Catching Up – Again

Well, once again I have been terribly delinquent in updating the blog.  I will try to make this post contain fewer words than War and Peace but no promises.
K’s Cub Scout troop had their Pack meeting on Tuesday with a not-so-surprise visit from Santa.  It is so cute that all the boys, even the 5th graders, still get excited about Santa coming.  Whether or not they believe, they all participate good naturedly and no one tried to spoil anything for anyone.
Last week was K’s last day of school for 2009.  He is excited to have a break but also eager to get back to school. (I know, go figure)  On December 17th K got his report card and I had a conference at D’s school.  K’s report card was excellent.  3’s and 4’s (meeting or exceeding) in everything except for one 2 (needs occasional work) in PE.  The one in PE relates to him getting frustrated and upset when things don’t go his way.  He is working on it and I was so proud of him for all the hard work he has put in this year.  He also got a new reading assessment and moved up a bit so that he is now firmly into the fourth grade level for reading.  He was also a “Top Dog” for two months in a row which essentially means that he took and passed more reading tests than required of him.  One of his friends was a “Quad Dog” (passed 4 times as many tests as required) and he briefly thought about trying to catch her but changed his mind. :)
D’s conference went very well with the teacher showing me how much his printing has improved and praising him on how hard he works.  His fine motor skills just amaze me.  He cuts around shapes on the lines and can take a pen and trace over a line almost better than I can.  His teacher also said he is so fun to teach because he understands what she is trying to do.  Their lesson plan last week was “Healthy Bodies” and one of the activities was to place the appropriate healthy items in a refrigerator they had made.  Some of the kids were putting cookies, tennis shoes, etc into the refrigerator and D would be “no, broccoli goes in the refrigerator”.  He is almost as bossy as his big brother and even more precise so I can just see him doing this.  Overall I was very pleased with the reports for both of the boys.
Wednesday was K’s exhibition/belt ceremony for Karate. As we were leaving he had told me that he didn’t want to do Karate anymore.  As this was the end of the session I told him it was his decision and that was fine.  After being awarded his blue belt (he skipped a whole level, from yellow belt two stripes to blue belt) he has changed his mind.  I think he was nervous that he wasn’t going to get his blue belt and thought I would be disappointed so he was preemptively giving himself a way out.  He was so proud of himself when he was awarded that blue belt.  It was so gratifying to see such a smile and such pride in himself.

The next session starts in January and since I promised D that when he turned 4 he could also take Karate we will have two classes to go to per week.  There is too large of an age difference for them to be in the same class, although for the sake of them focusing at all that might be a good thing.  I see much snack and homework planning in my future.
On Friday K’s Cub Scout troop helped distribute presents from the Tree of Giving at the mall.  I was a little apprehensive as I wasn’t sure what the system there was and with D going with us I knew that it was either going to go well and we were all going to have fun or I was going to be a frazzled, cranky mess.  I am happy to say the former happened.  When we arrived at the mall I could not believe the HUGE pile of presents that were waiting to be sorted.  It was actually very heart-warming to know that so many people were going to be helped this holiday season. 

The picture is a little blurry (all I want for Christmas is a new camera, a new camera, a new camera) but it gives you an idea of the amount of gifts being distributed. 
I am pleased to report that there was an actual, efficient system which allowed the Scouts to sort the gifts yet blocked them off from the shoppers in the mall and that there were plenty of uniformed leaders around to help with questions and keep an eye on the boys.  The mall is okay, but it isn’t the most upscale mall in the area so I had a few mommy nerves knowing that unless I dragged D around with him K was going to have to do this on his own.  He did a fantastic job.  Luckily the tree was located next to the play area so I guarded the far side of the gift yard (the side that didn’t get opened for the boys to sort) to make sure that people just didn’t snag gifts and walk off (it apparently has happened almost every year).  This position allowed me to see K every time he came to grab a gift (Okay, not every time. There were a lot of Scouts there), yet I was only about 2 feet away from D in the play area.  It could not have been more perfect.  The kid with the hat on peaking out from behind the present is in K’s den and the two of them had a great time doing this together. 
After everything had been sorted, K’s Den Leader (said kid’s dad), his younger brother (D’s age), K, D and I delivered a load of gifts out to a care home.  Understandably the boys weren’t able to see the residents, but it was still a great experience for them to follow through from sorting to actually seeing the place that is benefiting from these gifts.  Plus, they got cookies from the staff which the boys thought was great.  K’s Den Leader and I were touched by how sincerely thankful the staff was that people took the time to purchase these items and then that more people took the time to deliver them.
Saturday K’s Cub Scout pack (it was a busy Cub Scout week) sang carols at a retirement home near here.  I was expecting just a small group of the residents to attend but there were probably close to 50 people in the seating area to hear the boys sing.  I was coordinating the event and was a little unsure how many of the boys were going to show.  It was a pack sponsored event, but it wasn’t a required event and I didn’t get many RSVPs.  With that in mind I decided that it would be nice to do something extra special to show the residents that the pack was pleased to be there.  Of course, as with all my ideas like this it came to me at the last minute so simple and fast were the key words for the project.  They weren’t perfect, but I thought they turned out pretty cute.

It also had the dual purpose of giving D something to do.  He was my official helper and distributed these to all the people in the audience.  D also put all the tags on the candy canes.  He was a very big helper.  It would have taken me twice the time to assemble them all myself.

Believe it or not he was happy when I took this photo.  I probably said something like “a pretty smile” and this is what I got.
Happily, we had a nice turnout of Scouts for the caroling and the mother of one of the boys played the piano.  The residents were a very appreciative audience.  The boys had fun, if the smiles were anything to go by, and one of the ladies from the center had little activity booklets for each of the boys at the end of the program and then the boys were invited to partake in cookies and apple juice.  Again, it was another experience showing how taking the time to do something that may seem small brought a lot of joy to people.  I’m even being to feel festive.
If I don’t talk to you before Friday,
Merry Christmas!
PS:  I’m working on Christmas Cards, I promise. I think they need to make New Year’s cards.  That seems to be more my timeframe. :)

Holiday Fun

I would officially like to panic.  I don’t think I have been this behind on the things I wanted to get done for the Holidays in a long time. 

That being said, while it may not all be complete I do have it planned out so while I am panicking I’m not completely insane yet. 

My new wreath is almost done.  The old one ‘has issues’ (which is code for two years ago J just tossed it in the garage and it never got hung up thus it was destroyed) and I decided this year that I missed having a wreath on the door.  I found some pretty good sales at Michaels and I have more or less placed the items I just need to secure them then find a ribbon or focal piece.  It may go up with a temporary ribbon this year and then I will probably add a few more touches next year.  I know it is a little plain but it suits me.  (It also seems more vibrant in person than in this photo.  It think my flash may have washed it out a bit)

I have all my shopping for K done.  The problem now is that I keep finding more stuff for him.  Must.not.buy.more.stuff.for.K.

I am still working on presents for D.  I did get excited this weekend when I found that a number of the items I had been thinking about getting for D were on sale this week.  I was only looking for one or two more things so I should be all done with him.  Then of course I’ll have to have the same reminder that I’m struggling with for K. :)

Somehow the weeks have gotten away from me and it suddenly hit me that this was K’s last week in school before break.  I didn’t have any goodies or anything for K’s teachers.  Being short on time I went with fast, easy classics in the treat department.  The boys and I made everything but the truffles on Sunday so that they would be fresh.  K helped with the first batch or two and then he was all about taste testing.  D was a huge help with everything but the truffles (they were asleep when I did those) and he also was quite happy to test taste every batch.  The cookies may not be fancy (nor is the packaging) but the boys have assured me they are good.

