Halloween 2012!

I had grand plans for Halloween this year. I mean BIG! The most I accomplished, however, was buying some decorations and forcing lovingly asking Brad to place said decorations outside on our patio.

I don't have a picture of the decorations that he lovingly placed but, let me tell you, they were great.

Our annual Halloween excursion to the Feehan household began at 5pm with Linda's yummy chili. Brad and I were drinking by 5:01pm. For whatever reason, Halloween turns into a hectic event. I'm not sure why....maybe its because there's candy and costumes and, oh yeah, we have three kids now. I think the biggest culprit was the rain. And I'm not talking light rain. This rain was coming down hard, fast, and sideways. The kids didn't care one bit. I didn't care either because, well, since Scotty is a "baby" and all, I opted to stay at the house to hand out candy....Brilliant, I know.

There was an effort on my part to take a picture of all three kids in their costumes. Below is evidence of my failure but at least I tried.

Here's a picture of the four families that come together every year.

And here's my favorite picture of the evening where Brad ignores Scotty and decides to "photo bomb" the kid picture:

Confessions of an Exhausted Mother

I'm usually much more on top of my game. However, in the past three days, I've had a series of unfortunate events occur.

I blame my children for these lackluster days and the sleep deprivation they have been causing me for the past two weeks.

Confession #1

Sam has Taekwondo practice on Monday and Wednesday from 4:45-5:30. It's a crappy hour for practice but there's nothing I can do about it. Since it's a crappy hour, I end up running around in circles to make everything happen. This past Monday was no different. The exception is that while I was making dinner, folding laundry, and giving Isabella a bath during the 45 minutes of practice, Scotty decided to crawl up to the tub, stand up and lunge himself into the tub with his sister. He completely fell in, head first. All I heard was a loud thump and then Izzy yelling, "Oh, hey, Mami....Scotty just jumped into the tub with me."

Confession #2

Scotty is crawling around and pulling himself up on everything. We usually keep all the doors closed in the house so that he doesn't go in somewhere and hurt himself. So far, he hasn't hurt himself. On Sunday, while I was making lunch, I noticed that it was oddly quiet. It's NEVER quiet in this house so I knew something was up. As I was walking around, I found Sam in his room. Izzy was in the living room and Brad was snoring on the couch. Scotty was nowhere to be found. A moment later, I walked into our master bathroom and found him standing up by the toilet, playing with the water. And by "water" I mean urine. No feces. Just urine and some mangled toilet paper. I promptly yelled at my children for (a) not closing the door and (b) not flushing the toilet. I am an awesome mother, I know.

Confession #3

I ate a piece of chocolate in my master closet while hiding from my kids because I DO NOT WANT TO SHARE.

I'm feeling so much better now that I've confessed (not that I was feeling guilty or anything...I mostly wanted to let God know that I felt kinda bad but not, you know, super guilty or anything like that because the LORD KNOWS MY KIDS TRY MY PATIENCE).

Additionally, I'm guessing there will be more by the time I go to mass on Sunday since since it's only Tuesday and I've had an eventful week so far.

Fun with Friends

Every once in a while, I get adventurous....or maybe a little crazy but, either way, the kids have a good time.

Last Monday, I took the kids on an impromptu trip to Lake Tahoe. Our good friends, the Resnicks, were heading up to their cabin in Tahoe and they invited us for the trip. Since we had a whole "lot-of-nothing-going-on" at our place for the week, we high-tailed it up there. I know a good time when I see it!

For those who have been to our house, Tahoe is a good four hours from Marin if you're driving the speed limit. Since I was by myself with my opinionated offspring in the vehicle, I decided to get there as fast as possible without yelling at them.

We made it in 3.5 hours.

Shazam.

On the way back, I made it in 3 hours and twenty minutes.

Double shazam!

Below are snapshots of their adventures in swimming, fishing, beaching, and general laziness. These kiddos live really good lives.....

And here is a snapshot of my favorite moment at the end of our trip:

Tahoe Donner: The Shenanigans

Animal Instincts

Last Thursday, I took the kids to the zoo. We've been there a few times over the summer but on this visit, we got to see the big cats be fed. We usually watch the penguins eat but I was able to convince the kids to watch something different.

We were completely mesmerized by the largeness of these animals. They are huge! Gigantic, even. The kids couldn't keep their eyes off them...except for Scotty-he was sleeping. While we watched them traverse the small space in their cage, they looked like majestic creatures. They moved with grace and power and you could feel their intensity as they watched us. And that's exactly what they did. Watch us. We were watching them and they were watching us. Weird. All it made me think of is the voice from those documentary channels saying, in a delicate whisper, "And so the lion watches its prey as it tenses its muscles before the attack..."

Once the feeding was over, the zoo keepers introduced the lion and his lady friends to a new den in the cage area. Apparently, it had been under construction for a while and this was the first time they were going into that section. As the big cats moved over to their new space, the crowd shuffled along with them, parallel to the cage. The lion entered first and the ladies waited. I think they knew what was coming because, not four seconds later, the lion turned his rear to us and pissed all over the crowd. That's right. He peed. And it wasn't a whimpy stream. Oh no, no, no. His stream said, " I am large, this is my area, get the hell out." The first fifteen people or so closest to the cage got lion pee on them. It was shocking and hilarious all at the same time. Sam and I couldn't stop laughing. Truly. We laughed after it was over, while the crowd was dispersing, and even on the car ride home. It's nice to know that I have the humor of a seven year old boy.

Luckily, I had made the kids hold back because I'm not a fan of large crowds like that or of my children being caught up in the throng. Like the lion, my instincts to protect what I value is strong and in tact. Good thing I don't pee on people to demonstrate this part of me....