Crikeys people!!!!

44 pageloads of my blog yesterday and not one of you lazy patooties can leave a comment?!? Pffft!! Was it the 4 paragraphs devoted to my cat in my last entry??? You could comment about that, too, ya know. Any semblance of even a PEEP would be appreciated!


Whooooooo is out there looking at us? Show yourselves and be proud! And even if you're not proud to admit you're reading our blog (though this makes NO sense whatsoever!), at least say SOMETHING. Please!

Just squeakin’ this one in!

Okay, if I get our 2010 birthdays blogged about the DAY before our 2011 birthdays start, it still counts, right? Whew!

Connor turned 7 in January 2010 in grand Egyptian style!You may remember that last year was the year of Egypt and hieroglyphics studies for Connor and he even has his own Egypt room now – check out THIS coolness by clicking here. Okay, moving on, we celebrated with a fabulous pyramid cake, Egyptian masks, statues, jewelry, etc!!



Now we have the arrival of the grandest birthday present – lllaaaaaahhhhhh! - a Nintendo DS – Connor’s dream come true at last!! Egypt was quickly forgotten (although all the kids wore the jewelry pretty much all day, and Shelby still does!).


Here’s Connor showing the prized DS to Shelby and Noah.


And here’s the inevitable (you saw it coming, right?) screaming when Shelby and Noah discover that the DS is NOT for them.


But later all was quiet on the Ritchie front as the three kiddos were happily engrossed in their games – Connor on his DS and Shelby and Noah FINALLY content with playing on their old, nerdy and soooo uncool Leapster game units.


But hey, the good thing about the DS was that the kids were so engrossed in it that we did NOT have to go to Chuck E Cheeses later! Yessssss! Our evil plan worked!

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Moving on to Shelby’s 2nd birthday a week after Connor’s – it was all about Dora! Dora cups, Dora plates, Dora cake, Dora presents. Shelby is a cake-eating machine and outdoes her brothers (and previous cake-eating machine champion Grandpa) with ease. Here she is pointing at the cake.


Here she is pointing at her plate. Cake. Plate. Cake plate. CAKE ON PLATE, people!!!!!!


In addition to cake, Shelby REALLY likes those music-playing and talking cards. She was *very* irritated that the card from Grandma and Grandpa did NOT serenade or talk to her:


And here she is, Shelby now (well, then, but you know what I mean) AND I’m certain this is also a glimpse into her in 10 years. Here she is strutting her cute little stuff in her birthday pink tutu and her new birthday pink Vera Bradley purse, complete with pink phone, lipstick, credit card, etc – everything a girl could need! Yes, I *may* have gone a bit overboard.


This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Shelby with her purse, tutu, jewelry galore and talking on her phone, and yet I wonder, what am I creating??


As a matter of fact, just this morning Shelby "called" me on her pink Disney phone and said, "Hi Mommy! I'm a princess! Goodbye!" click. And speaking of what am I creating????, here’s Meatball dressed up for the occasion. It was all very undignified and embarrassing and I’m pretty sure he then hid upstairs for the next 3 days.


And finally, if I were writing the caption to this photo it would be: “Yeah yeah, you have to be nice to me, but it’s not like I got a DS or something cool like that.”


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I’m afraid that Noah’s fifth birthday wasn’t well documented. Mommy fail! Especially after his fourth birthday escapades were so memorable (click here to get some of THAT fun). But maybe after that traumatic birthday Noah needed a low-key birthday. So, this is all I’ve got for ya, folks.

Spiderman was our theme of the day. And YES, that’s Dora wrapping paper you spy on the presents for Noah. What? You didn’t know that Dora and Spiderman hooked up? Mmmm hmmmm, it was all very scandalous.


And once we realized how FABULOUS DSs are for entertaining kids (yes, I said it, everybody knows it and everybody does it so don’t act like you don’t), naturally we got one for Noah’s birthday! Peace was restored to the Universe at last. But only AFTER Connor complained for HOURS about how HE didn’t get his DS until he was 7 and why did Noah get to have one when he was only 5?!??!?


