Wordy Wednesday

[Thank goodness for two-year-old FB memories that remember real memories from a loooong time ago...]

Oh, Thank Goodness!

No one guessed the correct photos so we don't have to buy a $1,000 Amazon gift card prize.  Whew!

Gotta try to remember today is Tuesday and not Monday.  (Not that I'm complaining.)  Our long weekend crashed and burned a bit with the BG getting the chills Sunday evening and being out of it all day yesterday.  Thankfully, he was back to normal this morning because-- no joke-- he has not taken a sick day in 18 years of teaching.

Friday Fizz

First of all, thank you to Jen for humoring us with your participation in the lucky "memory square" game yesterday!  We'll announce the lucky photos on Tuesday morning, so you still have time to make your guess.

(It's becoming more and more obvious to me that daily blog-reading is falling out of fashion...)

What's very much IN fashion at my house, however?  Enjoying a "sparkly" on the daily!  I have spent my life avoiding sparkling water due to early experiences not liking it, but it turns out that these fruit-flavored versions are mighty tasty.  You might remember that it all started with a fun find at ALDI. It has now transformed into a "let's try ALL the flavors!" project, but a healthy one that not only keeps me hydrated but also keeps me from imbibing other, more caloric bevvies!

If anyone wants to stop by, I currently have seven flavors for the taking!  :-)

HAPPY (FIZZY) FRIDAY!

Is It Your Lucky Day?

It's always been important to me to have "actual" photos in albums so, every so often, I go through and curate/upload/edit/send to printer pictures to be saved for posterity in physical form.  I spent several hours working on the latest batch recently and the photos arrived in the mail yesterday.  The kids LOVE looking at the albums--and decided yesterday to have some fun before the pics even got placed in an album.  Behold, Mr. B's "memory square":

He then cooked up a game for the blog.  It took a few iterations to get to a workable place, but I invite you to PRESS YOUR LUCK (no whammies!  no whammies!) with the following game...

1)  Each kid selected, pretty much randomly, one "lucky photo" from all the photos in this array.

2) I snapped a photo (not shown here) of the kids holding their chosen pics so that there is proof of no "changing after the fact"!

3) B-man would like you each to make two guesses about the lucky photos.  You can describe each one and maybe offer its placement (for example: "the pic of C in the birthday cake costume, 2nd row from the bottom on the left).

4)  If anyone guesses one of the lucky photos, (s)he will win a BIG PRIZE!!!!!!!!!

5) We hope you'll have fun with us!  Results will be announced on TUESDAY!

He Just Popped On By

Miss C brought home this paper last month.  I love all her descriptions of what she did over spring break, but the last one is definitely my favorite!

On the Stage and In the Pool

Our weekend o' activity began with Miss C finally having soccer on Saturday morning.  This should have been her fifth of five sessions, but instead was only her second (!!!) due to all the ill-timed weekend rain we've had this month.  The BG took the kids while I ran a couple of errands, including picking up some flowers to (first hide and then later) present to her after Activity #2 for the day...

Her class danced to "Be Our Guest" (soooo on point with the pop culture times--which is very different from en pointe, although we saw some of that, too!) and she did a great job.

I snapped this pic earlier in the week on the way in to the dress rehearsal but it gives a more expansive view of the costume!  (and my first attempt with that foam donut bun-maker thing which, save for that strand of hair hanging down, doesn't look too shabby!):

Sunday morning, the kids and I headed to a local (heated) pool where the B-man participated in a swim meet as the culmination of his yearlong weekly lessons. It's looking like he's going to take after his mother in, as my dad always said, the lack of "fast twitch" muscles--we might not ever win a race but, hey, we sure can grin!  :-)

The BG wasn't with us because he reported to duty at 10am to help set up for the big 50th Anniversary Celebration & Carnival that the PTA hosted at our elementary school.  While I'd normally be the PTA volunteer parent, it was clear that the other adult in this house would be more helpful in the manual labor category!

After B swam his two events, we headed home to change and regroup before hitting up the Carnival prep ourselves.  It was a fun afternoon with no rain and lots of people-- hooray for getting through the last big event of the year!

