Shared birthday

Last Saturday was my birthday. I had as much of a birthday as one with kids involved in activities can have. My birthday started off entirely too early. Little Dude had the Pinewood Derby finals that morning. I was not happy about getting up at 7am on my birthday to have to drive through the snow to the race sight. But my boy was so excited to place 2nd within his pack and make it to the finals that I just couldn't say no.

I spent the evening of my birthday with Little Dude, working on his Valentine's Day box for school. GG was off at her Father/daughter Sweetheart dance for Girl Scouts. GG has fallen out of wanting to wear dresses every day, but she was so excited to dress up for the night. She was even more excited when I showed her a picture of how I wanted to fix her hair. She would have left it in forever if I let her!

During the time in between those events, I was able to spend some time at home. The kids and I watched a hockey game. They also colored me birthday pictures. I also had time to tweak my new present to my specifications.

The day before my birthday the husband informed me one of the laptops he had his eye on as a gift for me was finally available at one of our Best Buy stores. He promptly made the purchase and after work, we drove out to pick it up.

I was devastated when my netbook died right before Christmas, but I was lucky enough to be able to use the kids' desktop. Facebooking, blogging, and tweeting are all fun, but I really needed a computer. As a publisher for a Macaroni Kid newsletter, a computer is kind of a requirement. What I hated was being stuck at the table. I couldn't watch my shows and work. I couldn't watch hockey games and work. If I needed a pattern for a crochet project, I had to sit at the table and work or print the pattern out.

Now I can sit on my couch and work. Or play. My couch may not be that comfortable, but it's better than a wood chair with a crappy cushion.

Happy kids. Happy me. Happy birthday.


Until next time...

Sickeningly sweet

I have a 6 year old who thinks he's the king of the world that listens to no one and a 10 year old who is embracing every bit of pre-tweendom there is. I know. You're jealous.

But just because my kids have bratty tendencies doesn't mean they're like that all the time. In fact, they can be sickeningly sweet. Take this past weekend for example.

Friday night GG was invited to sleepover a friend's house. With one child out of the house I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to work on the 100th day of school project with the other. Little Dude, with the help of GG, decided to make a football field for this project. Football fields have 100 yards so this was a perfect idea.

I squirted some green paint on a plate so Little Dude could start to paint his field. When he was done he asked if he cold paint the rest of the plate. Instead of wasting the paint, I told him to have at it. Before it had time to dry, he asked if I could add some glitter to the paint. When all was said and done, he had a green glittered plate with a picture of a girl taped to the side. On the back of the picture was a note to his sister - I love you.

How sweet, right?! But he was not the only one who was sweet over the weekend.

GG had some gift card to a book store burning a hole in her pocket. I told her we could go to the book store and have a mother-daughter afternoon. While we were at the store, GG got lost in the maze of shelves. Being an avid reader, she just couldn't make up her mind. And then she saw it. An illuminating Harry Potter wand! Sadly, the only actual Harry Potter wand we could find was broken. She was about to settle on a Hermione wand when the look in her eyes changed. I tried to explain she could get whatever she wanted with her gift cards. GG told me if she bought the wand and one of the nooks she wanted, she wouldn't have enough money left over to buy me a treat and coffee.

Naturally that explanation broke my heart. I told her to put the wand back and grab her original choice of books. If treating me was that important to her, the husband and I would go online and buy her an actual Harry Potter wand. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She proudly paid for her books and we walked towards the coffee shop. I must say, that was the best tasting Oreo cheesecake I have ever had.

Have your kids done anything sweet lately?

Until next time...

The result of Christmas guilt

This is the time of year when our mail is more than the typical junk. So far, we have received quite a few Christmas cards. However I think there is more than just a card in those envelopes. I truly do love seeing the beautiful faces of friends and family, but I think they all somehow manage to sneak a little guilt into those little white envelopes.

Guilt, because, yet again, we failed to send out Christmas cards. I mean to send them out every year, but life gets in the way. By the time I remember, it's too late to do anything about it. This year in particular I really failed at Christmas cards. Why, you ask? Because I don't even have Christmas pictures of the kids.

