adding slacker aunt to my resume

So, I was going to write a post (complete with pictures!) about Baby AJ's visit to the East Coast. Except when I looked at all of the pictures I downloaded from the past week or so...there aren't really any of Baby AJ.

So in addition to sucking at documenting my own kids' lives, I'm a sucky documenter of my niece's visits as well. Quelle surprise, as the French might say.

In my defense, that little baby slept a lot. A lot. I think the time change did a number on her, 'cause girlfriend was sleeping in until 10 or 11 AM when she stayed at our house. And then, it was a battle for who got to hold her. Between my parents, John and the girls, I rarely got even a chance. I did get some good one-on-one time on Monday...but no one was there to document it. Finally, I think many of the pictures ended up on other peoples cameras.

But, let me tell you that we all loved Baby AJ. And miss her. Although she is still here in spirit because I'm still fielding a lot of questions about her from the girls. Mainly about how she...uh...gets her milk...but that's not important right now.

But, lest this post end up picture-less...here's the money shot from the portrait place on Friday. We sure do breed some cuties in my family, don't we?

sip-n-see

In honor of Baby AJ's inaugural trip to the East Coast, my parents hosted a Sip-n-See. "What's a sip-n-see?" you ask. Well, it's a little par-tay where people come over to meet the baby. So, rather than having visitors come visit throughout the trip, everyone converged over a few hours on Saturday.
In addition to family friends who stopped by, two of Kiki's and my oldest friends stopped by with their families. We've been friends with Keri and Liz since the third grade! We did manage to get a few pictures...alas...none of Baby AJ who was sleeping by the time we broke out the camera.

Liz, me, Keri, Kiki

The Husbands (minus Steve)

The Kiddos Playing

Group Shot of the Kiddos (minus Baby AJ and a too-shy Jake)

It was great fun catching up with everyone...I think it's safe to say that the Sip-n-See was a big hit! In fact, I even gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up!

e's graduation (1 of 7)

This weekend was jam packed. I mean, you know you're busy when A looked at me after lunch on Sunday and asked "Is it nap-time, Mama?" That's pretty amazing considering she could be falling asleep standing up, but if you mention the dreaded N word, she'll shriek, "I NOT TIRED!"

On Saturday morning, the Slackers got up bright and early for E's preschool graduation. Since holding a graduation ceremony for every milestone in school seems to be the thing to do, I figure it was the first of seven (preschool, Kindergarten, 5th grade, 8th grade, high school, college, law school). I'm not sure if her college graduation will include rousing musical numbers like her preschool one did...so I think this one might be the most entertaining. (Though, A would beg to differ...she was not at all entertained by the program.) After each class performed a song or two, it was time to give out diplomas.

Here are some pictures from the day.

John and I were even good parents and got E a bouquet of flowers and a "Congrats, Grad!" balloon to commemorate the event. However, E insisted the flowers go in her room and not in a part of the house where the rest of us could enjoy them. So, I'm thinking that she barely passed the Sharing 101 course on her way to earning that diploma. Sheesh.

the slow return to normalcy

This week has marked a slow return back to normal. The bane of my existence project I have been working on for the past month has pretty much finished up...there are a few more odds and ends to clear up, but the stressful part is behind me. I was able to work from home on Monday and today, and I'm even taking the day off tomorrow to spend time with Baby AJ and my family! Woo hoo!

Not that this week hasn't thrown a few curveballs my way. On Tuesday night, we had massive storms that totally killed my commute (despite having HOV access in the hybrid). It also knocked out my power so I was spared dinner duties. We actually ran into Marathon Mom and her clan at Chik-fil-a...which was great as our Monday night dinners have fallen by the wayside of late.

And, the girls have shown no signs of being forever damaged by my work craziness, which is always nice. Though, they do seem pretty happy to have me back around. Last night, dinner was a freezer dive of marinara sauce I had made a while back. E ran up and hugged me and said,

"Mama, you always make the *BEST* dinners! I love you so much!"

And today, we broke out the double stroller and walked to school, she yelled,

"This is so! much! fun!"

I guess it helps that they are pretty easy to please.

virtual thank you note

Since I'm a little behind on the actual thank yous...we thought we'd send some love via the internet!

 

Dear Marguerite,

Thank you so much for the beautiful bows you sent! We especially love the ones with our special letters on it. Mama isn't the best bow-putter-inner...sometimes she makes them stand up really high on our heads...but we don't care! We love to wear them. Hopefully, we'll get to meet you soon!

Love,
A&E

Dear Grandmom,

Thank you so much for the cool summer clothes! We were so excited to get them that we immediate stripped off what we were wearing and put them on. And then we wore them again yesterday since Mama did the laundry! Mama said she was nervous that E wouldn't wear shorts because of her current dress phase...but she was wrong. The top is twirly, like a dress! We can't wait for Camp Grandmom 2009!

