Cornered On The Playground

A standing rule at our house is that during the school week, no friends over to play except on Fridays...and Saturdays. This was enacted to "motivate" Jack to get his homework done and mostly to counteract the chaos of school days. That's not to say that he doesn't play with neighborhood friends during the week. I mostly don't want to worry about setting up playdates and worry about driving my kids from here to there and everywhere.

After school, I was cornered on the playground. Two of Jack's friends had come up with a master plan and proceeded to TELL ME what they wanted to do at our house. I already had a long day at that point, long story involving Emma and her third "opps" report. I was in no mood to negotiate with terrorists.

I proceeded to tell one young ruffian that he was not allowed to come to our house until I talked to his parents and that he'd have to wait another day. Tears immediately followed. I've seen tears before. I was not swayed by the tears. A minute later the father walks up. I've met him before and I was pleasant when I said, " Hi, how's it going?"

His reponse; "Well, that depends on how the next minute of conversation goes."

WHAT?!

Once again, I do not negotiate with terrorists. I proceeded to tell him that since we didn't have plans that his child couldn't spring it on me and come over. I had a momentary lapse of sanity and threw him a bone by saying that he could call and set up a future playdate. How bad would it be to be "gone" all weekend and screen my calls?

Grocery Shopping

One of my least favorite household tasks is grocery shopping. Especially with children. It's a form of torture, usually self inflicted, which seems to make it even worse. The more children I take with me, the longer it takes and I usually end up forgetting half my list and spending more than I intend.

This morning when I opened my front door and brought in my milk, eggs, butter, and bread, it was like grocery shopping without even going. It was a beautiful thing to be able to make scrambled eggs and toast and not have to go to the grocery store to get the ingredients. Thank you Mr. Milkman!

Saturday is a Busy Day

So many things to get done today and so little time. We had a "quiet" morning watching cartoons and lounging around. I decided that the day was going nowhere fast I needed to get moving before it up and left. Jack needed some slacks for school and I wanted to go to look for some shirts for Michael. To the mall we went.

I haven't been to the mall in a year. I went a year ago when I was looking for school clothes for the kids. I don't love shopping at the mall, especially with three kids. In my head I thought that I would use Build-A-Bear as a reward for surviving a trip to the mall *if the kids behaved*! Jack and Emma started shoving each other right in front of the doors to the mall. We didn't even get in the mall before I took that reward away.

The cards were stacked against me as I looked at the lineup of stores that I wanted to go in. We went in Eddie Bauer found some great deals on end of season shirts. Flew past Build-A-Bear while the kids promised that they'd be good if we could go in. Then we hit Children's Place next. All three store were right next to each other. What kind of mall has the stores that you need right next to each other?!

I did reward the kids for the improved behavior by letting them choose where we ate in the food court. The kids chose McDonalds. Ugh. Yuck for me, but they were thrilled with the Star Wars toys they got in their Happy Meals.

We got home just in time to make a Chocolate Chip Pie for our neighborhood BBQ. The neighborhood had a community garage sale yesterday and this morning ,followed up by the bbq. The HOA supplied the food (didn't I pay for it?) and we were suppose to bring a dessert to share.

When we got to the barn we got a raffle ticket for showing up and another one for filling out a survey. After a while they announced that they were going to draw tickets for prizes. Sweet. I was feeling lucky! (Mostly because I had read Lori's post today regarding the cheap tickets she got) Well, they started reading the numbers and you could hear the crickets chirping because everyone was soooo quiet. When they read my number I gave a "Price is Right" yell and tried to liven up the party. They tried to give me a Cracker Barrel gift certificate, but I VERY POLITELY asked if I could have the Home Depot card. I want to paint something and this might help motivate me. I was lucky and they handed me the Home Depot $25 card. Nice.

So, what room should I paint?

Such Optimism

There is a VERY talented woman at church that volunteered to teach a class. The end product was an accordion baby book and a matching box. I wisely opted out of the box, but very naively signed up for a boy and a girl book. All of the pieces fit neatly in a gallon sized ziplock baggie as you can see below. I was sooo optimistic that I would be able to finish one today.
This is the cover page. The only page that I completed today. I won't tell you how long I was sorting, gluing, distressing, stressing...etc.
This is the book unfolded. I have the pieces that I'm supposed to glue down tucked on each page. I probably could have stayed another couple hours, but I needed to pick up my kids from school. Do you think that I can enlist Emma and Jack as child labor to help complete it?!
Perhaps when I finish I will take a close up, but until then....

