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!

i want candy

E and A discovered recently the cabinet where we have stashed the leftover Halloween candy (yep...it's still hanging around). They also recently discovered that the "childproof lock" is not, in fact, childproof. So, they've been helping themselves to the candy of their choice for dessert.

It turns out that E and A differ in opinion when it comes to candy. A is my kind of girl. She chooses my Nestle Crunch fun-sized bars or M&Ms...basically all chocolate, all the time. E, on the other hand, loves her some of her father's Starburst. Last night she declared that Starburst were here favorite food ever, besides pasta (of course!).

This information will be good to know when the Easter bunny goes to Target to pick up candy. Not that she hasn't already gone since Easter is in two days. What kind of mother wouldn't have completed Easter shopping by now?!?!?

Oh yeah...me. And I have to pick up tights and cardigans while I'm there as well.

In addition to a last minute jaunt to Target, we've got a fun weekend planned. John's parents and brother are coming into town this weekend. Tonight we're doing a birthday celebration for Granddad (Happy Birthday, Granddad!). On Sunday, we are having Easter brunch at my house, and my parents and John's aunt and uncle are also joining us.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures of all time. Last Easter, John had the audacity to try to take away the basket that my parents brought Sweet Baby A. This was the result:

Happy Easter!

she bangs

Not going to lie to you, internet peeps, but I'm a little disappointed in you. When I posted pictures from the face-painting on Monday, I figured at least one of you would notice that all three of us Slacker ladies had gotten hair cuts. Yeah yeah, E's is a little hard to tell because it's all preppied up in the pink headband. But A's is significantly shorter and a bit curlier. And mine? How could you have missed mine?

 

When I got my hair cut on Friday, I officially said, "Good bye, Katie Homes...hello, Eva Longoria!" Using Eva's latest cut as my inspiration, I got bangs cut for the first time in 20 years. I also think my hair is much darker than usually...but when I asked John about it, he said that it always looks this way. I think that it just looks darker since I hadn't gotten it colored since December so all of my gray hairs growing in made it look it lighter it had faded.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new 'do. It's a little harder to wrangle when I work out, and I'm trying to get used to not tucking everything behind my ear. But so far...so good!

Here's a different shot of my hair from Saturday. E took this one of me and A.

 

A's hair is a lot less messy looking. She can go without a barrette and not look like a street urchin! Bonus!

 

The stylist at SuperCuts did a great job with E's hair. She layered it so that we can continue to grow out her hair from the self-inflicted Bang Cut of 2008. Though it's funny becauase she basically got the exact same cut as I did. Except hers isn't black. And it cost 90% less than mine did.

 

painted ladies

Our anniversary dinner was a lot of fun last night. When we got there, the face painting lady had not arrived, but she finally did show up much to the girls' delight. This time they opted for full face paintings, which turned out fantastic! And, after being asked why I wasn't getting my face painted about 50 times, I relented and got a heart on my cheek.

Of course, we only got to spot clean their faces last night, and this morning they were not looking so great...but they were very excited to show their friends at school today. E couldn't understand why I had washed mine off already...

 

In other big news, E ordered a quesadilla last night for dinner! My kids aren't picky eaters at home...however when we are out to dinner, they basically order either chicken nuggets or pasta. Drives me nuts. They'll eat tacos/fajitas/enchiladas at home...but order chicken nuggets at the restuarant. So, I considered two toritillas with some melted cheese in it a small victory. You have to pick your battles.

details, details

This morning I was greeted with a "Happy Anniversary!" from my husband. A few minutes later as I was brushing my teeth...he sent me an anniversary card that was delivered by the cutest postal worker around (aka, Sweet Baby A).

It's official, John and I have been married for *seven* years.

But for all that remembering that he did, as John was heading out the door he turned to me and asked in all seriousness,

"What day is it today? The 7th? The 5th?"

We've got a big celebration planned for tonight. I think we're headed up to our local mexican place for dinner with the girls. Monday night is free face-painting night, so I keep threatening to have them paint hearts on our faces in honor of the big day. And I think for story time tonight, I'll break out the wedding album so the girls can see their parents when they were young and a lot less tired.

Happy anniversary, John! The past seven years have been fantastic and I can't wait to spend many, many more with you!

another weekend, another front yard picnic

This time John and E and some dollies enjoyed the spring-time weather.

 

The difference between daddy playing dolls and mommy playing dolls? The dolls right now are currently in timeout for burping and farting. No lie.

we stand corrected

On the way out to dinner tonight, I went to change the radio station.

"No, Mommy! I like that song!" E yelled from the backseat. "It's the Jonas Brothers."
"Dat's not the Jonas Brothers, E," A corrected her. "Dat's Anna Ontana."

I looked down and sure enough, it was a Miley Cyrus song.

Then on the way home, John was joking with E that she was younger than A.

"No, Daddy. I'm 4 and A's 2. I'm older than her," she said. And then she added, with the exasperated intonation usually perfected in the teenaged years, "Be real."

i'm sure they made a note in her file

I took the plunge today and registered E for Kindergarten. The final piece of paperwork (from the Pediatrician) became ready, so I had no reason not to. Also, my neurotic side was convinced that if I waited until the last day, something would surely happen that would prevent me from making it to registration on the later date...and E wouldn't be able to go to K next year.

I had my forms filled out in my neatest penmanship. This morning when I got dressed, I actually put on make-up and an outfit (as opposed to the sweat pants that I normally where on my work-from-home days). I wanted to make sure those elementary school people thought that I was a responsible mom and have them beg me to join the PTA (or PTO or whatever the acronym is these days) on the spot. I applied some lip gloss, made sure my hair wasn't sticking out funny, and strode confidently into the school, where I was greeted by a teacher who asked for my ID.

It was then I realized I had left my wallet at home on the kitchen counter.

I had actually taken it out to make sure that I had my license and voter registration card (2 documents to prove residency) and then neglected to put it back in my purse. Luckily, because I am so neurotic prepared, I had brought enough other documentation where they actually didn't need to see my license, and E was successfully registered as a Kindergartner (Class of 2022, baby!)

I just don't expect a call from the PTO anytime soon.