Dallas World Aquarium

That's where we went today.

Jack said that he remembered my dad taking him about a year ago, and he really wanted to go again since Sarah had never been. Which is when she chimed in, "Yeah, I've never been. That's not fair."

I have to stop and do one of my long-winded asides....

If I were to ever write a book about what I've learned as a parent, one of the chapters would be titled:

"KIDS SEEM TO REMEMBER NOTHING BEFORE THE AGE OF 5"

Sarah HAS been to the aquarium. So has Jack (before my dad took him). We talked about Diego and the pygmy marmosets and howler monkeys.

You know what else? They had the nerve to say that they've never been to a zoo!!

Can you believe that?

Caroline hasn't. This is true. But Jack and Sarah have.

Do you have any idea how miserable I was dragging them as preschoolers through the Fort Worth Zoo on a hot and sweaty weekday when there were also a thousand school-aged kids on a field trip? (Not the only time they've been to the Ft Worth Zoo, by the way.)

I'm sure my parents remember taking them to the San Antonio Zoo to kill time while I ran my marathon. Jason does.

And why'd we do it?

Because we thought it'd be fun for them. Might be miserable for us, but fun for them. And maybe they did enjoy it at the time... but not enough to remember going. Unbelievable.



Anyway... here are pics from what was supposedly Sarah's FIRST TIME EVER [rolling my eyes] at the Dallas Aquarium.



Pointing out the pygmy marmoset to Sarah.

Like he did the first time they were at the aquarium together. But whatever. ;)

This one has to pose. Has to have a purse.

Sarah had the "field guide". She would start every sentence with, "According to my calculations, what we're looking at is a..."

Two of them don't like having their pictures taken. One threw her arm up to do yet another pose.
She cracks me up.

Our family picture. Taken in the reflection in the tunnel. So stand on your head and we'll be right side up.

Do it. It's not too much to ask. :)

And there you have it. At least now I have some proof that they've been so when Caroline tries to sing me her sad song of "I've never been to the Dallas Aquarium", I can prove her wrong!

:)

Skype

I just set up Skype. I'm so confused. I think I did it right. All signs point in that direction. But I'm worried it might be wrong.

I'm skyping (is that how you spell that?) an interview for grad school soon. I've never skyped in my life. It makes me a little nervous that the first time I'll be using it is for something where I want to make a good first impression. Fumbling around like a moron with technology that's been around for a few years would not be great.

So if you have skype and are willing to let me practice doing a video chat with you, PLEASE leave a comment or email me your user name.

I want to practice calling you. I want you to call me so I can practice answering. And I want to make sure you can see and hear me.

:)

Thanks!!!

A giant ball you can climb inside?

Uh... AWESOME!

This was a gift to Sarah (and the other kids) from Gran and Jimpa (my in-laws). And it's a HUGE hit!! :)

We recognize it's only a matter of time before they roll into something that pops it.

And we also realize it's most likely intended to be an outside toy, but it can't be good for you to climb inside a ball when it's 105 degrees... so it's in the living room for now.

(Of course, we'd have to deflate it to get it out the door if they ever chose to move it outside.)

And you get to play... and you get to play

This post is inspired by my friend's fb post. She said what I was feeling while watching gymnastics last night.

In case you've been living under a rock...

Jordyn Wieber was the 4th best gymnast of ALL the gymnasts worldwide. But, because you can only send 2 gymnasts from each country, she won't get to participate in the All Around Competition.

Of course that is COMPLETELY UNFAIR. The 24 best should compete. Period.

It's unfair because she's worked her whole life for this opportunity.

It's unfair because she probably won't be able to compete in 4 years (or she won't be at the top of her game in 4 years, ie Nastia Liukin this year).

It's unfair because gymnastics scoring is subjective. I like events where the best time wins. No debate.

But it's also unfair because it's right up there with participation trophies and not keeping score when kids play soccer. Let's all play. Let's not have any real winners or losers. No one's feelings should ever get hurt.

Shouldn't the Olympics be above that ridiculousness??

If you weren't the best, you don't get to compete with the best. Sorry. As Abby Lee Miller would say, "Cry in your pillow at home."