Rainforest on a Rainy Day

If you're following along online, you might know that we had a crazy busy weekend.  Clearly I've not bounced back yet (since it's already 9am when I'm throwing this post together) but I just drove the kids to school because it's raining and the B-man needed to transport (what I hope is) the culminating 3rd grade project:

The BG was the parent in charge for this particular project since he has a much larger capacity for patience.  While there was some guiding and prompting (and hot glue-gunning), the B-man really did everything else himself.  He also discovered a love for fun little doodads at Michaels and I approve.

I spent 3 hours standing outside at a registration table yesterday afternoon and learned later that it was the super sneaky weather where it's completely cloudy but apparently the sun is there somewhere.  Guess I shouldn't have worn a ponytail because the tops of my back/shoulders are all a little pink.  As gloomy as the rain outside is, it somehow feels cooling to me now! (Although I'm still in a funk about realizing after the fact that I missed some fabulous bargains at the Silent Auction: Kid to Kid resale shop donated a $50 gift card and someone got it for only $10!  what the what?  I woulda been all over that...but was too busy greeting peeps and getting silently burned!)

More to come...

Overshopping: Not Just For Kids!

In case anyone is wondering, I also harness the power of the internet (and easy returns) to bring too many choices in footwear to the other adult in this house!  :-)

I'm not a huge fan of the Halloween-esque high school color scheme, but I gotta say: there are always plenty of coordinating shoe options!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Retail Relaxin'

He knows how to survive his mother's beloved "let's wander up and down every aisle looking for treasures" habit:

Wah-Wah Wednesday

Just a couple of weekends ago, the BG walked into the room to tell me "some bad news-- some potentially very expensive bad news."  You can imagine my instant fear!

Can you spot it?

It finally became evident that the largest tree of them all didn't get leaves like all its friends.  We had no idea this was coming.  Ugh.   :-(

Those Es Have the LIFE!

(As in Elsa and Evelyn!)

I pulled up the driveway after some weekend errands and found this tableau in the garage:

Note that they are shaded by an umbrella AND have an expanded table top so that more of their culinary tidbits could be displayed! 

Also note the bike in the upper right!  I can't remember if this topic has been covered already in these electronic pages but that's my first adult bicycle, procured over Spring Break!  We've had so much rain lately that it mostly has been hanging out in the garage, but I did take it out for a little ride yesterday.  I'm proud of myself that I don't ever have to WALK it up a hill--that's all I remember from childhood bike riding!--so I guess I'm stronger than I was at 12.  YESSSSSS!  Small victories!

Mother's Day is Just Another Day for Research!

So...Mother's Day.  Let's be honest: I bought myself a new tote/purse last week and made the dinner reservations for yesterday, too. That's how we roll.

A lot of research goes into making such a meal plan.  We all know my favorite tool is opentable.com since I love being able to see everything that is available without having to make phone calls.  We were busy throughout the morning anyway, and I figured this was a good thing since dinner options were sure to be more plentiful than those during the "brunch/lunch" portion of this particular day.  If it were just the adults escaping for a meal, I would have a very different set of criteria for restaurant selection, but since the kids would be along, it became three-fold: 1) a place new to us; 2) a place with at least slightly-nicer-than-our-usual-restaurant-selection offerings; 3) a place with a kids' menu that had something appealing to the child uninterested in culinary exploration.

Bingo! I found such a place and, as a bonus, it was located in a large shopping area that was also new to us.  So, while we'd normally eat with the white-haired crew (hey, I have 'em, too) at 5pm or so, I made the reservation for 6pm so we could go early and wander around the nearby stores.

All went according to plan--and it was a gorgeous day!  The kids had the best time hitting up their favorite trifecta of stores: Five Below, Michaels, and Party City.  (We are clearly very fancy.) And...my stomach was rumbling so much that we totally showed up at the restaurant at 5:40 and were able to be seated then.   Success all around:

(Except that, as you can see, the purchase for each kid of the newest Lego minifig series resulted in not only a duplication, but also a duplication of one of the most boring of the options!  BOOOOO Five Below!!)  ;-)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Fantastic(ally Fun) Foodie Find for Friday!

