Christmas Baking

We did some cut-out cookies this morning.  I said to Alice, "HEY!  You wanna help me bake some cookies?"  Oh yes.  She did.  "Yes!  Cookies!  Alice eat cookies!  Alice help!  Alice roll!"  The guys are much more go-with-the-flow when it comes to helping out.  They sort of fade in and out and do what they feel like, while chanting COOKIE! COOKIE!  Not so much like Cookie Monster, more like Animal from the Muppets.  The girls tend to want to be right there the whole time and stick their noses in every part of the process.

So we had a big discussion about keeping fingers out of mouths while we work with cookies.  I knew that would be my biggest challenge.  Several of my friends very seldom have an empty mouth.  And it was true.  We washed hands at least five times during this.  Quite an ordeal.

I did each child's initial, and then some assorted shapes.  B!  B for Alice!  Well no.  That's not B, and your name doesn't start with B.  But A for effort!  All the kids know some letters, and some can sing the ABC song, but it's still a crapshoot about whether they'll call the right one at the right time.

 So Alice helped.  Alice rolled.

 Alice pressed.

 And then Mater rolled.

 Mater chose cutters.

 Remy rolled.

And Alice cried piteously at my betrayal.  After all, I asked HER to help bake.  The boys weren't even in the kitchen at the time.  This was our special thing and we were going steady and how DARE I let those stinky boys have a turn.

And then we washed hands again.

And rolled and pressed more cookies.  Stars.  "Star!  Alice eat the star."  Well, maybe you can give this one to your mama!  "Oh!  Mama eat the star!  Mama bite.  Mama eat.  Star for mama."

I let them eat the tiny bits that I cut out of the middles of the letters- the A and B and P and all those.  They're annoyed that's all they get right now, but hey!  Cookies for families!

Merry Christmas.  I love and appreciate all my families so much.

The New Normal

So it's just me again, the way it used to be, except it's totally different now that I've had Kanga here so long.  I miss her, for so many reasons.  The companionship, the humor, the shoulder, and oh my, the cleaning.  :)  Having her leave right at the time Merryweather started has been extra challenging because I'm getting used to having a newborn again with less help all at once.  It's not overwhelming in terms of the kids- six is not a problem for me.  But the toddler and infant schedules tag team each other and most days there is very little time for straightening up.  Things are not neat and tidy at 5:30, and I'm a lot more tired at the end of the day and hate to face my kitchen for dinner when it's messy. 

And there are less crafts.  I like doing crafts.  I miss doing them with the kids, especially at holiday time when I feel like I should be sending home reindeer and snow and fun treaty goodness.  But we're cooking a lot- they're helping me with meals a lot more since there's not a second person to keep them busy in the playroom.  It's a lot of fun to answer questions and tell them all about our food.  I'm sitting on the floor in the playroom a lot and just talking with them, and singing, and building blocks and reading books and what color is this and what letter is that and what sound does it make and and and....  we're definitely having fun.  I'm still figuring what things to switch around to make it work more smoothly, and I expect to be back in the craft groove soon.  Hopefully Merryweather's schedule will be a bit more consistent at that point too.  Right now she does whatever she likes- you get to do that when you're two months old.  Not knowing when she might be awake or hungry changes our schedule daily, but it's all good. 

 O'Malley is crazy in love with her.  He's about the same age now that Duchess was when big sister Aurora was here, so it's funny to have this relationship again- one of my kids and one of the Sleeping Beauty clan.   He was beyond proud when I let him feed her for a minute the other day.

Then she farted.  And not only did it shake the couch, the stench would make you flee the county.

 So he's yelling, "MAMA!!!  Come get Merryweather!  She tooted and it is SO STINKY!!"

I was right there, of course, but I was laughing too hard to rescue him immediately.

