so much fun...so little time

Our trip to "The Elphia" was a blast! We went to the pool, had a picnic at the playground, and had a BBQ with some other friends with similarly-aged kids. Autumn and I got to get two 5-ish mile walks in, and John and Sean got to get a round of golf in. We made it home late Sunday night, and the girls were so tuckered out from all the fun they slept until almost 9 o'clock this morning!

Since I had to do a few hours of work this morning, John took the girls grocery shopping and had a mini Field Day in the front yard with them...tennis! soccer! basketball! They spent the afternoon on the neighborhood water slide. For dinner, John made the season's first batch of ribs and they were to.die.for. Seriously. Then, the three amigos chilled out on the couch to watch a little baseball (and a bit more Noggin).

The kiddos are in bed. We're set to go for this week. I'm headed up to bed with my new SELF magazine, thankful to not be reading the same damn 120 pages I've read countless times in the last two weeks AND to learn how to drop a dress size in two weeks (I don't think gorging oneself on ribs is on that plan)...

Hopefully, things will be less frantic as they've been in the last few weeks. Only 4workdays to go...

eye of the hurricane

I don't know if you know this, but the eye of the hurricane is very calm. The storms proceeding and following the eye are the problem.

And, that's where I am right now, the eye of the hurricane.

Last week and earlier this week was a frenzy of work, work, and occaisionally some family time. Next week will probably be crazy as well as we lead up to the final deadline (and all of June...when I return to my regular job duties, which have been all but abandoned for this fire drill). But for now, I'm in the eye of the hurricane.

Today, we're heading up to "The Elphia" (as A calls it) to visit the Four Little Princesses. We do have to cut the trip a little short so I can work on Monday (damn you, work!)...but I'm excited to get a little break, if only for a little while, to visit with friends, drink a lot of some wine, and not think about work 24-7.

Hilarity will ensue. Pictures will be taken. Blog posts will be written. Pinky swear.

the multitasker

I'm still here. Still ridiculously busy. We reached a very major milestone this weekend, which is awesome...but we still have some work to do, so I'm not yet in the clear yet.

John had to work late last night, so I had pick up duty for the girls. We were a little late getting up to take baths because the girls picked fun-sized boxes of Nerds for dessert. You would think that it would take all of five seconds to eat...but A insisted on eating each.freaking.Nerd individually.

So, in order to speed things up, we multitasked. I read stories to the girls while they played in the tub. Then they brushed their teeth in the tub. The girls were so tickled to be doing wacky stuff in the tub that they got out without any protest. And since it was chilly in the house, thanks to the unseasonably cold temperature and my steadfast refusal to have the heat on in May, the girls put their PJs on lickety split.

All in all, we were able to squeeze all of the nightly routine and still get in bed by bedtime. And in a week like I'm having, any little bit of success is good enough for me.

what's this brown stuff on the fan?

I've been MIA of late due to a major crisis at work. I wasn't the one to cause the crisis ... but I've been tasked with helping to "right the ship" or whatever corporate mumbo jumbo you want to throw in about saving this project's ass (if a project were to have an ass, that is). Scarily enough, this project involves a lot of writing and editing on my part. Thankfully, I've saved all my bad puns and references to body parts to be used in this blog post.

Anyway, my Mother's Day was great despite having to spend a part of the day working. On the bright side, I was able to sneak in a chat with Kiki, I did get to spend some good QT with my family and John cooked a delicious dinner.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this week since I'm working pretty much non-stop. Further, this work does not put me in front of my computer.

Finally, if you are a working mom, I found this article about mommy guilt so interesting...and so pertinent for me right now. Especially since I was almost in tears the other night since I was stuck at work and couldn't tuck the girls in since I don't know when. (Don't get me wrong...I don't tuck them in every night for fun reasons (travel, date night)...but this was the first time in recent memory that I wasn't home because of work.)

sure they are cool, but do they have autographs on their asses?

When I was about 8 or so, the Cabbage Patch Kid was firing up. Also, back in those days, there was no internet...so stores had to send out catalogs of all the products they offered. So when the latest BEST catalog came out, my sister and I were delighted to find they had a 2 page spread on the CPKs.

I remember that Kiki and I would spend hours looking at those two pages. We would ponder which Kid we wanted the most -- the girl with the braids or the boy with the dimples. Did we like the pink dress or the t-shirt and jeans outfit better?

Sometime earlier this week, the American Girl catalog arrived Chez Slacker. Similar to when the Oriental Trading catalog arrived last summer, E has been studying its glossy pages ever since she got her grubby little paws on it.

Last night, in lieu of a story, we looked through the catalog. We picked out the dolls she liked best, and we named all of the different characters. This morning, John and I were able to eek out a couple more minutes of sleep when she brought in the catalog and looked through it one more time.

