Here’s my sweet hubby with our little girls, off to the annual Father/Daughter Harvest Dance. So cute they are!
Our leprechaun trap has a DJ booth, naturally.
March 18, 2011 Leave a Comment
A little 365 catch-up for the week. Yesterday, the girls took their leprechaun traps to school. Paul helped them A LOT (can you tell?) but they still did much of the work! We didn’t trap any leprechauns, but that’s okay. Sneaky little bastards never give me any gold, anyway.
Stole this from Kayley’s Facebook. She’s so pretty!
Nikki cracked me up, attacking me with this dragon. This is exactly what she said, too – “Rawr! I’m a dragon, and I’m going to work now! I’ve got my tie on!” Hee.
And my little Daisies practiced their letter writing skills by writing thank yous to our troops overseas. Awww.
It’s Cookie Time.
February 22, 2011 Leave a Comment
Mallory and I couldn’t have lucked out more with the weather. We worked our shift at her troop’s booth sale at King Soopers in the early evening, right when folks were getting off work and ready to buy cookies. It was GORGEOUS outside – we didn’t even need jackets until the sun dropped behind the mountains. And we had a nice view of the sunset, too. Our girls worked hard selling those cookies. Daddy stopped by on his way home and gave them some tips on how to hustle – he had them position themselves in a too-adorable-to-say-no-to group near the door, with each girl holding a box of cookies and smiling. Worked like a charm! My leader reported that our troop sold over 200 boxes at our booth sale. Yay! Girl Scout Camp, here we come.
And thus ends an entire MONTH…
January 31, 2011 3 Comments
…of posting a picture a day! Wow, man. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I did. Yay! Well, after I post this post, I’ll be done with the month. So, yeah. I have three more pictures to share.
The first one is from Saturday. It was a gorgeous day in Denver with temps in the 60s (hard to believe that just 48 hours later, temps are way below zero and school has been canceled because of treacherous driving conditions!) Paul went on a motorcycle ride for most of the day, and got home just in time to pick all of us up to head downtown to the Pepsi Center, where we watched his coworker buddy Tommy play hockey. That was super fun! We sat right at the glass (which would never happen for an Avalanche game) and my kids had so much fun. I also got to see my friend Heather!
Afterward, we were all hungry, and the kids BEGGED to go to Hooters. You should have seen my kids pig out, man. Mallory ate AN ENTIRE PLATE OF WINGS, the HOT kind! I was impressed, even though her precious little lips were burning so bad. And she was so cute, too, she said, “Doesn’t it just bring you joy to see us eating grown-up food this way?” Yes, darling girl, it definitely does. All the kids were having fun at Hooties, especially the girls, whispering to each other about how they could see all the girls’ butts. Yeah, some people think that’s the whole point, I hear.
On Sunday, the kids and I went to church, which was AWESOME, by the way (except for the enthusiastic lady a few rows behind us who thought she was at an American Idol audition!) and after we got home, the girls headed out with Paul for the Girl Scouts Father/Daughter Bowling event. Fun! We’d never taken them bowling, so this was a first for everyone. The girls really got into it, too. I was just so glad to see that Paul took pictures for me. I do wish he’d gotten some up close of their feet, in those cute, wee little bowling shoes. Moms appreciate the dorkiest things, I know. Here’s Mallory and Nikki, with Grace, one of the little girls in my troop. So cute!
And today, we didn’t do much of anything. After the lovely weather we had this weekend, the temps plummeted today, and every surface is covered in ice. I had just gotten Mally dressed for school today, when Pauly called me on my cell and told me to put the kids back to bed. I generally trust his instincts and recommendations when it comes to traffic safety, as he IS a traffic engineer for CDOT. So, they got back into their jammies. Like he said to me this morning, it wasn’t going to get any better, and wasn’t worth risking our safety for. I ran out for a few groceries, and he was right – the roads were TERRIBLE. And I could barely drag my trash cans down to the street without falling ass-over-teakettle because my driveway was a sheet of ice. Yeah, remember when I said Paul went on a motorcycle ride Saturday? That’s Colorado for ya. And school all over the metro has been canceled tomorrow, because it’s just so dang cold.