It shouldn't matter what country you're from or if some countries don't have any representatives in the All Around competition. I guess those countries aren't good at gymnastics. Oh well. Too bad.

What's next? Participation medals?

They could be like party favors.

"Thanks for coming. And you get a medal.. and you get a medal.. "

What I've been doing today

I hate laundry.

We even did a few loads mid-week, and I had all this to do.

I swear, dirty clothes multiply like rabbits.

Camp 24

We're leaving in a little bit to pick up Sarah from Camp 24, a lock-in at our church. First and second graders went to church yesterday morning at 10:00 and will be there til 10:00 this morning.

24 hours is a LONG time to entertain and herd so many kids that young. They had water slides, crafts, movies, pizza, etc. I'm tired just thinking about how much they had to do to try to keep them happy.

Hopefully it went well. I can't wait to ask Sarah what she thought. This is her first sleepover that wasn't at a grandparent or cousin's house.

I remember having lock-ins in the Fellowship Hall at FBC in Corsicana growing up. And for some reason, what I remember is watching "Beetlejuice" (and being terrified!) and some girls playing Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. Neither of which seem really appropriate for a church function.

Surely I'm remembering it wrong.

Sarah's 7th birthday

Let's start with Sarah's excitement level for this party--

Through the roof.

I feel like every year she gets more and more excited about her birthday, which is fun!

Remember when I threw her that Alice in Wonderland party when she turned 5? I blogged about it several times but you can click here to see the picture post again.

Even with all the work that went into the Alice in Wonderland party, she was more excited about these store-bought decorations and going to the movies.

ALTHOUGH I will say that she still talks about that tea party. So at least my efforts weren't completely in vain. It makes me feel good that, even though she can probably recall every time I've lost my temper with her, she remembers some of the good things I try to do too.

I think what made her SO excited about this shindig was that she planned everything. From what movie. To which theater. From what the cake would look like. To the decorations. And even the party favors. This was HER party, and she was sure her friends were gonna think it was great!

My first thought was, "But nothing matches. There's no theme. What are you doing?"

But I went with it, and I'm glad that I did.

First up, decor...

She wanted rock star/birthday girl things hanging from the ceiling and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner that could be seen from the front door. I hung it in the dining room where they'd be eating cake and she politely instructed me to move it.

This is what she wanted you to see when you walked in... minus the gerbil ball and the laundry basket.

I had no idea she considered herself to be a rock star, but I did like the hot pink and black color scheme and was reaching for the matching plates and cups at Party City when she grabbed these instead...

Victorious? But weren't you going with a rock star theme? Desperate to make it make sense in my head, I decided that since Tori on "Victorious" wants to be a pop star, maybe that's the connection.

I'm not sure there really was a connection though.

Then she thought it'd be cool to wear this rock star pin... (Back to the rock star theme, I guess.).. So we got it.

This was her cake.

She asked for purple icing. But she got white.

I'm not sure if the Target cake artist thought that the combination of purple icing, hot pink trim, and red letters with music notes and rainbows MUST SURELY be wrong... or if it was just an oversight.

Sarah noticed the mistake but decided that her white cake, while not true to her original design, would be acceptable. How gracious of her. ;)

This morning she picked out her dress. She wanted a pretty one that had "bling" on it like a rock star. So the obvious choice was this corduroy one.

We opened family presents this morning. I'll do a lump of those pics in a sec, but a few that I want to point out...

This first one-- I think it's funny that Jack's eating a pop tart, seemingly disinterested, and Caroline's smiling like it's all about her.

Even wanting me to take a picture of her pig. So I did.

Then I told her to back up, be quiet, and watch Sarah open her presents.

The one present Sarah opened that I want to point out is what Jason gave her.

Yep. Two flashlights and a tape measure.

Sarah asked for them. She had said that the other kids had a flashlight and she didn't. She also loves to play with the tape measure Jason keeps in the kitchen. But he doesn't like it when the kids mess with his stuff. They always put it back in the wrong spot or nearly break it. So she asked for one for her birthday.

And she probably measured 50 things this morning after she opened his gift. She was honestly excited and grateful for them.

Ok, as promised, I'll shut up and just dump the pics of family present opening time.