Right now, E's torn between wanting a doll named Elizabeth or one that looks eerily like her:

Not to scale

Luckily, she has a few months before her birthday to make up her mind.

And I have a few months to come to terms with spending that much money on a freaking doll.

for the love of pete...

Don't let the lack of raindrops on the current forecast fool you. It is currently pouring rain right now. For the god-knows-how-many-th day in a row. And it will continue to do so until Sunday. SUNDAY!

And to think I hesitated buying A a new raincoat last month because I wasn't sure if she'd get any use out of it.

brat

Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast, that is.

Perhaps she was trying to get a jumpstart on Cinquo de Mayo festivities...but I got a call on Monday that A had a mild case of Monetezuma's Revenge. And being totally overzealous in Swine Flu prevention a little cautious, they asked that she sit Tuesday out from school. Despite not having any other symptoms than runny poop. And acting normally. And saying repeatedly, "I *not* sick!"

So, we spent the day coloring and playing Cariboo (no tears! bonus!) and even watching TV...all the while I worked and joined conference calls. I must admit there was a *lot* of TV watching. I don't know how WAHMs who don't have child care do it without sitting their kids in front of the TV!

And while we are on the subject of A, her new "thing" is to walk around with her hands on her hips, like so:

 

It is so freaking cute...if not a little scary to see what kind of spitfire she will be when she hits the teenaged years!

jam-packed weekend

This was a weekend jam-packed with activity! A sort of weekend where you feel 100 times more tired by the end of the weekend than you were at the beginning.

Friday night, John and I headed up to Baltimore. We attended a fundraiser benefiting the Maryland Food Bank with his co-workers. It was a Blue Jean Ball which meant black-tie on top...denim on the bottom. If you had spoken to me at any point last week, I would have bitched and moaned complained a little about this...I didn't have anything to wear, I didn't want to haul my cookies to Baltimore for a work thing, etc...but in the end, I had a pretty good time.

 

On Saturday, we spent the morning car shopping. John's car had been teetering on the edge of unreliability for a while...but on Thursday night it stopped starting...and had some smoke coming out of the engine. So we decided to stop prolonging the inevitable and go shopping. We ended up finding car we both liked...so John negotiated with the dealer while I tried to keep the kids amused at a car dealership. Good times.

We then headed home, took quick showers and changed...and then headed into Arlington for a Derby Party held by my friend, Liz, and her family. There were tons of kids there so the girls had a blast. I had lots of wine fun, too! The only bummer was not being able to parlay a trip to The Lost Dog, which I always do when I head over to Liz's. I could have used a Bureaucrat about 8:30 PM.

 

 

Sunday was spent doing our usual chores around the house -- grocery shopping and laundry and the like. We picked up the car and took the girls for a spin. They love it because it has a DVD player with cordless headphones. We love it that the DVD player has cordless headphones. We also Skyped with Kiki, Uncle Steve and Baby AJ, which was great. Finally, we had a delicious dinner courtesy of the Sweet Pea Chef, before sending the whole fam to bed a bit early due to exhaustion.

Hopefully this week will be fairly low-key. This weekend, of course, is Mother's Day. I have a strong suspicion that I might get breakfast in bed to celebrate. How did I figure this one out? Well, E and A told me, "We are going to bring you heart-shaped pancakes in bed for your special day!"

If this day job doesn't work out...I might be the next Sherlock Holmes.

breaking out the video camera

After watching this video, I have the overwhelming desire to get more footage of the girls. That way when they are world famous rock stars and pen a song about what an amazing mom I am they have lots of footage to work with. Just like Taylor Swift.


Warning: If you don't feel like crying, I would *not* watch the video. 'Cause I'm a blubbering idiot right now.

she's lucky i love me a bargain

On Monday, when I picked E up from school, her Mary Jane Crocs were strapless. During "nap" time, she and Paige-y pulled the straps off their Crocs for some yet-to-be-determined reason. I can't speak for what happened with Paige-y's shoes, but E's? E broke hers because she actually ripped the black button that holds the straps onto the shoe off.

This really ticked me off. If she had broken them accidentally, I would have been fine. But the fact that she was *trying* to get the straps off really ruffled my feathers. They were perfectly good shoes! And she broke them! I was pretty much set on letting her suffer the summer without a replacement pair.

That was until I was perusing Celebrity Baby Blog (admit it, you go there, too!) and saw a picture of Matilda Ledger wearing Crocs. The price was lower than I remembered paying...so I clicked on the link. Well, it turns out that the Crocs web site is currently having a special where if you buy two or more pairs of certain styles that are already on sale (including kids' Mary Janes and flip-flops), you get them for 50% off the lowest price. And I found a free shipping code: springcustomer09 So I go each girl a new pair for a total of $20...goooooooo ME!

