Tradition.

Catching up on my blogging...I wish I could have posted this one last Monday, then I wouldn't feel so much like a retro-blogger. Where does the time go?

When I say tradition, I am intending for you to think of the opening song to Fiddler on the Roof, it was the theme song for our weekend. Yes, I fully realize that makes us all full grown nerds, and Nena, don't even think about telling me to speak for myself!

Because this was our fourth year spending a weekend in the same rented cabin with our friends Nena, Victor, and Emma, we have accrued certain traditions and we had a really good time reminding ourselves of that fact at every opportunity. Whenever we had a decision to make, like what rooms should we take, Nena and I would just look at each other and say, tradition!

The kids have named the bear that lives at the cabin, Griz. They call his name and run to him when we arrive at the cabin on Friday. Then they [my kids] fight over him for the rest of the weekend.

Eva had the most fun sledding, here's some cute, fall down with your legs over your head proof. [Insert cute missing video here]

She was having the time of her three and a half year old life until Wyatt wanted his sled back and then it all went downhill. Fast.

Back at the cabin, Eva surprised me with her first picture that included faces. It was the most beautiful piece of art I have ever laid my eyes on.


It was dry in the mountains until Saturday night when it began to hail on Tony and Victor just as they were beginning to grill our Saturday night steaks. They are either such manly men or such good friends that they didn't let it bother them. Or wait a minute, it could have been the tequilla. In any case, the hail soon turned to snow and we woke up Sunday with the most beautiful overnight snowfall right there ready for us to enjoy and make us want to stay longer, really. The kids had a blast knocking the snow off the porch railing that morning, in fact, it was probably their favorite part of the weekend. My favorite part was spending the whole weekend with my friends, we have an awesome tradition. Tradition!

Today's the Day!

He gave me this picture last night, one more classic to add to my collection. I love the way he draws us holding hands. We're going to have a backyard party for him on Sunday, if you're reading this, you're invited! I'm thinking around 1 o'clock. I'm unprepared, as usual, but I know we will make it work! It's been a busy couple of weeks and seems to be getting busier. Emily was invited to play for the traveling team, so we will be spectating a lot more basketball in the next couple of months. I'm kind of excited about that. We were on pool prospect hiatus for the last six months but are back in the swim of it, hee hee.

I can't believe I now have a six year old boy. We started the day off with 7 a.m. dental appointments. It sounds funny but it did start the day off in a special way, my kids actually like going to the dentist. Well, strike Emily off that list. She had a tooth pulled last week, she was so upset about it. She came home in tears describing the needle to me. Awww, growing up, you just can't get around it.

We made our annual trek to the snow with our friends Victor, Nena, and Emma last weekend and it was another fabulous adventure. I hope to post pictures and details later in the week.

About a month ago, I was telling my boy Wyatt that one day his voice would change and deepen. He has been practicing his big boy voice and I am not kidding, it is hilarious. The first thing we practiced was "what's for dinner momma? Now he has graduated to singing songs. He came home from school last week singing "vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa" [come and see my farm, it's beautiful!] in his big boy voice. It's is perfectly priceless.

Happy birthday to my little man!

Magically Delicious.

Eva's nursery school is a co-op. Thank goodness I worked yesterday or else I would have missed this:
She and one of her friends wandered over to the dramatic play area and fixed themselves up right. I added the sepia, and ta da, cuteness preserved.

I hadn't planned on writing anything to support the title of this blog post, I just thought it sounded good. It would have been even better yesterday. I try never to buy Lucky Charms myself, once a year or so one of my kids will haul in a box of it after a shopping trip with Tony. It's so predictable, all the marshmallows get picked out and they leave heaping bowls of Alpha Bits after they've gone. I do like Alpha Bits, and Lucky Charms too. I just can't bring myself buy the LC's... too much wasted food.

I don't remember it being a big deal in grade school, perhaps it's a newer tradition, but when my kids arrive at school on St. Patrick's Day all kids of things seem to have gone berserk in their classrooms. They come home telling stories of Leprechauns running wild in the middle of the night turning everything upside-down and crazy. It's cute really, they have a good laugh at seeing their usually tidy classrooms in complete disarray. Sarah came home from school yesterday and asked me if I believed in the little green dudes. I confessed to her that I didn't believe in them. I hope I didn't confuse her too much. She's probably thinking about Santa and the Tooth Fairy now with suspicion. Whoops, Easter is coming...yikes what have I done?

Some random thinking's:

Eva woke me up this morning with a new one, she looked at the clock and proclaimed Mommy, wake up it's 7 o'teen! Followed by her usual one, Mommy wake up! The sky is up!

A new washer and dryer might magically appear in my laundry room on Friday!

Hey! I made my first sale on ebay this week. It was a thing I purchased four years ago for $100. I sold it for $81! It was much easier to do all of it than I imagined. I especially loathe to ship things. Did you know that you can print a label and pay for the postage right on your computer, then have your postal carrier come right to your front door to take it away? Easy peasy! Something that was just taking up space in my space, now magically goes to someone in Massachusetts who needs it and gives me magical money for it! Technology can be a beautiful [and magical] thing.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. We are going to relax and spend some good quality time with friends.

Wyatt's 6th birthday is right around the corner and so is birthday party anxiety. I need to get busy with that. My little dude is going to be six!

Returning to my theme, if I had one magic wish today it would be to finish everything I start. I seem to have a serious problem with that. Start this, leave it laying around. Start that, leave it laying around. Start this over here, leave it undone. Sheesh!

The little voice in my head [not a leprechaun] just said to me pick it up girl! I'm off to open a cantaloupe for the fruit and drink dictator, aka Eva. That's all I got, happy spring!

Oh look! A wish granted! I started and finished a blog post!

Happiness Is...

1. Driving my invisible El Camino in my high chair. Wind in my David Crosby [thanks Kris] hairdo, cruising past the fence with the sun shining down on me. This was given to my by none other than my nearly six year old son Wyatt.

2. Scooping up my four kids and making an unplanned overnighter to see the grandfolks. The fact that I didn't have to twist my Mother's arm to meet me at IKEA on the way up and for her to suggest that we make a pitstop at Old Navy makes it exponentially sweeter.

3. Enjoying my favorite donut with my favorite three year old enjoying her pink frosted sparkly one. It was a spontaneous splurge. After dropping all the others off at school, we went through the car wash so we were not on our regular route and the route we were on took us by a donut shop that I had never checked out before. So we stopped, and the nice man behind the counter gave us free donut holes. Eva wanted to move in, and live there forever, but instead we came home and enjoyed every single bite. Whenever someone brings a dozen, mine is almost never included, so sometimes I just need to go and find one for myself.


4. Sitting in the sun, on the grass, on one of the last days of winter watching my nearly six year old boy do this:

5. Knowing that my nearly six year old son is one awesome little dude.

6. Being busy enough, but not to busy, to see the things that make this life good, every day, everywhere.

It's Official.

I dress like a three year old.
My kids live in a bird nest.

Eva has more facial expressions than anybody I know.

She melted me into a puddle when she she poked her head inside the house before going outside to play and told me, complete with a hurtful facial expression, "Mommy, I love you so bad."

Our weekend was pretty slow, it mostly revolved around Girl Scout cookies and routine maintenance. Emily has her first basketball game tonight, maybe this year I can get a decent picture!