New Traditions

What do you get when you ditch the turkey and order Chinese take out, sip on bourbon slush, watch four boys run wild, and fail miserably at finishing the movie Love Actually?  The Parsons, Kazee, Mulloy Thanksgiving!

Sock Hands

sippin'

ready, set, go.

this should help the cough

it was like being on the set of mad men

why does this make me laugh?

i could not get over the chick behind us looked like Blythe Danner (aka Gwynnie's mom)

Patrick and I went on a date Friday night. Even though I was under the weather, I bucked up to enjoy a much needed night out. Our first stop was a Penn Alumni event held at the new Evan Williams Distillery on Main Street. Nothing like sipping a little bourbon to help your cough. It was really cool and totally worth checking out. After sipping on some bourbon we headed to my favorite restaurant in Louisville, 211 Clover Lane. Pretty perfect night.

my little stubborn man

nothing like eating a nord's doughnut with socks

doughnut coma

When I went in to check on the boys before I went to bed, Duncan was asleep with socks on his hands. I texted our sweet babysitter and she said he insisted on wearing socks on his hands to bed...trust me, I know that game and sometimes, socks on the hands is not worth the terror. The next morning...the socks would not come off for anything. It was like he was doing an experiment with himself to see what he could accomplish with socks on his hands...silly D.

Waiting for Daddy to get an allergy shot...the socks turned into gloves.

The Kind Stranger

I took Wip, Duncan, and Wip's buddy Is to Gattiland last week. Yes, I am nuts. This was Is & Wip on the way to "Gabbiland" (for some reason both boys call it Gabbi instead of Gatti). Can you say pumped?

We had a great time playing games, eating pizza, and riding the carousel. While we were inserting our tickets to get prizes there were two teenage boys (maybe 16 years old) standing at the machine next to us also redeeming tickets. The only difference was they each had about a 6 inch stack of tickets to insert while we had about 6 tickets total. The boys minds were blown just watching all of the tickets being swept through the machine. Once the teenagers's tickets went through the machine a card popped out. One of the young men took the card out and handed it to Wip. Wip's eyes were huge!  I told the young man that it was not necessary and he told me that they just really enjoy playing a game and then giving the tickets away (he said it took him about 3 weeks to master the game). Wip gave him a very excited thank you and told me that they were kind strangers. We went to redeem the card for prizes and discovered that there was 4200 tickets on the card. Holy moly. That is a lot of tickets. That is a lot of prizes junk. Each boy walked out with an inflatable bat, toy snake, and slinky. We still have 3000 tickets left if anyone is up for a trip to "Gabbyland":)

Taking 3 energetic boys to Gattiland was crazy, but getting this in the mail made it all worth it.

Wacky Wednesday

Wip had Wacky Wednesday today in the Fish class. Students were encouraged to wear something mismatched or silly because they are working on the letter "W" this week.

Little did Ms. Charlene know that we have already had a bit of a "wacky" week already...

On Monday, we were heading out on a walk to meet up with William. Duncan insisted on wearing his Havaiana flip flops (with socks of course).

On Tuesday, Patrick was out of town and he typically gets the boys ready for school. I felt pretty confident that Wip could dress himself and so I did not pay much attention to what he put on (ok, lets be real...Duncan is shall I say "stubborn" in the mornings, so truth be told I was focused on getting him out the door). Wip picked out dress socks, a 2T sweater (that did belong to him at one time), Duncan's black sweatpants, and the same t-shirt that he wore the day before...it. was. awesome.

Take that Wacky Wednesday!

Smokey Man

Giggles. That is pretty much all that I heard for a solid hour coming from the basement today. I did not think much about it until D came up the stairs with his typical "HI MOMMY!". His face and hands were covered in black ink and I thought to myself...this is not going to be good. The boys had taken the typewriter ribbon and wiped it all over their bodies. Thankfully, other than the stair railing and the carpet nothing else seemed to catch the wrath of the ribbon. I wanted to be mad and scream and yell, but when I asked Wip what he was thinking when he wiped the ribbon all over him and his brother, his response was "we wanted to look like the smokey man from Mary Poppins". Seriously, how can I be mad at that?

Confession

I have a confession to make. I hate doing art projects with my children. I know, I know...I absolutely should. I am blessed beyond belief to get to spend afternoons with the wild and crazy guys. We have so much time together and we do a lot of fun stuff. But, I gotta be honest...art projects (other than the typical sidewalk chalk or drawing a picture) just do not do it for me. When we do get around to doing an art project, I want it to be perfect...Pinterest-esk. I have a vision in my head that I got from a blog or magazine and I want it to be perfectly executed. That. Never. Happens.

Here is my example...it was a cold, windy day. I decided we would paint some pumpkins that were left over from Halloween to get us ready for the perfect tablescape to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
This was my vision:

Source: Sweet Paul Magazine

This was my reality:

Prepping for disaster

Really nothing at all like my vision...

D, what happened to you? 

 I think they are better off running off energy like here:)

In other Arts and Craft news...Wip brought the pictures found below home from school and his daddy keeps putting his "art" in the trash can in our bedroom. Each day (this has happened twice) when we get home from school and go upstairs, Wip will pull the "art" out of the trash and say "that silly Daddy, he thinks that this is trash, but it is not" while he promptly pulls it out of the garbage and sets it on the bed. You go my little Picasso.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

This is how I found Wip today:

The boys did get outside (I promise!), but most of the afternoon was spent vegging out. It was needed after a busy weekend. We had friends over to play, birthday parties to celebrate, a visit with Grams and Poppy, and I got hang with my bestie in Lexington. All and all a pretty darn good weekend.

Happy Birthday Ben!  He said it was "the bestest day of his life"

My little man waiting for some cake

BFF

I almost spit out my coffee this morning when I caught D saying "what did you say, I can't hear you" while cupping his hand over his ear...this is the EXACT same thing his Granddaddy does...like granddaddy like grandson, I guess.

I made a "thankful" tree for the month of November...Wip's first item that he wanted to put on the tree was that he was thankful for "animals" (no kidding, kid).

Duncanisms

D has been cracking us up lately with his "Duncanisms".

Here is what I mean:

As Duncan was jumping off of the bed, Patrick said "Be careful" and he said "No, I'll be Spiderman"

When Duncan is doing something he should not be doing, say hitting his brother, I will tell him to stop and explain that we do not hit. He will look up at me and say "but I did not say poop or penis."

Duncan can spot a bad mood from a mile away (maybe because he can get in some pretty foul moods himself). When Wip is having a bad mood moment and then later is back to normal, Duncan will look at him and say "you happy now?" (insert your favorite reggae song voice as you say it:)

Finally, if you ask him what kind of toothpaste he has...click here for the answer (it is Ninja Turtles in case you are struggling to understand:)

Fairy Godmother

I am pretty lucky. I have a fairy godmother. She is a friend who owns a children's boutique and also happens to have three boys. One morning I got a text that she had left some of the boys clothes on my front porch. It was two full bags with some really nice clothes, and I am pretty sure that Wip and Duncan will receive best dressed at least through the second grade:)

The other day I had to bring Duncan to my 6th grade class that I teach on Tuesday and Thursday. Duncan came into the class and introduced himself and told everyone his age. One of my students (who also happens to be one of the sweet boys of my friend) raised his hand. When I called on him he said "is that my old belt?"....and in fact it was his old belt getting put to good use!  It was hilarious.

Hello November!

Wip's class project

November has started with a bang! From hanging with cousins at the Alumni BBQ to celebrating sweet Anna's birthday to the surprise birth of baby Ellis to helping to make sure an elementary school has a playground...it was a busy weekend.

Sadly, my phone battery died so I did not get a "cousin" picture. But I piled all four boys in the car and headed to KCD for some BBQ and bouncy fun. Duncan was not being very cooperative with getting dressed, so I just gave up...he literally put every piece of clothing on himself in the photo above.

We also got to celebrate "sweet" Anna's 2nd birthday. Duncan literally thinks that her name is "sweet" Anna and I have no intentions of correcting him. She is in fact sweet and minus Duncan being asleep on my shoulder for pretty much the entire party, it could not have been more precious. 

Not waiting anymore!

Me and Kristen so excited for the Lenihan family:)

Saturday was busy and thankfully Grams and Poppy came to hang out with the boys so that I could go to my dear friends baby shower and Patrick could go to the Homecoming dance at KCD. I was a little bummed to be going to the "couples" shower without my other half. As I was walking in, I saw one of the hosts on his cell phone. I overheard him say "so it is a healthy baby boy?!?". Being extremely nosy, I asked "who just had a healthy baby boy?" to which he replied "Kathryn!". Well this just happenend to be who the shower was for...Ellis decided he wanted to come a little early. She went to the hospital at 4:30 and he was born at 6:30 (she pushed for 15 minutes). I am SO excited for this sweet couple and simply can't wait to meet the little man:)

Wip was happy

My little monkeys

Little bird fun before heading home

D wanted to "ride" all of the birds

When my friend Emily asked me if I was interested in running a 5K to help raise money needed for playground equipment at Engelhard Elementary I was all about it. I packed up the boys and we headed downtown on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I might not have run the entire time, but the boys sure did get excited to run to the finish line. Click here to see what I mean. It was a great event for a great cause that also made me realize just how lucky I am to work at a school with such amazing resources. #blessed.