The Great Gingerbread Village Fiasco of 2009

I was watching two of my friends' kids for a couple of days, so I had a total of five kids ranging from three to eight. Two of them were boys who aren't nearly as impressed with our Barbie collection as the girls usually are. At some point they cried boredom and what did I do? A saner person would have put a movie in the DVD player and pushed PLAY but what did Dione do? She said, “Who wants to build a gingerbread village!?!?!”

The words just came flying out of my mouth before I'd considered the consequences. I thought it would be easy actually. I thought it would be FUN! I had a kit after all. Five adorable little houses for five adorable little kids. FUN!

Five happy little voices were saying, “YAAAAAY!!!” and for that first glorious moment, I was thinking, I ROCK!

And then the fight broke out over who was gonna get which house. No problem. We'd draw numbers to see who got which house. Perfect! This was going to be FUN! Except for the adorable kid who got the stupid house they didn't want. But then, in an incredible act of generosity, adorable kid #2 offered to trade with adorable kid #1... unfortunately kid #2 got stuck with a house with broken pieces... and it went on and on like this. Nobody wanted to put their own house together, so I had five freaking adorable little houses to put together and five adorable children saying, “Make mine first, make mine first!!!”

When one of my friends called to say she was almost home and to let her know when to come pick up her daughter, I said, “Here's what I want you to do. Pull up in front of my house with the engine running... I'll jump in and you FLOOR IT!”

I then explained my gingerbread house insanity. I said, “We haven't even gotten to the decorating part yet but I know how it's gonna go. These kits... the box always says Lots of Icing and Candy but there never is. They don't factor in all the eating that goes on while the frazzled grown-up tries to get four walls to stick together and somehow hold up a roof. Five times. Pretty soon I'm gonna have five adorable kids completely wired on sugar trying to decorate five stupid, stupid adorable little houses and fighting over 14 gumdrops, six red hots and a candy cane to do it. What was I thinking?"My friend said, “I'm in front of your house. Come out here, I have something for you.”

Really? Hmm...Help had arrived. I went skipping out to her car wondering what she could possibly have for me. She started fishing around in her purse as I said, “Whatcha got for me? Ya got valium? Ya got prozac?”

She started laughing. “No, no... it's here, somewhere...”

“Whatcha got for me? Ya got vodka? Ya got a pitcher full of margaritas?”

“No. It's candy.”

“Candy? Oh chocolate? Okay it's not prozac but chocolate can solve a lot.”

“No, no, not chocolate,” she said, and then right before my eyes, she started pulling sealed packages of candy out of her purse. Not just any candy either. This candy was green, red and white. Candy that was born to live on a gingerbread house.

I said, "I swear to you, I'm not judging... But you have gingerbread house candy in your purse, why?"

She explained that a couple of days before she and her daughter had been to a gingerbread house decorating party and this was some of the leftover candy. She said, “Hold on, I think I've got frosting in here."

“Yeah umm. Seriously? Frosting in your purse? I love you. This just another prime example of why we're friends.”

She never did find the frosting. I know. Only a friend of mine could lose frosting in her purse. And it only made what happened twenty minutes later even more funny. I went back into the house to show off all the new candy. “Oh. But it's only to look at, adorable children! No eating!”

So then I went back to building five tiny little stupid houses while five adorable children dipped themselves in sprinkles. When my friend Wendy showed up to pick up Brandon and Jaden, I told her all about my gingerbread village fiasco and then added that you'll never believe what Beth showed up with, "Candy! And not just any candy. The woman was pulling gingerbread-house-decorating-candy out of her purse. Seriously. She even thought she had frosting. Only my friends. Can you imagine?”Of course Wendy responded, “Oh... do you need frosting? Hold on a sec.”

She then went out to her car and popped open her trunk as I stood there, with a you have got to be freakin' kidding me look on my face and, I kid you not, the woman started pulling tubes of frosting out of her trunk. And not just frosting, but a vast assortment of Christmas themed decorative toppings...

“Really? You just happened to have this stuff in your trunk, Wendy?”

She explained that one of the activities at her office party that day had been sugar cookie decorating. They had a lot of stuff left over.

As I watched Wendy drive away, and waved good-bye to Brandon and Jaden, I stood there on my porch, admiring the twinkling lights decorating my neighbors' houses, basking in my own personal Christmas miracle moment. Thinking how lucky I am to have exactly the right friends and family for ME. Always there with exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment. I felt extremely blessed. Then I went back inside and smiled at the three adorable children who remained. Admired the lights on my tree which sat in the midst of my lovely house which looked as though it had been ransacked by angry monkeys.

