An Enlightening Moment

My youngest daughter Julia saw a spider on the wall today.

 

"Mommy, how do spiders climb walls?" she asked. 

"They have sticky legs", came my ingenious reply.

I could almost hear the question mark in her head get deleted and replaced with a bold exclamation point as she profoundly stated, "Ooohh, so that's why our hands are always so sticky!"

Let the Summer Games begin!

Garrett is in T-ball this summer. This is our first encounter with little league sports and all I have to say is....
Why didn't we do this sooner!?
What fun we had!!
Take a look at all the excitement:

A little pep talk and they're off! GO DODGERS!

GO #3!!

Batter up!
The swing...

...the connection. Houston, we have liftoff!

Safe at first.

Just making sure home plate is secured, Coach!

Don't you know you have to wear your hat backwards when you play center field?

Good game!
Best buds, Eli and Garrett after a tough first game! (Is daddy flexing in the back?)
And a chest bump to celebrate right!
Little man's #1 Fan!

Nothing like a fist bump from dad to end the game right.

An Aesop Lesson Remembered

"The Hawk and The Pigeons"

Some pigeons had long lived in fear of a hawk, but since they had always kept on the alert and stayed near their dovecote, they had consistently managed to escape their enemies attacks. Finding his sallies unsuccessful, the hawk now sought to use cunning to trick the pigeons. 

"Why," he once asked, "do you prefer this life of constant anxiety when I could keep you safe from any conceivable attack by the kites and falcons? All you have to do is to make me your king and I won't bother you anymore."

Trusting his claims, the pigeons elected him to their throne, but no sooner was he installed than he began exercising his royal prerogative by devouring a pigeon a day.

"It serves us right," said one poor pigeon whose turn was yet to come. 

Moral of the story: Some remedies are worse than the disease itself.

Found this little fable ironically fitting for our current times.

Doomed...

I was doomed to gray early.
Both my sisters and my father grayed early and I have obviously been no exception.
My hair started turning shades of silver in my early 20s.
I tried to embrace it at first but then, got sucked into the whole dye thing and now I don't want to quit.
For instance, it's been almost 3 months since I last refreshed my natural color.
I now have so many gray hairs on the top of my head that sometimes even the dog doesn't recognize me.
People ask to see my ID and have to look twice.
My kids have called me 'Nana' by mistake.
Enough is enough.
So, yesterday I sat indian-style on the counter in front of our bathroom mirror plucking out gray hairs with a pair of tweezers...all while whispering through clinched teeth a very avid "Die!" to each individual hair. (I was trying to warn all the others to pay attention by making an example out of the naughty follicles. If they don't get with the program I might just go crazy enough to pull a Britney stunt).
I did this for about 30 minutes. That is, until Mr. Simpleton came in, quizzically pondering the situation then, bravely asked "What are you doing?"
"Oh nothing..." I said. "...just die-ing my hair."

Nephew-Schmephew!

Ok, so I'm only posting these sickly adorable pictures because...
well, because...
!because this is the most adorable little nephew on the face of the planet, gosh darn it!
*tied with Brendan and Liam, of course. ;)*

Eat your heart out!




He's so scrumptious, I could eat him for breakfast!

Partly Lazy, Mostly Brilliant.

Our daughter Abby just recently turned 9...well, about 3 weeks ago she did. Recent enough, eh?
Thing have been pretty crazy at our house since January and trying to find time to plan a birthday party for a bunch of crazy hyper little girls was requiring much more momentum than muscle and therefore, invitations weren't even made. I ALWAYS make the invitations.
And the thank you cards.
And the favors.
Anyhow, with little time and even less energy to spare in planning this shindig I came up with the most brilliant idea ever known to the world of mothers...
A Do-It-Yourself Party!
It's beyond brilliant! It's ingenious, (*ahem* if I do say so myself), and this is why:

YOU don't do any of the work. The kids do! I didn't even have to buy a cake! The only things I put myself in charge of were the presents and buying all the supplies. That. was. it! And at the end of the day I still had energy and sanity to spare.
Here's the rundown and budget summary. You're gonna love it!

11 a.m.: Kids arrive and make their own sandwiches with choices of breads, meats, peanut butter, jams, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, chips, kool-aids, juices, etc., all of which I had in stock. (Thank goodness for a large family with diverse tastes in the culinary world of sandwiches and potato chips).
Out-of-pocket expense: $0

11:30 a.m.: Girls begin making their own hair accessories and necklaces and most adorable hand puppets, courtesy of Martha Stewart crafts.
Out-of-pocket expense - $15
*note: this could be done with little to no out-of-pocket expense by Google-ing 'easy crafts for kids' and using your own leftover craft supplies that are just taking up space in your house.

12 p.m.: I gave each girl 2 cupcakes and lined the dining room table with individual icing packets and sprinkles and sugared glitters. They made individualized cupcakes, then we put them on a silver platter in the shape of a nine and had Abby blow out the candles.


Out-of-pocket expense: $10 for the icing and cake mix. You could make your own icings and cupcakes from scratch and save even more!

12:30 p.m.: Opening gifts.
12:45 p.m.: Make your own trail mix! I had some things in the pantry that needed to be used (simply because if they hadn't been used soon I would've devoured them all!). I laid out small bowls and filled them with things like raisins, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chocolate chips, dried fruit, sesame crackers, and sunflower seeds. Each girl got a clear cellophane bag and a twist tie and was allowed to make her own individual trail mix to go!
Out-of-pocket expense: $3 (for the cellophane bags).

1 p.m.: End of party and clean-up! I have never had less to do and clean up after a party because I was able to clean as the party progressed while the girls were busy with the activities.
So....whadaya think??