It Started Out So Well

I will only state the facts as they happened, hopefully you can judge for your self how you or I would have reacted.

Things were going well. A little too well. The house was all mine. I was enjoying the silence, then things took a turn for for the worse. I decided to start the laundry to liven up the afternoon silence. No sooner had I put the load of whites in the washing machine did I spill bleach all over the floor. There was nothing on the floor to ruin, but it did splash on my newish capris. No use crying over spilled bleach.

I then head over to the school to pick up the kids. Emma informs me that she has something I have to sign and return for tomorrow. No biggie, right? There are lots of forms that need to be signed at the beginning of school. It's only the second day of school.

I ask Emma; "Is this a good or bad thing?" She replies; "I'll let you decide." She then hands me a form letter that is titled "First Grade Oops Report." The teacher can check off from a list of offenses what the student has "oops". Emma has three checks, one of which lists the offense as "Not following classroom rules". Kinda vague, but I ask Emma; "What are your classroom rules?""I don't know. We don't have any. She didn't tell us what they are"

I signed the report and in the comments section I requested a list of the classroom rules so that we could review them at home. It's the second day of school!!!!!!

Later that day.

We went to play at Brody's house. As I sat on the porch watching the munchkins play, I was suddenly head butted. Brody came out of left field and socked me right above the eye. I could tell he was hurt by the look of shock and surprise on his face. I was in enough pain to make my eyes water. Well it soon turned to tears because I was trying so hard not to laugh and my allergies were so bad that my eyes were already watering. The head butt sent me over the edge.
Nothing like being beat up by a two year old. :)

I could go on, but the rest isn't nearly as comical as the aforementioned.

The Surreal Life

I feel like I walked into the Twilight Zone and I may not want to go back to real life.

In an effort to keep Lily busy and satisfy a need for books we rode the bike to the library. The ride there isn't too bad, once I get up a small hill, the ride there is mostly flat or downhill. The way home is just the opposite. I tried to find as flat a way home as possible, but it still felt like I was biking up a mountain.

I purposely limited the number of books and how large the books were. Lily nearly insisted on a large irregularly shaped board book. It was a no go for that book. She was probably happy about my limits, she was the one holding the bag of books on the ride home. As it turns out, it was to my benefit for her to hold the books. They made the perfect headrest. She fell asleep five minutes from home.

So, I'm home with new books, a sleeping child, and not a thing that I "have" to do. The house has an eerie silence. I may have to start a load of laundry to break the surreal quality of silence.

Back to School

I'm not sure who was more excited, me or Emma. Jack had a case of "the nerves" this morning and kept balking at going to school. In all fairness, he was having an allergy attack and looked like he could use a day in bed. (No such luck on the first day of school!)Emma found her friend Morgan and marched right into school. No need to walk in with her, she barely waved goodbye as she started First grade.
Jack's teacher came prepared with a sign, which was a smart move on her part. The first day is always a little chaotic with more parents than children. Especially the ones with cameras :).

Tagged

I've been tagged. I really should play along since I love reading other peoples' answers. I hate trying to come up with unique/funny/honest answers.

These are the rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.

Joys
1. Quiet mornings
2. Hearing my children laugh
3. Reading a good book and looking at beautiful photographs

Fears
1. Extreme Heights/ standing on the edge of a cliff (thanks Dad!)
2. Getting in a car accident (I constantly look in my rear view mirror to make sure I'm not going to get rear ended)
3. Harm to my children

Current Obsessions/collections
1. Photography.
2. Reading (but that not really new, just ongoing)
3. Watching the Olympics. I have stayed up later than I like to admit and watched more tv than I care to admit, all in the name of sportsmanship.

Surprising Facts
1. I'm horrible at long distance relationships. For as much as we've moved, you'd think that I would keep in touch with friends better. Nope. Not very good at it. Thank goodness for blogs and cheap long distance phone plans, or my family wouldn't hear from me for months.
2. I exercise to eat. I love food a little too much to give it up. Now if only I could lose a few more lbs instead of maintaining the extra that I have.
3. I am a closet slob. No my closets aren't a mess, I could live like a slob if given the chance. I love the feeling of a clean house, but secretly I have my piles of stuff hidden away to make life more realistic.

