I use mine on several forums, but it was originally suggest by my son. It's a Ninja Turtles reference. :)

My daughter has Batiste Tropical Dry Shampoo and seems to like it.

My 9 year old, Mag, is Santa with me, and he's the only reason the others went to bed. At 8:30, I said it was bedtime and Mag ran up and got ready and convinced the others that they had to get right to bed because Santa would skip our house if anyone was awake. He hopped into bed, lay there for 20 minutes, then came and got me and we did the stockings. I don't think he was in bed until midnight, but he'll be the first one up at 7am. That's the earliest they're allowed out of bed. :001_smile:

My kids will be skyping with their mom tomorrow afternoon and they'll open the gifts she sent. If it weren't for that, I'd save everything for Christmas day. That's what we did growing up, and we were fine with it.

My ex-wife is getting remarried in June, and all four of my kids will go. She hasn't told them about the wedding yet, because they haven't met her fiance yet and she wants them to get to know and like him before they know he'll be their stepdad. I know I won't be attending the wedding, so my kids will go with their grandparents. I think all your kids should go to the wedding. Your ex-husband should try to include DS in some of the plans to make him more comfortable, letting him know exactly what's going to happen and letting DS decide how much he wants to participate.

My four sleep in the same room, and my younger two keep their clothes in there. The older two keep their clothes (and things they don't want their little brothers to touch) in the smaller bedroom next to it. A third bedroom serves as a playroom. It can definitely work, you just have to be clear from the start that there will be no talking or playing at bedtime.

My kids know some random stuff. My 4th grader can label the world map with all 195/196 countries and can spell them all correctly. Yet somehow, we live in Canada and he still mixes up Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on the map and consistently misspells Saskatchewan. :001_huh: My 2nd grader can watch figure skating on TV with the sound off and tell you every move that they do. She's only been skating for a two years and can't do any of it herself, but she loves watching it. My 1st grader knows how to tie his own skates for hockey. I see 12 year olds getting their dads to tie their skates, but he insists on doing it himself. My kindergartener knows how to count to 20 in English, French, Spanish and Norwegian.

Congrats to your son! :thumbup1:

My 3 boys look alike. Dd looks like Ds3, but you wouldn't be able to tell she's related to the other boys.

I've put several of my kids in top bunks at 4 and never had a problem. Right now my almost 5 year old and my 6 year old are on top, above 7 and 9 year olds.

No, I wouldn't put the TV in his room. I would let ds accept the gift, but put it in the playroom or wherever ds spends a lot of time. I'd explain to the brother that it will get more use in the playroom and that ds can move it to his room when he's a little older if he wants to.

We live in Canada, so I'm teaching them some French. If we homeschool next year, I'll be getting a French tutor for my oldest, as my French was mediocre in high school and hasn't gotten any better.

Between my brothers, father and I, it's no-holds-barred. When we were younger, my mother kicked us out of the house as soon as an argument started so we wouldn't break anything! If my mother or sisters get involved, it's more of a civil conversation followed by the silent treatment.

I've always let my kids play whatever sports they want, and my older kids have tried pretty much every sport that you can play in our city. They've never had a problem learning the different sports. When they're that young, it's kept very simple. In the summer, ds9 played all-star baseball and house league soccer. He also practiced hockey once a week and went to several camps. Dd played houseleague soccer and took tennis and horseback riding lessons. Ds6 and ds4.5 played soccer and baseball and took tennis and swimming lessons. Playing several sports in the summer can make traveling a bit tough, but that depends on the level of commitment the team requires. During the school year, ds9 plays hockey about 10 hours per week and he just finished his flag football season. After Christmas, he wants to play rugby, but I'm trying to convince him to do tennis or swimming instead. Dd does figure skating, dance and gymnastics. The younger boys play hockey and will start basketball after Christmas.

When we're all up, we go down and the kids have a free-for-all with their stockings and their gifts from Santa. I don't wrap those, they're just in piles for each kid. For the rest of the gifts, we open them one at a time, with the three younger kids sitting by their piles and my oldest bringing the gifts to them. I think it's important to remember exactly which gift is from which person, so the thank-you cards can be personalized.

My kids will never have BB guns.

In the mornings, but not first thing. I get the kids up, dressed and fed, take my two middle kids to the bus stop, set the other two up with some schoolwork, work out for half an hour, then shower.

I buy the enormous boxes of cereal, and we always have 5 or 6 kinds of cereal in the house, so I'm not sure how many boxes we'd go through in a week. All 5 of us eat cereal for breakfast every morning (except when we go out for breakfast, maybe twice a month). My oldest and I also eat it as a snack most nights and my daughter brings it to school for lunch every single day.

My two oldest are picky eaters, while the younger boys (and I) will eat anything. I buy things that I think everyone will like, but if they don't, they're free to make themselves something else.

My 6 and 9 year old boys are getting snowboards, boots and helmets. 9 year old is getting XBox games, books, The Big Bang Theory on DVD and clothes. 6 year old is getting DS games, a hockey stick, a few DVDs and clothes.

My three younger kids all pretty much wear the same size. They're almost 5, 6 and almost 8. They don't share clothes (except socks), but that's mostly because one is a girl and the other two like completely different types of clothes. I'd dress them in whatever size fits, and just make sure that your older daughter's clothes don't look babyish.

I've never heard of skiing camps like this, but I've never lived in Europe. I've been investigating summer camps for my oldest for next summer, and some of what I've seen blows my mind. One camp required that all the campers stay for 8 weeks. The minimum age for the camp is 6!

I know - atavism, pirogue, feculent, debouch, estaminet, agalma, pullulating, jalousie and peculation. My 9 year old knows pirogue and feculent.

I'm 39 and my parents still haven't admitted to being Santa. :tongue_smilie: When I found out (from my older brother and his friends), I didn't feel betrayed. To be honest, I felt pretty cool and old for knowing the truth.

My 9 year old hasn't cried in months, and then it was a broken thumb. He wouldn't cry from any movie. My 7 year old probably would.