Indoor soccer is way better than outdoor soccer

The big boys started indoor soccer.   It's like a whole new game.   With outdoor soccer it felt like every 5 seconds the ball was kicked out of bounds.  The game came to a stop.  The ball was retrieved and given to the ref.  The player would pass it in and sometimes immediately the ball was kicked out of bounds again.
Indoor you play off of the walls.  or in our case the pads.
Very fun.
This is where I throw in all casual like, that in our first game Spencer scored 3 goals.  Cameron 2.   The teams total score was 10 so that tells you how well they played.  you know in my non chalant way to make it not seem all  braggy at how well they did. :)
Fact is....we were just as surprised at how well they did.
(pshaw)
They loved it.   Sydney is sure she wants to play.  and we couldn't get the littles off of the artificial lawn.
Still. only the big boys will be playing indoor soccer this year.   :)

Spencer running SUPER fast.  Cam right beside him.

My 5

My comedians

Guess what Santa is bringing Cameron for Christmas :) I love that our loss of front teeth and Christmas always coincide. I also love that my big boys will, without wrestling and fighting for space, still climb up on my lap to cuddle.
This was a cuddling moment but then turned into a tickling match to get Cam to show his missing front teeth.
oooooh I Love Them.

Tuesdays big tips

Carpet Stain #572

If a child spills red punch.   Or V-8 berry blast which is basically vegetables with kool-aid coloring.
First swear.   Think about crying.  and then continue to let it set overnight because it's too late to clean up before bed and the child being in his bed is what's keeping him alive.   At that point getting the steam cleaner out and ready and turned on and cleaned up will take much longer than even your patience can handle.   I mean.  it was just red punch.  the same color as my face at that point.  in the middle of the floor.
I do understand why they tell you not to cry over spilled milk.   Save the crying for the red punch.

The next day the steam cleaner didn't TOUCH the now set in and dried red stain.   Neither did the spot cleaner, borax, tide or MR CLEAN (which is when I gasped and blood filled my head so fast I lost all sense of hearing)   Mr. Clean takes sharpie marker out of white carpet for the love of all that's holy..how did it not touch this red stain.
They need to make a Mrs. Clean magic erasers.  She would take the color out of the carpet she'd clean it so good.   She would probably complain the whole time too.  hmm.  maybe that's why she never made it passed the first production prototype.

What you need to do is this.   Poor water on the stain at hand.   Get a rag/towel.  It will need to be pretty big or you might need to use several.   Lay the towel over the stain.   Take a hot iron.   I put it on the highest cotton setting.   Set iron on towel.   let it steam and steam all of that water out.   Remove and notice the red circle that formed on the towel and the slight fading on the stain on the carpet.  smile really big and giggle realizing that the heat isn't setting the stain like you'd thought and that all is not lost.   Repeat moving towel to a clean part.  Don't forget to add more water.   I didn't use as much water in the beginning and it definitely slowed the process down.  repeat repeat repeat repeat.

I did this for close to an hour and it nearly removed all but a little hint of the stain that only I notice now.   I had to stop because I was running into my parent teacher conference times.  I'm sure that had I stuck to the wet/towel/iron routine....it would have come completely out with not even a sign of the stain.

And there you have it.    Tuesdays tips for removing stains that will keep your children safe.  :)

Here's a number......call me maybe

22  - was the hours we had away from the kids this weekend.   Friday night was our annual wrap party.   Saturday we were invited to a wedding and reception.   It was my big fat Greek wedding without the hair and stone pillars.   But also included the non supportive father because the bride didn't marry a Greek man.
55 - was the amount of money we spent on a babysitter.  My mom watched the kids overnight WOO HOOOOOO
12 - were the inches of snow we got this weekend whildst away from the children.
20 - is the number of minutes it takes me to put hats, coats, gloves, socks, boots and snow pants on 5 little people.   That does not account for the time it took to reapply the clothes that were torn off in a fit of rage because the socks were too short for the boots and because someones gloves weren't tucked into their coat good enough.
80 - is the number of minutes that they stayed outside the first time.
33 - is the maximum number of minutes they stayed outside after that first 80 minutes.
12 - is the number of times they've been bundled up to go out since the first time
35 - is the number of coats gloves boots and hats that get tossed on the floor after playing outside
10,000 - is the number of times I've told them to take their wet clothes off in the garage before coming in the house.  and also....hang up your coats.
100 - is the number of fingers and toes that froze and needed to be warmed up in a bath or on a heating vent after playing in the snow all 12 times.