Yes I have a picture of Little Dude with Santa, and one of GG with Santa, but not one of both of them. I have a picture of our tree that I am in love with this year, but not a picture of the tree with the kids around it.

I may have failed with those pictures, but I do have a picture of something cool...




GG is definitely a shop-a-holic! Those boots and gloves were part of her latest purchase.

You see, over the weekend, I brought down my iron fist and demanded the children to help clean the house.


Or maybe what I really did was bribe GG with a shopping trip to use up some gift cards if she cleaned. Bribery works. Sue me.



Until next time...

What the boy really wants

Alternately titled "The year we became some of those parents" - the crazy, must have this toy and now Christmas shopper kind of parents.


Every Christmas, we buy each kid one big gift and a few smaller, filler gifts. The idea for GG was conceived a few months ago and it is now safely hiding somewhere in the house. Little Dude's big gift? Well, that another story. And an ugly one.


A few months ago LeapFrog announced a new toy, the LeapPad. As cool as it looked, I didn't really think Little Dude needed it. I knew he would love it, but I really didn't want to buy all new games. It would be like switching all of our VHS tapes over to DVDs - a royal pain in the ass! And besides, stores around here weren't carrying them. I wasn't going to turn into one of those moms who goes nuts over a toy for her young child. I did that once with Elmo and it wasn't fun.

As time passed I periodically checked out this LeapPad. Our Target finally got a few in stock and I admit, I did play around with the display model a bit. But I still wasn't sure if his Explorer games would work with it. After more research, I learned that his games would in fact work with this new system. Now I had to get the husband on board with me on this purchase.

The husband was on the fence for quite some time but I finally managed to pull him over to the other side, my side. This feat of mine was finally accomplished the day after Cyber Monday. That night we turned to the LeapFrog website, as well as websites for any and all stores that sold toys. The LeapPad could not be found anywhere. The husband and I decided we would keep looking, but would talk up the dinosaur I had purchased a few days prior in case we couldn't acquire a LeapPad. And then Monday happened.


I had gone shopping with a friend in the morning. Once home I decided to give finding an available LeapPad a shot. The LeapFrog website wouldn't load and I knew something was up. A quick check of their Facebook page told me they had a few in stock. Everybody and their mother must have seen this status update. Damn them!

The husband and I spent the better part of the next 3 hours trying to obtain this precious toy. Just as one of us managed to add it to our virtual cart, our session would time out and the site would crash. Finally at the end of that 3 hour time span, the husband managed to add one to his cart and enter our shipping information. Just as he was about to enter our billing information, the site crashed once again. Our purchase never went through. When the site was finally brought back up, all but the super expensive bundles were sold out. Not wanting to spend that kind of money, we felt sad, frustrated, and defeated.

Yesterday afternoon the husband and I finally agreed that we would purchase Little Dude a LeapPad after Christmas. Perhaps for Easter. I had lost hope of obtaining one and I think the frustrations from Monday were something the husband didn't want to go through again. Apparently a little birdie, or frog in this case thought otherwise.

As usual, while dinner is cooking, the kids are taking a tv break, the husband is upstairs doing work for the class he's taking, and I'm playing around on the computer . That's when I saw it - our window of opportunity. One little status update with a heads up and off I was racing up the steps to share what I just read with the husband. He quickly jumped on the website and just like that, he bought our boy a LeapPad. I cannot wait to see Little Dude's face come Christmas morning!

Now if only I could have this kind of luck with the lottery!


How is your Christmas shopping going? Hopefully not as stressful as mine!



Until next time...

Free gas

Well, almost free anyway!

Our grocery store are a card. This card is awesome. When scanned at the register, you get discounts on some of the items in your purchase. Also for every $50 you spend, you earn 10 cents off gas at their station. Feeding a family of four, that 10 cents can add very fast. Especially when their are extra deals every so often. Buy 4 boxes of this brand of cereal and you can earn an extra 10 cents. Um... yes please. We like cereal.

Last month I noticed that I had $2 off a tank of gas. I got online to find out when this amount expires (your earnings are only good for a 3 month period). I had until the end of November before some of what I had earned would expire. So I began to hoard my gas discounts (aka feulperks).

Four boxes of fruit snacks? Ok
don't judge

Five boxes of GoGurts? My kids will eat them until they turn into yogurt!