Love,
E&A

kissin' cousins

Baby AJ and her family arrived safe and sound on Friday night. The Slackers had custody through the weekend, and Nonna and Pop Pop have them for the remainder of the trip. The girls absolutely *adore* their new cousin, and spent all of AJ's time awake trying to get her to smile, kissing her and asking an endless number of questions about her.

More pictures are forthcoming, I'm sure...but here's when the three best-friends-to-be met each other on Saturday morning.

 

 

 

trick or treat

When we were grocery shopping this weekend, E and I picked up a box of Honey Kix to try. My girls are big fans of eating Honey Nut Cheerios dry in the morning...but since the food nazis daycare has a strict no peanut rule, they can't bring them to school. So, I was psyched to see that these were nut-free and, therefore, school-able.

Well, the girls have become little addicts. In fact, John had to put the box of Kix up on the top shelf in the pantry alongside the Girl Scout cookies since apparently the girls were fighting each other over them the other night. So it was no surprise that they asked for some to snack on during the looooooong commute to school. I mean, 2 minutes without food? Child abuse.

Since their Snack Traps were missing, I had to use ziploc baggies. I handed them each one and when I retrieved the box of Kix, this is what I got. Two adorable girls yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!"

 

You can see I tried for an After shot...but A was too busy devouring her Kix to comply.

 

Should be a good weekend round these parts. Baby AJ is bringing her parents along for a cross-country trip to visit! Yay! And the project that is consuming 99.9% of my time is (fingers crossed) going to reach a major, so-close-to-done-you-can-taste-it milestone today! YAY!

first batch of the season

Today it is cold and rainy and in the 60s. The girls were a little annoyed at the "no sundresses" rule today, but were eventually diverted into more weather appropriate attire. I can't believe we haven't turned the corner yet on consistent warm weather.

On Saturday, however, the weather was perfect. So, to celebrate, John fired up another batch of finger-licking-good ribs and I broke out the ice cream maker for our first batch of homemade ice cream. I was going to take the plunge and try out a custard-style ice cream (the thought of tempering eggs scares the bejesus out of me), but the girls wanted cookies-n-cream...so I was able to escape culinary trial and error one more time for the easy basic vanilla recipe.

The girls had fun pounding the Oreos into crumbs. They also were excellent Quality Control personnel, and were able to ensure that the Oreos were not poison prior to being mixed in. They got a kick of watching the ice cream machine in action and getting to taste a little of it while it was going.

But the best part? A big ole cone of ice cream -- complete with sprinkles! -- on the deck after dinner.

 

 

 

what a hand-me-downer

This weekend as the girls played on the water slide under the watchful eye of John, I switched their winter clothes out for their summer clothes. Thank god it's been unseasonably cold here this spring, because my procrastination/lack of time to do this has meant that the girls were getting by wearing the sundresses hanging in their closets from last year (and some new additions acquired this spring) and the stuff I pulled for our Disney trip.

A's in the 3T batch of summer clothes, which means she has hit the hand-me-down jackpot. The 3T batch of summer clothing was amassed when E was 2-going-on-3 and A was a crawling pre-toddler. The theme of the summer was "matching outfits" and the girls had tons of cute clothes (especially dresses) that I purchased for the sole reason of them matching.

When E came in and saw all the summer clothes rearranged in her room, she was thrilled. Then she went into A's room. The first thing that came out mouth was,

"A has many more clothes than me! And she has my favorite dress ever!"

I knew she was going to comment on the wardrobe size disparity...but I was hoping she'd overlook The Dress. It really is her favorite dress ever. She got it her 3T summer and was thrilled to be able to wear it again last summer. And now it is A's.

But, being the sweetheart that she is, she ran over to A and yelled, "A, look! You get to wear my favorite dress!" I'm sure me promising a trip to the store to get some new clothes helped ease the pain a bit, too.

So this morning, A wore The Dress. And, just like her big sister, she loves it and looks cute in it as well.

 

E wore one of her new dresses, which she loves even though it isn't pink (purple is a close second in her eyes).

 

I hated to ruin the mood by reminding E that she had to wear a uniform shirt. You can see how well that went over.

 

Oh well, only a few more months before she gets to wear whatever she wants at Big Kid School. And the battle will just begin with Sweet Baby A.

open mike night

When I picked A up from school, Miss Candace was telling me how A *loves* to sing the songs in the morning. So much so that she stands in the middle of circle-time and sings solo, and really concentrates so she can hit the high notes. So, tonight after the girls took a bath and got into their brand new Princess nightgowns, we had a little open mike session so A could perform "The Flag Song."

In front of an audience of 3, A held her magic wand as a mike. Then she belted out a song about the flag having colors of red, white and blue. It was so freaking cute I wanted to tackle her and smother her with kisses.

Then it was E's turn. She sang an original song about being a Princess and her friend Paige-y, and upped the ante by throwing some dance moves in, as well.

But we weren't done yet! The girls took turns performing for us...some real songs, some they made up, some with dance moves...John and I cheered and (at some points) laughed until we cried. Before we knew it, it was way past bedtime.

Hopfeully, we'll remember to bring our video camera to the next open mike night.

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.