Random

I realize I haven't written anything in more than a week, but my life is just SO exciting!  So for today I will just write about our random goings-ons.

• Hubby is out  of town on business for a few days so of course Z came down with a fever today.  It is sort of a running joke that whenever he is out of town one of the kids or me or all three of us get sick.  So far he isn't too ill, just the fever.  It was kind of high though 102 degrees even after taking a few bites of his cold cereal.  He was kinda cute, I told him that he couldn't go to school today and he started crying and said "All the kids will say I am ABSENT!!!"  I guess he thought absent was some sort of insult, so I explained what it actually meant and told  him yes he would be absent.  He was upset but quickly calmed down after letting him know he would have to rest and watch cartoons.

• My father taught the kids to say "Heya baby!" and little S thinks it is the funniest thing ever!  And it is!  He really cracks us up, he says it in this weird little voice and I just die.  So hilarious.  S is such a character and already has quite the developed sense of humor.  I just know he is going to be the class clown once he starts school.

• I am going to Washington DC!  My husband heard that Jon Stewart is throwing a "Rally for Sanity" and we both thought it sounded like fun, but had no real intention of going.  A couple hours later we got an email from a good friend of ours saying "lets do it!"  I was a little apprehensive because it is on Halloween weekend and I didn't want to miss out on my fav holiday with the kids.  Especially since I am making them the coolest costumes ever.  But, my mom said she would watch them.  Oh so tempting.  I finally decided to go and come home Halloween afternoon so I can still go trick-or-treating.  Yay! I am SO excited.  Hopefully we can pack a lot of sightseeing into the 2 full days we will be there.  I went when I was about 14 and saw almost everything, but I would like to spend some more times in the museums. (Oh man, that is so almost 20 years ago sheesh.)

Hooray Daddy is home!

My husband has to travel out of town for business quite frequently.  This week he was only gone for (almost) 3 days.  Poor guy had to leave AZ last night at 2am to make it home for the weekend.  I am really spoiled because he works from home so when he is gone it is a real culture shock.  How do single moms or military moms do it?  Seriously, I think I would be insane if I didn't have such a great partner.  I grew up in a military family and my father was gone a lot, I know how hard it was for my mother and I didn't want to go through that too.  Luckily my honey is maybe gone two times per month and it is usually only for a few days at a time.

We are having a lazy weekend and enjoying being home together.  Dinner is on the crock pot and we have 3 Netflix DVDs to catch up on.

Labor Day Weekend

We went to Disney World for 3 days and nights this Labor Day.  We have season passes and just came off of our summer black-out dates.  A long weekend was the perfect time to go back!  My parents stayed with us in Orlando, but didn't go to the parks with us.  Usually I like to stay on Disney property at the Pop Century hotel, but I didn't want to pay the "rack room" rate for 3 nights(no good discounts for us on this trip).  I found a good deal on a hotel (Comfort Inn) and lets just say,  you get what you pay for!!  It wasn't too bad, newly remodeled rooms and great location.  It was annoying that none of the ice machines in our building were working, but oh well.  We have stayed at this place before, but it was only 1 night and we were dog-tired when we arrived and basically just went to sleep.

My sweeties sleeping

The crowd level was very low, we walked right onto every ride! I was afraid that since this was a holiday weekend that it would be insanely crowded, but we have never seen it so un-crowded. This trip was a little different from our previous trips because my kids are becoming such big boys!!  S is finally 40 inches tall so we got to go on a couple big kid rides.  On Saturday we spent the morning at Magic Kingdom. Whenever we go to Magic Kingdom, we have to do the Buzz Lightyear Ride and the Tomorrow Land Speedway.   We headed over to Splash Mountain next.  I am scared of this ride, but Hubby loves it and he thought that Z would to.  So, they rode it and S and I waited in the short line to see Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.  He was so excited the whole time we were waiting in line, but when it was our turn the kid lost his mind!  He  ran off screaming and crying.  So, I totally looked like that mom who forces her kids to go see characters for the cute pictures even though the kid is terrified of the characters.  So, I tried to chase after him while wrestling with our big double sit-and-stand stroller.  He did this one other time with Mickey and Minnie (he HAD to see them) after waiting in line for almost an hour.  Z and Daddy had to leave to go potty, so I think he loses his nerve without big brother with him.  Z and Hubby finished the ride, a new favorite!  He loved it and wanted to go again, but we had lunch reservations at Epcot.

