Happy St. Patrick's Day

Jody at the office! Hope everyone else is sporting their green today...we wouldn't want you to get pinched!

A Weekend in the Life of Mary Reese

Mary Reese is doing us in at the moment and we are all hoping it is a short lived phase. Let me just do a brief recap of her weekend activities.

On Friday night, she sprayed the tv in our bedroom with Clorox Hard Surface Cleaner so much that it seeped into the speaker holes and temporarily “shorted out” the control buttons. The tv could not be turned off; the channels could not be changed to the proper channel so the satellite feed would come through so all you got was snow; and the volume would shoot all the way up and when you tried to turn it down…it went right back up to the loudest setting. We tried to dry it out with the hairdryer and that helped a little bit, at least we could get it back on channel 73 to watch tv but the volume was still blaring! It finally dried out enough so we could get it to turn off. We let it sit a few hours and thankfully everything started working properly. She sat in “time out” for over an hour that night. I know it is suppose to be 1 minute for their age…but I decided her behavior warranted more that just 3 minutes!!! She also got her princess tv and dvd player taken out of her room for the night which totally devastated her.

Friday night she was suppose to be in her bed going to sleep, instead she taking revenge! She pulled a chair over to the china cabinet in her room and took out all my Little Women Madame Alexander dolls, completely undressed them, decapitated them, made them amputees and then shoved all the pieces under her bed. It took me an hour to figure out which dress, pantaloons, socks and shoes went to which doll! My only saving grace was they still have the tags with a picture of all the dolls on the front. She now has a rubber band securing the doors on the cabinet…we will see if that deters her.

Sunday, Debbie and I took her to Target while Banks and Jody took Camp on a swim. Debbie bought her some new pink glittery Hello Kitty sandals similar to her friend Gray’s. She was so proud of her new shoes that she wore them out the store and then onto the grocery store. Since the weather was gorgeous, I also bought some Crayola Side Walk Paint and Chalk at Target for an afternoon activity (I highly recommend). It kept them entertained for a good hour or so while I got the garage swept out. Mary Reese got mud on her new shoes, so she went to wash them off in the kitchen sink. I know, I should have gone with her and supervised, but didn’t. When I walked into the kitchen there was a small flood on the kitchen floor. I got that all mopped up with towels and headed down to the basement to put them in the washing machine where I realized that some of the water had seeped through the hardwood floors in the kitchen to the basement. Lovely, yet another mess to clean up.

Jody is home with them this morning and has called to inform me that Mary Reese has cut her hair! She is now sporting BANGS just in time for Easter! He has left me the pile of hair to witness and is trying to get her in with the hairdresser who doesn’t work until Wednesday! Here is the picture I received from his camera phone:

Whoever swapped our sweet little girl for this one…please return ours QUICKLY!!!

Easter Eggs

Banks and Jody spent the afternoon on the golf course while Mary Reese and I got pedicures. Can you guess what her polish color was named? Princesses Rule...a bright sparkly pink that's tiara worthy!!! On our way home from getting our toes ready for Spring, we stopped by Lucky's and stocked up on eggs for our annual Easter Egg dying session. Banks was so excited to see the colander full of freshly boiled eggs when he got home!

Like always, they really got into the project. This year I bought a "traditional" kit and a tie-dye kit. Banks was really into the tie-dying and had his tongue out in pure Banks fashion the entire time. Mary Reese put all of her eggs in the pink dye, of course! Hopefully they will last a week until the Easter Bunny can hop through and hide them on his way out the door!

The finished product!

T-Ball Jerseys and Photo Shoots

Banks had another T-Ball practice tonight. He was so excited to come home and show me his new Texas Tech Red Raiders jersey. Apparently Coach Brad told them they could not wear their jerseys until opening day when they get their pictures made, then they can "run around and act like pigs!" I guess he wants them to look nice and clean for their pictures and you know the reporter in the family doesn't forget a thing and is going to repeat everything he hears! He did let me slip it on for a few seconds for a quick picture. Opening day is March 29th!

While Banks and Jody were at T-Ball practice, Mary Reese and I were at an "Easter Parade" Photo Shoot for my friend Stephanie's store (Eloise and Henry). All the kids were really good and Stephanie was so sweet to have them cupcakes for a treat afterwards!

