Bria's Birthday Celebration(s)

Birthday Celebration #2 was actually a present from Mommy and Daddy to Bria: a surprise trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. It was supposed to be a trip to Dinosaur Land but the weather didn't cooperate. Since it was a surprise, Bria didn't know the difference and was happy either way! Whew... We went in the middle of the week at 5pm and there was no crowd. We practically had the place to ourselves. So, we all had fun! :-)


The place was big!


And lots of us parents got into the act too! It was a workout!

Here's the whole gang of kids! :-)

Bria and Sarah had a terrific time! Mostly I saw the back of Bria's shirt as she ran by in a blurr with her friends going from moonbounce to moonbounce.

We all slept well the rest of the weekend!

Clutter Busters!!!

OK... my dear husband has decided to give me a session with a professional organizer for my home office as an early anniversary gift.

It's actually, a very thoughtful, generous gift (albeit driven a teensy bit by frustration and ulterior motives). haha

I never would've thought of it myself and my office DEFINITELY needs help! At most I can get 20 minutes to an hour of uninterrupted time in there once or twice a week. That's only enough time to take care of pressing business... not to tear-up and dig-in to organize and de-clutter the space.

So, it has gotten pretty bad in there. It's become a dumping ground for all the "stuff" that clutters up the kitchen island and dining room table when I'm trying to whip those rooms back into shape before company arrives. (the kids just love to go in there and hunt for treasures!)

I generally keep my nose above water by digging into it all every few weeks and tossing, filing, straightening and cleaning it all up. However, our schedules have been more hectic than usual this year with work, the kids, winter colds, the holidays, birthday party plans, etc. and the one thing I haven't had much of is TIME. The ensuing chaos that has followed has swirled together to form "the perfect storm" Chris says.

In my defense, we also cleaned out the spare bedroom upstairs and a good third of our basement downstairs where various keepsakes, photos, and other "treasures" from High School, College, our Wedding, and the birth of the children had been stored. They migrated to my office -- for safe keeping. ;-)

I would like to find them again someday (maybe even take them out from time to time and enjoy them). So I agreed, tentatively, as I tried to prevent yet another set of "piles" from tumbling into each other on the floor around my desk.

Should I provide before and after photos?

CJ's Birthday Celebration...

OK... I did manage to get another post in here.

This time I've got some collages of CJ's birthday celebrations.

He's getting to be such a big boy!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day last week.

Here are a few pics of the kids. CJ is a child of his mother... he wasn't giving up that box of chocolates!

I can't believe February is almost over.

I've got to get better at posting more regularly!

The latest...

Rest in Peace, Terry. My 2nd cousin, Terry, passed away this week -- after battling diabetes and kidney failure for years and then a stroke a few months back. She was a very sweet person. I'm sure she's enjoying a pain-free, disease-free existence now with God and his angels. Our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones in their loss. She will be missed.

Bria started a new dance class on Friday. It's a combination class where they'll learn tap, ballet and acrobatics! In June, she'll get to perform in the end-of-the-year recital as well. I'm sooo excited for her! And I'm grateful that this dance academy is offering this combination. It's the perfect solution for parents and kids without blowing the budget or the schedule. :-)

We've had to cancel CJ's little bday party again this weekend. Trying to keep it small, I only invited 3 families to join us. First time around, CJ was sick... thus we rescheduled. Second time around, the party has been overcome by two funerals and one case of bronchitis. I'm glad he's too young to know any different. He's at a cute age where he LOVES the happy birthday song & blowing out candles, opening presents and playing with little boys his age. Maybe the third time around, (whenever that will be), we'll have some luck and actually pull off a little party for him. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of birthday parties... I finalized plans for Bria to have a class party and celebrate her "quarter-past-five" birthday on March 1st.. I didn't want to do it in December because it would've been too much right at the holidays and so close to CJ's birthday too. I don't plan to make a habit of class parties.. but Bria has had her heart set on being able to invite the whole class to her birthday since last year and since her class size will only get bigger, I figure it's now or never. Thus, this thing has been in the works since September! It'll be a double celebration with another girl in her preschool class so we can split the costs! (and avoid the type of disaster I wrote about in a previous blog) We've chosen a popular party destination called Pump-It-Up which is basically a big warehouse full of all sorts of moonbounces. Adults can bounce too! ;-) The best part... they do everything for you! You just show up and bring a cake! They'll even supply the cake if you want them to. Sooo, more fingers crossed that it goes off OK.

CJ is FINALLY weaned!!! He was finally ready this weekend and he did great! He half-heartedly cried and protested for about 15 minutes. Then he took the drink of water that I was offering (I learned my lesson about milk at night), demanded his binki, rolled over and went back to sleep. He's only asked for "dee" once since then. Hurray!!! I can eat nuts and sushi and shell fish again!! :-) I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast this morning and it tasted great!

Ya know, there's a lot of advice about starting to nurse but not much advice out there on the best time and method to wean. Most books recommend that it be done by 1 year but they don't say HOW. Plus, the middle of the night isn't my favorite time to engage in a battle of the wills. Although they were nursing only at night, neither of my kids were ready to wean at 1 year. I agonized over it with Bria and tried twice before she was ready. Both times it was a disaster with her crying so hard and so long that she'd puke all over me and the bed! Finally, she was ready at 20 mos and I simply told her that "num-num" was old and offered her a bottle of milk instead. She said OK, took the bottle, rolled over and went back to sleep. Just like that. CJ was a bit more stubborn and but he basically did the same thing this week. So, I guess every kid is different but when they're ready, they're ready and it's pretty painless.

Family

Just wanted to share the picture that Bria drew in preschool of our family.

From left to right that's me/CJ, Chris, Bria and Emelie. Note: Emelie is the one with all the hair! But she did give Chris 3 hairs... ;-) I love it!

Another Preschool Drama...

OK, I have to tell ya about our preschool drama yesterday...

A neighbor who is also in Bria's preschool class had a birthday party at the end of class and only invited some of the kids.

All of Bria’s girlfriends, including her carpool buddy, were invited but not her. :-(

The kids tried to keep it a secret which didn’t work and only made for more drama. Another carpool was split as a result of this party too. Many of the invited kids left class early to attend the party, which made other little invitees panic and think they were missing the party (which they weren’t supposed to talk about)… which basically caused the whole thing to blow up! It also rubbed it in the noses of the few kids who were not invited five times worse than if invitations had been handed out in front of them (which is against school policy of course). There were tears. There was drama. The teacher had to call one of the moms because her child couldn’t stop crying. The moms of both invitees and non-invitees were LIVID. The director was pulled aside by a parent. It was a train wreck that wouldn’t quit.

Poor Bria.(she’s been very quiet since then) She handled the whole thing gracefully even after her friends left and I’m very proud of her! But she couldn’t avoid what was going on. I tried to downplay the whole thing and managed to whip up a play date at the playground at the last minute as a diversion. But it was a very difficult situation.

*sigh* So, I’ve eaten way too much chocolate as a result of this stress and my face has broken out like crazy! It’s gonna be a long 20 years and beyond! ;-)