Is This Against Child Labor Laws?

 

This weekend Mommy told Maddie and me that she was going to make cake balls and we could help her.  Maddie and I LOVE cake balls...and we especially love getting to help mix the icing and cake together so it gets all over our hands and fingers.  Because then you have to lick it all off.  How else are you going to get your hands clean?  

Unfortunately, Mommy went and mixed the ball stuff up without us, which is seriously so mean.  But she told us we could still help her make the cake balls because they hadn't been dipped yet.  Okay.  I can go with that, because you dip them in chocolate and when you do the chocolate just happens to drip on your fingers or your hands or the counter and of course you just have to lick it off...gotta keep things clean around here.  So we told her we were in.

That's when she informed us that before we could dip them, we needed to get red, white and blue sprinkles (if you haven't figured it out, these will be 4th of July cake balls).  Well, seems she was having trouble coming up with this color combination at the stores.  You'd think they'd be easy to find, what with The 4th just around the corner, but I guess with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up in a mere 6 months, 4th of July stuff has been pushed to the side.  She did manage to find some red and white sprinkles mixed together, but no blue.  We told her it was okay and the cake balls would still be yummy, but as you all know, if it's not "perfect," then it's not good enough for Mommy.

And that's when she came up with her stupid brilliant idea to pick through her multicolored sprinkles and dig out all of the blue ones.  I'm not sure what is sadder....that she is actually willing to pick through the container for blue sprinkles, or the fact that she conned Maddie and I into helping her.....

A Camping We Will Go!

We're not going to start off with our normal spiel...you know, the one where we point out that we've been neglecting our blog and that it's all Mommy's fault...because really, nothing's changed.  We will, however, point out that Mommy has moved our blog (and with it, she has moved all our old entries).  She claims that this will make it easier for us to post.  I'm not sure whether to believe her or not, but the move did allow us to give our blog a new look, so that's kind of exciting.  Anyway, we're not going to try and go back and fill you in on all we have done...that's just way too many months to cover.  So we'll just start with this past weekend and what is turning out to be an annual camping trip with our friends.

We returned to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Waller, Texas.  We got there early Friday afternoon and after we settled into our cabin, we put on our swimsuits and hit the splash pool.  Now, we don't have any pictures of our fun here...Mommy was kind of nervous about taking the new camera near the water.  But here's a shot of the water park.

We made sure we checked out everything: the small water slides, the pool, the big pic-i-nic basket that dumps water on your head, the curly slide and the REALLY BIG bumpy slide.  It was all just SO MUCH FUN!

Later in the evening we joined up with our friends (The Johnsons, Rogers, Sticklers, Wassmuths, Webers and Wodriches) for dinner and some S'mores.

The next morning we woke up bright and early...really, we did.  I mean did you honestly think we would sleep in on a camping trip when we can't do it at our own house?!  Anyway, we got up bright and early and hit the mini golf course.  I definitely think we have improved since last year, although neither of us got a hole in one.

This place is great for getting to see lots of doggies, which of course makes Lizzie VERY happy.  I think this dog was her absolute favorite!

Notice he's bigger than her!!!!

After our rousing game of mini golf, we headed over to the arts and crafts building to get our craftiness on.

We had to add this picture because Daddy just looks so cute walking with all of us.

Last year we didn't make it over to the arts and crafts building.  Boy did we miss out.  The place was like a dream come true.  I'm not sure who was more excited, us or Mommy.  There were so many craft projects to choose from: coloring, ceramic painting, t-shirt coloring.  Of course, it was a no-brainer for me.  I saw the Yogi figure and just had to have him. 

Here's me at the start....

Moving right along...

The finished product!

Lizzie decided to do a t-shirt instead of painting.  She picked the birthday shirt even though here birthday isn't close.  She's just weird that way.

Lizzie getting started.  She did a good job of staying in the lines!

And then she starts to scribble scrabble like a baby because she thought we were going to leave without her.

Daddy took over the marker and cleaned up the mess.

After crafts, we took some time to do a little scavenger hunt around the campground.  We had a paper that gave us some ideas of where we could look for this little orange squares.  When we found the square, we had to match it to a square on our paper and then write the number in a little circle.  If we found all of the pictures, we could win a prize.

Here I am finding one of the squares on the corn dog stand.

If you look in the back, you can see another one that all the little kids are just finding....my I-spy-eye had already found it.

After our hunt, we went back to the cabin to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the pool for some more swimming and sliding.  We rounded out the day hanging out with our friends and having dinner.

