Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

Well, it seems I’m running about a week behind. I’ll catch up eventually…right? (Someone please tell me it’s possible – I hate being so far behind!) Last week, on November 5, our fabulous Caleb turned eight years old!

Caleb is one of the most wonderful kids in the world. He’s smart as a whip (sometimes TOO smart!), funny, loving, sweet, a fabulous big AND little brother, a talented artist and athlete,  incredibly hard-working, and he makes me SO proud EVERY day.

So, what did this Great Eight-year-old want to do for his birthday? No big parties for him this year. He wanted a semi-extended family (meaning me, Daddy, his brothers, and the grandparents and great-grandparents) dinner at Kobe Steakhouse in Addison. He’s definitely our budding foodie, so this wasn’t a surprise.

Some fun candids from our Kobe dinner

So, we all met up at Kobe Saturday night – Caleb, Sam, Jacob, Daddy, me, Granny, Grandma and Grandpa Guess (a write up of their visit will follow soon, I promise), Grandma Daneman, and Zayde (unfortunately  Bubbe wasn’t feeling well, Popi couldn’t make it into town, and Grandpa Daneman had an important schedule conflict).  Granny brought the cake and we all pigged out on amazing food! We all had a fabulous time.

So, Caleb, thank you for being the wonderful kid you are, and for letting me share in your life for the last 6 years. You’re already growing into a fine young man, and I know you’ll do wonderful things in life. I can’t wait to experience it with you!

It’s November 9, so that means it’s time for a Halloween post, right? Oh, yeah…sorry…such is the life of a busy working mom.

However, we did have a fun and fabulous Halloween, complete with pumpkin searching:

It's almost as big as Caleb! (sorry, folks, we didn't buy that one)

No, Mommy, it's not a pumpkin, it's a BALL.

And what’s the point of having pumpkins if you’re not going to carve them?

The boys did all their own pumpkin clean-out and carving. Dad just helped cut the tops open with the big knife.

And, the finished scary pumpkins!

Sorry it's a little blurry, but aren't they awesome?

The pumpkin artists (and their puppy dog):

A rare photo where Jacob is smiling, but nobody else is.

And a quick recap of Halloween night:

The big boys were with their mom, so unfortunately I don’t have any pics of all three boys together in costume. She did text me individual pictures of Jacob and Caleb in their super-scary costumes, but I’m having technical difficulties finding posting them.

Sam went trick-or-treating at Lily’s house, our friends Brett and Makala’s house, our friends Dawn and Chris’s house, and our two neighbor’s houses (Reuben and Dina and Adam and Blair). He had a good time, I think. At times he seemed overwhelmed, but he never screamed or cried. And the big kids who came trick-or-treating at our house were all really nice and nobody tried to scare him.

We had a successful Halloween, I think. Next year will be even bigger and better, I’m sure!

Oh, and just for your viewing amusement…here’s the Halloween night aftermath (and I didn’t get him dancing around in circles on camera, bummer) – I promise he got NO candy that night! (Pay no attention to the piles of laundry in the background…and yes, I am the great and powerful Oz.)

When you combine:

One brown sweatsuit (size 24 mos)

Several pieces of craft felt:

Some tan-ish curtain tie-back cording:

And a semi-cooperative 18-month old?

Why, just the MOST PRECIOUS puppy dog (or, as Sam says, Say-Say) EVER

And one more (for good measure) from the school party

Yes, he's wearing his Rangers cap. He wanted it on before we left for school and refused to take it off. 🙂

Tonight was a big night for Jacob. It was his first band concert. (The first of many, I hope!) J is in the Trombone beginning band class at Tidwell Middle School and they had their first performance tonight.

Now, they’ve only been playing their instruments for about 6 weeks, so we had no idea what to expect. I thought the directors did a really neat job of things. The kids were all set up in their sections by class. Each class played by itself. The directors said a little something about each instrument. Then they had the kids demonstrate the mouthpiece sound, a note or two, and then they played a short song. All the kids did great, and it was cute to see them so excited. There’s a huge group of kids in the beginning band classes, and I’m really looking forward to the December concert (December 14, 2011 – mark your calendars) when they’ll all play together.

So, without further ado, here’s the video I shot. (Forgive me for not taping the whole thing; I stuck with taping who was most important to me. 🙂 )

Tuning Up:

Trombone Class:

Oh, and here the program for the night:

And a shot of the back, where the students’ names are listed (I’ve covered up all of them but Jacob’s name, for security, of course):

Yesterday morning when I dropped Sam off at school, I noticed a sign on the door asking for candy wrappers (by Wednesday) for a special art project. Now, I bought Halloween candy at the store on Saturday, but threatened everyone (read: Daddy and myself) within an inch of their lives if they got into it early. (Hey, Halloween candy is expensive, and we ran out of $60 worth last year in probably an hour!)

But, this is a SCHOOL project. Who am I to stand in the way of a SCHOOL project, right?

Diet? What Diet?

Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard…but who am I to stifle creative genius due to lack of supplies?

