Today's hair-do is brought to you by...

...the Little Dutch Boy

which is better than it looked two months ago when I got it cut. Then, I looked more like Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.

Heard Today:

Luci, Daddy's going on a trip to Washington, D.C.  That's where the White House is.  Do you know who lives in the White House?  The President!

I want him to go tell Michelle Obama that I want my fries back!

UnHappy Meals

A month or so ago, McDonald's changed its Happy Meals.  The fries got smaller!  Well, not the fries, exactly.  More like the packet the fries come in.  That packet is TINY.  It looks like it belongs in a child's play kitchen set.  It's not much bigger than a ketchup packet.

Photo of it here.  (It's not my photo, so I'm linking one I found on flickr.com) Notice that it's sitting next to a ketchup packet and a sauce packet--it's a TINY fry box. It's made to hold less than half the previous amount of fries put into Happy Meals.

Luci was not happy with the change.  Even though McDonald's added apples to the meal (I guess to add another food group, but it seems like it's making up for the lack of fries), Luci was not happy.

Here's how the conversation went:

Look, Luci, a cute little box of fries!  Isn't that adorable?  (Even though I have no problem with my thin girl eating fries, she could stand to eat more apples, so I was trying to sell this!)

No.  

You don't like it?

No.  Why did they do that to my fries?

President Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, wants kids to eat healthier so she and McDonald's decided to give smaller fries and add apples.

Michelle Obama's nice, but I want my fries back.

Article:  McDonald's Wins First Lady's Approval with Happy Meal Makeover

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Now, on to today:

After a long day at McWane Science Center, we hit the drive-through on the way home.  It's a two-and-a-half hour trip home so I didn't want to add to our day by going in to eat.  We get Luci's Happy Meal, and as we are still sitting at the drive-through window, Luci exclaims,

Hey!  Michelle Obama didn't get to this Happy Meal!  I got my big fries!


I hope the McDonald's lady at the window heard that!

Saturday Beauties

Luci got into the Halloween facepaint (another half-off day-after-holiday purchase!) and did this cat face...

She's my tough little toothless tiger!

We didn't know when we planted our azaleas a few years ago, that we had a variety that blooms both in the spring and the fall.  I love our blossoms!  Our two bushes have flourished, and are taller than Luci now.  They are close to the front (north) side of the house and are protected from the early frost by their proximity to the house.    What a nice surprise, getting the double-blooming azaleas!

November 1

Ahhh....Breakfast the morning after Halloween....

  

Gorgeous color!

 

Harding Swing in the Autumn

Doing a Sudoku! 

only, instead of numbers, we used animals in jack o'lanterns

Began our tradition of Thankfulness...

Luci's first Thankful Leaf...it says, "I ♥ God."

And, for the first time in EVER I have gotten a BORING calendar.  No more pretty Mary Engelbreit drawings or Charles Wysocki artwork...Just too many things to do with our kids!  Had to get one with bigger date squares on it.

But...the day after the day after Halloween, we made it to the store and got candy and  costume items half-off!  We got 3,400 dum-dum lollipops for next year's Fall Festival at our church,

and....

Luci says, I'm a Cow Girl!  But that does not mean I ride a COW!

Ballerina Fairy Princess

That's the costume Luci has put together for herself.  I'm tickled that she came up with one that is original.    Look closely for her "earrings."  Luci has a set of teeny-tiny stickers that she uses for earrings.

Is it night time yet?  I want to go to Trunk or Treat!!

Gorgeous! Sunset Tonight

I love these faces!

Mummies and Leaves and Chores

So cute--Mummy Dogs!  I got this recipe from here.  I was pleased how they turned out.  Even Luci liked them!

The leaves are gorgeous this year.  I say that every autumn!  And it's always true.

JT figured out how he could enjoy his chores...get Luci to do them! (Yes, we let the kids spray paint the driveway.)

It's more fun if you are in costume.

Birthday Suits and Other Stuff

Luci and her friend Hannah had a joint birthday party at a local party spot.  The kids all had a great time! 

 

This was the cake (really cupcakes put together to resemble a cake).  This came with the party deal.  The woman had to tell me what it was.  Can you guess?  It's a monkey.  So she said.

Opening gifts--there is a splendid "birthday chair" to sit in.  Since the girls both wanted to be first (of course), we put them both in the chair at once and the melee began!

Really, though, it was not confusing at all.  Each girl was honored, and so pleased with their gifts, and their friends did not look like it was an odd thing at all to have both girls going at once.

 

Kalyn and Luci!  Best friends.

John is ready to go home.  He's near the end of his recovery from knee surgery (notice the crutches).  He's keeping guard over the presents.

One of the fun things about this place:  The race car!  This is the most exciting thing Luci has ever done.  Seriously.    Even JT liked it!

 

This party spot had inflatable things for the kids to play on.  Even the big kids, shown here, had fun.

Today, though, was the real day that Luci turns SEVEN.  But not really.  Explanation to follow.

First we decorated her cake together.  We used an all-natural cake mix and naturally colored frosting.

Practice makes perfect!

   

Mom helps.  Look at that tongue action!

The finished cake.  Luci chose what to put on her cake--a little bit of everything.  It was just what she wanted, so that made it perfect.

One thing that is so nice is that Luci shows her excitement over what others do for her.  She's very happy about the Wii game Bryan gave her.

A check from Nana and Papa!  I'm sure we will be visiting the Barbie aisle soon.

   .

  Reading the birthday card.

As you can see, the calendar is a bit off.  It shows October 26 as Tuesday here in our "school room" (also known as our dining room).

There's a good explanation for that.

Last year, Luci's birthday party was planned, John was going to come home from work (he was not retired yet) and then tornado weather moved in.  So her party was rescheduled for the next day, and everyone came but Daddy--he had a meeting he could not miss.

