Paybacks..the post where I feel better because Howie had to deal with it all...

In reference to my last post about camping, though this time we weren't really camping...

Today at 2:00 M and H went to a birthday party of a little boy in the neighborhood... I was not there, I had to leave for work at 2:15.. I don't know what was served there to eat, and there is no way I could have been responsible for what M ate, because, well, I was at work.

At 5:30 Howie called me to see if maybe he should go check up on the boys, because they weren't back from the party. ( They rode their bikes. ) Umm, duh.

At 6:30 all 4 went to another party across the street. Remember, I was at work, I was not responsible for what my kids had to eat. That, unfortunately, was Howie's responsibility tonight.

At 9:30 M threw up all over the neighbor's lawn.

Guess who had to clean it up this time?

Tournament Game

Here's a couple of pics of H's last baseball tournament game.

Cedar Point

We went to Cedar Point last Sunday. I always joke that one of the reasons I married Howie is because I know he will never make me go on a roller coaster, he hates them as much as I do. Regardless, I don't think it's fair to deprive my kids of the experiece just because I am a huge chicken. So we went, and took Grandma and Grandpa, who both love roller coasters. So we thought it work out well. We were wrong. The boys first rode on the Blue Streak and they were done. They were big and tough to start out with, but quicky turned into scardy-cats like their parents. So that left us with Camp Snoopy and the Train Ride. Even E was hesitant at first to go on the kiddy rides, though you can see below she warmed up after a while.

This pic of my Dad is paybacks for some terrible ones of me he took on the kiddie swings with E.


All 4 waiting to go on the Blue Streak.



E on the kiddie motorcyles.

Happy 4th Birthday !!

So her birthday's not til Wednesday, but we celebrated today. Only a couple of near catastrophes, and everything went almost as planned. The cake ( see below ) was ridiculously time consuming from the get-go, and about half way into baking it,
( which took 4 and a half hours ) she decided that she wanted a Little Mermaid cake. We don't have a Little Mermaid Barbie, it was 9pm Saturday night, and all the decorations for the party were Cinderella. Little Mermaid wasn't happening. I showed her a few pics of cakes like hers online and she seemed OK with it after a while.




We bought her present back in December. A yellow,ride-on Corvette that we found at Big Lots while we were out Christmas shopping. It has sat in it's box until Saturday. Howie assembled it last night in the basement and charged it overnight. This morning he went to check on it and found that not only would it not charge, it had a big crack in the quarter panel. ( That will teach me to shop at Big Lots). So we were hours away from her party with no gift, not sure if Big Lots would even return our money 7 months after we purchased it, and even if we could get a refund and get somewhere to buy something else, these ride on cars take 18 hours to charge up the first time.

Thankfully, we had the receipt, and Big Lots promised to refund our money. We found a Barbie Jeep at Toys R Us ( though not the screaming deal we got on the Corvette ), and we got it together and charged long enough for her to take a couple of laps. Personally I think it was a bigger hit, because it's pink. And of course pink trumps yellow when your a 4 year old girl.

Happy 4th of July

This was the best pic of the three of them I could get. Thursday night we watched the city fireworks from a neighbors backyard. We were home by 11:00.

M, as depicted below, has been working on a loose tooth since school was practically out. He wouldn't let Howie or I touch it to yank it out. He's too smart for us. So our neighbor asked if he could see it to "dry it off". M opened right up for him, and pop, out it came no problem. M was a little stunned. Our neighbor was also kind enough to inform M that the tooth fairy now brings 5 dollar bills for front teeth. Thank you, Mr. Fonatana. Can you picture me, at 3 o'clock in the morning, trying to find this baby tooth under his pillow, replace it with $5, and not wake up either he, or his brother, because they both insist on sleeping in the same twin bed?





Parent's magazine ran a photo contest to compete for one of their covers. Of course I think that MY daughter should be the winner. ( Out of 84,000 some odd entries, I'm not holding my breath ) So anyhow, here's one of the shots I entered.

WE SOLD THE HOUSE

WE SOLD THE HOUSE. WE SOLD THE HOUSE. WE SOLD THE HOUSE. WE SOLD THE HOUSE. WE SOLD THE HOUSE. WE SOLD THE HOUSE.


* WE SOLD THE HOUSE

Camping (Post not intended for those with weak stomachs)

Not really CAMPING, but we got really close. The neighbors have an annual camp-out every year. The whole neighborhood is invited to pitch a tent, bring snacks, enjoy a bonfire, and eat donuts in the morning. I figured I could tough it out for one night, as my bathroom, toothbrush, and refrigerator were, like 10 yards away.
So I pitched the tent, bought stuff for pudgie pies, scrounged up sleeping bags. Howie even joined us for a while. I seriously considered putting the tent up in our yard and sleeping on the couch with the windows open so I could hear the boys, but decided against it.



Here is the view from H's window into tent city. It was dark by the time everyone set up, so I couldn't get a picture of it all but I think there were about 12 tents and 40 people.


Here's a picture of Howie and E by the campfire with Howie actually smiling and not making a stupid face. What a rarity.


A picture of M before all hell broke loose.

So we started about 7pm. Everyone ate dinner before hand, but brought typical camp out fare to snack on. Chips and dip, brownies, S'mores, pop, aformentioned cherry pudgie pies, goldfish crackers, pretzels, whatever.

I DID NOT POLICE HOW MUCH MY KIDS ATE.

Usually I'm sort of good about it.

I think in the end M ate about 6 S'mores, 2 Root Beers, 2 Capri Suns, Chex Mix, 2 Cherry Pies, A gallon of dip with chips, and various marshmallows that weren't attached to graham crackers or chocolate.

At 11:30 we called lights out.

At 11:32 M looked up at me from his sleeping bag and said "Mom, I feel like I'm going to puke". Which he did. All over me, him, his sleeping bag, pillow, sister and webkinz.

In those two minutes Howie had managed to sneak off to a neighbor's house with a bunch of dads who weren't camping. So it was just me, with the puke, E who was sleeping, M who was sick, and H who was ticked because his brother ruined his camp-out. I was trying really hard NOT to alert the other 36 people camping to our dilemma, but needed one of the other dads to go get Howie, which woke up all the tents on our side of the lawn. In the meantime M got sick again ( which solidified my decision to pitch the air mattress ), I got E home to bed, M in the bathtub and H in another tent so he would quit throwing a hissy fit. Howie got back just in time for the clean up. Do you know the logistics of getting a vomit soaked mattress through the opening of a very tiny tent? It can't be done. So I had to crawl on top of the thing and feel around in the dark for the air release valve, which of course was in the middle of the mess. We then took the tent down and folded it so nothing got on the neighbor's lawn. We drug the whole thing back to our driveway, where it sat til this morning and I could deal with it all in daylight.

We won't be camping again for a very long time.

Happy Father's Day