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.

Blogblock

I'm in a bit of a writer's rut. I've had an insanely busy couple of weeks filled with fun, Spring Break, my mom and Sophia visiting, a date with my husband to an overrated Austin landmark, LAME drama with Girl Scouts and PTA, broken glasses, a nasty hail storm, commended TAKs results, softball, sick kids, mystery toenails and so forth. Oh, but I am not too stumped to say TWILIGHT SUCKS!! If you haven't finished the books, stop reading now because I'm about to ruin it for you. I'll admit, I really enjoyed the first book. The second book, meh. By the third book, I was just reading to find out how it ends. So, my expectations for the final book were not very high. OMG, it was sooooo stupid. 700+ pages of crap. Of course they get married. Of course they HAD to get married before they had sex. The sex was such a let down, too. Stephanie Meyer is a windbag who can take 4 pages to describe a leaf but the sex gets like 4 sentences. Of course they have a baby. Of course Jacob imprints on their baby (fucking ewww, btw) and of course everybody "lives" happily ever after. Dumb. And the movie, I'd rather go to Catholic Church for a year than be subjected to that shit again.

Oh, and I lost more poundage. I'm down 16 pounds since Jan 1!!

The details will come, with photos, hopefully over the next few days. I've got to get to bed so I can take the littles to the doc in the morning for sore throats, stuffy noses, fevers, pink eye and an earache.