More cute cookie cutters

Look what I found! More cutie cute cookie cutters. I saw them last year before Christmas, but just decided that I had to have them. If you've never heard of Fred, it's probably best. They have a knack for making products you really don't need like the Pick Your Nose cup - animal or human, Lego Utensils and Salt & Pepper blocks. But you must have them. You must or you won't be able to go on living.


When I purchased these cuties I wasn't sure if I'd keep them or give them to my friend with a cookie biz that shares my love of cookie cutters. (Side note: don't try her fab cookies unless you plan on ordering some on a regular basis.) This has always been a problem for me.

When I was about 7 - you know, the age when advice sticks for a lifetime - I couldn't come up with a gift for my friend. My mom (or grandma, that part is fuzzy) told me that the best gift is one that you'd like to keep. So, I tend to get gifts that I really don't want to give you. And chances are I've probably used your gift before giving it to you. No, I'm not joking. But it's gotten better over the past few years with Wade's belittling and the ability to order online and have the item shipped directly to the recipient.

The game called Poop

Last weekend the girls were getting restless. It was way too hot to play outside. We had played our homemade match game a few times and a few of our other trusty boredom busters. But that wasn't enough. No, they demanded more.

In a moment of pure genius, Wade decided that we should teach them bullsh*t. Fine by me, but we had to give it a more kid friendly name. Wade thought bull would suffice. But then I reminded him that they are kids. Kids think that think the word poop is the funniest thing since Spongebob.

We played a few rounds of poop and discovered that our girls are fabulous poop players. (Imagine that.) They seemed to have an unending tolerance for that game, but Wade and I finally got pooped out and had to call it a day.

Dry erase markers smell much worse than Sharpies, but thankfully aren't as permanent

It was peaceful. A little too peaceful if ya know what I mean. The girls were playing happily in their room with the door shut. Pretty much insures no interruptions or destruction by the little brother. Luke was occupied and I was enjoying the quiet. I was enjoying the quiet.

Who do I think I am to enjoy quiet? I have three crazy kids. Quiet and good do not belong in the same sentence around here. Unless it's bedtime.

Then, as I perused the net, I caught a whiff of a bitingly unnatural smell. It seemed to be coming out of the air vent, so naturally I got down on all fours to see (since smells aren't invisible) what was going on. It took me a minute and then it clicked. Luke found the dry erase markers that one of Ava's teachers pawned off on us at the end of last year.

So I did the walk run to the office to assess the damage. Legs? Check. Three foot area of carpet? Check. Desk? Check. Rocking chair? Check. I asked him what he was up to. "Coloring." Mmmm hmmm, I see that. Are you supposed to color there? "It's kyoot."

Kinda hard to punish that. We hate the carpet and plan on ripping it out sometime soonish, so no real harm done there. And since it was dry erase it pretty much wiped off the rest of everything. Except Luke.

But how many times has your defense/reason/excuse for something been, "Well, it/he/she was so darn cute." It totally works. Why'd ya spend $500.00 on a bag? Well, it's cute. Why'd ya spend $950.00 on that ho? Well, she was insanely cute. Why do you keep that destructive munchkin around? Well, he's ridiculously cute.

What's on your wish list?

I'm having a hard time getting over the fact that Ava's class (in a brand new state of the art school) had garbage bags on the wish list. Garbage bags on a wish list? It's hard for me to verbalize (because I'm talking in my head, that's how it's verbal) how incredibly pathetic I think that is. Shouldn't a wish list be somewhat more . . . unattainable?

So, in light of that crap, here's my list.

1. My pre-kid boobs and waist
2. A free, fabulously furnished house complete with housekeeping staff, a chef and a driver. To be located on the cliffs of Malibu or Greece.
3. To feel rested again
4. A night or two with any combination of the following: Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Paul Newman a la Cool Hand Luke, Taye Diggs
5. A Ferrari F430 Spider

And that, my friends, is how you dream big. (Right Roger Day?)

First day of school

How awful is it that I continue to dread the first day of school? The mere thought of getting even less sleep is enough to make me nap while I'm awake. Ava is definitely capable of rolling out of bed to the i-n-s-a-n-e meowing of her kitty alarm clock (in case the screeching of her clock doesn't wake her, surely the heinous sounds of our real cats climbing the walls will) and getting herself going. But, no, my feet have to hit the floor first. Gotta get to the kitchen for some yummy Tully's and try to rub some of the sleep out of my eyes.

We're only on day one. It's gotta get easier. Right?

