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Thanksgiving Fun!

I try to make sure that Jackson and Jessica realize that there is a holiday between Halloween and Christmas, which is hard as the stores do not cooperate on this one. Lucky for me, they both think it is crazy that stores have Christmas up and we have not had our Thanksgiving turkey yet. They always point it out and groan. In fact, my old boss, Joe, asked them last weekend what the next holiday was and they both answered Thanksgiving. He said he has asked lots of kids this question and they all said Christmas. Kudos kids! We have tried to do lots of fun Thanksgiving things around here all month. We have colored Thanksgiving coloring pages that I printed from the Internet - good-bye printer ink. We also made some really cool Thanksgiving candles, fake of course. I even sent out a few Thanksgiving pictures. One day this week, I made a special fall lunch - leaf shaped bologna and pumpkin shaped cheese - both things cut out with mini cookie cutters. Let me tell you, if you want your kids to devour something, make them into cool shapes. They LOVED it!! Today, since Chris is home (yay!), I actually had time to make Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats (which actually look harder than they are). I can not wait for tomorrow when I get to serve them. I think we might have to taste test them tonight. And we have even talked about what they are thankful for. Jackson is thankful for: "My Chunky and my Star Wars figures". Jessica is thankful for: "You (me, mommy as I asked the question) and Dada and my cute Chunky and your computer and Jackson". We are all looking forward to tomorrow and after that, The Colwell Christmas Train is leaving the station at high speed!! Woo woo!!

I am Super Mom

OK, that might be too strong a term - Super Mom - but I am awful proud of myself. This past Thursday, I braved taking both kids to the eye doctor! By myself. No Daddy, no Grandma, just me. It was so much easier than I had imagined!! The kids were perfect and they were quite hilarious! We went to Wolfe Eye Clinic to see Dr. Suh, who is an awesome eye doctor for kids, if you ever need one. It was time for Jackson to see him again and time for Jessica to see him for the first time. They went through the first part of the exam great. Read pictures on a wall for Jess and read letters on the wall for Jackson. Then came the eye drops. I don't think either one really enjoyed the eye drops but they put up with them and heck, they feel a lot better than a shot. After the drops, we went back to the kids' waiting room filled with toys to wait for the drops to take effect. It did not take too long - Jackson exclaims "I can't see anything!!" And Jessica is stumbling around like Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Their pupils were so large that they both would have fit in quite nicely at a Dead show back in the 60s! They called us in to see Dr. Suh after about 20 minutes. He is so sweet and so nice! Both kids were champs. Jackson went first. Then Jessica, who climbed right up into the chair and put her chin on the device. Did not need to sit on my lap or anything. It was a breeze! Both eyes checked out well, Jessica especially , who does not need to go back and is good with school exams unless we have concerns. Maybe we have a girl who might not need glasses her whole life like her mom did. She would be so lucky! Jackson, on the other hand, has to go back to Dr. Suh in one year because "He has some more issues than Jessica." Personally, I think Jackson would be adorable in a little pair of wire rimmed Harry Potter glasses. We'll see - we have a year! All in all, I wish the dentist and the pediatrician was as easy as the eye doctor. Also, because of the eye drops, they got these hilarious sunglasses to wear home. BONUS!

The Last Bath

Last Sunday, we had a time crunch and needed to bathe the kids. So instead of Jackson showering with Daddy and Jessica having a bath, we needed to do them both together at the same time to save a few minutes. They have not done this for ages and it is doubtful they will again. So of course, I had to take some pictures! It was so cute and reminded me of when they were small. Or smaller than they are now! P.S. Sorry for the lack of new blogs - Christmas shopping is upon us but I think I might have finished yesterday!!

Chunky is Famous!

Chunky has been selected to be a pug model for Better Homes and Gardens! He will be in the 100 Days of Holidays next year. They are doing some AKC breed jack-o-lanterns and Chunky gets to pose by them. No paycheck for him, too bad as we were going to use that money to get him neutered. Just kidding. But seriously, that costs $100. Ouch! Maybe this will be just the beginning of Chunky's illustrious modeling career. Kate Moss, watch out!

A Successful Day at Home

You know you have had a successful and fun day at home with a two year old and a four year old when your family room looks like this. Sure, it will get cleaned later but for now, who cares!

Jackson Says...

