Fourth of July

For the last 3 years, we have opted to celebrate our freedom by lighting things on fire (meat and explosives) with our fellow residents of the cul-de-sac. This year it was an even larger gathering because each of us invited 3 or 4 other families.

Mark kicked things off early with his second annual garage band. This year's participants were:

Mark on electric guitar, Marty Morrison on bass, and Michael Wheeler on the acoustic.


Richard Timmins on drums:Joel Rownak on keyboard: (along with anyone brave enough to take the mic)


It was very loud and very fun to hear the boys making a ruckus. We morphed from the conservative neighbors with an unsettling amount of canned goods in our garage to the ones that inspire you to look up the non-emergency number for the local police dept.

While the boys were sweating in the garage, we ladies hung out in the kitchen and discussed the various aspects of postpartum weight loss and the finer nuances of the homegrown tomato.


Kim Wheeler
My niece, Chelsea and baby Ethan Wheeler



I admit that my attention was dominated mainly by the Nutter Butter Pie Emilly Rownak brought. It was calling my name in sweet dulcet tones. It did not disappoint. (once again, that is not a cold brewsky on the countertop....just making sure....and I'm thinking we should start "avoiding the very appearance")


As the afternoon progressed, Jennifer Squires (neighbor to the left) and Emily Rownak performed an act of lunacy and filled up hundreds and hundreds of water balloons for the kids. There was a fierce and furious water fight. This would be the first of several wardrobe changes for the day.
After the kids changed into dry clothes and we began grazing on the large quantities of food we had compiled, we helped them decorate their bikes with balloons, streamers and handmade signs. They were very proud and VERY insistent that we watch their every move as they rode in formation around the cul-de-sac.


Ethan with his "let's go fireworks!" sign
Mathew prefers to be shirtless.


Megan with her festive black balloons



Laney watching the action...and I just realized I don't know a single person behind her.


Oh, hey! I know two of these people! Heather's in the blue and Barth is in the green...they're our neighbors to the right
We finally made it to sundown and we lit our 30 bucks worth of roman candles. For the record, roman candles are the BEST fireworks ever. Who doesn't want to launch fireballs right from their very hand?

Megan especially appreciated the thousands upon thousands of "poppers" at her disposal. I've been trying to convince her to wear these pink sneakers for months, and finally she sees their value when they can successfully stomp on chunks of gunpowder wrapped in little twists of paper.
It was a pretty good event. I was "nasty full" and promised myself, once more, that I would never eat again. Then I took a fork to the Nutter Butter Pie leftovers after I put Laney in her crib.

Oh yeah, and there were som pretty beautiful shwoopy clouds behind the house. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a gorgeous lake and mountain range behind those trees.

I'm pretty sure there's just a field of 9 ft. weeds back there. Today, I'll pretend they're
"amber waves of grain".


Happy Freedom, everybody.

Father's Day

was simple...Mark asked for Pork Barbacoa..please note that we were not enjoying a couple of cold beers. Mark loves sarsaparilla (it's kind of like root beer). Also, if you look hard enough, since it was technically Mathew's birthDAY, he was using our other special plate, the deviled egg platter. Fancy shmancy.
and homemade Peanut Buster Parfaits. The thing about Mark is that he is the best friend ever. He's kind and funny. For some reason I have a hard time blogging about him. Every time I try to express what I feel for him, it comes out sounding less than what I really want to say.

The thing is, I've never known anyone like him.

I always thought as I grew up that each person that you date helps you to form the idea of what kind of person you would eventually find happiness with. Maybe you find out you dislike certain personality traits or whatnot. But really, Mark came into my life and it was like I was introduced to my own personal brand of happiness....all at once. He balances out my inconsistencies and shortcomings. He has an easy way about him that makes me feel loved and fully capable of fulfilling my role in our family. I am THRILLED that he is the father of my children and when I think about the prospect of spending eternity together, I have a smile on my face.

Mathew is 6

Somehow, this year not only did Ethan's birthday and Mother's Day converge, Mathew's Birthday and Father's Day managed to partner up. As any mother knows, I simply cannot show love to more than one person at a time, so naturally we had Mathew's celebrations on Saturday AND Monday and let Dad enjoy Sunday.