So she won't have to suffer this summer without cute Crocs to wear with sundresses. But, since I ordered A a pair, too...she will have to suffer knowing that A has more options.

And, Nonna, I'd like to apologize profusely for any and all clothing destruction that I participated in as a child, including but not limited to: writing on shoes, bleaching that Esprit tote bag and making cut-off shorts out of perfectly good pants. I didn't realize how infuriating it is!

the event of the season

Saturday was a big day in the Slacker household. Eleven years ago, John and I were young and single, having a grand ole time at the Foxfield Races where we were re-introduced to each other (since we had tons of mutual friends we had met a few times in passing before). The weather was beautiful, the adult beverages were free-flowing and a love connection was made. But...no...that wasn't the big news this Saturday. In what is surely a "the times they are a changin'" moment in our lives, the Slackers were pumped -- PUMPED -- for Baby Archer's first birthday party.

My girls love them some Baby Archer. So when the invitation to his party arrived in the mail, they did a dance of joy. We were asked at least daily if it was the day of Baby Archer's party. When the girls woke up on Saturday morning, they asked when we were leaving for Baby Archer's party. They continued to ask us about our departure time for the next.seven.hours.straight. When we hit some traffic on our way to the party, the girls passed the time by chanting "Baby! Archer! Baby! Archer!"

And the party did not disappoint. Since it was a beautiful weekend here, the girls spent 90% of the time outside. There was a wading pool set up and the girls had tons of fun in that. They started off splashing while holding their dresses up...but by the end of the afternoon, when most of the guests had left, they stripped down to their own birthday suits and had a blast.

 

Other than Archer's party, we spent a ton of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather. We did a lot of yard work (mulching and mowing and such), a little spring cleaning (garage and pollen-drenched cars) and we bought the girls their own wading pool for Sunday afternoon. My parents came over last night for dinner, and by the time the girls went to bed, they were too pooped to party any more.

the agony of defeat

Here's a picture of the girls after I kicked their asses beat them in a game of Cariboo. Perhaps me jumping up and yelling, "In your face you two losers!" was overkill?

 

Seriously though...it looks like we're going to have some "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" lessons around Chez Slacker this weekend.

deep in the heart of suburbia

Day 3 of Spirit Week at school was Rodeo Day, where students were encouraged to wear their cowboy hats, blue jeans, and cowboy boots! This was a new theme to the usual spirit week line-up...and I was a bit concerned about what the heck the girls would wear. Unlike some of our friends...wearing cowboy attire is not a common occurrence at school.

So last night, I scavenged around the dress-up bin and found two cowboy hats that were the Welcome basket for out-of-town guests from a friend's wedding in Dallas. Then, I grabbed them each a pair of jeans. For shirts I pulled out "Don't Mess with Texas" t-shirt that Uncle Dave sent when he moved to Texas for B-school. The finishing touch was allowing them to each take a horse stuffed animal to school with them.

Not going to lie, they looked pretty darn cute...and I was pretty darn proud of how Rodeo-y they looked. But when we got to school, no one was wearing much resembling cowboy stuff. I saw a few plaid shirts and a straw hat that was in no way, shape or form a cowboy hat...and that was it. I guess it's safe to say that we weren't the only gringos with not much to contribute this morning.

Tomorrow's theme is "Art Day" which basically translates into "Wear something the Kids can Ruin with Paint." I'm not sure how this is different than every other day my kids go to school...but there you have it. For a fleeting moment I thought about trying to find berets for the kids and painting on silly curly-cue mustaches with eyeliner...but luckily I remembered that I'm Slacker Mama...not Make-a-Whole-bunch-of-effort-when-they'll-be-happy-to-not-wear-a-uniform Mama. It was a close call, though.

petioning the school for older-sibling free classmates

First, E's classmates taught her about the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cirus. But now its gotten much much worse.

That's Beyonce's "Single Ladies" for those
who couldn't name that tune.

In other school news, it's Spirt Week at school this week. Yesterday was Pajama Day and today is Beach Day...or is it Luau Day...whatever, it is something which prompted the girls to wear their bathing suits and flip-flops to school today. And goggles. And carry beach towels. I stopped them at putting on their arm floaties. A also tried to put on a swim diaper, but I told her (1) she wasnt' actually going to swim in her bathing suit today and (2) she actually didn't *need* a swim diaper anyway seeing as she's potty trained and all.

But the most horrifying thought for today was when I was kissing the girls goodbye, A asked me,

"Mama, why you not have your babing suit on?"

The thought of an Office Beach Day might have made me throw up a little in my mouth.

spring fever

On Saturday morning, we got up and convinced E to skip her dance class so we could head to Charlottesville for the Spring Football game. She was a bit hesitant, but even the strongest willed of 4 year olds can't resist the siren's call of The Orange Birginya and a reason to wear a cheerleader's outfit. After doping the kids up with dramamine, off we went.

