Author Archives: Chrissie

Pumpkin Fun

Kevin took the girls out to the pumpkin patch this weekend. It was sunny and mobbed but the girls didn’t mind. There were hay mazes to run through, a corn maze to navigate, caramel popcorn to eat, and a pumpkin patch to search. Kulia loved the animal cut-outs. 

The hay maze is always a hit.  Hay to run in, climb on and throw.  It’s enough to make any kid happy.  

 

Kevin also got the annual growth shot.  Here we are our first year, 2005, when Leina was only a 2 years old. Kulia was lugged around in the backpack and didn’t make it into the shot.

In 2006, Kulia joined in the fun. She was a wee thing but totally game. Can you believe how much Leina grew in just one year?!?!?

In the 2007 entry to our montage, it’s Kulia’s turn to amaze me with her growth spurt.

This year?  They both look huge to me.  How did this happen?

The girls had a blast and Kevin appeared to survive it reasonably well.  We haven’t carved the pumpkins yet but there’s still time.  Halloween’s a-coming!

No Excuses

As “The Mom”, I am expected to know where everything thing is in this household from Patches to pagers.  One question I’m constantly hearing is “Mom!   Do you know where *insert item here* is?”  Usually, I do.  Not because I have some sort of super mommy power.  No, the reason I know where everything is?  That’s because I’m the one who puts everything away.  I’m constantly following behind my children and putting things back.  When they were little, I didn’t mind.  A two year old is a force of nature.  It’s a fact of life.  But a 5 year old?  Well,  I’m thinking a 5 year old can help with the clean up.  

So I started to insist on some help putting away toys.  Immediately, I began hearing choruses of “but I don’t know where it goes!”  I had a hard time believing this.  If you can take it out, you can put it back, right?  I tried arguing this but my sound logic fell on small deaf ears.  So I have decided on a different tactic.  In our new spiffy toy cabinets, I have upped the ante.  Behold the beauty of my new fool proof toy storage system!

Labels + pictures =  no excuses.

Everything has a home.  What?  You are only 3 and can’t read?  Well, how about a nice picture?

A place fore everything.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Brings a tear to a mother’s eye.  Sniff.

I’m thinking even a 3 year old can figure this system out.  That’s the hope anyway.

My kids are excited by this new idea.  They love being able to find everything they need at once.  Clean up is easy as I pass out a bin to each kid and tell them to collect everything that goes in it.  Then we replace it and pick another.  I have gone from hourly worker to management and I like it, baby.   The only person not so happy?  That would Kevin.  Up until now, Kevin has relied heavily  on the “I don’t know where it goes” excuse.  His idea of cleaning is to walk around the room kicking toys out of the middle and to the sides.  When this cleaning technique was criticised, he was quick to whip out the ignorance defense.  Well, when he came home last night and saw the fruits of my labor, he grew a little quiet and a frown appeared on his face.  Under questioning, he admitted that he much preferred his kicking method to my organization.  Sorry hubby.  You’re going to have to come up with a new excuse to get out of clean up time now!

Progress

After a very long week, I have progress!  The cabinets are up and waiting to be filled.   Even more impressive, after working together on this project, Kevin and I are still speaking to eachother.  Amazing!

Chaos

From Balance to Chaos.  Oh how quickly the pendulum swings.

I have decided to undertake a new project.  Because, really, I so don’t have enough to do with my time.  Ha!  I’ve convinced/dragged Kevin into redoing our bonus room.  This room is a true jack of all spades.  It’s the craft room, the computer room, the play room and the guest room.  That’s a lot of hats for one space to wear so most of the time, it’s a disheveled mess.  It gets hard use from every person in this house.  Up to know, it’s been cobbled together.  My old computer desk from high school + the craft table from the basement from 69th + a broken trundle bed + a ton of kid toys.  It ain’t a pretty sight even on it’s best day.  So the great over haul.

First, I tackled my craft space.  Here’s the before shot.

I’m tired of open shelves and clutter so I’m opting for a wardrobe cabinet from IKEA and hoping to hide all the chaos behind clean, closed doors.  So far, so good.  The table is an old odd piece that Kevin will someday replace (right Kev?) but for now it fits.  I also moved to the opposite corner of the room to snag a window and some nice natural light.  Very exciting.

That’s Leina being her normal odd self.  I have no idea what she is doing but she wanted me to take of picture of her so here it is.

Kulia is much more interested in “helping” me.  There is nothing quite as frustrating as a 3 year old trying to help you install IKEA cabinets so I gave her the tape measure and set her to work.  She takes her task very very seriously.

This is my jedi knight pictures of Kulia.  May the force be with her.

Balance

The sense of balance has been restored to the McLaughlin household.  It was a bit rocky there but we have managed to right the ship.  Kevin and I are both happy now which is a very good thing.  It all started, you see, with the Wii.

Yes, the Wii.  Kevin got this bonus from work.  He could log onto this prize site and pick a prize as a thank you for all the crazy hours he worked this summer.  He took one look at the list and jumped for joy when he saw the Wii system.  I looked at the same list and my heart was all a-flutter when I saw the Dyson.  There ensured a rough hour of cajoling and bartering and pleading of cases.  In the end, the Wii arrived and Kevin was ecstatic.  He loved playing and playing and playing.  Me?  I mopped about bewailing my dirty carpet situation.  The boat was threatening to capsize.  It wasn’t pretty.

Then my dad gave me a gift card out of the blue and Kevin galantly added a gift card he had as well to my stash.  Suddenly the Dyson of my dreams was within reach!   Add to it a random clearance sale and voila!  My Dyson arrived and I was esctatic!  I vaccumed.  I cleaned.  I was happy.

So if you were walking you dog past our house yesterday and decided to peek into our front window, you would have seen a touching domestic scene.  Husband playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii while wife was vacuuming every square inch of carpet she could find.

The kids?  Huh.  Good question.  I’m not sure what they were doing.  They were probably escatic to have a few hours of unsupervised time to themselves.  Although, that would explain why Artie had pink marker all over his head.  Poor thing.  Yes, it was good all around.