Moooooommmm~~~ Where's my Halloween Candy??????

Ok, so I let the Halloween candy stick around a bit too long. Until last weekend to be exact, thankyouverymuch. The thing is, no one EVER asked for a piece-not even a teeny-tiny one since that God-awful night- so I just had it hanging on a hook in the kitchen 'just in case'. Oh, and because my great-grandpa taught me to never, EVER throw out ANY kind of food. Plus, it's candy! So there it hung. And we're talking 3 HUGE grocery bags of the stuff.
Until last weekend.
I got on a purging spree and started chucking stuff. I'm not sure the garbage man will actually take our can tomorrow morning cuz it's resembling the Leading Tower of Pisa right now, albeit not so asthetic. So I tossed the FIVE MONTH OLD candy last weekend when the kids weren't watching.
Fast forward to tonight:
Gus-yelling from the kitchen: "mom, can I have dessert?"
Me: "sure Gus, what would you like?" (he usually asks for a popsickle or a pudding)
Gus: "hum....I'd like some candy."
Me: what?!?!? "What?"
Gus: "yah, some candy-hey! Where's my Halloween candy?"
Me: crap! "What? What Halloween candy? Hey look, there's PopRocks in the cereal bar jar-go grab those!!!" whew!
For now, I can TOTALLY work that kid!
For now.

He chose Alexander Graham Bell for his Persons Who Made A Difference report and play. He kept calling him Alexander 'Gray Ham' Bell and it just CRACKED ME UP! He did super and even grew this mustache for the event. Impressive!...For his project, he made a tin can/string telephone and IT WAS A HIT!!! I was surprised that he didn't do something more elaborate because that's his M.O.-but this was perfect!


His drum lessons are going well. He's taking lessons from a kid in the neighborhood. Tyler is in 8th grade but has been asked to perform with the high school this year because he's so good. He's a super kid and a great influence on Gus so it's a good fit. Tyler says Gus has a real talent for this-so I guess that means that the tap-tap-tap-tap-tappa-tap-tap-tappa-tap-tap-tap going on ALL DAY IN MY HOUSE AND DRIVING MY CRAZY isn't going to end soon! Oy!

We tried out wrestling and Gus had a good run of it. Then they changed venues-2 times / week and practicing with MUCH bigger boys so we opted out. Right now, we're between sports. He dusted off the skateboard last weekend and has been putting some mileage on it lately. Today, we took off the 'handle' and now he's really crusin'! I caught him without his wrist guards on (thank goodness the helmet doesn't come off-he's good about that one!) today and made him put on his old cast from a few summers ago when he broke his wrist the day school was out and he had to spend most of the summer with this bulky, crummy cast on. We had a long talk about how NOT FUN that would be to repeat. I don't think I'll have to tell him again.

He's totally into his inventions now. He'll get up at 5 or 5:30 AM when he's working on something. Obsess much?

And YES, his hair is getting too long! He will NOT let me cut it or take him to get it cut! It's driving me crazy! He's even taken to chewing on the front parts that he can reach so now he's got a modified Dorothy Hamill thing going on! Here, they went to the police station with the scouts. I tried to convince him that they WOULD lock someone up for too long hair. That went over like a lead zeppelin!

They are all having a BLAST with the Wii (THANKS Alabama and Florida Wags!). I even caught Gus playing with Zoe on Mario Bros the other day when none of the rest of us could play him. Perhaps SHE can beat him!
Zoe is Zoe.
She has happy days.
She has sad days.
She has days with and without pants.
She is a HANDFULL!!!
And I'm loving EVERY minute of it!
She's currently on Nap Strike. This is her during nap time having climbed out of her crib and hanging onto the net-thing that supposed to keep her in-silly manufacturers!
Then she gets so darned tired she falls asleep on my foot in the middle of the kitchen floor as I'm trying to prepare dinner.
But WHO can resist this cutie?!?!?


Claire is perfect, as usual! She is inordinately busy right now and I guess it's my fault. She's taking piano, violin, playing softball, is in a play at school, taking a math course before school 2x/week, and in a book club. That's a LOT for a newly 10 year old. That's a LOT for a newly 10 year old's mom!!! Someone mentioned to me the other day, "oh, you're a stay-at-home mom" and I replied, "no, I'm a stay-in-the-van mom!!!" We're simply not home that often!

For her 10th birthday, we had a GIRLS ROCK PARTY! We had Rock Stars~


And Food~









And VERY strict judging for the Talent Competition!

It was SO MUCH FUN and definitely a 3 Tylenol night! Thanks to Vava for helping out and laughing with me!



So for now, the babies are in bed and I'm off to catch as many zzzzsss as I can before Zoe wakes me at 3 am just to 'chat'. She's been doing this lately. Did I mention that she's a handfull?!?!!?

It's Official.

Ok, it's officially over. My 'baby years' are done and gone. Zoe started PreSchool two weeks ago and I haven't had a dry eye since! She can NOT be That BIG!!!! She just can't be!!!!
Her Teacher's name is Miss Jaime and Zoe just LOVES her! I'm thrilled but, still, SHE JUST CAN'T BE THIS BIG!!!!





Take a good, long look at The Gussinator playing ball-this will Officially be his last season playing baseball. I snuck him onto a team then bribed him to go out and play. He has SUCH a great time once he's out there, but fights it the whole way there and back. His bestest buddy is even on his team and that's not roping him in. So, I'm done. Can't fight it any longer. We're looking for a new sport---preferrably one that costs a bunch of money, takes 5 nights each week at practices and both weekend days at the events, requires ME to put in a part-time job's equiliant of volunteer hours, and has laughably expensive gear that must be custom-fit to my son's body thereby insuring I could never sell the UNUSED stuff on ebay-----ever, if you please.