A horribly far away pic of Z and Daddy (see the red hair?)

Coming down the mountain!  (I really wish I had my zoom lens on!)

I wanted to embrace our German heritage (me by marriage!) and made our lunch reservations at the Biergarten in the Germany Pavilion.  This was definitely one of our favorite Disney experiences ever!!  Sausage and beer!  Plus polka music!  We shared a table with a fun Dad and his 3 sons.  They were great dining companions, good conversation and the boys all entertained each other.  As soon as we sat down we (the 3 adults) each ordered a liter of beer.  I love me some beer, but was a little worried that this would be too much for me to drink, the guys talked me into it though.  The we hit the buffet.  I had never had German food before, but am pretty adventurous.  They had a bunch of sausage, sauerkraut, meatballs, hot potato salad, chicken schnitzel (kids loved it), and the desserts.  (omg the desserts!!)I really wanted to eat more than I did, but the liter of beer really filled me up.  The polka band was awesome, so much fun.  The kids and I got up and danced, they love to boogie.

Awesomely long horns

Oh lordy a liter of beer!

Z diggin the music

After lunch we sloshed around the World Showcase.  It was so effin hot!  Seriously like walking on the sun.  We decided to go back to our hotel and go swimming.

S passed out in the stroller (never happens)

The boys in front of the big ball

Sunday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios.  Toy Story Mania and Star Tours, plus a few of the shows that we hadn't seen before.  Z was soooo excited to go on the Star Wars ride!  We had never gone on it before because S wasn't tall enough.  They are closing it down for some refurbishment, so I am glad we got to ride it.  No line so we rode twice.  (no pics because I didn't feel like lugging around camera bag)

Monday we went back to Magic Kingdom and all the rides were walk on, no lines!  This time we all rode Splash Mountain together.  Z said this was his favorite part of our whole trip.  Poor S had to pee so bad, he was a little miserable.  It didn't help that we got soaked.  I really wish he had told us before we got on the ride!  Luckily he made it without having an accident.  We headed home after riding a ton of rides.  I totally recommend coming on Labor Day Weekend!

The morning blues.

Since the second week of school Z has been having some separation anxiety when I drop him off in the mornings.  Last year in Pre-K he never cried.  He is usually a pretty outgoing kid.  Now every morning is just terrible with the drama!  It breaks my heart.  His teacher likes the kids to wait outside the classroom sitting against the wall while waiting for school to start.  She leaves a big bin of books for the students to read while they are waiting.  As soon as we show up the tears start.  "Mommy I will miss you too much!"  I made the mistake of telling him that he will forget all about me once class starts and he is having fun with the other students.  "No I won't!!!!  I don't want to forget about you, I don't even have a picture so I know what you look like!!"  Oh boy.  I managed to hold it together myself until I got to the car, hate seeing him sad.   So, the next day I put a family picture in his backpack and told him he can look at it if he is sad or lonely.  It doesn't seem to be helping.

Today I had to bring S in with me for drop off because hubby is out of town.  I asked Z if he wanted me to walk him in or just drop him off at the door (like most of the other parents do).  Of course he wanted me to walk him (and that is fine with me!).  Z started crying when we showed up at his classroom.  Then S started crying. " I we love Z!  I miss him!"  We were a little bit of a spectacle.  I REALLY hate leaving him there when he is so upset.  His teacher says he is fine once I leave, but that doesn't make leaving much easier.


Hopefully he outgrows this soon and learns to look forward to school.  Any tips or tricks for helping this happen sooner rather than later?

Play room fail

I don't even know where to start with this mess.

How I made a Jedi Robe

So, my son wants to be a Jedi for Halloween.  Being the crafty gal that I am I decided to make his costume.  Now I know it isn't even September yet, but I am too OCD to wait.  Plus, in case this was a total fail I wanted to have time to find a non-fail costume.  Lucky me this robe turned out great!  Will just have to make another one for my youngest son plus the tunic things that go with them. 

I had looked all over for a good pattern but the only one I found looked more like a wizard robe than a Jedi robe.  I also found a sort of Dracula robe pattern, but it looked pretty hard (I am not that great of a seamstress).  Google to the rescue! After searching a ton of different websites,  I found some easy(and full of the awesome) instructions HERE.  