I was turning into the gas discount version of an extreme couponer. But it was well worth it.

Monday the gauge wasn't as close to "E" as I would have liked, but we needed gas. We wouldn't have made it to the husband's work if we didn't fill up. I made sure to remind the husband to scan our grocery card at the pump to we could cash in our earnings.

I must say I'm a little disappointed that there weren't bells, whistles, and confetti when we were done pumping because neither of us have ever paid so little for so much gas.

Gas here is $3.39
With our discounts we paid
9.9 cents per gallon!!!

Which put our total for 8.8 gallons at...

87 cents

I know.
We're awesome!

Sorry about the crappy pictures! I didn't feel like getting out of the car to take a picture in the rain. My computer is also being dumb and won't let me crop the pictures.

Until next time...

Sanity Saver

My Thanksgiving was spent with my family. The holiday was full of good food, lots of laugh, and of course, pouring over the Black Friday ads.

My mom and I are Black Friday shoppers, but we're not the crazy ones. We could care less about the big deals and have no desire to stand in line with hundreds for hours over a tv when the store only has 8 in stock. But that doesn't mean we don't hit the mall early - early enough for the good sales, but late enough to miss the crazies.

This year while we were shopping I picked up a hitch hiker - our very own Elf on the Shelf. I have thought about bringing one home for quite some time now. Like every other kid out there, mine go nuts this time of year. I had hoped by bringing this guy home, the kids' behavior would improve, thus saving my sanity.


Friday night we welcomed the elf into our home. I explained to GG and Little Dude that his job wouldn't start until we read his story and gave him a proper name. We read the story, learned the rules, and after much debate, they finally decided to name our elf Geno.

We have had a few bumps in the road, but behavior seems to be improving. I just hope the mischief Geno causes doesn't influence the kids in how they decide to act!

Geno wasted no time getting into things. The very next morning he was found wrapped in a string of beads, surrounded by pieces of red garland from the railing above.

Little Dude, who wanted to play with the toys in the box Geno was on, decided to move him to another part of the room. Touching Geno is against one of the rules. Warning Little Dude, I told him I hoped Geno's magic wasn't gone and he could still report to Santa every night.

Luckily that warning was enough, because Geno moved onto playing with Little Dude's toys the next morning. It took the kids quite some time to find him. I guess Geno had picked an ideal spot to play without being disturbed.

The kids, Little Dude in particular, wonder aloud every night as to where Geno will end up in the morning. I can't wait to discover the places he can hide.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Geno returned carrying a note from Santa about the things that were reported, good and bad. I hope Geno can hear my wish for a note because that would be a huge boost to my sanity!


Do you have your own Elf on the Shelf? What kind of crazy places does he hide?


Until next time...

Thankful

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful. Thankful is something you should be all year, but this time of year it is stressed. I have many things to be thankful for.

Even if they are a pain in my ass.


I am thankful for...


Mount Laundry

Not a day goes by where I don't have one pile or another of clothes to wash. But every time I trip over one of those piles or leave a trail of socks behind me as I walk down to the laundry room, I am reminded of how thankful I am we are able to all have clothes on our backs. Or the floor.


Skyscrapers of dishes in the sink

Or on the counter. GG and I share the responsibility of washing said dishes. If I'm not complaining about the lasagna that burned to the pan and won't come off, then I'm bribing her to actually wash them at a reasonable hour. No matter how much whining and crying I do over those dishes, I am reminded of thankful I am we are able to fill plates with food each and every night.


Children

Whether they are fighting or laughing, I know that they always have and always will love one another. I can't imagine my life without them. It is truly a miracle that the husband and I let them live this long created such beautiful creatures.



Creaky floors and leaky pipes

It is no secret that I hate this house. So many memories have been made here, but most days, it still doesn't feel like a home. Just a house. But no matter how I feel about this house of ours, I am always thankful that we have a roof over our heads.


Alarm clocks

Not a day goes by when I don't want to chuck them into the wall. Yes I said them. This chic loves her sleep! But since one of those alarms is on my phone, which I also love, I resist the urge to throw things at the butt crack of noon dawn. Instead of throwing, I remind myself that hearing my alarms every morning remind me that I am alive. And I am very thankful for that.