I smiled at the glittering beauty of my dining room floor, which appeared to be covered with freshly fallen snow... sticky green & red snow, to be exact. I admired the hot pink frosting in my seven year-old's hair and I pried the gummy bears out of my four year old's sticky little hands. I remembered that my adorable husband would be home at any moment and that I had absolutely no clue what we were having for dinner.And I thought to myself that as incredibly lucky as I am to have the friends and family that I have, there's still an opening for a friend who carries a cleaning crew in her van... and one who delivers take-out. Plus I really wouldn't mind that vodka/prozac friend. Email me. PLEASE.

December 2009

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Just sharing some pictures from December. As usual, it was a crazy, busy month. Tons of shopping, decorating, baking, parties and photo book making. Scott and I celebrated our tenth anniversary. We also had Amanda's school sing-a-long and her class party.

Somehow I managed to get ahead of schedule with many things, which is pretty unusual for me. Oh I hear you all snickering... Okay, being ahead of schedule is VERY unusual for me, but somehow I managed it. Most of the gifts were not only bought or made weeks before Christmas but also wrapped and under the tree. I labeled them with a secret code so the girls had no idea who was getting what. Unfortunately it was such a great code that when Christmas morning finally rolled around, even I had no idea who was getting what. Oh look, it's another mystery gift. How exciting!

The biggest thing I managed to check off my list early in the season: visiting Santa. I've mentioned my issues around taking the kids to see Santa before here and here. Love Santa. But I've blown up the going-to-see-Santa experience into something to be dreaded... procrastinated... avoided if humanly possible. I want the girls to see Santa. I want cute photos of them seeing Santa. I just don't want to stand in line with 5,000 impatient children waiting to see Santa. The very idea of it makes me break out in a cold sweat.

Every year I tell myself that we'll go see Santa right after Thanksgiving. Get in early to beat the crowds. But every year I put it off. Last year I put it off so long that we ended up at the mall on Christmas Eve. Mind you, Christmas Eve dinner is pretty much the only event I can be counted on to host at my house every year, so it was an act of total desperation/insanity that made me venture into the mall on Christmas eve afternoon and even consider a visit to Santa. One look at that line of 5,000 impatient children and crabby parents stretching around and around and around and I immediately bribed the girls into leaving. I told them I had gotten a good look at Santa (which I had) and it wasn't the real one anyway. All we had to do was check the online Santa Tracker to know that the REAL Santa was already delivering gifts to good little boys and girls all over the world.

This guy was just one of his helpers. To be more specific, (like I said, I got a good look at him) this was the very helper who had called Alyssa “Booger Baby” the year before. I wasn't waiting in line for that guy. I just wasn't. Well if they had cried or told me I was ruining Christmas I might have considered standing in that line, but luckily they didn't seem to mind much. Do you want to stand in this line for six hours or do you want mommy to buy you something pretty and completely useless? We'll text Santa just to be sure he remembers you...

Don't judge me, people. It had to be done. I had a messy house and company coming. So last year I completely blew it. For the first time in their short little lives they had no Santa visit. I couldn't afford to screw it up this time.

So in November, when my friend Wendy mentioned that there was a holiday open house in a quaint town near us and Santa was going to be there... I was all for it. Mind you that we hadn't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet. I didn't care. I've heard people say it's awful to see Santa so early. Even right after Thanksgiving is too early for them. They say it's like torturing the kids... making them wait so long. PUH-LEEZ... I'm gonna torture the kids anyway. Why not start off the torture with a fun trip to see the jolly old man in red?

You may notice that Amanda's jacket is wet in these photos. That's because right as we left for the event it started raining. Not sprinkling a little but POURING. We were not to be deterred though. So what if we had to wait outside in a little bit of rain? I was going to get to check “Santa visit” off of my list and it wasn't even December! Go me! Luckily the rain seemed to scare a lot of people off. The line we waited in was nowhere nearing 5,000. This year I'm hoping to schedule our visit with Santa before Valentine's Day. Easter at the latest.