Jason took Caroline and Jack to the movies a few minutes early to save seats, and I waited at the house with Sarah for her friends to arrive. As her friends came, she proudly showed them her "Victorious" plates and cups and her rock star pin.

Then we loaded up into the van and went to Studio Movie Grill.

This is the only pic I got inside the theater. It's a terrible pic but I felt bad about my flash going off in the dark. So I took it quickly and didn't retake it.

We watched Ice Age and ordered pizzas and fries for everyone, except for one who doesn't like pizza and wanted chicken tenders instead. And, NO, it wasn't one of my kids who was picky about the pizza.

After the movie, I took everyone back to the house to play, open presents, and eat cake.

Here's the picture dump of those presents...

Later Mom and Dad came over with gifts from them and Uncle B and Aunt Abby. And KK said she'd swim with Sarah on her birthday. Mom said she hadn't been swimming in ages, but she swam today. She even showed Sarah all of her underwater tricks. :)

And now for the sentimental close... Cue the sappy music...

Today was good for a lot of reasons. But to name a few--

~ I kept my mouth shut and let her plan the party.

It doesn't mean I wasn't thinking, "What is she doing?" or "Why did she pick that?" but I had the sense to stop myself from saying it. It ultimately doesn't matter if she made the choices I would have made. She picked things that made her happy, and I could see that she was proud of herself. And I'm proud of myself for backing off and letting her decide.

~ She genuinely loved every present she opened.

There were no duplicate gifts. There was no faking it. Every. Single. Present. she opened was wonderful to her. And she played with them all.

Oh, and she read every word of every card before she opened any present. I always like when people read cards.

~ And Lanie came back from the American Girl Doll Hospital today!

Sarah was so ready to see her.

We weren't sure when she would be mailed back. I never got any confirmation email that it had even made it there. We were told it could take anywhere from two to three weeks to get your doll. We mailed it off on July 9 and it was waiting on our doorstep when we got back from the movies. :)

I don't believe in coincidences. I honestly don't. I told Sarah that was God's way of saying "Happy Birthday" to her. He loves her. He knows what today is. And He worked it out so that the doll she had been looking for every afternoon came back on July 26th.

When we prayed before dinner, Sarah thanked God for remembering her birthday and sending Lanie to her.

Here they are after Sarah's shower in their matching PJs.

Please take special note of Lanie's new LONG curly hair.

Thanks.

Just wanted to make sure you saw it since doll heads aren't cheap. ;)



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET SARAH!!!

As an update...

...since I'm sure you lie awake at night wondering...

Jose's still here. :)

Jason inspected his work Friday. He wanted to go over it with Jose who was supposed to come back Saturday. But then Jose had to unexpectedly take his grandson to the hospital. (Real or fake? I'm not sure.)

But he did walk the perimeter with Jason on Monday and was supposed to come Tuesday, but showed up this morning to fix everything.

Besides some sloppy painting and things that he completely overlooked, Jose also left some long staples, a few nails, and a razor blade in our yard. Jason found them while mowing on Saturday.

That was no bueno for Jose. Jason let him know that he expects him to clean up after himself.

Last night Jason discovered that Jose had left our gate unlocked. Also a bad move.

I'm rootin' for Jose to do a good job and avoid the scrutiny of Jason but he keeps messing up. It makes me sad...

..and a little worried that we're gonna get black-balled in the home improvement/renovation community.

Like maybe they have some database similar to an MLS system where every house has a corresponding code, and the "powers that be" are gonna put a little skull and crossbones by our house listing.

Workers will think, "My kids are hungry but not THAT hungry. I'm not working for them."

To be fair, Jason has valid points, and he told Jose, "Look, I don't know what Jerry's paying you but this is what I'm paying Jerry. And that's why I'm riding you."

When Jose's finished today, Jason's gonna call Jerry and do a walk through with him.

The saga continues....

Birthday invitations

Jack got this invitation to his friend's birthday party.

The picture doesn't do this justice. Plus I forgot to snap a pic of the envelope. Even the envelope was fancy.

First of all, rock climbing is a creative idea. I don't think the kids have been invited to a rock wall climbing party before.

