when 8-year-olds help 2-year-olds put on their pjs

wordless wednesday #24

good kid quotes

Josie's had a cold this past week (have I mentioned that about 100 times already?) and has been acting very TWO, which has made for some long days around here... and apparently resulted in nothing blogworthy. Certainly nothing I want to look back on and remember later. Ugh.

There have been some pretty good kid quotes though, and although I always think I'll remember them, I'm hopeless at it.

* * * * *

Avery, reading her fortune cookie fortune (paraphrasing): "Look inward and discover who you really are."

Cayden: "Like maybe Miley Cyrus? Or Hannah Montana?"

* * * * *

Josie: "Oh goodness that hurts!"

* * * * *

Josie: "I have eyes in my hair. No-oh! Hair in my eyes!"

* * * * *

Josie: "Tank you, Mama. I welcome."

* * * * *

Josie: "Hi, Mama. How you? Good, how you?" (Obviously mimicking an overheard one-sided phone conversation.)

* * * * *

Okay, that's about half the list I had in my head earlier today. See what I'm talking about? My memory sucks these days.

shower invitations

It's been a crazy weekend. Lots of running around. Josie's had a cold (which of course = bad sleep) and then we were out too late last night at a school fundraiser/poker party that we co-host* with another couple each year. Needless to say, those two factors combined are making today a very slow, tired day.

Avery & Cayden are spending the day with a friend so Josie got some good "only child" time this morning. When she went down for a nap, Andrew decided he liked the sounds of that idea and followed suit, so I found myself all alone. In a quiet house. With nobody whining. Or even talking. It was heavenly. Unlike the weekdays when this happens all the time, today felt different... like I could actually ignore the laundry and dishes and do something fun.

So I gathered all the supplies I've been slowly buying and made some invitations for my soon-to-be sister-in-law's bridal shower. Joe & Julia do not seem to be fans of the traditional pastel wedding colors, choosing instead to go with more bold, primary colors.

{names and addresses have been deleted to protect the innocent}

If I could make invitations every day, I think I might just do so. I usually don't have a clue what I'm doing when I start out, but it's fun to have something creative to work on. I found these great floral brads at Target of all places, and the rest of the invitations kind of made themselves after that. How can you go wrong with these?



This first set is obviously for Joe's side of the family (my in-laws). I'll make another set with different verbiage to send to Julia's family members and friends, since I suspect that they welcomed her a long time ago.

Avery and I are getting very excited for the shower (more so me because I'm not sure if I've told Avery about it yet, but she definitely will share in the excitement when I tell her). I was looking online yesterday for some non-cheesy (non-offensive!) ice breakers and games to have on hand, just in case there are any awkward silences. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!


*By co-host, I mean that we rent some chairs and buy some food, while the other couple opens up their restaurant, serves drinks, arranges prizes, decorates, sets up all the tables, and does pretty much everything else.

wordless wednesday #23

cute toddlers modeling hats (from behind)

I was planning to write about the fun trip Josie & I took to the zoo this morning with buddies Avery & Henry (and their respective moms... and one grandpa). The weather was spot-on perfect, the animals were out making noises, and we had a great time (despite a cold that's trying its hardest to bring Jojo down).

However, looking through my photos, I realized the cutest ones I had were of the kids (mostly taken from behind, while trying to keep up with them) and could have been taken anywhere. Animals? What animals?


Technically, there are actually some animals in the bottom picture ("fishies, fishies, fishies, fishies..."), but you probably didn't even notice them with the 3 cuties in front of the glass.

thanks be to sesame street

seven

Happy Birthday to Cayden!

Your spunk and your drive and your kind-heartedness and your humor and your determination and your ingenuity inspire me to be a better person every day.

for those who thought i was kidding...

Remember my words from this morning? "I had to get some pictures of this year's birthday shirt before it got stained, ripped, or otherwise ruined at school today." In case any of you thought that I was being overly dramatic, I present to you the precious birthday shirt as it looked this afternoon at 3:01pm, just 7.5 hours after the original pictures were taken (click to enlarge for more lovely detail):

birthday eve

I had to get some pictures of this year's birthday shirt before it got stained, ripped, or otherwise ruined at school today. Since he has a weekend birthday this year, Cayden is very excited to get two days to celebrate... one at school today, and one at home tomorrow. Yippee!

(He tried so hard not to laugh for these photos, but when I asked Avery the best way to get a giggle out of him, all she had to say was "poop." Then he burst into an explanation of how to remember the letters in poop: "People Order Octopus Poop." You know, just in case you forget! Ah, how fun it would be to be a 7-year-old boy.)

{really} cheap entertainment

runnin' for the arts

That time of year again: good old Run for the Arts. Compared to last year, this year's run was much more enjoyable (as a spectator, at least). The weather was much more cooperative... slightly chilly but there was none of the bone-chilling wind that we had last year. Josie survived watching two separate 30-minute runs with no signs of frostbite or hypothermia!

