Pink Ink

Anyone want to wager a guess which one of these household items will take red ink off of children....
Well, if you guessed...

Start with baking soda on a wash cloth, scrub vigorously while child howls, look at washcloth and notice it is pink, look at child, notice it is still red. Move onto vinegar (mixed with some baking soda) attempt to get pink ink off of face. Accidentally get some in mouth of howling, protesting child. Child begins to wretch and squeal but ink begins to come off. Move onto peanut butter as child is now attempting to drown herself. Child attempts to lick peanut butter off of arms (that still have vinegar and baking soda on them). More howling, retching, and splashing. All parties concerned are now soaking wet and covered in a peanut butter, vinegar goo. Desperation. Mother debates the wisdom of just adding nail polish remover to the bath water. Decides against. Scrubs howling, flailing, sputtering children with soapy water vowing to lock up craft supplies with the cleaning supplies. Decides pink tinged children really don't look too bad. Gives up.

If that's what you guessed, you would be mostly right... I left out a few of the bad parts...

Amsterdam and Halloween

Last week, Eric and I left the kids with Kate (yeah, we owe her big!) and went to Amsterdam for a couple of days. The city was beautiful and "clean". By clean I mean the streets were swept and no one littered. No one really drives in Amsterdam, they all bike... really, really fast. Nothing is off limits to bikes- roads, sidewalks...anywhere. It can make being a pedestrian a little scary! And all you have to do is window shop to gain quite and education on...well...many things...

So, I have chosen the least "educating" pictures possible in a city full of just about everything- including Ann Frank's house which is where we were when I took this picture. We waited for about a half hour in freezing pouring rain to get in but it is one of the things tourists should do!
I don't really know what this is. It kinda looks like a church, but I almost find it hard to believe that there is one in Amsterdam. Anyway we passed this building often while wondering around (usually half lost) in the city.
Waiting to get into Ann Frank's house... you can see how much I love to be cold and wet...
See how fast these bikers go? He's practically a blur!
Central station where we picked up our dinner cruise
The dinner cruise was really good and we got to see the whole city at night going from one canal to another.
Yeah, something was missing from our bathroom...let me see... yeah... when you book a room with "en suite bathroom" isn't fair to assume a toilet is included... Yeah, lesson learned...
After we left Amsterdam, we stopped at Delft (where all the hand painted dutch pottery comes from). After discovering that we could afford a thimble and pretty much nothing else, we headed home. The town was very pretty though and I bought my second pair of boots on the trip. (The first pair was from Amsterdam and they are red and beautiful and completely not practical.)
For Halloween, Ava was a snow princess and Eli was Superman. The shivered and froze through 2 solid hours of trick or treating with determined looks on their little faces!
Mommy had to work, but they finished trick or treating off by coming up to see me at work and show off all their candy.
Aren't they adorable?!
Trick or Treat!

The Best Sleep Ever Because ...

Yes ... never in our wildest dreams would Ness and I think that changing sleeping arrangements into this setup would be soooooooooo nice. Apparently, not being able to see each other and easily get out of bed greatly contributes to the kids peacefully going to sleep at the end of the day. Ava has princesses and Eli has Cars. They have agreed to switch places every month, but I don't see Ava easily giving up the high ground next week.

This morning, the kids took advantage of the presence of the baby seat (Kenny, Kate, Logan, and Lilly were over last night) to play "MOMMY/BABY". Ava fed Eli a nice breakfast of Goldfish cereal and then put him to bed. (Apparently, Eli thought it quite delicious!) Even as I write, Eli is "Crying" in "Bed" asking for "Mommy".

Next week, Ness and I are going to Amsterdam SANS KIDS! So there should be an entertaining blog when we return.

Lovin' autumn

Today the kids and I made leaf collages... we collected pretty fall leaves, dried and pressed them, and used paint, crayons and glue (along with the leaves) to each create our own interpretation of autumn.... at least that is how I choose to remember it. The real story.... I made Eric stop the car full of crying hungry children so that I could dash around grabbing the prettiest leaves from someone's yard. We held up traffic and the kids were not impressed. I pressed the leaves and then drug out every craft supply we owned and told the kids to go to it. Eli and Ava gracefully shared the watercolors for, ohh, about 3.7 seconds. Fighting, tears, and some mud, um, paint slinging ensued. I glued Eli's leaves for him. While my back was turned, Ava painted the floor blue. Eli spent 10 minutes squalling because he couldn't get the safety scissors to work while Ava repeatedly glued her hands together and pulled them apart with rubber cement. I called the project to an end when crayons began to get thrown and Ava was crunching and "sprinkling" her leaves. I gave them a snack and made my own leaf collage. Maybe we'll try again when they are 28 and 30.
Chocolates from Amsterdam to the first person to correctly guess Eli's "pumpkin" (yes he insisted on having a gourd this year... such a nonconformist!)
Ava and her pumpkin (carved by Daddy- and no, there is no prize for guessing that one!) And in the background is my leaf collage...oooooo, ahhhhhh.....
Yeah, we finally broke down and bought a wii. Ava picked up on the bowling pretty quickly!
Yeah, I guess I forgive them for not being the best leaf collage makers... they're still the best kids ever.

The Wedding

Yeah, I know I am dirtbag blogger extraordinaire... but here is the rest of our Florida trip. My sister got married, we played at the beach until we were sunburnt between angry red and magenta, and ate our weight in yummy American food. Enjoy...

A few days pre-wedding... they look a little like bats don't they? Around 730pm they start acting a bit like bats too...
My beautiful sister on her wedding day... I have to admit that I was a little, um, uncertain about having "watermelon" and "tangerine" as wedding colors, but it was lovely and perfect!
Ava and her Grammy pretending to be sand pipers on the beach...
We clean up pretty good, I think... even the sand piper...
A close up of the beautiful flower girl. I see so much of Grandma Conderman in her in this picture! The beach was very windy during the wedding so every handful of flower petals she threw were blowing away... so Ava lengthened the wedding by half burying each individual petal in the sand so they wouldn't blow away... so resourceful!
The happy bride and groom... Mr and Mrs Murrell!
yeah, I know, out of order like always! Just a little side story... Last year Carissa and Ryan came to visit me in England. I booked their tickets over her, and, as a joke, I requested special mid eastern meals for the two of them. (You probably don't ever want me to book your airline tickets... I once requested a seeing eye dog for one of my girl friends...but I digress (even further). So Carissa and Ryan show up at the bus station "hungry enough to gnawl their own arms off" because all they had gotten to eat on the 10 hour plane flight was some brown stuff and an olive. They were a little mad. The story went on involving more cold Kosher food, angry flight attendants, and flatuance. So, I couldn't be too angry about my sister making me memorize lines for her wedding... maybe a little payback...?

She most definitely looks "up to something"!
Me and my little man!
Happy little beach baby! (Actually this was a rare smile... Eli doesn't like to be dirty... so you can see how the beach would be a little unsettling for him... if I had a nickle for everytime I had to rinse him off in the shower just to let him head back to the beach... jeez...)
Ickle Michael dancing with mom at the wedding.
Eli found a nice nap spot!
Mimi and Ava telling secrets...

Always a tear jerker... the bride dancing with her daddy! I certainly remember being in the same place just a little over 7 years ago... still get choked up when I hear "Three times a lady"...

Well, I will try to be a bit more "blog conscious"... so tune in a day or two to enjoy more everyday randomness, such as "Bunk bed wars" and "more free horse poo"... a thrill a minute...