Shown above (pre wrapping):  Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, Sugar Cookies, Shortbread, English Butter Balls and Irresistible Truffles. (I was going to make Double-Layer Fudge but my condensed sweetened milk had gone off so no fudge.  I was also going to make another batch of cookies, Snickerdoodles or Peppermint Pinwheels, but I couldn’t fit five batches of cookies and a trip to Bellevue into my Sunday.  Oh well, maybe for the next batch)

J’s Dad came up to visit last week and stayed the weekend over at the cousin’s house.  The boys had a great time visiting with him. 

The boys and I had planned to go to Garden d’Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden and David was gracious enough to go with us and to drive.  It had been about 4 years since I had gone, however it was as cool to look at as I remembered.  The boys had a lot of fun with the critter map looking for all the animals made out of lights. 

        

I have a number of slightly blurry pictures of our experience at the garden.  It is hard to use the night shutter while making sure that the kids didn’t get swallowed into the crowds.  It didn’t feel terribly crowded however it was easy for the kids to get just one person in front of me and I couldn’t see them.

Somehow David escaped without having any pictures taken.  I’m not sure how I managed to let that happen.  I guess that just means it will be double photos when he and Gayla come back up in March.

Tonight I have to finish up the tags for the Cub Scout awards tomorrow, then get K ready for exhibition/belt night at Karate on Wednesday.  On Friday we will be helping with the Tree of Giving at the mall and then K’s Scout Pack is scheduled to sing carols at one of the retirement homes in the area on Saturday. 

I don’t have any of the gifts for the Great Grandparents or Grandparents completed yet, however I’m hoping they are all used to me being late and will understand that their gifts will arrive in early January. 

As busy as things seem I have a great time doing all this and I love that the kids are so enthusiastic about everything.

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful holiday season.

Fake it ‘til you make it (or, she’s whine ranting again)

That is normally my motto, but I’m not doing a very good job of it right now.  Maybe I need to switch to ‘breathe and keep perspective’.

Between Christmas shopping giving me an ulcer (hold that thought), the stress with my job and not knowing if I’m going to have one after the end of January or if I’m going to have to leave or be left with the abusive partner (verbally and emotionally, I’m not kidding), add to that the fact that I completely forgot to get all the Great/Grandparents gifts made and missed the order deadlines for most of them, I’m not faking it very well. There is more stuff but those are some highlights.  I told my Mom the other day that for the last 6 months I’ve felt like the Universe was testing me to see how much I could take and I’ve about reached the point where I’m going to crack. 

Christmas shopping (I told you to hold that thought).  I’m having a more hate than love relationship with Amazon right now.  Eight days ago I purchased something from Amazon, it arrived yesterday.  Today it was $20.00 less.  I emailed them asking for a price adjustment and received a canned reply (not a very good one at that) telling me “Our prices regularly change, and the price you paid when your order shipped on December 02 was the lowest price we were able to offer at the time”.  I call bull!  In all the economics, marketing and business classes that I’ve taken prices do not fluctuate that greatly ‘naturally’ in 8 days (not even commodities).  Apparently, and this is my fault as I didn’t check, they changed their policy last year and no longer give price adjustments.  My biggest frustration isn’t even them, as I said I had a responsibility to check their policy prior to purchase, but my frustration is the gift in question is the ONE thing that D has requested for Christmas.  Half of me wants to slap the return label on it and say that their inadequate customer service has gotten the item returned and they can go jump in a lake, but the other half of me acknowledges that while it was relatively expensive it was a price I was obviously willing to pay and would have been accepting of had I not seen it for less there today.  I guess it just irks me that their customer service model is now so poor that they could not even make a token gesture of offering something like a $10.00 account credit to be used on a future purchase. 

I think what really set me off is that about 20 minutes prior to finding the Amazon issue the underwire in my bra broke!  It was the not so proverbial last straw. :)

As you can tell, I’m cranky.  I’m trying to get over it and to remember that I’ve always been able to make things work in the past and that I’m sure I’ll be able to figure something out now.  So crankiness is officially over (I hope).

Almost productive

Days like this can be so frustrating.  On one hand a few things got done and the boys and I had fun, but on the other hand I feel like 10 things were added to the list of things I need to accomplish and I didn’t even come close to accomplishing things. *sigh*

The good things

1.)  Went to the mall with the boys and had their picture taken with Santa.  We didn’t get there as early as I had hoped so we stood in line for about 45 minutes.  The boys were so good.  I could not believe it. 

2.)  We received a coupon to Build-A-Bear when we visited Santa.  When we had been in the mall a couple of weeks ago we noticed that Build-A-Bear had Star Wars outfits for the animals and there was a small puppy that D wanted.  Being that D’s birthday is Monday and I didn’t really have a present for him I thought that this would be a wonderful, fun thing to do for his birthday.  Not to mention it is a nice treat for their superb behavior.  I ended up buying two animals, one for D’s birthday and one that K knows takes the place of a Christmas present.  Both of the boys were so adorable doing the motions for the heart.  I was surprised that K was interested at all, but apparently the power of little brother doing something and him not being involved overrode the ‘I’m too big for stuffed animals’ attitude.

I noticed that as we left Build-a-Bear there was only 1 person in line at Santa.  Mental note for next year, arrive about 2 hours after Santa opens on a Sunday.

3.)  Went grocery shopping and while I didn’t do as well as I had hoped in the savings department I did get a 22lb turkey for $4 and I saved more than I spent, so that works. :)

4.)  Did a load of laundry so that I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow.

5.) Picked up D’s cupcake cake for his party at school tomorrow.  I hate that I have to buy something because you can’t send anything homemade.  Seems like a huge, unnecessary expense but the boys really love to celebrate at school.  D chose an alligator cupcake cake and it is really adorable.  I need to try and take a picture of it tomorrow morning.  I left it in my car as it has a better chance of getting to school safely if I don’t have to carry it around to much.

The not so good things

Are boring and inconsequential so they don’t deserve to be discussed.

Off to work on the awards for Cub Scouts on Tuesday.  I was hoping to put a die-cut of a US Navy destroyer on the award baggy since we have two Navy people coming in to speak and show the boys some stuff, but I couldn’t find anywhere that had a destroyer die-cut.  I guess nothing fun this month. 

I am also going to make a batch of cupcakes for our family birthday party tomorrow.  I was trying to wait for D to go to sleep before I did that, but it is 11p and he’s been in bed for over two hours and isn’t asleep yet.  I want to sleep eventually today so I guess I’m just going to make them now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday to D, Happy Birthday to D

So technically D’s birthday isn’t until next week, however we had his party last weekend since I decided we would have a better chance of getting people to attend if the party wasn’t so close to Thanksgiving.

I always feel like D gets short changed on his birthday compared to K’s.  With D’s birthday being in proximity to Thanksgiving (or on Thanksgiving) it just seems to me that his celebration is never all that it should be.  I’ve decided to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future and I started with this year’s party.

D decided that he wanted a Black Train party this year (so no Thomas trains) with a Lightening McQueen cake.  I had found the most adorable black train paper products on Oriental Trading but I didn’t get them ordered in time.  I tried to order them with about 10 days to go before the party and it was going to cost $15 in ‘expedited’ shipping to get them here in 7 days.  Considering the entire order was only $13 I didn’t think that was a good deal.  That also meant that I was completely stressed on how I was going to get the decorations that I wanted for his party.  We tried WalMart and Party City, no luck.  I was pretty sure that Target didn’t have any and knew the dollar store didn’t have them so I was absolutely panicked that D’s party was going to be horrid because I didn’t have these decorations.  (Okay, I realize that isn’t very rational, but I’m a Mom give me a break.)  I knew there was a party store next door to the post office that I use for work and that was my last hope.  It is a giant warehouse of party things so I was cautiously optimistic that they would have what I needed.  I went in and looked all around the birthday party section, twice, and couldn’t find what I was looking for.  I finally asked one of the ladies there and she took me over to a little board where they had some plates taped up and there was a black steam train.  Not identical to what I had seen but really cute and close enough that I knew D would be thrilled.  It turns out that this board held items that they didn’t have the room to put on the shelves but that they still had in the storage area.  She took me back into the storage room and pulled out two boxes full of party supplies for this theme.  I have to admit that I went a little over budget due to my excitement and my gratefulness for her help, but D was so excited when I picked him up from school and showed him what I bought that it was more than worth it.  As an added bonus a couple of the decorations became room decorations after the party so they did double duty. 