Wrap Party 

The view from the hotel window. Let it snow let it snow let it snow.

No, we didn't get the trampoline put away in time.

Our mud room apparently.
2 sets of bunk beds in one room.  Explanation coming soon.

Something I'm sure to love and remember.
Probably when they can dress and undress themselves :)

This was to be a hat hair picture...he wouldn't cooperate.
which turned out to be very cute any ways :)

Halloween

Hey,  it's not Thanksgiving yet...so technically I'm not, why even post, late.  I'm just, where the hell have you been, late.   And that's ok !

I have absolutely no pictures of the school parade.   My big boys very first, kindergarten, school parade.   I have no one to blame but myself neighbor. (ha ha)  I was carrying a laundry basket full of 21 gift bags for the boys class party that I was helping with, I also had both little boys to get ready and we all had to be on time to get a seat in the gym and I forgot my camera....I asked my friend to take some for me with her i phone.   she claims to have tried but they were so blurry you couldn't tell if Spencer was a ninja guy or a black licorice jelly bean.  Which I personally think would have been a super cute and a really delicious costume.   but alas...he was a ninja, Cam was an army sergeant, Syd was a Vampiress (I'm still not sure if that's a word) and the littles were both Iron Man.  Or would it be Iron men.  any who.
Here are a few of the fun things we did this year.

We were lucky enough to get our pumpkins carved just a few days before Halloween.  I never put candles in them....which was ok because the kids went to bed before it got dark enough to enjoy them.  :)

Syd was the only one who cleaned her own pumpkin out.  
Such a brave girl.

Janice was happy that one of the pumpkin carving package came with power tools.  

and since I made her do all of the carving.....I was totally good with that fact too.
Ryan's pumpkin.  The least detailed of them all.   

I found the little boys outside.   I asked them what they were doing and they were quick to inform me that they were busy babysitting a fly.

He was a very much alive fly too.

Nate was super excited with all of the hard work "we" did.
This is him mimicking the pumpkins face.

 We also went to a Halloween party at our friends house.    It was super fun.  She goes all out and has her family help man the games.    There was a guessing game, no hands doughnut eating, bean bag toss, pin the tail on the cat, necklace making, face painting, mug painting, cup decorating, fish tank and food.   aaaaaah.  It was so nice to go to a Halloween party this year instead of putting one together !
Of course the only pictures I took were of the doughnut eating game...because that was funny.   Oh and there was that one picture of the boys standing in line for the bean bag toss :)  (I'm sorry....I was busy visiting)

I have an Aunt and Uncle (my dads brother and wife) who by some people's definition would be considered a little on the eccentric side.   Which I feel is their outward way of expressing their unique and creative intelligence.   And I like that they express themselves at Halloween time for SURE.
They decorate their home from head to toe with Halloween. or would that be roof to sub floor.  I'm talking.....put everything else away....take pictures off of the walls, move furniture, decorate.
They've even been featured on the news in the past.    They allow kids to walk through and then after you've tried to take it all in...they offer you a treat and thank you for coming.
I hope they never stop this tradition.
Almost everything moved or talked or screamed at you.   My Aunt claims that she gives stuff away...and this year she didn't even put a few things out to display.    My gracious she's got a lot of stuff.  Here is just some of it.

Yes the heart was beating

My favorite this year was this Medusa.  The snakes on her head moved around.   