I was telling my hubby one day last week that I needed something exciting and somewhat physical to do with them since we're not venturing outdoors these days with a tiny one.  He reminded me that we own a parachute.  OH YEAH!  I completely forgot about it.  They had such a good time.  Alice especially loves it.  We sing songs and shake and push and pull.  

 Of course they kept wanting to sit on it and hide under it too, which is fun.  We also bounced balls on it, and worked lots on the gross motor skills with holding the handles and how much to move your arms to make it do different things.  Remy was funny- he kept wanting to wear the handles around his wrists like bracelets and then they would slide right off as soon as the others started to shake.  I couldn't get a picture because it was happening so fast.

 Merryweather approved.  She's just starting to give me regular smiles.  LOVE that I caught one.

Alice and Lady are starting to be excited about clips and bows.  Alice calls them "hair pretties", which is a term that we've all appropriated very quickly.  This morning she was quite pleased with her purple sparkly flower, and I dug one out of Lady's box for her to wear too.  Consequently, Mater hit the floor in a full body tantrum.  The man needed a hair pretty.  He wasn't buying the argument that most boys don't wear them, so I found him one too.  I figure it won't kill him.  A pink hair clippie is good for improving the soul of every boy, right?

And then all was right with his world, and the three of them chatted and patted each other's heads and praised their loveliness.  He wore it about ten minutes and then it disappeared.  I still haven't seen it.  I'm putting my money on the couch cushions. 

Schedule Recap

While I'm thinking of it, here's the plan for the holiday:

Closed Monday and Tuesday, December 24-25.

Open the rest of that week, December 26-28.

Closed the entire next week, December 31- January 4.

Monday January 7 my flight gets in at 10:40 am.  Either my hubby or Mrs. Potts (Chip and Belle's mom, our regular sub) will be covering the morning til I arrive.  I was planning on having that be a Kanga morning, but obviously now I'm making other arrangements.  :)  Didn't want to have to close yet another day on top of the week prior.

File Under: Best Thing I've Heard All Day

So Kanga called me today on her way home from work.  It's very weird to even say that.  Day one went well- she likes her coworkers, got to go out to lunch, and didn't change even one poopy diaper.  (Very different from my day!  Although I do enjoy the people I work for.  :)  ) 

She worked in the filing room this afternoon, getting acquainted with some of the clients and whatnot.  She said at one point she just felt everyone stop working, and looked up to find everyone staring at her.

*the first thing I thought was OH NO!  I was kidding when I said that about passing gas in your next job!!!*

And a nice man leaned over and said, "Did you know you're singing while you work?"

Well, no.  She didn't realize that.  And what was she singing?  "There's a party in my tummy!  So yummy!  So yummy!"

complete with head movements.

my work here is done.

Thankfully she does great work even with a party in her tummy.  Bring on day two!!

Changes at the 100 Acres....

Hey everyone!  It's Kanga here.  I've often thought about posting insights or ideas under "Kanga's Korner" for the past three years but for one reason or another, never got around to it.  I think it has to do with the fact that my partner in poopy crime is a fabulous blogger.  She's so insightful and hysterically funny...I knew I would not do better.  It's one of her many strengths.  She is awesome; I love her like my sister. 

To say the last three years have flown by is an understatement.  My first day here was a whirlwind.  I was married with a seven month old daughter, I learned so much just that first day.  And the lessons never ceased.  This place became my home away from home.  I made a lifelong friend with K.  As most of you know, we went to high school together but we really didn't hang out together other than being at choir events together.  Through FaceBook, gotta love that, we reconnected and she offered me a job as my employment search yielded no leads.  To say that this job became more than I ever imagined is another understatement.  This was where I found out I was pregnant with Tigger, where I came after Roo was diagnosed with spastic diplegia (a form of cerebral palsy), where I watched her almost miraculous progress with the ladies of ECI, where I felt safe while going through a divorce and where I have rediscovered who I am.  Not to mention, I learned to be a better parent, remembered how precious childhood is and discovered how strong the bonds of parenthood are.  Nothing like finding the humor in poopy diapers, lack of sleep, mounds of laundry, feeding picky eaters or getting through "terrible twos" tantrums to validate the amazing craziness of parenthood.  What started as working as an assistant at an at-home daycare became an indescribable journey that I treasure and hold so dear.  I've had such an amazing time with all the families that have shown us extraordinary trust with their little ones.