Sunday morning was kind of crazy.  Why, you ask?  Because all us kids "slept in."  Ms. Jaime and Mommy got this bright idea to cover all of the windows up in our loft with pillows and blankets.  Basically our loft became a dark cave.  Not sure why the did it, but I guess us kids thought it was pretty cool to sleep in a cave so we decided to spend a little extra time doing just that...sleeping.  The mommies and daddies all woke quite chipper.  Maybe someday I'll understand...when I'm like 100.

After a quick breakfast, us kids vacated the cabin so the parents could clean and pack up the cars.  And then it was time to hit the road...but not before stopping to visit Yogi one last time.

Don't worry, Yogi.  Me and my pfriends will be back again next summer.  You just can't keep us away!!!!

You Know You Want Some (1/25/2011)

It’s February and you know what that means…GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME!!!!  I worked long and hard on a way to advertise to you…all my family spread around the U.S. and this is what I came up with…a Video.  Please consider supporting me in my very first cookie sale ever and in supporting my troop (led by my totally awesome mommy).  If you have any questions about well….anything, you can call or email us.  Well, what are you waiting for….click below and watch my great commercial and then figure out what yummy cookies you’d like to order!!!!

The REAL Wonder Woman (11/17/2010)

Well, I promised you an update on Mommy’s sewing adventure…and trust me, it’s been one wild ride!

So for starters, in our original post, I shared with you that Mommy was going to make costumes for both me and Lizzie.  Well, I’m not sure how she did it (you know how sneaky Mommy is.), but she managed to walk Lizzie into the Halloween section at Goodwill and convince her that being a cat was the best idea in the whole world…and Lizzie bought it hook, line and sinker.  $6 later, Mommy had a pre-made skirt with a tail sticking out the back.  Paired with a black leotard, black leggings, ears and a collar, and voila!  You’ve got Lizzie as a cat…now sewing involved.

Me, I wasn’t going to fall for this.  Mommy said she’d make me a costume, and make it she would do.  So on my half day of school in October, Mommy and I took a field trip to the fabric store where we selected the most beautiful and shiny red and blue and yellow fabric for my costume.  We also found some packages of silver iron-on stars to decorate the skirt.  We were set!

And then the fabric sat.  It sat for a couple of days before Mommy got up the courage to dig it out of the bag.  She spent an entire evening…and many…no, let me get that correct…MANY phone calls with Grandma, trying to figure out how to cut out the pattern from the fabric.  Needless to say, Grandma just laughed and laughed every time Mommy called because really, how much help do you think she could really be when she was in Pennsylvania and couldn’t even see the pattern/directions that Mommy was looking at?! 

But in the end, Mommy got the pattern pieces cut out the best she could…and then, of course, they sat…for a good week and a half.  With only two weeks till Halloween, Mommy figured she probably should figure out how to actually sew the pattern pieces together.  Now here’s where it gets funny.  See, Mommy doesn’t know how to do much when it comes to sewing.  She only knows one stitch…the basic one.  And as for all the markings on the pattern and the “sewing lingo” used throughout the directions…yeah, she has no clue about that either.  So early one Sunday morning, she pops out her machine, spends some time trying to remember how to thread and run the machine (remember…the last time she used it was when Lizzie wasn’t even born!!), and then opens the directions to see what she has to do first.  Step one said something about sewing darts.  Hah!  The only kind of darts Mommy knows about are the kind she used to throw at the bar back when she was dating Daddy!  And to make it better, Grandma has up and gone on vacation, so Mommy can’t even call and nag ask for some help.  All I have to say is thank goodness for You Tube.  With a little bit of help from people out in cyberspace, Mommy was able to learn how to sew darts along with some other fancy things.  

The going was slow.  At the end of the first day there was a top and part of a skirt done.  Day 2 found Mommy deciding the directions were stupid (I told her not to use that word, but she insisted that it really was the only word that could be used at the time.) and she was just going to do it her own way…kind of a silly thing to be doing when one has NO CLUE how to sew in the first place.  But I guess some of Grandma’s talents rubbed off way back when, because in the end, even with all of the changes Mommy made, the costume turned out pretty darn good.  In fact, it rocked!!  Take a look…

 

I’m already thinking about Mommy’s next sewing project…Mommy’s already thinking about who she can pay to do it for her.

Lord of the Flies (10/7/2010)

Really that should be “Lady of the Lice” if you want an accurate picture of just what has been going on in our house over the past week and a half.  You see, last Monday Mommy was innocently sitting in the parking lot of Maddie’s school, waiting to pick her up when she got a call on her cell phone.  The display read Pflugerville ISD which always has Mommy wondering “What has Maddie done this time.”  It was the nurse.  Now just to give you some back history here, last year Maddie decided at 2:15 pm that she didn’t feel good and needed to go to the nurse.  It seems she had one of those mysterious fevers…you know, the one that registers 100.4 long enough for the school nurse to see it and say Maddie can’t come back to school for 24 hours, yet magically disappears 2 seconds after returning home, leaving Mommy stuck with a perfectly healthy kid the next day.  So when Mommy heard the nurse on the other end, she was convinced Maddie was pulling a repeat of last year.  Well, it was Mommy’s lucky day.  Maddie wasn’t sick.  She had something even better.  Lice.

A couple of days before, Mommy found Maddie madly itching her head.  She did what any good Mommy would do and dug through her hair looking for those nasty little critters.  Not that she really had any clue what she was looking for, but she found nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  But she did talk to Maddie about what she was looking for.  And Maddie, being the “good listener” that she is, mistook the word “lice” for “flies.” 

Fast forward to Monday when Maddie gets into the car.  She was excited (yes, you read that right, excited!) that she had the flies in her hair.  Seems she wasn’t the only one in the class to have them.  Several other girls were treated over the weekend, so Maddie was now able to join this exclusive “flies” club.  She was part of the “In Crowd.”  

Unfortunately, Mommy did not see the joy in Maddie being so “cool,” because while Maddie’s status in her class was being elevated, poor Mommy was being beat down day by day as she was buried under mounds of laundry and house cleaning chores (not to mention all the shampooing and combing of someone’s hair) that come along with a house infested with lice.  She even turned on me and doused me in that foul smelling hair shampoo.
Life seems to have returned to normal somewhat, although if we aren’t careful, Mommy will appear out of nowhere wielding her metal lice comb.  I just hope for all our sakes the “flies” don’t return.

 

It's a Leaf...No, a LEAF BUG!!! (9/22/2010)

The other day when Mommy was getting ready to take us to school, I noticed a leaf sitting on our driveway.  I was just about to step on it when Mommy told me to stop because I would hurt it.  Now, as I pointed out in my last blog, Mommy has overextended herself just a little, so I seriously thought she was losing it.  I mean, how can you hurt a leaf?!  But I figured I’d give her the benefit of the doubt and see what was up this this “leaf.”  Turns out, she was right. (Really, I think this is the first time she’s every been right because we all know that I’m always right.)  It wasn’t your ordinary leaf.  It was a bug that looked like a leaf.  A LEAF BUG!  Look for yourself:
See…it looks like a leaf…BUT…
 See!!  He’s really a cool looking BUG!!!!
Mommy and I came back in and did a little reskerch on my new friend.  We learned that you can keep leaf bugs as pets.  No…I do not have a leaf bug as a pet.  We learned this little tidbit after Mr. Leaf Bug had wandered away.  Plus Daddy is always saying that there will be another pet in this house over his dead body…and seeing as Daddy’s still alive and kicking…

Anyway, we also learned that Mr. Leaf Bug loves to eat plants and that his favorite food is Koala food.  He doesn’t like to eat bugs, but it’s not uncommon to find him nibbling on his friend’s back because the leaf bug disguise is just that good!!

The animal that likes to eat them most is spiders.  But spiders don’t like to eat leaves so Mr. Leaf Bug’s leaf camouflage is a good thing.  If a spider does try to go after it, Mr. Leaf Bug likes to roll over on his back and play like he’s dead.  That’s really cool!
Another cool thing is his legs.  If Mr. Leaf Bug loses a leg when he is a kid, he can grow it back!  But, if he loses a leg when he’s a grown up, that leg’s never coming back.
Well, there you have it.  Your science lesson for the day.  Hope you liked it!!

What's That Say on Your Forehead, Mommy? (9/20/2010)

Yes.  There is something written on Mommy’s forehead and it seems to be darkly engraved.  What does it say?  S-U-C-K-E-R.  Yes…that’s right.  Dear old Mom is a Grade A Sucker.  Now you are probably wondering why I would say such a thing.  Well, over the past month she seems to be taking on a bazillion different things.  She has volunteered to help out Maddie’s teacher at school every week, she got herself named chairmom of the upcoming MOMS Club garage sale, she is yet again training for one of this crazy marathon events (although this year I have to give her a teeny tiny bit of credit…she’s ONLY running 13.1 miles).  What it comes down to is this:  Mommy has a problem with saying NO.  Now I know she didn’t get that from me or Lizzie.  We can say NO.  We practice it all the time. 

