This week's blog title is brought you by the 'Association of Funny Things Hayden Says'. Today he came home with 'Reindeer food' they mixed up at school to sprinkle on the lawn for the reindeer to come eat. Hayden then raised his hand, and informed his teacher that this is not what Reindeer eats, and he knows because he fed Reindeer. (If you recall we went to the Reindeer petting farm in Alaska'. He then procedded to tell his classmates everything he knew about Reindeer. And, then, that he ate one. (We also had that Reindeer Sausage). I don't think he would remember that we ate Reindeer, expect a few nights before at dinner, he randomly blurted out 'Hey, remember that big boat we went on where everything was free and I went to kids club' and then we started talking about our trip, and the Reindeer Sausage and lots of other fun awesome things. I like to remind them about our Alaska trip, since it's probably the coolest one we'll ever go on.
Anyway, it's been a busy, busy week in the Waterstraut household. We've been keeping on with our Christmas Activities. One of my favorites this week was the blindfolded Christmas drawing game. The boys were blindfolded and given instructions for what to draw, and then given points based on their drawing. The fireplace can't touch the Christmas Tree after all, thats a fire hazard! Peyton like the game only after he discovered the extra ornaments on his tree as opposed to off his tree pushed him over the edge, and he was the winner. Peyton's favorite was our crystal ornaments for the tree. Who knew some boiling water and borax combined would form crystals on pipe cleaners formed into various Christmas shapes. Cool project that one was. Hayden liked making the snowflakes out of toilet paper rolls. I suspect this may be because he enjoys any opportunity to get paint on everything around him. Calib thought the footprint/handprint Reindeer were the best, probably because he laughed the most when I painted his foot for the footprint. Something about it tickling too much. The cutest by far was their handprint snowman ornaments. Adorable.
Thursday also saw another doggie birthday around here. Sophie and Gracie (who yes, are biological sisters) turned eight years old. I can hardly believe they've been with us for eight years already. Gracie hasn't slowed down a bit, she's still just as dumb and loveable as always. Sophie, however, has punched her AARP card. You tell her to go outside and she gives you the 'eh, I'll go later' look, refusing to move. You tell her to get off the couch and she looks at you like 'I've dealt with these kids pulling at me for eight years, I've earned my right to sit here' look. If you dare throw a ball for her to chase she give you the 'you know how old I am' look. Don't even think about telling her to go out when it's raining. Then you just get the 'Seriously? You think I'm going out there? I'm too old for this crap' look. But, I love her, greying hair and all. They did really like their birthday cake. Since I had just made Porkchop the peanut butter cake with cream cheese frosting, I mixed it up and made the girls carrot cake with banana frosting. They were fans. Happy Birthday, Girls!
I finished up some sewing projects this week too. I made a draw string bag for Hayden's table fort, and hemmed it up. I origianlly put it on the table and was trying to pin it up so it would all be perfect, but in the end I just said screw it, took it off and folded the edges up without a real measurement. It turned out fine though. I also made a puppet theater for Hayden, and I cannot wait to see the first Hayden puppet show, it's going to be great. I also got a ton of stuff done around the house, and a bunch more presents wrapped. The pile is certainly growing.
Besides all that, Friday was camp-out in front of the Christmas Tree Night. We orignially were going to try to put the tent up in the livingroom, but Calib had started in with the runny nose, and I wasn't sure how it would work with all the dogs probably wanting to sleep in there with us, so we skipped the tent, opened up one couch for Peyton and Calib, made a bed on the other couch for Peyton, and dragged our mattress out there for me and Asa. Then we watched all kinds of little Christmas shows we had on the DVR. I didn't sleep all that great, but the boys loved it. Apparently, when my mom called the next morning while I was out at the grocery store, she said she wanted to have one when she got here too, so another Christmas Tree Camp-out we should have.