Speaking of families, I have had the immense pleasure of meeting some incredible families who have honored me by placing the care of their children with us.  I thought I knew what that meant but realized more so how precious that is when I began the progress of finding daycare for Roo and Tigger.  I cannot thank you enough for the trust you have placed in me as I now truly understand what that entails.  All you want is to find someone to love your kids as much as you do and the bonus of that person to help teach them the little lessons they will no doubt need as they face life's situations as young, productive citizens of this world.  I hope you know how much I have enjoyed spending time with your little ones and watching them grow.  It was truly a privilege and I'd like to think that I've contributed in some small way to their childhood.  It's been fascinating to see the progress of those who have moved on and I will be checking in with K on those still here.  They are in amazing hands. 

I think of K as Mother Earth.  She was meant to be a mother, is incredible with the kids and just has the perfect mixture of loving counselor and supportive teacher.  I've learned so much from her about being a mom, I call her my guru.  It should come as no surprise that I have patterned a lot of my parenting style from her, it still makes me smile how much I sound like her when talking to the kids and every now and then, I hear my branded sayings spoken in her voice. I could go on and on about her but that will only embarrass her.  She is such a life force, I will never be able to tell her how much she means to me and how much I have leaned on her.  No matter the situation, she has been the shoulder I needed to cry, vent or laugh on.  I will miss our daily rants about anything and everything.  I will miss her immensely.  I will also miss her kids.  I love Duchess and O'Malley like they are my own.  They are such exceptional forces of nature.  Duchess has her mother's love and touch with the little ones and O'Malley has great wonder and affection for babies.  I hope Roo and Tigger turn out like them, even if just a bit as then I will know that I have done a good job.  

As I leave, I have two strong emotions.  I am sad.  I don't want to go.  I will miss seeing these bright, funny, lovable balls of energy.  I love being able to sing and dance while laughing at the hilarious and often brutal honesty of the children I have come to love and enjoy spending time with.  I will miss the hugs and kisses I get from everyone.  Hugs will always make everything better and unconditional love is such an extraordinary gift from children.  I will absolutely miss being with my Tigger everyday.  I have been able to spend the first (almost) three years of his life with him everyday.  It has been time well spent.  Roo has moved on, there are days she doesn't ask about me until she sees me after I get home but I will miss getting her ready for the bus every morning. 

But being who I am, I am also hopeful.  I am excited, nervous, anxious and yes, hopeful about my next career move.  I hope to be able to make a difference.  I know that I have changed from my time being here.  I am a result of all the lessons I have learned along the way and the friendships I have been blessed with. 

Thank you Giant Steps families, from the bottom of my heart.  I will never be able to fully express the impact you have had on me and my children.  I'd like to think that I am a better mother, daughter, friend and person in general because of the phenomenal three and a half years here. 

Much love, joy and gratitude,

Kanga

Friday Focus: Kanga

Around the start of 2009 I began looking for help.  Basically I had two reasons- a) it can get a little lonely only talking to toddlers all day and b) I was only getting infant calls.  I LOVE infants and love starting when they're so little and I can watch them grow up.  However, the type of license I have is weird- I can keep 10 kids all alone if they're over 18 months.  If I have more than two infants, the total I can keep drops to five, and that includes my two school age kids.  It makes no sense.  But with a second adult here, I could keep up to 12 of any age.  I thought about just switching license types, but my rep recommended I hire help instead.


It only makes sense to hire the most capable help you can find, right?  With no previous child care experience, she still became a pro wicked fast.  It's what makes her good at everything she tries- she gives it all she's got.  Love her.