And since Shelby and Connor’s birthdays had fairly decent photographic representation, I feel compelled to put this photo in along with this equally scintillating description – On Noah’s birthday we went to Carousel Mall to ride the carousel. That’s my dad (aka Grandpa) with Noah.


That’s it, Noah’s birthday 2010 folder only had 5 pathetic photos in it – these 3 were the best. Yeah, I know. He was gypped, to be sure (although he DID get a DS two years earlier than Connor). I’ll do better this year.

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As many of you know, Mark had the BIG ONE this year, warranting its own extremely lengthy (but quite entertaining, if I do say so myself) blog entry – refresh and relive the memories by clicking here.

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And then there’s Mommy, last on the totem pole. Last birthday every year. Yup, you mommies out there know what I mean. Look at my birthday table. No Egyptian or Spiderman or Dora themes for me. Not even a birthday cake.

BUT in my family’s defense, I don’t even like cake (but I do LOVE those little mini Wegmans brownies) and the partyware WAS red, my favorite color. And I don’t even care much about Egypt or Spiderman or Dora. Mark evidently couldn’t bring himself to do me a Clive Owen-themed birthday party. Whatevs. At least he didn't put out 42....no wait, I mean.....29...birthday candles.


All was redeemed later when Mark blindfolded me and put us all in the car to venture out on a mystery trip. Well, it was a mystery for about 10 minutes anyway, until Noah piped up, “Hey, this is the way to Zoo Camp!”

I’m not a zoo person. I don’t like animals in captivity. I’d rather they be in their natural environment even if it means I never see them for myself. All the talk of conservation, bla bla bla. And yes yes yes I know most zoo animals are bred in captivity and can’t survive in the wild on their own, but I’ve never been to a zoo that didn’t make me feel horrible for the animals, not even the renowned San Diego zoo. HOWEVER, absolutely nothing is more important to me than teaching my kids the value and gift of animals and the meaning of stewardship. SO, go to the zoo we will until they make their own decisions and opinions about it. *insert Heath Ledger’s Joker face (RIP Heath – LOVED ya in Ten Things I Hate About You) here* Oooooo Estelle why so serious? Okay, enough of that.

Yep, little bigmouth Noah was right, we went to the Zoo, where I was unblindfolded and discovered that I had become an adoptive parent to the sandcats! Well, yay!! I LOVE the little sandcats!! They have a horrible environment, and every little bit of donation helps, I guess. I hope. Here’s Connor and Noah looking at my sandcats. It was a FABULOUS birthday present – ya did good this year, Mark!!! This seems an appropriate time and place to mention that Tahiti would be even better for next year. Just sayin'.



And finally, a new family member was added to our family for my birthday – say hello to FINNEAUS! BEST PRESENT EVER! Well, after getting LASIK eye surgery. And after getting my BMW. But….THIRD BEST PRESENT EVER!

Okay, three funny stories about Finneaus. Noah and I (Noah is my fellow animal-loving little fellow) were in Petco probably buying litter and pet food and whatnot when Noah sped over to the cat cages (organized by Syracuse’s fabulous CNY Cat Coalition). He completely ignored the funny, cute kittens playing and focused only on this sedate orange cat. Now, we already had 3 cats with no intention of getting a 4th, I mean we’re not CRAZY, ya know. Not too much, anyway. After Noah playing and talking about this orange cat for about 20 minutes, I finally had to appease him and told Noah, “Look I’m writing down his phone number, okay? Maybe we can call about him later.” And Noah then INSISTED that we leave the cat HIS phone number, too – TOO CUTE!!!

Anyway, I couldn’t get that cute little orange cat out of my mind (and neither could Noah). I told Mark about him and then….SURPRISE! New cat for Mommy’s birthday! YAY!

2nd funny story – I named my birthday cat Finnick (after one of my favorite characters in The Hunger Games book series). HOWEVER, upon finishing the series, it turns out that Finnick …ummmm..err….. doesn’t make it! So anyway, Finnick’s name quickly and quietly was changed to Finneaus. Cool enough, right?

