First Day

HT started preschool last week.  He is happy to be back.  At least I think he's happy.  He went willingly and pretty much ignored me once he got into the classroom.  Didn't even bother to tell me goodbye.  He was too excited to see all his old friends from last year.  Thing is, I'm pretty sure they all went onto kindergarten and this year he is in the 3 day a week class rather than the 2 day a week class, so not sure he would have seen those who didn't anyway.  He was kinda disappointed.  He told me nobody would talk to him.  I asked him if that was because they were supposed to be listening to the teacher and not to him.  He grudgingly agreed.  He also thinks that as soon as he turns five he will be going on to kindergarten.  He's the tallest kid in his class again this year and I'm sure the most talkative.

When he got home the other day he told me he had made two new friends and he had invited one of them to come home with him, a sweet little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.  He doesn't get that he can't just do that without getting her mothers approval or for that matter his own mothers.

Goodbye Summer

As I pondered the days shortening and the cooler temps I received an e-mail the other day from Amanda (aka Dumb Mom) about a photo contest featuring our best summer photo.  And I thought to myself, "Now this is something I could do."  After all I have taken a LOT of pictures this summer and some of them are pretty darn good, if I do say so myself (and I'm hoping you'll agree)!

I knew that one of the hardest tasks would be picking out a photo I thought was award worthy.  I picked this one for several reasons, the lighting, the subject and the feeling it evokes and besides it seems to fit with the theme of the contest.

So here's the deal I need your help, my chance of winning depends on how many comments I receive, so I'm asking, begging, pleading with you to please, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top to not leave this here blog without commenting.  Would ya, could ya help a girl out and leave me a comment, "please would ya, huh?"

I'd be very much obliged and you'd have my undying gratitude.

And if you'd like to join in there is plenty of time to do so, just click on over to Amanda's for the low down and official contest rules then link up a fabulous summer photo of your own.  Just so we're clear, read about the contest here and enter your photo here.

*Contest messaging: This photo is being entered in the Goodbye Summer, Hello Snapfish photo contest sponsored by Snapfish at parenting BY dummies.  If voted the best summer picture I will win a photo canvas and other prizes from Snapfish & pBd. http://bit.ly/pRciVU

Sweet!

Hello, my name is Mama . . . and I'm a sugaraholic.

It's not easy admitting that I am addicted to sugar.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?  But if the stuff didn't taste so good we wouldn't eat it.

Or would we?

Hmmm.

It has been days, hours, okay minutes since my last fix.

But, let's not think about that right now, mmkay?

Yeah . . .

So when a dear friend asked if the boys and I wanted to join her on a tour of the Sweet's Candy factory, we said, "Yes, please."

The whole place smelled like chocolate and sugar, sweet delicious yummy sugar and chocolate.

Did I mention the chocolate?

Anyway . . .

On our little tour we got to see how they turn that wonderfully crystalized white confection into all sorts of delightful treats, like jelly beans and taffy and cinnamon bears and chocolate coated creations, like orange sticks and ones with nuts and caramel and nougat.  I didn't see any chocolate coated taffy or jelly beans but there were chocolate coated cinnamon bears.  Enough to send a diabetic into a sugar coma and/or make your dentist a rich man.  We got to watch pieces of peanut clusters get a chocolate bath and see large drums full of taffy being put into bins and taken to the next stage in the process.  They even gave us a little sample.  We then got to see the completed product whiz by on conveyor belts where they were cut up and wrapped then sent off to another conveyor belt to be packaged.  The kids were fascinated.  They make over 100 different varieties of jelly beans and taffy.  They wouldn't let us take our cameras into the factory so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the candy making process, but they do have an online tour here if you're interested.

HT told me he is going to be a candy maker when he grows up.  Apparently sugar trumps medicine, he no longer wants to be his pediatrician.

Bummer.

Aren't we fetching in our candy maker head gear.

HT decided he liked his so well he wanted to leave it on.

Our friend gave each of us two dollars to buy ourselves a treat.  It didn't take HT long to decide on what he wanted, but it cost more than $2, so we pooled resources and bought them to share.

EM was too busy trying to sample every piece of taffy he could get his hand on.

I have obviously passed my sugar loving ways onto my children, not so sure that's a good thing.

Hmmm . . .

A Nostalgic Hodgepodge

It's Wednesday again and I hope you remembered that means it's time for a little bit of hodge and a little bit of podge.  So read on my friends.

1.  Do you think the world became a more dangerous place on Sept 11, 2001 or did we just become more aware of the danger?  How has your own life changed as a result of that day?


Life has alway been fraught with peril.  I think we just became more aware of it, before that day we felt fairly secure here in the U.S. because an attack on our home soil seemed so unrealistic, because we are separated from most of the rest of the world by two oceans.  Unless we went to war with Canada or Mexico it was unlikely that we would ever see an invasion on our soil the likes of which the European, Asian or African continents have seen.  September 11th changed all that.  As a result we have seen an erosion of our personal freedoms, especially when traveling either here in the U.S. and/or abroad, so too has the U.S. been viewed with seemingly more hatred and vitriolic slander and derision than I think ever before.  Historically there has been a rise and fall of all great civilizations and sometimes I think that with the current state of affairs, we are on the downward side of that slope.  Scary thing to think about.  I wonder what the future will bring for my children and their children.  Will I live to see that day?