I went to high school with Kanga, and so through Facebook I kept up with her pregnancy with Roo, her layoff from work, Roo's birth, and her subsequent job hunt.  It seemed to be a perfect match to have her come work with me- she got to be with Roo and oversee her therapy, I got some help so I could keep more babies, and we got to reconnect and have fun every day.  Then Tigger came along and we've all been a big happy family for almost four years.  I've loved it.



She loves it too.  And she humors my kids and lets them take her picture long after I'm saying, "stop that!  go away!  no more pictures!"

There are so many great things about this job.  One of the big downsides of being your own boss is the healthcare situation.  Obviously I can't offer it to Kanga.  Her needs have changed, and so today is her last day with me.  She's going back to the corporate world because she needs those benefits.  I'm happy for her because she gets them.  This will make her life easier and less stressful.  I'm sad because I'm losing my daily buddy.  I can do this job alone.  I did for four years before she came along, and it's still a fun gig.  But I will miss her and her babies so very much, and so will the other kids. I know Alice will be asking for her every day for weeks.

She's gotten to spend some awesome quality time with her kids in their formative years, and help shape many others too.  She's brought Thai culture and Songkran festivals into my house.  She cooks and cleans, she sings and dances.  We talk each other off the ledge and enjoy the good times.  Every Friday is a celebration of another great week.  She's become more important to me than I ever imagined when I said, "hey, why don't you bring your daughter and come work with me?"  Her kids call me auntie.

Eat some.  Quit making that face.  It's good, I promise.

And here we go.  It's time to take that ride.  What are you waiting for?

And now I'm very sad.  Good luck, my fabulous, awesome partner in crime and poop.  We will miss you lots, but I know you're going to kick butt and take names no matter where you go or what you do.

And just so you know- it'll be less acceptable to pass gas in the next job.  On the other hand, they're much less likely to call you out publicly if you do it.  I'm not sure if that's a plus or a minus.  Just some friendly advice so you're laughing at the end of the post.  :)  Love you, friend!!

Feast Preparations

I had such a good time with the kids yesterday, getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast today.  Alice, Lady, and Mater got to be the big kids for the first time and they SO enjoyed it.  It took all morning to do just a couple things, but I really loved having them help. 

The first thing we did was wash the potatoes.  Everybody wanted a turn with the stool and the water.  Very exciting.

 Mater takes his job seriously.

 All nice and clean.

 And into the pot they go.

Once we had them cooking, the next task was to smash gluten free graham crackers so we could make our pie crust.  I put them in a bag and told Alice to jump on them.

 I'm sorry, you want me to do WHAT?

 Clearly you have lost your mind- we don't jump on food.

Mater had no such concerns.  He leaped in with both feet.

 Then Lady decided it was okay so the two of them jumped.

 Alice is still not really sure why I'm asking them to break the food.  It just doesn't seem right to her.

After the crust was done, we started in with the apples for the filling.  None of them could really get the hang of turning the corer, but the girls both wanted a turn up close to it to watch.  Mater got bored of cooking and went to play trains.  I think he was pleased to have the playroom to himself for awhile. 

Then we sauteed the apples with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  They were thrilled to be able to actually stir real food on the real stove.  And nobody got burned, which is especially nice in my opinion.  :)

Later on after the potatoes were done, I mixed them and then had beaters of mashed potatoes up for grabs.  I offered one to Lady.  I'm pretty sure she was expecting frosting.  Potatoes throw your wheels off real bad when you want frosting, it turns out.

 She told me very seriously, "NO.  Don't like it."

And then after that nobody else would even try it.  They ran from the beaters like I was offering poison.

 Remy doesn't usually talk to me, but he yelled NO! at me today.

And Perdita barely licked it and then scurried backwards with her mouth open, wishing she could scrape her tongue.  She looks like she's happy here, but really she's drooling and trying not to taste the potatoes in her mouth.

