Drawing Inspiration From Real Life

One day this past school year, I caught Colson playing Minecraft when he should have been doing schoolwork. I threatened to delete the game from his computer.

Later that day he took an English test. He had to make up sentences for one part.

Dancin' Mosleys

The videos from dress rehearsal for my kids' dance recital. My husband has the videos from the actual performance, hopefully he posts them soon...When finding a Mosley in a dance video, look in the back. Tall kids are always in the back. That's why we love solos.

 

Ava's Egyptian ballet routine. Zach says, "Are they supposed to be the Israelites??"




Ava's Hairspray jazz routine. After which Colson says to her, because 8 months of hip hop has apparently made him a jazz expert, "Ava, I saw one little problem in your jazz routine. You weren't shimmying as much as the other girls. I could tell because the strings on your dress weren't moving as much as theirs". But those of you who know my introverted Ava know that what she's doing in this video is akin to her having an epileptic seizure.




And Colson's Michael Jackson tribute hip hop routine. He comes in from the right side in the beginning, he's the one without the glove. Because he lost his. Shocking. Ava was irritated because this routine got all the applause. I had to explain to her that when 37 out of 38 routines are all girls, that one routine with all boys is going to get the crowd going. Plus any routine featuring Michael Jackson moves is going to get applause. I said even if all the boys fell on their faces the audience would applaud loudest for them. It's like a routine filled with babies and puppies.


We asked Zachary if he wanted to be in the dance recital next year. He said, "I think I'm more of a sports guy than a dance guy...."

They Need Stunting

Colson and Ava, 10 and 9. Whatever are they going to look like at 17 and 16?

I'll Show You...

Zachary got in trouble the other day, Colson told on him and then Eric punished him. Well, Zachary got so mad at them both that he ran up to his room and slammed his door. A few minutes later he came back out, stormed downstairs, grabbed some paper and a crayon, wrote something furiously, then took the paper back upstairs.

I guess he couldn't find any tape to attach the sign to his door in the usual way. 

Three exclamation points and a mad face. He wasn't kidding around...

The Face That Launch'd A Thousand Ships

 Colson, circa 2003.  

Express Yourself

Art day yesterday; each child's favorite project:

 Colson's african mask

 Ava's sculpture of a person holding things

 Zach's portrait of Ava sitting in a chair

Is It Real, Or Is It Colson

Colson likes to make up words that don't exist. He always has. I know that's not unique, for a child to make up words, but there are two reasons why Colson's habit is different.

One, his words sound like they should be real words. To the point that even I have to take a second and say to myself, "Oh wait, that's not a real word..."

Two, he uses them with such confidence and ease it confuses you into believing the word is real. They flow off of his tongue as if he's heard and said them all his life. That's a gift he inherited from his daddy.

Here are two examples of these words Cole uses, and how he used them in a sentence. There are so many more, but I always forget them.

Instantarily:

"The pirate instantarily changed forms and became the Evil Doctor of Doom."

Mysterical:

"I have a mysterical power that lets me know when anyone around me isn't telling the truth."


Tell me those words don't sound real......

Colson's Minecraft Adventures

Colson is obsessed with Minecraft. I bought him the game for his birthday, after he'd been talking about it for months. He talked about it so much that every time Ava heard the word "Minecraft" come out of his mouth, she'd slap herself in the forehead.

He's been watching these videos on YouTube that are about a family who plays Minecraft together. They talk through what they're doing. Here's one of them:




Well, I got Colson a video camera for Christmas. He decided he wanted to start making his own Minecraft videos. This is his first one. He's made changes to the format since this one, but he wanted to still keep them in order. Zach and Ava add commentary throughout. All 3 kids are talking about becoming "famous on YouTube".

Not A Namesake, But A Facesake

So Zach looks just like Eric, Ava looks just like me, but who does Colson look like? Sure, he's got some Eric traits and some Suzanne traits, but who does he look the most like? Here's your answer: MY MOTHER! I mean, the likeness is astounding...he's got deeper set eyes and downturned eyebrows, like Eric, but otherwise he's my mother reincarnated.

You Sunk My Battleship!

It's Andrew and Suzanne, all over again..........

Stupidest Christmas Tree

Last year around Christmas I went into Wawa to grab something. While I was in there I heard the most annoying Christmas song playing over the loudspeakers. I got back in the car with the kids muttering about the annoying song. They asked me what it was, and made me sing it to them. They laughed so hard at the song that I went on to iTunes on my phone and downloaded the song for them.

It has now become their favorite Christmas song of all time. So I give you Nat King Cole's Happiest Christmas Tree. You'll be bashing yourself in the head with a hammer in 8 hours when you can't get it out of your head....

Merry Christmas

Ava's Fashions

Red turtleneck and tights with a black and white plaid skort. What could be Christmasier? Somehow it morphed into a white shirt later in that day; I'm assuming I was being a spaz about not getting the white shirt dirty.

Tables Of Cards

The only reason Colson and Gavin like when Melissa and I want to go to Chili's.

I Thank The Bank For The Money, Thank God For You

(The title? Come on y'all, vintage Sawyer Brown!)


While I'm most grateful for this cute bunch today, I'd like to take a minute to be grateful for my friends. Oh yes, I have a few of them, don't look so shocked...

First, the original and still the best, Melissa. She's the devil on my left AND the angel on my right. How else would she be able to stick around so long...


While changing their dirty diapers, I never thought that my 4 oldest nieces would grow up to be 4 of my best friends, but here we are.

the one I'd go on a field trip with any day of the week, Bonnie May

the one I love getting late night calls from, Brianne Elizabeth

the one who knows what I look like doing "Superman! BANANA!", Brooke Suzanne

and the one who feels my sweat pain, Bethany Gates.

My dance partner Richard, who became one of my best friends our first Christmas as partners when he looked at me and said, "So...I like you, you like me, we don't have to get gifts for each other, right?" And then solidified our friendship when he later said, "Um, my dead gramma in her casket can spin faster than you." And his partner Solomon, who is wickedly intelligent but still treats me like a goddess. Bizarre, I know.

Hold on, I'm going to go so far as to add two more, who over the past year have become peas to my carrots. Everyone's Sugar Daddy, John Burns, who makes this list not just because his grammar is as good as mine, but because he gets me even though he doesn't like to admit it. (I'd add his wife Karen to this list but she's prettier than I, so screw that idea...)

..and the beautiful Antoinette Santoro, who makes me laugh for real, not the fake laugh that I usually use around most of you. Her sense of humor is so much larger than her chest, thank goodness, which is basically just average....

There! See? I have friends!

(Now, to hope that none of these people comment on this post with, "What? Who are you? Do I know you??")

Ava's Fashions

Brown and pink, a combination that can't be beat. Especially cute in a family photo.

Brick Walls

No doubt this is Colson's Christmas dream; to wake up to his room looking like this.

My Blog Post, In A Dress

The other day the kids and I were at Chili's having lunch with Melissa and her kids. Gavin and Colson were sitting by themselves at another table, building castles with coasters and salt shakers and then throwing sugar packet "bombs" at the other's castle, scoring points when they'd breach a wall. Ava and Sophia were at our table, drawing. Ava was asking Melissa and I what she should draw, we'd give her an idea and she'd draw it. After we'd given her some ideas like "Dancing vegetables",

"An elephant doing ballet",

and, "Melissa wearing a bathing suit and teaching a class",

Ava decided to draw one of her own ideas. She drew, "those wind up teeth",

and then things started to get really funny. I should mention that when we get all the kids together, Ava's favorite thing is to subtly tease Gavin, Melissa's oldest son (he's 12). Ava loves to try to get him to laugh by doing things that could be taken as slightly mean, but she does it with a cute little giggle. So she started drawing a picture, and she was giggling to herself the whole time. Finally she showed it to us:

She said, "It's me and Sophia and Zachary, and we're all happy. But Colson and Gavin are mad because they're wearing dresses!!!" She couldn't stop laughing while she said all that. Melissa and I were cracking up (how can you not? Look at Gavin and Cole, they have their hands on their hips and expressions on their faces like "Who the heck drew these stupid dresses on us???"), and Ava decided to take it over to show Colson and Gavin. They rolled their eyes at her, but she was giggling so hard I thought she was going to choke. She came back to our table and started drawing furiously again. She was whispering to Sophia, "This one is SO BAD!!" We made her show it to us, and it was this:

"It's Cole and Gavin getting married to each other!!" *tee hee hee hee hee hee!!!!* Melissa and I spit out our Diet Pepsi, we laughed so hard. Colson's dress with the puffed sleeve put it over the edge. Well, Ava ran it over and paraded it in front of Gavin and Cole. She was doubled over and could barely breathe at how funny she thought this picture was. She returned to our table, and grabbed the pad of paper. Next came this hysterical one: Gavin, who is in reality a huge football star, playing football in a dress:

Then we got Colson playing piano in a dress:

I have to give Gavin all the credit in the world. He was a great sport about it all. Colson is used to it, he barely blinked when Ava shoved these drawings in his face. He gets it at home all the time. But Gavin has probably never experienced someone drawing pictures of him in a dress before. And he took it like a man, just rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

Gavin started telling us all that he and his best friend wanted to be a banana and a gorilla, respectively, for Halloween, and go out in the neighborhood together as such. So Ava drew this picture of G and HF. When asked who HF was, she says, "His Friend!"

Then she said, "I'm going to draw Gavin as a banana in his dream world", (cause that's a normal thing to draw), and drew the next two pictures.

She was on a roll that day. It's so entertaining when my naturally introverted daughter feels comfortable enough to put it all out there, because she's wicked funny.

Monday Mornings With Zachary

Upper Perk Robotics giving their mid-year update. Cole is on Team A and Ava is on Team B. The video concludes with pictures and videos of their Lego League sessions so far this year.

Get To Know Colson

Colson's "Get To Know Me" slide from the first month of school.

Monday Mornings With Zachary

I found a video yesterday that the kids made themselves. In it, you get to see Ava's comedic prowess, Zach's hilarious dance moves, and Cole's, well, general bossiness....

At around 8:11, Ava adds one of her comedic touches to this video, and it made me laugh out loud. For most of the video she's just smacking her own butt, but every now and again, when Cole's not looking, she sneaks in her wacky humor. Jazz hands from behind the camera at 11:22 made me snicker.

At 10:19 Colson finally adds something to this video by rockin' out the retarded air guitar.

It's a long video, but there are some great moments. I'm sure the only people who will make it through the whole thing are Luke and Sophia Tabasso, but the rest of you can try...