ANYWAY. We did NOTHING today. The kids built forts and turned cushions into horses and watched Wizards of Waverly Place. Kayley and I played the Sims 3, and she baked chocolate chip cookies. The kids bickered. I made potato soup. Paul made it home from work and we all watched Dumb and Dumber, which was awesome. I have NEVER seen Pablo laugh so hard at anything in his entire life. He seems to love slapstick comedy; I think it’s time to break out the Three Stooges. And I didn’t even pick up my camera today, so this picture is from Saturday, when I got my hair done. I haven’t had it cut in months, and I hadn’t had color done in over a year. It was looking HARSH, man. Harsh. As you can see, I went darker this time – closer to my natural color, with just a few blonde highlights. I like it a lot, and I LOVE the shorter bob, except I think it makes me look like my mom. I love that Kayley looks just like me. I love it less that I’m starting to look like my mom. Why is that? Is it because I associate looking like my mom with getting old? Maybe. Hey, it’s not my fault I’m vain; I got that from my mom, too. Anyway, here’s my cute new hair. Love it! (My mom won’t. She likes me BLONDE!)
365 – January 15th. Ironing on patches!
January 15, 2011 Leave a Comment
Today was a delightful Saturday. We slept late, headed to a friend’s birthday party at Monkey Bizness, and spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing. Paul and I watched The Princess Bride with the kids, and they loved it. And me too! Yeah, it was my first time seeing it, too. How can that be? Everyone in the world has seen The Princess Bride – even Paul! And now, I have, too. Finally I get all the Inigo Montoya jokes. After we watched the movie, Paul puttered around in the garage while I ironed all the girls’ patches on their Girl Scouts uniforms. It seems like we always get a whole mess of patches all at one time, for events that occurred MONTHS ago. Now we’re up to date.
Tomorrow, my in-laws are coming for breakfast. I need to order a cake for Nikki and Lexi’s birthday, and I have eleventy-seven loads of wash to do. My kiddos are also planning to do a whole lot of bike riding, since we’re expecting warm weather.
Did you fall asleep reading this blog post? I totally understand. These boring, mundane days don’t make for great blog fodder, but they sure make me a happy, content chick.
Are you kidding me with this?
November 15, 2010 4 Comments
Twenty-four days? Really? Wow. I guess it’s been a MINUTE since I last blogged. I was thinking to myself earlier, “I haven’t sat down to write in such a long time – a week and a half, easily.” Uh, nope. It’s been since OCTOBER 21ST! And even that wasn’t a legit blog post. Wow. Were you scared? I’m sorry. Mama didn’t mean to abandon you, loyal readership.
Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to.
Girl Scouts! Dude. I’m a Girl Scout leader. ME. I’m in charge of a whole, darling little troop of Kindergarten Daisies, and I looooove it.
It helps that two of them belong to me, and it also helps that every single girl in the troop is adorable and delightful, and I’m so looking forward to all the things in store for us this year. So, yeah. Three Girl Scouts in the house. Holla!
Speaking of Girl Scouts…we had a Halloween Dance for all the Girl Scouts at our kids’ school, and guess who the awesome, amazing, kickass DJ was? You know it. DJ Pauly Paul. Those kids (and their parents!) didn’t know what to think when they walked in and saw the whole gym bumping, with music videos projected across the whole gym ceiling and all the walls lit up with lasers and lights. It was unbelievable. Mallory’s troop hosted the event, and I’m trying to find her a “My Dad is the DJ” patch for her vest. Haha! The little girls have “My Mom is the Leader” on their tunics, so why not?
Here’s another fun thing that happened recently – my nephew Casey stopped by for dinner one night while he was in town. My kids LOVE Casey so much – he always spends the bulk of his visiting time wrestling around with them, tickling them, chasing them, etc. They eat it up. Here they are with their big cousin, Casey.