But the kicker about this invitation for me is that when you pull the string, the cartoon kid climbs the invitation.

How cute is that?!

Makes me sick.

What does this mean? We have to have cute invitations for BOY'S birthdays too?!!! And they should be interactive??

I send out Evites for my kids' parties. That's my kind of interactive invite.

Click "yes", "no", or "maybe". Wasn't that fun??

And if the birthday kid wants to invite someone for whom I can't find an email address, then I tell my birthday kid that that friend can't make it so they need to pick someone else to invite.

I realize I set the birthday invitation bar pretty low, but it's not til I get invitations like this that I really see what a terrible mom I am.

;)

The kids were complaining about not having a DVD player in Jason's truck, so he took that opportunity to tell them that we didn't have DVDs when we were growing up. And we couldn't watch cartoons anytime we wanted. Cartoons came on on Saturday mornings; period. We had to look out the window when we were in a car. Use our imaginations and play outside more.
After his monologue, Jack said, "Dad, were you one of the first people alive?"

Don't be a idoit

I found this sign on the kitchen floor...

I love signs fraught with irony.

(You like that word? "Fraught? I don't think I've ever used it in print until now.)

Of all the words to misspell. Idoit.

And I'm willing to bet Jack corrected her. On her spelling and her incorrect use of the word "a", instead of "an".



Just so we're clear... I'm not ok with the name calling. We do NOT talk like that in this house!!
Only when we're in the car.

But there are A LOT of idiots on the road. You know I'm right.

My kids hardly ever throw up...

...but if they're going to, they seem to prefer to do it in the car.

Today was Caroline's first time.

We were driving to Central Market in Dallas to pick up Jack and Sarah from a cooking class. We pulled into the parking lot, when I heard Caroline scream and then I heard her get sick. I could tell just by the smell that it was dairy.

Disgusting. Chocolate milk.

At the moment it happened, I was stuck behind someone waiting for a parking spot. Couldn't get around him. Caroline was crying and I was telling her that I was trying to park and then I would help her.

It was everywhere.

She had to be stripped to her panties and really those should have come off too. The car seat had to be stripped.

I had some old wipes tucked away in the car, but that's it. No diaper bag. No change of clothes for her. And I had to go inside and upstairs at Central Market to get the other kids.

And did I mention I was wearing a white shirt and light khaki shorts today? An unfortunate ensemble for this messy fiasco.

I couldn't leave her in the car while I ran inside, although I considered it... a few different times. But I didn't.

I didn't want to take her inside in just her panties. She's 3. That's too old to be naked in public. Besides... they weren't clean either.

I considered seeing if I could get an old size 3 diaper on her. I had one left in the car from forever ago. I thought maybe if she was in a diaper people wouldn't know how old she is and wouldn't judge me for letting her be naked. But there's NO WAY a size 3 would come close to fitting her.

When I looked in the back of my van I had a leopard print blanket that I had gotten at Big Lots to go with our jungle themed classroom for preschool this year. It's huge. It's a polyester blend. It's suffocating.

That ugly thing was my only option.

I wrapped Caroline in it and carried her inside.

People were staring. I'm not sure if it was because the blanket is so ugly. I'm not sure if it was because it's 100 degrees outside and I had her all wrapped up in a blanket. Were they wondering what I was trying to cover up?

I was hoping that the kids would be waiting for me right outside the classroom. But no. They were still sloooowwwlllly finishing their ice cream from the cooking class. So I had to go in to the classroom with all the well-put-together moms holding my heavy, naked 3 year old wrapped in a leopard print blanket.

The other kids were asking their moms why Caroline looked like she did. MY kids were asking ME why she looked like that. I didn't want to announce that she had just thrown up while all these little kids were eating ice cream.

So I just told them I wanted to get out of there. Caroline wasn't getting any lighter. Grab your stuff and let's go!

They each had a brownie that they wanted to take with them, a recipe packet, and a chef's hat that was too big and covered their eyes. I was barking at them to hurry because I was holding a stinky pukey kid and I really wanted to get her back in the van so everyone would stop staring at me.

When I got everyone into the van, I was worried the other kids might lose it from the smell. But they were troopers.

