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More mall stuff

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At the mall, waiting for Daddy.

Stopped at the fire station and got an inpromptu tour.

3 Little Pigs

As the story ended (well, the sanitized version), Emma added her own amendments:

Me: ...and the wolf slid down the chimney and the fire in the fireplace sent him right back up and out and he never came back. The pigs lived happily ever after.

Emma: And they gave him a bandaide.

Me: Oh?

Emma: Yes. 'Cuz he had a boo-boo.

Me: Yes, he did.

Emma: On his bum.

Me: Yes.

Emma: The pigs kissed his boo-boo and made it better.

Me: They did?

Emma: Yes, and they said sorry for burning his bum. Then they all lived together and ate ice cream.

Just thought you'd be interested in this new ending, so that you can tell it correctly to he new generations.

An After Thought

I was hopping around to my favorite blogs (se the list on the right) and found a link to this article, a tongue and cheek "Save Easter from the Atheists" sort of thing. I found it quite hysterical.

Babysitter Tales

I am test driving a new babysitter. I just don't like the idea of having an unknown teenager over to my house and leaving her with my stress inducing angels as I walk out the door. So I invited one of the local babysitting teens (a young one of 13) over today and let her take care of the kids while I was busy on another floor of the house. She has taken, I was told, a "Babysitting Course" through the community. Oh? Fascinating, but only if I really knew what they covered and what that meant. There were a few things to tell someone who has just come over and I realized as I told her the one million things a person must know to take care of the kids in my house that I should really write some of it down. Then again, I've done that before; where I write down EVERY detail of the desired care of my children while I am out and I am pretty sure the list (epic as it is) did not get read past the first 3 lines. Anyhow, at some point I should figure out a good compromise between ticking off things with my fingers while I spout information versus writing an epic list. So, dear Kasi was WONDERFUL. I was on the third floor of my house, organizing and filing things that have been neglected since Mary was born and they were playing in the basement. My phone system has a really neat feature that allows you to use them as walkie-talkies and page from one phone base to another. This was handy for Kasi as she could just ring me up and ask where the proffered pop was kept. I can also turn on the phones like a baby monitor and listen to the activities at that end - YES, SPY. I don't expect to find out that the neighbor kid is beating my children, but I do want to hear the atmosphere of the playtime. I couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but I do know there was no crying, no yelling, and 2 little girls laughing ecstatically at something the babysitter was saying or doing. That was happiness enough for me. So I virtuously filed and sorted for 2 1/2 hours, coming close to eliminating one large item off of my Spring Cleaning list and it only cost me $15. Kasi, thankfully, will be back tomorrow morning for the follow up 2 1/2 hours and I am happy as punch about it. The sad thing is that I wish she could come over every morning for two hours so that I could get some THINGS done, but, alas, she must attend school. SIGH.

Easter Blessings

There was the candy, the chocolate, and the mayhem. They pretty much went in that order, as well as increasing in magnitude with every step. The girls pigged out on the baskets of candy (which were considered to be sparsely loaded) early this morning after a rousing game of Egg Hunting. A few hours later we went to a nice brunch that we had to make reservations for 2 weeks ago. I figured they would be passable and maybe even hungry by that time. No such luck. This restaurant was SMART. They had a kids buffet filled with rice krispie treats, colorful goldfish crackers, sugary cereal like Lucky Charms, doughnuts, tater tots, cookies, yadda yadda ad naseum. My kids wouldn't even touch that. There were random trifles of chocolate eggs and the whatnot scattered around the tables, and that was what they ATE. It was incredible. The chocolate drool alone from Mary's mouth was notable. And they did not want to sit down. Emma very nearly pulled the table cloth and all table belongings off onto the floor at least twice. Mary fell out of her booster seat more times than I could count. All I can say is that we will not be going to another brunch any time soon - and maybe not even next Easter.

As an aside, Emma is still unable to stop the mayhem and is kicking her bedroom door right now. I should go see what it is that is so dire.

Taming the Mall Monster

Emma is taking Crocodile Hunter lessons and the first one involved letting this poor girl out of the mouth of the Giant Mall Croc. ;)

Attack of the Killer Butterfly

At the mall today we went inside of a butterfly house. Mary loved the little insects and was amazed at every turn. She giggled when they climbed on her fingers. She squealed when they opened their wings. Emma was pleased to see the creatures, until one started climbing up her arm. The higher up her arm it got, the more nervous she became. This one made it up to her chest when I asked her to smile. This look was stuck on her face until the delicate thing took off.

