The Elves Miss Snow

Our poor elves must really miss the cold and snow. Being down here in South Florida is a long way away from where they usually live. They apparently are having withdrawals, so they've decided to improvise.
This was Sunday night's escapade:

They made for some pretty decorations, though.

And last night, they played in the flour...

And Daddy's cleaning that one up!
That's Darth Vader in the red suit, Tuti in the green suit laying down and HonkHonk dumping the flour out.
How many more days till Christmas?

Elves Crash Landing!

Looks like the elves got a little adventurous last night! Here's what we found this morning.

The Elves Ate Our Candy!

We have a new tradition. I thought it would be fun to have the elves come and visit our house for a few days before Christmas. Then they would get into all kinds of mischief during the night, and the kids would be excited to see what they had done while they were asleep.

So the elves came 10 days before Christmas. So far, here's what they've done.

Their first night in the house, they apparently watched the movie "The Santa  Clause" and ate Chex mix on my couch. They left a mess in the pantry with Chex mix on the chair they pushed over.

The following night (last night) they played on our table with the little toys that were in the goody bag from Nathan's birthday party and ate 4 pieces of chocolate.

It was 6:45 am and Ryan and I were still lying in bed. The kids came tip-toeing out and we could hear them whispering to each other. The table is next to our bedroom, so we could hear everything they were saying when they found the elves.


Rylan couldn't believe that the elves had found the toys that were in the goody bag and he was not very happy that they had eaten his chocolate.  We heard  Nathan tell his elf, "I'm going to put you in time out."  Rylan told his he had to put him back to sleep since he'd been up all night.


They stayed like this for about 20 minutes, whispering to each other and talking to their elves.  We heard the candy paper sound and thought they were getting into the candy as well, but we let it play out.


They finally made it into our room and said, "Look what the elves did last night! They ate our candy!" 


We asked them if it was the elves or them.  And if they were sure that it was the elves? Oh, you should have heard the protests!

How Do We Have Babies?

The boys were having a great conversation today that I happened upon.

They were talking about girlfriends.  And I missed the questions that prompted the conversation, but listened as Rylan explained to Nathan that girls can be your girlfriends now because they are little.  But when you get older, they turn into your wife.  And then they become mothers and you become a father.

Nathan asked if he was going to be a father and Rylan was going to be a mother, and Rylan chuckled a bit, but remained composed and explained that he has to be a father, because he's a boy, just like Owen will be a father, too.

Nathan then asked how he has a baby. Rylan told him that he doesn't have the baby, only the mother does.

And as I strained to hear the rest of the explanation, he ended it. And I smiled. 

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

Nathan (4) and Rylan (6) have been playing football all day long. They take turns being different teams. Sometimes they're professional teams, other times college teams.

As I was listening to them play today, I noticed that no matter what team Nathan was, college or pro, he always added in that there were cheerleaders at the game.  But not just any cheerleaders, the Georgia Bulldog cheerleaders.

I thought about this and wondered why they were always Bulldog cheerleaders.  And I realized, that we just got back from Atlanta, where one of the traditions is to watch the Univ. of Georgia vs. Georgia Tech football game.  Nathan watched it with the big boys this year.

So, I imagined that he saw a cheerleader that he really liked during that game.

I asked my husband about it and he said that there was one cheerleader that came on the TV. It was a really close up shot, and Nathan was standing right in front of the TV at the time.  He stopped what he was doing and stared at the TV while she shook her pom-poms and cheered on her team.  His mouth hung open. 

I later asked Nathan why there were always Georgia cheerleaders cheering for him, he just put his head down and tried not to laugh. I asked if he had seen one on the TV that he thought was pretty and he ran out of the room, trying to not crack a smile, but as he ran away I heard him giggling.

Cereal

All the boys in my house who are old enough to have an opinion are huge University of Miami fans.  I am not. (I'm still holding out for Owen.)  As a matter of fact, I'll be happy no matter who UM loses against, just as long as they lose.

Apparently, they are now making and marketing a new cereal at the grocery store down here.  There is a UM cereal and a UF cereal.  Maybe there's more, but they cater to those two teams down here. 

The boys saw this cereal this morning when they were at the store with Daddy.  They reported to me that there is a UM cereal, and they want to buy it.  They also told me there is a Gator's cereal and Nathan said, "I'm going to throw up if I eat that one!"

That kid....

How to Have a Lot of Money

We were driving home from football practice tonight when a brand new shiny silver Mustang pulled up next to us. We were going about the same speed.

Nathan asked, "Which car's faster, Mommy? Our car or that shiny car?"

I didn't even have to answer because Rylan chimed in, "That car, Nathan, because it's one of those cars that has the horse on it."

Nathan then asked, "Do you think we can get a shiny new car like that one?"

I answered, "We could, but then we wouldn't have any money to buy food or anything else." Then I had to explain that those cars are very expensive and we don't have money to buy a brand new car and pay for the other things we need.

Nathan thought about that for a few seconds and asked if that man had a lot of money and we only had a little bit of money.  I replied that we have enough money for the things that we need, because God always provides for us and we never go without the things we need.

Then Nathan said, "Maybe that man eats lunch at home all day and that's why he has a lot of money."

I figured where he was going with this, but asked him why that would make him have a lot of money.

He replied matter-of-factly, "Because if he eats at home, then he saves money."

So there you have it, money saving principles from a 3-year-old!