Fancy stuff, eh?

Well, this really will come as no surprise to my readers (because we all know my children are like Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect In Every Way), but there’s an official “Kid with Character” at my house!

Caleb was named the Granger Wrangler Kid with Character for his class in the first six weeks. This is a big award – only one student per class is selected each marking period for being an exceptional student academically, but also in terms of citizenship, and the school makes a big deal out of it. This year, they even get yard signs!

Really, he's excited about the award!

In addition to this fantastic award, Caleb was also on the A honor roll, had perfect attendance, was on the “bell-to-bell” list (at school every day from first bell to last bell). Way to start out the Second Grade, Bear!

**I would be remiss if I didn’t note that BOTH Jacob and Caleb have received this award in the past, and we are exceedingly proud of both of them**

That my kids are smarter than me. Caleb and I were watching Jurassic Park today. I’ve seen the movie easily a dozen times; it’s one of my favorites, and I still jump every. single. time one of the dinosaurs jumps out. Caleb barely bats an eye at the dinosaurs jumping everywhere and eating things. I asked multiple times if the movie was too scary for him. “No,” he’d always say, and go back to watching the movie in silence. Then, in the scene where the two kids run into the kitchen to hide from the velociraptors, I hear his voice say, with derision, “They can smell you, you know. They’re MEAT EATERS.”

Yep, my kids are smarter than me.

Several weeks ago I was at Walmart getting some much needed alone time groceries when I happened to stroll through the fabric department. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, but I like to just browse sometimes. In the remnants section, I found this adorable fleece print, and wouldn’t you know it? It was the PERFECT size for making a tie (no-sew) baby blanket.

Last week, I was at Hobby Lobby. I really went there for some plain brown fleece for the backing of the blanket and, well…I might’ve come home with that, AND the makings of two more blankets (one more no-sew tie blanket and one easy-sew blanket)…and new fabric scissors and a fall outdoor wall decoration…wait, where was I?

Now, I’ve made tie blankets before, but it had been a while, so I needed a refresher. I did a quick Google search and found a ton of great instructions. I think they worked great – it turned out super cute!

I must admit that when I first bought the fabric, I was planning on making the blankie as a gift, but then Sam decided he really liked the “Say-say” blanket and I realized I’ve never actually made him anything. So, well, forgive me, but…

Yep, that's my baby hiding under his Say-Say blankie.

Oh yeah…I mentioned the makings of another tie blanket, didn’t I? A friend of mine is happily expecting a baby girl in the spring…She’s doing a non-pink room, so when I saw this fabric, I thought it would be perfect. I think she liked it, too!

As for the other stuff I purchased on that Hobby Lobby trip, well…that’s for another post. 🙂

It’s just a fact of life that when you have kids, you have colds. Sam and I have been fighting one for more than a week now (combined). For the most part, he’s been a real trouper, never letting his faucet-nose stop him for a minute. Then, this weekend (of course when my symptoms REALLY kicked into high gear), he started running fever…and he was pretty pitiful. He’s taken two naps a day. He’s woken up at 4:30 the last two mornings needing baby tylenol. He has wanted to cuddle (the ONE benefit to baby sicknesses–cuddly babies). So, I’m sorry I haven’t gotten more posts up this weekend, but I’ve needed to give some extra love to my angel. And in the morning, I’ll be calling school to let them know Sam won’t be there, and then the pediatrician; two days of fever makes me think it’s not just a cold anymore. I think we may be looking at the season’s first ear infection. 🙁

(On the upside, I think I’m on the downhill slide of this crud…though I think Daddy may be catching it now. How does he always holds out longer than Mommy on these things?)

Over Labor Day weekend, (yeah, yeah, I’m late posting – what else is new?) the 5 of us took a road trip to see my family in League City! Jacob doesn’t get home from school until after 5, so we decided to eat dinner and take our time getting on the road to let some of the traffic clear out. And yes, we were hoping that at least one of the monkeys would sleep part of the drive! (Success on that, by the way.)

We had such a grand time! Don’t believe me? See for yourself!

Swimming with Grandma

And, of course, if one is swimming, one must have sunscreen, and thus, sunscreen hair

And, of course, naked booty snack-time on the patio after swimming.

We also managed some time at the beach house, for the Treasure Island fishing rodeo potluck and awards ceremony.

They had a dunking booth (click on the photo to see a slightly larger image)

And trophy presentation! The Brandt boys CLEANED UP with two trophies EACH!! (Again, click on the photo to see a slightly larger image)

In all this excitement, we also still found time to take Sam on a walk, rescue a lost dog (sorry, no pics of him), get in some fishing (well, the big boys did, not Sam and me), and do a little house hunting with Lynne and Chris (FOR Lynne and Chris – no rumors starting here). All in all, it was a FABULOUS weekend. It was the perfect combination of relaxing and busy, and the boys had a blast. As always, I had a hard time not tearing up when it was time to leave. What can I say? Even all grown up, I miss my Mommy and Daddy!