One thing I have noticed about D’s school is that not very many people show up to birthday parties.  We have been to parties where even though I knew the entire class had been invited we were the only one from school.  Because of this  I was very excited that 5 of D’s classmates RSVP’d to the party.  Those 5, plus my 2, plus his 3 cousins would be more than enough kids to have a fun party.  Being that the party was going to consist primarily of 3 and 4 year olds and that we wouldn’t be able to go outside because of the weather, I made it a very short party, only 1.5 hours.  This turned out to be perfect.  The kids played trains in the front room together, we did one party game (that I had bought because I couldn’t think of anything fun to do to make. Who makes these games and the fact that they must not have kids is another topic altogether), then we had cake, presents, a little more play time and it was time for everyone to leave.  Yea!

The Lightening McQueen cake was a big hit.  D thought it was fantastic, and as I’ve mentioned before, that is all I care about.  The decorations were adorable and it was so delightful to see the kids playing together and having fun.  Kids that age have so much imagination and enthusiasm and truly just seem to delight in having the chance to play with each other. 

  Black train theme.

After the party the cousins stayed and played for a few hours which incredibly fun and, I think, made D’s day all the better.

Overall I think I achieved my goal and D finally had a birthday party that truly helped him celebrate his special day. 

D is 4 now.  Can you believe it?

The evolution of a nickname

Or…My her mind is convoluted.

When K was born he had a nickname within two weeks and this nickname has been the predominate name associated with him since.  In fact, I have a hard time remembering not to call him this name in front of his friends now, as 8 year-old boys DO NOT appreciate it when their Mom uses a “childish” nickname in front of their buddies.  I also have to give him hugs and kisses out in the hall when I drop him off at the Y in the morning too and only get to pat his head and tell him to have a good day in front of his friends. *sigh*  At least I still get the hug and kiss so I won’t complain too much.  Oh, the nickname – Squirm – derived from his inability to be still.

This isn’t to say that K hasn’t had other transient nicknames associated with him throughout the years, but no other has really stuck.

D, on the other hand, has one predominate nickname, Little One, but a number of other names depending upon what is going on.  One day my Mom asked me how he had come about the particular nickname I was using, McMuffin.  No it didn’t have anything to do with McDonalds but I’m pretty sure I saw my Mom roll her eyes when I explained the process.

Being a normal 3 year-old boy (ie: terror with limitless energy) I had affectionately started calling him Monster.  I decided that people might think this sounded mean (it really was said with all affection and no negative connotations in my mind as his love of cookies at 2 led to references of Cookie Monster), so I did a  little alliteration and started called him McMonster.  One day in the car I was joking with K about a nickname I had made up for him a few years ago, SnuggleBunnyFudgeMuffin, (don’t ask, even I don’t remember the exact way that came about, something with word association and trying to make him laugh I believe) and decided that D needed a name similar to that.  I couldn’t come up with anything as fantastical as SnuggleBunnyFudgeMuffin so I settled on Muffin.  That still didn’t sound quite right so I took the Mc of McMonster and it became McMuffin. 

My brains sequence:

Monster  -->  McMonster –> SnuggleBunnyFudgeMuffin –> Muffin –> McMuffin

I don’t see anything strange about that. :)

PS:  I feel like posting today and am way behind on sharing so expect to see a number of posts this weekend.

Do you have a WormPig?

Sometimes the boys, especially the Little One, plays WormPig.

What is a WormPig you ask?  It is a bit hard to explain.  One morning when I wasn’t feeling well, D came to lay down with me.  As he was laying down I probably called him a monkey or something and he said ‘No, I’m a pig’.  Somehow after that he said he was, what I understood to be, a warm pig.  This is the most sense it made to me since he was under the covers.

I was told I was wrong and that he was a WormPig. I’m still not sure where he came up with that but now we play WormPig.  Originally it was just when one or both the boys cuddled with me, but they seem to have branched out so that you can find WormPigs all over my house now.

Just the random story for the day.

What did you do this week?

K’s birthday party last weekend went pretty well.  I had three games planned and the kids blew through them so they ended up playing together in K’s room a lot, which seemed to work for them but made me feel like I didn’t put on a very good party.  One of the games was Find the Battle Droid, which consisted of about 30 balloons on the floor that the kids had to pop and whoever found the picture of the battle droid won.  I completely under estimated the noise that 8 kids popping balloons at one time would make.  Another of the games involved taking those stretchy sticky hands and trying to “capture” Pokemon and Bakugan cards that were suspended from helium balloons.  The kids loved that one, but a few of them were much better at aiming than I anticipated (or they chaeated, I couldn’t watch them all at once) because I thought that game would take much longer than it did.  The kids loved the sticky hands and everyone got to take home the cards they captured (2 a piece) and a helium filled balloon.  Plus, I love the look of those colorful strings hanging from the ceiling during the party.  Very festive.

My poor niece didn’t have very much fun.  She was the only girl here and wasn’t really into all the things the boys were doing.  I think next year I’ll have to let her parents know that she is welcome to come (K loves her and they have fun when all the other boys aren’t around), but that she shouldn’t feel like she has to come if she doesn’t want too. 

The Pokeball cake was success.  K was so happy when he woke up the morning of his party and saw his cake.  It makes all the flaws that I see in it disappear.  The goal is always for him to be happy, as long as that happens all is good.   

Monday evening  K still didn’t seem to be getting over his congestion so Tuesday afternoon I made the decision that we were going to stay home all week and let him rest.  It meant that he had to miss Cub Scouts and Karate, which I hated to do, but in the end I think it was the correct decision.  By Friday morning, while he was still a little congested, he was much peppier and more his old self.  Unfortunately the same could not be said for D.

On Wednesday I received a call from D’s school that he was just crying and crying. No fever, but he definitely wasn’t himself.  Luckily my Mom is still in town so she was able to go get him.  About 5 minutes before she showed up he got a fever of 100.2 which meant he couldn’t come back the next day. *Sigh*   I go to pick him up that afternoon at Mom’s after picking up K from school and my poor Little One was all whiny and clingy.  Most definitely not his normal self.  I give him some pain medicine and within 15 minutes you wouldn’t have known anything was wrong with him.  He was running around and fighting with his brother like nothing was wrong.  Just as I thought, ear infection.  Because of the fever he couldn’t go back to school the next day and since they typically won’t give you antibiotics for a low level ear infection I didn’t take him to the Dr.  He was fine all day on Thursday while he was with my Mom.  He didn’t need any pain medication, didn’t show any signs of pain or fever, etc.  Friday morning at 2:45a he wakes up screaming like he is being tortured and with a temperature of about a 102.0 (I don’t have a working thermometer right now, but having been through this a lot with K I’m pretty accurate at telling their temperature by touch).  More pain medication and he goes right to sleep.  *Sigh*  Thank goodness for Grandma again.  She not only watched him for me on Friday, but she took him to the walk-in clinic.  Bi-lateral ear infection.  Completely infected.  The Dr. said it was bad.  My poor sweetie.  At least at that level they know it is bacterial and still do prescribe antibiotics so within about 12 hours he was feeling much better. 