3rd funny story – less than a month ago (meaning 5 months now that we’ve had Finneaus) I was reviewing my cat adoption paperwork and discovered that Finneaus is a GIRL!!!! Now SHE is a lovely (and strangely-named) Finny and I ADORE her. (seen here with Indiana – unseen are my two other little cat-loves Meatball and Pequop)


And, somewhat tragically and surely frustratingly, Connor has figured out my true age. For years I was able to tell him I was 29 and he believed me. Well, one year anyway. And when 29 didn’t change to a different number the next year, my then-too-smart-little-three-year-genius-son figured out something was amiss. And sometimes I keep funny Facebook conversations to put in my scrapbooks (which actually don’t exist yet, therefore I blog), such as this one on my birthday last year with my friend Betsy:


But at least all THIS year Connor was convinced that I was actually one year younger than I actually am. I’ll take it!


Alrighty then, it's time for me to quit blabbering now and I'm certain you are thinking to yourself "Did I really just spend 20 minutes reading about Estelle's new cat?!?!??" I need to go prepare for Connor’s eighth birthday which is TOMORROW!!!Told ya I squeaked this entry in!

Mark! Don't You Wish You Were Here?!?

A post dedicated to my absentee husband, who is in Africa. AGAIN. I don't even know what country he's in today. Tanzania? Kenya? Botswana? One of those. All I know for sure is that he's gone AGAIN for three stinkin' weeks, and of course it's during our first Nor'easter of the winter season.

Markli, here's all the snow you don't have to shovel (but gosh is it GORGEOUS or what):

(News story about our record-breaking snow event: http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=552153 )



Markli, here's the grubby kids that you don't have to clean (though I'd still smooch her):


Markli, here's the meatballs that you didn't have to dress up as faces to make Noah eat them:


Markli, here's the meltdowns about video games that you don't have to deal with:


Markli, here's the dog WHO NEVER STOPS BARKING despite every anti-barking device and measure known to mankind, and who GUESS WHAT?? LOVES the snow and will run around in circles for an hour barking non-stop, the dog that YOU don't have to chase around in a foot of snow to get to come back in the house. Miss him?? Next time he goes to Africa with you. I am amazed that Doug is snowblowing for us (4 times in the past 2 days already) given how much they must hate Rocky.


Truth be told, what I mostly miss about having Mark around is cleaning our 2 freakin' litter boxes 2 freakin' times a day (who the heck thought 4 cats was a good idea!??!), BUT don't worry, I won't post those pictures here.

Nahhhhh, my spoiled husband gets to truck around in exotic countries, stay in nice hotels (yes, there are some seriously swanky hotels in Africa), get his laundry done, get his meals fixed or purchased, talk to grownups all day, and get stalked by the occasional terrifying lion (yes, that really happened).

Yeah, I'm kinda bitter. So, I'm off to do some more online shopping. Take THAT, husband!! Hmmpff.




UPDATE ONE HOUR LATER:
Okay, so this post was a bit whiny and indulgent. Here's the good stuff that you're missing, Mark:




Would I trade being with these maddening yet absolutely magical little people in for 3 weeks of swanky hotels, prepared food, laundry done, exotic travel, and a lion encounter? No.

But I WOULD trade 'em in for one week of all that (sans lion)!! And I got my 9 millionth email offer today from the Bellagio. So, I'm booking my week for Vegas in January. Betsy, thanks for the tip, because THAT invoice total will probably DEFINITELY get Mark back here in a hurry!!

And Markli, here's what I know you miss most of all - me sitting in the front of the computer happily online shopping and planning my exotic Vegas vacation. But when did my nose get so wide??!?! Cheap stinkin' webcam making me look all bad for my husband. Hmmpff.

I love you anyway, Markli. And I really hope you don't become a lion's snack.

We gave up...

...on trying to get a picture-perfect family Christmas photo and I'm just too lazy this season to fix 'em up with Photoshop, so we just let 'er rip with the goofy faces.

Obviously Mark and Noah were still in Halloween-mode with the psycho-Frankenstein faces. My only funny face consists of hanging my tongue out. I'll do better next year, I promise. Connor's chosen "look" was that of wearing his glasses as a mustache. And, as usual, Shelby refuses to lower her perfect princess self to her family's silliness level and is seen here wondering if there might be a more respectable family out there to adopt her?