* * * * *
IMPORTANT STATS
Avery: 10 laps

Cayden: 11 laps

Josie: 1 cinnamon roll and 1/2 bottle of chocolate milk

wordless wednesday #22

my kind of game

Andrew and I headed out last night, sans kids, to a Blazer game. He has had tickets to 10 games this season with a pack that I got him for his birthday but this was the first game that I went to, with tickets we bought at the kids' auction in March. We got 4 tickets, so we were able to bring another couple, then met up with yet another couple who scored all 6 of us wristbands to get into the catered "club level."

The whole night was pretty cool. We got all sorts of free food and I had someone to chat with during the game (when I've gone in the past with just Andrew he's never been in a chatty mood while the game is going on--go figure). The 6 of us must have run into over a dozen people... sure seemed like the whole city was their to root on their hometown team.

Obviously the best part of all, the Blazers totally rolled over the Oklahoma City Thunder, winning by 30 points (113-83). As someone who googles the results of American Idol while I'm watching it, I'm not a big fan of suspense. I'd much rather just know how something's going to end than have to wait on pins and needles. So last night's game was perfect for me--it was a blowout from the first play, so there were no sweaty palms in the arena.

easter egg hunt

I just had to post a few more pictures from today because Josie got to experience her first Easter egg hunt. To put it mildly, she thought it was just about the best thing ever. She searched and searched for eggs, and then searched some more. She even threw all her eggs back out of her basket when the hunt was over so she could find them all over again! She noticed that some of eggs made a sound when she shook them but she couldn't care less what was inside of them, or that there even was something inside of them. She was just in it for the hunt!



There were three other, slightly larger, kids at this egg hunt as well. They did a good job restraining themselves a bit so as to not knock the toddler to the ground. But unlike their pint-sized counterpart, they were not so much "just in it for the hunt." They had other things on their minds (literally):

happy easter!

question

The other night at our mother-daughter book group, one of the girls said that she would like to host next month's meeting (which will fall on May 6th) because her birthday is May 7th. Fine by me, I thought. I've been dreading my turn to host since 16 people in the house at Josie's bedtime seems like a bad idea all around.

So, onto my question. Is it bad that May 7th didn't sound the least bit familiar or ring any bells at all? Is it bad that it didn't even dawn on me (the one who remembers everyone's birthday, even people I haven't seen since high school) that it's my own daughter's birthday?

The way I see it (after having a few days to rationalize it all), I've only had 2 years to get used to that birthday... so I'm hoping beyond hope pretty sure that it will grow on me and become more familiar as time goes on.

Don'tcha think?

Or am I just a horrible mother with no hope?

a big day for a big guy

Today was a very busy, very exciting day for Cayden. Besides being seven (count 'em, seven) days away from his seventh birthday, it was also his very first ever baseball game and his tae-kwon-do yellow belt promotion test. He was supposed to have a soccer game but the latter two events were set to overlap slightly and that seemed crazy.

Despite the fact that his game was at 9:30 and it was surprisingly cold out, I thought it was thoroughly enjoyable. I was imagining a 0-0 tie that lasted hours upon hours, but in reality runs were being scored left and right (mostly by Cayden's team, but I'm just sayin'). Cayden batted twice, got on base twice and scored once. Not too shabby.

And then for his more highly-anticipated event of the day, he went in for his yellow belt test. Since he passed a pre-test last week without any trouble, there really wasn't much suspense about whether or not he would earn the belt... which is fine by me. Being anxious makes me antsy.

* * * * *
I feel it's only appropriate to mention that Avery kind of got screwed today. Since it was Cayden's very first baseball game and since we couldn't figure out any other way to make the logistics work, neither of us stayed to watch her soccer game this morning. [We understand that she stopped "5 goals (or something like that)" as goalie, so we were bummed that we missed the excitement.] Then in the afternoon, because these tae-kwon-do tests are such a big deal, neither of us went to watch her ballet rehearsal. Luckily, she was in good hands for both activities (thanks to Anette & Mara!) and doesn't seem too scarred... yet. Josie, on the other hand, got more one-on-one time than she's had in a long time, with a stay at each of her grandmother's houses today! This juggling act is tough--thank goodness we've got lots of help.

playing catch-up

Whew, thank goodness for holidays! Since tomorrow is Easter, we have no games, no practices, no rehearsals, and no stores are open. A good excuse to stay home and play catch-up (with laundry, dishes and blogging).

On Thursday Christie & Henry invited us over for a toddler bloggers' cookie decorating party. Besides Henry (pictured below in the "mmm...boobies" shirt) & Josie, there was a new friend, Miss Anneke (pictured below), and Miss Avery (pictured in the second picture down with the cuter-than-cute pigtails). Seriously, those of you who don't have blogs need to get with the program... everyone else has one, why shouldn't you?