We did have a funny episode though.  Because both of the boys were congested and we just couldn’t seem to break it (I have a humidifier in each of their rooms) I broke down and gave them an OTC liquid.  Because I was trying to be thrifty I bought the generic, store brand version.  Apparently this was not a good plan.  I gave it to K first as I didn’t really want to give it to D unless I had too.  K said it was absolutely disgusting.  I thought he was just being dramatic.  I mean they never taste good but his reaction was a little over the top.  A day or two later D didn’t seem to be getting any better (this was before Wednesday) so I gave him some.  He made this horrible face, looked at me like I had just violated his little trust and started wiping at his tongue with his hand.  I gave him a glass of milk and once he was willing to talk he told me he said “That tastes like yuck.”  So it is unanimous amongst the boys, the OTC medicine tastes like Super Yuck (they upgraded it after comparing notes) and I don’t think there is anyway I will get either of them to take it again.

Saturday, since everyone was feeling better (except for me, but I had pretty much passed out Friday evening and had gotten a lot of sleep) D and I went to help my Mom look at granite slabs for her kitchen.  K stayed with my Dad.  I felt a little bad since it was my Dad’s birthday and my gift was pretty much here Dad I love you watch my son for me. :)  The two of them went to Starbucks and then went back home and hung out so apparently it worked for them. 

Anyway, Mom, D and I drove down to look at the granite.  She had 6 places we could have visited but we only checked out two.  I swear, I am not exaggerating, we probably looked at 300 slabs of granite.  I was on such granite overload by the end of that time that I was getting a little rummy about what I liked.  It was sort of, yeah that is lovely, looks fine.  hehe.  To add a degree of difficulty to the entire situation due to safety regulations D wasn’t allowed to walk around in the warehouse of the first place.  I could either take him to the playroom in the front of the store and not help my Mom; leave him unattended in the open playroom by himself (yeah, like that is going to happen); or carry him the entire time we were there.  I opted to carry the 38.5 lb child (so lucky he had been to the Dr. on Friday so I knew exactly how much he weighed) the entire time we looked.  It was only an hour of me carrying him around and trying to take pictures of the slabs that Mom liked. :)  I was so happy that the second place, which had about six times as many slabs for us to look at, allowed him to walk around as long as I was attentive and he stayed next to me.  At the second place D was the model.  He would take the sample of cabinetry that we had and place it on the slab Mom liked so that I could take a picture.  You can tell his mood by following the progression in the pictures from ‘this is fun, look at me” to “are we done yet”.  We start out with smiling D, progress to posing D and end with D sticking his tongue out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And no, Mom didn’t make a decision. 

Wow, where to start

I cannot believe it has been so long since I’ve updated the blog.  Sheesh, that isn’t very good of me.  My apologies.

The boys and I have been very busy lately.  School has started, birthdays are upon us, Cub Scouts is back in full swing and Karate is once again on the agenda.  We are getting back into the new routine and things don’t feel quite as rushed so hopefully I’ll be a little better from now on.

The highlights (because lets face it this is going to be a huge post as it is and details would make it a novel).

Musuem of Flight

On September 26th, the boys and I took advantage of the Free Museum day sponsored by the Smithsonian.   This is a day where the Smithsonian sponsors free museum admission to museums across the country.  We had a number of choices around here but decided to head down to the Museum of Flight.  It is somewhere I’ve wanted to take the boys but I wasn’t sure if they would really like it or not and I didn’t want to spend the money if we spent 30 minutes there and they were bored. 

We spent over 4 hours there and, as K said, “Mom, I thought it was going to be boring, but it was fantastic!”  The boys had a wonderful time looking at all the planes and the space mission things.  Even with spending a little over 4 hours there we didn’t see everything. 

I could not believe the number of interactive exhibits they had, and that was in addition to the kids’ area.  We went through a replica of a section of the space shuttle, the boys “flew” in a hang gliding simulator, sat in the cockpit of multiple airplanes, played with a Hot Air Balloon, sat in a helicopter and even got to “fly” in the cutest mock Blue Angels fighter jet.  It went up, down, tilted and had flaps that moved.  The boys loved it!

  

We walked through a British Airways Concord, however we didn’t go through the old presidential plane as the line for that plane was horrendously long.  The 747 and other planes weren’t open that day, oh well.

We will definitely need to find a way to go back.   So much fun to be had again and so many things that we didn’t even get a chance to look at.

School Dance

K’s school had a school dance and as odd as it sounds it is something that K loves to go to.  The PTA puts on the dance and they pay to have the DJ come in during the week and teach the kids different dances during PE and Music.  K always comes home talking about what he has learned and I find it absolutely hilarious that he knows the Macarena and the Electric Slide.

We decided to take one of the boys’ cousins with us and we decided just to make it a sleepover that night.  I think all three of the boys had a fun time and they were so great playing with each other.

K’s Birthday

K’s actual birthday was a quiet affair.  The boys, J, Grandma Ford and I all went out to McDonald’s for lunch.  I had heard that McDonald’s had Bakugans as the Happy Meal toy and knew that K would love lunch at McDonald’s so that he could have a Bakugan and play in the play area. 

It was much busier than I had thought it was going to be and the boys didn’t stay as long as they would have liked, however they had a good time and didn’t put up a fight when I asked them to get their shoes on.

That evening the boys and I headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Ford’s house.   Grandpa Ford and K stayed at home while Grandma Ford, D and I went to Sears to look at some of the appliances she wants for her kitchen remodel (I know, she is actually going through with it.  She has ordered the cabinets and the appliances!  We just have the Granite hurdle to go through now).  Anyway, after we returned from Sears we ate cake and ice cream.  I had made K the round cake that I am making for his big party on the 11th, but I let him decorate it as part of his birthday activities.

  

Happy Birthday baby.  I can’t believe you are 8!

Cub Scout Hike

Today the boys and I ventured out with K’s Cub Scout Pack for a lovely hike in a conservation area near here.  K is a little under the weather so I vacillated a lot this morning over whether or not to go, but in the end I decided to go ahead and we could always leave early if we needed.  K made it all the way to lunch (about 2 hours) but by then he was ready to leave. 

The hike was really nice and leisurely, and we only walked about 2 miles.  The trails were perfect.  They had some rolling hills, but nothing too terribly steep, one portion had signs about the trees and plants found in the forest and overall it is somewhere we will probably go again.  When I asked K if he had fun as we were leaving he wasn’t very appreciative that we had been gone, but once we were home and he had a chance to rest he admitted that he enjoyed it.  D, of course, had a great time.  He was outside and walking around so his day was made. 

K’s Birthday Party

K’s Birthday Party with his friends is this Sunday (the 11th).  I feel a little bad because I only sent his invitations out 2 weeks in advance and there are a number of kids that aren’t able to come.  We are still expecting to have somewhere between 8 and 10 kids (counting my boys) so I think there will be enough to have fun. 

Somehow I planned this party without realizing that I didn’t have any time during the week to actually get ready.  Monday evening I had to finish the PTA newsletter (I’m the editor), Tuesday was Cub Scouts, Wednesday was Karate, Thursday was Curriculum Night at School, Friday I was home but exhausted so I didn’t do as much as I should have, Saturday morning/early afternoon we had a Cub Scout Hike, Sunday is the party.  Whoo, at least it makes sense why we are all tired. :)

K wanted a Pokeball as a cake this year.  If I do say so myself I don’t think it turned out too bad. 

The cake I used wasn’t quite dense enough so my biggest worry is that it will collapse on itself before the party tomorrow. (I won’t go into how I forgot to make the Red frosting on Thursday so that it would have time to darken.  We are just going to pretend that Pokeballs are supposed to be that color).

Well, it is 1a here and I still need to get the treat bags together and I have a TON of stuff to do (including blowing up 30 balloons for one of the games) tomorrow, so I think I’ll go now.  The party should be fun.  I just hope K is getting some recuperative rest tonight.

Cake Update

Just a quick update on the cake.