Mommy:  Please go upstairs and clean your room and the playroom.
Me: NO!
Mommy:  Please stop antagonizing your sister.
Me: NO!! (Antagonizing? Really?!  Like I have a clue what that means!!)
Mommy:  Please leave the cat alone…she doesn’t like be chased around the house by a kid wielding a weapon.
Me: NO!!!

See…I’ve got that down to a science, so I know she doesn’t get her inability to say NO from my side of the family.  Anyway, I digress.  The reason I felt it necessary to write today’s blog is this.  Last week Mommy came up with not one, but TWO new Sucker projects…and these two projects seem to have many people laughing at her.  

Project One: Make Sew Halloween costumes for both kids.  Okay.  Now I know some of you are thinking, Sure, Mommy can do this.  She has a sewing machine and she did make Lizzie’s crib set.  But let me roll back the clock even further to my second Halloween.  Mommy decided that she was going to make me a monkey costume.  She went out and bought the pattern and she even selected the fabric.  She pulled the pattern out of the little envelope and stared at it for many days weeks before she shoved it back into the envelope and packed both it and the material into a box to be shipped to Pennsylvania.  I was a monkey for Halloween that year…but my costume was made by one rockin’ Grandma.  Mommy just couldn’t hack it.  So I find it amusing that she is going to attempt this again…but this time for TWO kids.  She still has a little over a month to complete this project, but honestly, I see a follow up blog in the future.  She still has no fabric for my Wonder Woman costume and Lizzie, well she’s being her typical, difficult self and demanding that she wants a Princess and the Frog costume…something Mommy has already told Lizzie is beyond her basic sewing skills.  To be continued…

Project Two:  Mommy has very fond memories of her Girl Scouting years when she grew up, so it’s only natural that she wants the same for us.  Since she has so many projects on her plate, she was hoping to just drop me into an already existing troop.  I’m sure I don’t really need to elaborate much further here.  Long story short, there really wasn’t a troop that fit our schedule perfectly, so what does Mommy do?  No…she definitely did not say NO.  She is now going through the process (and trainings and meetings) to form a new Girl Scout troop of which she will be the leader.  

I love that my Mommy is so involved in our lives and that she wants to do things to make us happy, but I think maybe she might need a little vacation.  Dad?

We Interrupt This Program (8/31/2010)

Okay.  I know we said we would have a blog entry for you yesterday, and we didn’t.  We actually were going to bring it to you today; however, we have even bigger news to report.  Maddie lost her first tooth!  Okay…I know.  You are sitting there saying, “No…she did not lose her first tooth.  It’s her second one.”  But that one she knocked out when she was only two…that one didn’t count.  Even the Tooth Fairy didn’t deem it worthy enough to visit (Yes, guys.  You read that right.  Maddie never got any cash from the tooth fairy for that tooth which means I will be making more money than her off of my pearly whites.)
Anyway, as I was saying, Maddie lost her first tooth today.  As of this past Saturday, that thing could barely move.  But leave it to my sister, who can’t leave things alone (She takes after Mom, here), and a couple of days later, she popped that sucker out.  Lots of celebrating occurred and of course Mommy had to take the obligatory “Maddie lost her first tooth” picture, and then the search was on to find the Lost Tooth box Maddie made back in Preschool.  By the grace of God, Mommy managed to find it and we nestled that tooth in and tucked it under Maddie’s pillow. 
But, for those of you that know me and Maddie, we couldn’t just let it be.  We pulled it out and looked at it and moved it to another room and well, darn….the next thing you know Maddie is running like a bat out of hell crying to Mommy that I lost her lost tooth!!  I didn’t lose it.  Really!  I just happened to be the one holding the box when it fell out of my hands and onto the carpet….the long, shag carpet.  I’m pretty sure I don’t need to describe the fit Mommy threw as she got down on her hands and knees to look for the lost lost tooth.  Well, that Mommy is pretty amazing and she found it (and saved my behind), so the Tooth Fairy can go ahead and schedule a visit at our house.  I can’t wait to see how much money Maddie gets from her!!!!

 

Stay Tuned (8/26/2010)

Yes.  I realize that Lizzie and I haven’t been on in awhile.  We were actually doing better than our first year of blogging, but admittedly, we have dropped the ball.  The good news is, we are back.  We have an idea for our first blog entry, but we need to wait until Monday to post it.  So stay tuned...

