In order to better market my blog, I decided it was time for an ad campaign... (ha, ha!)
So I visited the advertising slogan generator that I found while I was here. These are my top picks of the slogans it produced:

#6:
LaughterThoughts Wanted.

#5:
Have a Break. Have a LaughterThoughts.

#4:
LaughterThoughts Tested. Mother Approved.

#3:
Time to Make the LaughterThoughts.

#2:
For the LaughterThoughts You Don't Yet Know.

And here are my favorites, sharing the #1 spot:
We’re Serious about LaughterThoughts.
Have a LaughterThoughts and Smile.
The LaughterThoughts that Smiles Back.

What do you think? Let me know!

How about you... What slogans does it generate for you?

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Today was the first day of school! I got this picture as we headed out the door and down the street. (Walking was a bit harder than in the past since one of the wheels on the stroller was a bit flat, but we made it-- and on time.) Blessings #3 and 4 rode in the stroller (#3 was pretty much sleeping because he wasn't feeling well this morning... In fact, he almost puked in front of the school. Fortunately only clear stuff came up, so it was just like spit.), and #5 rode in the kangaroo pack. #1 started first grade, and #2 had her kindergarten assessment to determine which class she'll be in. So, officially, today was not her first day, but on Friday (assessments run through Thursday) she'll be in her class. They are both so happy. When I picked #1 up from school today, she came bouncing out of her class and ran over to me so excited-- she loves her class, her teacher, and even her "hot lunch" she was a little worried about. "Moma, I had a burrito, and I loved it! Mmm-mm, it was so-o tasty!"

Speaking of tasty, while bloghopping the other day, I was visiting Babywearing and stumbled on a recipe (from recipezaar.com) for a copycat Olive Garden minestrone. I really like Olive Garden's minestrone, so I was excited to try this recipe out. I made some modifications and came up with my own version of this tasty soup. If you, too, are a lover of the OG-minestrone, here is my recipe that you can try if you'd like! We had it for lunch, and N said that it tasted better and better with every bite. I asked if that meant it didn't taste good on the first bite, but he said that my soup was like his love for me. He's always loved me, but he just loves me more and more every day. *ahh... sigh* (Good comeback, eh?) Anyways, next recipe project: copycatting Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscano. I've been compiling and modifying different recipes... I'll let you know later if that copycat recipe is a successful venture!***visit here for update***

Speaking of the minestrone... as I was preparing my soup, Blessing #3 decided to make his own soup. He got out my mixing pitcher and measuring spoons and stirred in a lot of goodies-- just like his moma was doing. It was his self-proclaimed "Silly Soup." In fact, he dished us both some for lunch. (That orange monkey added some great zing, I might add!) After a while when he was distracted with something else, I reclaimed my Tupperware for other uses. He wanted to make Silly Soup again tonight, so I gave him an old plastic cookie bowl. He was now making Silly Cookie Soup, he said. Of course, when dinnertime came around, the soup got dumped and in went the mac'n'cheese. That old cookie dough tub became his dinnerware of choice. It was funny, he was happily eating, and he was eating very well... I wasn't going to complain! No need to fight that one, right? I would have had to wash it anyway!

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My headed-to-bed conversation with a 3 year-old boy:

Blessing #3: Moma, I need to go potty.
Monkey Moma: Okay, but let’s hurry up and get back in bed.
B#3: Mom, I tried to go poops, but I couldn’t go. I just went wet-wets.
MM: Oh, did you think you needed to poop?
B#3: Yeah, but not any more. Now I don’t need to. My bottom poop doors are shut.
MM: (suppressing laughter) Your bottom poop doors?
B#3: Yup! You can’t go poops when your bottom poop doors are shut.

(He gets off the potty and starts back towards his bed, then turns around and runs back to get on the potty again.)

B#3: Mom, I’m going poops now! My bottom poop doors are open! Poops push open bottom poop doors... That’s how you go poop, Moma, did you know?! The doors have to open first!”

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I ran across an old, bent-up picture on my dresser this morning, and I couldn’t help but laugh. In fact, I’m still laughing! The picture was one I took several years ago of Blessings 1 & 2. But itty-bitty, down in the corner of the picture, was our dog, inadvertently captured on film.

Zacchaeus is our little shih-tzu. He has a sweet temperament and that super-sweet, smooshy shih-tzu face. But I admit that he does have some quirky little habits. Off the top of my head, here are a few of them…

1.) He furiously scratches the floor as he is turning in circles. Nevermind that he’s scratching the tile floor… I know he’s just getting his bed ready because he eventually curls up and goes to sleep. I say it’s just an instinctual thing like if he was in the wild, but for the most part, the consensus of others (read this as: my husband) is that he might be a little nuts!

