Easter

On this, the holiest day of the resurrection of Christ, I was tempted to give the kids some candy canes to really remind them of the pureness of Christ and the blood he shed. And that reminded me that all of this fun I have been having with the holy candy canes was a gift from Amanda. As I was cleaning my office a few weeks ago, I came across the artwork in question. Right there on the back was the artist's name: Cayden. That's right, NOT Ava. I about peed my pants at this discovery, especially given the fact that the day she brought it home Amanda and I were mocking it and she was laughing about how Ava's teachers are always giving her religious projects and that Cayden, and I quote "never comes home with that kind of crap." Bwahahahaha.

It goes without saying that Easter is pretty low key at our house. Baskets, candy, find some eggs and have a nice dinner. The kids have no idea what this holiday is about but they happily accept the candy.

The Loot

Emma

Ava

Vinny

And really, the whole point of this post is to whore the baskets that I made for the kids. Well, made is a loose term meaning hot-glued some ribbon on. What matters is that I am most certainly the bestest mother ever, you other mothers can't deny. Of course I was at Target at 9:00 the night before and these baskets got their dose of hot glue at 3:00 am. It's sacrifices like this (procrastination) that make me better :)) Happy Easter.

Happy Birthday, Emma!

How is it that my favorite little accessory is already nine? Emma is such a beautiful, smart and talented little girl. I can't believe that in another (quick) nine years, I'll be watching her drive off to CA or NY to chase her dreams. She has made mothering worth every moment. I love you, baby. Now slow down!!

The End of an ERa

I am the only person I know who had faithfully watched ER for the last 15 years. Back before DVRs, I had programmed my VCR to record it on video tape. I have seen every episode and I have cried like a baby several times over the show. So, when this past Thursday approached I was fully expecting the 3 hour finale event to ruin me. It totally didn't. The first hour, with scenes from the past, did get me choked up a little. But the actual final episode was anti-climatic. A patient died from DIC in the OR after having twin girls. She orphaned 6 kids and the way it went down just didn't get to me. I was just overall disappointed. However, I can't fully blame ER. It had an impossible standard to meet for me, as Six Feet Under has set the bar so high with THE BEST FINALE EVER. In fact, let's just watch that again because it is so awesome. If you have not watched or finished watching Six Feet Under, put it in your queue RIGHT NOW and DO NOT watch this, you will kick youself in the ass.

Commended!

Emma took her reading TAKS test at the beginning of March. For those of you not in Texas, in 3rd grade the reading test is "high stakes", meaning that regardless of all other academic performance, if your child doesn't pass, your child repeats 3rd grade (they do get 3 chances, though). Emma, ever the perfectionist, took this very seriously. She was so nervous the night before, she could barely sleep, despite scoring above 90 on every single practice test they took. The week after Spring Break, we got her results. Not only did she pass, but she exceeded the standard and received Commendation!! WooHoo, Emma! Her math TAKS will be taken at the end of this month. like me, math is her thing. I'm sure she'll do great!

Thank You, Sonic

You add great joy to my life every time we pass by Sonic and one of my kids says "Mom, is it Happy Hour?" Yes, dear children, it sure is but we're not going to Sonic today.

Funny Ava

I forgot how hilarious 4 year olds can be. Ava takes everything so literally. Here are a few gems from the past few weeks :)

1. Emma and I were watching Survivor and I missed who got voted off. I asked Emma and she said "Spencer". I said which one is that. Emma said "The gay one." Ava pipes up with "Oh, you mean like Daddy?" After Emma and I stopped laughing, I explained to Ava in very simple terms that Daddy isn't gay. Her answer "He doesn't love Vinny?" We'll have to revisit that in a few more years...

2. The other day, Ava and Vinny took a nerf basketball into the bath. We all know that nerf balls turn into 1000# bombs when wet. She kept tossing the wet ball against the shower door. I told her to stop several times and instead she would just throw it softer/lower/slower. I yelled "No throwing the ball. Period!" She looks at me, with the most classic wtf look on her face, and says "Your period?" I say "No, just period." Ava, still pretty confused, "What does period mean?" I say it sort of means "the end". Her face lights up with a maniacal gleam, "Can I say period?" "Sure." "Period! Peeeeeriiiiiiiiod! Period, period, period...per-i-od..." She certainly thinks she's talking about blood.

3. In the car, I was talking on the phone to Beto about a fight he was going to on Saturday night. After I got off the phone, Ava asks me what a fight is. I try to explain boxing as best as I can. She finally remembers having seen it on TV and starts welling up with tears "But, but, Daddy is the biggest. And the tallest..." Then it turned into full-on crying. It took a while for her to understand that daddy was going to watch the fight.

