Expectation-setting FAIL

Jakey had a bad cough the week school pictures were taken at daycare. Therefore, he was feeling a little ... shall we say ... BLAH on Picture Day.

But when I asked him that evening if he had smiled for the camera and shown them his dimples, he proudly squealed "YES!" And I was relieved.

I've been waiting with anticipation for a few weeks now, and his school pictures came back on Wednesday.

Woo hoo, THE SMILES WERE FINALLY HERE!

Except ...

And ...

And ...

So the "smiles are here"? NOT SO MUCH.

But my kid DOES rock the heck out of posing.

And the winner is ...

I am so excited about announcing the winners of the Target gift cards!

Wait. Did I say "winners" and "gift cards"?

OH YES I DID. Now, don't get too excited. But this is my blog and I make the rules. It's a hobby, not a business, and this was a self-sponsored giveaway. Therefore, when I thought about how many people voted for the $20 gift card, too, because they wanted a better chance of winning, I couldn't resist adding a couple of those into the mix.

SO. The good news is that the first "traditional winner" wins the $100 Target gift card on a purely random basis, as planned. Congratulations to:

Amy at Wade's World! I don't know Amy personally, but she has been reading for a long time, so I'm thrilled that she won.

And Winner #2 ($20 gift card) is the person who Commented most often in September. Congratulations to:

Paige at Life is a Phoenix! Paige is an IRL friend who Commented an astonishing 14 times in September. THAT'S some dedicated Commenting since we are not even related. And yes, Paigie, I'm happy to send it to your mom! And not that it matters, but coincidentally, Paige was Comment #64, so she just missed the grand prize by a HAIR.

And Winner $3 ($20 gift card) is the person who Commented second-most often in September! Congratulations to:

Rachel at Mom of Three ... And More! Rachel has been Commenting regularly for a long time, but I don't know her personally. She just always puts a smile on my face with her Comments, and I appreciate it so much. Rachel Commented 12 times in September, edging out Beckie (9) and Kerin (7), who were the next people in line. I don't know Beckie or Kerin in real life, either, but that's one of the things that makes blogging so neat.

You all know how much I enjoy your Comments, and it means a lot to me that you take the time to do it. Thank you, all, for making blogging something I LIKE to do as opposed to feeling like it's just another item on my To Do List (at least most of the time). You guys are the best! (Winners, please e-mail your full names and addresses to stainsofgrass at yahoo dot com so I can mail your gift cards to you.)

And also, today is our 15th wedding anniversary. So Happy Anniversary to Grayson! Thank you for 15 wonderful years, and here's to at least three 50 more!

I am proud on more levels than you even want to KNOW

One evening last week, Nathaniel was up late (so excited to welcome Grayson home from a business trip to Chicago that he couldn't sleep), and he asked to Tweet from my Twitter account. (Ever since he Tweeted from the beach, he's been totally obsessed with Twitter.)

I said, "Sure," and he took my laptop and started pecking on the keys, one by one. When he hit the Open Bracket key, I said, "Oops! Backspace, buddy." And he said, "NO, I MEANT TO DO A BRACKET."

Well okay then.

So here's how the next half hour went down in a Twitter conversation that began with Nathaniel's Tweet, then continued between me and my sister over the next half hour. (Start at the bottom and work your way up.)

So I honestly hadn't known that he was even aware of what brackets are, but I was absolutely tickled pink about it and decided I just had to know more. So the following night on the way to baseball practice, I asked him about it.

Me: "Nathaniel, I'm very impressed that you used brackets in your Tweet last night. How do you know what they are?"

Nathaniel: "Of COURSE I know what brackets are. I've known for over a year. I use them ALL THE TIME. A few weeks ago, we had to write a short story at school, and -- remember? -- Jackson was new and he'd only been in my class like five or six days. So I was reading the story to my class and it went like this:

I had a birthday party last year at Pump It Up, and many of my classmates came. We played on the inflatables and had a birthday cake and I got lots of gifts, and I really liked them. Does anyone here remember anything about my birthday party? Buh-RACKETS: JACKSON, YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER. I think it was my favorite birthday party ever."