Silly children.  Mashed potatoes are so good!

Last night I made jello salad, there's pumpkin pie in the oven now, and we'll have the rest of the sides done by noon.  Excited to see everyone!!

Friday Focus: Roo

I think this may be the last post I do on Roo.  She's old.  :)  I haven't done one on Duchess or O'Malley in a really long time- they're off at school and they like their privacy.  MOM! You're not going to blog that are you?  Definitely don't put it on Facebook!!  And Roo is starting to be the same.  She's off at school every morning, and is busy hanging out with her Kunyai many afternoons.  I think she was only here 8 afternoons the whole month of October.  It's Thursday and I haven't seen her yet so far this week.

Roo turned four a few months back and is very much following the pattern I remember of four year old girls from Duchess and Belle.  For the most part, she's inquisitive, helpful, funny, and TALKATIVE.  And then she throws in such utter sass and disrespect that you want to find a large stick to whack her with.  And did I mention she never stops talking?  Never.  There are no secrets with this one.  Talking to her is so much fun though, and she's able to carry on real conversations with insight and witty remarks.  Plus she's in the "actually" stage, which is always a bonus in my book.  And she taps her chin with one finger and says, "I think..." before a lot of her sentences.  "I think... we have noodles and meatballs for dinner, mama."

Kanga went to parent conferences at school a few weeks ago and some of the anecdotes she heard are hilarious.  In the mornings, the kids all meet in the cafeteria to eat breakfast and hang out, and then when the bell rings they walk to class.  Teacher said that Roo wheels herself down the hall very slowly because she loves to be the last one into the classroom.  She stops in the doorway and yells, "Good morning everybody!  I'm HERE!!!"  Every.Single.Morning.  :) 

I don't get to see a lot of her therapy progress anymore, since it's all at school and the ECI ladies don't come to my house.  I hear she's getting really fast with her wheelchair though, and also walking the length of long hallways with her walker.  Here she's still our slithery snake.  She must have wicked upper body strength by now.  She's super fast at the commando crawl.  She'll go up on all fours and crawl if you ask her to, but it makes her tired a lot quicker and she prefers the slither.  Downside to this approach is losing your pants.  She still leaves them behind a majority of the time.  She's very slender and it's hard for Kanga to find pants that fit around the middle anyway, and then dragging her lower half on the floor like she does- off they go.  SO many times she comes into the kitchen and I say, "ROO!  Where are your pants?"  And sometimes she'll say, "They in the playroom.  Can you go get them?"  And if we suggest that she should be the one to get them?  "Oh actually?  I can't.  Because I have no pants!"  Circular logic if I've ever heard it, but it works for her.

This picture makes me laugh out loud and go "Riiiiiiii-cola" every single time I look at it.  She made herself hysterical blasting crazy noises into that pool noodle.


Kanga and Tigger were busy the day of Aurora's birthday party and so I took Roo with me when I took my kids.  It was SO much fun to get to have her out and about.  It was at a tea room and they got to dress up and have tea and then did a parade around the square outside.  She had a blast!

 Wings and a crown!

 Do you take one lump or two?

Duchess and Roo, making their way around the square.  O'Malley's along for the ride but not super excited about being the only boy at a tea party, even if he is the prince. 