I tag;
Keira
Debbie
Stephanie
Steve
Michael

Put Your Party Hats On

It's the day of Lily's party and it is raining cats and dogs. All my plans to have the kids run around outside were firmly out the window. Instead we did crafty things like coloring, making pizza, and decorating cupcakes.
The toy around the neighborhood to have; Baby Chu Chu. (Ava is looking longingly at the one that she gave to Lily)Instead of party hats, I found chef hats in the Dollar Spot. Some of the kids did not wear the hats, but most did. It was too cute when they "made" their own pizza. When it came time to decorate the cupcakes I had my mini muffin tin full of m&ms, marshmallows, gummy worms/bears, sprinkles,..etc. Brody (as seen below) decided to treat it like a buffet and surprisingly some of the candy ended up on his cupcake.
Lily had a great time and we may mot make it until bedtime before she crashes. Is that a sign of a good party?

Happy Birthday

Today is Lily's 3rd Birthday. Happy Birthday Lily!

I am going to make a cake today (notice the theme of the week?!) and see if it turns out. Last year, my attempt at a cake was a spectacular failure, we'll see if I can redeem myself. I've spoken to an expert, aka Sherri, and hope that I can do Lily's cake justice this year.

To Be Updated. (after cake is made)

Well, it went better than expected. I might get strawberries and decorate the edges...maybe.
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Let Them Eat Cake

We had cake for breakfast. I figured that since I had cake staring me in the face and I didn't want to nibble on it all day, I would indulge my kids request for breakfast. With Summer quickly fading away, we'll have a few more "why nots".

Yesterday Emma had a cake decorating session with one of my neighbors. It was just her and "Grandma" Kathy. She absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to tell us a secret about the cake when we finished trying it. The frosting was dyed with carrot and tomato juice. I'm not 100% sure that's the case, but Emma was bursting at the seams to tell us. I couldn't taste the secret ingredients, I'll have to fact check Emma's story.

An Open Letter Of Apology

To Whom This May Concern;

I am sorry that I didn't understand you when you said you were having an "allergy attack". I might have been a little smug when I said that I didn't have allergies. I was perhaps a little envious that you could wear Jackie O. sunglasses and get away with it.

Karma was a way of getting back at those that laugh at others. I am not laughing anymore as I sneeze for the 200th time today, blow my nose, and look like I've been up 72 hours straight with my glassy red eyes. And what is with the unending tickle in the back of my throat?!

I am new to this "allergy" party. I didn't want to be invited, I somehow ended up here. I used to think that Claritin was my friend, but alas, Claritin has abandoned me. Does anyone know of other "friends" willing of help me? Someone actually suggested a nose bidet today. "What?!" I'm almost desperate to try it.


Signed,
Sneezing in Colorado

Hey Mom

Lily was the first kid up this morning. As she sat down to eat some oatmeal for breakfast she started repeating, "Hey Mom, umm...hey, Mom, Hey MOM!"

"I seed a red hotted air balloon."
Seeing hot air balloons isn't that unusual around here, but the balloon was right over our neighborhood. There is a field near the rec center that many balloons land in. The kids like to watch them land and take down the balloons.

Oh Pioneer

I've been without an oven for just over three weeks. I was going to get it repaired and then I figured that I shouldn't stress out before we left for vacation. I haven't been complaining too much, Sherri was sans oven for 6 or 7 weeks.

With Summer upon us, it's much easier to fire up the grill and not heat up the house by turning on the oven. However, there are certain culinary techniques that must be executed in the oven. For instance, cookies do not cook many places other than the oven. Bread is another item that is best baked. I'm not sure that I would have been a good pioneer, I like my oven too much.

I have an appointment to get the oven fixed today. I'm trying to decide if I should make cookies or bread first.

* Well, the oven just got fixed. I nearly chocked at the price. Good thing my oven is usable, I'll be doing a lot of meals in it to make up for the cost of fixing it. Is it bad that I almost told the guy to take a flying leap and not get my oven fixed?

Be Prepared to Laugh

Funny Stuff!

Good Enough

I've been avoiding the task of hemming Jack's school pants. As you may recall, Jack wore a hole in his last pair of Khakis the very last week of school. Well, I wasn't in a hurry to hem pants all Summer but I decided to bite the bullet and get it done.