This was Josie's second time hanging out with another Avery, and I was surprised that she seemed to get it. When we got home and saw the pictures of the event on Christie's blog (way better than the ones here, by the way), she pointed to Avery and called her by name. I was sure that would confuse her for a good long while. She also has been talking non-stop about the "twinkles" and would like everyone to take note of how much she loved the green twinkles in particular. Christie is a kind and patient hostess!

Participating in fun little things like this makes me realize how seldom we get together with kids Josie's age. She's much more used to tagging along with 1st and 3rd graders, sadly. Maybe in the fall I'll look into a little playgroup.

what have we gotten ourselves into?

I am feeling totally overwhelmed with our spring schedule. It started out okay but then more classes, practices and games got added in and now it's completely out of hand. It doesn't really feel like the kind of thing we can back out of now though... it will just have to be a lesson learned the hard way I guess. Here is a look at the schedule for the week ahead, solely for my benefit so I have it all listed in one place and won't forget anything:

Friday
4:45-5:45: tae-kwon-do class (Cayden)
5:00-6:30: baseball practice (Cayden)

Saturday
8:15-10:00: soccer game (Avery)
9:00-11:00: baseball game (Cayden)
1:30-3:00: soccer game (Cayden)
3:15-5:30: belt promotion test (Cayden)
4:00-5:00: ballet rehearsal (Avery)

Sunday
Thank heavens for Easter!

Monday
10:15-11:15: gymnastics class (Josie actually gets 1 thing!)
5:30-7:30: baseball game (Cayden)
6:00-10:00: Blazer game (Amber & Andrew)
6:15-6:45: piano lesson (Avery)
6:15-7:15: tae-kwon-do class (Cayden)

Tuesday
2:30-5:00: weekly playdate (Avery & Cayden)
5:00-6:30: baseball practice (Cayden)
5:00-7:00: ballet class (Avery)

Wednesday
8:25-10:30: run for the arts (Avery & Cayden)
2:30-4:00: variety show rehearsals (Avery & Cayden)
5:00-7:00: soccer practice (Avery)
6:30-10:00: Blazer game (Andrew)

Thursday
2:30-3:30: ballet class (Avery)
3:30-5:00: weekly playdate (Avery)
5:00-6:00: tae-kwon-do class (Cayden)

Ugh, ugh, ugh. To top it all off, the house looks like a tornado just came blazing through. After some major spring cleaning this past weekend, it looks worse than it ever did beforehand. It has definitely been one of those days. At least it's Thursday (I think?) and there are two new episodes of The Office on tonight.

* * * * *

As luck would have it, Blogger is making it nearly impossible for me to publish this @!#*&$% post. Must be fate's way of telling me to let it all go and get on with my life!


Complaining done. Feel much better now.

how to ruin a whole apple in 8 bites

wordless wednesday #21

avery's gone overnight...

...so someone has to wear her shoes & her backpack to pretend to be her. Isn't that the way it works?

* * * * *

Please excuse the glaring, blurry craziness of these pictures. It was the weirdest thing. This fiery ball of heat and light kept shining in our windows, bouncing light off the floors and making everything super bright.

bracing

Today's the day. The start of the spring sports season. Starting today and continuing for the next 2 months, Avery and Cayden have between 2 and 4 games (combination of soccer and baseball) each weekend, on top of Saturday ballet rehearsals for the bigger-than-big show in May, on top of regular ballet classes. And just to get us off on the right foot, the next two weeks Cayden will be testing each Saturday for his yellow belt promotion (at the same time as the aforementioned ballet rehearsals, just to keep things interesting), on top of regular tae-kwon-do classes. This weekend there are also 2 birthday parties and those seem to increase exponentially as spring moves forward.

I'm not sure what we were really thinking. The calendar looks like a jumbled up mess. But, it's supposed to be over 70 the next 2 days so nothing else really matters I suppose. Have a great wekeend... look for us at a park near you!

you know a toddler might be ready to potty train when...

...she keeps pulling off her diaper (from inside her pants) during her naptime. Three days in a row now, Josie has woken up from her nap with a bit of a soggy, wet mess. Since she hasn't responded all that well to the potty seat that sits on top of the real toilet (the one that worked so well for her siblings), we headed out this morning to get a new, sit-on-the-floor potty chair. I made a big deal out of it when I opened it and warned Avery & Cayden (very dramatically) that this big girl seat was only for Jojo and they needed to stay off of it. Needless to say, they didn't think it was very funny.

Josie immediately stipped down quite happily and did a little potty dance. She sat on the chair numerous times and bragged to everyone in the house about it. So far, no..... (ahem)..... results to talk about, but I swear she's got a bladder of steel, so I'm not too worried.

Besides, she's a wee bit on the young side still. If she's out of diapers by 3, I'll be happy.

Feel free to remind me that I said that when she's 2.5 and I'm pulling my hair out!!

wordless wednesday #20