Coffee

Do I really need to explain this one?!


***********************

I am taking the remainder of this week off to enjoy a day of good food, followed by a long day of shopping. I hope everyone out there has a happy turkey day. May you gobble til you wobble!



Until next time...

Rhyme Time

I am so incredibly proud of my kids. They brought home their report cards last week. All A's and B's!! I am especially proud of Little Dude because honestly, I was a little worried.

Every day I ask what they did in school. GG will give me examples of math problems or a science project. Little Dude will tell me what he ate for lunch or what he played at recess. However, when we least expect it, or at night when he's supposed to be in bed trying to sleep, he will tell us all about a lesson from the day.

Over the past few days, Little Dude has been learning that you can change the beginning or end sound of a word to create another word. Sometimes the words rhyme while other times they make a whole new word. For example, "man" can be changed into "map". At the end of last week, he was learning what can happen when the end sound of a word is changed. This week they are working on changing the beginning sound. How do I know this? Well, let me explain...


The other night I took the kids with me to Target, which could be an entire post in itself as I left with much more than I originally planned for. As usual! During the short car ride home, GG was talking about her upcoming birthday. Little Dude began to ramble on about words that can be changed. I was nodding and "uh-huh"-ing so he knew I was paying attention, even though I was more worried about driving down a dark, twisty hill in the rain. And then I heard it.... Duck. Oh, this can't end well.

Luck

Puck

Muck

Buck


And finally he came to the mother of all curse words.


Thank goodness we were in the car away from the general public and thankfully he had no idea what he had just said.

Proud Mommy Moment
hosted by Kmama and Emmy Mom
Do you have a proud (or "proud") moment
from the week?

Until next time...

Happy Halloween

Looking at the outside of our house, you would never know that I am a Halloween junkie. Except for my Boo door hanger, there is not an ounce of Halloween in our yard. First of all, it has been cold and I hate decorating in the cold. Second, very few, if any kids trick-or-treat on our street.

But that doesn't mean I am lacking on the decorations on the inside of our house.

Witch and monster sign, courtesy of my MIL.
Boo ghosts that I just finished making.
A pumpkin whose batteries might actually survive
through Halloween this year.

As much as I hate spiders, I have to put this guy out every year.
Last year, I actually forgot to put him away.
Yes, it freaked me out on more than one occasion.



web made by me

Not only do I enjoy watching my kids enjoy this holiday, but I also enjoy being someone else for a change. Can you guess what I was this year?

The husband was NOT a fan of my all to real black eye!

And by the way, why does my hair never cooperate
until I actually want it to be messy?! So frustrating!


In case you're still not sure of my costume,
would dirty, beat up wings give you a clue?

Because I have been so busy making Halloween decorations and starting on Christmas stuff, I decided to forgo making homemade costumes for the kids. The first costume GG chose was not available in a size that would fit her. Big is good as we have to work a costume over layers of clothes in this city, but 4 sizes too big is pushing it. She instantly fell in love once she saw a picture of something else.

I bought Little Dude's costume at a consignment shop back in July and up until October, he was so psyched to wear it. Then he decided to be a werewolf. Having already purchased a costume, I said no. Once I explained I could paint his face, his original costume was a go.

Without further adu, I introduce my Polar Princess and a soldier to protect her.

Or maybe a soldier to chase the polar princess with the gun I caved a bought him.

I wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween full of good candy for moms and dads to dip into!


PS. In case you're still not sure of what my costume was, I was a Fallen Angel.


Until next time...

Whose children are these?

I am happy to say that I love clothes. This was not something I could always say.

Through elementary school, I wore sweat pants. Jeans were my enemy. In sixth grade, I became a little more daring. Neon socks, layered and slouched. Jelly bracelets, stretching from my wrist to my elbow. Hyper-color shirts, mood rings, and good grief, I even got my ears pierced!

I entered junior high, wearing any color sweat pants that I happened to grab that morning. That trend didn't last long, thanks to those mean boys. I finally forced myself to get used to the feeling of denim against my scrawny legs. The shirts I wore were any color related to black.