Jack, Vivi, Gray and Mary Reese

Banks also got his 3rd report card today. He has turned most of his P's (Progressing toward completion of skill) to S's (Meets or exceeds expectations). The biggest thing he needs to work with not writing the "s" in his name backwards! Ms. Davis and Ms. Byrd's comment this time was "Banks is doing very good in class!" Tomorrow the entire school is taking a field trip to watch Horton Hears A Who at the movie theater! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Winter Wonderland

We did get some snow last night like the weather man predicted! It wasn't anywhere near the 2 -3" inches predicted but it did look pretty! The kids got all bundled up to play in the snow that lasted about 10 minutes before they were ready to go inside for pancakes, bacon and hot chocolate! Mary Reese started out with flip flops on but quickly changed to her fur lined FUGGS! Maybe on year we will actually get a good snow! The good news...it is suppose to be back up into the 60s by Tuesday!

Extreme Makeover - Debbie Edition

Uncle Topher cooked a delicious and delightful meal of Savannah Jambalaya, cornbread and homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream. While the dinner was cooking, Debbie and Mary Reese disappeared and were very quiet. Jody found them shut up in Debbie's bathroom with Mary Reese giving her a makeover! The results were quite extreme!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jody/Daddy/Big Stack/Jody Cell! We hope you have a wonderful day! We love you!

First T-Ball Practice

Banks had his first T-Ball practice today at 5:00! He is on the Texas Tech Red Raiders (for some reason they are all college teams now instead of major leagues). I met Jody at the practice field to pick up Mary Reese and to watch Banks for a few minutes. I watched him throw a ball and his tongue was sticking out in pure Banks fashion! In the picture above, he is the one with his hands on his hips. Wonder who he gets that from?

“The River”

Another low key weekend at the Murphree house!!! Jody played golf on Saturday morning and then Banks joined him in the afternoon for a little round. Mary Reese, Debbie and I hit Costco and Old Navy. Mary Reese bought herself a total of 4 new pairs of flip flops this weekend! If you have been reading the blog for any length of time…you know flip flops is her shoe of choice so she was thrilled! She was very into picking them out and trying them on. Sunday afternoon was BEAUTIFUL so we decided to take Camp on a swim. We were headed to the boat ramp at Hickory Hills but then decided “The River” would be more private. If you are from Decatur and attended high school in the early nineties, you know about “The River.” It is a spot on the wildlife refuge we use to hang out until the police found us and would run us off. Camp had the best time fetching his “duck” and the kids loved watching him romp in the water! We spent the rest of the afternoon outside enjoying the wonderful weather!

VIPs and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last Friday night Jody and I talked about going to the Monaco to see Fools of Gold. We tried to get Prive (the VIP balcony area) tickets for the Saturday night show but they were already sold out:( So this past week we were prepared…we stalked the website until they went on sale Thursday. Yea…finally…the VIP experience! Popsy and Gigi came over to watch the kids and we headed out for our night on the town. We decided just to grab a bite to eat at the theater before the show. We made our way to the staircase leading up to the VIP section and in front a sign reads “Closed for a Private Party.” Who would have thought they would rent the entire area out on a Saturday night for a private party! So we just split a few appetizers at the bar downstairs and headed up to our seats when the Prive area opened up 10 minutes prior to the start of the movie. We did get VIP seating during the movie but we have yet to get the complete Prive experience. Better luck next time!

Saturday afternoon, I was folding clothing watching Food Network. Throwdown with Bobby Flay was on and he was making the ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie…so of course I started craving Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew I only had about 1 cup of chocolate chips so I search the Food Network site until I found a recipe meeting the ingredients in my pantry. A Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe called for 2 cups of chocolate chips, chopped Hershey bars or M&M’s. Perfect! I had 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cups of Holiday M&M’s left over. Mary Reese decided she wanted to help and really got into it when it was time to lick the beater and bowl. *Note – she doesn’t have clothes on in the picture because she cranked the mixer up on high while I was dumping in the cocoa powder. The cookies turned out delicious and delightful and satisfied my craving!