Liam picks up phrases and sticks to them for weeks, months, whatever suits his need. The latest:

Liam: Mom, I’m not letting you off the hook.

Me: (Cringing because the worst of Liam’s phrases are him playing back my own less-than-loving lines from when I am grumpy or annoyed) Not letting me off the hook how Liam?

Liam: I’m not letting you off the hook of love.

I’ll take that.

So here’s a fairly recent “Aidan-ism.” In the context of discussing how some kids are really great at some things and some kids aren’t, Aidan explained:

“It is not always the best to be the best. Yeah, because if you are the best all the time, you might not get taught anything.”

I thought it was a lovely pearl, given the competitive nature of our first born.

So for a very brief period of time this summer, I was unemployed. Did I start running? Did I dust off my draft of a novel? Did I go through my boxes and boxes of photos?

Nope.

I read the Twilight Saga. Well, read might be too loose of a word. How about swallowed whole in a mind-numbing week of no sleep? And then proceeded to re-read. I haven’t re-read a book this much since I spent a beach vacation with The Waves. Then dragged the family to Forks.

Did I see the movie? Yes. Don’t get me started…

Did Matt go with me on this ride? Sigh. He tried. He read the books and attended the movie, supportingly. But I can’t say that he “got” it. I also have to confess that Aidan and Liam know about mommie reading her “books” and Aidan even knows they are about vampires (not sure he gets vampires but loosely he thinks they are in the same class as Ventress).

So why am I finally coming clean? It has been through the crest and fall (it was briefly cool and now it is yesterday’s newsprint), it was decried by feminists and lauded by teenage girls and it was even NPR-ed to death.

Now is the time because a friend who I respect immensely confessed her secret Twilighting tonight. She is finishing Breaking Dawn and we are going to “talk” afterward. I can’t tell anymore for fear of revealing her identity unwittingly, but let’s just say I feel validated. (Plus, I was outed at work so I guess it was time anyway).

What a tremendous Thanksgiving we just had — a house full of amazing people, beautiful food, and lots of laughter. Really couldn’t have asked for more. I mean it.

Lucky. That’s how I feel, because every year at this time I think about James Kim and his family, who took a Thankgiving trek to the Pacific Northwest that ended tragically. I wasn’t close to James (we were aquaintances at a former company) but like so many others, I was deeply moved by the Kims’ experience.

After James’ death, I swore I would always pack my vehicles with all manner of emergency equipment and look into fancy gadgets that would allow for easy tracking of the family. Guess what? Two years later, I don’t have as much as a single flare in any car we drive.

But I have spent plenty of time beating myself up for it. Late night thoughts creeping in about how I need to get it together. Another Thanksgiving coming and going without properly equiping the cars. Sigh.

This year, I have a new take on things. No, we didn’t pack the car with supplies necessary for extra-ordinary survival circumstances, but we did make some fairly dramatic lifestyle changes in the last two years to enable us to spend more time together as a family. I will eventually get a flare or two, but in the meantime, I just want to say thank you to James Kim for reminding me of what’s important.

Matt and I loved Northern Exposure, the 90s era show set in Alaska. It was actually filmed in Rosalyn, Wa, which is not too far from us. So when we decided to do a weekend camp-out on a whim, we headed that general direction. Camping didn’t work out (note to self: don’t try and camp without reservations in the summer in Washington anywhere within striking distance of Seattle). But Rosalyn did. The kids were not so impressed, but we enjoyed tromping around the town and seeing the relics of the long-gone show.

The guys and I spent the first part of the summer in my home town of Springville, CA. It’s a speck of town in the southern sierras with a population of barely over 1,000 folks — and I do mean folks. What fun to go back to the place and see it through the eyes of Aidan and Liam. Who knew that the highlight would driving a patio boat on a puddle of a reservoir called Lake Success. When you are three and six, these things are huge.

My favorite was getting to show them the big trees. Most people think you have to go to a national park in California to see Giant Sequoias, but lucky for us there is an amazing grove or two right up the road from when I grew up. We went to the Trail of 100 Giants, with its paved trail and bathrooms, was a perfect afternoon for the little ones. There’s really nothing like these trees and I won’t pretend that I am not homesick for them now.

Also, after a year in the grey of Seattle, it was nice to have a week of heat and sun. There was the pool everyday, going to the park in the morning before it go too hot, and lots of ice cream. Basically — summer.

Liam runs runs runs everywhere now but how did it all begin?

Ringing in the next 40 years at a cabin in the woods with no electricity and an Eagles song from 1975.

Happy Birthday Brad!

A recent conversation with my oldest son:

Me: “What do you want for your birthday party this year? How about the science museum?”

My son: “Hmmm. Maybe.”

My son: “Yeah, bowling. No. I don’t know. Wait! I know, I know. Wii bowling. I want to have a Wii party.”

Me: “A Wii party. Huh. Okay, so we could have a few of your buddies over and play Wii and eat cake. Sounds great.”

At this point I am getting excited about this low-cost, low-impact idea. Why with only a few kids coming over, I might even attempt the Martha Stewart Wii cake. Nah. Get real. Who has time for the Martha Stewart cake? Still, I am daydreaming about it when his next sentence snaps my head back.

My son: “Yeah, and we need to invite my WHOLE CLASS. And Will. And David. And Caleb. And…”

Huh is right. There are 23 kids in my son’s kindergarten class, not to mention the other friends he wanted to tack on. We have one Wii and one TV. After a few days of panic, many Web searches and mommy-friend conversations, here’s what we did to do the party and still try to keep it low-cost and low-impact.

1) borrowed a Wii from a friend and a projector from work to set up two Wii stations on opposite ends of our family room — do not be fooled, setting up Wii with a projector is not easy because of where you need to place the sensor etc. eHow has some great tips.

2) made name tags for everyone that went around their necks so we would know everyone’s name and so we could track of how many turns everyone had.

3) Evite for the invites because it was cheaper, greener and easier.

3) did a “make a Mii” craft table for kids not interested in Wii  (as part of playing Wii you make an avatar-like character called a Mii). we cut out a bunch of construction paper in the shape of a Mii, and put out glitter, glue, stickers, etc. This is where most of the girls hung out the entire party and they made some amazing Miis. I was inspired to do this craft by Treasure Box Parties who actually makes Mii dolls if you want to go all out.

4) had a baseball and soccer pinata in the backyard to get them away from the screens for awhile

5) did not make the martha cake. instead bought a Cars cake because that’s what my son requested (and it was easier, of coursel). I saw some amazing Wii cupcakes — maybe next time. Also, we just set out a variety of kid-friendly snacks, including vegetables (which some kids actually ate) and water bottles with everyone’s name on them.

6) gave away books instead of trinket-filled goodie bags so the parents would know that I was still a good mommie even though I condone video games

It was our best kid party ever.

Animal week at preschool. Liam broke into song.