Recent Funny Things

• I drink a lot of diet coke most days.  Sometimes I burp.  Usually I blame it on my kids.  When they aren't around I try to restrain it but the other day a big one surprised me.  So I blamed it on Girl Friday.  "GF!?  Did you burp?"  She looked at me with a look I've sometimes seen on my husband's face when I ask him something stupid like do these pants make me look fat, the look that acknowledges there is no right answer to this question.  Polite girl has obviously been taught not to contradict her teacher, but she knows she didn't do it.  Mental quandary.  Finally she tells me, "Yes.  I did.  BUT YOU DID TOO!!!"
• During our ABC work we talked about the letter that Hercules's last name starts with.  I mentioned it, and he was correcting me with the initial of his first name, so we talked through how he has several names and they start with different letters.  Then he tells me triumphantly, "Yes!  I am Hercules Middle Name Last Name, and I live in my car!!"
• I was standing at the counter making breakfast and I see this little hand sneaking up to grab something.  I thought it was Lady because she had been standing behind me just a second ago, so I said, "Lady, what are you doing?"  And then this little pat on my bum, and Alice says in a tiny sweet voice, "Hi.  Alice."  Love the correction.  So gentle.
• We had a lively discussion about wings, and how boys and girls do not have wings, but bats do, and birds.  Girl Friday told me, "I DO have wings!  I fly!"  And I said, "you do?  That's so silly!  Where do you keep your wings?"  And she tells me, "on the airplane!"
• We sometimes refer to Perdita as Smalls, because a) she is, and it's funny to see how nimble she is at such a tiny size, and b) her monkey-climbing tactics lead us to say "you're killing me, smalls!"  The other day she took something from Tigger and ran, and he yelled "you're killing me, smalls" at her. 
• Roo was talking about wanting to buy something and Kanga asked her if she had any money.  "Yes," says, "in your wallet!"
• I put the picture right before this one on facebook, where Remy was completely full of oatmeal and needed serious grooming.  In the comments we discussed his need to return to factory settings.  I got him pretty clean, all things considered, but I had to take this picture during the process because it made me laugh a lot.

Fresh Pink Baby

I am so excited!  Aurora's baby sister was born yesterday.  I know her mama will disagree, of course, but I am hoping the next six weeks fly by so I can get my hands on this girl!  Isn't she GREAT?

And it's so like mama to have the bows and fancy hats around her even in the hospital bed.  Fashionable girls, this family has!!  :)

So, in keeping with the Disney rules I've created for myself, she needs to be from Sleeping Beauty.  Obviously not Maleficent!!  I can't remember the queen's name- King Stefan, Prince Philip, and ... the queen.  Do they ever say her name?  Anyway, I'm thinking Flora, Fauna, or Merryweather.  I'm leaning toward Merryweather, partly because I like the name best, and partly because the personality is cutest.  And with a big sister like Aurora, I can see moments like this in her future:

Fashion designer mama would never say such things, but I bet big sister picks up plenty sewing tricks!

Can't wait to meet you sweet girl!!

Dumb, Yet Great

My favorite five minutes of today happened late this afternoon.  I had just finished reading The Big Red Barn and was lying on the playroom floor.  Alice came and sat on top of my back and so I was playing horsie with her around the room.  Tigger then went and sat on Kanga the same way and suddenly I turned around and we were right in front of each other.  She laughed and said it felt like playing chicken in the pool.  Alice and Tigger were both laughing hysterically and I started yelling lines from Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.  "Two man enter, one man leave!  Who runs Barter Town?"

It was so silly.  And yet we all had such a good time.

Friday Focus: Girl Friday

I don't think I've ever done a post on our Girl Friday.  I have a tag for that name and it was actually talking about another little girl we took care of a few years back, in the exact same situation.  My home church does MDO and preschool four days a week, off on Fridays.  So every now and then we'll have somebody who wants to come only Friday because school is closed.  Our current Girl Friday started at the beginning of the year and then was off for the summer, so she's just started back with us a couple weeks ago.

She is quite fetching.  Even wet from Songkran.

I don't actually have very many pictures of her that are any kind of recent, so I borrowed this one off her momma's facebook page.  Isn't she a doll baby?

She's lots of fun.  If you ask her what her favorite thing is to do at my house, she'll tell you the broom.  "I love to sweep!"  And it's true, she does.  It's funny to me, but she does love it.  We have a little housekeeping bucket with whisk brooms and dustpans and irons and all that.  She'll make a beeline for the brooms and dustpans.  The yellow one is her particular favorite, but she'll make do with the red and blue if need be.  Intent on keeping us clean and safe.

