March 2009

Like a Fool

March 31, 2009

I’m always looking for something to spice things up here at the circus. And this year I think the kids are old enough to really enjoy some pranks tomorrow for April Fools.

I was delighted to open my recent addition of Family Fun magazine and find some fun little pranks to pull on the little ones. All sweet innocent fun!

So, tomorrow we’ll be having some arctic cereal. ( The night before April Fools’ day, pour milk over half a bowl of cereal and put it in the freezer. In the morning, add a covering of more cereal and milk. Call your child to breakfast and watch him try to eat it.)

And for dinner we’ll be having cupcakes…or so they think.

I MAY through in some dirt for dessert, depending on how the day pans out. They’ve had it before, but love it and it seems like a fun finish to a silly day.

What about you? Got any fun pranks up your sleeves for tomorrow? Click here, if your looking for some more inspiration!

{ 12 comments }

And the Starbucks goes to…

March 30, 2009

in Uncategorized

True Random Number Generator Result: 4

Megan March 27, 2009 at 9:11 am [edit]

“Love it Crystal! Scott did a great job! With our GCC and Karen connection I’m sure we’ll run into each other one of these days – but blogging has been such a fun way to get to know you and your family. I’m going to follow you on twitter – I just started doing it as well, but have no clue what I’m doing!”

Congratulations Megan! E-mail me your address and I’ll send out your Starbucks gift card this week!!

Thanks to all who commented and a super big thanks to all of you who read my blog and share in our life in this way. You are a huge encouragement to me!

{ 2 comments }

The Missing Samaritan

March 29, 2009

in Darndest Things

God Bless Sunday School teachers…especially the teachers of those dear two and three year olds. How they keep those squiggling, squirming little bodies still on those carpet squares to hear the whole lesson is beyond me.

Perhaps, it’s occasionally beyond them too. Seems they don’t always get quite the whole lesson.

At lunch today I was asking my three year old what she learned about in Sunday School. I was so excited to get an answer beyond the typical, “God” or “Jesus”.

Daughter: “We learned about a man who was stuck on the side of the road and he was hurt and dirty. And the bad men just passed him by and didn’t help him.”

Mom:“Hmm…that wasn’t very nice was it? Did anyone help him?”

Daughter: “No.”

Mom: “Wait…are you sure? No one helped him?”

Daughter: “No one helped him.”

My husband chimed in to try to draw out the rest of the story, so he asked, “so, is the hurt man still on the side of the road right now?”

Daughter: “yep”

Dad: “Oh…why do you think your Sunday school teachers taught you this story today?”

Daughter: “I don’t know.”

I think we will alter our bedtime routine this week so we can spend some time focusing on Luke 10, our sweet little girl seems to have missed a key component of the lesson.

{ 11 comments }

A Year Ago Today…

March 27, 2009

in About Me

One year ago today I entered into this crazy blogging world. My initial post was very short and my commenter’s were only IRL friends and family. For awhile I only received comments from my mom, my mother in law or one of my two sisters in law.

Now I have by no means “made it” in the blogging world. If anything, I have learned that there are a gazillion mommy bloggers out there with cute kids and tales to share. What makes some rise to the top with hundreds of commenter’s and thousands in their RSS feed? I do not know. But, I do not measure my success in the numbers of people reading and responding to my thoughts each day. I love blogging and even though I only have a scattering of faithful readers each day, I still consider it a worthwhile investment of my time. And the reason is for those of you with whom I have formed a “real” relationship. A year ago today I had no idea that I would make true friends through this blogging world. No idea that I would rekindle relationships with people I had lost contact with years ago. I had no idea I would find myself earnestly praying for, rejoicing with, and caring genuinely about these ladies whom I have never seen face to face.

This year has been a huge blessing to me. I discovered a love for writing that I didn’t realize was there and an outlet I didn’t realize I needed. I’ve been given an avenue to preserve my children’s antics that doesn’t feel like homework and which later I will be able to look back on and recall fondly this stage in our life.

Blogging has become a common word in the circus family’s vocabulary. My son or daughter will laugh about something and then ask if I will “put that on my blog.” My husband has been more than supportive of this new endeavor and the time it takes me each day to invest in it and in the lives of people I meet through it. He daily reads my posts and checks my comments. The past two weeks he has spent way, way more time working on my blog than I have. He’s been coming home from a long day at work, helping me put the kids to bed and then sitting at the dining room table, learning CSS and other codes and languages which I don’t understand in order to design for me the blog of my dreams. We’ve had to Tivo two weeks worth of our favorite shows b/c every night it’s been nothing but the blog. I’m embarrassed to admit that on more than one night I went to bed before him as he stayed up until the morning adjusting this color or that line, to make it come out the way we envisioned. Thanks honey, I love you too! More than you could ever know!!

