Ginger-board house

So, Will wanted to do a gingerbread house this year. He also wanted to buy one of those kits from Wal-Mart or wherever that are like "Gingerbread House in a box." Well, that just seemed wrong to me. I mean, what's the point if you buy a kit? If you're going to do a gingerbread house, I thought, you should do it for real.

And when I say "for real," I mean using graham crackers instead of gingerbread, buying pre-made frosting, and substituting cardboard for the roof when you can't figure anything else out.

Yes, purist right now are horrified, I know. I really *wanted* to do a real house, but I figured that a cardboard-and-graham-cracker house was better than nothing, which is probably what he would have gotten if I'd been determined to do it "right." I have five stories due in the next two weeks, and I've been slammed doing phone interviews with experts and trying to manage my household at the same time. So right now, this ginger-board house looks pretty darn good.

Just please don't eat the roof.

Two pipe cleaners and a MICROPHONE

Okay, this was the laugh of the day at our house. Background to this: At his school, Will's language arts teacher uses a little "helper" called "Mr. Googly-eyes." Mr. Googly-eyes is a tricky little fellow who will jump around while they're reading words and randomly stop and they have to stop...anyway, you get the idea. He's a stick with googly eyes that the teacher uses as a pointer.

Well, we've been doing our fair share of home reno's lately, and when you go to Lowe's and get paint, they give you a stirrer. So Will has taken one of them and decided he wanted to make his OWN Mr. Googly-eyes. So last night, we sat down together with some art supplies to create Mr. Googly-eyes long-lost brother. As Will discovered what all we had craft-wise, Mr. Googly-eyes became Mr. Googly-eyes goes to Bourbon Street -- he's a little wild and crazy looking. So we're laughing about that, and Will's like, okay, we're done gluing, so now I have a few things I want to draw. SO he went with a mouth (which he "x"'d out and redid a couple of times until he was happy with it...) and even some toes, okay, cute. Then...he begins drawing at Mr. G's waist. And it's...somewhat...cylindricle...with a circle on top...WILL! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DRAWING ON MR. GOOGLY-EYES????

"It's his microphone, Mommy. He has it clipped onto his belt."

Okay...so I'm trying really hard not to roll in the floor laughing. So I call Ben over to see Mr. G's microphone-belt. This did not help the laughing situation. He was trying to hide behind the door, doubled-over, laughing.

So meet ***Porn Star Microphone Mr. Googly-Eyes*** hehehe

Seriously. It's just clipped to his belt. Can't you tell?

I love the innocence of children. It can teach us, it can move us, but it can also make us have semi-asthmatic moments of attempted laughter suppression. Like this one.