Chuck E. Cheese, Please.

So, last Tuesday was on Jeremy's birthday, and the only thing this child wanted to do for his party was go to Chuck E. Cheese. Why does he want to go to Chuck E. Cheese, you ask? Well, because PBS early morning cartoons tell him that it is the only place a kid can go 'to be a kid'. Knowing that this stage of childhood only lasts a small window of time, Ammon and I resigned ourselves to an afternoon of crappy pizza and arcade games, figuring this was simply a rite of passage that we could no longer avoid. We were wrong, people. Wrong on so many levels.
First of all, does anybody out there in cyber-land know that you actually have to make reservations for Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday?! I didn't, so if any of you had clued me in on that little tidbit, I'm sure we would have been granted a much more helpful server, and possible even enough chairs to seat everybody, instead of forcing the adults to hover around one end of the table and eat standing up. And without plates. Or drinks. Or napkins, actually. But that's another story.
So, back to the party. Because it was Jeremy's party, we decided to let him choose two friends to invite from church, along with his cousins. Unfortunately, we didn't calculate that with two friends and several cousins, come approximately 73 other people. Of course, we knew these extra parents, siblings, and assorted hangers-on were coming, but we never actually sat down to figure out the sheer volume. I admit, when the waitress asked me how many there were to be seated in our non-reserved table, I fibbed. By about half. So......after dropping $50 on pizza, four drinks, and about a million tokens, we sat back and watched the throbbing crowd around us. It was hysteria, people. Everywhere you looked there were pizza-stained faces, delirious with sugar, crowds, and missed naptime. The birthday boy disappeared into the crowd with his friend, and a cup full of tokens, never to be seen (or heard from) again. After about 30 minutes, the adults were begging for mercy. Even willing to eat the cardboard-like pizza and feed coins into machines, simply to make it all go away. Wisely, I made the decision to bring the cake and presents back to my house. Hysteria confined to my apartment rather than the throbbing, writhing mass of toddler-dom at Chuck E. Cheese? Much better, trust me.

Globe Rider

My time was 2:57. Can you beat it?

http://funschool.kaboose.com/globe-rider/games/game_wheres_that_us_state.html

The Problem with Having a Girl

There are problems. Seriously.















It's called choosing just one photo. I mean, seriously, how could you delete any of these?





Told y'all she had blue eyes.

The Master Suite

Sounds fancy, huh? Alright, here's the dirt: (actually, there's not much dirt. I keep it pretty clean, and I don't think we've technically lived here long enough to make it dirty. Just a funny saying, you know?)

Obviously, this is the bed. The window overlooks our lovely parking, and I made the drapes myself. We have the great luck of living in the center of the building, so the security light is right outside our window. I mean RIGHT outside our window. We didn't sleep for the first four days that we lived here, which is exactly how long it took me to unpack my sewing machine, find a fabric store, and make these extra-thick lined drapes. What a difference a dark room makes to your REM cycle....
This is standing in front of said window, facing into our bathroom. Don't tell me that my wall hanging is crooked, it's already driving me nuts. I'll have you know, after I took this picture and uploaded it onto my computer, I ran right back upstairs to straighten it. Pure laziness that I didn't retake the picture again, but I thought about it. That's just the kind of neurotic that I am. Did I mention the master bathroom? LOVE IT!!

Ta da! We have officially come full circle. This, my friends, is the closet door. The same closet door that I was standing in front of last time I posted.

So, now that you've seen the whole layout, what do you think?

The Upstairs

This is at the top of the stairs. The door on the far right is the boys bathroom. Next to that, the room that is completely dark in this picture is the boys bedroom, and on the left of there is the door to Brooklyn's room. If I went all the way to the top of the stairs and made a right in front of the bathroom, it would take me into our bedroom. More on that later.
This is the bunkbed that the boys got for Christmas as a joint Fellows family gift. They're loving it, and Mom is loving the extra space. I'm standing in the doorway of their room to take this picture.
Now I'm standing in front of their closet, in front of the bookcase you can almost see on the right edge of the above picture. The dresser on the left is Kadon's, and Jeremy's is on the right.
This is Brooklyn's room, right next to the boys room. I'm standing right in the doorway, and can almost get the whole room in. On the other side of the green shelves on the left edge of this picture is her closet, and that's all there is to the room. Pretty small, but it definetely serves the purpose.
This is the end of our bedroom. Looking down the length of the hallway, there is Brooklyn's room, and the dresser you see in our bedroom is Ammon's. Next to me on my left is our closet, it's situated over the stairs, in that empty space. It's pretty large, and I couldn't take a picture of it because it's a mess!

Next: the master bedroom

The Grand Tour

I have been asked repeatedly to take pictures of our new apartment to post on our blog, so this afternoon I went on a photo expidition around our townhouse, and here is the result. If you're like me, and have a completely voyeuristic tendency when it comes to other people's houses, this post will be right up your alley.

I opened our front door and stood on the front porch to get this picture. On the left edge of the picture, you see the banister leading up the stairs. When I looked at the empty townhouse before moving, I mistakingly assumed that the apartment was much smaller, and left some furniture at Russ and Mary's house in order to compensate for the small living space. After being here for several weeks, though, I think the living room is screaming out for the coffee table. Besides, I need somewhere to put my chocolate milk and graham crackers when I decide to have an evening snack in front of the television.
This is the other end of the living room. I'm standing between the bookcase and the sofa you can see in the previous picture. Pretty nice, huh? (Check out that coatrack! Merry Christmas, Mom!)
This is standing in front of the entertainment center, facing the hallway leading to the kitchen. The door on the left is the small bathroom tucked underneath the stairs. Did I mention how much we are loving having multiple toilets?
Ah, the kitchen. Go back up to the previous picture. The corner you can just see, in front of the last set of metal doors? That's where I'm standing. On my left along the wall there is a large window, the back door, and the pantry (behind some more metal doors. Nice, huh?) The towel on the back of the dining room chair is for my kids to deposit their shoes on after they're done playing outside. So far, the only downside I've discovered in living out here is that it.is.always.wet.outside. Always. Makes for very muddy shoes.
Again, I had to open the front door and stand outside to take this picture. This is the staircase that I walk up and down approxamitely 463,000 times a day. Just in round numbers. Can I count that as my exercise for the day?





Tomorrow, the upstairs. I just know you're waiting with baited breath.

Potty Wars

We started potty training Kadon today.

What I mean to say is, I started potty training Kadon today. And not this morning. First, I went to the doctor, stopped at Wal-Mart (and picked up some new undies!), went to McDonalds (to reward the boys for being so patient at the doctors office) then came home and put Kadon down for a nap. But after that, we totally started potty training. Kadon has been wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear since about 3 o'clock this afternoon, and as of 5:40 has only had one accident. I let him go outside, which I knew was a bad call, but it's a freakish 70 degrees today, and I couldn't keep him inside. So sue me.