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.