This morning Jackson overloaded his nighttime Pull-Up so he was wet. A rare occurrence but it doers sometime happen. This morning, he hollered for Daddy (yay!) so Chris got up and took him into the bathroom, stripped him down, hosed him off and put some undies on him so he could come in a snuggle me this morning like he usually does, except usually he is still in his PJs. He walks into our bedroom and granted we keep our house about 66 or 67 during the nighttime, he touched his nipples and proclaims "My nipples are so BIG! I can feel them!" What's is the phrase? Turkey's done. That is what little Jackson was experiencing. Chris and I died laughing.

The Royal Tea Set

Jessica and Jackson love Christmastime for a multitude of reasons and one of their favorite things is looking at toy catalogs. For the longest time, Jessica has been pointing to a real china tea set and saying she wants that for Christmas. Well, her Cousin Vicki in Washington got her one a longtime ago when Jessica was very new and I have had it stashed away until she was responsible enough. Is two and a half too little for real china? Well, we were going to find out. I gave it to her and explained how Cousin Vicki had given her this beautiful princess royal tea set when she was just a baby and how I had been saving it for her. I instructed Princess Jess and Prince Jackson to be very careful with it. It is packaged in a pink castle so when I handed it too Jessica, you would have though she just won the Super Bowl! "Oh I love it! I love it!" And she proceeded to do her happy dance. Which is hilarious. She and Jackson now have daily tea and she even knows exactly how to put each piece back in it's home in the pink castle box. (Sometimes Jackson has to help her with the silverware.) So, in closing, with the right Princess, two and a half is most definitely NOT too young for a real china royal tea set. In fact, it might just be the perfect age.

15 minutes....

And I am leaving for my gastroscopy. Please think good and wonderful thoughts as I am nervous and a total baby!! Everyone I have talked to has said this is a breeze but I will be just so happy to have it over with.

Valley Free Church Pumpkin Party

OK, if you have never gone to Valley Free Church's Halloween celebration called the Great Pumpkin Party - you are seriously missing out! They have tons of games for the kids, inflatables (which we don't do as it is pretty hard in your costume), kettle corn, a maze that you walk through (one year they did Narnia which was awesome!), Mr. Science experiments, and the best $1.50 meal you can buy - hot dog from the grill outside, chips and a soda! This is the third year we have gone so it is pretty much a family tradition. Every year we leave there, Chris and I are so impressed with the church and all the kids that participate and volunteer. It is really a great place to take the kids. This year we went on Oct. 27th. Here are some pics. Please if you have kids, go next year. Everything is free and the kids score tons of candy at the games!! Here is a picture of Jackson and Jessica arriving!

Daddy walking them around while I am snapping pictures!

Here is one of the many, many games - bean bag toss. Notice Jackson's correct form. Now check out Jessica, who basically walked up to the thing and dumped her bean bag in. Cheater!!

This was a really cool game - Frisbee toss! Jackson really liked this one. Here is Jessica, pinning the nose on the Jack-o-lantern. Another great one!

Fishing was fun - Jackson fished and got tons of candy!!

Jessica was a ringing success at ring toss! (Sorry, I had to!)

Followed my the delicious $1.50 dinner! YUM!

A wonderful family fun night! Check it out next year - usually around the 27th or so!

Gastroscopy

I will try to post something later this afternoon during naptime but if I don't, tomorrow is my gastroscopy. They are putting a tube down my throat, down my esophagus, through my stomach and into the top of my small intestine. Sounds fun, right? Yeah, I am dreading it and even thinking about it makes me very nervous so I will not be mentioning it again until it is over. Anyway, I will be out all day tomorrow. Hopefully, I will feel better Wednesday. Thanks to Gaga for watching the kids!!

Jessica Says...

It started snowing yesterday and Jessica exclaims "It is sooo snowflakey!!!" and she had the hugest grin. Then today we got the mail and in it, there was the new Newsweek with Barack Obama's picture on the cover. I show it to Jessica and she goes "Barack Obama! I love him. He is a good sharer!" So sweet! And no, for my Republican friends, she was NOT calling him a socialist!! Another quick anecdote, we started Christmas shopping today and we started with Jackson and Jessica's cousins, Xander, Hayden and Mallory. We got through the whole shopping trip with nary a toy request for themselves. I was totally proud!!

