F is for French Fries

French fries? Yea, I know. Rather pathetic.

BUT, let me explain.

I had some good ideas for "F." "Friday," "favorites" (I even had Mason go around the house and take photos of his favorite things. Too bad I never got around to uploading those pictures!), "family," "football," "fall," . . .seriously, I had some good ones.

And then Dad showed up.

My dad is so awesome. He is fun-loving, energetic, full of happiness, easy to get along with, and has the best heart. He loves his family and my mom like crazy, and possesses a unique ability to be simultaneously goofy and respectable. He also eats junk food like a kid and will use any excuse he can conjure up to ditch his normal diet of yogurt and carrots for something yummier. I think he would even trade his firstborn for a bowl of ice cream. (WAIT, that's ME! Dad, don't trade ME!!) Anyway, Dad and I were upstairs with the kids, just catching up and hanging out, and Mason was writing the letter "f" on his little chalkboard. I was trying to be all educational when Dad said "you know what 'f' is for? FRENCH FRIES!"

Thanks, Dad.

So, clearly, that had to be followed with an outing to McDonald's for Happy Meals. There was just no way around it at that point! I'm pretty sure Dad was secretly jumping for joy when he heard me say it was "f" day. He had a plan the whole time! Clearly, Mason wasn't too upset about the turn of events.

I'm fairly certain Brody would have voted for "F is for Fall" so we could show off our festive decorations, but he didn't seem too upset either. He got some "Mommy Time" while Grandpa and Mason went to McDonald's.

And I even got a salad delivered. I think that's a pretty good FRIDAY.

"BOO!" to you!

The air is cool, the season is fall,

soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore. . .

tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,

in fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you

copy this note and make it TWO.

We'll all have smiles on our faces

when we see who "BOO-ed" whose places!

I got "BOO-ed" by my creative and spunky friend Lauren at Doodles by Lauren. Now I'm "BOO-ing" you:



1. Lara at Scrapbook Sussies. Not only is Lara one of my best friends, but she also runs an incredible scrapbook kit club and posts super cool paper crafting ideas. Love it! And love her!

2. Karen at Hello World! Photography. Karen is a wonderfully talented photographer who specializes in tasteful and precious birth photos. AND she's my neighbor and friend. AND she photographs my kids. AND the stories on her blog are so well written. She's the best.

3. Amy at Mod Podge Rocks. Because, well, Mod Podge DOES rock. And so do Amy's ideas. I use them all the time!



Keep the festivities going by following these instructions:

1. Cast your spell within the next 24 hours!

2. Copy the poem and instructions for playing.

3. Pick 2-3 blogs you enjoy visiting, explain why you like visiting those blogs, & remember to link back to me.

4. Go to the original BOO PARTY post at The Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.



Happy Halloween!

P.S. What's a MckLinky? Guess I'd better find out, huh?

The SUN and the SAND and a DRINK in my hand. . .

Question: "What could possibly be more wonderful than a weekend at the beach with a group of girlfriends?"

Answer: "Not a whole lot."

Some fun {and some FUNNY} memories from our weekend on Fort Myers Beach:

• watching the amazingly beautiful sunset each evening


• Kelly saying, "consider yourself warned, but your son is going down!" (she meant "sun," but Megan interpreted it as "son". . .not as funny in print as in real life!)


• the "Nelly Furtado" Pot (as in a Neti Pot...NOT marijuana pot!! SERIOUSLY, people!!)


• Jamie and me getting a lesson in the natural habitat of sand dollars from a six-year old


• Megan's version of Beyonce's dance (whoa, oh, oh, ohohoh, whaoh, oh, oh)


• those ridiculous rumrunners at Top O'Mast


• sharing iPods and laughing about shared memories from college


• being kicked out of a 7-11 for loitering (yes, for real)

And the best memory of all? Getting to just be "us" for a few days and not be SAHMs or working moms or wives or neighbors. We got to be friends, be relaxed, and be "us."

Fall is in the Air

How much fun is this? A FREE event at a local nursery . . .complete with a pumpkin decorating station,

sidewalk chalk, "goo," and a flower-planting table,

and an unusually content baby.

I'd vote that's a LOT of fun for all!

Grand Saline, here we come!

Oh, how I love, love, LOVE to scrapbook. You'd think I could get it done at home occasionally, given that I have a scrapbook room and all, but it's just not that easy with two curious "helpers" on my trail all the time. One of whom seems to enjoy eating paper. It seems that the only way I can get any scrapbooking done is to LEAVE TOWN!

So, about twice a year, Lara and I meet up and spend a long weekend at one of these (delightful) B&B's to scrapbook. Initially, we went for two nights. We've now started going for three nights, and we're hoping to start going for (gasp!) FOUR nights next time.

These retreats are the absolute best. We show up, promptly get our piles of stuff we'll never use necessities set up, change into our jammies, and get to work.

You know what else is so great about scrapbook retreats? They FEED YOU! I'm not talking about sandwiches and chips. I'm talking about hot breakfast casseroles, homemade waffles, roasts, delicious veggies that smell like Thanksgiving. . .it's better food than I've ever prepared in my life for sure! AND (I know. . .there's more?) there's always a massage therapist on site at least one of the days.

Here's the little "barn" where we eat. . .fitting for Lara's antics (see her on the far left?).

And here's the pile of pages I got done! We're talking about a big ol' stack of pages. Like 35 of 'em! Now if I could just find the time to actually get them into the albums. Back to reality, I guess!

It would certainly be easier to get the finished pages in albums if I could get that cook and massage therapist to come to my house, huh??!!??

E is for EEEEEEEK!

As in "EEEEEEEK, my husband is gone for the WHOLE WEEKEND and left me alone with these kids! Help!"

 Rip had an incentive trip to Las Vegas for the weekend (lucky guy!), and flights were too expensive for me to tag along. And to add to my bad luck, it was pouring down rain here all weekend. Massive amounts. Like we couldn't even go outside it was so rainy and wet. Great.

So, "E" wasn't really for anything specific. I was lucky enough to keep the three of us alive all weekend. . .doing a whole "E" theme was simply more than I could manage. But we DID do a little craft and an "E" brainstorm.

Since excavator starts with "e," Mason colored one for Rip.  He also painted a big posterboard "E" and we took turns thinking of words to write on it.  Mason said eagle, ego, and eight.  Where does he come up with words like that? 

 

And the Boo?  Well, he was just happy for the chance to explore Mason's room a little. 

D is for Disco

Ummmm, what??? I know. Sounds strange. But bear with me, and I will actually get to the educational part of this post. Just not right away! So, last weekend was Christina's birthday party. And she wanted a 70's disco party. Boy, did she get it! All attendees had to be in costume, and we boogied the night away. Check out the birthday girl, her family, and The Rays. . .as well as the "club" formerly known as the living room!

Right after this was taken, someone said we looked like "Stepford Wives." Hah!

The Pickering Clan, in all their glory!

Rip went for the "John Lennon, Give Peace a Chance" look. He had the perfect accessory in Brody, too. . .

And then, there was Mason. Here he is, doing his version of disco. He was a dancing maniac all night. He and Christina made the shirt as one of their projects last week!

So this is where I got my idea for our "D" lesson. We started with "D is for Disco." Which migrated into "D is for Dancing," which turned into a search on iTunes for music that Mason liked. Loving the Laurie Berkner Band for him right now! (Focus, Kristen. Focus!)

I let Mason practice writing the letter "d" on a whiteboard for something different. Which he thought was fun for about 3 minutes. Then he wanted to tell me words that started with the letter "D." The second word out of his mouth was "Delbert," which was hilarious. He said "Daddy calls me that sometimes, you know." Wow, he cracks me up!!

Peace, dude. And maybe put on some clothing next time.