It took me well into my late 20s to experiment with colors such as pinks and purples. I discovered that there are shoes out there, plenty of them in fact, that are even more awesome than the boots I used to wear from the boy's department.


I didn't realize when GG came along that I was in for a shock. It seems she was born with something that took me years to figure out - a sense of fashion. She loves boots that are meant for girls. She loves experimenting with color and jewelry. She got her ears pierced much younger than I. She already wants them done again.

As her mother, it is my job to guide her and give her advice. When it comes to clothing, I am turning to her, my 9 year old. According to my girl, I look good in purple. After shopping with her last week, I think she might be on to something.

Being somewhat of a tomboy as a child, it can be tricky having the complete opposite for my child. And if that isn't bad enough, I am slowly realizing that I actually have 2 children who care what they look like more than I ever did.

Little Dude can only wear certain jeans with certain shirts. He loves to fix his hair. He either spikes it up or brushes it flat. He can usually pull ff either look, but he is in dire need of a haircut. Right now, it's either the shaggy dog look or the bed head look. But the point being, he cares.

I've also noticed that he loves to cuff his jeans. Every. Single. Morning.

Can someone direct me to the Chicken Soup for the Soul- Parenting trendy kids book? I think I need it because I have no idea whose children those kids are!



Until next time...

The horse goes...

Sometimes you think you score an awesome deal. Sometimes you're wrong.


Last week was a bi-annual kids consignment sale in my area. Since I am a consignor in this event, I have the privilege of shopping before the general public.

I don't go crazy buying up clothes left and right at the sale because we are blessed to have family who love to buy our kids clothes. I hate dealing with the never ending Mt. Clothesmore, but it's one less thing for us to worry about buying. I snagged a few good outfits for each of the kids, and then I worked my way over to the toys. They certainly don't need anymore toys, but when you see something originally $50 and it's $12.50 at the sale, you just can't say no. This is why we now have a "new" sandbox that looks like a ladybug!

I also purchased something that Little Dude has been begging for ever since he saw one at a friend's house. I bought the cheapest one because it's wasn't girly looking and I assumed cheaper meant it made no noise.

We all know what happens when we assume, right? Watch and see just how wrong I was...

excuse the half nakedness
you should just feel lucky he has pants on!

Yes, Little Dude rides his beloved horse around the house ALL.THE.TIME!

Perhaps when I go back for the half price sale at the end of the event, I should look for some ear plugs?



Until next time...

Proof that kids don't listen

Or they just choose not to hear certain things.

Yesterday morning when we returned from taking the husband to work, it was relatively sunny. I decided, since we had to leave again in an hour, that I would leave my window open in the car. There's not much I hate more than getting into an insanely hot car.

I took advantage of the quiet while the kids were occupied and read a few blogs and tweeted a bit. As I was getting ready to get dressed to go out shopping, I began to hear the rain. It never occurred to me to go out and close my window in the car. My only thought was, "I guess I can't wear flip flops."

When the kids and I were walking out the door, that is when it hit me that my window was open and now my seat was probably wet. GG, who ran ahead of me, informed me that half of my seat was wet. Lovely!

I called her back up to the door. I wasn't about to leave Little Dude by an unlocked car by himself. Oh, the possibilities! Scary!

I asked GG to go up to the bathroom and grab her towel off the back of the door. My towel was still wet from an ironing debacle and Little Dude had his giraffe towel hanging. I had no desire to sit on a giraffe head!

I waited for her on the front porch so I could hear what she was doing yet still keep an eye on Little Dude. She was taking forever! Just as I was about to ask what she was doing, she returns with an unopened roll of toilet paper. Um, what?! I repeated my directions for her to get her towel from the bathroom. After another few minutes of standing in the rain, GG returns with a handful of paper towels. Seriously?! For a third time I repeated my directions to my darling daughter. She finally returned with a towel from the bathroom.

Unfortunately it was mine and it was still damp.

By that point, I was already wet so what the hell. Might as well sit on a damp towel covering a wet car seat. If you ever have the opportunity to walk around the mall with wet pants, I suggest you pass.




with The Daily Dribbles
and Emmy Mom


Until next time...

A moment

On the wall to the left of the table where my computer sits, I have pictures hanging.