I am not a sewer. I don't have the patience or inclination to spend the time. Sometimes I feel a tug to go sew something, but it is usually something banal and perfunctory like hemming pants. Jack has three new pairs of shorts, they aren't pretty, but they're good enough.

School Registration

I wasn't the first one in line at the kid's school for registration, but I could've been. This year feels very different from last, in that we are actually ready for school. Moving in July/August is fairly nerve racking when it comes to getting kids ready for the following school year. Things are much calmer this year.

So, we went to turn in the million papers that the school would like in order for them to attend school. Hopefully I won't be filling out duplicate forms this year. I think last year because we didn't go through the regular registration process the school kept losing our filled out forms.

We did find out the kids' teachers. Not really knowing the teachers, I think that we'll be happy with whom we got. I did try and request a male teacher for Jack, but no luck there. I think that all the parents of boys wanted this teacher just because it's a rarity to have a male elementary teacher. Jack was also separated from his friend Elijah, I think this is a good thing, however Jack is REALLY good at making friends wherever he goes.

T minus 12 days.

Let The Count Down Begin

I had put the start of the school year out of my head. It seemed so far off that I didn't dare think of the day the the kids would be back in school. To top it off, Emma and Jack are on the same all day schedule. Lily will get to feel like an "only" child for a year.

When I was discussing the start date of school I had thought that it started around the 22nd or 23rd of August. Then I was informed that the 23rd was a Saturday. Well, I jumped up and went to find the school calendar to check my dates. Much to my surprise and glee, school starts on the 18th!!!!

Time to start restocking school supplies. I think the kids are ok on school uniforms until it gets cold enough to stop wearing shorts. I hit the penny sales at office Max and Depot. There is still a long list of things to get, but it's like Christmas shopping.

Wahoo!!! It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Permasuit

Permasuit (per' ma suit) n. - 1. The look of a bathing suit when not wearing one due to excessive sun 2. What Suzanne has due to lack of reapplication of sunscreen at a waterpark.

The kids and I went to WaterWorld in an attempt to avoid the heat on Thursday. I needed something to do and I figured that a day at a water park would keep us busy and mostly out of trouble. I was planning on meeting a neighbor, but the park was so huge and busy that I actually never saw my neighbor. That was probably for the best as I was constantly counting and keeping my eyes on the kids.

As soon as we got to the park I made sure that everyone got sunscreen. I even remembered to have Jack lather up my back, which is where I tend to burn due to forgetfulness. Apparently when I applied sunscreen to my shoulders and chest it was a drive by application. My back was fine, but I didn't get a thick enough layer up front to do any good. Needless to say, I'm in a little pain today. The good news is that the kids didn't get burned.

So, comments on the water park. The kids area was great. It has a lazy river, a small pool, a couple slides, and a "Fun House". The fun house was a three story maze that had booby traps to spray unsuspecting passerbys and water cannons to shoot as well. This was a big hit, it was hilarious to watch grown men wait in line for the water cannons and then go crazy once it was their turn.

Outside of the kid's area there are a couple wave pools and tons of slides. Most of the slides we didn't go on because Emma wasn't tall enough and Jack isn't a big fan of the unknown. The wave pools...well, there's a story.

When we first got to the wave pool there were no waves. Emma was less than impressed but we played in the shallow end of the pool to appease Lily. As soon as a wave started in the deep end of the pool there were screams of delight and fright. People stared rushing toward the shallow end of the pool. Not Emma. She started screaming and running into the wave. That was a priceless moment.

By the end of the 30 minutes or so that we spent in the pool the kids were getting a little more daring and playing in the slightly deeper water (2 feet deep vs. 2 inches deep). Lily loved the waves and didn't want to be held which was actually nice and gave my arms a rest.

Well, it was the last wave of the day did me in. Being in the deeper water meant that it was a little more crowded and there were intertubes as well. When the wave came, all I saw coming at Lily and I was a wall of people and intertubes. I snatched her up and turned around hoping that I could brace for impact. I didn't stand a chance. The wave crested at my shoulders and the wall of intertubes knocked us down. All I could think of doing was holding Lily up and trying to keep her out of the water. As I scrapped my knee on the bottom and then arched up into someones head, I made eye contact with a guy that saw Lily and I getting trampled. He grabbed Lily as I went by. I couldn't thank him enough.

Jack, Emma, and Lily wanted to wait until the next wave, but I had to veto that. I was ready to leave. Other than too much sun and getting knocked over in the waves it was a fun day.