Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Where to start, where to start...I have a feeling this is going to be a post of randomness, so prepare yourself for some haphazardly organized thoughts.  Very fitting though I must say.

We played bingo with the rest of the population of the elementary school this Friday night.  I'm ashamed to say I've never helped the PTO run the event in the past, but since I'm part of the P and the T this year I figured I'd better do something!  I volunteered to help set up, which turned out to be a cake walk since they had started setting up before school even let out.  Next year I'm going to need to volunteer for a more serious shift to feel like I've contributed.  They run four sessions I believe it is...and serve hot dogs/popcorn and run bingo games for between 500-800 people in a span of four hours.  That's some serious bingo-in'...with serious bingo players.  As of the week before Landon was begging me on a daily basis NOT to play because (ahem, I'm even embarrassed to type this) he was afraid he wouldn't win a prize.  Sigh.  But at the beginning of the week he had a change of heart (at 8:50 a.m. and REALLY had to tell me about it so his teacher sent him down to my classroom to tell me.)  I was glad he wanted to play, but when we got to the table to play about five minutes in he had his forehead all wrinkled up and was nearly wringing his hands.  Geez o pete.  I need to read a parenting book or five.  I tried all the avenues I knew to address this issue prior to that evening, but apparently none of them set in.  To Landon's relief, Chad got a bingo and he won a stinkin' Star Wars puzzle.  THANK GOODNESS.  Maybe with another year of life's experiences under our belt, first grade bingo night won't be so stressful.  I probably shouldn't hold my breath.  Grant of course announced he 'was done with this game' seven minutes in.  I did take a picture of him before he ditched his bingo card for my iPhone for entertainment.

Okay, moving on to the next random thing I should share...the battle at the dinner table.  This is seriously becoming just that...a battle.  I've made an error into making myself into a short order cook, and I'm on the edge of declaring myself on strike.  I make dinner for the boys...then for us...and since we're between soccer seasons we've really been eating together on a more regular basis.  That's the only enjoyable thing about it though.
Unenjoyable things/problems:
*The menu the boys choose from is totally in a rut.  Grant demands 'macaroni pasta-COLD' for every meal. It's whole grain but the goodness stops there.  The boy is constipated.  There.  I said it.  Landon has his select list of foods that he finds acceptable, and most are healthy but none contain any protein whatsoever.

*Grant has to go to the bathroom every night in the middle of the ten minutes it takes for us to eat dinner...regardless of whether or not you make him go before he sits down to eat.

*Landon announces each evening immediately after our prayer that his food has gotten 'a little bit cold' in the 30 seconds it takes to deliver his food to the table and grab our plates to sit down.

My strategies to improve said problems:
*I've started putting something really gross on their plates that I call their 'dessert ticket', and after they gag and moan about it I give them the opportunity to trade in their dessert ticket for something else.  Example:  mushroom for 3 bites of chicken from the grill.  This has proven successful 100% of attempts.  Write it down parents.  It's genius.

*Enforcing bathroom routines and not jumping so high when 'I hafta peeee!' is shouted at the table.  'Really Grant?  Really?  You're gonna wait.  Pee in your chair.  I'm eatin' the next five minutes and I've earned that right DARN IT.

*Setting a step stool up at the microwave and making Landon rewarm his own food.

Harsh?  Possibly.  I'm desperate.  

Mom came up for part of the weekend last week while Chad was in Indy at a coaching convention.  We did some shopping, some crafting, and the boys got hair cuts.  No good pictures of Grant's but the screaming was minimal...there was a green apple 'swushy' from Sonic involved.

Courtney, Tim and Crawford made a quick stop on their way up for a visitation.  Here's Crawford sizing Grant up...'what's up with this kid?  no shirt?  won't lean in?  and the ham smile?  hmmm.'

Oh....and now we're on to ANOTHER battle we're regularly fighting.  Wii and DS time.  They want it all the time.  And when they're having it they're rarely getting along.  These pictures are most definitely skewed.  Looks all peaceful and sweet doesn't it.  Ha.  In the near future there will be more stringent regulations on the gaming during the week.  I don't have the strength to play referee by the end of the school day and frankly, really feel they should just be playing with their flippin' toys a little more!  I'm sure they will not agree.  Look for future pictures of how the Week Day Nintendo Ban is effecting peacefulness at the Kutscher house.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about.  This is what happens when all the things with buttons, remotes, and stylus pens are shut off.  They're playing school on the chalkboard wall...and getting along quite nicely.  Call me old school, but I'm wantin' some more hilarity like this picture below...student and teacher.  Cracking up at their faces.  So fitting.

Grant is gearing up for his first ever trip to the dentist tomorrow.  Pray for Chad, people.

And that's a randomness rap folks!!

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Randomness from the Kutscher house is entertaining the masses!  Woot woot!