The down side to the sleepover may have been Calib feeling a little worse the next day. Some of Asa's friends were having a Christmas (or just December for our non-Christmas celebrating friends) party, and we had all planned on going- but with Calib's cold I just didn't want to risk him getting anyone sick, especially this close to Christmas. So, I made one peanut butter ball to send with Asa and Peyton to the party, and made a mini one for me, Calib and Hayden. Calib was really bummed about it, so I let him and Hayden each have one present early. I gave Calib the board game my mom had gotten for him, and Hayden some toy story guys, so the three of us relaxed, played some Sorry, watched an ugly Bucs game, and tucked ourselves in on the couch. It was a nice evening, until Hayden realized he was going to have to go to bed without Peyton- then it got ugly. But all in all, a nice evening- and Peyton seemed to have a good time at Kevin and Katie's looking at their fish tank, and being drooled on by the dog.Hopefully next time we can all make it.
By Sunday I realized Hayden and I had skipped over his homework completly. Luckily, Hayden loves doing his homework, so we sat and did all seven pages in no time at all. Then, we realized the dryer Asa had previously fixed for us, had completly given out. This was no good, because I was already in desperate need of doing laundry. The last thing I wanted to do was head to a laundry mat the week before Christmas. I hadn't been to the laundry mat since college. Asa and I decided to go with renting one, because I have no idea if they'll be one in the new house, what kind of hookups to expect or anything like that. We'll see if we end up being here a lot longer, we may just get a new one. Either way, it was delievered today, so I am happily drying some laundry (piles, and piles of laundry) now.
I had also procrastinated long enough on the rest of the cookie baking, so I finished that up, handing off the job of the Rum Balls to Calib and Asa. Yes, Calib made the rum balls. I'm such an awesome parent. Most of the rest of the cookie baking was me in the kitchen, with Calib watching football. Since the Bucs had already played- he was watching Red Zone (which is just a highlight of all the scoring plays/drives). Anyway, so I know he was trying to be helpful but he'd just start yelling "Touchdown!" "Interception!" "Sacked!" And I had no idea what game was which. It was pretty awful. I was particularly interested because I was playing Peyton in our fantasy football league for the superbowl! Calib apparently had been managing Peyton's roster for the last three weeks though, trying to get me out of the playoffs, and his team in. Well- ah ha! It didn't work! I AM THE SUPERBOWL CHAMPION! Peyton then pretended to be all upset about it. He's a sore loser, I have no idea where he gets it from *cough* *cough* Asa *cough* *cough*
Sunday was also the Survivor Finale, and in an effort to pay homage to the first season we all watched together as a family, we held Survivor: Waterstraut Island. (Season 1 of course). The first challenge, I had to double as the host. I made a pretty good one too, and suggested Asa vote me out first so I could continue on, but he refused, and voted for Calib instead. Hayden had immunity since he ate his (gummy)worms the fastest in the usual gross food challenge. This backfired on Asa, as I had thrown my vote his way as to not upset the kids, and Calib had also voted him out. I had a bad feeling when I came into the confessional(aka our bedroom), and dropped my vote into the urn (aka the pot we cook spaghetti in), when I returned to sit on my stump (aka ottoman), I had a feeling Asa was going to get his torch snuffed (aka wrapping paper roll with red construction paper flames on the end of it). And there it was, the first person voted out of Survivor Waterstraut Island, and the first member of the jury: Asa. The tribe had spoken.
In the second challenge we had to draw rocks (crayons) to determine teams, as it was a puzzle challenge. Hayden and Peyton had both gotten those spiderman puzzles at the holiday store at school, so we competed in two teams of two to complete the 20 piece puzzle without the box to see what the puzzle was. Peyton and I smoked Hayden and Calib's team, and in a 3-1 vote, Calib headed to the jury. The final challenge was to transfer water from one bucket to another using a sponge getting it past the painters tape line in each bucket. Though I was tired from lack of food, and the tiring life at camp, I mustered up the strength and nairly edged out Hayden for the immunity necklace. He tried to scramble for votes when we got back to camp, but Peyton and I made an alliance day 1 (aka 20 minutes before hand) that we would take each other to the finals. Besides, Peyton wasn't likable to the jury for how arrogant he was when each of their torches were snuffed.