Me: "Well. Yes, buddy, you apparently know EXACTLY how to use brackets."


** Check back this evening for the gift card winner announcement! **

The time has come!

Sound the trumpets!

Today is the first anniversary of the day My SuperTarget opened! And to celebrate, you guys recently voted on whether you'd rather have a chance to win one $100 gift card, two $50 gift cards or five $20 gift cards. The single $100 gift card squeaked out a win! (Side note: only 90 people voted. Whenever I post a poll, I'm always amused by the low number of people who answer, because several hundred people come by most every day, but some people apparently don't care to have their opinion counted. I LOVE TO HAVE MY OPINION COUNTED ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM PAINT COLORS TO WHICH KIND OF NUT TASTES BEST.)

So anyway, today is your opportunity to Comment to win! You do NOT have to be a Follower of my blog to win. However, you can receive additional entries if you are/become a Follower on either the blog or Twitter. So that's up to three chances to win.

1. To enter, leave a Comment with some question you want me to answer or blog post topic I haven't yet bored you with (I know. "With which I haven't yet bored you.") I AM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT.

2. If you already are or today become a Follower of my blog, Comment again and tell me that. That will serve as your second entry.

3. And finally, if you already do or today start Following me on Twitter, Comment again and tell me that. That will serve as your third entry.

But in short, everyone has at least one chance to win as long as they leave one Comment (preferably with a question or a blog topic included, because quite frankly after more than 900 posts, I am completely out of thoughts).

GOOD LUCK! The winner will be announced tomorrow.

No children were harmed in the making of this birthday party

In case I hadn't Tweeted about it enough, Nicholas' 6th birthday party was at our house on Saturday, and we'd planned a Super Mario-themed party featuring a homemade obstacle course.

My dad and I set up 10 obstacles in the backyard several hours before the party. NOTE: While none of this was difficult, it was more time-consuming than I'd hoped it would be. Still, worth every minute we spent on it.

Here you can see part of Obstacle 1 at the bottom right, which was a series of low hurdles crafted by sticking pool noodles onto wooden stakes about eight inches off the ground. You can also see Obstacles 7, 8, 9 and 10, which were climbing the rock wall, crawling under a big window screen, climbing up the ladder and down the slide, then jumping through a hula hoop we'd hung from the right side of the swingset.

Obstacle 1 was the toughest to build, since our house sits on almost solid rock and the stakes just didn't want to go into the ground. Dad was finally able to make it work.

I taped banana peels I'd printed off the Internet to several of the obstacles, including one of the hurdles. If the kids hit one of the banana peels, they had to go back to the beginning and start over.

Obstacle 6 was jumping into each of the circles of the garden hose, including the little one in the middle.

Here's a close-up of Obstacle 7, the rock wall, so you can see the two banana peels we applied there. Nicholas chose the peel locations himself. Birthday-boy privilege, you know.

We timed the kids as they ran the course and told them we were awarding $3 for first place, $2 for second and $1 for third. They could hardly wait to get started!

My friend Lisa's younger son DJ was one of the first to complete the course. He took the hurdles like a champ.

Um, yes, it WAS the day of the Alabama-Florida game. Why do you ask?

Nathaniel bounded up the rock wall like it was a cinch. He didn't come close to stepping on a banana peel.

My cousin Lesley's eldest, George Emory, sliced through the vertical noodles quickly, also avoiding the dreaded banana peel.

By far the most popular obstacle from the spectators' point of view was the hammock. Ironically, the one that was the most fun to watch required the least amount of preparation: I did nothing. They simply had to go over it and come out the other side. ENTERTAINING IN THE EXTREME. This is Lesley's younger son, Branum:

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you that my natural inclination (as someone who's been addicted to America's Funniest Videos for over two decades) was to design more obstacles that were a higher degree of difficulty and/or involved a higher probability of contestant failure. However, I thought those kinds of obstacles might be better tested on my own kids first. I AM A VERY RESPONSIBLE PERSON, Y'ALL. But I totally wanted to do more of a Wipeout-style course ... maybe for his 12th birthday, in conjunction with signed waivers from the parents ...