She's also EXTREMELY articulate.  She just turned two in July and she's been speaking in complete sentences for months.  She knows her ABCs, all 50 states, and has a huge repertoire of songs.  The other day she was singing "someone's in the kitchen with Dinah"... I went in to get her up from her nap because I could hear a rousing chorus with many verses.  I think it surprised her that I know that song too.

She likes my cooking too.  I dig that.  I'm all about food = love and it makes me happy when the kids like what I make.  So many of them go through crazy picky stages that it's nice to have someone compliment the chef.  She's usually good for three helpings of most anything.  "Oh!  Brown rice!  I love this food!  More green beans please?"  Such a polite girlie.

Yes, Please!!

I know I've said before that I want to be Mary P when I grow up.  I just love her daycare blog.  She's so practical and does SO. MANY. good things with her kiddos.  I'm all for this- it's a huge pet peeve of mine as well!  I can't count how many times Kanga and I have cheerfully said, "Oh, you're thirsty?  I'm Kanga. Nice to meet you!"  Polite people ask for things they need, rather than simply stating their issues and standing there repeating them in a whiny voice until someone fixes the problem without even being asked.  It's a lesson that's so much easier to learn when you're two or three than in school or your first job.

So, go read this!  So good!

Baby Bunny

Two posts in one day, it's miraculous!

I am posting this baby bunny video for Alice's mom, who is likely to going to wonder this evening why Alice will NOT stop talking about bunny!  hops!  bunny!  hops!!

Piggies!

No matter who we've got, the kids always love to make headbands.  It's one of my favorite days of any curriculum when we get to break out the stapler and the long strips of paper and color some hats.  They're so much fun to watch.

Today we did piggy headbands.  "In the big red barn, by the great green field, there was a PINK PIG!  who was learning to squeal..."  they know oink for the pig, and now they know squeal too, which is really cute.  Most of them will always oink when you ask what the piggy says, but if you quote the book and leave a blank, they'll all squeeeeeeal.  Love it.

Remy did more of his own work today, which means it's not very colored and is ripped in four places.  His first grade sisters busted me on doing his woolly lamb for him the other day.  :)

This was the ten seconds he wore the hat.  I had to hold his hand while Kanga took the picture to get him to keep it on for even that long.

Then it was a necklace for awhile until he ripped it off the rest of the way.

Hercules and Tigger were very excited about coloring and stapling and wearing it properly.  There was re-stapling when it wasn't "just so".  When they were finished wearing it, they had a discussion about where it should be put.  "I done wearing piggy hat.  I take it off.  I keep it safe."

Yes, I still need to have another garage sale.  Ignore the background junk.  Hopefully it will be gone soon.  He's talking to Kanga here- "Mama!  I piggy!"

 I love the satisfied look here.  I have a feeling he'll still make this face as an adult, after successfully brokering some big money deal.  See me?  I rock.

And of course Mr. Hercules, always excited to have his picture taken.

Alice and Perdita were more excited about sitting at the table and coloring than they were about the actual finished product.  Alice was happy to wear her hat for awhile though.  Perdita was the Amazing Dancing Piggy, big surprise, and kept pushing it up on top of her head and messing with it so it was hard to get a shot.

This is the only good one we got, and it's because she thought we were still taking pictures of Remy.  When we were calling her name to get her to look, she laughed and ran and jumped and yanked the piggy off her head.

 I am taking my job as piggy hat wearer very seriously.  This is a job which must be done right and requires my thought and attention.

However, I will bet money that she'll wear it at the dinner table tonight.

Mater liked this activity much more, as we have established that he is not a fan of glue.  He was pretty laid back through the whole thing, wore his hat for awhile, and then pitched it away.  We had trouble getting a picture because he kept wanting to get behind the camera and see the picture before it was even taken.  verycloseupshots there.