The top is of GG, a few days after she was born. Below are both of babies, taken last summer.

When I look at those pictures, not only am I reminded of how much love I have for them, I am reminded of how fast time goes. The days were long, but the moments were fleeting. Days like last Friday remind me of just how fast the time flies.


Our grocery store doesn't always carry the brands that I prefer to buy. When I need something they don't have, a grocery trip is usually followed by a trip to Target. This was the case Friday.

I picked up what I needed and I decided to browse the store with the kids. Call me crazy, but I did have a purpose. I needed Little Dude to point out some things he would like for his birthday (which is tomorrow- eek!). I also needed to buy a certain article of clothing for GG.

I have noticed things when she steps out of the bath. Her body is starting to change. Up until Friday it wasn't noticeable when she wore clothes. The tank she decided to wear that day was a little snug. It finally hit home that I needed to buy my baby her first training bra.

It has been quite some time since I have had to buy one of those so I had no idea where they were in the store. By the way, they are NOT with the regular bras. The regular bras that my 5 year old son had to touch. Every.Single.One.

Once we found some that were appropriate, she began to look for one she deemed pretty enough. And by appropriate, I mean not padded. What kind of message are we sending to our 9 year olds by making padded bras in their size?!

She finally found some she liked and we made our way to the checkout.

I am so glad that I was able to share that moment with my daughter. I know some girls who do not have a mom to help them through moments like that. But as proud as I was, I also shed a tear.

My baby is growing up. I am deathly afraid of what the fourth grade will present me with come August.


*If any moms of daughters around this age have some advice, it would be greatly appreciated. I need to know what is coming in the following year so I can be prepared. Mentally and emotionally.


Until next time...

Parfait Pops

GG loves American Girl and anything related to them. She has not one, but two dolls of her own. Both dolls combined probably have just as many clothes as GG does. My girl has a lot of clothes!

GG was nothing short of excited to receive a subscription last Christmas to American Girl magazine. I have flipped through a few of her magazines myself and I must say, I am quite impressed. They are full of stories, crafts, and all kinds of confidence boosters.

Her latest edition came in the mail the other day. While she was flipping through it, she came across some summer snacks that we just had to make. We finally agreed on one snack and off to the store I went to get supplies.

The first snack from GG's list turned out so well that I have to share it.

Parfait Pops

Supplies:

3-ounce paper cups (we decided 5 ounce cups are better)
Popsicle sticks
Foil
Fruit-flavored yogurt
Fruit
Granola


1. Fill cups halfway with yogurt

2. Place a layer of fruit on top of the yogurt

3. Sprinkle granola on top of the fruit

4. Finish filling the cup with yogurt

5. Cover the top of the cups with foil and poke a stick through

6. Freeze overnight; peel away the cup and remove foil before serving



For our parfait pops, we used strawberry yogurt as the bottom layer and vanilla yogurt as the top layer. We chose blueberries and kiwi as our fruits. You can experiment with different flavors if you would like.

A healthy snack on a hot summer day. How can you go wrong with that?



Wordful Wednesday by

and




Until next time...

Fast as lightening

Tuesday night was my third annual Jimmy Buffett concert. I had a blast, but needless to say, yesterday was definitely a day of recovery. I needed to grocery shopping in the worst way, but I just wasn't up for it. Instead the kids and I went to Target for a few necessities. Because taking two kids to Target is much better than to a grocery store with a babysitting room, right?

I blame it on the after effects of the alcohol.

Anyway, while we were walking through the toy section (apparently I am a glutton for punishment!), I noticed that bikes were on sale. Little Dude needed a new bike in the worst way. A 12 inch bike doesn't really work for a 4 foot tall almost 6 year old!

Walt Disney himself must have been sending me shooting stars filled with subliminal messages. Little Dude had been talking about Cars all morning long. And I mean all! The bike with the best deal? It was a Cars bike. Score!




As soon as we got home, my hungover self decided to try and put it together. Again, glutton for punishment? After much cursing and a smashed finger, I finally got 3/4 of the bike together. I couldn't figure out the handle bars for the life of me so that had to wait til we picked the husband up from work.


