What the Chipmunks have done lately..........

The Chipmunks have been very busy little kids lately, learning new things and enjoying the last bit of summer. We had our first family yard sale, Alvin was especially motivated to participate as we were hoping to make enough money to buy a Wii (something he DESPERATELY wanted).

Alvin really wanted to have a "stand" to make some money himself and we convinced him to wait until we did our yard sale (there is lots of 'traffic' during the 'city wide' sales). He got up bright and early and got himself set up and then promptly took a break...........but ate his breakfast right there. I was impressed with his level of responsibility and he pretty much ran his end of things with only a tiny bit of help from mom or dad.

At the end of the day we called this sale a success and the kids were all rewarded with a much anticipated purchase........and Alvin was able to purchase an extra game with his profits. Here's where i have to admit that this is a fun thing to play as a family too..........

This past month Theodore has learned to stand up and cruise the furniture and she's pretty proud of this accomplishment. She also likes to pull on the curtains now as well.............

Took pictures of my girls sleeping, there is something so precious about a sleeping child. I love to go in and check on them and give them an extra goodnight kiss once in awhile. 

That whole experience may be a little tainted by one small fact, one of my girls is FAKING being asleep and then gets up for a photo shoot before finally settling back into bed........and the really sad thing is it's the littlest one!!

 What a HAM!!

We have enjoyed hanging out in the yard, and having rare opportunities with all three chipmunks playing together. It is so fun to watch them play and enjoy each other so much, we are so blessed to listen to the laughter and pure silliness on a daily basis!

Speaking of silliness........this is how they decided to enjoy the apples off our little tree out front. That is, of course, before they ate them all! Simon is looking a little like an indian princess here. The "flair" is courtesy of lil sister Theodore. Glad big sis can enjoy the huge flowers that mom loves so much and Theodore won't tolerate anymore!

The family has a tradition of going to see "races" in the summer, those would be car races. This year is no exception! Recently we went to the 'extravaganza', this event officially ends the season at the track closest to us. The kids loved eating popcorn and watching cars get wrecked.....Theodore enjoyed cheerios instead.

Touch pool at Sea Life

A few picture from our trip to the Sea Life Museum this week, we had fun even though my cell phone camera was not able to get many pictures.

 I didn't tell my 3 year old that a dog is just as smart as she is......on her 4th birthday i'll let her know that she is now smarter then a dog.

Alvin had his first ride on a mini-bike, he did a great job and didn't crash! YIKES! He is growing up!

You can now consider yourself caught up on the lives of Simon, Theodore and Alvin! They are already planning more adventures to share with you soon!

Traveling with Chipmunks

 This is 3:15am Day 1. We are all packed up, belted in and ready to roll. We were killing mosquitoes until about lunchtime..........but other then that the early part of the day was pretty quiet.

After approx 15 hours on the road we finally stopped for the night. 15 hours didn't get us as far as it used to, but we slowly made our way to the land of Granny and PopPop.

After some fun in the pool, a little dinner and a little sleep it is 4:30am and time to wake the chipmunks.





Now, i believe all the excitement about traveling 1/2 way across the country by van (no matter how nice that rental way) has totally lost it's appeal.

Simon is a late sleeper by nature, so getting up early was hard enough.........but back in the van WAAAAAA

Alvin is our early riser but appears less then enthusiastic about another day "on the road"

Theodore is quietly accepting of her fate this morning.










A very short time later our most upset passenger has regained control, thanks to "Tangled"

Finally, after many more hours and strategic planning of gas/potty/nursing/eating stops we arrive and get to have some "cousin time" and PIZZA!!!

First face to face without using skype with cousin Ben. There was much fun and much laughter with the youngest cousins.

and.....the baby cousins........Theodore had enough and was ready for bed, but not before a picture op. Babies are 9m 7m and 1.5m in this picture. It was a babypalooza and we enjoyed holding each others little "bundles"!

Important Milestones and Nicknames

As my children grow i love watching them reach the next milestone. Sitting, walking, talking, reading and writing...........and yesterday another great milestone occurred.


Early in the day Alvin was telling me (with sheer admiration) that his friend can make fart noises with his hand under his arm, but he could not do it. As we drove home from the pool (a very short ride) Alvin says "turn the radio down!" after i do he makes a fart noise under his arm, he laughs....Simon laughs and well i laughed too.  Not what i expected to hear really.........but i guess a milestone nonetheless.
Since yesterday it is either the topic of interest to talk about or a practice session. This morning all the kids were snuggling with me and Alvin says "i will teach you (Simon) and you will teach Theodore, i am sure mom and day already know how. Mom can you do this?" "hmm, no i don't think i can" (or want to).

Alvin and Simon love to play hide and go seek, and the other morning after a rousing session, Simon comes crying. I immediately thought either Alvin left her without looking for her, or won't give her a turn. She is hysterical (which is a normal mode for a 3 year old i think) and she is crying "alvin never wahahawahawawha" i asked her 3 times and got the same unintelligible response. So, i look at Alvin and say ask what she is upset about. "She wants me to hold her hand", oh.....and yes i had him go hold hand for a few minutes.