2.) He howls… not at the moon or at fire trucks but at the kids. He starts yelping away when the kids are crying too long or when they’re squealing too loudly or when they’re laughing too enthusiastically. (This howling is such a common occurrence that these days, he is even to the point that when he’s starting to holler, he’s also starting out the doggie door. He knows someone will soon be hollering back at him... “TAKE IT OUTSIDE, ZACCHAEUS!”)

3.) He licks the air. He does this quite a bit. I’m not sure what he’s after (maybe good smells?), but it’s a pretty funny sight when he’s just lick-lick-lickin’ away at nothing. Which brings me back to my LaughterThought for today-- Even funnier than his random licking is that my picture actually caught him mid-airlick. This candid shot definitely gives me the grins!

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My 3 year-old has control issues. It’s actually pretty amusing since it’s usually over silly things. But I, the No-Fun & Not-Fair Moma, refuse to let him win. I find it funny because I anticipate what he’s going to say. It’s always over food—cereal, snacks, milk, you-name-it. It doesn’t matter how much I give him to begin with, he’ll always say, “I didn’t want that much.” This translates into: “I want more than you just gave me.” He says he wants it big & wild. I can pour him a bowlful of Cheerios, and he’ll beg for just one more because he didn’t want that much. I tell him that it’s pretty silly to get so worked up over one itty bitty Cheerio. It happens just about every time, and every time I give him the same choice:

1.) You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit, or

2.) I take it away and you don't get it at all.

He always settles on #2 and is quite happy. He might have to sit there and sulk silently for a bit, but he always comes around and eats with a smile… I guess he has to wait just to make sure enough time has passed that his pride isn’t in danger of being hurt!

This evening we were completely out of milk, and so we were having a milk crisis. In our state of milk-emergency, we drove to the gas station to buy some. I figured I’d pay the little bit more for a couple gallons to get us by until we make a Costco or Wal-Mart trip. As soon as we got home, the kids were ready to have some. I poured four cups and divvied them up. Of course, as expected, B says, “I didn’t want that much. May I please have a little bit more?” Impressed by the good manners (but still not willing to lose the battle of Little-Bit-Mores), I took his cup and said “Oh, I’m sorry! Let me see…” I turned around, set the cup down on the counter, picked up the milk jug (the lid still on), set down the milk jug, picked up his cup, turned around and gave it back to him. I hadn’t put any more milk in it, but I guess it looked much better to him. After he got it back, he said, “Now, let me see... Wow!!!” He felt victory. So did I. :-) (I guess it’s all perspective!) Of course, then he thought that blue milk would be nice because it would match his cup. He asked if I’d put in a little bit of those droppy color things. I did not get out the food coloring; he did not get the blue milk. But he also did not even bother trying to fight for it. He was just happy to be drinking all that big & wild milk I had put in his cup.

When it came time to brush his teeth tonight, he called me into the bathroom to help him. He decided we needed to go over some rules before brushing his teeth. (I’m sure it was in an effort to stall bedtime a little.) Getting a very serious look on his face, pointing his finger up into the air, and nodding his head, he said, “Now, Moma, we need to talk about the rules. Please and thank you are the magic rules. These are very important. Now, there are other rules, too. Like there’s also the… toothbrush rule. And the toothpaste rule. And the towel rule. And the sink rule. And the water rule. And the soap rule…” While he’s saying all these very important rules, he’s talking very s-l-o-w-l-y and he’s looking around for what he can mention next. After these were all said, I thought he was done. I was wrong. “Please put down the toothbrush, Moma. We need to talk about the last rule. Now the last rule is… very important. The last rule is… We need to talk about the last rule. It is… the last rule is Don’t spill.” I said, “Okay” and he let me brush his teeth. After he was in bed and I was turning out the light, he reminded me (still nodding his head and still holding up his finger), “Remember Moma. The last rule is ‘Don’t spill.’ It is a very good rule!” I agree, that is definitely a very good rule. Unfortunately it is one that probably gets broken daily at our house!

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We have a little birdhouse and a bird feeder out on the front fence. I don’t think that any birds have ever moved into the birdhouse, but we do get to enjoy watching the birds eat from the feeder. Maybe even more fun is watching the squirrels eat from it. The squirrels will sit up at the feeder and eat (digging around for the good stuff, I’m sure), and the quail run around on the ground under the feeder eating what the squirrels have knocked down. (And while I’m talking about quail, I saw two baby quail yesterday that were the teeny tiniest baby birds I have ever seen. And they were so fast, running behind their moma to cross the street. I have never seen a baby bird run so fast… and it was especially neat because they were so small that I almost didn’t realize they were even there. Their legs were honestly moving like Roadrunner when he’s speeding away from Wile E. Coyote-- you know, spinning in circles!)