HAIL!!!!

This was the most insane hailstorm we have encountered since being out here. Only one of our cars fits into the garage, so we chose to save the one we are going to sell. My poor Expedition took a beating. As did our playscape, which had the canopy ripped to shreds. The hail was golfball-sized.

Bon Qui Qui

Dammit. Why do I have to get mixed up in shit? I really try my best to just go with the flow but sometimes (okay, maybe more than sometimes) I can't let shit slide. So, a couple of weeks ago, Emma came home from her Brownie meeting talking about BonQuiQui. I'm like wtf is a bonquiqui? She tells me it was a youtube her GS leader showed her. I got the link from the leader and watched:


Seriously, what the fuck?? Of course I had to say something. Then some other parents said something and it ended with some drama. Sorry, but I am fairly certain that I am the most socially liberal parent in the troop. If I have a problem with my kid seeing it, it's probably pretty bad. What pissed me off the most was that Emma told her leader that she wasn't allowed to watch youtube and the leader proceeded to show her anyway. Grrr....

Date Night

While my mom was visiting, Beto and I finally went on a date, for the first time since we've lived in Texas. I know, we are crazy. It's just that we have such a crazy schedule that when we are off, we do things with the kids. My mom made me look fat in the blurry pictures she took, so I found a pic on the net that looked like us going out on a date. We were way hotter, though.

Anyway, we decided to take in a movie at the famous Alamo Drafthouse, a local theater that serves (reportedly good) food and beer. Although going out together was great, we were not impressed with the Drafthouse. It smelled like stinky feet. The tables and seats were REALLY greasy. It could have been our movie choice, Slumdog Millionaire (I get nauseated when I see/read/think about horrible things happening to children), but the food wasn't very good. I didn't even finish my black and tan. That, though, was most certainly because of my upset stomach. The movie was fantastic, just not good to eat or drink with. We are really going to make an effort to get out more often.

Spring Break

For the few weeks leading up to Spring Break, I told Ava and Emma that NooNoo (my mother) was bringing a "big surprise" for them. The only clue I gave was that the surprise was mostly for Ava, but that Emma could play with it, too. My mom flew into ABIA at almost midnight Friday. We went in to meet her. Here is how it played out:



My mom brought along Ava's bff-cousin, Sophia, my brother's 4 year old daughter. The girls had such a great time together. We had a crazy fun week, too. The first weekend, it rained so the kids just stayed in and played trouble with NooNoo, while I finally cleaned out some clostets and got all of the baby gear cleaned and ready for Amanda. On Sunday, mom and I left all of the kids with Beto and spent two hours browsing the Brand New SuperTarget (!) that opened about 5 minutes from my house. I am in love. Well probably infatuated, because this lady cornered the market on Target loving. Freak much? She has been keeping a blog, about TARGET, for almost 4 years. I feel like such a slacker...

On Monday, we took all of the kids plus two of the neighborhood kids to the library and then to Hawaiian Ice for a treat. Yummy!
On Tuesday, we went to the Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo on the recommendation of a friend from work. We had a blast!! by the way, it was St. Patrick's Day which is why all of the girls have the obnoxious green ribbons in their hair.

I didn't buy a wristband for Vinny because he is too little and I would have had to also buy a wristband to take him on every ride. He spent most of the day like this:
Until, I found this on my way back from changing his diaper. You might need to sit down. The pictures I am about to show you are real. I let MY CHILD play with these toys...I am still recovering. Therapy is expected to last another year or so.
Yes. USED, DIRTY little toys spread out on a 48 year old, never been washed indoor/outdoor carpet. He had fun, though.
After rides it was on to the petting zoo. If you know my kids, you can imagine how that went down. Do you think I am making them animal and germ phobic? Good. LOL
Sophia had fun, though.

Vinny tries the JohnDeere. He is Cali at heart. He tried to use it as a skateboard.
Ava and Sophia donned enormous sombreros and posed on a donkey.
A rare pic of me and the kids.

On Thursday, we finally went to Zilker Park. While the train ride was nice, I don't recommend it for Vinnys. He litterally tried to jump overboard like 23 times. The girls enjoyed it. Sorry, no pics on the actual train. I was restraining the suicidal tot.

The other days, the kids spent playing outside with the neighborhood kids. NooNoo and Sophia left Saturday morning. We miss them so much and having Sophia visit was so special.