Surprise!

Robert surprised me this week with a night at the new Wynn Hotel on the strip. We ate fabulous sushi at Yellow Tail in the Belagio Hotel with a famous lead singer and his wife. She wore a fabulous designer dress and I carried my Target purse and wore my H&M jacket. (I scrubbed the Max food smears off prior to dinner.) Nevertheless, it was a wonderful night even if I felt a bit out of place. I posted some pics of our view and the fabulous mirror in our hotel room. It took up the whole wall. I want one.

Ella celebrates!

The broken thumb and subsequent blue cast is all a distant memory now. We celebrated Reynolds' style--with FOOD. Ella helped me make these brownies and insisted on the "words" on the brownies. As Ella says, "Like a birthday cake, Mom." Although it was an agonizing decision for her to choose between brownies and a slurpee. She decided that she would rather have a slurpee on a warm day and that she could do chores to earn the slurpee, so it wouldn't be that hard to get one when she wanted. Robert says he is glad her cast is off because, "she can hit hard with that thing." :)

Max wins the War...I'm moving to China until he's 3.

I should have known what kind of a day it was going to be when I heard Max climb out of bed at 5:45 a.m. I took him back to bed 5 times before I gave up and grabbed a blanket and tried to crash on the chair in his room. I kept explaining to him that it was still "Night, night" time. He would open the blinds, let the 6:30 a.m sun shine in and say, "No, night-night, Mama, see." Sigh. Anyway, I gave up and we went downstairs, where he promptly opened the back door setting off our house alarm. That woke me up from my not-enough-sleep stupor. Things went fairly smoothly the rest of the day with only one tantrum (me taking away the chocolate milk he helped himself to and him objecting vigorously) and a few wrestling matches at the Dr.'s office (Ella got her cast removed today!) and only one small chase out the front door and down the street. I didn't mind too much since I had my clothes on this time.

Then 6:30p.m. rolls around. I rush out the door to get to soccer sign ups so I don't have to wait in line with 4 kids for an eternity. I even fill out my forms ahead of time. I make it out of the garage and half way there when I realize that I have to bring the kids' birth certificates so we turn around and I run and grab them. Then I wait in line only to find out that they want 2 copies of each form not one. So then I wait in another line for a computer so I can print out the extra form only to find that the computer is not working. Wait, wait, wait and wait and then the computer starts to work and 10 minutes later the printer spit out 3 forms. By this time, the kids were going crazy. I told the girls to take Max and play in the corner for a minute while I waited in yet another line. I realized as I got my wallet out that I did not have my check book (Max had dumped my purse out earlier in the day) almost the same moment Max pulled the fire alarm. Nice. I loaded the kids up in the car, drove 10 minutes to the nearest ATM to take out the requisite amount because the Soccer league only deals in checks or cash. Then drove back to pay, by the time we got home it was 7:30 and I still hadn't fed the kids. I rushed them through dinner to get them to bed on time only to discover in that Max had been up in the girls' room. He had dumped the entire contents of fish food into the tank. The water was so murky we had trouble finding the fish. While Kate was on a search and rescue mission, I decided it was time for Max to go to bed. Enough is enough! I put him down and then returned to the fun process of emptying out the fish tank and cleaning it. 15 minutes later, Max joins us in Kate and Ella's room to see what is going on. I scold him and send him back to bed. We finish the fish tank by 9p.m. and I try and get the kids to bed. I check on Max only to find that he is out of his crib and has dumped baby powder all over his room. After I clean up the mess, swat him on the bum (I know, but !!!) and put him down for bed. I go downstairs and am greeted by the mess pictured above. Is it tomorrow yet?

A truce...for the moment...

Max likes to come up behind me when I am sitting at the computer and put his arms around my neck and holler, "EEEE HAAA." Think cowboy riding on a horse with a two-year old limited language spin. This is my cue to stand up and run around the house with him. Since I'm tired this morning, I talked him into a photo shoot instead. It kept him busy for ten minutes. At least he wasn't dragging one of my kitchen chairs out the back door and through the yard around to our side gate to see if he could get the latch unlocked and run wild in the dangerous streets. Maybe I should call this photo session a battle won for me instead of a truce.

Max declares WAR.

This afternoon, I was peacefully cooking in my kitchen thinking pleasant thoughts, when I heard some strange noises upstairs. I checked Max's crib first since he was suppose to be in it taking his nap. What I found on my way to his crib was a nicely formed, smelly, brown piece of poo resting comfortably on his soon-to-be sanitized blue rug. But no Max. I started calling his name and heard some muffled noises coming from the bathroom. I went to the door only to find it locked. I told Max to open it and he said my least favorite word, "No, Mama." I cajoled, I ranted, I banged on the door and imagined horrible things but still he would not unlock the door. Finally, I had to pick the lock. I found Max at the sink with his pants around his ankles and his white bum bared for all to see, playing happily with a cup and the running faucet. I considered putting him time out for the rest of his life.

All I can say is, It's ON Max. It is so ON! You messed with the wrong, Mama!

Jackson is 6!!!!