Now that the bike is all put together, I have one happy little boy!




Just so you know, I didn't forget about GG. Thankfully she didn't insist on getting something new that cost the same as the bike. It wouldn't have happened anyway! She is now the proud owner of a full sized metal Slinky. We've been looking for one of those for ages!

She also now has a mini pink sock monkey that we call Amy.



Until next time...

One to remember

I never like Mondays, but yesterday was particularly rough. When your sleep schedule is thrown off course, you eventually pay for it.

I woke up too early Saturday morning. From the moment my feet touched the ground I was off running. The husband had an all day conference, the kids had soccer, and I had to go shopping for my mom in the afternoon. Shopping with two kids who were not only exhausted from playing soccer, but were also still recovering from being sick was not a pleasurable experience. Thank goodness they played nice in the car on the way to pick the husband up. After that, they were all over him because he was gone all day.

Saturday night the four of us went out to finish our shopping. The husband had some ladies to buy things for. The husband bought his mom a Kindle, which I think she's excited to use. His parents aren't always comfortable with new technology. Or technology period. While at Best Buy I noticed that they also carried what I wanted. Not only was I excited to walk out of the store with a Keurig in hand, but also a box of k-cups from Caribou Coffee (my addiction!).

On the way home I informed the kids that their present to me the following day would be to let me sleep in. Thinking they would hopefully allow that, I decided to stay up entirely too late that evening. On a side note, my new Keurig may have contributed to that!

Sunday I woke at the crack of noon. Not only was I excited that the midgets actually let me sleep in, but I was excited to see them greet me with breakfast in bed. GG was first to the bed. In her hands was a plate holding a big, fat omelet stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, green peppers, and red onions. Little Dude followed her with a big glass full of orange juice. I would have stayed in bed to eat, but once again, my new toy beckoned. Might I say that Dark Magic coffee is quite delicious!

The rest of the day was peppered with pictures and cards from the kids and a big basket of flowers from my in-laws. I'm not sure what kind of flowers they are, but I do know they attract humming birds. Hopefully we will see one for the second summer in a row.

When I wasn't collecting trinkets from the kids, I was sprawled out on the couch with a good book. It was definitely a Mother's Day to remember.

How was yours?





Until next time....

Kids never make things easy

Shopping with my kids is never an easy task. I rarely leave the store with anything for myself because I don't have enough time to actually look at anything. Most of my time is spent telling them to quit touching things.

This past weekend I found a task that is harder than shopping with my kids. It's shopping for my kids.

Last week the kids brought home their report cards. I am a very proud mama, so please excuse my momentary bragging. I'm not sure what I'm prouder of - the fact that GG brought home straight A's, or the fact that she finally got an O for outstanding in handwriting.

As far as I can see, Little Dude did equally as well. In Kindergarten, he doesn't get actual letter grades. His report card consists of PR for proficient and BA for basic. I equate this to A's and B's, with mostly PR's in key subjects like math.

As a special treat for their outstanding performance, I took them out to the toy store to pick out a special treat. I should have let Little Dude pick his treat first because he's the easy one - tools or trucks. But I went the "ladies first" route.

GG walked through at least 5 aisles with nothing striking her fancy. We moved on to video games, which we went through twice. She didn't see the game she really wanted. At this point my boy was getting just a tad impatient, so we moved onto his stuff.

First he found a weed whacker that lit up and made noise. Lovely. Then he spotted the construction aisle and we had to look, just in case he spotted the toy he really wanted. And he did - a remote control bulldozer.

I turned to GG to ask if she had made a decision regarding her choice. We walked through the video game aisle one more time. No dice. I told her we would buy her brother his toy and I would take her to another store who I knew had the game she wanted.

We walked to the front of the store, where I paid for her brother's purchase. Halfway between the register and the front door I turn to see GG walking, red faced, looking at the floor. She was trying not to cry so I asked her what was wrong. She had made her decision. Furious that she chose that moment to let me in on this, we turned to walk to the back of the store. She grabbed what she wanted and we walked back to the front of the store to pay for her purchase.

All in all, it was a 2 hour process. Kids never make things easy, but as long as they're happy in the end, it's what matters.


Now, could someone please tell me the point of Tech Decks?