Right after I got Caroline strapped into her carseat, she asked if she could eat Sarah's brownie.
WHAT? NO!
Then she started singing that Spongebob song that goes, "It's the best day e-ver!"
Then she fell asleep on the way home.

Completely unaffected by the ordeal.

I, on the other hand, have changed clothes, washed the car seat cover and her dress, washed my hands a million times, and I STILL feel like I can smell it on me somewhere.

Excited for Jason

Jason's boss, Roger, hasn't fully retired, but he moved to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago.

He managed to get to stay on with the firm as a part time employee, but obviously he's not coming into the office anymore. He's not meeting with any auditors or partners. He's doing some emailing and some conference calling. Things like that.

I'd call this "retirement with a little money on the side still coming in".

Last week Jason moved into his boss's old office... one on the corner. He's like a Jefferson. Movin' on up!! :)

And Jason's the guy in charge of ALL presentations and client/auditor meetings that can't be handled over the phone. He did some of them before, but now he's a lot busier.

He's had to wear a jacket to the office TWICE this week. Unheard of. And he's had to set his alarm super early for these meetings.

A little extra responsibilty. A little more "Talk to Jason about that" being said around the office. A little out of sight/out of mind when it comes to other members of the firm relying on Roger.

Roger has always been supportive of Jason's career, and I appreciate that he's stepped aside as much as he has.

I know Jason's tired, and I know this isn't a promotion. His title hasn't changed. His salary hasn't changed. But I think any time you make steps in the direction of taking over for your boss, that's a good thing.

Told ya

Jose finished today.

Jason came home, got out the ladder and a legal pad, walked the perimeter, took notes, and is now calling Jose to meet with him tomorrow.

There are a few things he needs to fix...

like using a razor blade on the windows to clean any overspray.


:)

See you soon, Jose.

Wanting to get rid of cable

I'm sure I've told you how we have a love/hate relationship with our cable provider, which happens to be Verizon but it wouldn't matter who it is.

We think it's a ripoff that you can't buy the cable box. Renting 3 used boxes for-- what? $20/month?? I'm not sure-- for the last 6 years is C.R.A.Z.Y. We probably paid for what they're worth the first year. But we still have to rent them.

Buying movies On Demand is never worth it when you add in all the taxes and things.

I do love the DVR.

I love TV, and we have all the channels I love to watch. But we also have to pay for every channel we'll NEVER watch. Though we can block them so we don't have to scroll through them, I'd like to not have to pay for them.

If you don't know I'm cheap by now, then where have you been? ;)

I don't like spending a lot of unneccessary money. And "a lot of unnecessary money" is a subjective phrase, the definition of which can fluctuate depending on my mood.

Admittedly I have random splurges. And that's mainly because I don't like for every.single.thing. I want to buy to require a pros/cons list and a long thought process. Sometimes I want to buy things simply because I think I should be able to... and not have to defend it or apologize for it.

But by and large, I'm pretty frugal. Or at the very least, I tend to stress about money, window shop more than I actually buy, and will literally cry-- actual tears, people-- if I think we're being stupid with our money.

Which brings me back to cable.

THERE'S GOTTA BE A BETTER WAY!!!

Today I finally stopped thinking about Netflix and signed up for the free month of membership. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I really see that as having the potential to pay for itself QUICKLY if we were to go ahead and sign up for $15/month.

We NEVER go to movies so my queue is FULL already.

Then I looked into Hulu Plus. It doesn't have the shows the kids would want to watch and they don't have Food Network shows *GASP* so I'm gonna hold off on that one. Give it a little time to expand its library and give my kids' taste in TV a chance to change and that could really be a viable option. $7.95/month to stream shows.

The goal would be to be able to lose cable and save $140/month. I think that's what it is. I'm shooting from the hip on some of these figures obviously.

The other, more random thing I signed up for today was gamefly. This one might be a money-waster. Time will tell.

But we went to Blockbuster today... which are becoming more and more scarce as you know... got one kids movie and 3 Wii games and spent $6. Not bad. But they're due back tomorrow. My kids will never get them all played with before they're due. And I gotta drive out of my way to return them... my life is so hard, I know, I know. :) Hence my signing up for gamefly.