Okay, back to the boring obstacle course from Saturday. Here's Lisa's eldest son Josh making tracks through the garden hose ...

And Nicholas scaling the rock wall. (Nicholas got to run the course twice, first and last.)

After everyone had completed the course and we'd awarded the Large! Cash! Prizes! to the winners, we moved on to the pinata. I'd never bought one of these for any of our parties before, but this seemed like an appropriate time to add one to the agenda. WIN!

We only made it through about four of the guests before the pinata split open and there was a mad dash for the spoils. Each child had a Ziploc bag in which to gather their candy, and everyone left with a full-to-capacity bag.

Finally, we got to the cake and ice cream, which were well worth the wait. Our cake lady, Vickie, is simply amazing. This was what she did with absolutely no more instruction from me than, "We're doing Super Mario."

The colors were dead-on ...

And the detail was flawless.

We lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to Nick ...

And then he blew out the candles.

I don't mind saying that it was a little creepy when I had to cut into Mario's face, especially his blue eyes. Yuck! I tried to look slightly away while I was cutting. Only drawback to such a beautiful representation of a beloved character!

Nicholas' favorite gifts were definitely the Nintendo DSi XL and collection of games he received. All three boys spent an hour in the backyard inspecting it and trying it out.

Nathaniel took the lead since he's had his DSLite for a while and knew many of the "tricks of the trade."

I just loved watching them together, almost silent, no arguments, just captivated.

It wasn't too long until Jakey wanted to play with my dad's iPhone again.

He became quite the iPhone pro when my sister was here last month, able to turn it on, navigate through the apps and find what he wanted without making any missteps.

He hasn't lost his touch.

It's a good thing he had the iPhone as a distraction, since there are only two DSs in the house at the moment.

So there you have it, Saturday in a rather large nutshell. I'm happy to report that Nicholas pronounced it his "best birthday ever!"

Two days until the big chance to win!

Wednesday is the day that you'll have a chance to win the $100 Target gift card! I'm so excited!

Get those fingers ready to type your comments in.  :)

Six!

Nicholas,

Today you turn 6 years old. In my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined six years ago how much having you would change our lives.

You keep us laughing, keep us thinking on our feet, keep us amazed at your quick advancements, keep us expanding our repertoire of ways to improve our patience. Sometimes I have to turn away from you when you make me angry, because you say something so funny or insightful in the next second that I either want to bust out laughing or praise you for being so smart ... but that moment isn't the appropriate time to do either. You keep me off-balance, but in a good way.

You've recently developed more patience with Jake and have put a lot of effort into being a better sharer and better mentor for him. He often asks for you, because he sees you as his ultimate playmate, someone who will get down on his level but will also bring him up to your own. It's been a privilege to watch your relationship evolve.

When it comes to Nathaniel, you two fight like cats and dogs with each other but also have a deep, deep love for one another. If it came down to it, I think you'd give your lives for each other ... your bond as brothers is so strong. You aren't happy in his shadow, yet you want to do everything he does. You try to replicate his every feat -- from bike riding to reading to turning cartwheels to tossing cinnamon pecans in your mouth -- but you want to do it all faster and better than he does. You use your sense of competition to raise the bar, to drive yourself to greater success.

Sometimes I call you "predictable," but the truth is, you're actually predictably UNPREDICTABLE. I mean, don't get me wrong ... you can always be counted upon to go into a epic pout whenever I tell you "no," but there are times when I think, "He's gonna go ballistic about this," and you completely surprise me. You have a TREMENDOUS heart, and you show sensitivity sometimes when I expect you to show anger or aggression.

The transition to Kindergarten has been a little rough for you; your teacher is trying hard to reign you in and you busy yourself by seemingly doing everything in your power not to let her.  ;)  But you wouldn't be My Nicholas without the power of your convictions and your headstrong spirit ... while I often wish you'd conform to make things easier on us and others such as your teachers, in reality I just want you to be happy and to be YOURSELF. Because you are nothing short of extraordinary.