To say that Ava loves school would pretty much be the biggest understatement in the entire history of time. She LOVESLOVESLOVES school. And this year she's going to a brand spanking new school with state of the art stuff. Though, it seems as though their copy machine lacks the ability to print front and back. I was annoyed to see garbage bags on the wish list for her class. But when I got the 40 page Parent Handbook printed only on one side of paper, I was really annoyed. I'm pretty sure they could've saved enough money to buy garbage bags by making that baby 20 pages of front and back.

First day of 1st grade.	First day of 2nd grade.

What a clever idea

A few weeks ago I got a new job. We decided to celebrate (otherwise known as spending money I hadn't made) by giving me the night off dinner duty. My dinner of choice came from P.F. Chang's. Everything I've sampled has been superb, but my fave is the fat bowl of Dan Dan Noodles. So. Yummy.

With three youngsters we don't eat in restaurants very often. Take out has become our BFF. Take out laughs in the face of tantrums and says, your parents can put you in time out in your room and not be humiliated in public because we're EATING AT HOME. When we're feeling secure in our parenting and venture into the public feeding frenzy with our brood, it's rarely at a restaurant where chopsticks are the norm and you have to ask for a fork. But when it is, I'm usually the loser asking for a fork. And you know people notice when you ask for a fork at a place like that.

I placed the order and Wade picked it up on his way home from his top secret job. Surprise of all surprises popped out of the bag! Some cute cheater chopsticks for the chopstick impaired! Granted, you can purchase chopstick trainers like these, these or these, but this takes a rubber band and some folded paper! Apparently I'm not as slick as I thought and someone did notice me pretending my fork was two pieces of wood.

The artiste is in the house

Ava has always been insanely (as in very, very not withdrawn and reclusive) creative and artistic. As a parent, there's some balance between fostering that creativity and going mad trying to provide enough crafts and the proper supplies for such a child. The summer months have been especially challenging. We get tons of ideas from Kids Craft Weekly, Kiddio and Make & Takes. Even with all these awesome ideas at our fingertips, it seems like we're going through a few projects daily.

Self portrait. "In my back yard"

She recently spent a weekend with her grandparents. They have a fabulous farm providing tons of fun we don't have being city folk. Fox, my mother-in-law and Ava's grandma, is an exceptional artist and owner of Lacetree Weaving. Fox was tying knots on the piece below when Luke, Belle and I arrived on Sunday. I had no idea they were going to weave! Ava did everything except the knots (of the black fringe). She was super excited and exhaustedly told me that it took her the entire day to make.


Maybe I need to reconsider the space I have marked for my future elliptical trainer. A loom might be a better purchase.

Belle's a winner!

I'm not saying that to boost her self esteem or to make fun of her, she really did win! At the beginning of the summer the girls signed up for the library's summer reading program. Belle had to listen to/read/but mostly listen to 25 books in order to be eligible for a prize. She entered to win two prizes - a Build-A-Bear gift certificate and what I thought was a Blue's Clues game.

The phone call came on a lazy Saturday while Ava was with grandma. Belle won! She really, really won! What she won, I wasn't sure. We jumped in the van and drove as fast as possible (around 45 mph with traffic and lights) to claim her prize. The excitement was unbearable as we pulled into the parking lot. Belle ran ahead, obeyed traffic rules, and pushed the handicapped button to automatically open the unnecessarily heavy door. In the process, she was almost crushed between the quickly opening mass of a door and the rail. She escaped without injury and hopped inside to claim her prize.

The lovely librarian presented Belle with her Blue's Clues Song Game book. Clearly, I missed the song and book part of the prize description. Had I noticed, I would've encouraged her to try for the Ipod Shuffle. Upon laying eyes on the prize, the librarian noticed my look of disgust and told me that I was free to stick my tongue out at her as soon as she turned her back. I was thinking more along the lines of chucking the book at her. But seriously, the person that invented these song books had to be a childless uncle or aunt that utterly loathed the parents of his/her nieces and nephews. There is simply no other explanation for such a horrid, horrid idea.

Anyway, Belle is very excited and enjoys playing with her book in her room. With the door shut.

Hey Ava, your tongue didn't make it into the picture!!

The color of love

Who knew it was dirt colored?

Spot #1 (aka dirty Spot) was Ava's first webkinz. She loved him. Then she lost him. Luke stole dirty Spot and claimed him as his own. Except for the occasional spat, Ava pretty much acknowledges this as the cold, hard truth. We knew that having a back up for dirty Spot was of utmost importance. But it never really made it onto our to do list.

Guess what Luke found yesterday as Belle was picking out her reward for sleeping in her bed all night for seven nights? Yep, a back up Spot! I knew that dirty Spot had been loved hard, but I had no idea just how hard.


On a side note, I love how kids name things in such an obvious manner. It's a really good thing that most of us grow out of that. Otherwise, we'd all be Pruney Looking Thing, What Was I Thinking, Damn, That Hurt or Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii.