My Day in 10 Pictures

I read an article yesterday about blogging. I went down the rabbit hole and clicked links here and there, and finally landed on a list of blog post challenges.

I accepted one: post about a normal day in 10 pictures. Easy enough.

Except...I only have 7 pictures.* 

70% is still passing. Am I right? 

*Let's be real, I have way more than 7. However, most are duplicate photos. Failed attempts at capturing the unicorn--a shot of all 3 kids looking in the same direction at the same time. 

Also, please note that I did have 8! (80%!) Unfortunately, upon further review of the first picture of the morning (my cubicle), I think there may have been (if you squinted really hard and zoomed in a million percent) something confidential lurking on my desk. As I like having a job (read: money), I refrained from posting. If you've seen Office Space, you've seen my cube (sans the red stapler).

Completely devastated after discovering the
food truck had cancelled, I had a nice lunch of Cheez-Its. 

Thank God It's Friday. The best part of the work day is leaving!
Glad to be home with these cats, enjoying the sun!

El Rio Grande for supper, since I had been
malnourished all day. This Bear loves queso.

Tacos, rice, and beans make Julian a happy boy.

Best buddies.

110 days until Halloween!
Celebrating Friday the 13th in style.

Time for bed + book!

Treats from Spain

This month's Universal Yums included treats from Spain.

Barbacoa snack mix, BBQ potato snack, Ham flavored potato chips,
Caramel white chocolate candies, olive oil cookies, lemon cookie,
chocolate-covered oranges, pistachio toffee, and chocolate with pine nuts.

Everyone's favorite was the barbacoa snack mix!
Made Doug nostalgic for his childhood, and
he rushed to the store to buy corn nuts.

Jonas was not a fan of the chocolate-covered oranges.
Spain does not do a good chocolate orange. This was no Terry's!

Thumbs up to pistachio toffee!

Cool wrapper, but yucky cookie.

Another favorite of the kids! Think caramel
white chocolate M&Ms.

Olive oil cookie sounded weird. Tasted weird.

Ham-flavored potato chips. Mmm. Can't go wrong with ham.

That's a wrap on Spain!

Going Under the Knife

Well, folks, this weekend in Dwarf, Kate's best buddy Tiger went under the knife. Luckily, his surgeon was the greatest seamstress to ever live, Mommaw Alice.

As you can tell from the photo below, poor ole Tiger was a little thin in the neck area. His neck could not support the weight of his head.

Mommaw Alice to the rescue! Just a little slit in the back and add some fluff.

Kate helped stuff him!

Now he's even more squeezable!

Kate's Ghost Friend

Kate has a ghost friend. I don't know if this is Jack (the ghost who hung out in the boys' room), or a new entity. She just refers to him as her "ghost friend."

I'll also tell you that on Sunday night Kate came into my room. The lights were out as I was alone in bed reading (only the light from my tablet was on). Doug was in the basement. She started to get in my bed, but stopped and looking into the darkness said, "Why's he in here?" And I asked, "Who?" And she answered, "That boy over there! What's he doing in here?"

Aaaah...so I promptly hopped out of bed and turned the light on. I asked her if she was talking about Flash Gordon (he was also on the bed). I hoped to everything holy that she was talking about that damn cat.

She just changed the subject and crawled on into bed. Like she wasn't the creepiest child on earth.

Anyway, remember the other day when I posted the picture below on Facebook? Kate on the swing. She had asked me if I would push her ghost friend.

Doug took that picture and adjusted the contrast and brightness to try to see if anything was there. Below are the results. Pay attention to the ladder. Also, please send over a Priest.

A Book by Julian

Kate and the Two Two. By Julian

Kate and the Two Two

One day Kate wanted to dance. And she find a two two.

And a stage. Kate is going up the stage.

Oops! [Author's note: Kate forgot her tutu.] Now Kate is ready.
[She found her tutu.]

Kate is on the stage. [Author's note: She is holding a sign that says, "Kate."]
DONE!

Kate says, "The End!"

Snacks from Poland!

