The Tooth Fairy was Generous

Tater lost his front two bottom teeth. I noticed Friday at dinner that here was an empty spot in his mouth. We think he swallowed the tooth. That boy needs to chew his food better. The other was on Saturday while eating a snack. He just pulled it out.

Here are a couple of pictures from Friday:



Here's a cuter picture:



Now here is the second tooth pictures... notice he is holding it in his hand!



And here is a picture from today:



My little boy is growing up. Getting adult teeth, 1st grade, 4 feet tall... man oh man... what happened to my little Michelin man? Oh, that's right... he is Money man now. He got $1 for the first tooth and for some reason the tooth fairy visited him TWICE last night and he got $2. $3 for just two teeth. Geeze.

When Did Birthday Parties Get So Carried Away?

This last weekend, there were two birthday parties to attend. 11am to 1pm and 1pm to 3pm. The first was a wizard party. Hosted by a company called Oogles and Googles. Tater and Tot were both invited to this one. Here is a few pictures I took with my phone camera...



And Tater:



Now the next one was at a private house. This was a classmate in Tater's class. This is just one of the activities they had in their backyard:



Wow. For a child who turned 6 years old just before school started and is now in the first grade. Tater asked if we could do that at his next party. The answer was absolutely NO. Don't get me wrong, this was a great party for kids. And if you have the money for it, go for it. Wow. The parents were extremely nice and fun to be around. It took me a while to find them, as there were a ton of people at the party. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to be invited to another one with Tot in tow. He would have loved it as well.

After attending those parties, I remembered how excited I was that we got to go to a gym for Tater's party. No clean up, kids entertained, tired out, and good company in the parents. It was a little more than if I held it at home, but not that much more. Worth it for me not to have all the prep work and cleanup after wards. My party was nothing like those... And I really enjoyed both of them... I just wonder how I got so lucky???? And when did the kids parties get this carried away? Or is it just me?

Finally, the First Day of School Pictures

Yipee, I finally got a few minutes to get the pictures together. Here is Tater showing off his backpack (which Bou was kind enough to pass on to my boys):



Waiting for the bus:



The bus is finally here:



There goes my first grader:



While I don't have pictures of Tot getting out of the car or waiting to go to school. I did get a first day picture of him in his pre-Kindergarten class.

What Boys Do in South Florida

I was thinking about this the other day. I am not big into spending money for summer camps. I used our money for karate and swimming. I did break down and spend it on a fishing camp. Yet... I hear a lot of the kids talk about golfing. It is a big deal down here. Bou had her kids taking Golf Camp. Still, I have been hesitant about it all... particularly since my boys play the Wii golf to see how far they can hit it. This included putting. Then all of the sudden, at the end of the summer... they got serious and actually tried to make it in the hole. Wow. Not sure why it wasn't funny to just wack it hard anymore.

Ok, cool. Pop plays golf two or three times a week. If I could get my kids into golfing, then they could go up to visit the in-laws and go golfing. Suddenly I had a huge STOP come to mind. Golf means buying golf bags, golf shoes, golf clubs, and ... you get the point. I think I will wait until they are older to see if they have an interest in golf. No Tiger Woods in this household. They can wait until they are older to see which sport they like, if any. We already own baseball bats, balls, cleats (which they have outgrown), gloves.. and they sit there. On the shelf. Nope, no more money going out of here anytime soon.

Ben 10 Omnitrix cake - sorta

Oddybobo sent me an email about my 'cake'. I was having a hard time and took some MAJOR shortcuts. Which bit me in the rear-end... because I didn't add the dye slowly to the icing and was too tired to make more icing... why? Because it came out too dark of a green and I really needed it lighter... nope, didn't do it. Wonder what all the kids po.op looked like the next day? hahahaha...

