"The electric bill is too expensive"

That is the line we told Madeline and Andrew last night when to informed them no more nightlight in their room. Actually it is a real light. The room is weird and has a light in the center of the room and one that aims into the closet. We put a low wattage bulb in that one and that is what stays on all night. BUT lately we (I) have had too many middle of the night visitors and was getting perturbed with the invasion. So Michael said no more light.

We waited until bed time and he told them the electric bill was too high and since they are now FOUR they can be like Ben. All light will be off and they will have their bedroom door open instead of shut. We HIGHLY doubted that would fly. We anticipated tears and crying and whining. What we actually got was 2 sleeping kids. Someone came to my bed sometime during the night. I am not sure b/c I did not look and told them to go back to bed.. and he/she did! :)

So here I type. 8:22am and my babies are still in bed.. Unbelievable... totally... Especially because Andrew has a habit of getting up before Ben...

If it makes the kids happy...

Michael is such a pushover when it comes to the kids. As I have posted previously he *entertains* them by allowing them to draw on his legs with washable markers so that he knows where they are when he is on call... Well they have gotten quite good at this. Maddie is perfecting her letters on daddy's legs regularly. So the legs eventually got old. After much prodding he will take his shirt off and they will draw on his belly and chest.. There are usually a few tic tac toe boards going....

So last night he was allowing them to have free access... Maddie was in her glory putting whiskers and make up on her daddy. She was diligently working on making his eyebrows *perfect*. It was quite hilarious. She drew on both then attached them from outside to outside and inside to inside brow edges. The whiskers extended to his ears... He was looking mighty.....bizarre. LOL!

So as I was getting the clan ready for bed Michael went online to redbox.com and found that both movies he wanted were available. So we reserved them for pick up. I was so tired and looking forward to hitting bed early myself when I laughed and stood up to grab my purse. I looked at Michael and said " well I guess I need to be the one to go get the movies." He looks at me like WHY? I remind him " Your awfully sexy there for a trip to the movie box.. stud" He went and looked in the mirror and laughed.. He had totally forgot about his *make-up*...


I SHOULD have let him go.... now THAT would have been a LOL!

Webkinz.

It' s like crack... only for kids... That one word is all I hear.. All. Day. Long.

Before school Ben is begging to play WEBKINZ! I tell him no b/c he cannot handle getting dressed and eating without running late.

As soon as Ben is gone Andrew is whispering in my ear. want to play webkinz.....

If Maddie sees me pick up my laptop she yells ANDWEW! Mama playing webkinz! Hurry up!

I am about to toss those dreaded stuffed animals.....

Absolute and Total Exhaustion!

Today was the Spring/Summer Sale for the Mothers of Multiples club. We moved THOUSANDS of dollars of stuff.. and I mean we MOVED it. My entire body is beat. My feet from standing, my back from stopping to tear price tags and use the registers. My hands from everything that required.. well fingers and hands...LOL! I slept like crap last night which did not help me prepare for this long day. I hit the ground running to get ready, get to the sale and work. Trained newer members on checkout, helped wrangle customers, and pretty much ran from here to there. I do much better being on the go and NOT sitting in one place.. so MANY THANKS to you great ladies in the *Godfather Den* who did nothing BUT sit, and type, and type and type. You guys are wonderful!

Now I am so tired I am sitting here.. just waiting for the bedtime fairy to come put me to bed....

Since we are on the subject.....

Today was definitely a nap day. I pulled the littles onto my lap and covered us with a comforter and turned on the tv to try to get them to relax and fall asleep. I turned on Food TV and it was 30 minute meals. It was the last 5 minutes and R. R. was plating her meal. ( You have to know that the kids ADORE Racheal Ray.) So she puts some bruscetta on her plate, then she puts some salad.. all the while going on and on about how wonderful these flavors are. She then grabs a pot of Lentils and spoons a HUGE pile onto the plate. Both kids automatically react with "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" All of the sudden Andrew points out that " that stuff looks like poop mama!" I laughed b/c it did appear to be rather unappealing. She then places 2 links if sausage on top of the lentils. Maddie laughs and tells her brother " Look Andrew, it looks like she put poop ON the poop!"

What nice age....

Fun and Games with Daddy..

As I have blogged before Michael has *unique* ways to entertain the kids when I am not around. I had my Mothers of Multiples meeting on Monday night and the kids were telling me on Tuesday that they played *pictures* with the easel. Michael later explained that they played pictionary- He drew pictures and awarded points for the one who guessed the correct answer.

