requiste bunny love

Here are our requisite rainy Easter 2013 photos.  YOU ARE WELCOME!

Oh, and meet Harvey - he's quite the prim and proper bunny rabbit gentlemen.. He keeps his legs properly crossed and reclines just enough to look like he's ready for a front porch heart to heart.  He just might put his arm around you. I think Harvey sort of channels Mr. Rodgers cardi & sneakers with his patterned vest and bowtie, don't you? Don't you want to be Harvey's neighbor?!

Here's the only family photo we got. It seems right. No one looking (but Harvey!! AHHH!) and NK refusing the photo despite coaxing from all of us.  

Like the heathens that we are, we didn't make it to a mass (or a service or whatever your church calls it), but we DID manage to put on Easter outfits (well, on the kiddos anyway) and conduct a family egg hunt and lunch. Since our little church closed last November, we haven't quite been able to bring ourselves to find somewhere new.

crazy hibachi :: 'merica

I would NEVER deny my little American children such an experience!

What is it about hibachi restaurants that makes me think AMERICA (___ yeah?).

Would traditional Japanese chefs give Benihana the thumbs up?  Because I am pretty sure the beating heart our chef crafted out of fried rice was P-A-REEETTTY amazing.  

i swear i didn't lie

I do have 10 posts in my queue.  I guess I need to figure out the whole "scheduling a post" function of blogging (NINE YEARS LATER), huh?  You know me. I write. I hit publish. There is little planning to this ole lifestyle blog of mine. I DO WHAT I WANT.

AHEM.  Anyway, this post is not about THAT.

It is about the seemingly simple but oft impossible requests of Nate's teachers for holiday parties at his school.  In their defense, I don't think they are intentionally asking for things that are all that difficult; I think maybe I am just INEPT when it comes to providing classroom treats. 

Exhibit A: Last year, Ms. Janice asked for individual ice cream cups with wooden spoons for a party. Valentines? Easter?  I don't even remember.

My mind immediately went this direction:

YES.  I literally could taste the wooden spoon on my tongue (Correct usage haters of the word literally SHUT UP). These kids would KNOW good, old fashioned grade school cafeteria-style ice cream cups.  Except not.  Because after two Krogers and a Walmart visit, it was determined this no longer exists. (If you have seen them or anything similar, DON'T TELL ME.) Instead, there was some Blue Bell option for like $3 a cup with a little NOT RETRO utensil.  Disappointment. 

Exhibit B: This year, Ms Dee Dee asked if, for the classroom St. Patrick's Day party, I could procure mini-cupcakes....so the kids didn't get hopped up on the sugar of a FULL cupcake. 'You can get them at Wal-Mart,' she said. No. No you can not. Well, perhaps at a WM fancier than mine? (Again do NOT tell me if you've seen them there!) I loathe setting foot in the World of Wal so this was fine. I sent Karl on a mission to find some at the fancy Kroger. Success! But only one box of 12 left. 17 students in the classroom. Damn. We bought them anyway and found a matching 12 at another Kroger (not the first second one we stopped at that had zero mini-cupcakes but the SECOND second one.).  DAMN YOU MINI-CUPCAKES, I WILL FIND YOU.

Aside I: And for those of you who would suggest I should just order them from a bakery, yes, maybe I should have done and saved myself some sanity that but bakery = $1.25/mini-cupcake and grocery store = $2.99/box of 12.  For a group of 17 kids who will probably just lick the nasty icing off and definitely NOT appreciate bakery deliciousness, grocery store it is! 

Aside II: For those of you that would suggest I just buy the REGULAR SIZED cupcakes and stop THE MADNESS (and all this yammering on), you do realize I am somewhat of a people-pleaser, right? And also a scooch of an over-achiever? (No? You don't get that?) 

Aside III: And for those of you that would suggest I just make mini-cupcakes... well.. ha bloody ha!  You don't know me very well!

MOVING ALONG... TO EASTER, THIS YEAR.