I know, I know, what's with all the tongues? I dunno. We're weird and kinda creepy that way, I guess.


We DID get a cute one of the kids - this one's for you, Grandma & Grandpa:


So, here's our 2010 respectable, somewhat traditional, and even elegant card (and yeah, no, we're not sending out our family Christmas novel anymore - that's what our blog is for now! And we're proud tree-huggers. Or at least we try to be. Kinda.).


Annnnndddddddddd.....here's the winning photo - because we certainly don't want to be seen as TOO traditional and respectable, that's for darn sure! Nobody out there sees us as traditional and stodgy, do they? Perish the thought!!


And finally, of course, it wouldn't be Christmas for us without one of our favorite family traditions - JibJab videos! Wwoooohhhhhh raahhh rahhhh rahhhhh! Connor & Noah's favorite video was the JibJab "tooting" Christmas video (you know what tooting is a euphemism for, right?), but I opted to post the more "tasteful" rock star video instead - we'll keep the tooting video just for us and our "special" (i.e., taste-LESS) times. I did NOT use Mark and I in the tooting video (though I should have put Mark in there, he totally belongs), so I guess we're safe from future embarrassment, but anyway.....ROCK ON, peeps, and have a fabulous holiday season!

Lessons learned from Dunkin Donuts

So here's what I'm talking about when I say that my kids are each totally different from the other, especially Connor and Noah. A recent outing to Dunkin Donuts provided a perfect opportunity for my little gang to showcase their funny differences (and to add a new word to my vocabulary).

Shelby: -no words- She just digs in and really doesn’t waste time with needless chatter. She loves sweets and nothing will stop her from savoring every bite.

Noah’s experience: “Oh boy! My doughnut looks just like a BRAIN!”

More from Noah, cackling LOUDLY: “Look! My brain has gooey stuff in the middle!!! I’m EATING my brain!!! HA HA HA HA!!”

Meanwhile, Connor's observation: “Wow! Look, the bag has a rebus on it!”

Mommy: “What the heck is a rebus?!?!?”

Connor: “Mommy! DUH! It’s when pictures are substituted for words to make a sentence or tell a story.”

Okay, don't sit there and pretend like YOU know what a rebus is. Mark claims that he knew what it meant. Whatevs.

Anyway, just another day in our household where Mark and I look at each other and shake our heads and wonder, how the heck are we going to keep up with Connor’s brain? I do take a little comfort in knowing that at least Connor still (inexplicably) finds humor in Noah's endless jokes and stories about poopies - rampaging poopies, talking poopies, singing poopies, etc.

Happy Halloween!!

September 30 is one of the BEST days of the year! It’s the day our Halloween decorations come out! And Connor and Noah love it as much as I do – yay!!

Here’s Connor welcoming our beloved and favorite and first Halloween decoration, Ghosty, back and out of the box where he lives 11 months of the year (Ghosty, that is, NOT Connor!):

Noah giving his greetings hug to Ghosty. Cute, right? What you don’t see is in these photos was the boys later discovering Ghosty was an excellent karate punching and kicking bag! I had to wipe Ghosty down to remove the footprints from his stomach and backside.

Connor also contributed to our Halloween decorating efforts by making a diagram of where all of our decorations go, so we could remember for next year. He also added warning signs of “Boo” and “Beware.”

Noah drew…..uh…..a bunch of triangles.

***And, VOILA, we present to you the Ritchie 2010 Halloween house!***

It may appear that we are the only house on our street, but what you don’t see are our twenty-plus BORING neighbor houses.

We did add to our Halloween decorations this year (as we do every year) by adding a phantom ghost to our back yard. I thought a spooky figure in our back forest would be kinda cool and I really wanted a Frankenstein or something like that, but all that Lowes had left in mid-October was this phantom ghost. So, Phantom Ghosty came home with me and was set up. How awesome and creepy does he look in those trees ???