 I did things a little differently than they described, namely folding the material in half again so that I got things pretty symmetrical.  I also fashioned a pattern out of some tissue paper so that I have something to go by for future robe making.  Z wasn't home to trace so I used my smaller son as a model.  The only supplies used were 3 yards of brown cotton fabric, brown thread, and 2 sheets of tissue paper for my "pattern".

Here are some pictures:

First I folded the fabric so that the neck is on a fold and then folded again so that the middle is on a fold.  Then pinned on the pattern.  (I got scared at the last second that this would be too small so moved the pattern down and over to the right a little)

Cut it out!  To make the neck hole, I put a shirt where the neck goes (folded in half long ways) and traced it.

Viola!  I cut the bottom a little rounded on the corner. This was a little long, so before hemming cut off a couple inches.

Haha here is my sad attempt to show where you sew up the sides and hem the rough edges.  After sewing up the sides, turn it right side out so that your seams are on the inside of the robe.  Then hem the rough edges and cut the front for the robe opening and  hem those sides up too.

I was totally intimidated by the hood for some reason, but needlessly so!  It was actually pretty easy.  Take another largish piece of fabric, fold in half and cut out a square, so when you unfold it you have a nice rectangle.  I made mine 14x14 inches and it is nice and big.  (unfolded I guess that would be 28x14 inches. After sewing up the side, turn inside out and then hem the other side.  The bottom gets sewn to the robe.   In the photo I marked where you sew and hem and where the fold is. 

The finished product!!   I will add some Velcro to close the robe once I get the tunic part made.  Overall I am very happy with how this turned out and my little padawan loves it!

Red head

Today when I walked Z into school I brought 2 of his 3 bags of supplies.  I waited for his teacher to show up so that I could give them to her in person so that she knew we did actually bring the stuff.  (it is crazy how much stuff we have to bring!)  She told me how much fun she was having with Z and how CUTE he is and how she just wants to squeeze him because he is so cute!  And I said, "I KNOW!"  Because obviously he is.  I then remembered to say thanks.  Now, I know that everyone thinks that their kids are the cutest, best looking, smartest kids EVER.  Z really IS cute though.  He has the brightest, prettiest red hair and an adorable freckled face.  His whole life every time we go anywhere we get stopped by random strangers to tell us how cute he is and how beautiful his hair is.  I am totally not trying to sound braggy, but this happens all the time.  At first we really just thought it was because he is a baby and everyone loves babies and thinks that they are cute.  Then he got older.  Then we had S and people would almost never say anything about the new baby and fawn all over Z.  (that used to piss me off actually, S is super cute too!)  People just seem to love red hair.  I hope that when he is older it won't embarrass him or get him teased. 

Cute even when cranky

Day 4

Just a quick note to say the traffic situation at Z's school is still no better.  Took me 30 minutes to pick him up today!  I am almost tempted to have him take the bus, but he is so little!!  The school is maybe 5 minutes away so I am probably just being way overprotective (hello helicopter mom!). How old were your kids when they started taking the bus to school?  This morning at drop off they informed me that Kindergarden was to use a different entrance than we had been using, so now he needs to learn a new route before we feel comfortable just dropping him off instead of walking to class.

Today Z told me his new friend was "the boy with no hair".  I asked what his name was and he didn't know.  I really hope he doesn't call him that in class.  Also, his teacher knows about Star Wars, bonus!!

Celebration!

My husband and I were recently lucky enough to attend Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, FL.  Plus we got to go SANS KIDS!!  A couple of good friends went with us too.  This was our first convention and we had a blast and can't wait to go to another one.  Now I am an official nerd :)   Unfortunately, we didn't make the main event which was Jon Stewart interviewing George Lucas.   There were people lined up since 11pm the previous night to see them and I am lazy and like to sleep.  We did catch the One Man Star Wars Trilogy, which was very cool.



Ok now on to the pictures!...

Darth Vader and me!

Death Star

Hubby and I meeting our favorite droids

At-At!

Run! To the Ice Bar!

Jaba and friends

We stayed at the Omni Resort Championsgate. We wanted to stay at the Gaylord Palms, but used Priceline and got this one instead. I got a pretty good deal, but ended up paying an additional $30 a day in fees that the resort charged. Kind of standard for Orlando resorts, but do wish that Priceline would have made this known when making the reservation. The hotel was very nice and huge! It had a "lazy river" that was a lot of fun. Not sure I would really want to stay here again, mostly because it was soooo far from everything(International Dr. and Disney).

