day 349 - winter wonderland

It's a damn good thing Sam found coffee filter snowflake instructions on google. It's been a long time since he was a catholic school girl and his memory is pretty sketchy.

day 348 - streamer barricade

Tonight Sam built barricades across the kids' bedroom doors. They were a bit confused in the morning, climbing under them until I told them to run through them. It's strange. When I want them to be good, they're bad. When they have permission to be bad, they're good.

Ava summed it up best on the weekend in the car on the way back from Christmas shopping on Sunday.

Ava: "Hey Mom! Wanna know how I can tell my brothers apart? Ethan always looks like he's going to do something bad and Owen always looks like he's sorry."

I've explained the differences between the boys for almost four years so people can tell them apart. Ethan has a more pronounced cowlick, Owen is more outgoing....I gotta say this is the most accurate assessment I've every heard.

There's a reason why he's sorry Ava. It's because he's usually two minutes ahead of his brother. He already did something bad and he's getting in trouble for it.

day 347 - the night owls

Am I the only person with kids who don't fall asleep until 10 pm? Their bodies are in bed by 8 but their little mouths don't fall asleep until 10.

Sam is getting too old to do nightly setups that late. A day is going to come where Sam falls asleep before the kids and forgets to hide himself. All hell's going to break loose that day so it was time for a request to be made.

day 346 - another day down

Apparently I can't subtract as there are 13 days to Christmas.

Oh well, neither can the kids.

day 345 - come fly with me

Sam's hiding spot tonight. I have to agree with Owen. It was kind of creepy sleeping with him hanging from the ceiling fan watching me.

I would like to point out that no elves were hurt during the taking of this picture. The kids wanted to turn the fan on to see how far he could fly (and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious myself), but they refrained and he survived this particular adventure.

day 344 - story time

Story time. Pretty tame compared to the other stuff Sam's been doing lately, but mommy is feeling uninspired tonight.

day 343 - the gitch tree

Sam strikes again. Today he decorated the tree with the kids' underwear.

I feel compelled to point out that it was all clean.

day 342 - late night snowman making

Thanks to Sam, the kids have been scoring some really nutritious breakfasts. 8 hours after this was set up they devoured the entire bag of marshmallows before I made it downstairs, permanent marker ones and all.

day 341 - snow angels

Sam is making a real splash around here. The kids are enjoying his antics and still jump out of bed in the morning so they can run and find him.

They still aren't behaving any better which brings me to my question. Are there documented cases of Santa not coming? Because we have one in the making.

day 340 - sam's ornament

Tonight Sam decorated himself an ornament. "Sam" is having a hard time staying awake at night to setup these little scenarios up and almost forgot tonight. "Sam" may have to set up a daily reminder just in case.

18 days to go...

day 339 - rub a dub dub

Not the greatest photo, but last night Sam relaxed in the bath. On a related note, the kids ate marshmallows for breakfast.

day 338 - date night

It's hard to say who's having more fun with this whole thing at this point, me or the kids.

day 337 - the christmas zip line

Tonight under the cover of darkness, one brave little elf repelled from the clock in the dining room down to the Christmas tree. It would end up being a big hit with the kids in the morning, but by the end of the day one of the cardinal rules would end up being broken. Ethan would end up touching the magic elf repeatedly (rule number one - the elf is magical and you are not allowed to touch him).

It's my fault. I should have told him to touch the damn elf so he would defy me and do the complete opposite.

day 336 - the adventures of sam mcdougall

Today was day one of Elf on the Shelf. Three little kids sprung out of bed and ran downstairs to see if Sam had come back from the North Pole overnight.

They were thrilled to discover that not only did he come back, but he is every bit as mischievous as they are. They loved what he did and talked about it non-stop as we got ready to leave the house. They think he's hilarious and they were quite well behaved.

It would end up being very short-lived.



(I'm going to fill in the 30+ days I'm missing here when I get a chance to catch up. Please bear with me.)

fabulous friday challenge

The season and time change continue to be a real challenge for me, with yet another week slipping by where I haven't been able to get out of the house to take pictures. I feel like my project 365 is treading water. I'm taking the shots to keep it alive, but they sure aren't anything to write home about.

To give my creativity a bit of a kick start and lead me through the home stretch and to try and improve my childrens' behaviour so Santa actually comes this year...I'm starting a new project for December called The Elf on the Shelf.

The concept is simple - Santa sends an adorable (yet slightly disturbing looking) elf into our home for the holiday season. We "adopt" and name him and he works as a scout elf, reporting back to Santa Claus all of the kids' Christmas wishes as well as a rundown of their behaviour.

So this should be the kids' saving grace, right? The thing that encourages them to shape up and stop driving their parents crazy. Well, time is going to have to tell in this house because my threats of "Santa isn't going to come to this house if you guys aren't good" was met with "Don't worry boys. We were bad all year last year and Santa still came!".

So today was day one. The elf arrived in the mail, was freed from the box and promptly named Sam. I read the book to the kids and Sam was left to work his Christmas magic.

Ava went to bed skeptical because the elf looked like he had a plastic face and unless she saw him fly, he was a sham. Ethan went to bed pleading with me. If Sam turned out to be a monster, I was to rip his head off immediately. And Owen? Well, Owen went to bed in tears because he didn't want Sam to watch him while he was sleeping.

God speed my little elf narc. Work your magic because mommy is at the end of her rope and we could have the first documented case of Santa getting locked out of this house and refused entry.

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So post away everyone! What inspired you this week?

I can't wait to see what you came up with!



Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.
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