The kids refused to have their photo taken with Phantom Ghosty, unless they were “protected” by me, so here we are…..look at Noah & Shelby’s faces! Those were two very nervous little skeletons.

And now we need to take a solemn moment: Ghosty, whom you saw in the above photos (but who did NOT make it into the final photos – darn), died a sudden death on October 23, 2010. Whether it was the appearance of Phantom Ghosty in the backyard (who was NOT brought home to replace you, Ghosty – no one could do that!!) or the severe karate beatings he sustained from the boys, we will never know. Mark threw him unceremoniously in our trash can before an autopsy could be performed. Ghosty was our first Halloween decoration and the one that the kids LOVED to see come out every year. RIP beloved Ghosty. We will never forget you.

I just had to throw this photo in because it’s so stinkin’ cute – after a full afternoon and evening of Halloween decorating, the boys did a sleepover in Noah’s room and I caught ‘em like this:

I also usually decorate inside of our house, even moreso than the outside, but this year kept it just to the front foyer. It’s very tame (although half of these are talking devices and make a HECK of a lot of noise), but here ya go:

Another Halloween tradition of ours is to drive around and look at decorated Halloween houses. We’ve driven through nearly EVERY neighborhood in Syracuse and its suburbs, I KID YOU NOT, and ours is still probably the best, although this year the number of spectacular houses has noticeably dwindled. WHAT UP FUDDY DUDDY PEOPLE?!?!? Now, our Halloween tour takes us to only about 6-7 reliably decorated houses every year. And yes, the boys get to ride unleashed (as it were) in the back of the SUV with their stuffed animal friends. We’ve trained them to duck quickly and hide if a car comes up behind us and discovers our illegal child (and stuffed animal?) endangerment.

And no, the big huge car emergency kit separating them from touching each other does NOT last for more than 4 minutes or so. It never fails that someone’s head hits the roof or a leg gets caught in a blanket or some other equally horrible thing happens and one of them must finish the Halloween tour back in their seat with their seatbelt on, screaming about how unfair their life has become.

Moving on, I finally convinced Noah that he had the perfect forehead for tattoos. Hey, when I'm right, I'm right, am I right?

Call us nerds if you will (though keep in mind we teach our kids that being nerds means you’re cool and unique and smart and if you’re called a nerd it means people are actually jealous of you), we do a family theme every year. This year it was Connor’s turn to pick, and we ended up being an archaeology team. Mark, Connor and I were dressing like Indiana Jones, and Noah and Shelby were our amazing and stupendous fossil finds in their skeleton costumes. Shelby was tagged as "Humanus Pinkus" and Noah was tagged as "Skeletorus."

Editors note: I just re-read our Halloween 2009 entry and saw that Connor had wanted us to dress up in Greek costumes for this year - thank goodness he opted for archaeologists instead. You don't want to see us in togas in late October in New York. You really don't.

Shelby’s “costume” is actually pajamas (hey, SOMEtimes I can be thrifty), and she wore them for three straight days. When I finally peeled them off of her (indeed, they were nearly fossilized to her body) and tossed ‘em in the washing machine, she CRIED and wailed for her beloved pink “skellie” pajamas.

The larger fossil is now unmasked, and none too happy at his being discovered, even if it was by the notorious Indiana Jones:

And what can I say? Sometimes good fossils go bad and turn on their own kind….

Next year is Noah’s turn to pick our family theme, and he’s already decided we’ll all be ninjas! Whoopee! Can you imagine the fun we’ll have with that theme???!?! Of course, Noah will be only 6 next Halloween, and that means there’s a high probability we could actually be dressed next year as Mario and Luigi, or Scooby Doo, or whatever other video game characters dominate Noah’s goofy mind. But I’m gonna work on the ninja angle. I know I’ve only got a couple more years before they start rebelling against the nerdy family theme, so while I’m still bigger and bossier than them, I’ll work it!

Oh, and Connor informed me that our Halloween decorations are too childish. He says he’s ready for the scary stuff. OH YOU JUST WAIT LITTLE BOY. You just wait. I’ll give ya a scary Halloween smackdown. Tune in here next year - same time, same blogspot - for some of THAT action.