Here is what I did:

Found a picture of an Omnitrix and made two 9" round cakes and iced them in white icing. Yep, it should have been grey... I'm telling you, I was really tired:



I used a plastic knife to carve the outline I wanted in the icing. Then started putting the green icing on first:



I was able to scrape enough white icing from the bowl to make a slightly lighter green for the where the alien shows through like in the watch and then I put green dots in for the 4 circles and proceeded to ice the black outlines. The black circles around the green dots were last. Oh... wait... the attempt to make Grey Matter (the alien) was last. No, it does not even look close. ;-)



It worked, it was edible and it was Ben 10. Yes, I did remember to remove the wax paper before taking it to the party. ;-) If I had been patient enough, I would have done it with the little stars for the green, made sure it was light enough and probably looked at the Ben 10 Alien Force Omnitrix to see make sure I had the right color scheme. Because depending on which Omnitrix you look at, the colors are different. Sometimes it has yellow on the sides instead of grey or some of the pictures even show black.

For decorating I bought Green plates, cups, table clothes and then Yellow plates, cups and table clothes. I bought 8 1/2 x 11 mailing label paper and printed Ben 10 aliens and Ben 10 on them, cut them out and decorated the cups and bags and whatever hit my fancy.

Ta da.

Old Enough Now to Fish

Tater is taking a 'fishing camp'. They get to keep the rod and reel when they are done. Awesome...

This picture was the only one I got before we heard thunder and had to go under shelter. He had just tangled his line. It had a worm on it. Ewwwwww. I can handle bread, but worms. They are just gooey.

Who's Handwriting?

My poor son has gotten my handwriting. Then again, I think his dad's isn't that great either. Just in fun, I'm posting some of his writing from his daily planner. Then I will do it again around February of next year... see if it has improved or not. I bet he will end up having better handwriting than both his parents. Hopefully it will turn out as nice as my mom's or dad's. Now that was something to see!

click to enlarge... and let me know what you can read! I did figure it out eventually...

Growing Up

My boy is a Kindergartener. Wow. He has memorized his first 9 sight words, brought home some other work to finish and has had good behavior reports every day. He buckles his own strap, dresses himself (except for socks), brushes his own teeth and speaks quite well. While this didn't happen over night, it amazes me when I see it all put together.

Ever since I started carpooling and having him ride with me or my friend to school, he comes home much happier and tells me about what has happened. Like how he met a teacher named Coach. This teacher taught him about basketball. I loved it. He showed me how to hold your hands when dribbling. He loves computer time and he is nice to his classmates.

I got to have lunch with him this week. It was very special. I love my little (big) boy.

Smell My...

The conversation started yesterday morning with Tater walking up to me in the kitchen and saying...

Tater: Smell my pe-nis Mom.. (snickering)

Mom: NO WAY... it'll smell like pee... go away.

Tater: Smell my butt Mom... (laughing out loud)

Mom: NO WAY... I bet you'll fart! Now go away!

Tater: hahahaha... (and he walks away)

This has got to be a male thing.

Tater's 5 Now

It is hard to believe I have a 5 year old son. I spent the afternoon looking through old pictures. I made the following online scrapbook pages:




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I love his smile. Always so kind and caring. My how Tater has grown. I miss my little boy with the great big Michelin tire legs. I love who he is turning into as he grows.

Early Birthday Party

On this coming Sunday, Tater will turn 5. The problem was that only one friend would be in town and available that weekend. Hence, we had it Saturday... 7 kids, 8 adults and great weather. Phew....

First, some pictures of my attempt to make Optimus Prime (from the Transformer cartoon) on a cake:



The next day, he puts on his only Transformer shirt and poses with the cake (no way is Tot going to be left out... even if he hasn't gotten dressed yet!)



Time to blow out the candles!



Luckily, kids can be entertained by any kind of water. Even if it is just spraying a little in the air... along with water guns... of course!



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It was very enjoyable. I have good friends. They brought food, helped clean up and are always good company when it comes to conversation. We talked about poop, farts, burps and all the other good things that comes with having children. Yep, need more days like that.

And this weekend, Uncle Bobby should be down to visit and we can have another 'party'. Lucky kid!

