Happy Birthday, Big M!

How can it be that my eldest is 8 years old? It seems like yesterday I was still breastfeeding round the clock, and now we are having to take him to all sorts of after school activities, getting onto him about doing his homework, and now he is running away to class before we could even hug him goodbye. When you are a parent, time is both slow and fast.

Two weeks ago Daddy and I asked him what he would like for his birthday and he came back with a plan. He wanted a laser tag party and invite 20 of his friends. Yikes! I looked into a place and found that for $200 for a guest of 10 a use of a party room and 2 laser tag games are included. It's not as steep of a price from our previous parties, but I figured we can steer him away from a party. So with that in mind, I procrastinated booking the party. Actually, I don't need a plan to procrastinate but let's just let that slide.

But to make the long story short, at the last minute, I ended up booking the party and 15 guests were invited and 12 attended. There was an almost-catastrophe, which I am not solely responsible for, we invited a boy who is supposed to be Big M's best friend. Only we invited the wrong boy with the same name, and the real best friend was not invited at all. Thankfully, through amazing coincidence it was corrected and the best friend came!

Everyone had fun. Daddy and I divided and conquered. We had no idea that this age is the age at which parents started leaving their children at the party. But we were not entirely flabbergasted. Daddy joined in the game of laser tag, including J and K,  and watched all the boys. I stayed in the arcade with Little M and followed him around. Overall, the party was less of a stress than any other previous parties because the children are getting older.

Big M had tons of fun and we love that.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Daddy celebrated his birthday early last week. The boys and I took him out to lunch to the restaurant of his choosing. He chose Hooters. We enjoyed the wings, but I don't think Little M enjoyed his seat at the table though. Daddy agreed to be seated at a high-top table because it was the only one available. Fortunately a table opened up shortly after we made our order so we asked to be moved.
Daddy is not too thrilled about adding another number to his age.

Happy 1st birthday, Little M.

Yesterday Little M turned one.  We didn't have anything big planned, but we had to cancel what we did plan. Little M vomitted his birthday pancake breakfast. He gobbled them up so we thought he was just too full. But after the 3rd episode we had to call our friend to cancel. We didn't want what was potentially a bad bug to spread. Other than being tired from the lack of sleep the night before, he otherwise behaved fine. He had his presents, his first cake and of course lots of pictures.

Big M commented on how few presents Little M. We told him it was because all the baby toys he and his sisters had are now all passed down to Little M. Daddy and I feel a little guilty about it too but we know he will be asking for his own toys soon enough.

Pictures later.

a year older and a few less brain cells

I am truly hoping that this is just me, but I think I'm more forgetful now than ever. I did a final walk-through of the rental house the other day and had to hold on to the check the landlord gave me (full refund of deposit, yeah!) while we chatted a little bit. When I got in the car before I left, I had a frantic moment of searching for that check. I remembered as I was holding onto it, Don't lose it! I didn't lose it, but there was that moment when I thought I did. And then there's a daily look out for my cell phone, and I do mean daily, as in several times a day. ARGH!

My birthday started great, full of songs and laughter from the kids. Then I went to Wal-Mart to do some school supply shopping and then I got hit from behind by a woman as I was leaving my parking space. I got out of the car, looked at the damage and saw my rear right corner bumper was caved in. "I want your insurance information," I said as I went back in my car to get my pen, cell phone and insurance card. When I came out she asked, "Why were you so slow?" With the adrenaline running through my body, it took a bit of restraint not to say, "DUH! So I don't hit other unsuspecting cars or people." As I was taking a picture of the damage to my car, she came over and said, "I didn't do that." "Yes, you did. I have never been in an accident in a long time, and not with this car." Thankfully, to that she seemed to accept the fact and said, "It doesn't look so bad."

So I came home, called the police, called the insurance company and then went off to lunch with Daddy and Little M. By this time, I'm thankful that I was no longer shaking from the adrenaline and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the day.

Two days later (yesterday), I ran over a nail 2 minutes from Big M's school as I was picking him up. It punctured the tire, so I had to call my knight in shining armor (Daddy) to come rescue me. I can count 3 times in the past 6 years this had happened to me. I think it's fate telling me I really should go ahead and pay attention to how to change my own tire. Daddy has explained it to me as many times, but I couldn't really get into the lesson. It's one of those things that it's better to do yourself in order to learn it. So as I was waiting for Daddy in the school parking lot, I went ahead and started. I read the car manual and got moving. I had already gotten the spare tire down by the time Daddy came. And what's up with the other parents at school (even the men!) not even stopping to ask if I needed help!?

Anyway, that's in the past. I'm ok, my family is Ok. Our AC finally has a new compressor and is working, just in time for the 115 heat index. All is well. All is especially well when I bought a yummy little cake from Wal-mart. We all gobbled it up, I had to send Daddy to get another one. :)

a happy, bouncy party

The girls' party was a inflatable bouncy place. It was a private party, so it was only our guests that were playing at that time. It was a small party, and everyone had fun. Some parents even got in on the action.

J tripped on something shortly after we arrived there and she moped after that. We worried that she wasn't going to have fun, but thankfully, after a little while she finally starting bouncing again. K was all over the place and even disappeared for a little while. Big M was the oldest/biggest kid there and he set his sights on the teen party host and played with her for the most part.

After an hour of playing, we were ushered to a private room where the girls had their cake. Unfortunately, I don't have a video of that due to a senior moment. I thought I had the camera, when it wasn't. And when I turned it off, it was actually on. So instead of having a video of the girls blowing their cakes, I have a video of the floor and the wall and whatever the camera pointed on.

We had a Dora/Diego cake for everyone, and two Dora mini cakes for the girls so they each had a cake and candles to blow.

Everyone had fun!

[slideshow]

I almost forgot... J is wearing Blue, K is wearing Pink.

Big M's Big 5

Big M turned 5 on March 11, but for many many reasons, I never got to post a blog about it. In case this little man looks back on this blog, I want to post a couple of pictures. It was a Thursday, so Daddy was at work and the kids were at home. I cooked birthday pancakes, as requested by Big M. The pancake seems to be a tradition now (it started last year). He opened a few gifts that morning, some that night when Daddy came home and then of course the majority was at the party that Saturday.

The party was at a Chuck-E-Cheeses type place and his friends from school were there. The hit presents were Star Wars (his cake was Star Wars) and Lego. We had a lot of fun, though K was left at home with the babysitter since she was very sick with asthma.

I just love my Daddy.

Daddy's birthday is this weekend, so we had his birthday lunch on Tuesday with the twins. Big Brother was in school. Sorry, little man! While eating lunch, Thing 2 took breaks in between every 2 -3 bites to lean over on Daddy and wrap her greasy little hands around his arm. She kept doing it over and over through the entire meal. We're not quite sure why she did it, but it sure did give her time enough to chew her food and not choke herself like she and her sister did over the weekend. And of course, Daddy just ate up the cuddliness.

Thing 1 sat beside me and both she and I just went about our business of eating yummy yummy Italian food.

Notice we took the booster seat with us. It was great!! For the first time while out, I didn't need to feed the girls first before I could eat my food. We all ate together.

Three beautiful ducklings.

March 2005
Hello, my little duckling Matty. Goodbye peace and quiet.





June 2007
Hello, Katie. There goes momma duck's bath time.





June 2007
Hello, Jojo. Momma duck is in trouble now.