SO!

Mathew requested that his birthday dinner be...roast beef? spaghetti and meatballs? Chicken cordon bleu? No!

Burger King!

Awesome! I can honestly say we have never been to the King of Burgers while living in Arky. Perhaps that would explain the allure.

We planned a friend party for the following Monday and so we let him open Grandma Kathleen's present at the "restaurant". She got him the coolest toy EVER. Zoobs. Seriously. Go get some. Your kids will love them and they won't even choke on them. These are not those dangerous magnet thingies.
On Monday we did the Chuck e cheese birthday party. Mathew requested a vanilla cake with yellow icing and horses in a circle.

Done!




We all enjoyed the games and feats of strength:




Proving even Chuck e cheese can be fabulous.


While I wasn't paying attention, the life sized Chuck e cheese came over to my kids and bestowed upon them hundreds of tickets. Single tickets. You may already know how time consuming it is to feed large quantities of single tickets into the counter machine that makes the chomping noise.

I really love this man. Thanks for your sacrifice.
And everybody's favorite part: the agonizing choice between a laffy taffy and the spider ring.


Happy Birthday Mathew! You are one super kid.

Allow me

I know you are anxiously awaiting a June/July travelogue...but first...

Allow me to recap my day for you.

You'll feel better about yours......I promise.

I fully intended to get up at 6:15 in order to take the dogs for a walk. You might assume that I do this in order to stay in shape. You would be wrong. The vet told me that Tootsie is super fat. It's true. So now I get up to try to slim down the dog. I guess if you can't do it for yourself, do it for the dog. Unfortunately I was unable to gather the strength to get out of the house before the kids woke up at 6:23. So one by one, each puffy-eyed, bed-headed little person requested in that gravelly voice if he/she might accompany me on my walk. Mark hates to pass up a family outing, so soon we left the house with one Basset mut with a broken leash, one obese weiner dog, one boy on a bike, another on foot and two girls in pajamas in a double stroller. At least Tootsie didn't poop in someone's driveway today.

I had packed the library books up last night, thinking we would go pick out new ones around 9 am. Instead we stayed home and watched unhealthy amounts of television and consumed dangerous quantities of otter pops. We did take a few breaks for fighting and sitting in time out.

I planned to make "drip beef sandwiches" for dinner. So I put a roast in the crock pot and assembled the spices in a tea ball. It's a process, but worth it. Mark came home for lunch and let me know he wouldn't be home for dinner...which left ONE person who likes drip beef sandwiches. Yeah.

Well...they make great leftovers and I figured we could just take advantage of the half price kids meals at Dairy Queen. So I go about the afternoon.

I take a peek outside and puruse the garden. I realize that there are alot of tomatoes that need picking and the onions are ready to come out as well. Soon I've got a countertop full of produce and I get a hankering for fresh salsa. I get out the food processor and plug it in. Too bad I unknowinly unplugged the crockpot. About for hours later I check on the roast and I wonder aloud "What the heck?" and then "Crap!". Nothing like a cold lump of half cooked cow to really work up the appetite. This day is rockin.

So I suppose we'll just head to the library and then swing through the drive thru at Dairy Queen. It's 4:30 when we get to the library. We get in and we get out. Requests to play "Magic School Bus" on the library computers are preemptively denied. We take a quick detour to Hobby Lobby to get some material for my calling (Let's hear it for Nursery!). We are sure to break a Christmas ornament on the way out. I was less that charitable, I'll admit. Instead of "that's okay, sweetie, let's go tell the lady and we'll make it right" I hissed, "Didn't I tell you not...to...touch!"

Ah...those precious moments I get to revisit when they're sleeping peacefully in their beds and I suddenly feel like the slime of the earth. Awesome.

So then we're on our way, but the trip wouldn't be complete before I lose it on Megan in the parking lot because she refuses to clip into her carseat.

