Wimpy Kids movie with Auntie Paula and the Ump

The kids were counting the days to when the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie came out. When it was mentioned on the television that it was coming, Jack immediately made me call umple eddie, auntie paula and uncle bobby (who he called uncle eddie's daddy) to tell them that we were going. Auntie Paula was very good to the kiddies and got us the tickets. the kids love their auntie and umples. It was so exciting to fit four adults and four kids into the new minivan....with comfort too. I think Auntie Paula was just as excited to see the movie too because she saw the first one with us too. Before the movie we went head first into WalMart and grabbed some candy to fill up the bags to eat at the movie, this along with the popcorn, drink and fruit snacks. The movie was so funny, i think i was the one laughing the hardest. it reminds me of when they made movies before they had to add four letter words to make it attractive to movie goers. Overall, the day was a success. Jimmy had baseball practice afterwards too...in this freezing cold!!!

Catherines first playdate and duh jack

Catherine was so excited coming off the bus today. She had set up her very first playdate with her new friend Sydney. I picked them up and just said "yeah sure honey". ....not really expecting anything of it. Well, shortly after I got a call from Sydney's mother asking if Catherine could come over. We had met her many times so everything was so cool. Cat was so so so excited. You could just see it in her. Afterwards (only a bit over an hour and a half) she had so much to say about what they did. It was mostly playing on a swing, slide and other cute things. Jack and I spent the whole day together and we did the things that jack does best. We went to the coffee shop, the registry and then to Black Gordon and the Train that doesnt move. choo choo we went.
Jack has been telling me that he wants a skateboard for his birthday. Right before we went to the coffee shop, we were making a pit stop from the bank when we ran into Eddie (from the coffee shop). Of course he is now jacks new hero because he was riding a skateboard. Eddie is in his 20's and had this whole conversation with jack about skateboarding. I didnt think jack understood what he was talking about but sure enough he did. He told me how Eddie told him that he started skateboarding when he was four years old too!! so we get home and are waiting for the bus to arrive and we run into Roger the neighbor. Roger, ever the antagonist, attempts to get info from Jack and asks him if he has a girlfriend. jack tells him that he has two, Patricia from the coffee shop and another girl named Addison. roger asks him where he met Addison. Jack says "duh, from School". I'd never heard him say the duh thing before. I had to correct him, but it was funny.

The retirement of HBMV

Face to face in front of the dealership
The day has come for the Hillbilly Minivan to be placed into paperclips. Three months after Jimmy was born in 2001 I went to the Toyota dealersip to purchase a new car, specifically, a Toyota Avalon. When I returned home a 1998 Toyota Sienna sat in the driveway. Lyn couldnt contain her excitement. So much so, she refused to get into it for three whole days. Well, like all disagreements, we always find a middle ground. Eventually three more kids came around and we got to fill the gas guzzler with living creatures. So many trips, one accident, a storied broken window and so many more memories were created by way of that automobile. So here we are in 2011 with exactly 180,000 miles on it, it was time to put her to pasture. The minivan, not Lyn. A just about new 2011 Sienna rolled up and grabbed our heart. Hopefully, it will continue our adventure for another ten years......or so.

Poor Jack had to take heart medicine from uncontrollable laughter at the sight of us. Capped off with my insistence to have both cars meet face to face at the front doors. Kenneth the salesman, a Chinese fellah, didnt know what he was in for either. I wouldnt be able to tell either way because i had no freaking idea what he was saying most of the time.

Confidence !!!

My eight year old Laura just absolutely amazes me every day with all her good goofiness. Her elementary school gave out handouts to all kids for a talent show where the winner will be able to sing the national anthem at the annual fourth of July parade. To her its a no-brainer, she's going to win! Now, of all the things that she has inherited from Daddy, one is the natural singing ability..or lack thereof. She has been practicing all the time singing the national anthem and the All in the Family theme song, deciding which one she will sing. Hmmm, what to tell her about the actual ability. My decision is let her rip it out..why the heck not. Last month, we went to one of those phoney talent auditions for acting on the Disney Channel shows. Knowing it was a fraud, we still went and let her read some lines from a commercial. She did fantastic as did Jimmy. The "talent scout" was all excited about her and wanted us to come to Florida for a tryout for national talent scouts....for a sum of money, of course. She told me that she didnt want to leave her friends here so we couldnt move to Florida. She did really well and was so cute reading those lines too.
Tonight was a night out at the roller skating rink for her school. Catherine, Laura and I went for some rolling around the rink. It would have been no problem except for the fact that none of us knew how to skate. I actually used to roller skate, once or twice about 35 years ago. The good news is that I didnt fall but Laura and Catherine have sore bum bums. They stopped when it was time for racing. The boys all lined up and raced very fast around the rink....like really flying. So now it was time for the young ladies. Laura couldnt wait to go line up. About twenty girls were with her and off she went, step by step, inch by inch she made it around the rink about two minutes after everyone else. It was great! She couldnt care less that she was dead last. And everyone had to wait forever for her to come in. They were lining up for the next race when she came in. She was all ready to join the next race too. She has that confidence and carefree attitude that makes her special.
Catherine started slowly also. She didnt like that for the first four or five times around she kept falling, and yes, there were tears. But all of a sudden, she asked me to let her skate alone. She still fell alot but sure enough, she stuck it out and wouldnt leave the floor. She came up to me a couple of times with a little quivering lip from a hard fall but shortly got over it. She was great!! Catherine wants to sing the national anthem also. They will do it if I cant figure out an excuse to get out of it.

St Patty's day

Its silly clothes week in school. Mostly in Catherine's kindergarten class but the other kids joined in when they could. The best day in the week was Thursday, of course, which was St. Patty's day. Catherine was so excited all week because she wanted to get first place for having the most green. She did.

Laura had the best move on St. Patricks day of them all. Right before they were all going to bed she informed everyone not to forget the magic leprechaun would be coming overnight to leave money and gifts at the foot of their bed. Waaa What about that. Of course we must remember that magic leprechaun. Well, of course that set poor Catherine off because if it wasnt bad enough to have the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus come overnight while she slept, she now had to worry about a little green man invading her household. She cried and told us all now that she was afraid of the little leprechaun....A little consoling was all it took thankfully. Well, Laura was right, in the morning there was a little pouch for each of them with St. Patty's day necklaces and plenty of magic coins, gum, bubbles and assorted goodies. Thank God for Laura to have reminded all of us and thank goodness for 24 hour stores.

Nana came over St. Paddy's day morning and walked Cat and Joey down to the bus stop to meet us.

Annual St. Patricks Day at Kara's house

One of the goofy pictures

Polar Paula

Jimmy and Jackie

Jackie called Aunt Paula and uncle Bobby the other day because there is another Diary of a Wimpy kid movie. He told Paula that he wanted her, umple eddie and umple eddie's daddy to come to see the new movie.

this one cracks me up

what a ham!!