With so many of my “must do” items checked off of my list early in the month, like I had always fantasized about.. what did I do? Did I sit back and bask in the joy of the season like I'd always pictured I would do? No. No, I couldn't stand being done. It just doesn't feel like Christmas if I'm not running myself ragged, you know? So I just started adding a bunch of random stuff to the list. Things to do. Parties and parades to attend. Cookies to bake. Crafts to make. My visits to the Martha Stewart website spiked dramatically. Because I had clearly lost it. If it called for popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, paint, glue, glitter or googly eyes, I added it to my list. We made cinnamon dough ornaments that we never got around to painting. We made button wreaths, popsicle stick reindeer, craft foam trees, two advent calendars. I attempted to make this:

See? Those are my cute little gingerbread guys before the tragic accident. Many of them were dismembered. It hurts too much to talk about it.

However the kids and I did successfully make about a zillion of these snowflake button ornaments. Cute huh? Unfortunately, I pretty much forgot to attach them to my gifts as planned. I'm creative but completely disorganized. It's a curse. Then there were the gingerbread houses. That story deserves its very own post.

Anyway it was a fun Christmas. I think we now have more Barbie dolls than ToysRus. That was the only thing Amanda asked Santa to bring her. She finally added a stuffed animal dog and a couple of candy canes to her wish list just so Santa would have options, but for her it was all about the Barbies and Santa came through. Alyssa just wanted a baby doll. She got one that sneezes and runs a fever. Next year maybe she'll specify she'd like a healthy baby doll. Luckily they haven't started dragging out the catalogs and making carefully itemized 6-page wish lists like my brother and I did.

The girls and I spent New Years in Anaheim with my friend Beth. It was an impulsive trip for me. I couldn't resist the idea of Disneyland at Christmastime. Except that we didn't end up going to Disneyland since the weather was horrible, rainy and windy, and we heard the parks were insanely crowded. Bad planning on my part. But we had a great time anyway and we'll be going back to Disneyland again soon. Because if we don't, my children will remind me of it for the rest of my life.

As it is, I'm fairly certain I'll be hearing about it anyway.

Hey Alyssa, remember that Christmas Mommy surprised us with a trip to Disneyland but instead she took us to IHOP and the Dollar Store?

The Princess & the Pop Star

I have to admit this Halloween was a bit tougher than usual, what with Amanda doing that really annoying thing... thinking for herself.

It was probably in July or August that we started talking about Halloween costumes. Amanda told me she wanted to be Hannah Montana and I thought to myself there's plenty of time to change her mind.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with that choice of costume for a few reasons… one being that my baby is far too young to be dressing like a teenage pop star. Another being that I'm rather old fashioned I guess, because I prefer easily recognizable costumes for kids, something more classic and timeless. And lastly, my BABY is far too young to be dressing like a teenage pop star. Yeah I know. I had to say that twice. Oh, and did I mention that the costume she wanted was $50? Fifty dollars for this totally cheap looking thing?!?

So for months I tried gently swaying her. Then I tried not so gently swaying her. I tossed out every single great idea I could think of, along with a whole bunch of not so great ones. But she wasn't budging. I like to get their costumes early, so I don't have to worry about it. But there we were only ten days before Halloween and she still hadn't decided. Well clearly she had decided, but I was still trying to pretend she hadn't. When I asked her for the 3,458^th time what she wanted to be for Halloween, her chin dropped and she said ever so sadly, "I don't know Mommy, I just don't know. Because there's only one thing I really, really want to be and you don't want me to be that."

Yep, I caved. Ordered the costume that day. And no, I didn't pay anywhere close to $50 for it. Which was good because she barely ended up wearing any of it. The leggings were see-through and the "dress" just barely covered her behind. The belt was awful and she hated the wig. So I insisted she wear a skirt and her own leggings. We used the dress as a top. The night before her Halloween party at school I discovered a huge rip under the arm on the jacket. Really? She'd only tried the thing on for a few minutes.

When Amanda saw the hole, she was seconds away from dissolving into tears so I put on my competent-Mom-face and told her I could fix it. No, I didn't actually believe I could fix it but I couldn't tell her that, could I? Much to the dismay of my mother, who is a master seamstress, I am completely unskilled in that area. Completely unskilled. So I did what the slightly less competent moms do and I got out the duct tape. Well they say you can fix anything with it, don't they? It worked too. Worked just fine until she put the jacket on and we heard this awful ripping sound. Her lip started quivering so again, I said, "Hey, no worries, I can totally fix this." Inside my head there was a lot of swearing going on but I couldn't tell her that, could I?

