Life At The Circus

The latest and greatest tooth pulling episode at the circus was done angry birds style.  Simply tie tooth to bird Pull back and   The result is one very happy, very adorable , toothless grin!

I was an elementary school teacher for 3 years.  We used butcher paper all the time for bulletin boards.  I’ve also seen it cleverly used at restaurants in place of a tablecloth to give a space for the kids to doodle while waiting.  Never… in all my years did I really stop to think why it was called butcher paper.. or what the actual intent of the paper was for.  Scott and I got the idea to get the kids a roll of butcher paper to keep on our dining room table.  The kids LOVE to draw and my girls are always scrounging around for paper or scrap paper to doodle/draw on.  We thought why not keep a roll on our table for them to use?  Sure beats having them write on my blank check book.  I spent some time online looking up butcher paper, comparing prices, sizes… etc.  And I had to laugh when I read this review on amazon for butcher paper.   Finally a butcher paper worth writing a review about! I slaughter almost 2,600 cows a year...

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Since my oldest lost his first tooth , last spring, the tooth fairy has made 4 more visits to the circus.  And judging by the giant front tooth dangling from my oldest sons top row, I think she’ll be back again this week! As you may recall, we pulled my son’s first tooth in a very unconventional manner .  His second tooth was pulled the normal way by dad.  For his third tooth, he was very eager to pull it himself when his grandparents were here, so they could see.  Though he tried, it became painfully obvious that it wasn’t quite ready.  So Grandpa and Grandma had to head home before the fanfare. Which is probably a good thing, b/c it ended up falling out that night when his 5 yr old sister smacked him in the face.  This was meant with tears not over the pain but the fact that during this altercation the tooth was either launched into the disaster zone that is our van or it was swallowed… in either case, it was never to be seen again. A few weeks later our 5 year old started proclaimin...

We had a super fun time at the aquarium today for our tutorial fieldtrip.  And although we’ve taken the kids two other times over the past 7 years, I think they had way more fun getting to go with their friends…which proves Piglet was right, “It's so much more friendly with two.” (or 40) Having gone twice before , I kinda wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I had before… yet, I found myself amazed yet again at the incredible creatures our God has created…and I saw things I have never seen before… My favs… The Octopus… I have never seen an octopus up close before and he was amazing! Check out those suckers!! While I’ve seen a sting ray before, I have never seen one like this.  I jumped and screamed with joy when this guy decided to give us an up close glimpse of his smiley face! Those were my two favorite creature encounters for this trip.   We also got to watch them feed some of the sting rays (another encounter I’d never had before at the aq...

Christmas is without a doubt my favorite time of year.  I’ve already shared in my last post how I love all the things about Christmas.  And I do, even the shopping, baking, prepping for company… I love it all.  In fact when Christmas actually gets here I am always a little sad, because truth be told I love the season, the anticipation, the preparation so much that I am sad to see it end when the actual day of Christmas arrives. But, the thing I love most about this time of year is the carols.  I love, love the words of those familiar carols, but what I really love is the fact that I can be at the grocery store, or the mall and I can hear the name of Jesus praised.   What other time of year can you hear songs proclaiming “glory to the newborn King”  while waiting in line at Best Buy?  I love it!!  This past Saturday we took the kids into Baltimore for some family fun.  I had read about this thing called Tuba Christmas… and I thought “...

Love choosing and cutting down our tree… Love decorating it and passing on the memories to my children of the precious ornaments hung on our tree… Love the wonder of the lights… Love watching them play with toys that only come out once a year… Love seeing them act out the story of Christ’s birth as they play with their nativity sets And this year I love listening to the sounds of Christmas carols fill the house as my son plays them on the piano It really is, the most wonderful time of the year.

This year I decided to follow the example of other friends on face book and post something each day on my status that I was thankful for.  It was a really fun way to stop and focus on giving thanks each day.  I decided to cut and paste my status updates into a blog post for today so I could record these to look back on later.  Here they are starting with today and going backwards to the beginning of November…. Today I am thankful for each of my children and their unique personalities.  I am so thankful for the privilege of being their Mommy. Today I am thankful for toothless grins and visits from the tooth fairy. My 5 yr old lost her first tooth tonight :) I am thankful for my Mom and Dad... for their love for each other and my brother and I as well as our spouses and children. I know I am one of the lucky ones and I truly am grateful for the relationship I have with both of them as well as the relationships they have with my children I am thankful for friend...

My four year old asked for a drink the other day.   I always pour the kids small amounts since we have a propensity to spill things round the circus.  When I handed her the glass she said to me, “Now Mom, that is what I call HALF FULL!”  I couldn’t help but chuckle, guess we know how she sees the world. 

If we gotta rake and bag all these leaves, we may as well take advantage of the seasonal photo op they provide first!