This is why we have a dog

Watch for these things:

1.  The fall
2.  The grab for the jacket
3.  The grab for her pants
4.  The laughter of it all

Halloween Traditions-Class Parties

Halloween "Walk for the Homless"

Class Party

     It was a little sad for me to realize I didn't have to do any running back and forth from Brenna's party to Noah's party.  Boohoo!  With Noah in middle school now, I really am down to my last baby.  I was able to stay in Brenna's room the entire time and felt a little like a fish out of water.  I didn't have a job to do until the end of the party and Brenna really wouldn't let me take any pictures of her.  I don't know why she doesn't like it.  

     They had some fun activities that I wasn't in charge of.  They got to make their own caramel apples with candy to attach with the caramel.  And they had this activity where you had to put your hand in the bowl of "shrunken ears,"  "hollowed eyes" and "kidneys and liver" and then the children had to guess what it really was.  Pretty ghoulish if you ask me.

     They got several treat bags and had a great time.  There was also a parade before the parties even started.  But because it was so brisk outside, it was a pretty quick walk.  :)

The greek goddess, Athena, a Georgia cheerleader, and our Texas cowgirl!

Caroline, Brenna, Lindsay, and Mackenzie!  The best ghoulfriends a girl could have!

The guessing game.  Pretty gross if you ask me.

David Beckham.  When I told Brenna her new name was Victoria, she didn't have a clue.  Poor girl.  You can kind of see the look of confusion on her face.  Or it may be the fact that I was making her take a picture with a boy!

Brenna with her teacher Mrs. Lubkin.  So cute.  She's such a busy bee.

Neighborhood party.  This was a mere 2 hours later.   We had to come up with an inpromptu costume quick as it is very cold.  This is a little warmer than her Athena costume.  She has long sleeves AND a jean jacket.  She doesn't understand the concept of "It will be cold later."  We'll see how she does!

American girl cowgirl and a powderpuff football team member!  Happy Haunting girls.  Remember, don't talk to strangers, but it's ok to take candy from them!   What?

Noah's birthday party

Part of Noah's birthday consisted of some minute to win it games.  This is called Paper Dragons.  You have to take two rolls of streamers and wrap them around your body in less than 60 seconds.  Noah was actually pretty good at this game.

All of the friends who played this round with Noah.

The game below had to do with throwing your shoes onto a table from 9' away.  It had to stay on the table for 3 seconds.  Noah really was not wanting to do anymore of these Minute to Win It games by this time, but he had an absolute blast playing it.  And then he was done.  He wanted to play Rimball.

The whole motley crew getting ready to play.

More of the shoe game pictures.

Happy birthday Noah!

This game involved picking up 5 different size bags and putting them on a table in 60 seconds.  This one was really pretty easy and everyone did it in about 30 seconds.

Singing Happy Birthday!  Noah wanted a cookie birthday cake this year.  It was a fun change from the ice cream cakes or the devil's food cakes we usually get.

Brenna is the Mia Hamm

Go Brenna!  You are a fierce competitor and a strong player.  I am so proud of you.

We're Haunting a New House

Happy Halloween!

Tipping the Balance Tonight

     Ruben Studdard is "Shouting to the Lord" right now on my ipod and all I can think is that I want to rail at the devil for taking this weekend away from me.  I am confused, sorrowful, and horribly, terribly wishing for a redo of this weekend.  This blog has become a way for me to chronicle our lives, the five of us.  My question is how much to make public and what do I keep private, locked in my heart, where the details of an event will fade, but certainly not my guilt or sadness over the event. (Let's face it, the only things I would want to keep private are those moments that don't put us in a great light, where we make mistakes).    As a mom, I feel so much love for my children, but also so much overriding guilt.  Guilt that I shouldn't have yelled, guilt that I should have reacted differently, guilt that I am not good enough for them, guilt that I go on yelling longer than I should at them, guilt that I am not handling them the right way, and just guilt, guilt, guilt.  This is one of those moments where the guilt just seems so overwhelming. I wanted to go to bed now, but my stomach is churning over the events of my weekend.
     I have one child who is so much more a challenge to me.  I don't know if it is because I see the things I don't like about myself in him/her or if I know he/she is making life so much harder than it needs to be.  My mother used to say I did that so I think this poor child has inherited some of this from me.  Andy has also said that this child has inherited some of the traits from the Pagleys that make life harder too!  Seems like this poor child has it stacked up against him/her before it even began for them.  My mother recently told me that when a child is harder to love that is when they need it the most.  I agree with her.  And that is where I fail.
     When one of my children is hard, they are hard for me (and Andy), not the neighbors, teachers or friends.  They are hard for us.  And every time I tell myself when they are being hard, I will show them love.  And then I don't.  I yell, I repeat the shortcomings again and again, I react poorly.  Guilt, guilt, guilt....
     So, after a weekend of yelling at this child for not following directions, for this or that, our night ended up with a conversation that went sorta like this.
Me or Andy:  Child, you have watched too much tv today.  you need to turn it off.  (This child has just come upstairs after having been made mad by another interaction with one of our other children).  You might think, why couldn't I have just let them watch television; it wouldn't have hurt.  Maybe, but he/she had watched tv all day while at home.  It was a good thing we went to church today and had a break.  He/she needed a break from that, so I thought I was doing the right thing.
Child:  What am I suppposed to do?  Be bored? (this is very sarcastically said)
Me or Andy:  You could read, build with blocks, play boardgames, ride your bike, go to your friend's house, etc. etc. etc.
Child:  You act like I've never done that before!  (with disdain and condescension)
Me or Andy:  Why do you argue everything?  You just asked what you were supposed to do and we told you.  How do you take that to mean that you have never done those things before?  Why do you make this sooo big and extreme and an argument every time we say something to you?
Child:  So, now you think I'm  _____________.
You can put your own word in there, but I just get so tired of the escalation, conflict, and refusal to take responsibility.  So, we sent this child off to bed crying.

     The only redeeming thing in this conversation (I feel) was the very end when I asked this young (they are all still young to me) child of ours if he/she had seen any acts of love on our part today.  As I asked this I wondered if those acts outweighed us yelling at him/her or if they would remember only the yelling?  When this child said no we had done NO acts of love today (of course); I told him/her to go upstairs, cry if they must, and think back through the day because I could remember at least two acts of love I had done (not to mention the cleaning, cooking, folding, arranging I had done also for ALL of my children) and not to mention how many Daddy had done.  Think back and remember.  I was hoping that even though he/she had felt their day had been full of yelling (they don't think we should have yelled at him/her 5 times in one day) that they would also see that we had given them love.

And now I can't go to sleep.
  

Haunted Gingerbread Houses

Homecoming Part II

Tobin is in the following pictures as are a lot of his friends.

     I will never know about Homecoming; I mean truly know about it.  Tobin has not shared that much with me and I am left to deduce what I can from what I observed.  Which isn't much.  Tobin looked so handsome and charming.  I received an email from his date's mom stating that she had a great time with Tobin.  And that's pretty much it.  What ever I could write about this night would not be what is important to Tobin.  So, here are a few more pictures.

This was taken at the afterparty around the fireplace.  It was a little chilly, but the group braved it.  I think of all of the places for them to hang at Colin's house, it was the dock that held the most appeal for them.  Although, it was the coldest too.  Everyone was so well behaved and such a delight!  They didn't eat nearly what we thought they would, until the end of the party and then the boys ate.  The chocolate fountain was by far the coolest thing there.  It ended at 1:00 and then we headed back to our house with 14 boys who stayed up until 6:00 in the morning!