We had Bodo's on The Corner for breakfast and then headed to Mincer's where A finally got her own cheeleader outfit. Then we walked down the Lawn toward the stadium...all the while telling the girls that this is where they will go to school in a few years when they were bigger (it's always good to start 'em young).

The Spring Game had all sorts of children's activities set up, so the girls had a blast on the moonbounce, getting their faces painted, and getting balloon sabres made. Then we headed into the stadium to watch the team play for a bit. Once the food (cotton candy for E, ice cream for A, popcorn for both) ran out (or got knocked over, in the case of the popcorn), the girls were ready to head out. We stopped by Feast! for a quick late lunch, and then headed back home. We played outside for a while longer, and then hit the hay with no protest whatsoever.

 

Qutie simply, it was a fantastic way to spend a glorious spring day.

all in the family

As I mentioned before, for our Easter celebration, we had a ton of family at Chez Slacker. In fact, John's entire side of the family -- parents, aunt, uncle, brothers, sister-in-law and me & the girls -- were here. Luckily, we got a picture to capture the event, since getting us all in one place is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence.

In looking through Grandmom's other picture from this weekend...I thought this was kind of funny. It's a behind-the-scenes look of how I get my pictures.

Here's the shot:

And, here I am taking it.

Perhaps if I actually got up off the chair to take pictures they'd be a little less blurry? Nah. I think I just need a fancy SLR instead.

a stroke of genius = a new tradition

After someone knocked over a basket full of empty plastic eggs for the millionth time since Sunday, I made an announcement to the girls tonight.

"We have to put all the eggs in the baskets and leave them by the fireplace."
"But, why, mama?" E asked.
"Because the Easter bunny is coming tonight to get them. He needs to bring them back to his...uh...bunny house so he can fill them up next year. So we'll leave them by the fireplace and he'll get them tonight."
"Does he come down the chimney to get them?" E asked.
"No. That's Santa." I replied. "The Easter Bunny...uh...uses the back door."

There was some mild protest that was quickly alleviated by letting them pick two eggs each to play with until next year. E chose wisely -- a pink egg with a purse on it and a Tinkerbell egg. A picked a dark green one and a blue one. Then the bid farewell to the basket and went to bed.

And I bid farewell to the fear that one of us would break our neck on a plastic egg.

a lesson in genetics

It seems that when children are brought into a family, the parents and relatives and friends (and strangers, even) spend a good portion of the time figuring out the "source" of a child's appearance and behaviors.

If I had a nickle for every time I heard "She looks *just* like you..." when I'm out and about with E.

A's blue eyes are another source of question. "Who in your family has blue eyes?" we often get asked. (Her Nonna, Granddad and Uncle Matt, in case you were curious.)

And since neither kid has seemed to inherit any sort of shyness gene, we often hear "Well, it's not like their parents are quiet wallflowers."

And so on and so forth. Each trait and behavior logically linked to one or both of us.

But this?

Yeah...that's totally from her dad.

a tisket, a tasket

Easter 2009 was a success in the Slacker household. On Friday, John's parents, brothers, sister-in-law and dog-in-law descended upon the Slacker house for dinner. I can't remember the last time that everyone had been together in the same room. Good times were had by all, especially the girls. Since Dave, Grandmom and Granddad were all sleeping at our place, the girls got to have slumber parties in A's room for the weekend. They are true partners in crime and were whooping it up until 10PM, when I was finally able to get them to settle down and go to sleep.

Saturday was spent running errands and hanging out around the house. We bought eggs to dye...but somehow the day slipped away and we never got to it. Now we are the proud owners of 3 dozen eggs...so I'm assuming we'll at least be hard boiling some soon regardless. After a delicious dinner off the grill and some more slumber party wrangling...the day came to a close.

The girls got up pretty early on Sunday, raring to go to see their baskets. The egg hunt went AWESOME. We had 42 eggs with 6 money eggs...E found 22, A found 20 but they each found 3 money eggs. How perfect is that?

 

We headed out to church where the girls were reasonably well-behaved. After we got back, John's Aunt and Uncle arrived and my parents arrived...each bearing more gifts and candy.

 

And I'm not sure how I didn't notice this...but I ended up hosting 11 people for Easter Brunch. The enormity of that task didn't hit me until I realized that we should probably set the table...and there were 11 of us eating. Yikes! But we had a pretty tasty lunch with a honey-baked ham, glazed carrots, baked pasta (thanks, Mom!), biscuits, and fruit salad...and then brownies and bread pudding for dessert.

 

After playing outside for a while, the guests began to trickle out. Dinner was leftover lunch, and we managed to polish off a couple of dishes. Bedtime was a total breeze for the girls.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Busy and full of family...what more could you ask for? Hope yours was good as well!