2.  Do you think your parents were too strict when you were growing up?  How about in hindsight?


No, I was and still am a rule follower (mostly).  I am also an introvert and was a very introspective child and sometimes I think I grew up in a fog of my own making. My siblings talk of things that happened and that I was a part of but I have little or no memory of the event.  Mostly what I remember are the one on one times with my parents or with one of my siblings.

In hindsight I would still say no.  I would be interested to know how a few of my siblings might answer this question.

3.  Share one random but candid fact about yourself.


See #2.  Read this article about being an introvert awhile back and found myself nodding in agreement through the whole thing.

4.  Would your nearest and dearest describe you as simple or far too complicated?


Yes.  Again, what would my siblings say?

5.  What is your favorite stadium or carnival food?


Not sure I have a favorite and you certainly couldn't call cotton candy food, but that was the one thing that my parents would treat us to when we went any place like that.  So I have fond memories of sticky colored spun sugar on a paper stick.

6.  Tornado, hurricane, earthquake . .  how many of these natural disasters have you experienced?


I live in a mountainous desert so tornados are rare and hurricanes are nonexistent but we are sitting along the wasatch fault line so I have felt my share of tremors and we did have a tornado come through the center of downtown in 1999.

7.  Labor day weekend is approaching so a work related question seems appropriate.  Growing up, did your parents assign regular chores?  Were you paid for doing those chores?  If you're a parent do you assign chores to your own children?  Why or why not?


Yes we had chores and no we weren't paid for doing them.  Our payment was room and board, not that our parents would have kicked us out.  We did get an allowance for a while, but it wasn't based on whether or not we did our chores and ended sooner than I would have liked.

At 4 and 1, I have not assigned specific chores to my kids yet but I do make them help clean up the messes they make.  They have been nicknamed "Mr. Twister" and "Dr. Destructo" for good reason.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.


Since we are reminiscing . . .

This is a picture of one of my brothers, me and my only sister the summer before she started kindergarten and my earliest memory is one of me standing on the couch with tears in my eyes watching through our big picture window as my mom walked my sister out to get on the bus to go to school.  I didn't want her to go and wondered why I couldn't go with her and I remember my younger brother trying to console me and my pushing him away in disgust.  When my mother got back into the house she found him on the floor in a puddle of tears and me sobbing into the couch cushion.  Why is it that first memories are often traumatic ones?

Anyhoo . . .

I hope you all remember to leave me a comment and then head on over to Joyce's place for little more hodge and a lot more podge.

HT's Camera

Two Christmas' ago I bought HT a Fisher Price camera and today I decided to see what kind of pictures he's been taking. The quality is what you'd expect from a toy camera and the shots are about what you'd expect from a 3 - 4 year old. There are a couple of pretty good shots mixed in among the others.

An early shot of HT's feet.

Early shot of Papa.

More recent and better shot of Papa

Me - the instigator of this infamous blog and his favorite Auntie.  =)

Brother

Mama

Starbucks friends

The tree next door

His trains

His Grandpa

The neighbors

His favorite cup.

There are many more pictures of half eaten banana's, the stairway, the floor, the tv, his portable dvd player, and the people in his life. It's actually pretty amazing the shots this kid takes with a crappy little camera. I think he wants to take his mama's job as the blog photographer one day.

~Charmings Auntie

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I'm back.

Did ya miss me?

No.

Is it because you didn't even know I was gone?

Ah well . . .

I came back to over 100 blog posts waiting for me in my reader. I am not going to get them all read, just so you know.

Bet you're just dying to know where I was. If I tell you, you'll just get all jealous and we wouldn't want that now, would we?!

But I can tell you we didn't buy a fat pig.

Nor a fat hog.

I will however show you a few of the pictures I took.

Had a lovely visit and brunch with family in Minneapolis.

Relaxed in Grandpas hammock.

Watched the clouds roll through the late afternoon sky.

Played "King of the Hill".

Hitched a ride.

Read stories with Grandma.

Watched a dragonfly play in the lilies.

Caught up with old friends.

Went to the races.

Managed to get one photo of the four of us together.

Found a comfy spot to watch cartoons.

 Enjoyed a garden in full bloom.

Pontoon boat ride, fishing poles and one on the line.

Flittering butterfly in a field of daisies.

Afternoon spent reminiscing over times past.

Went fishing.

And went fishing some more.

A summer vacation at the lake never disappoints.

Hated to say goodbye.

But home beckoned.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

{Pretty}

Evening light filtered through Japanese Maple tree in the back yard.

{Happy}

The delight in the face of my son as he watched a dragonfly dance overhead.

{Funny}

Sometimes a bucket makes for a nice hat.

{Real}

The reality of not getting my boys to cooperate and sit still long enough for me to take a picture and having them both looking into the camera and smiling, not such an easy thing to do.