All year long Luci has moaned and groaned about Daddy missing her birthday.  Never mind that he was actually home on her actual birthday.  He missed the party, and that's what counted in her mind.  So, ever since last year, she has told him over and over that he is not going to miss this birthday.  

Then why celebrate a day early?  Because John has a camping trip planned with three others (one of whom is Bryan) and it can't be moved again.  The trip had already been post-poned for John's surgery.  So, why celebrate a day early?  Because the camping trip begins tomorrow!  On her birthday.

Since Luci has no concept of time, I decided to be really sneaky and all month we've been putting up dates on our school calendar one day off.  Problem solved.

Today, as each of us told Luci, "Happy Birthday, 7 year old!"   Her response: "I won't be seven until I blow out my candles." 

She may not understand time, but she does know Proper Birthday Protocol.

She also knows you should dress for the occasion.  As we got her cake ready to decorate, Luci announced that she was going to, "Go get on my Birthday Suit!"

No matter how many times we tell her that a "birthday suit" is just the skin you're born in, she refuses to accept that.  It turns out that her Birthday Suit was a cute pink outfit that included a Hello Kitty skirt.   :) 

It's a Banner Day!

This happened on the way to town today:

First, JT told me that he was, um, not exactly right on a subject that he brought up.  I nearly wrecked the car when he told me that.  It's as close as he's gonna get to saying, "I was wrong."

Then, on the return trip, he started singing (another first!) a song he made up himself.  One of the verses included, I was reading a book.  Nearly went off the road again!

And what else could make today better?  The weather turned cold!  It might not last long, but I'm enjoying it...along with those gorgeous leaves, which you can see in the photo above.  That's JT working on flying a kite, with all those beautiful trees in the background.

Tooth Fairy Time!

Luci won't let me touch her loose teeth ever since the fiasco of last year--where I tied a piece of dental floss on a very loose tooth, yanked, and then the tooth was still stuck in her precious mouth.  OUCH.  So I don't touch them any more, not even to wiggle them.


Tonight, while eating grilled cheese, Luci's latest tooth fell out!  I am some cook, huh? 

The other front tooth is a tiny bit wiggly and I am encouraging her to wiggle it out ASAP so she can be our Christmas card this year, with the caption, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."  I told her that was a famous song.  She thinks I made the song up, just to get her to pull more teeth.  Even after finding this cute rendition on youtube, she still thinks I'm making it up.  Maybe if I show her the Alvin and the Chipmunks version, she'll believe me.  After all, those guys are stars.


In China, they do something different with children's teeth.  When a tooth from the bottom is lost, you want the new tooth to grow up, so the baby tooth is thrown over the house to encourage the new one to grow upward.  When the tooth is from the top, it is planted in the ground to encourage the new tooth to grow downward.  I asked Luci what she wanted to do--the Chinese version or the American version.  She replied (rather quickly), "I want the dollar."



What do you know?  The Tooth Fairy snuck in while she was in bed, not quite asleep!  Luci spent some time looking under the furniture for the fairy--surely she could not have gotten away so quickly.




One time, though, we almost caught the Tooth Fairy! 


JT had lost a tooth and hid it under his pillow.  The next morning, he came to me all mad because the Tooth Fairy forgot!  I was in the dog house.  What to do?



Oh My!  I ran to the front door, yanked it open, and what do you know?!  The Tooth Fairy dropped all of her coins and scurried off into the woods!  Apparently she was running late.  Luci and JT were right there with me as I opened the door.  Luci is still certain that she saw the Fairy flying off into the trees.

the F word

Today,  on the way home from church, Luci says,

Don't say the F word!  It makes me hungry!

With our mouths wide open, we all ask,

Luci, what's the F word?

Her answer?

FOOD!

Happy Birthday, Daisy!

Today some of our area Girl Scouts celebrated Juliette Gordon Low's birthday (details on JGL here). She was the founder of the Girl Scouts. I learned a few things today at Luci's Daisy-Brownie-Junior-Cadet bash. For one, Juliette's nickname was "Daisy," therefore the youngest Girl Scouts go by the name of Daisy. Luci is a Daisy.

First, there was circle time.

Then, lots of crafts!  The girls worked at six different stations.

Luci, in her party dress (because, you know, Mama, it's a party) had a lot of fun at the "old-fashioned games" station.  She was a blur in the sack races.  She was also the only girl in a dress, and she didn't care one bit. Because she was dressed appropriately, in her mind.  In my mind, too.

And, our girl was the champion of the Daisies in the Hula-Hoop contest.  Here are the winners from the other age groups, along with Luci.

Afterwards, Luci stepped it up a notch and hula'd with two hoops...until another Daisy tried it.

Then Luci moved on to three hoops...and the little adversary came up with three, also.  See her in the background?

Not to be outdone, Luci went to FIVE...the other girl went back for more...

and gave up when Luci wowed everyone by hula-hooping with EIGHT hoops.  That's my girl!

I think she's a bit competitive.  Maybe.

We made it!

We made it to church in the Prius.  Five people, only one of whom is not adult-sized...but her booster seat takes up more seat room than each of the boys. 

No one fought, no one got hit, bit or spat upon. 

It wasn't pretty, crammed in there like that, but we made it.

So far, we've gone 1,250 miles!  That includes a trip to Huntsville and one to Memphis, plus the usual travel back and forth to town (40 miles for each round trip).

One bloggy friend wants me to feel proud of us not having any emissions while we are stopped at stoplights.  I'm sure she is talking about the Prius, not about the boys....  As for me, I don't care about that too much.  I'm just happy we're saving money on gas.

Told ya I was cheap.