Birthday Treasure Hunt

Our middle child is turning 14 today and she's long passed wanting toys for her birthday. All she really wants is money. However, I have a hard time just forking over the cash. Not because I'm opposed to giving it as a present, but I'm opposed to not making her work a little bit for it. Besides, it's just more fun that way. 

Supplies:

1. Vintage Gift Tags with Twine
2. Mini Colored Wooden Clothespins
3. Hot Glue

Happy 11th Birthday Baby Girl!

It was a great weekend! We finally celebrated Lena's official 11th birthday on Saturday. Her and I went to breakfast, just the two of us.

James was sweet enough to stay home and clean the house for her sleepover later that evening. Honestly, I think it's because he didn't want to go to the mall, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Mostly we just window shopped for a little while. And found the most disturbing candle ever created...

Don't get me wrong, I love the smell of bacon cooking on a Sunday morning, but I wouldn't want my house to smell like frying pig 24/7.

When we got home, James had tackled the entire house which left me free to help Lena clean her tornado. When I say help, I basically mean I cleaned her room myself while she watched. 

Her little girlfriends arrived right on time at 5:00 and James headed out to his friend's house for the evening while I chaperoned 5 giggly squealing tweens. They had a blast though! A little Wii Dance party, pizza, and the remaining Halloween candy went over with much enthusiasm. 

I ended up spending a good portion of the night in my room watching Fried Green Tomatoes because once the necessity of mom was done (i.e. pizza), I was promptly dismissed...

I finally tossed in the towel around 11:30 because I couldn't keep my eyes open much longer. However, I was informed that they will still wide awake when James got home from boys night out at 3:30am. 

I woke up to this the next morning, which melted my heart.

Happy 11th birthday baby girl!

P.S. You can stop growing now.

Three Down, Two To Go

There are certainly benefits of coming from a family the size of a small country... For instance, you don't just have a birthday party, you get a birthday month when you're the spawn of the Nowhere family.

Lena and Paige have birthdays just a few weeks apart and it's been a cycle of celebrations since mid-September. It started back during our trip to Michigan. My grandparents are snow birds so on our final trip to Grand Haven before Christmas comes around we celebrated the girls' birthday with them. A week ago we celebrated with my Indiana family and this weekend we celebrated with the other half of my family up north in Aurora. Sadly, there was no getting out of work for Paige so she didn't get to go with for the lunch part, but Gramma sent back all sorts of goodies.

My step-mom is the birthday queen of our family tree and treated us all to an amazing lunch at a hibachi grill. Lena, being a long time member of this family, has been on several occasions. Her and my mom are kindred seafood spirits and they go to town on the poor unfortunate souls. They were in heaven with the shrimp, scallops, lobster, etc. Not being a huge seafood fan and given the fact that it requires sacrificing a few limbs to purchase, dinning on things that swim are a special treat for Lena.

Anne, on the other hand, is still learning the multitude of personalities in my family and how each one does things differently. She'd never been to a hibachi grill before. You'd think we'd just taken her to Disney World with how excited she got! She wanted to see every corner of the restaurant, wanted to use chop sticks, and didn't complain at all about trying new foods. That by itself is an exceedingly rare occasion. She was just so thrilled by the whole experience that she was willing to take in every moment and every bite of it. She was not however, very fond of them starting the grill...

Anne immediately shot backwards when he lit the oil and you'll notice her slowly schooching back toward the table. Overall all though, the whole family had a great time with Gramma and Auntie Pika. We even got a couple new pets to take home...

Now all we have left is Lena's slumber party with her girl friends this Saturday and birthday dinner / Thanksgiving with James' family next weekend. We're almost to the end... For a couple weeks at least!

The Best Presents End in Tears

It's been a very busy weekend around our house. Yesterday we celebrated Lena's, Paige's, and my sister Frissy's birthday with my family.

I have lots of photos from the party, which I will get around to putting up in the next couple of days. In the meantime though, I wanted to share our gift to my sister. My sister Frissy is an amazing person. When she was younger, she was the family wild child. However, she's long since grown out of her rebellious teen angst phase and transformed into one of the kindest, most responsible, and one of the hardest working people I know. I'm so proud of who she's grown into and I'm excited to see how she'll evolve in the years to come.

As you know, we're currently trying to purchase a home next summer, so the decision for the gift was certainly one James and I put some thought into. However, we both agreed that no one deserved it more than she did and he knows that she's always been my rock.

So we decided to contribute a piece to her upcoming wedding in August. Granted it's not even a dent in the cost to have 50 people at Brookfield Zoo sipping down cocktails with the dolphins, but we knew it would be a huge contribution anyway. We figured it would mean way more than a Starbucks gift card...

I Think I Hear Sleigh Bells

I'm perfectly aware the Halloween has not even arrived yet, however I've found myself in Christmas planning mode already. With 3 kids and an entire hoard of family members to buy for, Christmas has to be a process. There is no last minute shopping, grabbing a few quick items, or winging it in the month of December. We have to plan ahead and put the puzzle together one piece at a time.

Yesterday, it began as a conversation over coffee about what to get Lena and Paige for their upcoming birthdays. Lena will be 11 and Paige will be 19. Since they're special days are only a couple weeks apart we do one celebration for the both of them. Well, one celebration with each branch of the family really. Everything family oriented gets done in stages around here. His side and my two sides.

Paige has not given us any clue as to what she might want for either festive occasion, outside of her obsession with all things Captain America. I would love to say it's just because she thinks the guy who plays him is hot, but her love of superheros is not limited to him. Captain American just happens to be her favorite Avenger.