I finally managed to track down a needle but I couldn't find anything but black thread. When you're extremely bad at sewing, the last thing you want to do is draw attention to the fact by using the wrong color thread. I knew I had to have white thread somewhere but after a very long search and nearly giving up, I suddenly remembered... dental floss! Yup, I totally pulled a McGyver on the Hannah Montana costume from hell. It probably took me at least three times longer than it should have but I actually did a pretty darn good job on it. I'm not sure my mom would have been impressed but I totally was.

So Amanda was Hannah Montana… well no, actually she decided that without the blonde wig she would be Miley Cyrus. If you're not up on the Disney Channel and the whole Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana thing, just ask Amanda. If you wanna know about McGyver, ask me.

Alyssa was supposed to be the easy one this year. I knew anything pretty and sparkly and girly would make her happy so I was planning to put her in the princess dress Amanda wore years ago when Alyssa was just a little pea. It's been hanging in the closet for years, staring at me, just waiting to be worn again.

Except that when I went to get it so Alyssa could try it on, it had somehow managed to drop off the face of the earth. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was so desperate to find it that I reorganized the whole closet and every drawer in the place. If you know me at all, you'll sense the desperation in that move. But still, no princess dress.

Then one night I overheard Alyssa telling Scott that she was going to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween because if she was Sleeping Beauty she could take a nap. Well that settled that. I didn't even know she knew who Sleeping Beauty was but I wasn't going to argue with napping logic.

So that's how we ended up with a princess and a pop star.

The Leprechauns Visit on Random Photo Tuesday

So I have this bad habit of starting new traditions… like I'll hear a cute idea and instead of thinking I should do this once I immediately jump directly to wouldn't it be fun to start a new tradition and do this EVERY YEAR? Don't ask me why.

A few weeks ago I saw this idea in a magazine about leprechaun catchers. Well first the leprechauns would show up at your house and leave behind all kinds of fun clues…trails of shamrock confetti, green footprints, green kiss marks on sleeping children's foreheads, green toilet water (Yep, leprechaun pee! A personal favorite.) So of course you would build this totally adorable leprechaun trap to try to catch one, right? I mean you would right? Am I alone here?

When I jumped on instant messenger and told my friend Wendy all about my latest brilliant plan, she saw the warning signs immediately… She may have mentioned something about barely being able to keep up with the Easter Bunny and Santa. Oh it's true that the whole Santa thing sounds like a great idea until 2am on Christmas morning when you're wondering what moron came up with the whole Santa thing. But then I sent her the link with the pictures of the leprechaun traps… because they were really cute traps, let me tell you… she knew there was no use trying to reason with me. Because I was already determined to build the one that looked like a leprechaun hat, yes I was!

Luckily Amanda's first grade teacher showed up in time to save me from myself. How? Well as room mom, I was asked to send out a letter to the class announcing that the leprechauns had arrived for a visit and would probably be causing all kinds of mischief. AND she asked the class to build leprechaun traps. Really? Yep. Oh and we were throwing a little party, emphasis on little, (complete with lots of tiny little green food like green finger jello and teeny mint ice cream cones) to celebrate our visiting guests. While I was getting ready for the party I found myself thinking these guys better show up.

So anyway, I… I mean Amanda and I… got to build our totally cute trap and display it at home until yesterday, but as far as the leprechaun thing… I just got to hear about their pranks every day (They messed up desks and moved furniture and left cute little notes, among other things) but I didn't have to do any of the work. Now I have another year to decide whether I want to attempt the leprechaun thing next year.

The kids set up their traps yesterday afternoon and I snuck in this morning to take pictures before class started. The leprechauns visited last night. They did, they really did! They were there… Well okay, they got away, but they WERE THERE I tell ya... I saw the little green footprints, I saw the little shamrock confetti… the teensy little trophies left next to each of the traps. I could picture them laughing, saying, "Nice try!" There was even a tiny little bathtub full of green water. And one of them left a tiny little vest behind. Actually it freaks me out a little to think of the little guys frolicking around the classroom naked. But who am I to judge?