ALERT:  I just found not one but TWO new Oreo flavors!

(It's like the marketers know there are crazy people out here eating our way through all the concoctions!)

Per our strict family rules, only ONE package gets opened at a time.  The kids couldn't decide which one so we flipped a coin.  B-man picked heads and his sister picked tails....the BG flipped and it was tails...B-man groaned in dejection and his sister started crying...until I told her that she actually won, at which point the switch flipped alarmingly fast and she became giddy.  THAT was the moment I wish I had filmed-- it was hysterical!

May you have lots of giggles this weekend!  HAPPY FRIDAY!

(Oh, and we started with the Firework ones. The "pops" are subtle but definitely there!)

Nancy and Abuela

Miss C has gotten to do some fun dressing-up of late!

Sunday, she attended a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party and came home sporting all kinds of accessories and treats:

Then, on Tuesday, she and her after-school Spanish class performed "Caperucita Roja" and she donned quite the shower cap to play the Abuela (who is not actually the lobo, of course)!

Mid-Week Dance Break

I was sitting here figuring out which pics to upload and feature today when the kiddies came running in and said they had something to perform.  I moved them to a more light-friendly location and BOOM-- Wednesday's blog post:

Why Eat One When You Can Eat Two?

I was so excited to find these divided bowls on a random wandering-around-a-store recently!  I didn't even know that I needed them until I saw 'em-- but then I knew for sure!

Just in the last 24 hours, I've enjoyed two different sets of snackies:

Here's a case where divided loyalty is rewarded!  :-)

All You Need Are Bubbles (okay, and some heat)

The kids had a blast playing in the pool & hot tub at a friend's BBQ Saturday eve-- which was supposed to be celebrating the opening of the (heated) pool and the coming of summer, but instead took place in 53-degree weather!

Just out of frame would be the BG, wearing jeans and a fleece!  Ha!

B&C played with their friends in the pool for probably 1.5 hours...and then went back for more later! Definitely the highlight of the weekend-- which once again included a soccer cancellation for Miss C due to soggy fields.  So far, we're 1 outta 3...and there are only 5 Saturdays scheduled!  Oh, spring rain!

Friday Flashback

I stumbled across this video recently and it's been giving us all a lot of joy.  Mr. B was a few months into being a 4-year-old here--I still can't believe how clearly he spoke!--and it's really cool to see some mannerisms that he absolutely still has five years later.

"When I was growing up, I just ATE CHEESE!!!!"


HAPPY FRIDAY!

This Post Should Really Be Tomorrow

But hey, maybe it'll give you a recommendation for your Cinco de Mayo culinary needs!

I'm a sucker for big sales (WHAT?  SHOCKER!) and that definitely extends to food.  When I saw this 2-pack of flan for half-price, I scooped it up.  The BG ate the first one out of the little cup, a la Jello, but for the second one, he dumped it out on a plate.  Check it out!  It looks gourmet!  (And he said it was quite tasty!)

Wordless Wednesday

The Outsiders

These two could play outside together every minute of the day:

She really wanted to run through the sprinkler over the weekend and we didn't have the chance to set it up. Even though a storm was clearly on the way last eve, her daddy helped her get the sprinkler up and running, and they stayed out there for hours checking on trees, birds, flowers, etc.

(Just to be fair, I was actually ALSO outside....although that involved chatting on the phone while walking up and down the street so yeah, that makes sense.  The B-man was poring over his newest library book: after finishing the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, he's just gotten started with Heroes of Olympus.)

Not Normal

Temps like that should NEVER show up this early in the year (or, if we're being honest-- EVER!):

(Kids giving their best "I am so hot" faces.)

Of course, it wasn't actually that hot-- just the result of a car parked in the sun on an unseasonably warm day.  I can't even tell you how happy I am that temps this next week don't seem to get out of the 60s.  I do love to layer!