Sister's first date

 

A month or so ago, J asked if he could reserve Sis for a date night to take her to a special Princess Dinner that was held at a local reception center (that looked like a castle). We chose her most "twirliest" dress and curled her hair and piled it up.  J showed up in a suit and tie brought her flowers to match (on her wrist).

She still talks about that night and "her castle and Prince Daddy" and her pretty yellow flowers.

Over all, it was kind of adorable.

Bubba turns 6!

 To be fair, Bubba has been 6 for over a month now and it still kills me! He will always be my baby boy. Bubba's party was pretty low key this year. I was in the middle of the "holy crap!! What have I gotten myself into???" phase of a really brutal semester, so I was overjoyed when he requested cupcakes and a party with his friends at Classic skating.

He did ask for an Avengers party, so I tracked down all the Avengers stuff I could (which, surprisingly, wasn't much). He got cake for breakfast....

...and a whole yard of bubblegum (which is almost gone). His favorites were; a pogo stick, laser tag guns from Aunt Kate, Heelies from Aunt Bek and a Captain America shield from the Bradshaws.

Pizza, friends, soda...

...sort of pathetic cupcakes, which were marbled red and blue on the inside, but not super impressive on the outside...

...and a sleepover with our BFF's: the Bradshaws.

My little man is growing up way too fast, but I am so proud of him and always so happy to be his mom!

Riding shotgun

A few months ago, we went to a rodeo with Gma and Gpa W.   Sis loves horses and the cowboys "with the hats" and since then, has put many miles on the old rocking horse. I put together a cowgwirl (Sis speak...) outfit for her one day and the boys got into the spirit of the game. It was unbelievably fun to watch. If you can't tell, Sis was the sheriff and they were the outlaws who had just taken over a wagon full of "gold and jewels." Junior is riding shotgun.

And also because I am a major history/trivia nerd, I educated the kids on what riding shot gun means (which they thought was cool at the time, but is probably not information they will retain. However, these are the boys who remembered that the dangly thing at the back of your throat is called a uvula and used it every day when they were 4 and 2. In fact, Bubba was using the word before he was speaking in full sentences.) We'll see. If they lose on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' someday, it won't be my fault. :-)

Sis turns 3!

Although I didn't forget that Sis' birthday was coming up, in the rush and stress of a new semester, it somehow slipped my mind that I had a birthday party planned that I needed to execute until about three days before (because it is physically impossible for me to NOT throw a party for a birthday). I had been planning a rainbow party for her and with a lot of help from Britny (chopping and assembling food) we turned out a pretty fun day.

 The boys woke Sis up at the crack of dawn to open her presents.

 The first thing she opened was her new Cinderella dress and shoes and then it didn't really matter what was in the other packages. The boys were happy to open her other presents for her.

The boys helped make the rainbow tie dye cupcakes.

And Junior suprised me with an addition to the party decorations: "You rock, 3 year old princess" 

 Rainbow food (and pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches)

 Rainbow Slushies

 We ate...

 We opened presents...

We blew out candles and dined on rainbow cake until we were sick.

And THAT'S how you turn three around here.



Easter 2012

Sis' favorite activity ever! She dyed all her eggs in about 3 minutes flat. No coloring, no decorating, just dip the egg in each color about 10 times.

Probably the first Indiana Jones themed easter egg ever.

Planting jelly beans with the neighbors the night before easter, so they can grow into lollipops when the Easter Bunny passes through.

Ta Da!

Junior is an early bird every morning. Bubba is an early bird when it is worth his while....

...Sis doesn't care if there are baskets of candy or a tree full of unwrapped presents. She refuses to get going until she has had a cuddle on the couch, a sippy of milk and an episode of Kipper the Dog (on my phone.) Notice the candy on the couch right next to her that she wouldn't touch?

She got into it by the time the hunt headed outside though :-)

By the time I dragged them away from the candy and into their Sunday/Easter clothes, I had no energy left to try to get them all smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. This works :-)

As a completely unrelated picture, this is Junior's outfit on 'nerd day' for school the following week. He was really proud of what he pulled together, and I couldn't resist sharing :-)

Catching Up/Treading Water/Worst Family Historian Ever...!

I don't usually get hung up on the whole 'I haven't blogged in awhile, so sorry..." thing, as long as nothing is going on (or, as is sometimes the case, if I can't think of anything nice to say about what is going on ;-) but things (nice things) have been happening over the last few months and it just turns out that I need a few more hours in the day, or days in the week to live my life AND record it.