So anyway, the before picture of our trap as it looked at home. The after picture shows how we found it this morning. Yeah okay, so maybe it doesn't exactly look like the work of a six year old? That's a whole 'nother subject which I'll save for a different blog post or a therapy session, which ever comes first. I can't take credit for the design. It's an exact replica of the one I saw in the magazine. Because I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to go about building a leprechaun trap and because it was just too cute NOT to copy.
Let me explain how the trap works. Rumor has it that leprechauns aren't known for following rules, hence the "do not climb ladder" sign. The hope was that they would spot the hunk of gold on top of the hat. Okay the hope was that a little old near-sighted leprechaun would spot the wadded up foil left over from reeses peanut butter cups and hopefully thinking it was gold, or perhaps hoping there were more reeses peanut butter cups where those came from, would climb the little ladder (built from sticks Amanda collected from our backyard… 'cause she's crafty like that) and when he stepped on top of the hat to reach for the gold or the peanut butter cups… he'd plunge through the trap door and be stuck there 'til morning in the oatmeal container, just wishing there was actually some chocolate or peanut butter or something in there… because leprechauns get hungry too.
Unfortunately it appears that our wily little leprechaun escaped. Don't ask me how. I assume that somewhere there's a big -- okay probably a little -- party goin' on and some leprechaun is tossing back a thimble full of Guinness and laughing at the thought that someone was silly enough to think a Quaker Oats box could hold him.

That's Amanda holding the tiny trophy. I'll add more photos soon. I just had to get a couple in under my Tuesday deadline. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Merry Christmas!

I promised a couple of people that I would post our holiday letter and I'm finally getting around to it. Yes, I'm totally back-dating it because there's just something that feels really wrong about posting a Christmas letter in February. Please note that the actual letter did go out in December.

The T*** 2008 Holiday Toy Catalog

Thank you for requesting this year’s T*** Holiday Toy Catalog. As you are well aware, times are tight. In order to cut our production costs, we have reduced our product line to only our five best-selling items. Remember: Order by December 24 to ensure arrival in time for Christmas!

Little Alyssa Doll - Not a Baby Anymore Version - She laughs! She cries! She scales tall furniture and swings from curtains! Push the button to hear one of 30 phrases, including: “No!” “That’s mine!” “You’re never gonna believe this!” and “I hate time-outs!” She comes with 12 baby dolls and a permanent marker to draw on your furniture. Also included are six purses, five outfits including: polka dot footy pajamas, a Dorothy costume, a ballet tutu, and a princess dress with tiara, plus seventeen pairs of shoes (though she will insist on wearing the sparkly red ones at all times). NOTE: Clothing must be changed hourly. Because of customer complaints, this version does not include the “wet diaper” feature. Instead, she comes complete with big girl panties and 47 rolls of toilet paper which she will unroll on your floor in eight seconds flat! No batteries required, simply wind her up once and she will run FOREVER. Sorry, no “off” switch or volume control.

Big Girl Amanda Doll – Your little one won’t be able to put this one down. She can read! She can write! She loves to sing and dance! She comes complete with glitter, sequins, glue and six zillion other craft supplies that she will use to decorate anything that will stand still. We’ve cut eleven inches of hair off of this year’s version! Push a button and she will say, “Can I have candy?” “Eww, I’m not eating this!” or one of 638 stories she has made up to entertain you. A fun bonus feature is that she will occasionally repeat: “I’m bored!” and “I’m hungry!” on an endless loop no matter how well fed or entertained she is. Place her near Little Alyssa Doll and she will whine, “Mommy, she’s bugging me AGAIN.” She comes with a complete wardrobe but she will refuse to wear most of it because it’s boring. No batteries required! Just feed her a steady diet of hamburgers and candy and she will run and run.

Stay-at-home Mommy Dione Doll – She comes with a camera stuck to her face to capture priceless memories and a laptop so she can keep in touch with friends and family. She’s room mom for Big Girl Amanda Doll’s first grade class, which means she can work magic with popsicle sticks and glue. She whips out Shutterfly photo books at an alarming rate, which may explain why she is so bad at keeping her blog: http://dionesdays.blogspot.com/ up to date. Push a button and she says one of 15 phrases including: “Can we please lower the volume?” “Put your clothes back on Alyssa!” and “I’m gonna count to three and if you don’t climb down from there, you’re getting a time-out!” She runs in circles looking for her keys while chanting like a crazy lady and you’ll be happy to learn that this year’s version has her head permanently attached so she can’t lose it. You’ll want to buy lots of extra batteries for this one because spending all day with Little Alyssa Doll wears her out quickly!

