Who me, a control freak?

I spent many years as a "boy mom" - it was easy...  no hair to do, no princess dress up cluttering the floor, no naked barbies...  I was IN my element!  

and then...  came the girls - suddenly I had little people who wanted to help me cook, help me scrapbook, and *GASP* help me decorate cakes...

I can deal with a little help in the kitchen - but it would be best if they confine themselves to helping by putting away silverware (in the RIGHT slots) and maybe washing the dishes...  I might even let them mix some batter or something - and I'm working on this.

Help with scrapbooks...  forget it, I just bought them their own and I'll give them the hideous photos (which are plentiful).

Help with decorating cakes?  Ummm... can I DO that?  I don't think so...  

But... it IS her birthday...

and I AM kinda busy...

"but I had such great PLANS for this my little pony cake - it was going to be Adorable with a capital A..."

But... it IS her birthday...

and she just wanted to decorate one little cake...

So happy birthday M - but just for the record - I AM going to make the party cake MY way...  because it won't be your special day anymore!!!

Confidential to Shelle:  I promise I will not let her help when it comes time for Peeps cake :)

Mr. Puffy Head

Many many months ago the ManOfTheHouse invested in his health - he bought one of those BowFlex home gyms...  I say "his" health because try as he might I have not been able to convince myself that I enjoy this exercise.

Flash-forward to yesterday when sweet little M is helping me put away some of the many videos and DVDs that inevitably get left out during the weekend of fun and partying that happens at our house.  (yeah, go ahead and read that really sarcastically - it's okay)

M finds the "Xtreme Instructional Video" by bowflex (not because it was watched - but let's not get started on THAT gripe) and asks me "why is this guy a puffy head"

Puffy head?  Oh - well NOW I get it, now that I've seen the picture (note: this is NOT the same picture...  but M assures me that this guy is also Mr. Puffy Head)

I (being the intelligent and all-knowing mother that I am) explain the process of weight lifting and the building of muscles... I think I lost her somewhere during the discussion of Amino acids - but she's pretty bright so she caught up.  (yes, I'm kidding)

The kicker:  then the sweet and innocent child asks why M.O.T.H. is not "puffy" - at which point the conversation was abandoned because I had to hysterically laugh while e-mailing M.O.T.H. to tell him that his daughter thinks he's a flabby wimp.

but for the record - he's as manly as can be... he's just got a biker's body instead of a steroid users' body - besides, those "puffy" muscles are really nauseating me... 

what MUST they be thinking

first off - I have to apologize for blogging so much - it's just that suddenly I have an outlet for all the funny things I think that Q doesn't really want to hear about when he comes home... or in this case - the funny things that happen in our day to day travels.

So...  as I'm driving around with sweet 4-year old M one fine day and paying attention to all the cars around me I hear a soft whimpering whine from the seat behind me.  Turns out while I was being a responsible driver she was busy blowing me kisses which I was ignoring and not catching.  Luckily, this is the point in our travels where I come off the big hill and can play a little more.  So each time I hear a little smacking sound from the back seat I make a wild grab into the air to "catch" her kiss - she is giggling and happy and I'm feeling like I have earned my Mom award for the day.

Until I think about the drivers behind me and wonder what they are thinking - did I drive through a hornet's nest?  A car full of mosquitoes?  We were getting close to our destination so I just kept it up until the parking lot and put all those unknown people out of my mind.

I think we're lucky we didn't cause this:

with thanks to traffic-accident.blogspot.com :)

So there it is, my daughter was happy - I was only slightly chagrined, and hey - at least I wasn't picking my nose or wildly weaving in and out of traffic right?

Gourmet Sandwiches

I vaguely remember T eating the occasional peanut butter and cheese sandwich, and W has been known to eat tuna on crackers with the addition of a marshmallow... all of these I find disgusting.  P and H have definitely had their share of things that they have been willing to try (tuna and peanut butter anyone?) but M put all adventurous children to shame yesterday when she requested a peanut butter, ham, cheese, and jelly sandwich.  Her Dad was the one who made it for her as Mom may have strongly suggested a compromise.  

She did eat it... well 1/2 of it at least - and for M, that's pretty typical even if the contents are of the more normal and edible variety.  I'm hoping this will be a one time request as it looked fairly difficult to spread peanut butter on top of ham - and yes, she did care about what in order they were layered.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy adventurous eaters (I like my carrots dipped in peanut butter) - but why is it that the same children who will eat fries dipped in honey and ice cream also refuse to try the chicken I made for dinner simply because it has visible specks of spices ("what is this green stuff all over?  I don't like this mom...")  Perhaps the answer is to just put piles of whatever is in the fridge on the table for dinner and let them create their own special blend...  even if it does cause me to lose my appetite :)  A radical new diet technique - you're allowed to eat whatever you want as long as you're willing to put it all together in one bite...  it could work!

So how about you, what are the weirdest concoctions that your kids (or you) eat?  

Our week...

It's been a hectic one around here - and I kept saying "at the end of this week, we're all going to take a day off..."  we'll get to the day off part later...

We'll begin with last Thursday - W's baseball game was around 5:15 and I had been invited to something or other I was trying to avoid... so when W left his Bat Bag in the car I decided to drag the kids up to the field and stay for the first 30 minutes of his game (Q was meeting us there)... Well, M promptly got herself hit in the

 stomach by a playground ball (with the help of P's foot) and proceeded to pass out on me - Needless to say I left the game and the doctors were unable to determine if it was a seizure or just a simple passing out because of stress (stress?  she's got no school, no bills... I don't get it!)  Anyway, Thursday ended on that note - and the girl is fine.

Friday was a jumble of running around, including my children's museum meeting - to which I took M just in case she repeated her performance, this did not go well, and M's birthday party - which lasted only an hour (the ideal time frame) because of P's baseball game and W's baseball practice and T's friends' birthday party which all began at 5:00.  One was early, one was on time and one was late - what can you do?  M stayed put in her seat this game and played with her new doll "Sophia Kate" until the game was over (P's team lost, but they are 3 and 1 for the season thus far)

Saturday... hmmm... oh yeah, the older boys had a scout pow-wow thing - we began and

 completed W's entire science project - and Q had a 4-wheelin' adventure with the EQ...  so I stayed home and cleaned.

Sunday - T got sick - but the rest of us enjoyed church... choir books came and we finally sang something other than a hymn (not that they're bad, but something else occasionally is nice)

Monday - T still sick - M's birthday boola-boola went well - we squeezed in Wendy's and her Tinkerbell cake between two baseball games - P's before the dinner went well but W's afterward began at 8:00 and went downhill from there.  The other team's pitcher has a golden arm.  The wind was also blowing something awful and despite my warm "cozy" blanket many of us moms were freezing while trying to cheer for a losing team.  The snack shack quickly ran out of hot chocolate (not that it was going to help me) and nobody complained when the game ended at 9:50.

Tuesday - Now T, W, and Mom woke up sick, I can't tell much about this day because we all slept through it... gratefully no pictures for you of this day!  Weston felt bad enough that he passed out 3 times when he got up to run to the bathroom... a huge knot on his forehead is from hitting the bathroom stool on the way down - the stool where Maryn 

happened to be sitting after her own bout with the flu bug...  The scouting pow-wow finished up Tuesday night and the boys' didn't end up going... big waste of all that work 'eh?

Wednesday - it's just beginning...  W is back at school getting his science fair project set up, T is back at school. P and H and M are all home with me...  I've consumed a total of 3 saltine crackers and 3 oz. of water - M is throwing a fit because she can't play with the neighbor and I didn't let her go to preschool - what a mean Mommy I am :(

We will all survive - and we'll be disinfecting the house greatly before company arrives this weekend!!!  Bring on the Lysol :)

Sweet Streets Re-Incarnated?!

This picture is over a year old - but the only difference between then and today is M's hair!  (no, it doesn't look much better today - but it's been cut... and maybe she looks a little older too)  Anyway this set of houses and stuff has long been a favorite at our house - the shelf in M's room is packed with the village and she sure loves them.  It was a mixed blessing when Fisher Price stopped manufacturing Sweet Streets over a year ago - luckily Santa and her Parents had foreseen this possibility and stocked up for the future... however this past Christmas was Sweet Street free - and it did not go un-noticed.  Finally I was beginning to believe that contentment had set in when lo and behold we are walking through the aisles of Wal-Mart looking for a good friend gift under my ridiculously low limit of $8 (found something cute even though we're cheap) and there right in front of my eyes - and more importantly the eyes of my daughter - are "Go Anywhere Girls" which are just Sweet Streets re-vamped... same houses, same people... same stuff - but...  of course they notice right away that we don't have the ice cream truck or the school bus!  Ugh - just in time for birthday wishes 'eh?  I know, I know...  but I've never been good at drawing lines, hopefully my girls will grow out of these before they release some mansion!