Birthday Girl

Well, I awoke to a three-year-old today!  She's pleased as punch!  She keeps telling me that she's a big girl today, and she's happily playing with her new Zhu-Zhu pets.  It's a rainy day and we are in desperate need of groceries, so I'm not sure that Rella and I will make it out to the garden for birthday pictures.  So for today, here's a look at my sweet sweet baby girl, who is big today.



how do i love thee? let me count the ways . . . kisses, tickles, hugs, bubbles, laughs, curls, tutus, cartoons, play dough, smiles, ballet shoes, slushies, poodles, strawderries, toenail polish, lion faces, pizza, racecar beds, minnie mouse, pigtails, pinks, puzzles, moon-n-sand-n, crocs, play dresses, lip gloss, cookies, baby bear, butterfly wings, bee costumes, shakin' it all the day, llittle shows, little snacks, love you 10,000 pieces!

A.Bea.C.1.2.THREE!

Tonight I tucked in a child under the age of three in my house for the last time.  sniff. sniff.  Tomorrow when we wake up, Rella will be 3 years old!  Knowing all I do now, how could I have answered anything other than "YES!" when the nurse at Rex called me three years ago tomorrow morning, asking me if I was ready to come in and have my baby?  "Yes! Yes! Yes!"  Tomorrow I'll take her out for pictures, but for tonight, enjoy my teeny tiny birthday girl.

(so this picture is not stellar, but she's so tiny, and she so looks like herself! And her daddy is so smitten with her.  I love me some floppy babies!)

One-Armed Bandz-it

Silly Bandz have hit our house.  We don't usually get into the stuff that all the kids are into these days, probably because my kids just don't watch TV.  But they have gotten into Silly Bandz in a big way.  Well, Hi-Hat and Rella have.  Fancy has them, likes them, and likes to collect and trade them, but she won't wear them.  Nevertheless, there are lots of them around here.  I like that they count them, sort them, make patterns, and make up games with them.  It's very cheap entertainment.  I also like that my kids will work like dogs for a single 20-cent novelty rubber band! So far none have been confiscated from school or sent home in the dreaded "stapled bag," never to be worn to school again.  All in all, an agreeable fad.

The one little thing about them is that I tend to find them on the floor throughout the house.  And faithful readers will know of a certain naughty little dog who would think silly bandz a wonderful mid-day snack.  And I would find it a not-so-tasteful late-day carpet cleaning project.  Or sometimes it get's to be 7:00 and I'm somewhere civilized like orchestra rehearsal or the art museum (well, not really, but it COULD happen) and I'm wearing 5 silly bands that I've collected throughout the day and slipped mindlessly on my wrist.  And another adult or new teenage high-school orchestra member will say, "wow? You're into Silly Bandz?"  OR, my kids will yank them off at night in a big clump and they get all twisted and knotted together so that it takes forever to get them untangled and sorted and put back on when we are running late for school and I'm frantically trying to move kids out the door we leave in the mornings.  So during one of my many trips in the car today I came up with a solution: The One-Armed Bandz-It! 

Only available online for a limited time through this special blog offer! 

Not really, but I'll tell you how to make one.  It's so stinkin' simple. 

You will need an empty paper towel tube, a piece of freezer paper cut large enough to wrap around towel tube with about 1-inch overlap on each end of the tube.  A paper towel dispensor (one with a bit of tension provides resistance and is good for preventing the tube from moving too much as you take bands on and off).  Wrap the freezer paper around the tube, securing with double-sided tape.  I wrapped with the paper wax-side out.  Tuck the overhanging ends of the paper down into either end of the tube.  Decorate as desired.  Slip tube onto paper towel dispensor and populate with Silly Bandz.  Easy-peasy!

Then deliver your final product to your child who is probably still up reading despite it being 10:30 at night and get the following reaction:

Eyes big as saucers.  "You made that just for me?"  Long pause as he looks back and forth between the contraption and the Silly Bandz lined up on his window sill.  "Su-WEET!"

Trash Talk

Someone threw away what I believe is a Happy Meal toy in my kitchen trash last night.  Today, whenever I open the trash lid to throw something out, the trash says either, "Hey!" or "Watch it!" or "I'm warning you!"  It amuses me.*

*It was not so amusing the time there was a Happy Meal toy cow hidden somewhere int he kitchen that was motion activated.  Every time I sat down in a chair there was a "moo" sound.

2-year-old graduate

Yesterday Rella finished her first year of preschool.  Wow, I blinked and that happened.  Since she is still not three, her teacher said I could do a little birthday lunch on her last day.  She has been so excited about her party.  She picked out birthday plates, napkins and hats, and we made cupcakes and ordered Chick-fil-A for all her friends.  If you follow me on fb you know that she woke up early yesterday morning and came running into my room to wake me up, saying she was all ready to go to school.  She was nude, wearing only shoes (her explanation was that she's a big girl now and doesn't need a pull-up. I explained that even if she didn't need a pull-up, she still needed clothing).  She then handed me a pink t-shirt, winter thermal socks, black dress shoes and Hi-Hat's khaki linen pants and told me I needed to get up and get dressed.  So I was expecting quite the happy girl when I went to her school at 11:30 for the lunch.  Um, no. Here's my girl, leaving a final impression on her beloved teacher:

Poor Rella, after crying for an hour because all the adrenaline had left her little body and she was overtired from waking up early and she was confused because in her mind it was her birthday but her teacher and I kept telling her it really wasn't and so she wasn't getting presents today sad that it was the last day of school.

The Kids at the Library

Friday afternoon, Hi-Hat's first grade class had an Author's Tea for parents.  We all arrived to find our little authors sitting in groups with the books they had been working on writing all week using story starters.  Each student took a turn reading their story to the parents, and we celebrated their work with tea and cookies.  I thought I'd share Hi-Hat's story (unedited).

The Kids at the Library

Ritin and Ilistrated by [Hi-Hat]

One day a boy named Jeff and his friend Larry went to the library.  Jeff's mother said they could each pick out five books.  Jeff got five Magic Treehouse books.  Larry got four Junie B. Jones books.  "Wait" said Larry.  I need one more book.  "OK" said Jeff. 

But right when Larry got to the Junie B. section the lights went out and the gaurd came out and the door locked.  And they were locked in the library. "What are we going to do with that gaurd out asked" Larry.  I don't know said Jeff.  Maybe we can ask the gaurd if he has the key. 

"Good idea" said Jeff.  They went to ask the gaurd if he had the key.  He said no.  I'm afraid your stuck.  "Oh no" seid Jeff. "Mom" said we haft to be back by 6:07.  She'll be mad.  "Try the window" said the gaurd walking by.  They went to the window but they tryed it and it was stuck. "They asked the gaurd if the offices were locked. Yes" he said. 

Only the furnace rooom is unlocked.  Is the key in there? Yes he said.  Let's go check.  Oh man it's in a locked safe.  "Wait I know the code" said the gaurd.  He dialed the number 200,567,800,24. 

 "Here's the key" said the gaurd.  "Yay" seid Larry and Jeff and they got out of the library.  "What took you so long" said "Jeff's mom when they got home.  Oh it's a long story" said Jeff.  "We'll tell you at dinner" said Larry.  And they did. At 4:00 in the morning they broke into the library chimney and dropped onto a blue tile.  They got trapped and dropped into the doungoun.  The gaurds asked them the code.  "They remembered the code," said it, got out, went home to bed and lived hapily ever after.  The end.

About the Author

My name is [Hi-Hat]

I am 7 years old.

I am in first grade.

My favorite food is pizza.

My favorite book is Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days

My hobby is shooting targets.

Clipping Coupons

Ha! This post is NOT about clipping grocery coupons.  This is about coupons I'm actually excited to clip, but I wanted to record the values before I clip them and use them up.  Hi-Hat made me a coupon book for Mother's Day this year.  Sounds like a cliche gift, but I LOVE it!  Geof said he came up with it on his own. I guess he was clued in my my Sunday afternoon ritual of clipping grocery coupons and my not-so-subtle hints as of late that I need a little more helo around here. :)  Here are his priceless offerings (unedited):
- 1 free window wash
- 1 free car wash
- 1 free utencle unload
- 1 free vacume clean
- 1 free craft maker
- 1 free room clean
- 1 free dog take out
- 1 free clubhouse cleaner
- 1 free clothes clean
- 1 free table washer
- 1 free table seter
- 1 free worker
- 1 free green machine
- 1 free Ellary intertaner
- 1 free dog intertaner
- 10 additional "1 free" coupons of my choice!
**Note, after he read all the coupons to me, he said, "Mom? If I actually do all those things, will I get a prize?" :)