Waiting for the doctor for 40 minutes

I took this picture with my phone at the ENT doctor's office this morning. We were there for a simple recheck of Emma's ear tubes, which were infected a month or so ago and bleeding profusely at the time. There was an earlier picture of her here at the same office. Well we waited 25 minutes in the waiting room and then an additional 30 in the exam room. I was, for some reason, extraordinarily annoyed at this and told the nurse and the doctor just that. All I asked was that they might have told me at the beginning so that I could have called Jim's Mom to tell her we were going to be late in meeting her. Irritatingly so, the doctor was insouciantly unapologetic.

Fish

This is a picture of our new fish. We have 8 large fish and 5 little fish. A neighbor gave them to us, as she is dismantling her little waterfall/rapids/pond thing. She said her husband put it in poorly and they need to undo it for an unspecified amount of time. I have to tell you, reader, it is a bit of pressure, knowing that she has had these fish for 5 years (and asked if she could come and visit them), and knowing that I may inadvertently kill them. In spite of all of that, we now have fish in our pond. Which meant Jim had to go to the nursery FIRST thing this morning and get plants. He's been DYING to get plants for this pond. He has searched online for information and pictures, checked books out of the library, and printed off mounds of information. He even called a pond specialty store and went and visited it a few weeks ago. What he won't listen to is every single source of information that is telling him IT IS TOO EARLY TO PUT IN NEW PLANTS. The nice NEW plants you see in this picture are a Monarch butterfly attracting plant on the left, that will flower with nice white flowers (if the frost doesn't kill it) and a papyrus plant on the left, which looks kind of like Yarrow (or: WEEDY). We also have 2 lily pad plants and some random floating plants and a tall grass of some sort. Emma "helped" him put the plants in and she got a great satisfaction out of it and strutted about with fabulous importance that she got to "water the plants". Which is correct in a bizarre, twisting language sort of way. The only frustrating thing was we had to go before the girls' pictures today in their beautiful fluffy Easter dresses, fine shoes and white gloves. Which they were wearing while traipsing through the greenhouses with piles of mud and standing water. We had a quick turn about the place and went to wait in the car until time to go. It all worked out wonderfully and we got some successful pictures, which I will have to figure out how to get them so they can be seen here.

Well, that is all for now. I have some other random computer things to attend and it isn't getting any earlier.

Home at Last

We are home and VERY happy, mostly because EMMA IS SLEEPING. Our poor, overtired bunny fell asleep as we were descending through turbulence- basically rocked to sleep by bumpy clouds. That gave her something around 13 minutes of a nap today, which was enough to swear her off of any further sleep the rest of the day. Everything went smoothly and we completely enjoyed our time with our good friends. The girls had a blast disgorging every well organized toy area of the house. We had a great time just being with our friends, drinking wine, eating a LOT of food, and laughing enough to cause harm to ourselves.

Our very tired children cried when we got off of the plane, when we got onto the red bus to take us to our car, when we got in our car, when we drove through Wendy's for a late lunch, when we ate lunch, when we took off their shoes, and at every other opportunity a toddler can think of to be totally crushed by the choice you make. So we gave them a bath and put them to bed. The day is really looking up at 8:45 PM.

Emma found my lipstick in the suitcase when she was 'napping'.

Enjoying the park.

Today's adventure's include the Children's Museum.

Fun Picture from the mall

In order: Emma, Sabrina, Fiona. They were, indeed, having that good of a time. This was at the-park-previously-known-as Camp Snoopy, until they unexpectedly lost the licensing rights. They are now "The Park at Mall of America", and the girls really don't care either way. Mary got to go on the trucks and drive around a circle, as well as the carousel. She thought that was very cool. Emma and Fiona went to everything they could get to, and Sabrina climbed to the top of the rock wall. Wow! They were a bunch of energetic children, even when we got home.

