What?!?

I was just walking through the house the other day and I saw this.

It seemed obvious that this was the work of Simon. So I asked him why there was a flip flop full of money in the middle of the floor and he said he couldn't find anywhere else to put the money. Oh, of course. It's perfectly logical.

Happy Halloween!

At the beginning of October, Simon and his cousin Leah were in the kitchen writing on colored construction paper, and asking how to spell certain words, like Halloween. Before I knew it, they had delivered several handmade invitations to neighborhood kids for a Halloween party at our house. So being the suckers that Tommy and I are, we had a Halloween party. We had it on Halloween before it got dark and the kids had a great time. There were about 20 kids there and they played games and had lots of treats.

Simon almost became Leah's treat!

Simon is obviously a hot dog, and Max was an evil jester. It looks a little scarier with the mask on. We had a costume contest to see who had the scariest costume, the prettiest costume, and the funniest costume. Simon won for funniest costume (I know what you are thinking...he just happened to win when his own parents were throwing the party? Well so we wouldn't have anyone's feelings hurt, we polled all the kids at the party. So we had nothing to do with it...except perhaps a few innocent bribes here and there). Anyways, I think they all had a good time. Max thinks he wants to have a party every year and Simon even thinks we should have a party for Valentine's day, and maybe even Mother's Day!

My little rocker!

I am such a horrible blogger! I haven't even checked my own blog in almost two months!



So Tommy's brother had some free tickets to a Goo Goo Dolls concert the other night so we went with them. Honestly, I can't actually name any of their songs and I would never have bought a ticket to their concert, but I have to say it was pretty good. Anyways, it reminded me that I hadn't posted the clip of Max playing in a band at his music school. So here it is. The video is pretty bad quality but you get the idea. I know I'm his mom and all but I think he's pretty darn cute. (He's second from the right, playing guitar.)

Take your time and enjoy it!

I was absent-mindingly eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut while I was working on my last post. When I saved the post, I looked around wondering where I had put my doughnut and when it couldn't be found, I had to come to the realization that I had finished it. Without even really enjoying it. Well at least it has 0 grams trans fat. Maybe it won't really matter if I have another.

It's a wrap!

Even though school started a few weeks ago, Labor Day always seems to signal the end of summer for me. So I thought I'd recap our summer with some highlights.

We did some fireworks at our cousins house for the 4th of July. Max shows off some of the goods.

It's not the 4th of July without some sparklers. Looks like fun, right? Good times.

A few days later we went to California to stay with our friends kids while they went out of town. Our kids taught their kids all about Spongebob.

This little guy called me "Mama" all week. He's so cute, he almost makes me want to have another baby... almost.

We stayed in California for a few weeks just swimming and going to the beach. Near the end of July we went to Comicon in San Diego. There, we saw more nerds congregated in one convention center than we ever thought possible. This is where I "ruined Max's life" because I was asked to give a television interview for MSN and I declined. It apparently was his one shot at getting on TV.

Simon seems to have the same face on in all the pictures. He really did have fun despite the stressed look.

We had a great time in California, but it was really great to get home. And I think we were all ready for school to start.

Piano recital

Tonight Simon had his second piano recital. This was a casual summer recital so he was happy that he didn't need to wear "church clothes".

After the recital, we agreed to go to Cold Stone for dessert. It was only then that I noticed what Max was wearing.

Are you kidding me? He then admitted to knowing they were different before we left but decided to go with it anyways because he couldn't find a matching pair.

Why do we have a dog?

Look how sweet and innocent he looks. DO NOT BE FOOLED!!! I was literally dragged by my own dog today. I'm being completely serious. It may have looked a little like this picture, except my body was actually scraping the ground. Cody has made a fool of me for the last time! (oh that's right...FOR THE LAST TIME!! He made a fool of me last week when he wrapped himself around a pole and then took off running, slamming and pinning my arm against a pole. I still have the half dollar size bruise on my arm to show for that.) He just earned himself a choke collar. Oh and did I mention I was walking the kids to school when it happened, so every other mom walking or driving their kids saw it, along with the crossing guard and the cop that happened to be stopped by the curb. I'll be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. I heard the whispers as I picked myself off the ground and tried to brush off the dirt and grass from my body. And then, to top it all off, he pooped on the way home and I had to pick it up in the bag. Who's in charge here?