BARACK OBAMA

It's about 12:35 am, and I'm watching coverage of the beat down and am reminiscing about the first time I actually met Barack Obama. I was wickedly hung over at the time, more than like smelled like beer and stale farts from an evening of virtual XBox warfare with my hardcore Republican life long brother and friend BG Hammer...and I'm not entirely sure I brushed my teeth that morning. But anyway, I'm sitting there one fine June morning with my 2 kids eating cereal, when suddenly my wife hangs up the phone on her mom and declares, "we're going to Union Park to see Barack Obama!" Based on the name alone, I just assumed we were going to meet a character from the Mortal Kombat videogame series, so I was all for it.

We arrive at the great beautiful merry-go-round at Union Park, and Barack's handlers see the stroller, our stunningly cute kids (I'm sorry, but Jackson makes the kid from Jerry Maguire look like Sloth from Goonies, and Jessica makes Martha Plimpton look like....Martha Plimpton. But I digress...) So anyway, Barack's handlers see my family, the stroller, my t-shirt that says IOWA; and they rush us like celebrities to the front front row...6 feet from the goofy wooden platform that this Mortal Kombat kombatant is going to deliver his address to the great people of the East Side.

His motorcade rolls up promptly at 10:00am as promised, and he strolls out in a crisply pressed white button down and Dockers. People are going cuckoo around us, including my wife. His first impression was dynamite, but I was still leary....hung over and leary.

So he immediately greets this crowd and goes into his now famous stump speech about hope and change...you know the one. The speech that makes people feel, you know, inspired and full of hope. Some just call it "words" or "rhetoric". I feel sorry for these people. As Heath Ledger's Joker might say, "Why so serious?" But again, I digress.

Anyway, he's giving this inspirational speech, and my daughter, who is 15 months old at the time, is stomping and pointing and babbling at all of Barack's key points. Obviously, Barack is a politician, so he pounces on the opportunity to address my toddler daughter, countering her toddler gobbly-goop babble with, "See? She doesn't like George Bush's foreign policy either!" (much laughter and applause) He continues, talking about the price of gas, the economy, the cost of college...and Jessica, age 15 months, goes cuckoo again! "See?!?!", the future President-Elect states, "She's worried about the cost of college too! And so is her Daddy!" (much applause and laughter). Jackson, age 3 at the time, is oblivious...too busy trying to share his Nerds with a massive bearded overall wearing unfiltered Camel smoking Hell's Angel sitting directly behind us. (Newsflash! The Hell's Angels are as big a fan of little kids as they are of adults. And they don't like candy either!)

So Baraka starts discussing Iraq, and Jessica starts stomping and pointing and baby barking again. If Fox Nexs had a camera there, they would have tied the two together.."Obama supports war hating baby!" or "Barack shares stage with war-hating domestic baby terrorist!")But AGAIN, I digress. No, our future President Elect doesn't play the same joke again, using my most precious child as a prop for a speech he's going to deliver a thousand plus times. But rather he shoots me a funny glance...warm and strangely understanding, as if he was hinting to me "hey, I've been there. It's politics, it's hot out here, and she's obviously bored. I wouldn't be offended if you scooped this angel up and took her to get a cool drink and hang out under a shade tree or something." So I did, smooth as silk. And he continued his stump speech.

So Jessica and I got our drink of water, much needed to say the least, and headed to a HUGE tree that stood within a thinly roped off area. "Why is this roped off?", I thought to myself as Jess and I dipped beneath the twine to get to the blessed shade. "This must be some important tree!"

I held Jess like I still do, tucked in one arm, head level so we can talk about stuff...when suddenly I get this weird sensation like I'm being watched. No, like I'm being monitored. Actually, monitored is too kind. Like I'm being....targeted? I scan the crowd 50 yards in front of Jess and I as we stand under this roped off shade tree as the future President Elect starts his improbable journey with just a few words that make people feel good, when I notice 2, 3, 5, 8 SECRET SERVICE people staring at my daughter and I, each with their right hands up to their right ears...communicating between them. It was like 8 Agent Smiths had a bead on me, ridiculously menacing sunglasses, same haircuts, all trained to blast/rip my face off on command. They didn't wave, gesture, or blink. They just stood, stared at me, and waited. Jessica babbled on about the Care Bears or something while I quietly and without threat, moved from this roped off area. Recognizing I was not "an asset", but rather a hung over dad with an overheated daughter, the Secret Service stood down.

