The Little Things - Like Cars

I feel like I've been really slacking in the blog department lately.  Part of it is my hormonal-writer's block.  But another part is that in the evening - my usual blogging time - I'm just so exhausted and/or busy, so I don't even think about blogging.

Anyways, I'm trying to get back in the blogging habit.  And one way of doing that is to start recording the little things again.  Funny things the kids have said and done, things I've noticed in life, weird stuff strangers say to me at the store... that sort of thing.

**True story: yesterday at WalMart a lady assumed that I only had two kids because just Tess and Cole were with me.  I told her I actually had four, which is why I had so much milk in my cart, haha.  She seemed to take offense with this and tried to convince me that her two kids drank more milk than my four.  Okay, lady, whatever.  Didn't realize it was a competition.  (And if it were, my kids would beat yours under the table.  Take that!!)**

Anywho, today I was looking for something to occupy Tess and Cole, who have seemingly lost all ability to entertain themselves now that Spencer and Josh are back in school.  I just needed an hour to work on a paper I'm editing.  Inspiration struck while I was looking for something out in the garage.

Yes, we have a basement filled to the brim with all sorts of awesome toys, but what keeps my kiddos occupied for a good 45 minutes?  Leftover, dusty boards.

Tess eventually got her own little board, but she started with books.  (These were obviously NOT the same and NOT good enough, which is why she got a board later.)

I even let them color on the boards, but the car racing was the main thing.  Everyone had to count backwards from 10, including me, which made editing a difficult proposition every 39 seconds or so.

Spencer and Josh are going to a birthday party this weekend and I'm having a hard time trying to find a good gift.  Think a 9 year old would like an old board?  (Haha.  No.)

Hee Hee

This is what you get when you walk around sucking on a ringpop that looks like a pacifier.

Favorite Temple Quotes

No, these are not quotes about the temple.  These are quotes said by my children while we were in Chicago yesterday to go to the temple.  (2.5 hour drive there, 5 hours in Chicago, 2.5 hour drive home.  There's bound to be plenty of notable things said by both parents and children...)

Spencer
We're outside on the sidewalk in front of the Glenview Target.  He's waving his arm frantically around and whining and crying and carrying on as if he were a 3 year old instead of 9.

Me: What is wrong with you, Spencer?
Spencer: It REALLY hurts when I do THIS!!!!

He proceeds to poke the elbow he skinned the other day in a tragic swing set accident.

Me: Then Don't. Do. That.
Spencer: But... but... Josh keeps doing it to me!
Me: Josh is nowhere near you.

Spencer pokes his elbow again.  He starts freaking out again.

Me: Dude. What's wrong with you?
Spencer: It hurts when I do THIS!!!! (He pokes it.  Again.)
Me: There are some things mothers obviously can't fix.

Josh
We are in the Glenview Kohl's.  (Hey, I had a $10 off $10 coupon that had to be used.)

Josh: I'm sooooo sleeeeepy!  Can I take a nap?
Me: Sure, you can take a nap when we get back in the car.
Josh: No, I mean right now.

He then lays down on the floor next to the line we're waiting in to check out.

Me: Get off of that floor.  Gross.
Josh: I'm soooo sleeepy!
Me: I guess you'll just have to go to bed earlier tonight.
Josh: What?!  Why?!
Me: Because your sooooo sleeeepy.
Josh: Oh, no.  I'm not that sleepy.
Me: That's what I thought.
Josh: Can I stay up late tonight?
Me: No.

Cole
Cole is running around on top of the three foot concrete ledge that encircles a fountain on the temple grounds.

Me: Cole - be careful!  You're going to fall down and get hurt.  Why don't you get down, please, before you fall.
Cole: No!  I want to run!  I won't-

He falls.  Tears ensue.

Tess
We are driving towards Chicago.

Tess: Can I drive?
Lance: No.
Tess: Please?
Lance: No.
Tess: Waaaah!

First Day of School (As Told In Photo Captions)

3rd Annual Madsen Back-to-School Night

This year I let the kiddos choose the meal for our annual back-to-school night.  Their choice?  Nachos.  I was a little hesitant about this at first, but then I had a few realizations: 1) Nachos are just open-faced tacos, and we eat tacos for dinner. 2) If I let them have what they wanted there would be no complaining at dinner time, making our back-to-school evening all the better.  Nachos it was!

Josh decided to be a punk and hide from the picture.  Punkety punk.  (Deidra: your pasta bowls also happen to make excellent nacho bowls!  Bet you're wishing you had hung on to them now!)

Every school year we have a new theme for our family.  This year's theme is:

Why yes, that sign does match my living room perfectly.  Funny how that works out...

Lance gave a really good lesson on choosing the right/standing for the right even if you're the only one to do so.  The dominoes represented people when everyone succumbs to peer pressure and "falls down".  Well, Lance put it much more eloquently.  I listened as best I could, but was also trying to keep Cole and Tess from knocking the object lesson down.

Here's a little bit of it at the end:

Tess was NOT HAPPY about not being able to sit right next to the table.  It's as if we didn't trust her or something...

Cole reaaaallly wanted to knock those dominoes down.  It was all he could do to behave himself.

Lance taught about how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago all stood up against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though it was really hard and really scary.  The boys were most impressed with the part where the fire was so hot that it killed the guards who were throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago into the furnace.

We then had Lance give each boy a Father's Blessing.  (Tess didn't want one, and why fight with a 2 year old about that?)  As per usual, there was much fighting and weeping and wailing leading up to it, but the kids all behaved during the actual blessings.  Miracles, people, miracles.

We ended the evening with eating a rather large batch of peanut butter and jelly muddy buddies out on the back lawn.  The weather was just perfect and the muddy buddies were tasty.  No one even stepped in the bowl until the very end.  (Because someone stepping in the bowl was inevitable...)

It was a good evening.  I have high hopes for this school year!

Attractive

Josh: Mommy, why are people with glasses so much more attractive?

(I promise, he said attractive.  I think the lady at the optometrist office must have said something like this.)

Me: Because they make you look smarter.  And everyone knows that people who are smarter are much more attractive.

Josh: Yeah, that makes sense.  I thought so.

Spencer (who had been listening in and suddenly realizing what this means for his glasses-less self): HEY!

Man alive, first graders are a hoot!

How to Create Palpable Excitement In the Madsen Household

Offer a random gaggle of kids in the neighborhood a popsicle because you're tired of them taking up so much room in your freezer.  And then telling them you saw a frog up by the big storm drain at the top of your yard.

Or, you can find one of these in our mail box.

(Translation: Neighborhood dodge ball game.  7pm Monday.  Maddison and Justin's house.  Just come to the back yard.)

I love our neighborhood.