Bedroom

Bathroom

Crappy picture of the outside

The Library

So, we went to the library today.  Just my 3-year-old and I.  He totally loves going to the library and reading all the Curious George books and doing puzzles.  In an attempt to "socialize" him we also do the Toddler Time.  This consists of the children's librarian reading a few books, singing a few songs, and usually some sort of felt board activity.  My son doesn't like Toddler Time.  He used to cry and pitch a fit, now he will at least sit quietly and kind of listen to the story.  The thing I noticed today was that none of the kids seemed to like it.  None of them were really  paying attention, some were crying, most were crawling all around.  It struck me as funny that all the moms were trying to get our kids to like being there, but the kids just weren't into it.  Maybe it was the stories that were read, they were a little long for a toddlers attention span.  The songs were all a little awkward too since nobody knew the words.  I guess it is a good thing that we are making this effort, and hopefully the kids are learning a little something.  Plus, the sitting (mostly) still and listening does get them ready for school.  I am glad that my kids love books and love going to the library.

P.S.  I know I live in the bible belt, but is too much to ask that we not have books about praying read in a public library??  The theme today was love and in one of the books a mother tells her child that she prays for him because she loves him.  So, basically if you are a non-thiest and don't pray for your child then you don't love them? It wasn't really a big deal, just sort of annoying. 

All grown up!

Well not really.  My oldest son started his first day of kindergarden today.  Everyone told me this would be an emotional day and they were right!  Last year he went to VPK, but it was only for 3 hours a day.  Plus, my mother taught at his school.  This year he is at a new school and will be there all day.  I am not as sad about him being gone all day as I am about him growing up so fast!  It really seems like just yesterday he was a helpless little baby.  He is so excited and eager to start school.  I really hope that this attitude carries through his whole school career.  Husband and I have really tried to instill in him that as long as he does well in school, he can be anything when he grows up.  Hopefully making a lot of money so he can care for us when we are old... been slacking on that whole retirement plan thing..  (kidding!  kind of...)  We had this conversation again this morning and he said he wants to be a firefighter.  Not exactly what I had in mind.

-Small Vent-  Since I am such a huge worry-wart  we drove him to school today.  Even though it is only about a 5 minute drive we left 30 minutes early to get there.  Good thing, traffic was such a cluster-fuck (oh yeah I have a potty mouth too) we were late getting him into his classroom.  I guess the school building is kind of old so there is absolutely no parking.  Cars were parked on the side of the road from about a mile away.  Plus, there were 2 traffic cops who didn't seem to know what they were doing except for getting in the way and needlessly blocking traffic.  So far this is my only complaint about the school.  We will be pretty lucky if that is the only one.  Assuming that in  a few days the traffic problem should clear up as more kids take the bus and just get dropped off at the front door.

Also, I kind of feel like a big slacking Bad Mom for not trying to get him into a magnet school or one of the VERY popular montessori schools in town.  It seems like everyone is sending their kids to montessori schools.  I really didn't want to deal with the enrollment process and wait lists.  Not to mention a long drive or long bus ride.  His school is an "A-rated" school and very close.  And he only has 16 kids in his class.  Not bad for public school.  So, I don't feel too bad I guess.  I am very glad we chose not to do a religous school again (that is a topic for a whole other blog post though).

My nest isn't totally empty, at least my 3-year old is still home with me for another year.

Where to start?

I have been putting off actually writing anything on here because I am just not sure where to start.  So, I will just jump in so at least my first blog post is done!  

About me?  Why is that such a hard question to answer?  I think before I had kids it was much easier.  Now I feel like my identity is all wrapped up in motherhood, but surely there is more to me than that.  I am a wife and stay-at-home mom.  (I never thought that this is where I would be, but I do love it and can't imagine doing anything else.)  I am a bit of a nerd (thanks husband!).  I like to cook, bake, sew (still learning), take pictures.  I hate to clean, but also hate living in a mess so I do a lot of it.  I am pretty girly and never had any brothers so it is shocking to me sometimes how wild my little boys are. 

Hopefully my future posts will be more interesting than this one!