G-Man's Most Special Day

G-Man hit a milestone in life: baptism. Since this is such a major event, that nearly all of the extended family on both sides came down for the event.

But the main event was the baptism. I am so proud of my oldest and the choices he has made. The best part is that the water level in the baptismal font was so low, that G-Man had to lay flat, and I had to push his feet under the water to get him fully immersed. But still, a memory to cherish.

Halloween, 2010

Halloween: Best time for a sugar high and the resulting crash.

G-Man wanted to be a ninja for Halloween. He has to clarify when people ask that "it is a red dragon ninja." Yes, you have to be specific with him.

Kiwi has to be something really girlie, of course. She was a Fairy Queen or Fairy Princess, depending when you asked and if G-Man was around. We forgot the wings for actual trick-or-treating, so mostly it was a princess. There isn't a picture of the hair, but trust me, there was much screaming involved, so it was ornate. :)

Mr S was very adamant about not getting his costume on when we were getting ready to go to the trunk-or-treat. Once we got there, he was willing to put it on, for the sake of getting candy. The tradition for the boys is to be Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.

And last but not least, our cutest candy-grubber, JW. Who knew Skeletons could be so darn cute? I think he senses that he wasn't going to get any candy.

G-Man's 8th

G-Man finally reached the ripe old age of 8. We had a minor party at the house on his actual birthday. He got the first part of his present: bedding for a reptile or amphibian, TBD. A trip to PetCo give a frog a leg up on the competition.

His real party was with friends on the Friday following. A pizza party at Peter Piper Pizza. I don't think I have every seen a group of boys burn through game tokens so fast!

The best part of the party was that G-Man and one of his friends ended up getting sick. That is a real party.

Late Night for G-Man, 2010 Edition

G-Man got his first taste of procrastination tonight. He "forgot" about an advertisement that was due tomorrow. Trying to get him to spit out the details of what he needed was like pulling teeth. First it was just advertise anything. Then it was something to sell. Then it was you have to sell that thing. And, at the last minute, he remembered "And we have to have a store name." You can see the addition of ".com" in little print under the title. Before we got to pasting them on, he said "can I go to bed now, and you finish it?" I love my new procrastinator!

Weekend Away, 2010

The family all took a short weekend away, to the north west side of town. Even though it is still in the metro area, the drive still takes 45 minutes. As far as you can get without leaving town.

As is the rule when staying in a non-home location, the TV must be on, and must be watched at all times.

The "highlight" of the trip was a visit to Biosphere 2. Granted, there was much talk of "I'm bored" from Kiwi and a few incidents of Mr S doing overly dangerous things (did I mention that he almost ran into a well of water? that got everyone's attention.)

Way fun to spend time doing nothing at all with the family.

Yummy!

Chad's parents sent us a box of these for fun a few days ago, so of course we had to try them. It was like Russian Roulette with Jelly Beans. There were many nasty faces made, and a little bit of retching in garbage cans. Poor Seth loves Jelly Bellys , and it was kind of sad to see his happy face slowly turn to one of revulsion as he spit the offending bean into a napkin. We had a lot of fun. I think for the next extended family gathering I may mix a box of these into a Costco size container of Jelly Bellys and sit back and wait. Beware the Jelly Belly jar next time you come down mom!

80's Movie Memories

I really get a kick out of introducing my kids to things from my childhood. Especially movies. We watched a lot of movies over and over and over again growing up. My mom worked nights so daytime during the summer was a free for all while she slept.

The best thing about these movies was most of them were recorded off the TV. There were often scenes missing because someone forgot to turn off the pause button when the movie came back on after the commercials. There was also some fabulous dubbing. I remember we used to mock the recording of Back to the Future 3 we had because we could clearly read Michael J Fox's lips while the dubbing said "Crap."

Here are a few of the movies I have fond memories of and my favorite lines from some that I remember:

Short Circuit: "Number 5 is alive" "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?"
My kids watched this on Hulu a month or so ago. They loved it. This is one of my favorites.

Karate Kid: No memorized line, but I can't count the number of times I re-enacted the crane kick at the end. It was so fun to watch this with G-man at see him get so excited when "Daniel-son" won the karate match.

Princess Bride: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" "No more rhymes now, I meant it" "Anybody want a peanut" "Mawwiage, Mawwiage is wot bwings us togever today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dweam..." I could continue quoting this part for quite a while. Another one of my favorites. I think my love for medieval dresses comes from this movie.

Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea: I still have to watch this one every now and then . And read the books. I always wanted to change my name and put an "e" at the end so I could be Luanne with an e.

Return of the Jedi: I think we watched this all the time because of the Ewoks.

Back to the Future 1,2, and 3: I want to know where our hoverboards are. 2015 is only 5 years away.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit: No quotes or explanation as to why we watched it all the time. That movie is a little dark for kids.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Who didn't love Indian Jones?

Man from Snowy River: So Beautiful. I went through the love of horses that many girls do when I was 9 or 10. I loved this movie. And the music.

So far we own most of these and my kids have watched them. I need to get my hands on '*batteries not included' to show my kids. They would get a kick out of the cute little robots.

Some other ones we watched were: Darby O'Gill and the Little People, The Gnome Mobile, the Journey of Natty Gann...

I'm sure there are some movies I've forgotten and there are many more classic 80s movies I haven't included. Our movie choices were limited to whatever happened to be playing on Disney's Sunday night at the movies. So I didn't get much variety. It's crazy how much of my childhood was spent watching the same movies over and over again. Kids are weird.