After his speech, Jess and I managed to catch up to the future President Elect. He recognized me in a large line, thanked Jess and I for coming (I apologized for her behavior, he just laughed it off good naturedly) and we shook hands. He had a firm grip. And he made eye contact with me. I was impressed with that.

And here we are in November of 2008. This man, who just 2 summers ago made my goofball daughter part of his first stump speech in Iowa, has changed the course of history by winning the Presidency. And I have to say, I'm still impressed.

I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!

BARACK OBAMA WAS JUST ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

REJOICE

BE HAPPY

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

Living History Farm Field Trip

Jackson's preschool had a field trip to Living History Farms which I volunteered to stay with him and stupidly, brought Jessica. It was really cold that day and Jessica decided to be a total pill with a few bright spots! The kids got to see what an old time school room was like. Jessica did not like this and got bored fast. I thought it was pretty interesting but I am not two years old. Then we got to go see how brooms were made. Jackson and Xander were very good and actually Jess seemed to approve of this. Snacks were fun! The two highlights of the field trip were the chickens. And this humongous pumpkin. And we bought ornaments for our Halloween tree at the gift shop. All in all, it was okay. Better without little sister tagging along. I learned my lesson but I thought I would try to save a babysitting time.

Halloween Party 2008, Part 2

As for the Halloween party activities, we made crafts. I had the kids decorate their own treat or treat bags with colors and stickers. There were light saber and laser battles! Jessica's best friend, Abby was there and dressed up as the cutest pirate ever!! Cousin Mallory was an adorable little orange witch! Even some parents got into the act! Here are Joanna and Jeff dressed up as Olive Oyl and Popeye! They looked great!! Grant and Ruby were a witch and pirate. We were so glad they came as Jackson and Jessica really miss them now since they no longer go to school together. Here is Miss Ava who was an adorable little bee. Little fact, her pug Schnell also has a bee costume so I bet they were cute together!!! We even had a parade up the street. We tried to make it a little spooky. Next year, I will try harder! After the parade, we had some playtime in our playroom while I cooked the Mummy Dogs (hot dogs wrapped in bread sticks with capers for eyes). Finally! It was time for food! This is what I call our Toddler Cafe but Chris calls it the Nightmare Cafe. He is probably right - 10 kids ages 2-4? Might be a little on the nightmare side. After dinner, we decided to have a Night Walk since it was dark. We had lanterns and blow sticks for everybody but a couple did get a little spooked! What a mess!! I don't think Jessica is going to clean this. Luckily, Aunt Lisa totally went to town so together her and I got this all cleaned up. What a night and what a blast! Halloween Rules and it had only just begun!

Halloween Party 2008, Part 1

On October 18th, we had a Halloween party for the kids and for the adults as well. It was so fun! Originally, I had not planned on having another Halloween party as we had one last year but I got pressured by my two adorable kiddies. I am so glad they did as we had a great time!! Tons of good food, wine, games, cute costumes, friends and family. After this year's party, I am thinking that it might be an annual occurrence. Yes, it was that fun. It was hard work but Chris was a champ and took an afternoon off before to help out and get the house ready.

I made a game at the kids' request, Pin The Leg on The Spider. I am not an artist but I think it turned out pretty good. Pictures of each party guest are on each leg. Cool, huh? Yes, my own invention!!

Here is another picture of our Halloween tree. We got even more ornaments for it before the party!!!
Here is some of the food I made - skeleton brownies, Halloween cookies and Apple Worm cake which is delicious, tastes like apple pie!What food I did not make had to be orange to go with the Halloween theme.

Here are some pretzel rods which I used Wilton candy molds to make various Halloween designs. It was the hardest thing but Jackson loved it so I will definitely try it again! Here is my beautiful pink princess - Jessica! She was adorable!! Jackson was dressed up as Jango Fett who for the non-Star Wars geeks, is Boba Fett's dad. Uncle Jeff surprised us all by arriving in full Darth Vader gear! It was awesome and kinda freaked Jackson out! Here are all the cousins - Jackson as Jango Fett, Xander as a Clone Trooper, Jessica as a princess and Hayden as Optimus Prime. They all look so cute!!

Stay tuned for Halloween Party Part 2!!