Are you a Netflix subscriber? Am I gonna like it? How do you watch your TV shows (other than cable)? I don't think satellite would be cheaper, would it? Do you use it?

I'm asking questions as though this a conversation. *sigh*

This is like talking to myself in the mirror. Email me or leave me a comment if you have a great way to cut your cable bill... besides only watching channels 4, 5, 8, 11, and 13.

I'm cheap but not quite ready for that. ;)

At jumpstreet

Am I undermining Jason's punishment???
Honestly that wasn't my intention. I had to get them out of the house!!
Maybe it was wrong to take them to an indoor trampoline park.... but if only you could see how happy they are. ;)

Monday night Jason saw the kids running into the net that encloses the trampoline as fast and as hard as they could.

It's one of his rules that they shouldn't do that. Obviously we want the net to hold together and it should catch you if you lose your balance. It should not be something they're seemingly trying to break through.

They got into BIG trouble about it Monday night.

When I came home from being out with my mom and sister, Jason was in a BAD mood. He grounded them from the trampoline and the computer. He considered taking away Sarah's birthday party next week. (He wouldn't have actually done that. And if he had tried, I'd have had to speak up and override that ruling.)

To impress upon them the seriousness of not being reckless on the trampoline, he told them that if they fell, they could break their necks, and he can't fix that. He also said that if a friend of theirs fell off of our trampoline, their parents could take everything we have and we'd be living in a box.

I swear those were exact words.

"Take everything we have and we'd be living in a box."

Flash forward to this morning...

Very seriously Jack asked, "Mom, if my friend falls off the trampoline, and we have to be hobos, would we NEVER get a house again??"



He's worried about being homeless because of the trampoline. If Jason was trying to scare them, it worked.

Design your own cake

Sarah has drawn out some plans for her cake for her 7th birthday next week.

We will be taking this drawing to the cake artist at Target. ("Cake artist" is what our Target cake lady calls herself. I go with it. If folks at Subway can be "sandwich artists", who am I to say the Target cake lady can't be a cake artist?)

I'm sure it will be perfect... as long as everything is "editble" meaning "be able to eat". :)

Being the foreman

So we're having our house painted. The HOA let us know it was time. And we need to stain our fence. Fine.

We have Certa Pro out here doing the work. Well, let me take that back. We had Certa Pro out here BIDDING the work. They have subcontractors out here doing the work. You know how it goes.

And so Jerry, the super nice guy who seems to be very on top of things, bid the job. And Jose, a super nice guy who's NOT highly motivated to do a top notch job, and his son are here doing the work.

Which leaves Jason (or me, but mostly Jason) to be the foreman. Running the crew.

And I almost feel bad for workmen who come here because Jason is such a thorough inspector and he's that guy who refuses to pay until he's COMPLETELY satisfied. I'm not saying that's wrong. It's good that Jason's that way. I'm just more of a "looks good enough to me" type person.

Jason's hard core. He has said that if they get paint on our trampoline then the cost of a new trampoline is coming out of the price to paint the house. He saw some sloppy caulk work and wanted Jerry to come back out and look at Jose's work before it "gets covered up in paint. Because sloppy work can be hidden by a fresh coat of paint, but I want it done right."

Jose just rang the doorbell to go over what he did today. And as soon as he said, "Your husband said he had concerns...", I melted into this cowardly ball of nonconfrontational nerves and interrupted him and said, "I don't know anything about what my husband said. You'll have to go over it with him."

I'm such a chicken.

Jose left today from 1:00 until 4:30 because he said he had to take a break. "It got hot today!" he said in disbelief. Um, yeah. July + Texas = hot. How long ya been here? Isn't it even hotter in July where you're from? Maybe if you started before 10:30 this morning, you would have been further along before it became shockingly and inexplicably hot. Just a thought.

Of course I said none of this.

He said he'll be finished tomorrow. But I laughed to myself and thought, "Oh Jose, Jose, Jose. You won't be finished. You THINK you'll be done tomorrow. But Jason will find things you did wrong and you'll be back Thursday morning fixing it."

We'll be seeing a lot of each other, I'm sure.

