move over picasso...

Here comes Bryn.

One of my most favorite things in the world is little kid art. Especially little kid art that involves my sweetie Peetie.

I am tired (aka just lazy), so I thought I'd post a couple of my recent favs of Bryn's art. I have been collecting frames to one day make of wall of her art.

Bryn's Princess Fairies (done in Sharpies no less)


And my personal fav, Wall-E (awwww!!)

Happiest Birthday Andie!

I have an old friend. Old is in- she's now aged yet another year (but still remains months younger than I, so we shall not go there) and "old friend" as we have been friends a very long time. We have been friends for 28 years.
It is rare to have known someone so long (besides your family) and remain the best of friends (although yes, there were some bad times). To be the type of friend that you can call 28 times each day with nothing important to say...well not important to the sane world, but placemats and spatulas are essential in our friend world.
A friend that stands behind you or gives you a push when you need one. A friend that takes your ramblings as they come (sometimes in daily droves) and just listens to the complaints (and agrees that it is indeed never MY fault).

I don't even think I can out into words how important this friend is to my exsistence. She has helped to make me who I am today (not sure if I should thank her and blame her for that one).

So today, on her __th birthday, I wish Andie the happiest birthday ever!! (and to remind her of how very special she is to me).

Let there be light!

Yay! I won!

I finally found the defective bulb and managed to finish stringing up the lights. I am thinking that maybe next year, I will wait an extra few days so Tom can resume his illumination expertise. Arg.

Le voila- my handywork!

MOSH!

We enjoyed a busy weekend. We decided to take the girls to MOSH- also known as the Museum of Science and History. (I think "MOSH" sounds much more exciting, as who in the world would take their youngins' to a history museum?)
Anyway, it was a good time had by all. I think Tom enjoyed the science activities more than the girls did.
This is when he is at his best. He is the perfect play-Dad. He gets down and dirty or bubbly in this case with the kids.
The girls really enjoyed the "sound room" which is where they could make all sorts of noise using loud objects...I thought it kind of sounded like the accoustics in our great room...so I was not as impressed as I get to enjoy that experiment everyday.






On Sunday, I thought since all our neighbors have gone all Griswald and put up their outside holiday decorations, it was time for us to do the same. This is usually Tom's job, but I decided to put the lights up myself as I just couldn't stand going any longer without some exterior illumination or I would die that horrible death and go to the place of wonky Christmas trees.

I thought this would prove to be an easy task, but 1.5 hours and two scratched to ba-jebus hands later, I am only half done. So there will be no illumination tonight, thanks to the prickles on the palm tree and my impatience for inanimate objects that refuse to work MY way.

(I did have some awfully cute reindeer playing games all over the yard)

Happy Anniversay to me!

Happy anniversary to me! Yay! Or should I say, holy crap, we actually managed to co-habitate together for 7 years!!!
I just realized that there are very few pictures of Tom and I together, espeically on the computer...but here are a few of us through the years.
Just a girl and the boy she loves beyond all reason (obviously).

Happy Anniversary Husband!
Love, Wife

When Orangeheads go Wild!!!

Parenting 101.
Kids feed off each other.
Whatever Bryn does, Ava is quick to follow.
So my theory is that we should be putting all our productive parenting into Bryn with the hopes that Ava will follow suit or pick up some positive behavior through osmosis.

My Orangeheads are the perfect example.
It all started as a harmless lunch. Within minutes, Bryn was having fun with her orange slices, and as you can clearly see, Ava was quick to follow.

Then came the dancing and the daily ritual of running around the house (and the daily reminding of "we walk in the house").
Bryn in the lead.
Ava a close second.

Yes, I am pretty sure that if Bryn jumped off a bridge, Ava would too...and probably with bells on!

2 socks, 2 tooth brushes and 2 screwdrivers later...

We have a somewhat vertical family Bennett Christmas tree.

The yearly raising of the Bennett family Christmas tree began 3 days ago.
I noticed a crack in the base of our tree and it went downhill from there.
Tom Bennett Broke-It, accidentally snapped the base into 2 pieces while trying to fix it. I should have known better than to let him near the base, as he usually ends up breaking toys whereever he goes. This is why our friends hide their kids toys when he comes to visit and why I refer to him as "Tom Broke-It"

Tom assured me that he could fix it so I could have my tree upright that day. I suppose I should've mentioned to him that I also wanted it straight and vertical. But I was thrilled to have him working on my side to get the tree up Sunday, as once I decide I want something done, it HAS to be finished right away or I will shrivel up and die.
No, seriously. I would die a horrible death to a place full of not quite upright Christmas trees.

So, I braved the traffic and people at Target to get a new tree base (once again very leary of Tom's plan). He fashioned together what appeared to be a base for our skinny fake tree...but when we let go of it, our tree did this.



So we played with different items around the house to help stabalize our tree and keep it from looking all wonky, as wonkiness is not tolerated by my OCD tendancies.

We tried stuffing some old toothbrushes down the base...to no avail.
A couple of my old gym socks...worked better, but only for a minute.

At last, we tried some screwdrivers...and it worked! My wonky tree was not so wonky anymore! But if anyone catches a glimpse of the base, this is what they will find.
(although the screwdriver just seemed somewhat appropriate).



3 days (of having little hands to help) later...we have a mostly decorated tree.
I say mostly decorated because I still have a few boxes of balls left to hang.
To the normal naked eye, my tree looks complete, but to the not-so-normal eye of a Christmas tree junkie, there is still plenty of room to hang more red and green coordinated ornaments!!
I have my Mom to thank for the coordinating Christmas tree issue- she is queen of coordinating Christmas trees and I send her blue ornaments for her red/green tree just for kicks. I think it must be subliminal payback for the years of matching outfits my sister and I were made to wear.

But here we have it, the Broke-It Bennett Family Christmas tree 08 (which really looks eerily similar to the 03, 04, 05, 06 and 07 versions).

And it only took 3 days,
2 socks,
2 toothbrushes,
2 screwdrivers,
4 "helping hands"
3 naptimes without the "helping hands",
3 shattered ornaments (2 of which were very special),
a pitcher of margaritas
and a couple valium (well not really, but my nerves could've used some).