleep) and 20 feet behind us Abby crying "it's too ha-wd, it's too ha-wd". (hard) I just smiled at neighbors as we passed. Of course the second we hit the driveway, Abby hopped off her bike and excitedly said, "thanks for taking us to the park, mom! That was fun!"

One picture (ok 2) I will post purely for the MAYS (who are in Kenya a long, long way away), that house on Dellwood that was doing the front yard landscape is now complete! The water feature looks really cool, you can hardly see it here, but it's great.

Here's a picture of the entire front yard:

There's lots of tempting rocks and acorns to throw into the water fountain. I guess they figure their 18 inch fence will keep the likes of Abby out.

We had a nice picnic in the park and Charlie took his first ride in the swing. Ashley had fun pushing him. She is the one person so far that can make him laugh without touching him (tickling). Abby makes him cringe.

And one more picture because I took a million: