Back Door Surprise

Why I bother to iron clothes for Cate to wear in the morning is a mystery to me.  I suppose it's just a formality, as she probably needs to be dressed when we go to drop Towns off at school.

We started out like this yesterday...

 

And not even five minutes after we were back at home she looked like this...

 

You know you're jealous.  Doesn't everyone want to look like that?

If it weren't for funky dance attire, she wouldn't stay clothed.

Changing the subject here...

Why is it that if something crazy is going to happen, it's going to happen to us?

A faint whimpering sound kept me up all night Wednesday night. I searched the house in the pitch black dark trying to figure out what it was.  When I was coherent enough to realize the sound was coming from outside our bedroom window, I looked out to find a teeny, tiny puppy on our back door step.  So mysterious.  Especially considering the fact that our back yard resembles Ft. Knox since our massive black lab is an escape artist.  Even the tiniest puppy couldn't wiggle his way in if his life depended on it.  My first thought was that someone put it there because they couldn't take care of it.  Jonathan was quick to tell me I'd lost my mind and that no one would put an orphaned dog on our steps like it's a baby in a basket.  I knew I should have gone with my instincts and not woken him up in the first place.  It sounded totally rational and logical to me at 2 a.m.  Not so much now, but regardless we have a puppy that our children think the elf left for them as an early Christmas present.  Really?  I mean, really?

Now the question is what on earth do we do with it?  It doesn't look like a puppy someone lost and would be looking for.  But I can't bring myself to take it to the animal shelter.  He's cute and extremely friendly, but he's not staying here...

I may eat my words on that, though.
I'll gladly take an suggestions...or any offers to take him off of our hands!
Any takers?  He would make a great Christmas present for someone, I just know it.
Maybe I'll start a game of Pass the Puppy and put him in my neighbor's back yard tonight.
Kidding.  Well, sort of...

Christmas Owl & Christmas Ornaments

I love having good friends.  Especially owl-loving, creative friends.  When the postman brought this to the door one day last week, I knew we were in for a treat...

We opened the box to find this inside...

 

Towns was ever so happy to read it aloud to us...

 

 Since she got to read the poem, Cate got to search for the prize inside...

 

 A perfect spot was found on the tree to hang our Christmas Owl.  Isn't it amazing the how the behavior is so much better around Christmas?  There couldn't be any correlation, could there?  It has to be that our children are just that obedient...

And moving right along before lightening strikes...

Thanks for the super fun treat, Jess!

A couple of weeks ago, Towns asked me to teach her a Christmas song she could play on the piano.  My heart totally and completely burst with excitement.  I've been waiting for that moment for a really long time.  I began piano lessons in 3rd grade.  And while I didn't love it at the time and most days had to suffer through the practicing, it was the best thing my mother ever made me do.  Once I was able to sit down and play with both hands (the main goal of anyone just starting out), I started to love it.  So the fact that my blondie showed an interest in it was beyond exciting for me.  We sat down on the piano stool and I proceeded to teach her Jolly Old St. Nicholas.  That's the first song my mom ever taught me to play, so it was only fitting.  She learned it in less than five minutes and has played it endlessly ever since.  J will be the first to tell you that we have entirely too many lessons and classes in the afternoons already, but he suggested she start taking piano lessons.  I think I'll teach her myself until that doesn't work out anymore. She's been a quick and eager learner so far. I knew she enjoyed learning, but I didn't realize just how much she loved it until I saw this in her folder from school...

That's her sitting at our piano.  The words made me smile.  I didn't get it all in the picture, but at the bottom she wrote "I love it!!!" in huge letters.  Precious.

I'm not sure how anyone around here could miss the opening of Gigi's Cupcakes, but we did.  How a cupcake loving family let it come and go without being the first in line is beyond me.  Not to worry.  Friday afternoon after school, that's where we were.  It was packed.  As in line out the door.  All Cate had talked about during our wait was the strawberry shortcake cupcake she'd had her eye on.  The last one.  We finally make our way to the front of the line and just before we could tell the cute girl behind the counter that we'd take it, someone else took it.  Cue the river of tears.  She ended up with another swirly pink confection of the cherry variety which I knew she wouldn't like.  But pink is pink, so I went with it.  Towns got the midnight chocolate cupcake and I opted for wedding cake.  Since it was such a traumatic experience for Buggy, I couldn't help but suggest we consume even more calories by taking our cupcakes next door to Zen Beri.  Can't have cupcakes without a little frozen yogurt, naturally.  Twenty dollars and two pants sizes later, we were happy campers...


The good news is that the we burnt off the calories by dancing the night away on the childrens stage at Barnes & Noble... 

Those two clowns kicked off their shoes and went to town.  I'm not sure that that stage was really meant for that sort of thing, but our children don't discriminate.  A stage is a stage is a stage.  Actually, I was mortified and wanted to crawl in a hole when I walked in from shopping around to see this commotion.  Please notice that their father acts as if nothing is going on around him.  He's so laid back like that.  I'm definitely not.

 Do you know what this is?
This is a picture of three little girls who were dying to get a party started Saturday afternoon.  Ella's party, that is.  The new four year old decided to skip the traditional party and take two friends to Build-A-Bear.  Cate had been waiting for that moment for, oh, two weeks straight.  She came home with a purple bear covered in peace signs and wearing Hello Kitty panties.  Then she cried because her daddy and her sister laughed at her panty-wearing bear.  I told her that I loved her choice and that it was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen.  She does not like to be laughed at, that's for sure!

Sunday the little ones and I had it on our own.  After church, we had lunch at their pick...

 And since it was a little warmer than usual, we went on a "baby adventure" per Cate's request...





Everything in Cate's world revolves around a baby.  She'd prefer the real thing, but settles for dolls.
After our stroll, we came inside for a little craft session...

We made salt dough ornaments which was great entertainment!
The girls decided that these ornaments would make good Christmas presents for their classmates...

Towns ended up ditching the conventional cookie cutters and made peace signs instead.

So 1st grade!

Cate can't stand to get her hands dirty, and this face proves it...

We painted them with silver, pink, lime green and sparkly red paint.  And voila...check that off the to-do list.

Now all we have to do is wait for the whirlwind of class Christmas parties next week!

Do you know what today is?

  

And do you know how long Towns has been waiting for it?  She's got a book called Book Fair Day that has sparked her excitement.  It started at 8 a.m. and we were there precisely at 8 o'clock.  She flew through her morning work so I could accompany her.  She thought that meant she could pile up books for days and I'd swipe my check card to pay for them.  Insert the concept of a budget!  The book fair topped my list of exciting things at school when I was young, and I love that she loves it too.  So far, there's not much about school she doesn't love.  I just hope it stays that way!

The countdown is on...eleven more days until Christmas.

Are you ready?

In The Spirit

We definitely have the concept of Christmas spirit covered in the McClendon household.  I think we have enough to cover everyone in the city of Decatur, actually.  From Christmas music 24/7 to as many twinkle lights as our fuse boxes will allow, we're Christmas'd out.  Bethany is sort of the ring leader this year.  I purposely didn't get the tree for her room out because her being a teenager and all, I wasn't sure if it was "cool".  I need a manual for that these days.  Much to my surprise and delight, she asked for it.  So I delivered!  She's covered her room and tree with tons of lights.  After seeing it, J told her there was no way in this world any of us were going to forget it was Christmas. So true and so fabulous!

We have a new visitor this year.  Mirabelle the Elf is long gone, so Santa sent Jingles in her place.  Note to self: I will remember where I store the elf after Christmas so this isn't a problem next year.  Jingles is a bit of a mess.  And she's very much into gymnastics...

 

Jingles hanging upside down from the Christmas tree in the girls' room really tickled them.  That's one of their favorite things to do at the park.  They're part monkey.  Or part elf.  I'm not sure which one.

Sunday night we all went to watch Towns in the children's Christmas program at church.  On Wednesday nights this semester, they had several instruments in music they could learn to play and she chose the drums. I was extremely impressed at the kids' ability to learn to play the ukelele, the orff, and the world drums in just a couple of months and all play together as accompaniment to the songs they sang. They did an amazing job.  Their music leader, Mrs. Elizabeth, is phenomenal at what she does.

It never fails.  I always pick the one place to sit where a mic stand is right in the way...

Go figure!

Getting ready to play the drums...

And I'm not sure exactly what she was playing in this song...

There's nothing more than I love than seeing kids so enthusiastic about worship and praise.  This has to be one of my most favorite parts of all of our Christmas happenings.  After all, Jesus is the reason for the season!

Still along the lines of Christmas, Towns let December 1st get by her without doing her book report for the month.  It didn't go unrecognized, though.  That afternoon she came home already feeling like she was behind.  So she chose a sweet book about a gingerbread mouse and went to town with it.  Naturally, that included making a gingerbread house to take as her prop for the report.  And that also meant eating the leftover icing with a spoon...

I mean, you can't let perfectly good icing go to waste...now can you?

Blondie was ready to roll the next morning at school...

 

She's gotten really into me being right up under her all the time.  She's asked me to walk her into school every day and wants me to come eat lunch with her, too.  I'm not sure where this is all coming from, but I'll gladly take it!  She asked if I'd watch her do her book report.  Um, absolutely...

And I stuck around to watch them decorate their class tree...

 

First grade is getting rave reviews around our house.  This is usually when I start to get all weepy about half of the year being almost gone!!

Allow me to rewind because I failed to mention the 1st annual Gobble Wobble 5k that DCMS put on back in November.  How could I forget that one?  A monsoon settled in right about race time, but that didn't spoil the fun...

 

If they look like drowned rats, that's because they were!  Towns had been waiting for the 5k to be over and done with because that meant it was time for the one mile fun run with her daddy.  It was so exciting to see everyone all lined up and ready to take off...

Do you see anything wrong with this picture below?

J is running by himself because his running buddy totally left him in the dust!  He thought he could take it easy because he didn't think she could run that fast.  Wrong!  Girlfriend was booking it to try to get done as fast as her little legs could carry her.  And here she is almost to the finish line with her daddy nowhere in sight...

 

He ended up walking back with Emma's dad since they had no interest in finishing with with their fathers!
When Cate realized what was going on and that she wasn't in the middle of it, she completely lost it.  So J took her by the hand and let her run to the finish line with him in her jeans and silver glittery ballet flats...

 

And then it was all smiles again...

Totally off the subject of any kind of holiday, but I think this chick is pretty cute...

Decatur might not have won the big game against Austin last weekend, but the cheerleaders certainly did their part. :)

Speaking of Bebs, she is currently the coolest person in the family (not that that's really different from the norm).  Now that she can drive and take Cate to buy a new fish and all...

Actually, Rudy (as in Rudolph) is Bethany's fish that Cate steals during the day and puts in her room while B's at school.  She wrote a note and taped it on the fish bowl that sort of says that no one can touch the fish.  These girls are so territorial...they fight over that fish like it's something that's really worth fighting over.  Cue the lesson in sharing!  I'm thinking a neutral place for the fish to live is the key to settling this one.

Duty calls.  Elf duty, that is.  If you don't hear from me for a while, I might be buried in wrapping paper!

Thanksgiving & More

Has it really been a week since Thanksgiving?  I suppose time flies when you're having fun.  Or when you've got the flu, which is what plagued Cate last week.  We were supposed go to Callaway Gardens last Tuesday afternoon, but after a day of her running a high fever I decided a trip to the pediatrician would be a good idea.  Leaving town without making sure it wasn't more than a fever virus seemed best.  The office was closed, but the nurse told me to swing by quickly and they'd check her out.  Got to love a mother's intuition.  I found out we'd done the right thing when our doctor came in after running a few tests and said, "congratulations, Cate's the first case of the flu this season."  Not exactly what I was expecting (or hoping) to hear.  We put off our travel plans to see how she did overnight.  We ended up leaving town Wednesday morning and actually rather enjoyed only being away for one night instead of two.  My aunt had planned the afternoon out for us and everyone was sitting on go waiting for us to arrive.  The first stop was to check out the birds of prey show...

This little beauty was the first bird that was brought out.  You know how I feel about this one.  That owl looked straight at me immediately.  Ask Bethany.  It was craziness!  It's funny that the girls automatically spot anything and everything owl related at such an early age.  Towns was captivated...

 

 In true Cate fashion, she didn't sit still for too very long... 

She's a wiggle worm if there ever was one!

After the raptors it was time for the butterfly garden...

We didn't stay long being that it was 800 degrees in there, but we did come out with a couple of pictures...

Mark this day down in history.  Neither one wore a bow or ribbon and I survived.  Who would have guessed that was even remotely possible?! The main even was that night when we hopped on a trolley for the Fantasy in Lights.  But not before we scored hot chocolate for the ride.  Or in my case, boiling water sans cocoa.  Towns had an absolute blast the whole time.  It put Buggy straight to sleep, though.  That was partly because she was sick and partly because she's no night owl.  After the lights, Christmas carols, and freezing our tootsies off, we let Towns sit in Santa's lap and pose with her reindeer friend...

I'll be honest.  With Cate being sick, I didn't feel guilty about not putting the first bit of effort into our Thanksgiving lunch.  All I had to do was sign the receipt for our lunch at Callaway.  I'm not saying I'd make it a tradition, but it was just what the doctor ordered this year (no pun intended).  After Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family, we said our goodbyes and hit the road.

Now it's time for my soapbox.  I love a good Thanksgiving post as much as anyone.  But shouldn't it be Thanksgiving every day?  I'm guilty of not taking the time to be thankful for our many blessings, and it's something I'm working on.  Put it this way: I'm glad I didn't wake up and find myself left with everything I thanked God for yesterday, because it wouldn't be very much.  And that's a sad thought.  Today I'm thankful that I don't get what I deserve.

I'm also thankful that these lovies are what take up my time, energy, and thoughts...

I'm thankful for a husband who provides for us in more ways that we can count.  He's my better half.  Anyone who can live with four girls and still come home to us every night with a smile on his face is a saint!

And I'm thankful that this priss pot is starting to feel like herself again...

 

 It broke my heart to see her so pitiful, but I must admit that I love how she needs her mama when she's sick.  She's been my permanent attachment ever since.  She wants me to snuggle up with her her all day, every day.  And when I do, she tells me how much she loves me..."as big as the whole wide way-ald".  I could eat her up, y'all.  Lord help my soul.

'Tis the season...it's now December and I'm gonna hold on and enjoy the ride.  I love this busy time of year!