CupCake Request

It's hard to say no to Tater when he turns those bedroom eyes at you and says with the sweetest voice, "May we please make cupcakes?". Sigh. I have to be out of my mind this summer. Yet, I worked it into the day...

Here is Tot with the mixer. He loved doing the mixing...



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Tater broke down and mixed a little of it...



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The best part? Spooning out the mix! Tot wanted to make big cupcakes...



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and Tater wanted to make small ones...



And mom forgot to spray the small trays with Pam before putting in the mix. Particularly since I didn't have any mini-cupcake holders. Some of the mini-cupcakes were only partially removed. yummmmy cake pieces.

Made it through another day of summer. Yipeee!

Graduation for PreSchool

Last Friday was Graduation Day. The kids were all in the chairs waiting for the ceremony to start. Tater spotted Dad with the camera:



After he received is diploma, he also got a certificate for being the best at following directions. There were certificates for best hugger, best cleaner and more. It was precious.

The Map!

My boys love treasure hunts. I draw maps and we go an look for stuff. This time it was Tater who drew the map.



I was surprised that I could figure out most of the stuff. The last couple of items caught me by surprise. Start on the upper left and then go down to the right and back up again. See more pawprints to see the answer.

My Time of Death Was Exaggerated

While talking to Tink on the phone after picking up the boys... an interesting conversation occurred. Tater told me he was hungry. Really really hungry. He wanted to eat right that minute. I stopped talking to Tink and told him we would be eating shortly.

Tater: Mom, you are going to die after 2pm
**blink** **silence on my side of the phone**
**laughter out of Tink**
Me: Why am I going to die?
Tater: Because I'm soooo hungry
**silence because now I'm tearing up and trying not to laugh out loud**
**more laughter out of Tink, and she wants to know if Tater can save me**
Me: If I feed you, will you save me? (Or something of that nature was said while being prompted by Tink)
Tater: Yes, I'll save you mom.

I am amazed daily by the odd conversations I have with my children. They are soooo going to need therapy when they get older.

parenting fun

Just a Little Fat

Nothing like having a child to keep you on your toes. Here is a conversation we had at the dinner table the other night... one of the unusual dinners with daddy at the table with us...

Out of the blue while we are all eating -

Tater: You're just a little fat aren't you mom?
Mom: **blink blink** Uhhh. Yes.
Tater: Dad, your really fat, right?
Dad: **shocked look** You really should not comment on people being fat, you might hurt someone's feelings.
Mom: **blink blink (hiding face to keep from laughing out loud)**

Note to self: must remember to have a talk with Tater later

Over 100?

Tater and I were talking about age. How old Happy dog was, how old he was, how old I was. I told him I was 42 years old... and he responded with... "Wow that's over a hundred". Yaa, we need to work on his counting skills. ;-)

Time For Celebration

Today Tater gets to take his cast off. Except it ended off yesterday. While Hubby and I were on our date, Tater broke a strap on his cast. We plan on making cupcakes, go shopping and have a generally good time. The hardest part is that Tater must keep his tennis shoes on at all times except bath and bedtime. My boys have gotten were they like to go barefooted. Just two more weeks and he can go barefooted. He can get shoes off a lot easier than a cast. We'll see how it goes.

They were running an hour late at the foot doctor's office when we finally got the news about his cast. I decided since my camera was still in my purse from Tot's gymnastics... I would take some pictures... notice the tic-tac-toe and tie fighters...



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Pictures Tater Took

Mammaw brought cameras for the boys.

Here is a sampling of pictures that Tater took (Tot's will be shown tomorrow):



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I was tempted to post the pictures of Dad. He only had one that the head was actually included. For some reason Tater kept cutting his head off. Then again, the picture he took of himself is an interesting angle. ;-)

Pictures From Dentist Visit

Since I'm not going to have time to post tomorrow... here are some cute pictures of Tater at the Dentist. First couple were taken with my camera phone:



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After all the work, the only visible cavity filling is silver:



Like mother like son. Sigh. Poor Tater has inherited my bad teeth.