SO tonight after we had all gone out to walk Sunnie and run around we headed in for showers and random picking up. After all bathes were taken and teeth were brushed we were spending some time with the kids. Andrew and Ben were arguing over the easel and Ben ended up sent to couch to watch only. Andrew started to draw and was trying to get everyone to guess what he was drawing. (I was reading and did not have my glasses on so I was not watching this until Michael directed me to.)

Andrew draws his picture and Michael told him he needed a clue. Andrew looks at his Daddy and he purses his lips and goes " PWSTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" " PWSTHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Michael was not getting it. He tells Michael he needs another. So Andrew looks at him and starts to motion a swirling motion going down toward the floor and tells his Daddy " going down, going all the way down." At this last clue Ben jumps up and yells " It's POOP!" Andrew jumped up and down and yelled. "YES! I drawed POOP! You win Ben!"

That's my little artist......

Madeline and Andrew turned FOUR!

Today my babies turned 4. Such a bittersweet time for me. I am so excited for all they are doing and learning but so sad that I am moving so far from that sweet small baby stage. Back in December I bought the Melissa and Doug double sided easel for them and stuffed it in the closet. The deal was way to great to skip out on that night while lurking on Amazon.com.

Monday night I slipped out with Ben to hit a local store to get spill proof pain cups, rolls of paper and paint brushes to go with the easel. We then walked down to the Hallmark and Ben picked out a Webkinz for each sibling. It was Michael's idea but we let them come from Ben. I was under STRICT instructions to NOT pick out anything silly or *gay*- ex. a snake, a gerbil or maybe a frog.... Michael thinks the Cow Webkinz I picked out for Ben for Christmas falls in that category although Ben absolutely adores his cow... Bennie. SO Ben picks out a white Lamb for Madeline and INSISTED that his brother needed the.... TREEFROG! No amount of argument of suggestion worked. Michael looked at me like I was crazy.

Last night I had Ben help me wrap the small items we bought. I also informed him we would be surprising the kids with an evening out at Chuck E Cheese and then the ice cream shop(cold stone- I am the queen of online coupon specials!)

This morning I woke as normal to get Ben ready for school. He was SO excited and got read quickly. Andrew was up early as that is his way. Madeline was still asleep in bed but he was NOT going to let that last long. He ran in a awoke her up by throwing her wrapped gift from him and yelling she needed to come open it in the living room before he left. Both kids were THRILLED about their Webkinz. Andrew was even more excited when he realized that he could now spin the Wheel of WOW himself! LOL.

The day proceeded as normal. We had breakfast and headed out to the library for reading time. We stated late and I allowed them to play on the computers for a while. They begged me to go to *Taco Bells* for lunch so we did. We brought daddy home lunch and spent time playing *video games* on Xbox and watching Little Einsteins. We decided to go to Pizza Hut and get evening Buffet but when we got to the one by CEC we realized they no longer DO the buffet at night... ARGGGG! SO we just ordered and ate quickly so we could get to playing.

Who would have ever imagined that CEC would be PACKED to capacity on a Weds evening? Since it was such a special day we HAD to wait in the stinking line and go in. The place was packed. When we finally got to the counter and paid for tokens I found out WHY. A local school was doing fundraiser night. Oh Yeah.....

We spent out 140 tokens and ended up leaving with the tickets. They were so understaffed and we refused to wait any longer. It was just too late to do the ice cream so we headed home. Michael stopped and ran into Acme and grabbed the tiniest cake I have ever seen. We came home and put candles in that. Sang and cut cake. 3 glasses of milk manged to get spilled during this short lived festivity...

Everyone is tucked into bed, faces and hands scrubbed, teeth brushed and rinsed in fluoride. Kids still have not opened their easel! Friday the in laws will come over and we will do dinner and they will get the real cake/ice cream party kind of birthday night.

Back Again...A little more focused.

Almost daily I have looked at this blog and just not had the UMPH to write. Life just moving on here as normal.

February is always a tough month for me as that is the month of my fathers birthday as well as his passing.. And my grandfathers passing- which happens to have been ON my fathers birthday. Then there is my niece's birthday, one of me dearest friends twin daughters birthday and my cousins baby girl- her birthday... all which ALSO happen to fall on the day my father was born... SO PLEASE nothing else EVER happen on the 9th of February. Then my previously mentioned dear friend- her birthday IS the day my father passed away in 1992- then 8 days later is MY birthday.. which is also the birthday of a cousin, the day before this is the birthday of my brother in law. THEN the following week is the anniversary of my sister and brother in law....
Ben was ill and was off school a few days with the random winter viral illness that needs no run to the DR. I ended up catching his junk and it settled into my sinuses so that is starting to go away FINALLY. Then there was the Mothers of Multiples outing I organized and got to go to alone due to all three kids having the start of a cold.... SO for a short month I deal with a lot of stuff!