Hanson Party of Five

It's inevitable

Eventually, we're going to have to give in.  As long as we stay in this house, our days are numbered.  It's the car, or the toys.

Most folks in our neighborhood have already surrendered.  They pick one, and leave it to fight against the elements.

We haven't given in yet, but it's a struggle to move between the cars and the house.  It's not just the stuff like the kid's bikes -- it's also the recycling bin, the lawnmower, and the umbrella for the table on the back patio.

I'll give us until June, after another round of birthdays. Place your bets, folks.

Don't tell Josh, but . . .

 . . . I'm starting to think about our trip to DisneyWorld.

You know, the one we don't have planned yet.  The one that is inevitable, regardless of my husband's deepest hopes and dreams.  

Ab heads off to kindergarten in the fall, and we've still got to get through potty training with the twins. After that, the only other issue to overcome would be midday naps.  

So many questions:

-- What time of year do we go?

-- Do we wait until the twins are done with pre-K, before they head off to kindergarten?

--  How many days? How many parks? How many days do we need to recover?

I know there are websites out there dedicated just to this topic, I just haven't bothered to do the research.  Let me know what you think.

Better late than never

There are two days left until we close out the month of January, so I figure I better get on with resolutions for 2012.

1. Stop referring to myself as "Mommy".  

2. Stop referring to the twins as "the babies".

I am planning to reward myself with (at least) 2 dark chocolate peanut M&Ms each time I am successful at this.  Seems to be fair, since the twins (see? eating 2 M&Ms right now) get the same reward for going in the potty.

Change in subject:

I downloaded a PS template, so I'm feeling proud of myself for learning something new.  Anyone out there have PhotoShop vs. Lightroom feedback?  I've been loyal to PS over the years, but I must confess I'm still using PhotoShop CS.  Like, the original.  From 1999.  I'm thinking it's time for an upgrade and wonder what the best option is.

Happy Monday!

 

Still here

Cannot wait for spring when we can be outside all the time.

Also, cannot wait for the teenage years.

And absolutely cannot wait to see what these three are going to do in the next year.  Mostly, get potty trained.  But I'm sure there's some other cool stuff coming, like kindergarten.  But seriously, potty trained.

Mug Shots

From the trip home for Thanksgiving . . .

Sweet Child of Mine

She's just making sure it's done right the first time.

Happy Halloween

We partied last night since that's what our neighborhood's plan was.  Love it when other people make these kind of decisions for us.

That would be a (?) witch, Superman, and a fairy princess getting ready to march up our street.

I forgot that Abby's main focus is to get back to the house to hand out the candy. So, the entire process took us less than an hour and only involved hitting about 5 houses.

The big hit would be the Barbie bubble necklaces our next door neighbor picked out for the girls.

 

Total sidebar here, but a number of older kids came in gangs to our door, with little to no effort of actually dressing up. What's up with that? I asked one kid what he was supposed to be.  "A gangster," he said. Apparently gangsters now dress themselves in letter jackets and baseball caps.  

Halloween candy ain't cheap, kiddos. You're going to have to work to get it from us.

Subtle

I think the look she was going for here was subtle.  Happy Friday!  Do what you want to do.

Hayride

This Groupon we got was for a family of 4, so that meant one parent got to go in the petting zoo (me) and one got to go on the hayride (him).  This was the last of our adventures for the day, and I had gone to buy some apple cider doughnuts while Josh took the kids to wait in line.  

I caught up with them, and when it was time for them to get on the hayride, I had befriended a coworker of mine.  (One of those situations I'm always in, where I totally know the other person's name, and where they (sat in my freshman English class, work and what they specialize in, do their weekly grocery shopping).

ANYWAY, me being the rule follower that I am, we had tickets for 4 people to go on the hayride.  We also had 4 tickets for the apple cannon, which we didn't use.  My coworker called me over, and convinced me to try to use one of the apple canon tickets to get on the hayride with my family.  It worked.  

Apple Pickin'

We headed up north a ways a few weekends ago to use a Groupon for apple picking that included an apple canon (which ended up being too loud), a petting zoo, and a hayride.

Something about this photograph makes me laugh.  She looks so much older than 4 here.

Seriously? This kid . . . if he plays his cards right, will figure out how to get anything he wants.

Wait.  What is that?  Is that ALL 3 CHILDREN LOOKING AT THE CAMERA?  

Photos of the hayride are to come . . .