Vagabond Life

Well, here we are in Minnesota, visitng close friends. The adventure is trying to get 4 girls (5 1/2, 3 1/2, 3 and not quite 2) to sleep in the same room. It is "nap time" right now, which just means the adults take turns going in and looking menacing. Little Mary is out cold, but the rest of the girls cannot keep themselves quiet enough for one of them to try to sleep. It is humorous, if only it didn't mean the lack of napping. We went to lunch at a great little Mexican restaurant, where the waiter chatted away with me and Jim in Spanish. Sometimes, I would like to not speak Spanish so that I could just sit there quietly and not have to think. But the food was incredible and Mary ate EVERY bite, which is highly unusual. Diane and I escaped for a pedicure this morning and now the guys are headed out to do something manly without the kids around. Later we are going to go wrok out (the kids get to play at a cool kid's area), then take all 4 girls to the open pool thing. We'll see how that goes, since they are ging to be pretty tired and most likely very grumpy. The best laid plans and all of that....

The most excitement happened yesterday at the Zoo, when I thought I lost my phone. We back tracked and spent a lot of time looking on the ground, only to go home disappointed. Later I found that it had fallen out of my coat and was living on the floor under my seat in the car. That was a happy ending.

In Minnesota

Just for Derek

I had to make these ultra cute bunnies today for no reason except that I am procrastinating hundreds of other things. This pattern is at the Wee Wonderfuls site that is linked on the side. They would be cuter if I tied a ribbon around their necks, but the girls will just tear it off. Since Derek posted earlier in what can only be described as abject fear of small cute things such as these, I was thinking of making a dozen to send him for Easter. In the mean time, the girls are loving their new toys.

Martha Called

Well, Danielle called from Martha's office. Unfortunately, Martha will not be able to attend my event, since she will be in Europe for the month of June. She did, however, see my invitation (according to Danielle) and there was a note that she liked the color scheme. A letter will follow, on MARTHA letterhead and all, saying how she cannot attend.

I have to tell you, my heart was racing. The possibilities that towered in my head when I saw the caller ID (NEW YORK CALL) were staggering. I didn't imagine for a moment it was Martha, but beyond that it could have been anything. I could have been asked to be on the phone during her show or it may have been them telling me a restraining order was being sought for overly ambitious fans. On the outside, they could have been calling to make sure we could have some sort of security in place for Martha's visit. The potentials were all there on the caller ID. About 10 minutes later the excitement was over. Martha is not coming. But I invited her and she saw the invitation I made with my own hands. I really grilled Danielle about that. She said, "Martha personally sees ALL of her invitations, this is not just an automatic thing. And I have a note that she liked the color scheme." So I will choose to believe her. Then I will take the letter, politely declining my invitation, and keep it in my Martha Stewart Cookbook for Entertaining. The irony is too much to pass up.

Just Delivered

According to the post office, the official invite was delivered on Monday, April 3rd. Here is the letter (more or less) that I wrote out and sent to Martha:

Dear Ms. Stewart,

Please accept an invitation for yourself and a guest to join my dinner club in a celebration of C--H-- Village and Martha Stewart.

C-- H-- Village was once one of Henry Ford's 19 "Village Industries", fitted with a factory to provide small scale industrial production in a rural setting to help part time farmers. Before that, it was a small crossroads town with a church, a cemetery, a hotel, and a school, established in 1834. Our neighborhood has taken it's strengths from the past and built upon itself into a better and stronger community. The remains of the Ford Village were expanded on and added to with a blanket of Victorian era homes swathing an entire community, complete with a town square, shops, a general store and a theater. The history of this village mirrors your own evolution. You share the indefatigable and paradigmatic spirit that the very town embodies. Your visit to our community will give you an exclusive opportunity to experience these unique values C-- H-- Village holds within itself. You will also be able to glimpse what your own Twin Lakes community will be like when they take up the sodality of Martha Stewart.

For the past two years I have been involved in a dinner club in my neighborhood. Every month we take turns hosting the event. The hosts provide all of the recipes for the meal, along with the main course. Every meal is based on a theme, such as an Italian Night or A Summer Barbeque. I will be hosting our club in June and I am planning a celebration of strength of character and perseverance to commemorate our community- a "Martha Stewart Night". The spirit of the night will be drawn from our own community. The inspiration for the meal will be from your cookbooks. Your presence there will complete the fellowship.

Please find the enclosed invitation that I have made and sent to you. We have not set the exact date for our dinner club meeting yet, so I am able to offer you a choice of dates. Please RSVP, if you would be so kind, as to which date you would be able to attend, June 17th or June 24th. For planning purposes I ask that you respond no later than May 27th.

Not that I expect anything, but in the most odd event that something does come of it, I should paint some additional rooms of the house.