The final tribal council was rough, lots of questions about my alliance with Peyton. But in the end (after two re-votes since Hayden voted for himself- then Porkchop) I took home the million dollars (aka the chocolate donut) in a 3-0 vote. Peyton was devastated that he lost, ran to his room screaming, and has brought this up several times since. Especially when he learned I won the super bowl in a two week battle by six points. He starts yelling about how I win everything, and I didn't even remember the Survivor incident. Anyway, we then all sat and watched the finale of Survivor together, and were all pretty bummed at the winner.
Monday was PJ day at school, so I ended up giving the boys the PJs that I had wrapped for them to get and wear on Christmas Eve, per tradition. Since the dryer was broken, I had no clean PJs for them. I don't even know why they have school this week. They've been coming home talking about how they were playing board games, watching movies, and making Christmas Crafts. This morning I dropped them off to Christmas music blaring over the PA in the breezeways, Teachers wearing Santa hats, and the Principal giving out candy canes. They were actually only supposed to have Friday off, but they turned Thursday into a furlough day, so tomorrow is the last day for nearly three weeks.
Asa took the day off on Monday. He had one personal day left, and if he didn't use it, it would just go away at the end of the year. Unfortunately he realized this when most days in December already had the maximum people on vacation/personal time, so he ended up with a random day instead of some time between Christmas and New Years. It was really nice to have a date day with him, and not having to worry about a babysitter. We went out to lunch, and went to see a movie together. We even got to make a stop at the grocery store together, which may not sound very exciting, but is pretty much unheard of for us. It was a nice day with my super awesome husband, though if I ever go on wheel of fortune, I'm going to refer to him as my horrible, awful husband- because we get so annoyed at all the adjectives people use to describe their spouses and kids on that show. After our date, Asa went to pick up the boys- and I went to the post office, which was nearly enough to kill my good mood. The line was out the door and around the building. It moved fast enough though, and the cookies, stuffed octopus and elephants are on their way to Ohio. Justin came over Monday night, and got hooked on dungeon defenders just like the rest of the boys in this house, and I watched the game biting my nails, hoping to win the fantasy football super bowl- which, in case I haven't mentioned, I totally did.
Today we had free pizza for dinner- a credit from pizza hut from totally screwing up our last order- and the drier got here. I spent the majority of the day house cleaning. I even cleaned out the pantry- taking everything out of it, giving the shelves and floor a good wash down- and then we made a five person assembly line to reload the pantry. It went super fast, and Hayden kept saying he was working in a factory. I also tackled cleaning Peyton and Hayden's room with them, while Asa and Calib organized Calib's room, complete with nerf guns hanging by hangers in the closet. Hey, as long as they aren't all over the house, I'm pretty pleased. Anyway, the house is cleaner now than it's ever been 5 days before a visitor gets here- I'm not even sure what to do with the rest of the week, except freak out every time the boys make a mess. It was super awesome of everyone to help clean the house though, they're awesome people to live with. Peyton also had his truth meter moved up to five, which is a pretty big deal because he earns back privileges, and he hasn't had any for quite some time. Just in time for video games he's getting for Christmas- yay!
That's all I think I have to share. I forgot to write stuff down this week, so I'm sure some funny things occurred that I didn't write about. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas (or a Happy Hanukkah- which I'm learning about by the way) and I'll see ya next week for the Waterstraut year in Review.
A few funny conversations to share:
Hayden: What dad? You were calling my name
Asa: No I wasn't
Hayden: Yes you were
Asa: Maybe it was the spirits
Me: ASA!
Hayden: ASA! (THE INFLECTION WAS SPOT ON)
Me: Why do you look so big today?
Hayden: Because, I'm growing up, Mom.
Asa: Ohhh...
Hayden: You just got burned.
*sigh*
Me: Hayden, I will call the North Pole if I have to
(later after Hayden is out of the room)
Calib: really mom, you're going to call the north pole.
Me: Calib, shut it. It used to work on you.
Calib: really mom, you're going to call the north pole
Me: I'm going to call the stores I got your presents at and see if I need a reciept to take them back.
Next Up: Uh... Christmas... Obviously. And a visit from Grandma!
*Disclaimer* Blogger is being all weird, and won't let me upload pictures, and has me using this weirdo font. So, I guess, sadly, no pictures this week.
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