A Timely Convergence

Have you ever had one of those moments where multiple things seem to converge all at the same time? And your brain seems to get a little scrambled and you get a little flustered?

I was finishing a batch of toffee with melted chocolate on top. If you've ever made a candy that requires boiling sugar and butter, you know that you can't get distracted because it has to be stirred. You have to take it off the heat at just the right moment, and then you have to do something with it immediately. Otherwise you have hard candy in some undesirable formation that you can't do anything with. Well, I was stirring my boiling hot sugar/butter mixture when I heard the characteristic 'Mommy!' scream from Ian upstairs. This is the scream meaning, 'I'm about to poop in my pants!'

I can't leave my boiling candy, so I yell out, 'Go to the bathroom!' (Daddy is in the garage, sanding his latest woodworking project and thus, useless to me at this point.) I hear running and stuff going on in the bathroom upstairs, so I figure perhaps everything is ok. I'm about to pour my bubbly goo over chopped pecans when Ian yells from upstairs, 'I did it mommy. I wiped myself!' I'm thinking, 'Great, we haven't even mastered the actual pooping process and he's trying to wipe himself, now'.  But I can't deal with it at this instant because, this is when I put chocolate chips on top of my cooling toffee. The chips are suppose to be added while it's hot so they melt, forming a nice layer on top - yum.

At the same time, the alarm on my phone goes off signaling that it's time to go get Payton from school. Hit snooze. Then I yell out, 'Wash your hands- with soap!' (Thing that seem obvious to adults, don't always appear so to kids.) Spread melted chips on toffee. Ian comes downstairs and starts dancing behind me, and telling me how he did it all by himself. I asked him if he washed his hands, and he says yes, but that he couldn't get it all off - as he shows me his pointer finger.

I rush him off to the bathroom to clean his hand when I notice, he's still stinky. Alarm goes off again. I check Ian and there's poop everywhere - in the underwear, down his leg....Ug!

I had to clean him up and take him with me to get Payton because we were going directly over to someone's house for a play date after we got Payton.

So I start cleaning Ian up. I run upstairs to get him new underwear, and I see the bathroom he was in when 'he did it all by himself'. It was not pretty. I don't want to go into all the details, but  I had questions as to how some of that poop ended up where it did - enough said.

But I couldn't deal with the bathroom because I had to finish cleaning up Ian, get him dressed and out the door to rescue Payton from school. Oh, by the way, the toffee needed to be cut before it was eternally hardened into it's delicious candyness.

Somehow, it all got done (except the bathroom - that had to wait), and we got to the school just as the kids were being let out. And all the rushing and frantic stuff was forgotten.

Christmas tree

Christmas has come to the van Poppel household - at least we have decorated for it. We haven't gotten to all the shopping or baking - but that will come soon too. I love this time of year.

The kids love getting out all the decorations and playing with them. Payton especially loved setting up the manger scenes this year. And the dancing Santa Claus is always a big hit.

He sings 'Jingle Bell Rock' over....and over.....again.....sigh

 It was Payton's turn to put the angel on the tree this year.

Ian's Thanksgiving Feast and Program?

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Ian's school had a Thanksgiving Feast. We thought we were going to see a program before the feast. Payton wanted to see her brother perform, since he got to see her. We thought -why not? She won't miss too much during those two hours. So we all go to the church at Ian's school first to watch the program.
Ian made a cute pilgrim. Ian got up with his class and the 2 year olds and sang one song.....and that was it. Then we got a little sermon from the pastor. And then the 4 year olds got up and sang 3 songs - The End.

We were expecting a little bit more from the 'program', but the one song Ian did perform, he did very well. He even did the hand motions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since this is the first time in a long that we have been in Texas for Thanksgiving, we decided to actually celebrate it with family. We traveled down to Oma and Opa's house for Turkey Day:)

The kids got to play golf with Daddy and Opa.

It seems as though they really enjoyed driving the golf carts.

As to the main event....the turkey was fall apart good :)

Yup, our strategic, 3 spatula lift to the serving platter worked like a charm ;)

Dinosaur Valley

Last weekend, we drove two hours southwest of here to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas. I was hoping to get more glipses of some fall color. The Dinosaur aspect was merely a ploy to entice the children into wanting to go to a state park :) It worked. They were so excited about a trip to see dinosaur footprints.

And here they are.....

Yup. We were a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong. They are pretty cool, but we were hoping to be able to stand in one. But they were covered in water and roped off so that you couldn't get too close to them

None the less, we went hiking along the river some - searching for the North Texas Wild Penguins (NTWPs) who finally annialated all the dinosaurs in Texas.....Payton was pretty quick to squash Daddy's stories about NTWPs. Payton informed us that dinosaurs died out because it got too cold for them. And as hard as Daddy tried to persuade her otherwise, she stood her ground. Ian really didn't believe Daddy either, but he didn't have the comeback that Payton did.

 Ian had just jumped into the river and gotten his shoes and pants wet. He wasn't up for a picture.

We had a nice picnic lunch and checked out the park. It wasn't a huge park, but the tall grass was pretty fascinating.

Gladiator, anyone?

On the way out we took a picture with the resident dinosaurs. Payton was pretending to roar like one....

Payton's Thanksgiving program

Super Turkey! - That was Payton's favorite song that she sang in her program. The kindergarten combined with first grade to put on a Thanksgiving program.

We had talked about the costumes before the show and I asked Payton what she was - an Indian or a Pilgrim. She asked, 'Which one wears a band with feathers?' And of course, I answered, 'An Indian.' Payton grinned really big, 'That's what I am!'

I'm glad we cleared that up before the program. I wouldn't want Payton thinking the Pilgrims wore feathers....

We got there early, so that we could see Payton. She told me she would be standing on the first step. I figured that if we didn't get close, we wouldn't be able to see her. We got lucky.

Payton did well. She at least seemed to mouth all the words. And she did all the actions, usually with everyone else.

Okay. Now for the soapbox portion of this blog:

I don't know if this happens everywhere, but the parents were a little camera-crazy. It didn't seem this bad when Payton was in Pre-K or preschool, but here parents didn't stay in their seats. They stood if front of other parents.

Particularly this guy in blue. He was front and center. He stood up and remained standing for a good couple of minutes until one of the other Dads asked him to sit down! Really ?!?! And most were watching the program through their cameras. It was sad, funny, and infuriating all at the same time.

Oma's Birthday!

This past weekend Oma, Opa, and Kate and the kids came up to celebrate Oma's birthday. Oma turned 70 a couple of weeks back, but this was the most convenient time for us all to get together.

We donned our party hats and had ourselves a little celebration!

Oma requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

We took Oma to a painting pottery place called Art and Soul where she painted a plate that included all the grandkids' hand prints.

Ian was especially enthralled with this place. He was a little confused when he woke up with paint remnants on his hand :)

Happy Birthday Oma! We love you.