Monday, May 24, 2010

Baseball parade

Sunday was just as busy as Saturday. A & I had the mother/daughter tea at 9am. J's piano recital was at 2pm and the baseball parade was at 5pm. The parade was fun for all. I've got it down. I followed the parade 3/4 of the way around the track taking pictures and then A & I hoofed it to the food line, grabbed 6 burgers, a couple of plates of chips & as many waters as we could hold. The food lines are obnoxious if you wait until the parade is actually over. After the parade & playing in the baseball contest, the boys went to the splash zone and played in the water.

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I can't believe it has been 2 years since we last participated in the tball parade. Look how they've grown!

Recitals

We had another busy weekend in our household. Lots of things to do.

B had his first t-ball game. I was a bad mom and forgot the camera. There are plenty of games to go so I'll take pictures next time. He played pitcher and got 4 outs at home. The funniest play was when DH told him to be ready for the player at 3rd and go straight to home plate to get him out. Well, that's what B did, ran straight home without even trying to get the ball! Even the umpire was laughing.

I left after the 1st inning because we had A's dance recital. She did wonderfully but my pictures turned out awful. They asked us to not use flash and my big camera's battery was dead so I used the little point and shoot. Very blurry results.

Tap
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Ballet
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Sunday was John's piano recital. He played 4 pieces and did great too.

Duet with Ms Chopin
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Done!
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Sunday, May 16, 2010

He tried

B knows he can manipulate. He's the master of batting the eye and asking sweetly. This works well with MIL. If it doesn't work, he turns to screaming. This works well with DH, anything to stop the yelling works with him. I try not fall for either method, but I'm lucky because he does calm down quickly a majority of the time.

Tonight he tried the first method. I'm in the laundry room getting the uniforms in the wash so I don't have to stay up until midnight to put them in dryer. He walks in and says oh so sweetly.

"Mommy, my heart is telling me to eat cake"

"What did you say?", I asked.

"My heart is telling me to eat cake. My heart tells me what it needs and right now it needs cake."

I held back a laugh and convinced him that 9:00 pm was not the right time for his heart to have cake. His heart could have cake for lunch or for snack tomorrow.

Luckily his heart was able to hold out and I didn't have to suffer through a screaming episode! I give him the cute try at least.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Happy Birthday A again

Tonight we had A's birthday party. Six girls + A made for a loud house. DH & the boys exited for the evening, preferring to spent some quality time at Herrera's with friends and some beer (and milk.)

We played games which went over very well.

M&M scavenger hunt. We split up into 3 teams, there were 10 clues. Each girl got 5 m&ms at each spot. The first team got 3 extra, the second 2 extra & third 1 extra. What they didn't know was that the m&m were given point values based on their color. They sorted the m&ms and figured up their scores. A girl on the team that finished last actually won so it was a good twist.

Marshmallow toss. The girls stood in a line with plastic cups while I tossed mini marshmallows at them. The top four moved to the next round with the 3 losers tossing. The top 2 moved to the final round. The girls enjoyed throwing and catching and there weren't any marshmallows ground into my carpet. I probably need to go over the room thoroughly tomorrow before the dog starts finding the ones we missed.

Hula Hoop Contest. Self explanatory

Hide the puppet. One girl hid a small turtle finger puppet in the play room and then started a timer. The other girls had 7 minutes to find it. The hider gave clues when there were 3 minutes left. I was surprised they liked this game. It was just something I made up because the finger puppet was sitting on the counter this afternoon.

We had cake (chocolate chip cake again!) and they are watching Nancy Drew & eating popcorn.

I was too busy to take any pictures. Maybe next year I'll remember to document.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Celebrating in Calgary

Today is Mother's Day and A's birthday.

I can hardly believe that 10 years ago she made me a mother. That went by fast!

A's favorite part of her birthday is that she shares it with her cousin E. E was actually born the day before A, but S#2 was living in Thailand at the time and they were 12 hours ahead of Dallas time. E was born around 3:00 in the morning on May 9th in Thailand, which was 3:00 in the afternoon on May 8th in Dallas. A was born 24 hours later around 3:00 in the afternoon May 9th in Dallas. They were actually due a few weeks apart, A was a week late, E was early and they now share their birthday. They love being twin cousins.

A week or so ago, S#2 sent an email because there was a super saver fare on AA from DFW to Calgary. She said I should come up. I replied that I couldn't come because it was A's birthday and I couldn't skip that. S#2 had actually forgotten that it was the girls' birthday and said I should bring A up to surprise E. And that's what we did.

Yesterday we flew to Calgary. S#2 told E that her dad was sending a package on the plane from Dallas. She had a huge look of shock when we walked out the door, jumped over a wall and gave A a huge bear hug.

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Today we spent Mother's Day/the birthday by eating breakfast in bed (cereal, toast & strawberries made by A & E & M), a trip to the farmer's market, attending E's soccer game (she scored a goal!), eating chicken and dumplings (S#2 rocks when it comes to making dumplings. DH should be jealous, way better than mine!) and then had chocolate chip cake for the birthday girls.

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We're staying until Tuesday afternoon. I'm sure the rest of the visit will be just as fun.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

twittering

I finally signed up for twitter this week.

I didn't do it to update people with what I'm doing in 140 characters. No, I signed up for cupcakes.

I read in our paper that Sprinkles twitters code words that get you a free cupcake.

Today, B and I whispered "Extra Credit" and got a free vanilla cupcake. We bought a dark chocolate one too. We split them into quarters and shared with A & J when they got out of school.

Yum. Now, I know that twitter is good for something!!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

pop-pop's birthday

Last night we had Pop-Pop (my dad) and S#5 & BIL-to-be over for dinner to celebrate his birthday. It was much nicer weather than we had for his birthday last year.

Dad requested ribs for dinner. It sort of threw me into a panic. I'm not a "eat meat on the bone" person. I don't really like ribs or even fried chicken. It's my thing. I don't like gnawing on bones.

However, when your father requests a birthday dinner, you make do. I googled and read recipes. DH went to Sam's Club and got a couple packages of baby back ribs. I made a dry rub and marinated them for a few hours. Next I covered the ribs in sauce & wrapped them in foil before baking for 3 hours at 250. DH finished them off on the grill.

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They turned out great (if I can say so myself!) They were tender and the meat fell off the bones as you ate. I wasn't squeamish at all. The potatoes and salad (made by S#5 with homemade dressing) finished off the meal. For dessert, I made the boston creme pie cupcakes again and they were just as good as last year.

Kids had a fun evening. They talked Pop-Pop and BIL-to-be playing tailgate toss. A challenged BIL-to-be to a hula hoop contest. He was a good sport and played along.

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Lucky for him I caught a picture where it looks like he knew what he was doing! Only another year or so before they are married and he can start saying no to the kids when they bug him too much.