I love you,
Mommy

Things I love: at Williams-Sonoma

Following the shock I felt when I looked at the current Pottery Barn catalog, I was nicely comforted by the arrival of Williams-Sonoma. (You haven't forgotten that I call all my home decor catalogs "my porn," have you? Sorry. I know it's Sunday. I take it back.)

Anyway, good old Williams-Sonoma was good for my soul this early October day, because the adorable factor of their Fall wares was just off the charts.

Behold, the Personalized Reflective Halloween Tote ($16). 

I'll take 19 of those. Thanks so much.

Then I stumbled opon the Giant Personalized Owl Cookies (3 for $26.95).

What. You see something wrong with paying $9 per cookie? I could be persuaded to see your point. But I will say that I'd much rather pay $9 for an owl cookie than for a tombstone or zombie baby cookie, which is probably what sister store Pottery Barn is serving up over there.

If you're not into the owls, they also have Giant Personalized Pumpkin Cookies available.

They are also highway robb'ry cleverly disguised as cookies (3 for $26.95), but come on. They're giant. They're personalized. And they're pumpkins.

I suppose my money would be better spent on something like the cute No-bake Halloween Haunted House Kit ($19.95).

Did I know that there were build-a-house kits other than gingerbread? NO I DID NOT. In the words of Rachel Zoe, I DIE. This kit is BUH-NANAS.

If I weren't in the "kit" kind of mood and instead wanted something to eat that didn't cost $9 each, I would totally go for the Halloween Brownie Pop (6 for $29.95), because $5 is so much more reasonable than the $9 cookies.

What. Okay, that wouldn't be an "approved" purchase at our house, but if I were going to a Halloween party I might try to take it as a hostess gift or something. Who am I kidding? THAT wouldn't be "approved," either. I think I just like pretending I could buy these pops. Because they are SO CUTE.

The last two things I fell in love with look a lot alike but serve completely different functions. One was a set of Covered Pumpkin Mugs and Leaf Plates (4 for $99):

And the other was a set of Pumpkin Canisters (3 for $99.95).

I'm not sure I know many people who can afford to canister seasonally. I mean, that's a lot of money and a lot of work to transfer your sugar, flour and whathaveyou from container to container every three months or so. But if you're that lady, more power to ya.

For the love of lists

I always have a number of lists going at any given time. Right now, though, I think I’ve reached a personal best of 10 lists, all jotted carefully on various types and sizes of paper. It’s just a busy time, and this is the only way I know of to keep myself organized and on task. Here’s a glimpse inside my very cluttered head:
 

• Nick’s birthday party RSVPs – so I know what quantities of food and drinks to purchase and who to expect later today
• Groceries – for the weekend in general and food/drinks we need for the party
• Obstacle course supplies – for the course I’m building in the backyard for the party
• Party tasks – things I can’t do until the grass is mowed this morning (like build the obstacle course, set up the food table, etc.)
• Boys’ accomplishments – I keep a running list each month so when it comes time to scrapbook, I have the notes on their development that I need in order to journal
• To-Dos for work – things I need to do over the weekend because I have GOT to get the jump start on next week that I didn’t have this week
• Personal To-Dos – like get my oil changed and my tires rotated, write thank-you notes and take some pictures for the upcoming edition of Slices of Life
• Slices of Life – several Slices that I don’t want to forget but haven’t had the time to type up yet
• Blog post ideas – another running list that I keep each month to remind me of things I can potentially blog about
• Scrapbook supplies – for the crop next weekend so that I know what I need to order to be able to finish up the pages I’ll work on

 
Every day I thank the Lord that he allowed paper and pencils to be invented. Otherwise, there’s absolutely no way our family could function properly!

Five reasons I suspect that Jake might be half-Australian (‘Strine’)

• While raking leaves in the yard: “Gimme duh ryke.”
• When I ask him who made the craft he brought home from school: “I myke it myseff.”
• Inquiring about Nick’s upcoming birthday party: “When is Nuck-uh-luss’s pah-tee?"
• About his now-tattered Super Why! paper plate: "I tyke it tee school!"
• And when he was sweating from being wrapped up in his blanket all night: “I hawt. Tuhn on duh eck nish-nuh.”

I keep expecting him to break out his best “Crikey!” at any moment.