So, a year of blogging has shown me that while blogging does take a good deal of time, it is also a lot of fun. I still absolutely love every comment I get. I love the interaction. The only thing better would be to sit and chat face to face with my readers, maybe over a cup of coffee. While I can’t make that work, I can at least offer one of my lucky readers a frappuchino on me! That’s right, in honor of my one year blogoversary and the friendships I have made through this endeavor, I am giving away a $10 Starbucks gift card. Perhaps it will encourage some of my “lurkers” to come out of the woodwork and say hello. I’d love to meet you and get to know you better. All you have to do to enter, is leave a comment below. To increase your chance of winning, you can subscribe to my RSS feed and or follow me on twitter (you can’t miss the links on my supper cool new blog design . Just leave a separate comment letting me know that you did so. I’ll announce the lucky winner on Monday and include all comments received before 1:00pm EST Monday in the drawing.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

{ 31 comments }

His Dream Come True

March 26, 2009

in Motherhood

My son loves baseball.

I am not sure exactly where this love comes from since his dad and I are both avid football fans, but could care less about baseball. Didn’t even watch the World Series. In fact, the only baseball I’ve watched over the past few years, I’ve watched with my son. As a 2 year old, he would ask for it on TV and we’d sit and watch several innings on ESPN or catch a little on Sports Center.

When he turned two, his aunt Karen and Uncle Jim sent him a tee ball stand for his birthday. Perhaps that is where his love was born.

Can you believe it was once acceptable practice in our house to play baseball indoors? This shot was taken in our living room and as memory recalls, this was not an isolated incident.

For his third birthday we threw him a baseball themed party…hot dogs and peanuts and cracker jacks, with a baseball cake to top it all off. One of my favorite memories from that party was when the kids were all playing ball in the backyard. They were hitting the ball off the tee and an airplane flew overhead. We told our son to knock the ball into the sky. He stopped and with total seriousness said, “No, I can’t hit it now, I wouldn’t want to hurt the pilot.”

So, he was beyond excited when the Superbowl came and went b/c now that football season was over, he could start looking forward to baseball. And this year is his first year playing on a team.

I will never forget the look on his face as he got ready for practice. He was downstairs and ready to go when Scott got home. He was so eager to get going Scott assumed they were running late and quickly they jetted off to practice. Scott called me a few minutes later confused as to where everyone was.

They were 15 min early.

My little guy had a grin on his face the entire practice. It was so cute to watch him stretching, grinning from ear to ear. He was stretching for baseball. Does it get better than that his face seemed to say?

And yes, we were THOSE parents taking pictures of our kid stretching at baseball practice.

His smile never left his face the rest of the night. I found a leftover piece of his baseball table cloth, which I put on his portion of the table for dinner and made him a white chocolate baseball lollipop out of a candy mold. I also had a baseball straw which I had picked up in a clearance bin this summer. He was ecstatic!

I am so excited about his first baseball season. I can’t imagine enjoying any game more than his first ever real baseball game. I can’t believe my little guy has grown from hitting the ball in the living room to stretching at the Little League park.

He just might make a baseball fan out of me yet!

{ 7 comments }

Snap Shots of the Circus This Week

March 25, 2009

in Circus Shots

Not exactly wordless this week, but since it is in fact Wednesday, I decided to share some pictures from our week.

Our Little Lady: All dressed up with no place to go!

She was so proud when she discovered her “new trick” “Mom, I can do my ‘noisy medicine’ (aka nebulizer) while playing legos…this is my new trick!”

Someone got into Mommy’s dresser and proudly paraded down the hall saying, “Pretty”

My daughter came downstairs the other day and told me her brother was using the screwdriver. I instantly panicked after remembering his little escapade last summer with the screwdriver. I was relieved to find he had just taken the screws off of the little plate off of the doorway. He then put them back on and screwdriver away! (not sure which was the bigger feat, unscrewing and screwing in the screws, or putting the screwdriver back where it belonged when he was done)!

Since my daughter started feeling sick this weekend she has opted to sleep on the floor with a bunch of pillows to help elevate her head. I came in to check on her and found she had set up Emma on a pillow beside her.