Until next time....

Material Girl

I have a daughter who is a shopper. I don't know where she gets that from.

I'm being honest here, I really don't. I love to shop now, but when I was her age, I could have cared less. At her age, I rarely wore jeans. I was all about the sweats. And I had no clue where to begin when it came to my hair.

GG is quite the opposite of me as a child. She is all girl!


We had to run to my mom's. My mom surprised her with a catalog she received in the mail from Justice. Have you ever heard a little girl squeal? Let's just say it's probably a good thing I have 2 pairs of glasses!

My little diva was checking out every little thing on the pages of that catalog on the way home. The irony of the situation? We were listening to Material Girl on the radio.

Perhaps I can use that as a lesson on how not to act.

And since Little Dude now loves that song, maybe we can use it to teach him how to act just in case his girl is a material girl!



Until next time....

My kid is better than yours

Yes, yes, I know. Every mother says this. We all think our kids can do no wrong.

Wait, that may be a lie. I'm on Twitter and Facebook. All I can say is kids do some crazy things!!

My son may have his own list of crazy things, but I've realized lately that he is a genius. Hence better than your kid.

Taken at Chick Fil-a
Mommy & Son date night
2-25-11

He learned how to whistle in a matter of minutes.

He also learned how to blow a bubble with gum in a matter of minutes.

Both feats he accomplished much earlier and much faster than his big sister.


The boy also has some mad skills when it comes to Star Wars Legos. I can't tell you how many times the husband has watched him play and made comments about how hard a particular level is. It took the husband a few tries to beat said level. Before I know it, the husband is walking away, shaking his head. The boy has beat said level. The first time. Oh, the shame of being beat in a video game by a 5 year old!


I'm sure I'm making you jealous by this point, so there's probably no need to tell you how wonderful of an artist he is, too. Really, you should see my walls!

And not only can he color on the windows, too but he excels at any arts and crafts project. Just pretend you don't notice the glue in my carpet that I can't figure out how to remove.


Not only is my prodigal child great at doing things, he is also a creative thinker.

His back has been incredibly itchy the past few days. Right in that one spot you can never reach. I'm blaming the tags on his shirts because lord knows, there's nothing there!. He was complaining once again in the car on the way to the store. I told him I would take a peek as soon as I parked. Instead of waiting the 2 minutes, he found an object in the car that he could use to scratch his itch. See? Creative thinking.


The only thing is, the object was a pen. Can you guess which end he used to scratch his itch?

Have you ever tried to wash black ink off a child in a public restroom. Fun times!



I really need to stop taking this kid to store!



Until next time....

Maybe he was trying to find his princess

There is nothing that my Little Dude loves more than art.

Except maybe diggers.

Our art drawers are full of markers and crayons of every color. We have colored construction paper, a 500 sheet pack of white paper, a drawer full of coloring books and stencils. Everything fits in the drawers if I can keep it all organized. Even when organized, the supplies still spill out onto the table and floor next to those white drawers.

As much as I hate clutter, every single one of those supplies are used. It is probably the only pile of clutter in this tiny house that I can deal with.


My MIL realizes that both of my kids love to color and create, but Little Dude has the most love and passion for those activities. Every Sunday when we go to visit my in-laws, she has some project for them to do. Sometimes it involved glue and glitter, which unfortunately always come home with us. Other times it's simple coloring projects.

Yesterday was one of those simple coloring project days. She bought each of our kids a wooden sign that can be colored or painted. At the time I was eternally grateful that she chose markers instead of paint. I must admit I am getting kind of tired of scrubbing paint out of the boy's jeans!

Of the wooden signs, Little Dude chose to color the frog. My boy definitely knows that most frogs are green. He colored every inch of that frog green. Front and back. He is always very proud of his creations, as he should be. He loved this frog so much that he decided to give it a kiss in the car on the way home.





I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home and I won't even begin to explain some of the looks I received regarding my boy's face!







This was taken after his faced had been scrubbed. Most of the green came off, but there's still some on his upper lip.

He is still quite proud of his creation. Again, he did a good job so he should be. But I'm not looking forward to explaining to his teacher why he looks like he's wearing green lipstick!



Until next time....