Putting it together was pretty easy, as I expected, however I did learn a few things:

1. I cannot cut a straight line (you cut a little off the bottom of the ball so that it can stand).  Technically this is not something I just learned however it was reinforced by the leaning ball of cake.  Who knew balls could lean.
2. I now understand why the pamphlet suggested a firm cake.  When you start putting frosting on the flat part of the bottom sphere (basically the middle of the two layer cake), the edges start flaring out.  I thought I had a fairly firm cake but I may need to rethink that.  I will see how it holds up tonight.
3. Using store bought frosting (hey, it was a test cake and I didn’t feel like making homemade frosting at 10p) will not work.  It is just too soft to smooth out.  My normal buttercream should be fine.  It normally smoothes out beautifully.
4. Wow it is a lot smaller than I was thinking (and I was thinking it was going to small).  It is hard to look at the small ball and imagine it takes 4 1/2 cups of cake mix (1 box).  My plan of making a sheet cake to be a Bakugan or Pokemon card will definitely have to be implemented.
5. I think my idea of putting frosting on the bottom layer prior to flipping it ‘right side’ up is the easiest way to get the majority of the frosting neatly placed.
6. Overall, I think I can work with this. 

And no, there aren’t any pictures.  I didn’t even try to frost it neatly and right now it looks like a white ball/blob.  Although I was thinking if I had some brown edible paint to go with the orange that I already own I could make an awesome Jupitar.

Now the full-on stress of making the decorations can begin.

This is why I make practice cakes

This year we have finally moved away from the Star Wars themed cake (Yea!, I mean…moving on) and instead I will be making a Pokeball.  This I think I can do (lets hope).  It is a cake in the shape of a sphere and has only three colors.  The top is red, the bottom is white and there is a black line around the middle.  K had asked for a Bakugan cake, which I had agreed to in some not-so-rare moment of insanity, but upon further consideration I not so subtly hinted that maybe a Pokeball cake would be nicer.  To give you an idea of the difference in complexity here is a visual representation.
     

Pokeball                                            Bakugan

Oh my gosh, while looking for an image of a Pokeball to show you I discovered that there are actually several different levels of Pokeball which give you a greater chance of catching Pokemon.  They are all more complicated to create than the red/white/black version I’m doing.  We must keep this information from K.
So as I was saying; practice cake.
We went out this weekend and purchased the ball shaped cake pan and something just told me that I should make figuring out how that thing works a priority.  It is a good thing that I did.  Here is the result.
 
(Okay, this isn’t a very good picture.  You can’t tell that these are each half of the sphere.)
Also, apparently my oven is baking even more uneven than I thought. The one on the left, the one with all the stuff running down that you would think would be more than done, was still undercooked on the very top 1/4 inch in the center.  I discovered that when I cut the top of the cake off to make it flat.  I also had to bake them for almost twice the amount of time the pan stated.  Oh well, this is why I practice. 
I plan to put a generic, store bought frosting on it and then take it to Cub Scouts tomorrow.  I really don’t want a whole cake hanging out at the house for just me and boys to eat.  I figured the boys wouldn’t mind if it was store bought frosting and generic decorations.
Now off to do the actual assembly.  Wish me luck.

Fair Time

Last weekend was a busy one for me and the boys so I’m going to break it down into separate events.  We’ll pretend that will keep me from rambling. :)

It is Fair season around here and the Fair just down the road from us was in town, opening on August 27th.  K’s school was closed on Friday, August 28th so I was working from home and I happened to get off at noon on that Friday, so I thought FAIR!

I haven’t been to the Fair since K was about D’s age (around 3.5) and I decided that both of the boys would have a good time and that if I planned well we could have fun and not totally ruin our budget.  I whined at my Mom and convinced her to go with us, even though she was headed out of town at 6a the next morning.  Sometimes I’m so mean. :)

The boys, Mom and I all headed off to the fair about 1p.  The boys were both so excited.  It was adorable.  They were also both extremely good and excited to be there the entire time which made the trip really fun for me.   For full disclosure D threw a minor fit at the end, but considering it was 6p and he had been going full force and hadn’t had a nap I was okay with that.

We started off with a tour of the horses, they had the big draft horses in that day and  I thought the boys would like to see how huge those horses can get.  It was great because this year they allowed us to pet the horses.  Both of the boys thought it was great that they were able to touch these huge horses.  We even met a horse that does Search and Rescue work for two of the counties up here.

No pictures of the boys actually petting a horse.  I’m not talented enough to hold D while he pets a horse and take a picture of the event at the same time. :)

After that we wandered back past the rides and games.  The boys were amazed at some of the rides.  The spinning, dropping, going upside down, etc.  Of course, K wanted no part of them and D wanted to go on them all.  Both of them did want to play all the games on the midway and ride most of the non-spinning/upside down/dropping rides.  They got very upset when I explained to them that they only had so many tickets and we should see all the rides before they choose.  In retrospect I should have reallocated the money to buy them each an unlimited ride wristband but I really didn’t think they would be that excited to ride the rides.  As it was we ended up doing the same ride twice, going to an identical ride with different cars and then doing the fun house.  I felt bad for K because the rides in that area were really to young for him but he wasn’t patient enough to watch D ride the rides and wait until D was done so that we could go back to the bigger rides for K.  Oh well, they both had fun (until we ran out of tickets) and that was the goal for the day so all was good.

 

After the rides we continued our tour of the animals, played on some peddle tractors, went through the play farmers market, visited the animals in the petting area, visited some of the exhibits and then decided to explore the food options.  All week I had been craving an Elephant Ear (even though I’ve never had one) however my inner cheapness rose up and wouldn’t let me spend $5.74 on a piece of fried dough with cinnamon and sugar on it.

 

We purchased scones (a tradition, so nummy), two piroshkies(another fair tradition for my family, again so nummy), corn on the cob on a stick, peach cobbler (for my Mom.  She was all disappointed because it ended up being canned peaches),  and cotton candy.  Not too bad considering it fed four people.

The boys had never been allowed to have cotton candy before and were so excited to have a bag (although, once again proving my boys are odd, they were more excited about the corn on the cob on a stick, I really should have purchased two of those).  There is still a bag of cotton candy in the house.  They ate a about two pinches a piece, were all excited about having it, and then didn’t want any more.  I’m pretty sure that cotton candy doesn’t go bad so I’m sure I’ll be bringing it out as a treat option occasionally for a bit.  (note to self – I haven’t seen the bag of cotton candy in the last few days.  I wonder if J ate it)

After the food the boys went through the fun house.  I was such a bad Mom.  The beginning of the fun house is the glass maze.  The boys go rushing in there and suddenly kept running into dead ends.  So K turns around to start at the beginning again, but he took a wrong a turn on slammed (I do mean slammed) face first into one of the partitions.  I was standing there watching and had to turn my head so that he wouldn’t see me laughing.  It was just too hilarious.

After a brief stop at the midway for the boys to play a game (they each won a really cute stuffed turtle) we decided to head home.  We rode the tractor people mover out to our car.  The boys thought that was an awesome last ride for the day.

The day after the fair, it was a birthday party at a lake.  Such fun.  Pictures of it soon.

Oh, I don’t think I posted about Cub Scout movie night.  I’ll have to think about that.  Plus we have the first day of school coming up next week.

Do Over!

Have I used my do-over for the month yet?  If not, I’d like to enact a do over for this day.

