Wednesday, September 16, 2015

To be...or not to be


Olivia turned to me while doing her hair this morning and the following conversation began...

O - I really want to be a mom when I grow up, but I really DON'T want to either.  I don't know what to do.

Me - (laughing inside already because she has already told me a million times how unfair it is that girls have to change their names...AND have the babies, so I'm expecting a repeat of that).  Oh yeah, how come?

O - Number one.

Me - (thinking...wow, she has a list this time...this is gonna be good)

O - Yes.  Number one, I want to be the mom 'cuz I REALLY want to be the boss.  

Me - The boss??????

O - (looking up at me all innocently and completely oblivious to the irony of her statement)  Yes.   The boss.  All the time.

Me - Uh okay...not sure about that...but okay.

O - Number 2, I don't really want to carry babies around all day.  Because I want to be carried still.    So, I just don't know if I should be a mom or not.  (Then looks up at me with a look that says "well there you have my full and completely justified/rational list.)

Me - Wow.  Great thoughts.  We'll have to think about it, huh???  Good thing you've got some time to decide, because I think you'll still want to do it.  Being a mom makes you pretty happy...even if you don't get carried that often.



Secretly, I'm now totally hoping that she has twins and has to carry two babies around every day!  That'll show her who's really the boss in this whole motherhood thing!!!






Monday, April 13, 2015

We Run For Ice Cream!

Our most favorite family tradition of the year?!?!  Our BlueBell Fun Run. 


The only race where you get to run and then eat the world's best ice cream!!!  It does not get better than this!!!


Friday, February 6, 2015

The hat and how it RUINED her life

When I was little, I remember being extremely self-conscience.  I hated that about myself then...and still hate it about myself even today.  So imagine my excitement when I have daily reminders that I get  a second chance at helping lovely little girl through those exact same crazy emotions.  AND TODAY TAKES THE CAKE!

Our elementary school has these great ideas for a fundraiser.  There is no selling of lame products or actually nice but crazy over-priced products to neighbors and friends (or me!).  They call them Pay-To-Play Days - your kid brings a dollar to school and they can wear a mustache on Mustache Day or crazy socks on Crazy-Sock Day, or a tutu or tie on whatever that day was!  You get the gist.  Fun and easy and totally up to the kids if they want to participate!  I've always loved this take on fundraising...UNTIL Olivia came along!  

Olivia is completely in love with the IDEA of the whole thing and talks about it for weeks and plans it out and is soooo excited...UNTIL the day of.   That morning is filled with anxiety and extreme emotions.  No, actually, she's usually super excited UNTIL the second I pull into the school parking lot and she is supposed to get out of the car!  On crazy hair day, we actually had to come home and wash out her all her red and blue piggy tails before she could calm down enough to think about going to school!  Self-conciousness at its worst!!

I find myself re-living all those same emotions right along-side her...but luckily now I just find the whole thing soooo funny!  I totally think my old-age perspective, experience and ancient wisdom can help her through this, right?!?!  We've talked about how she doesn't have to do it and how it's just an extra/crazy thing if kids want to do it.  No pressure whatsoever!  But still, she gets excited about the idea and wants to participate...every single time.  Ugh.

So today is 'Crazy Hat Day'.  Liv is SO excited about wearing a new pink/sequiny/shiny baseball hat she has recently fallen in love with.  I truly thought this might be her turning point.  She even took her own dollar to pay with...shows commitment, right?!?!  

Well, on the way to school, she is all hatted-up and ready to go (and looking SOOO cute, btw!)  As the kids are climbing out of the car, I make the crucial mistake of asking Liv where her hat is.  UGH!  She starts frantically looking around and then start mumbling/wailing/whining/crying (rather incoherently) that it blew off her head.  I am beyond confused thinking that it blew off her head when she walked to the car and she just didn't bother to pick it up...things like that don't usually occur to this funny child!  And now she has tears streaming down her face and refuses to even get out the the car!  

I tell her it's fine and we can go find it...so after we get home and can't see the hat on the driveway, she finally wails even louder that it blew off when she stuck her head out the window to yell goodbye to Garrett at the bus stop as we drove past him!  WHAT?!?!?   How did she not notice?  She said she thought it was just her hoodie flapping around in the wind!  HAHAHAHA!  And we searched the street and it's now where to be found....so now her life is ruined.  True story...a totally ruined life.  Dumb hat!

So after multiple times of her saying she wants to go to school and then her refusing to get out of the car (much to the bewilderment of the cute 5th grader safety-patrol helpers who kindly open her door for her at the front of the school), we head home for her to calm down and figure out her life!  

She finally gets her act together and we walk into school...and HOUR late!  And what does the random lady at the front desk say when we walk in..."Where's your hat, little girl?  It's crazy hat day!"  HA!  If she only knew! 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Plans

So, I just found this list on my phone that Olivia made for our family back in December.  I had bought tickets to go see the Nutcracker...but apparently she thought I was dropping the ball and hadn't planned efficiently.  So here is Liv's idea of a good time!  No sneaking out early for us!!!



Love this girl...and her cute ideas and insane ability to take over every single thing in our lives!  

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Travel Companions

My traveling companion as we headed out for a quick errand this morning.

Liv made sure she was buckled in tight and had a great squishy kiss on her head before she would leave the front seat and get buckled in her own seat in the back.  :)

Love that you never know what you're going to get with Liv!!!


Monday, October 20, 2014

Ouch!



Ethan just single handedly threw me under the bus.

As he was heading off to bed, Ethan paused at the top of the stairs and calls down, "Mom, you know how some kids moms wake up before they do in the mornings before school???  Maybe you could do that so I don't have to get my own snack and water bottle."

WHAT?!?!  Excuse me?  The child has gotten his own snack and water bottle like twice all year...and that's when I've asked him to do it because I was busy doing Liv's hair...or HIS hair...or was elbow-deep in peanut butter sandwiches or something!  But yes...my child gets up by himself each morning, I admit it.  And more often than not, I am waiting for the lights to flip on as he walks into the kitchen before I roll my lazy bones out of bed!  Totally guilty!  But hey...I'm raising a self-sufficient group of kids.  It's for their own good, right?!?!?

But when he said that...I have to admit I about fell over laughing.  Got to love it when your kids call you out!  

Long time

So, I've completely fallen off the blogging bandwagon.  It makes me sad since I LOVED keeping this blog and recording our lives so we could go back and reminisce, but just can't seem to fit it in much anymore.  So here are some snippets of our everyday life.  This will have to do for now,,,until we can arrange for more hours in each day!