Before Theodore was born i many times called the kids "frick and frack" "thing 1 and thing 2" or "tweedle dee and tweedle dum". I still fall into those names sometimes and have to correct myself, and this week was one of those time. As we are "unloading kids" from the car i use an old nickname and Alvin notices and we decide we need new nicknames for the brood. "winkin blinkin and nod didn't go over with them, but they liked alvin simon theodore............i laughed cause they don't know i use those names here on my blog. They appropriately name themselves with the same names i use here on my blog, and then they say i can be Dave, lol. So, almost the same as i use here.

Mamadavia's birthday

Ah, it was my birthday this weekend and it was a wonderful day with a few lessons splattered amongst the fun.
I got a great gift from all the little chipmunks, a NAP! wow priceless! Dave was working and all three kids napped, it was great! By all my !! You can see my excitement and enthusiasm over this gift that i didn't even ask for, but so greatly appreciated.
We went to a wonderful Irish Pub for dinner. Lesson #1 Pack soft toys for Theodore to play with when we are out. Yes, she has learned to bang everything! She also is throwing things on the floor. While i know better then to pick these things up and give them back to her, Alvin does not. She had fun having him pick up after her.
Simon is our moocher, she ate all but one of the cucumber slices out of our salads. Then she just had to have a shrimp as well. Lesson #2 Don't feed a moocher, they just come back for more. Trust us, we know.
As we left (through the bar) Dave was carrying Theodore, and an obviously drunk young man says from across the room that she is "the prettiest girl in the world". OK, you're hitting on my 6m old? LOL glad Dave was holding her, it was a little weird but once we got out the door we laughed. Lesson #3 Um, keep my girls away from drunk men.

Once outside and laughing, Alvin says "i smell smoke" "who's smoking". Who is he, Smokey the Bear? So, as i am explaining laws and such i see the guy who is the offending smoker. He is having is smoke around the side of the building in a patio area. So, he says "hi" and at that point i am pretty sure he heard everything.

It is about that point i realize that we are no longer "cool". We pack up our minivan and now i am sure i am not cool.

Veggie Dessert

We all know the rules, eat your veggies.....finish your dinner and THEN you can have dessert. That's how is is supposed to work, but what do "they" say about the best laid plans?

Simon being the typical dramatic 3 year old girl, can go from smiles and laughing to tears over something in 10 sec flat. It usually takes 4 or 5 repeats before we can understand what the problem is over the heaving cries Then when she finally can articulate actual words we hear "i forgot to put on my make up" (on the way home from being out, and she only wears lip gloss) or "i wanted to wear my dancing shoes". We have found that girls really can create their own drama.

On our way home from eating out one night, she has one of these hysterical crying episodes and she says (you have to remember to heave at least twice when you read this) "I FORGOT TO EAT MY SALAD".  We assured her that there would be many other opportunities to eat salad but that one was over.

So, this weekend we had a party to celebrate both girls getting dedicated and Mamadavia made this fabulous cake

Simon was very excited to have a slice of this sweet delight. As every good mom would, i made sure she had a decent dinner that she felt was just a waste of her time. After coming up to me no less then 10 times, it was finally time to cut the cake and she was first in line. She promptly ate all the icing and filling and then left the cake.

Well, next thing you know she is having some chips and salsa (it's a party and all the food is still out) and then a huge plate (well huge for a 3 year old) of vegetable and dip. Then she was done and could relax.
I am beginning to think that i should just give her dessert for dinner and her dinner for dessert!

Counting and Driving

Alvin, when he was still my little guy..........today he reminded me a few times how grown up he is getting............or not.

He was spending time with his younger sisters and Simon was watching a PBS show. In the show they were counting and his looks at me and says "why are they counting my ones, it would be much easier if they counted my 10's or 2's or 5's"

Later in the morning he says "when i am 19 will i be able to drive" and i said "i sure hope so, where would you want to drive to?" he said maybe down town (okay "downtown" is 6-7 blocks away is a block long, not even a traffic light) then he said "maybe i will ask my friend (the neighbor) and we can go around the block". Ah, if his world would only stay that small.

Nicknames

You always have those little endearing names for your babies when they are little. They are such a bundle of cuteness their actual name doesn't quite seem to do them justice. So, we come up with all these cute nicknames..........and with each kid i have felt a need for them to have their own special nickname that i use only for them. There are others that i have called all of them but......

For Alvin it was doodle bug which was quickly shortened to "doodle"
For Simon it was Bug-a-boo which i shortened to "bug" or "bugga"
And lastly for Theodore it is "Boo Boo" like in Boo Boo Bear (we saw Yogi when she was really small) which, obviously becomes "Boo" when i shorten it.

What i didn't notice until tonight is that they piggyback each other "doodle bug a boo boo", how odd is that? That was me, not even trying.