And here’s Pabi with Casey – they are special buddies, those two.
Here’s another big thing that’s kept me busy the past few weeks – well, the prep work and the eventual clean-up, I should say. We had a big old huge Halloween party for the kiddos! It was so much fun! Pablo and Mallory wanted a birthday party with their classmates and other school friends, and it just didn’t pan out for whatever reason. So Mallory approached us about having a Halloween Dance Party, and I thought it was a stellar idea. We decked out the whole basement in spooky Halloween decor and Paul video mixed a whole playlist of Halloween songs and grade school favorites. (Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber were played A LOT. Like, A. LOT.)
We literally had almost 50 kids here at one point. It was CRAZY. My parents came over and my dad had the most awesome amused/terrified/overwhelmed expression – it was like trying to make your way through the club on the weekend, except everyone was four feet tall and under. So much fun! Our poor play structure, though. I thought it was going to give way! One kid brought Paul a BOLT – I wonder what that fell out of?
And over and over again, parents said things to me like, “You’re so brave!” and “How are you dealing with all these kids?” I guess I’m finding my niche. Those years of having four kids in diapers prepared me for the life I lead today! Seeing a bazillion kids running around insane didn’t bother me a bit – I love the chaos. What the hell is wrong with me? Obviously I’m not right. But then, I don’t think anyone else in my family is quite right either. Have y’all seen the electric chair man Paul built? We scared the pants off of so many parents at the party – good times; good times. More than a few of them called us TWISTED. What?
My little ones don’t think he’s scary – here they are posing with him on Halloween night!
Pauly and I took the kids out trick-or-treating while Kayley stayed home to pass out candy and scare people with the electric chair man. She wasn’t mean about it, though – she only scared middle-schoolers and high schoolers – they’re the most fun to scare anyway!
Man, I just looooove Halloween. I’m sad the month went by so quickly. I just finally (tonight!) packed away the last of the Halloween decorations, and I was sad to put them away. But do you know what I love? YO GABBA GABBA! (I know this isn’t news to you.) And last weekend, I took my kiddos to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live!
Look how HAPPY they are!
And check this out; it’s amazing. I was barely coming off my Yo Gabba Gabba high when I saw this super cool window sticker on a minivan in the parking lot at the supermarket. Naturally, I had to snap a picture so I could try to track one down for myself. How freaking cool is this?
I snapped the picture and headed into the market to do my shopping. Then! Lo and behold, the lady behind the sticker was loading her kidlets into her van when I came out of the store. I marched right up to her and told her how cool her sticker was and … you won’t even believe this, for reals… the lady I met is the sister of Christian Jacobs, creator of Yo Gabba Gabba – and she’s AWESOME and friendly and bubbly and we have kids the same age and she lives right in my ‘hood. What? WHAT? And we even have a mutual friend. (Hi, Becca!) I was so danged starstruck, I can’t even tell you.
And then, I got to spend Arin’s birthday with her (and her whole posse) and it was soooooo much fun. I so rarely get an evening out with my husband, and I really love it when we get to go out and kick our heels up a little. We spend every waking moment adjusting training wheels and shampooing dirty heads and correcting homework and playing Candyland – it’s such a refreshing change to get out there in the world and hang out with GROWNUPS! And spending time with my favorite girl Arin is just the icing on the cake. I love that chick.
Isn’t she beautiful? I’m so blessed to have such wonderful friends. And hell, to have such a wonderful life! It’s busy, and we never have enough clean clothes, and my kitchen floor is ALWAYS covered in Cap’n Crunch. But wow – it’s so much fun, too. Really. Fall has kicked ass so far and my kids and I are SO EXCITED for Thanksgiving and Christmas – it’s going to be epic. You know what they say: kids and Christmas go together like peanut butter and jelly. And I promise not to disappear for the better part of a month again, okay?
