Bad Dad

 

This guy and his shenanigans has Chloe up in arms. First of all, it's hard being a 13 year old girl and having a dad who is goofy. She is constantly exasperated or embarrassed by something he says or does. You know, the perils of being a teenage girl. However, her silly father has totally outdone himself now. First, he had the audacity to get a speeding ticket and get his picture taken while doing so (like this picture is going to somehow show up at Chloe's school and she'll never be able to live it down). As if that wasn't bad enough. Now Chuck is up to more shenanigans that has Chloe fearing that her father might get arrested.

And it has everything to do with the new house we are building. Unlike any house we've ever built, this particular builder doesn't want you on (your own) property without a representative from their company with you. Or your realtor. Well.....that's not always convenient. And they're not always around when we go check out the progress on the house. Chuck has zero problem breaking that "law" (let's call it what it is: a preference). 

So the other day we take yet another trip out to the house and not a soul is in sight. Chuck starts walking into the house. Chloe and I (the true, blue rule followers) hesitantly get out of the car and look around to make sure there will be no witnesses to incriminate us. Dad might be fine having his picture taken as he cohorts with danger, but not us. Chloe and I quickly run in, grab a peak and run back out to the safety of the car. Chuck and the boys take their jolly ol' time examining every last detail.

By time they get back to the car, Chloe is beside herself, "DAD!!!! WHY ARE YOU SO BAD WITH THE LAW?!" Hilarity and laughter ensue. Chloe is mortified. Chuck now wears that phrase as a badge of honor. It explains alot about him. Whenever he's about to go through a yellow light or jaywalk or do a u-turn in an unauthorized location, he says it's because he's "bad with the law." 

The Sway

Last week Chloe had a choir performance. I was the only one who could attend, so I videoed much of the performance to show the fam. After watching Chloe's performance, I realized we failed her in one key area. See if you can spot Chloe:

The Sway from Mallott on Vimeo.

Did you spot her? Yup. She was the one, unbeknownst to her, swaying the OPPOSITE direction of the ENTIRE choir. Every single time I watch it I giggle. It is just so cute! And the funniest part is, she did the EXACT same thing on the second go around.

The Sway II from Mallott on Vimeo.

Obviously, she was mortified after I showed her the video. There was a lot of denial. We had a nice long talk about being able to laugh at yourself. This was a very humbling experience for her, but she had to admit it was hilarious! She then showed the clips to her choir friends. One of them laughed so hard she cried. Another friend said her dog could sway better. Apparently I have overlooked teaching my daughter the fine art of swaying to music. The whole thing is my fault. At least that's the story Chloe is going with. #swayfail

First Timers

This is the first year, believe it or not, that we've ever done gingerbread houses during the holiday season. We just never thought about it. But then Chloe came upon this little kit where all we had to do was assemble and decorate our own tiny house. I could get behind that.

Unfortunately, each house came all stuck together. Chuck had to 'unstuck' them by cutting on the scored lines. You can imagine how well that turned out. One of us had a cow (Chloe) because our pieces weren't perfect. Others of us used lots of icing to hide said imperfections. 

The formation of the house is the actual hardest part. You need 3 hands at least to hold everything together. This was not Chloe's happiest moment. All the lines and pieces were not matching up exactly. We may have even had a little panicking go on. 

Bennett used creative architecture techniques, but hey, it's standing - that's really all that matters. The pathetic amount of frosting the kit offered was nowhere near enough. I had to go make some more frosting - thus the beautiful ziplock baggie that Bennett is so delicately applying his frosting with. 

These are the finished products. I'm embarrassed to admit that this was mine. I was the first one finished though. I didn't even win a prize. And I made the biggest mess. Tweezers would have been nice. I feel that this would fit in nicely with a display of houses decorated by 1st graders.

Chuck's looks exactly like the picture on the box. Yay for him. His little designer self put the rest of us to shame. The entire time he was decorating his chalet, he kept complaining about the hole size of the frosting tube. He would have preferred multiple frosting bags with varying degrees of hole sizes for all his highly detailed work. 

And here's the all important bank that is a must have in every Christmas village. I was actually surprised by the 'less is more' look to Bennett's design. I am also amazed how he got his snow to fall on his roof in the shape of an /s/. 

Chloe, on the other hand, subscribes to the 'more is more' mentality. Her entire roof was caked in frosting. She even used a knife to help spread all the 'snow'. But her decorations were very precise and color coordinated. Apparently the bakery got hit by a blizzard.

Overall, it was an ok experience. I can't say I would like to incorporate it as a tradition or anything. However, we may do it again when Gavin gets home so we can watch him go all Donald Duck with the whole experience. I would do it all over again for the laughter and general hilarity that would ensue.