The Daddy Scott Action Figure – This version comes with a broken hand and a cranky attitude. Push the button and he will say: “I hate my job!” “I hate Christmas!” “Where’s the remote?” and “If you put your keys away you’ll always know where they are.” He enjoys tormenting Little Alyssa Doll, Big Girl Amanda Doll and especially Stay-at-home Mommy Dione Doll. It is nearly impossible to separate him from his TV, his blackberry or his cell phone. He knows EVERYTHING! He spouts financial advice whether you want it or not. He comes with a motorcycle he rarely rides, a set of golf clubs he whips out occasionally and an X-box which can turn him into a guitar hero-playing superstar in his own living room. For only an extra $5 you can get The Bad-Ass Daddy Scott Action Figure which also includes a B-B gun just in case Whiskers the Cat (currently unavailable) drags a rat into your kitchen. Guaranteed to shoot the rat dead in four shots or less!

The T*** “So they call this a dream house?” House – Due to a major decluttering-mission, this version comes with 60% less stuff than last year’s so we can’t understand why it’s still a mess much of the time! There’s finally room in the garage to park the Deluxe Eurovan (currently unavailable in the U.S.) so the whole family can go camping! Due to endless complaints about the hideous carpet and unsightly master bedroom furniture that came with all earlier versions, you’ll be thrilled to learn that the 2008 version comes with all new carpet and brand new bedroom furniture. The crib and changing table from last year’s version have been replaced by a tall loft bed that nobody will sleep in but the height allows Little Alyssa Doll to reach the ceiling fan with ease. (Wheeeeeee!)

Ordering information: Orders may be sent via snail mail to (our address), via email to d_***@sbcglobal.net or by phone at (our phone number). If you’re in the area please visit our outlet store! (Please call first so Stay-at-home Mommy Dione Doll has time to clean up The T*** “So they call this a dream house?” House and change out of her sweat pants.)

The Scoop on Valentine's Day

Well we survived another Valentine’s Day. I say survived only because by the end of the day I felt a bit like I’d been run over by a bus. But other than that it was a perfectly nice day. I volunteered in Amanda’s class to help out with their party and there’s just something completely exhausting about trying to keep up with 18 5 and 6-year-olds PLUS Alyssa.

I swear it’s the addition of Alyssa that kills me. I volunteered without Alyssa only a couple of days before that when they celebrated the 100th day of school and it was no problem. But try to supervise the making of 18 heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while chasing down Alyssa and I’m wiped out.

Also whose bright idea was it to start all kinds of fun little traditions for my children and why didn’t anyone tell me that not only would I have to remember what those traditions are but then also follow through with them in a somewhat timely manner?

After making a last minute trip to the grocery store for Kindergarten party supplies, then overseeing the folding, signing, and envelope stuffing of the Valentine’s for Amanda’s classmates (Hello Kitty for the girls and Ratatouille for the boys), then putting together mini goody bags for each kid (which included mini tubs of play-doh among other things because just because my kids aren’t allowed to play with it doesn’t mean her friends shouldn’t) I had Amanda’s back-pack packed and was ready to call it a night when I suddenly remembered that I always make a trail of Hershey’s kisses to lead the girls to their Valentine’s gifts. And of course I didn’t have any Hershey’s kisses. And what’s a trail of kisses without kisses? It’s just a trail, that’s what it is. So back to the grocery store I went.

Then on Valentine’s Day I told Amanda she could open her gift as soon as she finished her homework, hoping this would inspire her to work quickly instead of piddling around like she usually does. Well it didn’t work. She goofed around and finally finished her homework just as Scott arrived home with dinner, a heart-shaped pizza (another Valentine’s Day tradition that is far more wildly romantic than it sounds simply because the fact that Scott is paying the same amount of money for less pizza almost kills my painfully practical husband. To show you how difficult this was for him he said next year he’s going to buy a regular pizza and cut it into a heart-shape himself and eat the remnants when I’m not looking.). I suggested to Amanda that we wait until after dinner to open our gifts and her lip started quivering.

“But you promised…”

So that’s why I presented my children with a boatload of chocolate only moments before dinner. Just another brilliant move on my part. And that’s why I never bothered with tradition #3, these Choco-Hoto-Pots in cute little heart shaped ramekins. Luckily it’s also a tradition for me to be scatterbrained and forgetful and I’m frequently known to extend holidays and birthdays by doing stuff late. I will eventually get around to making my dessert, hopefully tonight. Happy Valentine’s Day to us.

A few pics from Easter, finally

Kiss your sister!

We went to the St. Patrick's Day Festival in our town and now we're all sick. Just the joy of Fair food, I guess. On the brighter side, here are a few more pictures from yesterday.

Pictures from Valentine's Day