We're at indoor safari park

I just sat in something wet that I'm praying was water.
Jack is pouting about the playground rules.
Caroline is scared of the robotic animals.
My cell phone battery is about to die so I can't kill time on facebook. I'm actually gonna have to watch them play. Great.
And we've only been here for 7 minutes.
This is shaping up to be a super successful outing.

Uh oh

I've never made any claims to be a botanist, but this can not be a sign that a potted plant is doing well in my care.

Sorry, Ginger.

Call him "little brown bunny" instead

I don't care if "Guess How Much I Love You" is a classic children's book, naming the main character "Little Nutbrown Hare" sounds wrong.

A conversation with Jack

Today Jack went to his friend, Arianna's 6th birthday. There were kids ranging anywhere from 18 months to 6 years old at the party.

Two things you need to know before I replay the conversation in the van:

1. Jack calls anyone around Caroline's age "a baby".

2. Jack took the last seat at the table when it was time for cake. He happened to be sitting between 2 babies.

......

Me: Did you have fun at the party today?

Jack: Yes. Except for when that one baby stepped on my face.

Let me stop here. It was a party at The Little Gym so there was lots of rolling and falling and accidentally stepping on people. Ok, back to the conversation...

Jack: And then that other baby tried to kill me.

I turned down the radio and the A/C. Jack tends to talk kinda softly and it's hard to hear him. So I asked him to repeat what he had just said.

Me: What are you talking about? Don't be so dramatic.

Jack: Mom, he tried to stab me in the neck with his fork.

I gotta stop again. I was seriously surprised that he knew that a fork to the neck would kill him. Surprised and also strangely impressed.

Me: Jack, he was like 2 yrs old or something. I'm sure he didn't mean it. It was probably an accident.

Jack: Oh really?! Then why was he saying "I hate you" while he was trying to stab me?

I was fighting back laughter at this point. He was dead serious. He felt like this kid had attempted to murder him or, at the very least, should be charged with attempted aggravated assault.

I was there. I know which kid he's talking about. The little one with the glasses. Cute little thing. There's no way this went down the way Jack said it did. I was in the room the whole time and saw nothing remotely like this. But listening to Jack retell it was cracking me up!

Me [smiling and looking in the rear view mirror]: Well don't take it personally, buddy. Maybe he has emotional problems.

Jack belly laughed at that suggestion. As though he COMPLETELY understood what it means to have "emotional problems".

Then he sighed and looked at me in the rear view mirror with a big grin and said, "Yep. He was definitely unstable."

:)


He makes me laugh.

That's my girl

This morning Caroline said, "I'll be 4 on my birthday."
Already counting down. I love it!

Caroline's 3rd birthday

My last baby turned 3 today. Unbelievable.

I'm gonna try to put this all into one nauseatingly long picture post. :) Enjoy...


The first thing we did this morning (after breakfast and getting dressed) was measure Caroline's height on our door frame. Then she opened presents.

Who loves Minnie Mouse??

Caroline does!!

Next up-- a Dora flashlight.

Followed by clothes and Hungry Hungry Hippos

But the biggest-- and by "biggest" I mean that she better not break it-- present was her LeapPad.

Which she looked at for five seconds and then went back to the $3 flashlight.

Before heading off to Chuck E Cheese's, the kids played a round of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Caroline got frustrated and used her hands. Cheater.

Then we went to CEC to play with Rachel, Alex, and Kate. Aunt Hilary, Aunt Kim, and my parents were also there.

Now for the cake...

Rachel tried to show Caroline how to make the number three with her fingers.

Then ol' Chuck came out. Now, I'm not gonna say that Caroline was afraid...

I mean, she stood on her chair and clapped..

She let him give her a birthday crown...

But I WILL say that, at this point, she got very serious... Not scared. Serious. ;)

She blew all of her candles out and got her birthday medal.

She opted out of the photo op with Chuck. But the other kids were up for it!

Then the kids went to play while Caroline opened up her presents. See if you can find me in these pics.
HINT: You'll know it's me by my "VERY IMPORTANT PARENT" nametag. I'm cool like that.

It was a good morning! I'm exhausted!! Our den is a mess of presents... just as it should be.

Until next year, Caroline, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
xoxo