Spiderman is living at our house.

Saturday I loaded the kids and went to Walmart, I promised Jack a new bike (instead of pink hand-me downs) He was so excited. But we also walked past the Halloween costumes. Last year I waited too long so I thought I would get a jump on it this year. Well Maddie wanted to be something scary but not "too" scary so we found a bat costume and Jack picked out a Spiderman costume.  Then we went and looked at the bikes. Of course there was a Spiderman bike too, so we just kept with the theme.  After we got the bike I forgot I had to go all the way across the store to grab milk so Jack got to ride his bike all through Walmart. (Right like I'm going to try to load that thing in the cart.) Then after Walmart we met my parents for dinner. The wait was a little long so then Jack got to ride is bike around the parking lot too.

Well to get to the good part of the story....After dinner we got home and the kids wanted to show Dad their costumes. Jack was so excited about his costume there was no way we were getting that thing off of him, so he wore it to bed. Then of course the next day was Sunday and now he wanted to wear it to church :0 (no way I am going to let that happen) So we promised him he could wear it to Grandma Dabling's for dinner. As soon as Church was over he was stripping down to get into his costume and he was out the door to get on his bike. People were still walking home from church!

So all night at Grandma's and slept in it again that night.

The next day I did manage to get him to wear T-shirt and pants for about 1 hour before he remembered his costume again.

So last night he took a much needed bath from playing and sleeping for days in a 100% polyester costume, let just say the costume needed a wash too. I did convince him after a few tears and lots of no's to sleep in his regular pj's.

Now today after washing and drying his costume he is still asking to wear it. Who knows maybe he will wear until Halloween!

But here are a few pics of Spiderman on the Spiderman Bike!

 

And this is what happens when I take too long to blog

I thought it was a little "too" quiet.

So rewind to yesterday...

So yesterday I posted how I have been feeling about my house now for a week or so..(definitely more)

But Yesterday Night I finally did something.

Well after having the same day as described yesterday. I was starting dinner and was like  "What the crap...the kids are playing next door, Riley is coming home in a few minutes and the house is still a disaster! Why am I cutting the kids so much slack! Its all there crap anyway."

So I called them home and gave them 20 minutes to pick up all their stuff scattered all over the house before Gunny Bag was coming and eating all the toys that are not put away.

We have done the Gunny bag before but I haven't been very consistent with it. It works well for Jack because he is not a really good pick'er up'er.

So after the 20 minutes I started the Gunny Bag song and set off with a big black trash bag to gather all the stuff still out.  It was the biggest loot yet for Gunny bag but I think that's mostly because I usually clean with them. But this time it was all up to them.

Then they could earn their toys back by doing so chores around the house. So, of course they all want to vacuum. So I get the heavy vacuum for Maddie, a lighter one that doesn't run for very long for Jack and a really small one that I used for the hardwood floors and the stairs for Sam. It was quite funny to see all the kids vacuuming the whole downstairs

Then Maddie got a lesson for folding clothes and helped me with a basket of the kids laundry while I finished dinner.

And all that took was an hour of everyone's time. And the house looked a lot better.

BTW Riley also helped, he unloaded the dishwasher and helped the kids grab some of the last toys on the floor before Gunny Bag made it up there.

So now the last room is my room that is still filled with baskets of laundry that needs to be folded.... of course our jobs are never done.

Sorry I have been such a Blog Slacker....+rant

I actually haven't spent that much time on the computer lately...who me...ya.

Well when your house looks as bad as mine has for a while...

I think about all the stuff that needs to be done,

walk around the house making a list,

go outside because I can't stand it anymore,

make a few phone calls,

watch a show,

play with the kids,

do homework,

make (think of) a somewhat decent dinner....don't ask,

ummm its five o'clock and the dad's coming home.

 

QUICK.....load the dishwasher, sweep, throw all the toys in a bag and the unfolded laundry in a basket and shove it in your room, vacuum so it looks like you have done something today and stall dinner for a few more minutes.

...The rest of the night is a "loud" blur.

And the list lives on....

(just waiting for the cleaning fairies, which I think my kids think is real...me )

Oh and one more thing. Does anybody else have this happen to you? "Oh Honey, just leave it and come sit with me" (assuming maybe he'll help me later with it) ya right!

Nope! Doesn't do it all by itself! Yep the house is manually operated...by me!

Its happening already

and Madison is only in second grade! Are you wondering what I am talking about. 

Homework......

Man did I feel like an idiot when Madison had to explain to me what a glyph is and how to pronounce it.

"A what?"....they didn't teach us that in school...right?

Well I knew one day I would have to study the Math Chapter with my kids to help them with their homework, I just didn't think it would happen this early...

Yellowstone Vacation

after going through and editing over 400 pictures we took on this trip, I can finally blog about it!

Over Labor Day weekend we took the kids and grandma and grandpa to Yellowstone. We stayed in Grandpas new cabin and drove into West Yellowstone.

Just after a few minutes in the Park we saw a mommy and baby elk.

Then we saw Geysers and Buffalo. Jack loved the Geysers most of all!

Of course we saw Old Faithful!

And Lots of other stuff...

Then after a long day at the Park we headed to a Bear and Wolves museum where they had live Animals there.

Maddie got to plant some food for the Bears to find. They loved getting an up close view.

The Next day Grandma and Grandpa stayed back at the Cabin with Sam because he really hated sitting in his car seat all day. So we took Jack and Maddie back to the Park and saw some more stuff. We ended up seeing a whole herd of buffalo.

Sunday we went to Church at Island Park along with 1500 other people!

Then back home on Monday.

 

200+ miles, many hours of driving, 400+ pictures, 4 adults, 3 kids, and a dead seagull= Labor Day Fun!

(oh ya, one night when the wind was blowing, it threw a seagull into the cabin. We found it dead on the porch the next morning.)