Way back towards the end of the school year, I told the kids that I had a fun little project we could do… something I had done when I was in elementary school. We were going to make birdfeeders out of pinecones. We already had the seed, and I was going to buy a cheap jar of peanut butter. But we didn’t have any nice big sprawly pinecones. The ones in our yard are the small, tight ones. So I mentioned this project idea in May, probably. In June we went to church Family Camp up in the mountains, and I brought home seven big beautiful pinecones (one for each of us, of course!). I put them on the shelf in the garage. I just needed peanut butter and free time! Well, last night we all sat out in the driveway and (finally!) made our pinecone feeders. We hung them around the front yard in several places. We put three of them on the blue spruce. The kids were so excited to come home from church this morning and "sneak" up the street to the driveway so we could see if there were any critters munching on the food. No such luck. So tonight we got in the car and started backing out of the driveway, all the while the kids looking so see if they could spy any birds or squirrels. Nothing was out eating on them, but something had been… and it left with one of the pinecones! There at the bottom of the spruce was a lone, dangling string... Must have been one of the squirrelly squirrels!

In the back, the morning glories have totally taken over the little fence that separates the patio from the rest of the yard. They are so thick and are just going crazy. I guess they really love the heat we’ve had. They are in full bloom and are really pretty. Pinks, lavenders, and deep purples. Next year I want to throw in some seeds for those bright blue ones. I think those are cool. And hopefully we’ll have a lot of volunteer vines pop up with all the seeds we should have drop from these vines this year.

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I had some type of strange reaction to something… I don’t know what it was, but if I did know, that information would be nice so I could stay clear of it next time. I woke up yesterday morning feeling so dry and itchy itchy itchy. By noon I was completely covered, head to toe, in a rash… thousands of little red bumps. I’m still itchy itchy itchy.

The antihistimine did not work. It did not take away the itch. I don’t think it even lessened the itch. But it did knock me out, and I slept well last night. (I guess that’s a plus.) Antihistimes make me very dopey, and I was still very groggy this morning, too.

Between the scratching, the sleepiness, and the many times it was pointed out how polkadotty I am, my mind has been pretty consumed with this itch. My skin is so irritated that I think that has spread to my attitude a little. I may be guilty of possibly being a wee bit on the grumpy side the last two days… I could be acting an eensy bit irritable. Or, considering the circumstances, I might actually be acting quite rash-onally.

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Why did the chicken cross the road?

I don’t know, but...

I made pancakes for breakfast this weekend. With N’s work schedule, he was sleeping in later. The kids had already eaten, and I finished cooking all the pancakes. When I got to the end, I took the last of the batter in my pitcher and made one final big pancake for N. Maybe it was partly out of laziness, but I still thought he’d enjoy a large pancake! And since I was surprising N with a big pancake, I figured the surprise would be even sweeter if it wasn’t just a big pancake but a big heart pancake! (Now, if I’d really thought, I’d have made an “I” and “U” also!) I don’t know that it looked too much like a heart, but I do think it looked an awful lot like a chicken! I found this very exciting… in fact, I still do! (I even took pictures... thus, something for me to blog about today.) When N came down, I presented him with his pancake and told him about it. He said, “I guess that looks a little like a chicken.” A little?! I guess?! (I don’t think he was especially impressed with my culinary chicken creation!) But, really, look at it! There is no doubt in my mind that it looks like a chicken. That is most definitely a chicken.

What do you think?

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I made each of the kids an age ticker for the blog, but they took up too much stinkin' room with all five of them on the front page! I figured it would get pretty annoying having to scroll so far to check out my posts. Instead (so my time wasn't completely wasted!), I'm just going to put my cute tickers into this post!!

Meet my monkeys:

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New Things

We went to a new park last night... there were a lot of neat things scattered about for the kids to climb on. These were immediately named by the kids: the cheese, the noodles, the Barney bench,... We had a little peanut butter crackers and cheese sticks picnic, and then they played for a while.

New excitement for T is a snack of Cheerios. He usually requires some help getting them in his mouth, but he does make a good effort at it! It keeps him pretty entertained (and he's getting some practice at that ol' hand-eye coordination!). When he does get one in, he's very happy. This is his "wowzers!" picture:

With this new-found independence, he also decided to take charge this morning at breakfast. While my back was turned, he pulled the cereal bowl closer, took out the spoon, and stuck it in his mouth... all the while splattering cereal everywhere, of course!

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