OMG, what have I done?!

This is the question of the day.

Nick went to a birthday party last night at The Hop. It's one of those inflatable play areas, the kids love it there. Anyway, the party ran from 7-9pm on a Friday night. That's really late for my kids, considering I strive to have all three bathed, in PJs and out of my hair by 7:30pm. 8pm at the latest for Nick, and only if I have no other choice (ie. lots of homework to finish).

Anyway, I arrived at 9pm to pick him up just as they were eating cake and they hadn't even started opening gifts yet. In hindsight, I should have taken him home then and there. But I decided since it was a Friday night, I wouldn't humiliate the lad by pulling him out of a group of his peers to put him to bed. By the time the festivities were completed, it was 9:35pm. Yikes!

The hosts started to hand out the goody bags as the kids filed out of the party room. And Nick was the last in line. Any guesses as to what happened?! Yep, they "ran out" of gift bags, the boy themed ones anyway. And the hosts would not let him have a "girl" bag. Poor Nick. The tears started flowing almost instantly and I had that sick feeling in my stomach that this is not going to go well.

I managed to get him into the car before it degenerated into hysteria. Boy, that was the longest ride home ever. Luckily for all concerned, Paul was actually at home before 10pm on a Friday! I left Nick with him and headed out into the snow. In search of some sort of consolation for my little guy.

The only thing open was King Soopers (Kroger) and I dove into the toy aisle and prayed they had something small and less than $10 to replace the goodie bag that wasn't. The only thing that was remotely age appropriate and not ridiculously priced was a battery operated Whoopee cushion. *Sigh* Yes, I actually bought it for him. And he was thrilled when I took it in to him, Paul had him in bed by that time, and he was still crying.

While I am very thankful that I was able to alleviate my my son's mental distress with $2.99, I am seriously regretting this purchase. As I type right now, Ellie is in tears on the floor next to me. She has been repeating over and over again "Mommy, I just can't listen to anymore tooting around here"! I know the feeling. I had a long talk with her about boys in general, and their incomprehensible obsession with all things gaseous. Sadly, this will go on for years and some of them never grow out of it. This is one (of many) reasons why we have girlfriends. Today the house sounds like a truck stop restroom when bean burritos are the special of the day. As Nick just reminded me, "at least you don't have to smell it too Mom". Thank god for small favors.

Gosh, working tonight is sounding better and better! And then of course I will have to sleep tomorrow... Good luck Paul! A friendly word of advice for you: find some ear plugs.

Now, how long until the batteries run out?!

Happy (Chocolatey) Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

A fairly uneventful day around here. Paul and I decided to have fondue for dinner in honor of the holiday.

Dinnertime confirmed our suspicions that the children are not old enough to appreciate this form of food preparation. Nick was horrified by the entire proceeding and refused to even approach the counter for bread dipped in the cheese fondue. Ellie loved the dipping part, but wouldn't eat anything. And William is still suffering GI upset from last weeks' virus and now has an ear infection to boot so he was disinterested to say the least. (And of course, he wasn't allowed anywhere near the flaming fondue pots.) The only part of fondue that they enjoyed was getting to "spear" food with the poky forks. We decided to call it quits and make them something else before that segued into them spearing each other.

Dessert however was a different story! Thumbs up by the youngsters on the marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate! Nick, being a true chocoholic, loved this part. Ellie decided that she wasn't able to get enough chocolate on her marshmallow just by dipping, and resorted to using a spoon to shovel even more into her mouth and all over her clothing. William took one bite of a marshmallow and then promptly threw it across the kitchen.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Hope you had a wonderful, chocolatey, romantic holiday!

Nick

Eleanor

In this photo, Ellie is telling you a story about a Valentine's party. She is very excited for her party tomorrow at school. And is greatly anticipating lots of treats and cards from her friends. And she made a special card for her teacher Mrs. McDonald with a heart shaped doilie and everything. And she knows a Valentine's song to the tune of "Twinkle twinkle little star". And she would like to give her "boyfriend" Jonah a special card, but her teacher said "no, we are all friends equally in school" so no special cards. But there will be cookies there at the party, she is quite sure.

And here she is sick of the sun. Story over.

Monkey see..... Monkey do!

If Nick did it first, it must be a good idea?

While Nick chose to "sled" on dirt, poor little William decided to slide down the hill on top of a pile of pine needles.
Ouch! Thank god for diapers.

February Update

Well, this is just sad. Think the kids are missing the snow?!

Although it is winter according to the calendar, today is sunny and fairly warm. Here they are "sledding" down the hill from the previous post, in the dirt, on their bums.

I have been told that this is fun.

And so much more fun to come for me.... in the form of laundry.

Sorry for the dearth of pictures lately, it has been a month of so of non-stop viruses around here. We have enjoyed several respiratory ones, and had a virtual symphony of coughs going amongst the clan. And this last week, we had the extreme pleasure of gastroenteritis for 5. You really haven't lived until you have experienced a mobile, climbing toddler who is vomiting but doesn't recognize that feeling in advance. A true joy for those who must clean it up! Especially when the adults are sick too.

We do hope that you are all well at your end.

We're just longing for Spring to come.... and stay!