He really is 6 years old. I know the one candle in the cupcake can be confusing but I figured the spit that escapes his mouth when blowing candles out should be confined to only one cupcake.
This morning when he woke up, I gave him a big hug and started kissing him while wishing him a happy birthday. He grinned and said, "I knew you were going to do that." I guess I'm predictable. I was also lamenting that he was growing up so fast. He said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll be a kid for a while longer." I'm glad he will be, but I know what he doesn't know yet, it will go by too fast--it already has.

I took brownies and cookies to his class today to celebrate his birthday. He was pretty excited about the whole thing. He wore a special badge on his shirt all day that says : Jedi Knight Birthday. Did I mention he slept with it? He pinned it on his Pj's last night and then transfered it to his shirt this morning. So cute.
Jackson, I love you. I'm so glad we get have you in our family. Happy Birthday!

Happy Sunday to you!

Woke up this morning to the sound of our house alarm going off. This is not a quiet alarm this is a "all hell is breaking loose" kind of sound. I found Max standing in our house with the back door open. He climbed out of bed and decided he would go play outside. That would be okay if he were 18 but he's only 2! Then I looked at the clock and it was 6:15 a.m. Sigh.

Awhile later, Ella came down the stairs in tears. The Tooth Fairy forgot to visit. Blast that Tooth Fairy! I hope she has some money for the therapy Ella will need later in life. As Ella says, "She can just come really fast." Sigh.

It's only 8 a.m., surely things will get better...

Jackson's birthday party... Is it over yet?

I lost count of the kids after 10. It was Star Wars all the way, at least I was seeing stars by the time it was all over. I am so tired that I am not sure I am writing anything coherent right now. Is that even spelled right? It looks funny to me. Another sign that Max is getting up too early. I can't even concentrate on my spelling. The little stinker crawled out of his crib/cage at 6:00a.m. this morning promptly waking up everyone in the house. I guess that was okay because the people delivering the bounce house for Jackson's party came at 6:30 a.m. They were suppose to come between 7-11:30 a.m. It just isn't decent, you know. Well, at least the kids got some bouncing in before breakfast.
Jackson initially wanted a cake shaped like a light saber. I was looking forward to that like I look forward to someone scraping their nails down a chalk board. So after agonizing and consulting various sources on how to produce said cake-- I asked him what he thought about cupcakes. He shrugged and said, "Sure, Mom." He may have a unnatural fascination with scissors but he is an easy going boy--a great quality to have in a son.

Since I bailed on the cake, I tried to make the cupcakes a little extra special. We had green and blue cupcakes and red and purple. The kids thought they were cool and I thought they were cool 'cause I didn't have to make a light saber cake.
Max liked the frosting. He liked sticking his fingers in the already frosted cupcakes. I like straight jackets for two year olds. I think that there would be a market for that product, I really do. Okay, CPS, before you decide to come and pick me up and take my children away, I did not put him in a straight jacket but I did bribe him with this beater full of sugar, butter and saturated fat. I'm not helping my case, am I. Oh, I am rambling here. Tired. Did I mention that? What was my point with all this? I know I was going somewhere with it.... Hmm... Anyway, I think Jackson had a good time at his Star Wars party. I can't believe he is going to be 6 already. Oh, did I tell you that Ella lost her tooth 2 minutes before the party started. She was thrilled and can't wait to get some money from the tooth fairy. I hope the tooth fairy has some money. She might have to go to the bank.

My favorite highlight of the party: When Max rejoined the party after his nap with his pants around his ankles and his legs smeared with poo. It was fun. No, No, wait. It was the bloody mess in the bathroom from Ella's tooth that I had to clean in a panic before everyone came. I should have waited to clean the bathroom until two minutes before the door bell rang anyway. I should have known not to clean it 15 minutes before. Of course it would get dirty, duh.

Kate's 9th Birthday

The Cast: Part Blue

On the first day of Easter...

The Easter bunny brought to me: A sugar-high, 5 extra pounds, and too much introspection leading to a self-diagnosis of being an "emotional" eater. Thanks, Easter Bunny. Maybe some sugar-free candy next year? Or just a nice dress?

The kids faired a bit better:

Until... Ella broke her thumb. It all kind of went down hill from there.

1 splint, 1 blue cast and $800 (ish) dollars later, we decided that the Easter Bunny is banned from our house. To emphasize this decision, Jackson cut up his brand new (for church) Gymboree polo shirt and I almost threw away my stash of cadbury mini eggs.

Fool me once...

So I really got the kids good this year-- I fooled them the night before April Fools day. Ha! Ha! This year we had chocolate/Raspberry pie for dinner disguised as hamburger meat and mashed potatoes colored with pureed beets and jello juice with straws. The jello juice was the most convincing because I poured dye to match the kids jello juice into our water. When the kids had trouble sucking up their "juice"--Robert and I drank ours with no problem. It was funny because Max actually got pretty frustrated and wanted to drink out of my cup instead of his. For dessert we had, grilled "cheese" sandwiches and sushi. The sandwiches were made with orange colored frosting and pound cake. The sushi really was rice-krispy treats with gummy worms rolled in between them and wrapped in fruit-roll ups. It was a lot of fun.

I also threw in a few photos of the kids making cupcakes on Sunday. If you need a sugar-high, stop by, we can help!