Luckily nothing really major happened, it was just little annoying stuff all day.  Sheesh

We started out being late leaving this morning (Okay, technically we are late most mornings but there is late and then there is LATE) and I had forgotten to fix the boys anything for breakfast.  They ended up eating Hostess sugar donuts (or the little powdered sugar mini-donuts for those of you who don’t speak 3 year-old) in the car.  I’m sure you’ll be surprised but the boys didn’t find this a bad thing.  Obviously we had them in the house so we were planning to eat them, but I normally try to feed them something healthy in addition instead of just handing the boys a bag of sugar donuts in the car and saying eat. :)

I get to work and about noon I get a phone call from K’s school.  Apparently something happened to my payment and I had to go in that day to straighten it out or he couldn’t attend the rest of the week.  Ugh.  About 15 minutes after that call D’s school calls to tell me that he is acting up and thinks it is funny when he gets in trouble (the 3 year-old thinks it is hilarious when you threaten to punish him, what a shock) so I had to talk to him on the phone to try to get him to calm down.

After work I drive to the administration office for K’s school (before getting either child, I’m not a total idiot) to straighten out the billing problem and to sign him up for care next week.  Why would I have to sign him up for care for next week you ask instead of it being part of summer?  Apparently summer only goes until August 31st.  The fact that school doesn’t start (if it even starts on time) until September 9th is irrelevant.  So instead of being able to register him like I did for summer I physically have to go down to the office and pay in advance for care next week and September 8th.   Of course, I still have to sign him up, and pay for, his care during the school year.  That is an entirely different packet of forms that I picked up while I was there.  If I find a pot of gold between now and next week I’ll even be able to pay for it. 

Oh, the billing problem?  The person in charge of child care was gone for the day already, the person at the desk looked at my account and said “It doesn’t show you owe anything” so she called accounting.  After being on the phone for 15 minutes with accounting and me hearing her say things like ‘so you don’t know why she was sent here either?’, ‘you don’t show a balance owing?’, etc. it is finally decided that something must have happened with the payment method I was using and they had removed K from the program, which is why no one could find a balance owed. I paid for the week, got a receipt (so that I can prove to them I paid when I drop him off tomorrow) and then went on my way.  If you are going to call me down there and threaten to remove my kid from care can someone at least know why the first time I ask?

After 30 minutes there (they were busy and as you can see my problem was not easily solved) I was finally able to get on my way to get the boys.  I pick up D (who told me ‘I was good today’) and head over to get K.  I ran into the same construction traffic I ran into yesterday, the traffic that made me have to reschedule the appointment the boys had in Bellevue because I was going to be almost 45 minutes late.  Why don’t I go a different way you ask?  Well, I will tomorrow.  Today however I was hoping it was late enough that they were done (they weren’t) and frankly the time it takes to back track to get to another road that takes me where I need to go and the time I sit in construction (20 minutes for less than 1 mile) are about the same.  I’m definitely taking the other way tomorrow though.  I’d rather be moving than just sitting there watching the clock.

I finally do reach K’s school and there is a bright yellow sign on the sign-in table saying “HEAD LICE – Your child may have been exposed to head lice……”  Really!  Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.  So now I am all freaked out, I checked both the kids hair while I was buckling them into the car at K’s school, my head and body is all itchy every time I think about it and I am just generally paranoid that the boys and I will get lice.  EWWWWWWWW!

I had a PTA committee chair meeting tonight that started at 6p.  I finally got to K’s school to pick him up at 6p.  So much for feeding them dinner before I left. 

Once I got on my way to the meeting I end up stuck in the same construction back up as before.  As I sat there trying to figure out why the way I was going was also slow (it was perpendicular to the other backup I was in) I realized that in order to try and relieve the congestion on the main road they have cycled the lights so that the way I am going misses one cycle (so people to the left go, people to the right go, people across go, repeat and then we go) and in addition they timed the light so that it was literally less than 20 seconds long.  I counted.  The worst part, in regards to frustration level, I didn’t even need to sit there for the 20 minutes I did.  I had read the directions wrong and the turn I needed was right before the backup began.  So not only did I sit but then I had to circle back.

Tomorrow I have a Cub Scout Leader meeting at 6:45p and I want to run to Lynnwood to buy this shampoo where I used to get the kids hair cut.  It is supposed to have Rosemary and other stuff in it that naturally repels lice.  I’m hoping the traffic gods will be with me so that I can get the kids, drive to Lynnwood, fix them dinner and then get to my meeting.

You know what, I just reread this and I don’t want a do over.  It is 10p, every one survived and I’d rather not relive this day at all.

Osmosis

I think that is what I need.  That way all the stuff I think about that would be fun to blog could just write itself by the mere act of me laying my head on my laptop.

Since Osmosis Recognition Software doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, you’ll just have to do with this random, rambling post.

Last Friday Mom and I went and picked some Blueberries.  I haven’t had any blueberries in the freezer for two years and desperately wanted some.  Mom had read an article in the paper on Thursday about how this was one of the best blueberry crops in years due to our dry, hot weather.  The bushes were supposedly just dripping with berries.  Hearing that I decided that we needed to go out and pick some.  I’m all for ease of harvesting, what can I say. :) 

You might be surprised to learn that other people read that article and apparently had the exact same idea the next day.  Who would have thought. 

Mom and I arrived at the farm, a farm that we’d been too often, however not in the last three years.  Oh my gosh, they have changed the set-up so much!  You now drive down the hill to a parking lot that is about three times the size of the lot at the top of the hill that used to be the only place to park.  Said new parking lot was PACKED! 

We had to walk a bit to get to where they were picking that day and we could not believe the amount of berries on all the trees we passed.  I had to restrain Mom from ‘accidently’ putting some from the area marked “Area Closed” into our bucket.  I guess the article was right.

Looking back towards the entrance.  Almost to where we were allowed to pick berries

  Blueberries everywhere!

Mom and I didn’t stay very long (about 1 hr to 1.5 hours) since I had to go pick-up the boys, but in the short time we were there we picked 13 pounds of berries.  That was the perfect amount, and not because that was all we were willing to put away that night. The place only took cash (what is this cash thing you speak of) and I had forgotten to stop at the bank on the way.  Between us, Mom and I had $25.00.  At $1.80 per lb, 13 lbs was exactly what we could afford. :)

  Mom picking berries.  Shhh, don’t tell her I posted this.

The haul!

The boys were so excited to see the huge box of blueberries in the back of the car when I picked them up. 

Okay, I guess not such a rambling post after all.  I’m done for now and all I talked about was blueberries.  I’m sure once I press publish my brain will remember what else I was going to share.

Wanna talk about the weather?

Okay, in reality I’ve had about all the weather talk I care to endure.  Yes, I was part of it yesterday (because really, it was something phenomenal) but I did have other topics of conversation to supplement the “it’s how hot today” discourse. 

So, as you may have heard (unless you don’t believe in any form of communication devices) it was hot here yesterday.  Not ‘wow, it’s a tad warm out today isn’t it’ but ‘oh my freakin’ goodness did you know it was 104 outside!’.  Yes, you read that correctly 104 degrees (although the sign next to my son’s school said 108; of course the one a block away said 100.  Silly signs), it was officially the hottest day on record.  I’m basing the 104 temperature on my parents thermometer that they have on their deck and on the reading my friend too with her Fluke Thermometer, both of which are good enough for me.   It was actually warm enough that I didn’t let the boys go outside yesterday.  I decided it was just better to be safe for a day.  Both of their schools actually cancelled all outdoor activities in the afternoon for the past three days because of the heat.  Really?  I truly think Mother Nature got a little confused with her geography and sent the sun to the wrong place.  All I’m saying is that when my relatives in California and Texas are experiencing weather that is 20 degrees cooler than here, that’s just wrong. :)

Anyway, there is my obligatory weather talk. :)  Yes, it was hot.  Yes, all of us are fine.  Yes, it was only a cool 98 today.  I’ve never seen people so excited for the temperature to be in the mid to high 80s which is the forecast for this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, the boys are really looking forward to the events coming up.  All but two of their cousins are going to be in town (so far there are 14 total for those of you scoring at home) and the boys are planning to play, play, play starting tomorrow night. 