Deja Vu (5/31/2009)

Here we are, one week later and what do we have to report to you?  Another Girls’ Weekend, that’s what.  I know what you’re thinking…I can’t believe Daddy abandoned us again.  But this time it was kind of necessary.  He had to go up to our friend Adam’s house in Picksburgh so that he could go and make his friend who taught us the toilet bowl joke happy because something bad happened.  And well, that left Mommy here with us girls again.  So you are probably wondering, what’s a Mommy to do with 2 girls when she had already exhausted all of her fun ideas the previous weekend?  Come up with new ideas, that’s what! 
          Friday started off pretty much the same as last week.  We went to a MOMS Club event and then came home so Lizzie could take a nap.  Funny thing is, I decided that it might be nice if, for a change, I took one too.  I know how happy Mommy is when we take naps…it gives her some much needed down time.  So I took a good 2 hour nap too.  I woke up to hear Mommy mumbling under her breath.  Something about her not being happy that I had napped and a later bedtime.  I don’t get it…you’d think she’d be happy I gave her alone time.  Some people just aren’t appreciative when you do nice things for them.
          Anyway, after we both woke up, Mommy told us to get dressed because we were going out.  Woo hoo!  Dinner out…our favorite thing!  We put in our vote for McDonalds but quickly got shot down.  But that’s okay, because Mommy’s choice wasn’t half bad.  We ended up at Mighty Fine Burgers.  Now, you have to realize that Lizzie and I do NOT like burger, and that’s all this place serves…burgers and fries.  But she’s so smart, that Mommy.  She just orders us cheeseburgers without the burger…you know, grilled cheese.  And then…to top it all off…Mommy ordered each of us (that means one whole one for me and one whole one for Lizzie…no sharing!) an ice cream drink!  Mmmmm…have you ever had one of those things?  It’s heaven in a cup, and I got a whole one that I didn’t have to share with my sister…of course, I did have to share with Mommy, but she was pretty good about not drinking it all up.

    
Then, when we were done eating, we got to play on the playground for a little bit to (as Mommy called it) work off some energy.
    

          After dinner and play we headed over to Zachias (or Ikea for those of you who don’t speak “Maddie”) because Mommy needed to get a light bulb for my flower light.  Now, let me start off by telling you that Lizzie ruined everything.  We were going to get to go into the cool room for just kids, but Lizzie hadn’t gone poopy yet and since she can’t be trusted to go poopy in a potty, Mommy couldn’t pass her off as potty trained and so we had no choice but to join Mommy.  Oh, and the next thing you need to know…Lizzie and I think Zachias is the best story ever…there’s just something about running ahead of Mommy and Daddy to be the first to step on the arrow.  So you can imagine what was going through Mommy’s head as she realized that she was going to be making this journey with the 2 of us all by herself.  The parking lot conversation went something like this:
Mommy: I expect you to be on your best behavior inside.  Do you know what that means?
Us: Yes
Mommy: What does it mean?
Us: It means we be good.
Mommy: Right.  So when I say “stop,” you…?
Us: STOP!
Mommy: And when I say “wait,” you…?
Us: STOP!
Mommy: And when I say “no,” you…?
Lizzie: GO!
Mommy: No!  You STOP!  Okay….here’s the deal.  You hold on to the side of this cart and you hold on to the other side.  And you don’t let go.  And if you follow these simple rules, there just might be a treat in it for you.  Deal?
Yes…Mommy resorted to bribery.  And guess what?  It worked!!  I think Mommy made it from the front of the store to the kids section in about 3 minutes flat with the 2 of us still death-gripped to the side of the cart.  She did let us check out a couple of things along the way:
    


And, because we did exactly as she asked, we were finally able to score the stuffed cats we have been begging for over the past year.  Who knew that all you had to do was get one tired, cranky Mommy alone by herself and humor her with a little good behavior!!  We will definitely be filing this tidbit of info away for the next “weekend alone with Mommy.”

Saturday was a little more low-key.  In the morning we went to a birthday party at the park.  We came home so Lizzie could take a nap and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV.  The evening was a little more fun.  We got to go over to our friend Eliott’s house and play with him and our other friends, Bella and Julia.  It was super fun!!

But the really fun part was that we got to have a slumber party!!!  That’s right, Dad…you read right.  Mommy decided to test-drive putting us to sleep at someone else’s house (for purely selfish reasons) and it worked!  So I got my slumber party and Mommy got some fun friend time and all of us were happy…well until this morning when I got up early…but that’s a story for another blog.