Yes, it's like the one in the movie Big.   

One of the kids favorites.   The electric crystal ball.

Such nice people.

Ok, I'm officially not a slacker any more.

Roaches

I've been meaning to write a post about this.....I wanted to include video footage and Lucille eating but something has gone terribly wrong with my video camera.

Remember when I posted about Sydney getting Lucille.  A very lovely reader emailed me.   She told me about her beardies (when you own a bearded dragon you get to call them super cool nicknames like beardies)  She talked to me about cages, lighting and feeding.   She mentioned to me that she breeded roaches to feed to her sons lizard and that if I was interested in doing the same to let her know and she'd help me get started.
I email-smiled politely and said no thank you, that I was going to try crickets because well, they weren't roaches.
She offered to send me some of her roaches to start my own colony. (SO nice right ?)
ANY hew.   Lucille was eating 3-4 crickets a day and we were fine.   The pet store is a few blocks away.  You can get a dozen for 1.00.    I had taught myself at this point how to handle the crickets and after only having Lucille for a couple of days that was enough.

About 5 days later Lucille acclimated to our lovely home and began eating 25-35 crickets a sitting.
That's a LOT more expensive than 3-4 and who  wants to go to the pet store every day to buy them.    I googled and researched how to breed crickets.   We tried.   It was a process and after about 5 days realized crickets weren't going to work.  (there is a process to breeding crickets)

I emailed the girl back and said..ok..what's the deal with the roaches.   She selflessly took the time to educate me on the whole deal.  She then packed and mailed them out.
When the package came I opened it and there was a large pretzel container with hundreds and hundreds of roaches.   All sizes.   adults, feeders, and even some tiny little baby ones.   I had no idea what to expect.
Quite an awesome sight to behold.

I had to handle them as they were dying off through the mailing process.     So that whole...ewww...creep me out thing with roaches was immediately eradicated.  
I'm kind of smitten with them now.   Really.  We have a relationship a bit like the roach on Wall-e.  :)

Thing to know is this.   Roaches are meatier than crickets and worms so they are better for Lucille.  They don't jump.  or fly.   They don't bite as they are vegetarians.   Crickets will bite your lizard if left with her for too long.  and crickets will kill each other.  Roaches take care of each other.   If they happen to get out of the bin I'm keeping them in....they will die.   They can't live alone outside of their colony and especially not in this dry cold climate.   or in my laundry room because that's where they are located currently.  (through the cold months any ways)
Basically they are just a really fast potato bug.   At least that's what I'm telling myself.  :)

Housing and food.
Egg crates, cheerios and carrots.  The white wad on the one lid is a wet paper towel.  That's what I give them for water....for now.

The big black ones are the females, the black ones with wings are the males.  The smaller yellow ones were the tiny babies that are growing and the black dots are either new babies or poop :)

This is a newly hatched baby since getting these guys.  :)
I named this one Newt.  

Lucille.  She's getting so big.  

I thought that I had learned, but sometimes need to be reminded...."don't knock it til you try it"

Wanna know what I can do ?
Make cheesecake.  in a spring form pan.  in a water bath.  all by myself.
and oh my gracious it was good.
You can find the recipe here.     I'm usually so critical of my own work that I can't really appreciate it as much.   This.  this turned out Perfect and tasted awesome !

I was scared to wrap it in tinfoil like she says to.  partly because my tinfoil wasn't big enough to wrap around the entire pan  and I was scared to layer it in case water leaked in.   So I used a turkey bag that fit the entire pan and just cinched it really tight up top.

My water bath :)

Just out of the fridge.   Slightly pulled away from the edges.   I did end up cooking mine almost 10 minutes longer than the recipe suggested.    

Finale.   I caramelized my pecans....SO good. 

So good that it went fast.    

This would make a nice substitute at Thanksgiving.   The taste was a bit like a pumpkin roll.   So yummy.   I can't wait for an excuse to make this again.