Cindy Lou Chu!

With Amanda 4 years older than Alison and 6 years older than Alexa, she is a definite role model for them. They admire her and look up to her for everything. Most recently, Amanda has become their fashion icon. Since Amanda wears knee high socks to school, both Alison and Alexa have started demanding wearing their own mini versions.

With Amanda's hair getting longer and longer for hula, she has taken to wearing it in a ponytail. Since she is their fashion icon, Alison and Alexa have started asking to wear their hair in ponytails too. Luckily, Alison has enough hair to wear a ponytail...Alexa, not so much. But this doesn't stop her from trying. Hence, sisters separated at birth? You be the judge...

God's Plan

Both Dave and myself are the products of good, ole, Catholic education. When we had Amanda, we did a lot of research into the public schools in our area, and after some debate, decided that our kids would also have a Catholic education. So, starting in preschool, Amanda attended Catholic school and now Alison is as well. Over the years Dave and I have literally spent thousands of dollars on their religious education, with many more thousands in the foreseeable future.

Tonight, we were able to see where some of that money went. Alison got in trouble for not cleaning up a mess she made. Tearfully, she came up to me and cried, "That's the way God made me!" Confused, I asked, "What?" Louder, Alison cried, "That's the way God made me...NAUGHTY!"

So, when all else fails...blame God.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

When I was little, starting right after Thanksgiving, my parents would begin threatening us that if we weren't good Santa would leave us a lump of coal in our stocking. One year, probably just as I was beginning to question the logic of a big, magic, man traversing the globe in one night, I actually DID get a lump of real coal in my stocking. My parents probably did this to scare me into believing for the benefit of my younger siblings. To this day, I am still traumatized and shamed by that morning when I reached into my stocking and pulled out my sooty hand filled with charcoal from our BBQ.

Now that I have kids, I find myself making those same threats, "Santa's watching you!", "If you're not good, you might find a lump of coal in your stocking!" Today, while shopping at Target I found this:

Coal shaped bubble gum! I actually bought a sack. I plan on giving it to all three girls in their Advent calendar on a particularly naughty day. Hopefully, being gum, it won't traumatize them as much as actual coal but will have the same scared straight effect. I suppose, if it does traumatize them, they can just add it to my bill for their adult therapy.

It's Getting To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's that time of year again...the no man's land between Halloween and Christmas. Somehow, Thanksgiving has gotten bumped by all the retail craziness. Today in Target, as I picked through the 50% off Halloween merchandise, workers were frantically setting up the Christmas aisles.

For me, Ms. Anal Retentive, this means planning out our annual Christmas card. With relatives scattered throughout the country and all over the world, this is the only time I am able to depict a presentable portrait of our family. Since many of our family pictures turn out like this:


I plan our Christmas card portrait far in advance. This year I ordered their matching dresses in January and have my eye on several designs at Shutterfly. I like that I can post several pictures on one card (so all three girls get their close up!) and their designs are modern and not cheesy (like my children). I might even go all out and get matching address labels! So look out people, your card will be in the mail soon!

All You Need is a Smile

Every Friday is sharing day at Alison's preschool. Today we forgot to bring something to share. Not to be deterred from sharing, Alison announced at circle time that she had forgotten her share item, but that it was ok because she would just share her smile!

Everyone's a Critic

Dave and I enjoy eating out and for me, part of the fun is researching the restaurants where we're going to eat. I'll check Zagat, Yelp, Chowhound, and Michelin among others to read reviews and peruse menus. A good restaurant for me, needs to have not only good food, but a pleasant atmosphere and consistent customer service.

The other night we made the mistake of asking the girls what kind of food they wanted to have for dinner. Apparently, food, atmosphere, and customer service were all pretty low on their list of criteria for a good restaurant. In fact, they really didn't care about any of those. Their only demand was unfortunately that the establishment have crayons and a coloring sheet. Heaven help all the Gary Danko's and Chez Panisse's of the world, because if my kids get a yelp account...they're going down! No crayons = zero stars!

One Person's Pest is Another Person's Pet

Almost a year a go we joined a meat CSA and a produce CSA. While there are many, many benefits to eating organic there are a few drawbacks. This season the sweet white corn from Full Belly Farm has been plagued by earworms. When we brought our box home today, Dave took the corn into the garage to break off the worm ridden tips and throw them away. Alison happened to be watching and was horrified when she saw the first little worm being thrown into the trash.

Needless to say we now have two new pets (aka. pests). "John" and "Violet" have now taken up residence on my kitchen counter in an old fishbowl accompanied by their corn tips. I guess there should be a saying, "One person's pest is another person's pet."