Could these girls get ANY cuter?! Seriously!




Just another day in the life!
~Tina~
Stay tuned for The Wagner's summer at the beach, Tea Party, and WHO'S TAKING DRUM LESSONS?!?!-There goes the neighborhood!!!

6 months can FLY by!

For the 2 of us who actually read this, I'm sorry that it's taken me 6 months to update our goings-ons----of which, there have been many!

Someone asked this morning at Gus's baseball game, "how old is Zoe?" and I replied with the usual 3-child response of, "um...she's um....she'll be...uh, yah...she was 1 a while ago..." and Steven stepped in and saved me with the proper response of "she'll be 2 years old in 9 days." I 'bout had a heart-attack!! There's just NO WAY that this:





can now be this:







So, it looks like I have a party to plan here this week.

Kids are out of school on Friday so my working schedule is about to meet a GREAT challenge! I'm up for this, though. The kids and I have been making a list of the things we want to do this summer and I have a file of crafts and projects that I want to tackle with them. Best Laid Plans~right?! I figure we'll probably get through 1/2 of one the first day then bag it! Oh Well, it's a GREAT idea!

Gus went to the Grand National Rodeo with Vava and now he's SURE that he was BORN to be a cowboy!

Claire had her Ceremony yesterday to Bridge from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts~ Big Fun! The girls did a great job and had a lot of fun with their Junior Buddies. The pizza and cupcakes helped!


Destination Imagination finished up for the year with Claire's group winning Regionals and going to State! We traveled to Sacramento to compete and they came in 7th!!! They had a blast with that group this year and their performance was super!





Gus finished up Baseball this morning and we're having his Team Party this afternoon. As much as he complained about getting up, getting to practices, getting onto the field -pretty much all of it- once he was on the field, HE HAD A GREAT TIME! He's actually quite good at the sport and seemed to enjoy it this year. Thinking that gene just have skipped a generation because both Steven and I stink at the sport.


We had a GREAT Mother's Day~took kids and dogs to the beach-Fort Funston. There are huge, sheer cliffs so all the hang-gliders launch and land there.

It was a very windy day so there were many gliders showing off their talents. We spent about 2 hours on the beach-got wet, sandy, wind-blown, and happy. It was a GREAT day!!




Father's Day is around the corner and we're trying to put together a hiking trip to Mt. Tam~there's a F.D. pancake breakfast at the top and we've enjoyed the years that we've gone. Presents are bought-just need to get the kids crackin on the cards.



Claire is a voracious reader, loves playing with her American Girl Dolls, and is getting so good at the piano. She had a recital on Thursday and performed beautifully.
And NO! That's NOT Hannah Montana and Billy Ray Cyrus in the photo! It's Steven & Claire! Couldn't tell, could you?! They went to the Girl Scout Daddy Daughter Dance and the theme was Hollywood. Total Rock Stars!





Gus is as percocious as ever! Give him an empty egg carton, pipe cleaners, and some tape, and he's good for HOURS! While he loves to read also (seriously, I can hardly pull him away from a book sometimes), he's really enjoying playing kickball and shooting imaginary baskets (time for a real hoop!).


And Zoe, well, she's just an angel! She is so much fun and is enjoying having a mind of her own and driving her mother crazy with it!!! She wants to be big so badly and can't understand why she can't do some of the things her siblings can. A total Diva, she had taken to changing clothes several times each day and loves frilly, dressy things. Yay!!! More Laundry to do!!!!


Just another Day In The Life!

CRAP Dip?!?!?!?

Let me set the scene: Zoe and I are in the rocking chair doin a little 4:30 PM Chill Out session. Claire is reading at the table and Gus has his back to us playing GameBoy at the breakfast bar. The Food Network channel is on-OF COURSE! -and Rachael, our favorite, is making something. Gus suddenly yells over to me-
Gus: Mom! What's she making?
Me: Crab Dip
Gus: **looking increduluous** CRAP DIP?!?!? Well, THAT doesn't sound good at all!!!

Claire and I LOST IT! We laughed so hard~heck, we're still laughing at that one. Oh! These kids crack me up!!

This pic has nothing to do with that-I just thought it was so funny! Quintessential Gus!



Claire was The Prompter in a classroom play, The Wizard of Oz this morning and did fabulously with her very important part.

I heard from about 10 kids that when they played the video that some nice dad made for them of the play, all they could hear was Zoe in the background singing "blah blah la la la dah dah dah da da"-the kids were good humored about it-for the parents, we'll probably have some apologizing to do tomorrow. Good thing she's so cute.

Here's a pic of Zoe, Claire, and my cousin Joell's baby Bella-I can't believe how similar Zoe and Bella are-too cute!

We had our Ormonde/Kenner Xmas party this past Sunday at Uncle David's BIG-ASS (as Steven describes it) new home. It's really something else and so nice of him to open it to all of us hullagins!!!
Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up-Micah (Annie's baby) was not terribly impressed. He's a skeptical one.

MOST of the shopping is done, we just have a tree to acquire, put up, dress, then skirt with the goods. Yes, you read that correctly- it's the 20th and we have no tree. Long story shortened: we had a fireplace leak which turned our living room carpet into a swampland. I insisted that it be fixed before we bring more chaos into the house so here we sit. Steven has bubba-rigged it with some tarp and the past storm proved his method viable so we're goin tree huntin this weekend. Hope we catch a squirrel for dinner too! Yee Haw!!!!Steven says that this pic of Zoe with her hands up is the image that's emblazoned in his mind forever.
It's all just a day in the life~
Tina