And Exhibit C: Nate's teacher requested we buy (and fill) four "large" Easter eggs. She even sent home a note with a drawing of a large-sized egg so we could have a guideline. Now, I love Nate's teacher with my ENTIRE heart. She is wonderful. But after some furious texting amongst the classroom mamas, it was determined that neither Wal-Mart, Target, the Dollar Tree or Walgreens had any large-sized eggs remaining. THE HORROR.

I took a trip to Target and I found these guys.  They're medium-sized AND already-filled with candy (sorry parents!) eggs for $1/each.

SOLD.  I bought them. I only felt slight guilt. TEACHER FRIENDS, help me out - is close good enough? Are future big-kid school supply lists going to be the bane of my existence?

Some of the mamas definitely found the LARGE eggs.  Thankfully, this one was filled with stickers and tattoos.  

If this sounds complicated and ridiculous, well, I kind of think it is! I don't really enjoy driving around looking for specific items. I want to (as mentioned) DO WHAT I WANT.  I'll still share with the class!

In reality, though, I have to do it like once a year and, in his case, the parties are pretty minimal and always have something healthy in addition to the dreaded candy (that I usually toss after bedtime; wasteful perhaps...but not worth the fight of having it around). Honestly, I think the whole classroom party thing is more of a big deal when they are little-ish (speaking from NOT experience here) cause I can't imagine a bunch of pre-teen or teen parents picking out/crafting Valentine's or staying up late filling The Perfect Easter Egg.  (Yes? No? I imagine it being more like STOP TEXTING AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK GOD DAMMIT at that point.)

I definitely have been loving all the internet fuss about this post and agree with a lot of it, particularly the food related points. I especially agree with her ADDENDUM at the bottom. It's hard to say 'ENOUGH candy' to your child in a public setting when all the other kids are indulging. 

I will stop blathering now and say HAPPY EASTER whether your baskets are filled with Large, Medium OR Small eggs... glittered, plastic, real, stickered, money-filled, candy-filled or none at all! YOU DO WHAT YOU WANT. 

this is cute, right?

 

I have 10 posts scheduled for the next 10 days RIGHT HERE ON THIS BLOG.  

I know, right? 

GETTING MOTIVATED.

I am still editing some of them. 

In the meantime, enter our giveaway! 

It ends on Wednesday. 

Stay tuned for posts here, yea? 

1..2...3 FUNNY

For your Thursday entertainment:

1. Nora has been facetiming Elmo lately.  He seems LESS than pleased.  

 

2. Nora and her friend Waverly feeling the love on the swings. 

 

 3. Alternate title: COME GET MURDERED.  or perhaps MURDER WITHIN. 

Jumbled

THIS is a recent conversation with Nate:

Nate: Mommy, what should I kill the droids with?
Me: Kill them with kindness. 
Him: Nah, I think I have some grenades.

THIS is an example of a hand drawn Ninja Turtle mask, drawn with a blue marker just minutes before we left for the park.   



THIS is an example of what a soccer game in sub-zero temperature (OK fine it was like 34 but there were snow flurries!) does to a little boy who no longer naps (not even when he had the flu). 

GLORIOUS. 

To celebrate nap time, we hit up Playtime Pizza (Chuck E Cheeze on crack) on Saturday night. 

It. was. intense.

I'm an extrovert of a person but I don't handle that type of stimulation very well.  I needed to crawl under my covers, have a beer and listen to the silence (ok FINE I watched some bad TV and surfed Pinterest and Instagram). 

THIS is an example of a sweet girl who did not want to get out of the bath.  Can't say I blame her. 
 

She's been very talky as of late:  Mama, Dada, Nate, KIX, COAT, SHOES, SOCKS.  SHOES. BOOTS. SHOES MAMA SHOES.  Coat.  SHOES.  WANT DIS.  WANT DIS.  Eh eh eh eh.  SH-oooo-zzz.  (This is what shoes sounds like.)  She says several more words and phrases that ONLY a doting parent might recognize but the above are all pretty clear to everyone.  Additionally, she often strings together entire paragraphs of gibberish.  THIS makes us joke about how she sounds like the little Asian ladies at the nail salon.  It's pretty amazing. 

THIS is some yellow!   I've been working on my living room - you can see the full room here. 

Mostly, the days are passing quickly and I need to carve more time to record them!!