If this continues, we're doomed.

So, speaking of genetics, my children did not understand you have to unwrap a chocolate coin first before eating it.

Childhood mishap or natural selection?

She's liking them apples

You know the saying, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?"  Living proof that Wavey's silliness is from her father's side...

...while her sense of fashion is from mine, as she refused to leave the house for the Daddy-Daughter Sweetheart Dance without her shiny red boots.  

I argued, "They're not exactly fancy like your dress," and she retorted, "Oh, they're fancy alright."  


Touche.

Hiiii-YAHH!

This is what happens when you buy an assemble-yourself-bookshelf that comes with styrofoam packaging, and your children have watched way too much Kung Fu Panda:

The best part?  You're only seeing about a quarter of the absolute mess. 

Get your craft on: DIY crayons

I've read many articles about making your own crayons from broken ones using cookie molds, so I thought Wavey would find it a fun holiday project for kid-gifts. 

So here's the rub: We didn't have enough organically-derived broken crayons, so we broke a apart a box of new ones...and what an UNHOLY MESS it was to peel the wrappers off of them. 

Did you know generic crayons affix their wrappers with the same glue probably used to hold rocket ships together in space?  Yep, now you know, and I have the wax under my nails to prove it.

We melted the crayons in the oven at 275-degrees for about 15 minutes and let them cool completely before popping them out of the mold.  Success!

Gingerbread house FAIL

My sister is in town and we thought, "Let's buy one of those pre-fabbed gingerbread houses to decorate.  How difficult can that be?" 

I think you can guess where this is going...

It didn't help that Emily and I carry the gene of impatience as we didn't bother reading any instructions. 

Between the two of us, Emily and I carry college and post-graduate degrees...clearly none of which were in engineering.  Or good judgement. 

The walls wouldn't stick, the roof collapsed, and icing was EVERYWHERE.  The kids basically gave up on us, threw a few candy pieces our way and took off.

Even the gingerbread men look zombie-ish and disgusted by our work.  

Hello, holidays!

The over/under of Thanksgiving Day

Wavey threw me for a loop this year by actually eating Thanksgiving dinner.  Griffin, however?  Status quo.

Family photo: FAIL

Taking photos of other people's children for holiday photo cards is easy for me.  Photos of my own kids?  Not so much:

Though, this sadly is quite the realistic snapshot of our day-to-day.

It's spooky how late this update is

Yeah, I'm a little late on the Halloween update train, but for posterity's sake, here's our annual Halloween photo op with our favorite friends from Into Ablivia:

And now, Halloween with the same group of goofy kids through the years:

Pottymouth convict

I'm pretty determined to retain my Mother of the Year title.

Wavey drops a shoe and says quietly under her breath, "Oh s---, I dropped that."

I whip around and ask, "What did you just say?" which is followed by 10 minutes of me gently pleading her to verify the word I was pretty sure I heard.

Finally, she admits the word and I ask her which friend from school taught it to her.  She gives me a smirk and says, "No one from school.  YOU say it all the time."

&%$#@, she's right. 

At least she used it in correct context.

Pop quiz

Wavey decided to meticulously dress herself this weekend.  So, here's my question:  Who should be more embarrassed by the other person?

(A) Me, because Waverly's outfit is delightfully wacky,

(B) Waverly, because I'm an adult wearing a child-sized t-shirt that reads "Member Doughboy Fan Club" paired with running shorts,

-or-

(C) None of the above because we were going to Walmart where we'd most likely blend right in.

Pencils down, please.

Hello, new chair

Call me crazy, but this well-worn chair I came across at a local antique store was begging for me to buy it for photography use.  And use it, I shall: 

These are just test shots, but I'm very excited to see how it'll work out when my kids are actually dressed appropriately and somewhat cooperative. 

So, when pigs fly, right? 

But God loves frosting

We were at a child's birthday party the other day and this kid below (who we don't know) doesn't say a peep throughout the entire bowling party...until Waverly innocently sat down next to her for cake and the little girl says in a completely low, creepy voice:

"God hates birthdays.  It's true."

Sensing that this girl was dead-serious and kinda scary, Wavey gave her the "what the flip?" face and then slowly said, "Oookkkaaaaayyy."

I nearly died laughing.  It's true.

Find the miserable kid

We celebrated Wavey's birthday over the weekend with friends, a bounce house and a slip n' slide.  Three things of note in the photo below:

(1)  Wav had the time of her life, but rounding up children ages six and under for one photo was worse than herding cats.  There are about five kids missing from the photo.

2. Griffin was about three hours past his usual naptime and it shows big time with his miserable pout.  And can we talk about his bird-chest?  I swear that we feed him even though he retains zero body fat.

3.  I absolutely love the company we rented the bounce house from even though Romeo and Juliets' faces has seen better days. Ha!

Six years old

Happy birthday, Waverly, aka "Wav," "Wavey," and my favorite: "Bun-bun."

We love you!

Choke-hold grad

We're very proud of Waverly, our little kindergarten grad.

After cruising through the photos we took of the day, I noticed a recurring theme going on between her and Griffin:

No lack of sibling love, that's for sure.

Bridge out ahead

Poor Griffin has been cursed with the Asian trait of having little bridge to his nose.  Though, he's come up with a good solution to keeping sunglasses on his face: