The Kung Fu Panda Oath.

Let me start this off by saying that I do not like the movie Kung Fu Panda. I watched it with my kids for the first time the other night and, don't get me wrong, it was really funny, I just don't like it. The reason for my dislike of this movie is that I have children with amazing imaginations and they love imaginary play. I never have had to worry about them being glued to the tv, because usually about 10 minutes into any tv show or movie, they have begun acting out whatever they are watching. It's fascinating how elaborate their pretending gets. We just finished reading the second Harry Potter book last night at bedtime and sure enough, first thing this morning, Walker had on a wizard hat (Abby's witch hat from Halloween) and had a dowel from my cake decorating stuff for his magic wand. Abby was Hermione and had an old used pink glow stick to use as her wand (because Hermione is a girl, and girls like pink), and Alyssa was pal-ing around being Ginny Weasley. All this at 7:30 in the morning before school. As soon as they get home, they pick right back up. This evening, we watched Aladdin and so as we were heading to bed, you guessed it, we were acting that one out and flying to bed on magic carpets.
It's always a lot of fun, until my sweet sweet Walker boy comes home from playing at a friend's house trying to "Kung Fu" everything and everybody in sight! Kung Fu is a little out of control without the proper training. So, back when that happened, I banned him from doing Kung Fu. Then, on New Year's Eve we were at a friend's house and the kids got to see part of KFP, and so as we were trying to get kids tucked in bed at 10:30 at night, they were still Kung Fu-ing eachother.
Well, fast forward to last Friday. I decided for Fun Family Friday Night (that's what we invented when we moved to Indiana and couldn't afford babysitting or doing anything that cost money with our kids) while Mark was working late, my four sweet children and I would sit down together and eat pizza and watch KFP together so at least I knew and understood why they all were so excited about the movie.
So, the video attached is a spur of the moment bit of inspiration that I had. I hope you understand that I'm mostly joking about the whole banning the Kung Fu thing in my house. I always have a smile on my face when I tell them no more Kung Fu. I just know that four children ages 7, 5, 3 and 1 flailing their bodies at eachother in "Kung Fu fashion" does not usually end with four smiling children.
In the video, Sadie is saying "cheese" most of the time because I was pointing the camera at her. She is well trained.

Rudolph the red-nosed Green Beans!!!

The holidays were a happy time around our house. More pictures to come. Meanwhile, one day while Mark was working long hours and I was in the middle of sewing 20 nativity costumes (yes, I now have my own set) the kids wanted an activity. We watched Santa Clause 2 and they loved Rudolph in it(I guess he's really not in the movie, but our kids think Chet, the crazy young reindeer is him) and wanted to be him. Walker brought a shatter-proof christmas ball in to me at the dining room table where I was sewing like the wind and asked if I could make it a nose.

Well, sewing scissors are quite sharp, so i just cut a hole in one part of the ball and then poked 2 small holes for threading yarn through and lo and behold, a Rudolph nose! Of course, everybody needed one then. They were entertained for quite awhile. Sadie was a little nervous to actually wear hers, but she needed one. We actually packed them away with our Christmas stuff so we'll have them for next year. BTW, by the end of the season, we were down quite a few ornaments on our tree. Looks like I may need to invest in more shatter-proof balls and maybe start an ornament tradition or something.

New Year, New Me!!!!!

Well, it is the first day of 2009 and I can already check one of my resolutions off the list: learn how to change my blog background. I did it. All by myself. Little old computer challenged me! Anyway, my next resolution is to update with about 5 or more posts. So hold on to your hats and glasses because there is quite a bit that I have not shared on here in the last while. I know for sure that Uncle D reads this quite regularly, so at least he can get excited about maybe something more entertaining than purple Walker. (I don't know what could beat that!) More later once I have fed my fam.