I am in school at the moment and for right now, let's just leave it at sometimes I am kicking school's butt and sometimes it is kicking mine. Right now, I am getting a beating (which is why I am backed up to March on updating here.) Since this blog is primarily a record of our family, I don't want to have large gaps in it. Partly because I am pretty sure that the antics of my little family is what will keep me warm in my old age, because also because I am pretty sure that my kids will only remember my school years as the time when I was always swearing at the computer, feeding them cereal and mac and cheese for dinner and hustling them to bed so I could get going on homework.

I am trying to keep some amount of balance though, so while my school is a huge priority and time suck for me right now, it is not all I have been (or should be) doing. I need to remind myself of that some times.

So, my three little ducks, here is some proof that I focused on you as well as school during the last 6 months.

The leprechaun trap we set up the night before St. Patrick's Day. We did not catch Lucky the Leprechaun, but he did leave a fairly lame treasure hunt that he found on pinterest at the last minute. The treasure was chocolate gold coins and Junior was kind of disappointed. If only they were real, he could finally afford the $200 Indiana Jones Lego set he has been dreaming about for a year.

 Our original leprechaun trap (which was designed by Junior, by the way) inspired him to get a little more creative. He spent an afternoon building a far more elaborate one that I had to take pictures of in three stages. First, Lucky was supposed follow the trail of lucky charms marshmallows set out by Junior/Indiana Jones. Next he would ride the roller coaster, which presumably would make him so dizzy that he would not notice the trap at the end of it.

 If that failed, he was supposed to climb the ladder into the pool and sail the boat across, which would put him in the lego room (purpose unknown, other than he thought it looked cool).

 After the lego room, he would climb the stairs to the black and then gray platforms, where hopefully he would fall through the hole into the chamber below. If that didn't work, the shamrock at the end would attract Lucky into a cage with a gold piece in it and he would be caught.

By the end of this demonstration, I was actually kind of sorry that Lucky wasn't real after all, because Junior gets an A++ for ingenuity. For the record, Lucky did leave a pretty substantial pile of chocolate/gold at the end of the obstacle course. Bubba and Sis were thrilled (they are my kids for sure!)

Green food. This is how I do my Irish ancestors proud!

Coming up: Easter and Sis' 3rd Birthday.

Junior Gets Baptized...

Saturday, March 3rd was Junior's baptism day (something we do in our church when children turn 8). I had been both looking forward to this day and dreading it for a really long time. On the one hand, I was so proud of my boy and so astonished that he is already 8 years old (and so love having an excuse to throw a party...) On the other hand, the day came with other stresses, such as the first meeting between my family and my ex since he left, as well as the potential painful/awkward presence of the DLS. No one wanted to do anything that would make the day anything but awesome for Junior, but there was no doubt that there was major potential for tension even with best behavior all around. In the end, the day was really lovely. "She" wasn't there, opposing parties shook hands and spoke pleasantly and the baptism and confirmation were really spiritual and sweet. Right now, Junior just remembers his baptism as the day when "he had to go to church and it WASN'T EVEN SUNDAY!!" I, however, will remember it as a day of blessings and a hundred tender mercies. I had been really worried...
My favorite part was that Junior's great grandpa (j's grandpa) came up from California to baptize and confirm my boy. G-pa Bob (and G-ma Barbara) are two of my favorite people in the world. In the short decade I have known them, I have found so much to admire about the kind of people they choose to be, the tremendous faith they have and the love you just can't help but feel when you are around them. I treasure the emails and messages of love and support they have sent me over the last few years and I felt very strongly prompted to ask G-pa Bob to participate in the baptism right from the start. We are lucky enough to have lots of great men on both sides of the family who would gladly step in for something like this, but it was extremely special that both of them could make the trip to be a part of this day.

Regardless of the end of my marriage, I am constantly grateful that my in-laws and the extended family are the kind of people that they are. I loved them before my divorce, but possibly even more since. They have been active and outspoken about remaining family and in athese last few years of adjustment and painful change, their love and support along with that of my own family has been my greatest source of stability. The total loss of the company of my in-laws would have been a particularly bitter side-effect of this divorce because I genuinely enjoy them and would really have missed them.  I love that I can share days like this or birthday parties or playdates with cousins without awkwardness and that my kids don't have to divide their time among the extended family as much. I come from an incredible family and I am thankful that I had married into one as well. While I often don't feel like the luckiest girl, I do know that I am one of the most blessed.

It was still too early in the morning for Sis. Her interest in sleep is how I am 100% sure she is my daughter. There was literal kicking and screaming going on when I tried to put her dress on (and then later on, kicking and screaming again when she had to take it off for bed.)

The Three (extremely good looking) Amigos.

Junior is rocking the new suit his dad bought for him. I might have gotten a little teary when I saw how grown up he looked in it...