We drive the 15 ish miles from Hobby Lobby to the Dairy Queen not far from our home. I pull up to the big menu thingy and I order 4 kids meals. I'm trying to "be good" and resist getting something for myself. I finish ordering and expect to hear something in the ballpark of "That'll be 7.50" and instead it's almost 14.00. I think, "huh". So I pull up and realize I'm at Sonic. Dairy Queen is one fast food joint to the south.

Seriously?

So by now I am....shall we say...irritated? I've decided I'm getting myself a Big Mac. I DESERVE IT. (You know I do). As I drive down the hill to the McDonalds, I look through the kid's meals and realize that instead of a banana, they gave me apple slices. So I get in the Mcdonalds drive thru line...I'm taking mental inventory of my fridge and seeing if I can come up with something in there that sounds better than the burger that I will most assuredly be burping all night. After 45 seconds in that line I pull out and drive up the hill. Back to Sonic and get the stupid banana. He tells me to keep the apples and I think to myself, "uh... yeah I am!"

We get home.

The kids eat and I don't have the oomph to cut the watermelon that had mentally persuaded me to pass on the Big Mac.

Kids are fighting.

I call it.

Bed time.

Megan only comes out to "tell me something" seven times.

They are finally asleep and I feed the dogs and do the dishes.

My house smells like beef and I'm hungry.

Feel better about your day?

Blogging block...

Oh my.


I am having quite the hard time sitting down to blog.


What's a girl to do when I've already missed Father's Day, Mathew's birthday, several cute (to me) episodes with the kids, Fourth of July, swimming lessons, a visit from Grandma Kathleen and a week long Anniversery trip with my honey (10 YEARS!).


I just can't face it.


It's too much of a time commitment.

Okay...you know I'll do it, but for some reason I CAN NOT move forward in any fashion but chronologically. So get ready to revisit June...Mathew's birthday review is forthcoming.

You may now breathe.

The wait is over.

The summer fun continues...

We are now in the winding up weeks of summer.

Swimming lessons are finishing up tomorrow. All three kids turned into fish, after an initial refusal to get in the water.

Don't you hate to be that mother that is excited that school is starting up again? I do. I feel guilt over it. I want to be that mom who cries when she watches them walk into the school with their big backpacks on. I'm the mom who celebrates with a bagel at Einstein's....with cream cheese. It's not that I don't love spending time with my offspring. I do...I really do. But after about 5 weeks of "spending time" with each other, the joy starts turning to bloodshed and ridiculous amounts of time spent in time out.

Besides. I just love school. I love the supplies and the artwork and the dinner time report on each child's day. I thrive on routine and I especially love that part where they hop out of the car and the say "I love you, Mom!" and I get to answer back "Have a great day! I'll see you after school!"
Don't you just love that?

So we've got the rest of this week, then a week with Grandma Kathleen, and then one more to get ready for school and BAM-O! School's in!

Until then....maybe we'll continue to:

Play with the dog food

Swim

Be gorgeous

Eat and draw all over our ourselves ("washable", my patootie)

Feed the hissing "ducks" batches of bread that didn't taste quite right (maybe I forgot the salt?)



Get creativeKeep our toes cool



Hang with the neighbors on the lawn (this is 98% of our summertime schedule) And yes, Laney LOVES to do that upside down thingy.

Take photos of ourselves in the van on the way to Walmart....whatever it takes to entertain ourselves.How many weeks do have, again?

Ode to the 7 week summer.

So summer is cruisin right along.

I hate to admit it, but I have previously dreaded summertime (just a bit). Outside of a good roadtrip to Utah, summer felt like fights and too much television and long bouts of boredom.

But this summer has actually been really fun. We swim. We bike. We library. We swim. We redbox. We bbq. We swim. We chuck e cheese. We drive-thru zoo.... And then we swim.

I admit I haven't officially bathed my children in 10 days. My neighbor, Jennifer, says that since we are having a daily swim lesson, she considers them sanitized in the chlorine. I'm absolutely on board with this theory. Though I'm thinking I better use my GPS to find the tub before the Sabbath.

Granted, there have been moments when I lost my cool and requested my children to please find somewhere to be other than "all up in my business", but all in all...I am completely digging (am I such a white girl?) having my pups all to myself.

I love them.

Now if we could just get Mark off of work for 7 weeks....