Fall Into Winter...Already!

With Christmas quickly approaching, the kids have had some festive school projects to create.  In kindergarten, they make wreaths that they can decorate however they want. We made Si's this week.  I thought I'd have to come up with ideas for him, like things to glue on or family pictures but Silas knew exactly what he wanted to do.  He wanted snow on the ground, snowflakes falling and Santa and a snowman.  With the exception of gluing down some of the cotton balls (it was messy) he did everything else himself.
I thought he did a beautiful job!
I love that Silas is taking more interest in art and painting but in pure Silas style though,  he likes to drink the paint water. He really is a nutty child!!

Justin has gotten to go on two fun outings over the last few weeks.  The first was to see a Notre Dame vs. Boston College football game with Kevin.  It was a good game and ND won.  It was pretty cold, just like a November football game is supposed to be!

This week Justin got to go on a 5 day golf trip with Tim and a bunch of other guys.  They went down to Santee in South Carolina and golfed 3 days of 36 holes per day.  I can just imagine the Icy Hot and tired-men-drinking-booze smell filling the air in the condos! He had a BLAST and I was very happy to see him go have some fun after all the long days he's been putting in.

I have been happy to have some good live music to listen to.  I listen to CD101 (now 102.5) and the CD101 Holiday concert was this past week.  I won tickets to see one of the bands playing in the Big Room on Tuesday, so Justin and I went to see them.  There were probably less than 30 poeple in this (very not big) room and the band.  It was very cool. Sleeper Agent was the band.  A very young looking band.  It was a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure we are old enough to be the parents of most of these guys!

That night I went to the concert by myself. Everyone else was either busy or had never heard of the bands I was seeing. It's the first time I've gone to a concert alone and it really wasn't that bad.  They biggest problem was I wanted to keep the spot that I had claimed (open venue, no seats) so I didn't leave to go to the bathroom or anything once there.  I stood up on the 2nd lever so that I had a better view of the stage and it was crazy watching all the young "kids" slam dancing and crowd surfing.  All I could think is how sore they would be the next day.  Guess that shows my age! (though I was never one to get into that anyway).

After a very busy week and weekend, we've got some sleepy people in the house (it's 9:30pm and I'm the only one still awake!).  But I think I'm ready for bed now too.  When did life get so exhausting!?! (I think my answer is when I hit my 40s!)

{PS} - sorry to be such a blog slacker lately - it's so hard to find time!  I promise to try to do better with updates!

Snow Dog, BEPs, Fat Cat and Glam Girls Pictures

This winter is the kind of winter I remember having as a kid - LOTS of snow! Zoe hasn't really wanted to spend too much time outside playing in it. She goes out, does her business and hightails her behind right back inside.

I can't say that I blame her with snow like this. 

 The day after the latest of the big snows, I had tickets to see the 

Black Eyed Peas - they were awesome!

 Miss Cleo has been renamed "FAT CAT" 

And no wonder since this is what we find

around the house...

  

We're learning to never leave any food out on the table, counters, anyplace that Fat Cat is..

The minute that we leave the room, she gets it!

On Friday I was lucky enough to have a case of wine delivered to my doorstep, thanks to Grandpa J.  It couldn't have arrived at a better time - after spending so much time with the kids out of school the past several weeks!
 

Ella soon asked me to empty the box out so that she could 
"make an airplane".

She cut wings out of paper and then taped them up, 
took a piece of tinfoil and cut out a microphone to talk to her passengers. 

  

She made tickets to "the Sun Spa", made a ticket holder to put them in

and also drew a TV inside the box for her 2 passengers, AND 

she served them spaghetti and meatballs at NO extra charge! 

  

She spent a good 2 hours piloting her plane to and from the Sun Spa.

Today she decided that her Barbie needed a bouquet of flowers.

She spent an hour coloring, cutting out and making these flowers.

They are less than an inch long. She took a tissue, twisted it up and put the 

flowers down in it so that Barbie could carry the flowers. 

Not having much patience or artistic talent myself, it amazes me when she does stuff like this!

On Saturday night, Ella went to a Red Carpet gala at Abbi and Alli's.

She got all gussied up in her dress and tiara, spending the evening with the big girls.

  

It was quite chilly but the girls had a great time strutting on the Red Carpet!

Tired Tuesday

Justin and I did a rare thing and went out on a "school night". G Love was playing in town and so we went to see them. We left the house at 6pm and went to Lucky's and had wings and then headed down to campus for the concert. The opening group (The Wood Brothers) went on around 8:15 but we both knew we were in trouble when G Love hadn't started by 10pm - our typical bedtime. They started at 10:15 and were great so we made it until almost 11:30 but did leave before they had finished playing (something I hate to do!).
Some things that make going to a concert like this different in one's late 30s as compared to early 20s:
1. The already mentioned inability to make it all the way through the concert...no matter how good it is.

2. Getting completely skeeved when the hem of my jeans touches the ground in the ladies room (not to mention what my butt is sitting on)

3. Not having the bladder control anymore to make it through the entire concert without having to go to the bathroom...

4. Thinking all evening about how much my back hurts because we've been standing for 2 - 3- 4 hours but then heaving a sigh of relief that at least I haven't been holding a kid or two on my hip as well.

5. Only drinking ONE beer (which kinda goes back to # 2 and 3)

6. Being preoccupied all evening that the girl behind me was about to puke in my hood.

7. The realization that I don't know what 1/2 the stuff written on the bathroom stalls means, kinda like text messaging or IM lingo.

8. Having to text a reminder to my kid at home that he needs to put eye drops in his eyes before bed.

9. There is a 9 but I can't really post it since this is a family blog - but it has to do with the post-concert activities, or lack-thereof...

___________________________________________
So today we were tired and the kids were tired because they stayed up later than usual since Aunt Margie was watching them. Ella and Si didn't go to the sitter today because her son Ryan was ill so they spent the day at home with me. Ella played dress up and tea party quite a bit of the day.
And Silas was exhausted and took a 3 1/2 hour nap so I actually got a lot of work done.

Tonight is my first scrapbooking/stampin'up club at my neighbor's (our old house). We will meet monthly for 6 months and make cute stuff :)