James refuses to indulge her in this and feels he can force her to grow up. Personally speaking, I think he's fighting an uphill battle and I think she will have to come into adulthood in her own time. However, this leaves us with some very limited options for her when it comes to picking out gifts.

He wants to get her gift cards to places like Aeropostale because the kid lives in sweatpants and sports bras. I already know that would be a complete waste of money. I've taken her shopping several times, spent well over $300 on new bras, underwear, jeans, nice shirts, etc. Once purchased, I've never seen them again. We have 3 girls who really would prefer to be boys. But at least the youngest two are not opposed to dressing like girls. Still, you won't find sugar and spice around here, it's all snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.

Lena and Anne however gave us the perfect Christmas idea last weekend when we went to Toys 'R Us, DISNEY INFINITY Starter Pack Xbox 360. I have to admit even I'm excited about this one! We decided to take advantage of the rare opportunity we had to go and put all things Disney Infinity on layaway yesterday (again one puzzle piece at a time). We have reserved the following items for the little one's Christmas morning glee...

I'm loving the fact that Toys 'R Us price matched Amazon... But we still haven't figured out the girls birthdays yet. I guess there's always next weekend.

Yesterday I Was "Nowhere Near It"

It's not even 7:30 and our house is already in full swing. James was off to work at 4am and the girls are getting showered and ready to head to the "Back to School Party" at our little POA. There are things I both love and hate about living in a little town. The little events our neighborhood hosts for the kids around here is one of those things that I love. It's never anything fancy, but it gives the kids a chance to feel independent. They get to hop on their bikes and leave the parental units behind as they had off for a couple of authority free hours (save the community volunteers) and just hang out with their friends. Best of all... Mommy gets a break on Saturday morning.

I didn't bother posting yesterday because I was down right crabby. James has been taking Nyquil to try and smoother the cold he caught from the kids last weekend and it makes sleeping in the same bed as him rather unpleasant. For starters, it makes him sweat like a leaking faucet. For the past few nights I've been waking up moist. My skin feels like I just ran through the mist of a sprinkler and not in a good way. I've also been kicked, elbowed, had the covers stolen, and my side of the bed has constantly been invaded by his wayward legs. He's also started talking in his sleep. I've always loved that he's hardworking and dedicated to his job. But this man is literally dreaming of work.

My serious lack of sleep set the stage for a "I'm not taking your sh*t today!" attitude at work. I'd posted before about a co-worker of mine and her tendency to get, shall we say, sassy with me. In all truth, personally speaking, I like her. I think that we could be great friends outside of work. Professionally speaking however, it can be a little like oil and water. If you shake the bottle, we'll mix. It's the perfect cocktail for cooking up some really productive ideas and actions for our marketing. But, after a little while goes by, we settle and separate. It was really rocky a couple months ago when our manager made the decision to put me in charge of the marketing department. I never wanted her job, but I got it. Even through all of the resistance I got, I think we make a damn good team. Last month was the first month since I've been with the company that all 7 of our stores beat last year's number at the same time. We've always had one or two each month, but never all of them. We really over hauled all of our traditional marketing. I won't take all the credit for it though. We did it together. We got side by side in the trenches and poured our hearts into it full speed ahead. Yesterday however, she pulled a 180 on me and it just wasn't the right day to throw a tantrum. I simply didn't have the patience. At the end of the day, it's my butt on the line and her withholding important information about the projects we have in the works just isn't going to fly.

By the time I left work I was completely in defense mode. We have a birthday lunch today for Jame's brother at his parents' house and we were put in charge of making the homemade bread. I told him Tuesday when he mentioned it that we only have one bread pan, to which he responded "Okay." Then as I'm driving home last night he tells me that I need to get two more bread pans because we need three loaves for today. Poor guy, I chomped his head off. I work right near Bed Bath & Beyond (and I'm my sister's shopping buddy so I get to use the 20% employee discount) and was fuming that he didn't tell me this while I was actually near the store so I didn't have to make an extra trip. This leads back around to one of things I hate about living in a little town. We're a good half hour away from everything. There's no quick trips to the store. It's a big part of the reason we'll be moving next summer. But I'm getting off topic here... All I wanted to do yesterday was go home, put on my jammie pants, be lazy, and decompress. Nope, no such luck. However, on a normal day, I would just have said "no problem hunnie, you get the girls and Lena and I will handle the bread pans." Instead I chastised him for it because he "should have mentioned this Tuesday when I brought it up!"

I did get the bread pans. I did "accidentally" stop at the mall for some retail therapy and get a new pair of jeans that I was desperate need of. Most importantly though... I did end up apologizing for being a GIANT Sebastian. Thank goodness that man loves me through thick and thin. I'm grateful for him every day and I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my rock in all the chaos that comes with the everyday life of a working mom.

My Beautiful Princess, Little Man, & Baby Mia

I know I've been pretty much MIA all week and I'm sorry about that. I haven't had much time with everything that has been going on. It seems that every time I sat down and logged in I had to log right off again. However, now that I'm here, I can't think of much to write, so I'm just going to share a few photos instead. My daughter had the Daddy Daughter Dance Friday and that's part of the reason for all the commotion here. I just have to say, I'm so grateful for my brother in law. He's awesome and I'm glad that Lena has so many fantastic men in her life. I know that it doesn't replace the fact that her father is moron, but it certainly makes moments like these much easier to enjoy.

Oh and one more thing.... I finally had the pleasure of meeting baby Mia! My friend and I have been stuck together since we were 9 (so the last two decades). We went to his son's 4th birthday party this weekend and I finally got to meet his new baby girl (who honestly, at three months, isn't so "new" anymore).

My favorite Little Man in the whole world. Happy 4th Birthday!

I though I'd be nice and give Chris and Noelle a break. She slept in my arms all night .