Smells like fresh cut grass

Recently our dog Cody has come to live with us after staying with Tommy's parents for far too long. So in an effort to make sure our house doesn't smell like "dog", I may have become a little obsessed with doing almost anything to prevent it. So at Target today I purchase the Method aroma sticks. I opened the package and began reading the instructions on assembly. They go as follows:

"Remove cap from bottle and carefully pour fragrance oil into the vase, making sure you don't spill. That would be messy, and we're against that."

Wow, they are right! That would be messy, and I am also against that. Finally, instructions that make sense. Thanks Method.

Fun for all ages

Simon was playing with a baby rattle the other day and said this:

"I know people say that kids my age don't like to play with these things but I think they're irresistable!"

12 Years!

Tommy and I went to Mexico to celebrate our 12 year anniversary. I can't believe we've already been married twelve years! We went to a hotel called the Grand Velas in Puerto Vallarta and it was so beautiful. All we did was basically nothing and it was great. We had people waiting on us constantly. It was a little weird at first, having someone do everything for you, but I soon realized that I could definitely get used to that. These are pictures of the views from our room and us chillin in the pool.

Spread it around

here's a conversation that took place at our house the other day.



Me: Max, what happened to your toenail? It's all chipped and broken.

Max: Remember, Simon and Hayden stepped on my foot.

Simon: Hey, why are you blaming me?

Me: Simon, he's just explaining what happened. Nobody is mad at you.

Simon: Yeah, but he's always blaming me for everything.

Me: Simon, you blame people for things that you do all the time.

Simon: Yeah but when I blame people, I blame LOTS of people. Max only blames me!



I guess we can all learn from Simon. It's best not to just target one person when trying to avoid responsibility. Go ahead and spread that blame around.

After several previous attempts, Simon has finally mastered riding his bike without training wheels! He hasn't even wanted to try since last summer, instead using his scooter as his mode of transportation. So after the long winter (very long), he went for it and got it in no time.

the merriment of kangaroo zoo

No matter how hard I tried, most of the pictures taken while they were playing ended up being of the kids backs. I managed to get a few taken while they were busy feeding themselves.

So Simon turned 6 this last week. I can't believe my baby is 6! I'm not sure if Simon can believe it either. I think he has mixed emotions about it just like I do. On his birthday he was walking down the hall singing "I'm 6, I'm 6!", while wearing his "blankie" around his neck like a scarf. Tommy thinks it's time to do something about blankie. He says that I encourage Simon with his blanket, which is possibly true. I do always make sure he is available at bed time. I call blankie a "he" because I assume that Simon would think it is a boy also. He does refer to the blanket as if it were a person. But I don't see the harm in letting it go a little longer. Afterall, this most likely is my last baby. Can't everyone just let me keep my baby? And did anyone see "Lars and the Real Girl"? Lars wore his blankie around his neck like a scarf well into adulthood. And everyone in town loved Lars.

Simon did have a great birthday. We had a bunch of friends and cousins play at the Kangaroo Zoo and we later also had a family party where Simon had a cake made by his Uncle Danny and Aunt Tausha. The cake was actually made of rice crispies to keep it's shape because Simon had requested a Gingerbread man, but it was very cute.

I'm not sure that I'm qualified to have a blog or that I even have anything to blog about. But here it is. My blog. Hopefully no one will be offended at what I choose to blog about, especially since the only thing I really ever have to talk about are my kids. I'm taking my cues from Melissa (thanks Melissa!) and she's always talking about the kids and I love it. So enjoy...or not. Also, I'm not sure why I named it "tommyandbrooke" because I'm pretty sure he wants nothing to do with this. However, whether he likes it or not, he's bound to get a mention or two at some point.