When I got home from work today, there were 3 wild children anxiously waiting on me. A new Universal Yums box arrived and they could hardly wait to tear into it. I couldn't bare to make them wait until after dinner, so we promptly opened the box and dug in!

This month's treats were from beautiful POLAND.

Jules checking out some Poland trivia. Did you know that
 in Poland they put ketchup on their pizza?

Poland's treats: Tapsy cheese and onion chips (the kids' favorite; Jonas and Kate got into a fist fight over them), Walwel Milkizz, Krowki milky cream fudge (almost made Jonas barf), Soleo caramel pretzels, Dobosz chocolate plum (naaasty), Aksam peanuts with paprika (my favorite), and Raczki lobster tails (almost made me barf).

Those paprika peanuts were delicious, man.

Seriously, though. Wonder if I can order them from amazon...

Kate giving a thumbs up to those cheese and onion
chips. Pictured right before she punched Jonas for trying to eat one.

Cute little Jonas showing off the fancy wrapping for
the chocolate-covered plum. No offense, Poland, but this gal
is sticking with chocolate-covered cherries.

Kate and Tiger

Tiger has been with Kate for nearly all of her life. She got him for her first Christmas from Aunt Boomer in 2014. This is the first picture of the dynamic duo, taken in August 2015. (Yeah, it's August and she is already sporting Halloween jammies. You know how we do.)

August 2015. 

Their bond first developed on vacation of 2015. Here they are snuggling in Charleston. They've not been a night without each other ever since!

September 2015.

Here they are on the road to Charleston a year later in 2016. Snacking on some Doritos and dressed as Chase.

September 2016.

One night, we couldn't find Tiger and all hell broke loose. So, being the smart parents we are, we immediately went out and purchased an identical Tiger! Ha ha! She would never know the difference and it would save our nerves the next time Tiger was misplaced...WRONG!!! New Tiger was rejected. She only has room in her heart for her Tiger.

Summer 2017.  Tiger is comforting our little Kate
while she is at the clinic for a quick check.

Tiger has been through it all, and though he is not yet 4 years old, the dude is starting to show his age. This morning when we got him out of the washer, he had a big boo-boo!

Concerned Kate.

Luckily, Raykul saved the day! She stitched our dear friend back together. Kate held his paw through the whole ordeal.

Kate and Rachel doctoring up Tiger.

Happy Little Monster tucked in tight with her best buddy. 

Nighty night.

Shushi

Tonight after the boys got their hair cut, we visited Hong Kong [Super Buffet]. After walking into the lobby, observing the gated fountain with Big Bird standing in front, Julian paused and  exclaimed, "This place is AAAH-MAAA-ZZIIINGGG!!!"

Getting excited to go make their plates.

Adventurous is his middle name.

"This shushi is delicious!"

"I just want cake because I love cake."

They're already planning our next outing. Julian thinks we should go to Buca di Beppo, "It's in Italy and we went there for Thanksgiving. I got a meatball as big as my head!"

Snacks from Greece

To say the boys are obsessed with geography is an understatement. Their recitation of countries and states and capitals of countries and states gives me severe flashbacks of Mr. McGuire's AP History Class.

At any rate, their love for the world inspired me to sign them up for Universal Yums. A little package will arrive once a month with trivia and snacks from around the world.

Tonight, they received their first box. Snacks from Greece.

The boys tried every single snack from the box (maybe if I told them their dinner was from another country, they'd try everything on their plates). After the first taste of something "yucky," Kate bailed. She no longer trusted the snack box and stuck to drinking her "milky milk." The biggest hit was Oregano Pijarn chips. They killed the bag! Runner-up was apple-lime gummies!

They also got to read about hobgoblins. However, when asked who they'd rather have around at Christmas, they all still prefer Santa.

Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip

A girl orders black raspberry chocolate chip. She gets the sample spoon because it is "so cute and teeny tiny." She digs in with great fervor.

She can hardly stand the wait from cup to mouth. She's got that crazy look in her eyes.

Be thankful you are not black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream. No mercy is shown.

 "Well, that will give me nightmares." - The girl's dad.