It should be a lot of fun.  I’ve been trying to show them pictures of the cousins so that they have some idea who is who but the boys don’t seem to worried about it so I’ve given up.  The one thing that is really cute is I asked them to try and name all their cousins and, naturally, the only ones they could name were the three they see on a fairly regular basis (they couldn’t even remember the name of the fourth one of that family who was recently born).  As they finished naming them I asked if that was all and K suddenly goes “And the 5 year-old. Kai!”  You see we had read on the blog about this particular cousin’s 5th birthday and for some reason K was very excited that his cousin was turning 5.  So we will have the three regular playmates and the 5 year-old; I guess the rest will just be extra.  :)

Last weekend was the Cub Scout Space Derby for K’s pack. It was a fun comedy of errors and as least the kids had a good time and the parents seem to take it in stride.  We had planned everything down to a tee.  Nothing should have been off, everything should have run smoothly, and that should have been our first warning.  People showed up late (not a little late, but laaaate), the rockets weren’t built correctly (hey, ours resembled that remark) and then it started to rain.  We’ve figured it out.  If there is ever a drought we just need our pack to schedule an outdoor event.  It worked in May when we hadn’t had any rain for 19 days or something.  We schedule an outdoor event and it pours.  Not a little rain that day but “honey, have you seem my blueprints for that ark” poured.  The next morning, bright and sunny and no rain for weeks again.  Saturday, no rain for weeks, we get everything set-up, start to put the first race on the rack and….rain.  Granted, not a lot of rain but when you are dealing with balsa wood rockets racing down monofilament line it doesn’t take a lot of rain to cause problems.  Luckily it only rained for about 10 minutes and then everything was back to normal (well, you get the idea).

K’s rocket didn’t do as well as we had hoped.  He and I missed a few crucial directions and I’ve decided that if he is going to stay in Scouts (which he says he is) I’m going to have to invest in some tools.  Using sand paper and steak knives as the main devices to craft the rocket wasn’t the easiest route.  Oh, and I need  a small tape measure so that I can gauge 1/16 of an inch because given the fact that all three of his wings fell off I’m going to say he and I were a little off. :)  We won’t even go into gluing the nose piece on which meant that the correct number of rubber bands (ie: the engine) couldn’t be loaded resulting in K’s rocket having one less band than everyone else. 

As you might have guessed we didn’t win.  However, we didn’t lose and there were plenty of other rockets that had issues too.  K was a little disappointed, as were some other kids, but once they realized that no one had a ‘super’ rocket and everyone started to laugh at the mishaps, the kids loosened up and just started to have fun. 

Coming up – it’s Birthday Party Season for D’s class.  There is someone’s birthday every weekend in the month of August so far.  I had no idea.

There’s my rambling for today.  Hope you are all doing well!

The good, the bad and then it got ugly

Things are moving along mighty fine here.  This is a very (did I mention very) busy week for us.  In addition to the normal schedule of leaving at 7:15a for Y Camp/PreSchool/Work we have Twilight Camp for Cub Scouts.  Camp is held from 6p to 9p M-Th of this week with a family picnic and egg launch on Friday.  That schedule translates into meaning that somewhere between the kids and I getting home at 10p every night and Friday before we leave for the daytime activities we need to design and build a container that will hold a raw egg, allow it to be slingshot through the air and not have the egg break when it hits the ground.  No problem {she says while rolling her eyes}  Oh yeah, and I have to make a dessert for the potluck.

During Twilight Camp (which is an absolute blast and something we highly recommend if you are a Cub Scout) K is off doing things with his den and I have volunteered to help with the TAGs.  The TAGs are all the brothers and sisters of the Cub Scout boys.  We have crafts and snacks, etc for them everyday and it is so much fun.  I will say that chasing after 30 to 40 kids every night in 88 degree weather is…warm.  I come home and feel like a grimy, dusty, sweaty salt lick. 

To cap our week off we have a Pack event.  It is our Cub Scout Space Derby.  I will admit that it was poor planning on my part that necessitates that between now and 9:30a on Saturday we finish our rocket.  My mind double booked me.  Even knowing we had Twilight Camp this week I was still thinking that we could put the finishing touches on it during the week.  (I’m such an idiot sometimes).  Oh yes, I also need to make a potluck dish for this event.

Once this week is done, next week calms down a bit and it looks like we will get to see most of the boys’ cousins at the end of the month.  Very exciting.

So to recap.

The Good

My friend just had a healthy baby girl this week

Twilight Camp is very fun (the wood crafts are spectacular)

Helping with the TAGs is so fun

We’ve had McDonald’s twice this week (that would be on the boys’ good list)

Space Derby is going to be really neat and exciting

The three of us are getting nice tans

The weather is beautiful

My friend just moved into her new house

We went to IKEA last weekend and Mom bought the boys these cute little nightlights that stay on for 6+ hours once fully charged.

 

The Bad

The long days are starting to show with the boys’ behavior

I need to figure out, and make, two dishes for potlucks (Friday and Saturday)

Where the heck did all these freckles come from!  Seriously, my face isn’t ‘tan’ so much as it is just a ton of freckles running into each other from all the sun this week

The TAG leader’s son broke his arm today and may need surgery so she wasn’t there tonight.

Hot Weather + Herding Children = Sweaty and Tired

We’ve had McDonald’s twice this week (on Mom’s list of bad) and we have one more night to figure out something to eat without coming home

 

Oh yes and it got Ugly

I arrived home Wednesday night to learn that we are actually on the power grid of the houses behind us.  Why is this ugly and how did I learn that you ask?

Picture it, I arrive home after 10p with two tired, dirty boys who need a quick bath/hose down and then to go to bed.  Ideally in under 20 minutes.  I also need to organize and pack the lunches/snacks/water, etc, refreeze the ice packs and get the water chilled for tomorrow and print up some things for the TAGs.  Again, ideally this would all be done very quickly so that I could go to  bed before the sun starts to come up.

Wait for it… 

While at Twilight Camp I had received a call from J saying that the power was out.  I called the power company and found out that there was an outage in the area and they were working on it.  As I drove home I was ecstatic to see all the lights on our street were on…wait, except for our house.  You guessed it.  The people behind us and our house still do not have any lights.  Oh goodie. 

So I am sitting in the dark contemplating how to get stuff done for tomorrow and more importantly how I’m going to wake up without an alarm clock.  

PS: Now you also see why the IKEA nightlights are on the Good list.  They are great.  They aren’t too bright, but they give off a glow that allows each of the boys to see in their rooms without the light on.  Grandma Rocks!

PPS:  As you might have guessed I wrote this Wednesday night but couldn’t post it because of the whole no electricity/no internet thing.

A relaxing day

4th of July this year ended up being a very relaxing day.

A highlight of the day was receiving a phone call from my brother-in-law that the newest addition to the family had been born at 6a that morning.  Yea!  We now have two 4th of July babies in the family, how cool is that?

About 4p Mom and Dad came over for hamburgers and strawberry shortcake.  The boys played in the pool, did a few sparklers, lit some snakes and generally ran around having fun like kids should.

As it started to get dark (I had thoughts of not keeping the boys up too late) we went outside to do our fireworks.  We had just a small pile but it was all the things the boys love and they had a great time.  We had parachute men, snakes, pop-its, turtles, sparklers and two fountains.  All very fun and perfect for us.  D was old enough now to really participate and while he was still a little jumpy the first time the fireworks made noise, he really enjoyed watching them and didn’t run away.  K had a blast watching them all!

By the way, this is what your hands look like after you’ve played with all the ashes that the snakes make:

As we were outside doing our fireworks we noticed that there were a number of big fireworks going on around us so the boys and I went inside, they changed into their jammies, we grabbed a blanket to sit on, they grabbed their blankets to wrap up in and we went outside and sat on our front lawn to watch an impromptu fireworks show.  It was amazing the number of big fireworks going on around.  We probably only stayed outside about 45 minutes before the boys got tired and the smoke started to get to me, but it was a great time.  The boys both snuggled up with me and we all were highly entertained by the beautiful fireworks.

Once we came inside D was still more than happy to play and I had a hard time getting him to settle down for bed.  K, not so much

Yes, that would be K after he fell asleep in the chair while watching his Dad play on the computer. 

By the way, K adamantly denies that he fell asleep in the chair, even after I showed him the photo.  He asked why I’d take a picture of that.  My reply was “because it was funny”. :)

Today we stayed around the house and really didn’t do much.  The boys played outside and in the pool.  All three of the guys in the house dumped our giant Lego bin out on the floor and built some cars, ships, men, and various other Lego products.

As the boys were playing on the XBox together it struck me that K is really starting to see his baby brother as a person (still an annoying person to him at times, but still) instead of just this little ‘thing’ that follows him around.  K has started to ask D his opinion on things instead of just telling D what is going to happen.  Now, granted, his questions are usually phrased something like “you want to be a Wampa, right?” but it is still progress. :)

Here is one more shot of the boys playing in the pool.  I asked them what they were doing.  Their reply “Being kitties”.  Of course, what else could it have been.

Here is hoping that everyone else had a great and relaxing 4th of July weekend too.

What would you do?

You have the following:

• 2 pizza shells
• pizza sauce
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• chocolate frosting
• mini chocolate chips

Assuming you put chocolate frosting on one shell and pizza sauce on the other, how would you distribute the other toppings?

Guess what combination the 3 year-old choose. :)

Goings on

I really need to start blogging more.  I always think of things I want to say, but I usually fall asleep before I get back to the computer.  Right now the boys are distracted by Scooby-Doo and a bowl of grapes so we’ll see if I can share a short synopsis of our activities for the past couple of weeks.

K went to his final karate class of the session and much to my surprise he not only received one stripe on his belt but he qualified for two stripes!  I had been so worried because we hadn’t really practiced all session and the testing session itself looked a little shaky to me, but apparently he met the requirements.  It was a very pleasant surprise for him to have earned that rank.  We are taking the summer off and then he plans to start again in September.

School is finally out up here and K is now a 2nd grader.  I can’t believe how the time has gone by.  I’m so proud of him and how hard he works in school. 

D wants to know when he can start karate (November) and Cub Scouts (1st grade).  As for now we are very lucky to be in a Cub Scout group that promotes family and siblings are allowed to attend a lot of the functions.  D will even be attending the Cub Scout Twilight Camp in July.  They have a sibling program for just $3 per day so the siblings are entertained while the scouts are off doing their activities.  I’m helping out with the sibling program that week and we expect to have between 60 and 65 siblings every evening.  Since camp runs from 5:30p to 9:00p after a full day of work, I have a feeling that all three of us will be tired, yet happy, that week.  There are some great activities lined up for the scouts and I expect K to have a great time being off on his own with just his den and no Mommy. :)

Speaking of Cub Scouts K had his badge ceremony and crossing over ceremony last Tuesday.  K and his Den earned their Tiger badge and then crossed over to Wolf.  They were presented with new neckerchiefs and their Wolf books.  Needless to say the boys were very excited.  D and J attended but I’m not sure how much of the ceremony they saw since this was actually held outdoors at a place where there was a fire pit (which D had a love/hate relationship with) and an actual bridge over a creek that the boys crossed when they were changing rank.  As you can imagine given the choice of exploring the woods or sitting and watching brother, D preferred to explore all the woods have to offer.

The woods actually let D indulge in two of his favorite things.  Rocks and bugs.  I don’t even know how many “Rockies” I have in my house now.  It seems everywhere we go he picks up a new best friend in the shape of a rock and he just can’t think of parting with it.  He also loves bugs.  I bought him a little bug kit at the dollar store that had tweezers, a net and a plastic ‘home’ with magnifying lens for the bugs.  Everyday he is outside he changes out the bugs.  His favorite things to catch seem to be spiders followed closely by these beetle things we have in the yard.  He also enjoys worms, potato bugs, etc.  While he was ‘helping’ me to plant flowers outside he took one of the empty pots, filled it with dirt and then brought every bug and worm he could find over to live in their new home.  He is such a boy.

The boys also visited with their cousins when we went over for a birthday party.  The boys love to see their cousins and had a great time playing, eating cupcakes and generally being kids and having fun.

I almost forgot, something that they boys found exciting did happen the other day.  When we were plant shopping I splurged and bought a strawberry plant.  I figured as much as the boys love strawberries they would have fun watching them grow and then getting to pick and eat the fruit.  I was so right.  We ‘harvested’ our first batch of strawberries the other day and the boys were thrilled!  They thought it was so much fun to pick, wash and eat something that we had grown ourselves. 

That is all that is going on right now.  I’ll try to post more often so that I can be witty and entertaining versus just relaying information.

How much time does it take…

to put a dent in the energy of two little boys?  Apparently the answer is 6 hours of continual playing in the pool, running around, water fighting, climbing, sliding and swinging. 

Mind you, this didn’t use all their energy but I noticed that rather than it seeming like they were moving at the speed of race cars it had slowed down to something closer to motocross speed.

To be perfectly honest it wasn’t a full 6 continuous hours.  There was one 5 minute restroom break and one 15 minute banana break.

Just thought you’d like to know in case you had ever wondered.

Introducing their Royal Paini (paininesses?)

Sir Cranks-a-lot and Lord Whiny Pants.  As you may have guessed these are informal names and, better yet, names they aren’t even aware they have.

This afternoon Little Lord Cranky decided that he only needed two moods; content to play by himself and throwing a screeching fit at the top of his lungs.  The fits I can deal with but why must they screech?  Sir Cranks-a-lot went to bed early.

Good Sir Whiny was in obvious need of a nap after school.  Not that he would admit that.  From the time I picked him up from school until his day ended, I believe he whined about something or other that was not going right in his world approximately every 20 minutes.  Lord Whiny Pants went to bed early too.

To compound this about 5 hours of this afternoon sucked.  Not in a major way, but in the everything I touched was wrong in some small, yet infinitely, annoying way.  Since this entire month has not been stellar and I feel like all I have done is complain (perhaps I can be Princess Pissy) we will skip the details on today’s little adventure and focus on the fun.  Yes, I know even with all that we still had fun.

The boys got new water guns today and they put them to good use while I worked on my new birthday present. 

Some background - About 3 or 4 years ago I bought this awesome pool at Costco.  After years of vigorous use it finally died at the beginning of last summer.   I spent all last summer looking everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) for a pool like it without any luck.  I was slightly obsessed with finding this pool again. :)  I went through two pools in the span of 1 month last year.  The first one died after less than 2 days and the second one limped along for about 2 weeks.  After that the boys were san pools for the rest of the summer.

As I was walking through Costco in March of this year I saw the ‘updated’ version of the pool I was looking for. 

Yea!!!  Unfortunately, this pool is a little pricey (not when you think I had to buy two last year, but still) so I couldn’t get it at that time.  When my parents got back I asked Mom if she still planned to buy me a Birthday Gift.  When she said yes this is what I asked for.  Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

To make a long story even longer, their Royal Cutenesses and I set the pool up this afternoon, had some water play, shrieked because the water coming out of the hose was cold (shocking, I know) and made a date to play some more tomorrow. 

 

Lets hear it for sunny weather and outside play.

PS:  Are you digging the swim trunks on the little one?   When I sent him in to get his swimsuit on I forgot that there were four pair of swim trunks in his drawer a size 24 month, a 2T, a 3T and a 4. (Don’t ask me why they are all in there.  They all fit last year.  That’s my story and I’m sticking too it)  Guess which size he picked?