Mommathon

Thank you to ALL of you who donated to my birthday cause. And the grand total is (drum roll, please)..........193. Between friends, family and neighbors, we donated 193 items to local food banks over the month of July. I thank you and so do a lot of needy families.

Colm has recently discovered all of the board games, card games and puzzles in our house. That's a lot, folks. He has put together every puzzle we have, some of them multiple times. We have played Chinese checkers, multiple versions of Go Fish, Hullabaloo, Whack a Mole, Cariboo, Balloon Lagoon, I Spy Bingo, Trouble, Great States, Jr. and on and on and on. I am just talking about this week, too. I don't know what clicked in his little head, but he really enjoys board games and puzzles all of the sudden. There are a few that we haven't gotten to yet, but that's only because he can't reach them. Maybe we'll play those tomorrow.

Liam has now joined the ranks of the 100 Club. What does that mean? His violin teacher challenges the kids to practice one song a hundred times over the course of a year. They pick the song they want to practice. I can't remember when we started this little challenge, but he finished tonight. (He was supposed to get it done two months ago.) He will now get his picture, along with the chart he filled out to keep track of his progress, hung on the wall in his teacher's basement/studio. He was very proud of himself.

I don't often read books by men about men, so this was kind of a different read for me. The topic, too, was a little different. It is a fiction book with short stories about men and the dating scene in New York. It was kind of interesting to read something from a man's point of view.

This is a cute story about a little girl who is picked to be the star of the show. Her parents are thrilled and pamper their star with a new dress and a new haircut as well as buying a new camcorder to capture her in action. They go to the play and get quite a surprise, but they are still very proud of their little star.

Sean, Liam and Colm had an indoor campout this weekend. The boys stripped all the blankets off their beds and made a little nest to sleep in and Sean got the bean bag. They spent the evening playing video games and eating popcorn in the toyroom. I was in charge of refreshments. Colm was just loving every minute of it; he felt like he was such a big boy getting to stay up and have his own sleepover like Liam does with his best friend. I went to go check on everyone at about 10:30...Liam was asleep, Sean was asleep, Colm was still awake, quiet as a mouse, drinking his milk and thumbing through his books.

Liam asked me today if in the medieval times they played rock, parchment paper, swords instead of rock, paper, scissors. Too funny.

Liam informed me today that he is going to buy a computer with his allowance. At $2 per week that is going to take him a while. I told him how much computers cost. I think he thinks it is a lost cause at this point. How can he save for a computer and still buy a new pack of Pokemon cards every two weeks? Hmmm....quite a dilemma.

I am a purist when it comes to shoes. I subscribe to the less is more theory with clothes/shoes in general including the boys' clothes/shoes. I don't like them to have shoes with characters/trucks/dinosaurs on them nor do I like them to have shoes that light up. So how, might you ask, did Colm end up with a pair of Spiderman light-up sandals? Necessity. He needed another pair of sandals and it is hard to find sandals at the end of July and they were only $3.94 at Target and more importantly, he fell in love with them.

Also, in shoe-related news...I was on a quest today. Colm was in school, so Liam and I went shoe shopping for school. It gets much more complicated now that Liam has a uniform to wear. They can wear tennis shoes that are mostly white with their uniform shorts through first quarter, so we needed a pair of those. Then they have to wear dress shoes with their uniform until after spring break, so we needed a pair of those. They have to keep a pair of tennis shoes at school during the dress shoe months so they have shoes for recess and gym, so we needed a pair of tennis shoes for home. Colm also needed a pair of shoes. We got everything we needed at the Stride-Rite outlet except for the dress shoes. I found a pair I liked, but not in the right color. So, we ended up buying three pairs of shoes; my goal was four. We don't need the dress shoes right away, so we still have time.

We have had a great experience with swim lessons this summer. Next week is our last week, so I thought I would take some pics.

We have not been to the farm all summer. We went a few times in the spring, but haven't been in a few months. I told the boys we could go anywhere they wanted today and they chose "the farm". They had a great time, but it was getting kind of steamy towards the end. Luckily, there was a sprinkler running to water the grass and many kids (and a few adults) were using it to cool themselves off, too.



Mining for shiny rocks


Making cornmeal

Liam had his first sleepover at someone else's house this weekend. I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure he was going to make it, but he did it. I was very proud of him. (I also wasn't too worried because they live right behind us, so a late night trip across the backyard wouldn't have been too bad.) Anyways, he didn't go to sleep until 4a.m. even though everyone else was asleep. He told me he couldn't sleep because the TV was on and he couldn't figure out how to turn it off. He is an expert on infomercials now. :)


On his way out the door with his pillowcase full of Pokemon cards, his jammies, his toothbrush, and a couple of books, one of them being his Pokemon guide, of course.

We hosted a backyard water party for all the first grade boys in our neighborhood this weekend on the HOTTEST day of the year. (Man, it was hot.) There were 16 first grade boys and a couple of siblings plus all the parents, so we had a very busy backyard. The boys had so much fun. They giggled, splashed and had a blast.

Water Balloon Toss


Buddies


What's a water party without a slip n' slide?

I blogged at the beginning of the month about donating food to the needy for my birthday month. Well, it's almost August, so if you have not done so, put it on your grocery list right now. pretty please. In case you need some help with some ideas about what to buy, they always need: tuna, cans of pasta sauce, pasta, peanut butter and Hamburger Helper. Place it in a bin at the grocery store or wherever food for the needy is collected (or bring it to me and I will do it for you) and then tell me how many items you donated. The traffic in the local food pantry is up 70% from last year. 70%!!! That's a lot. We are up to 128 donated items so far. Keep it coming!!! Thank you.

A Plump and Perky Turkey is about a town trying to figure out how to outsmart the turkeys at Thanksgiving not realizing how clever turkeys can be. Queen of the World is about three little sisters who manage to ruin their mother's birthday, but then figure out how to salvage it the next day. We have checked out the turkey book from the library twice now; they have several copies of this book and always seem to have one in stock, especially in July.

Sean cooked dinner...I must say it was fantastic. I don't remember the French name, but it was bacon-stuffed salmon with lentils and a horseradish cream sauce. It was very good.


Studying the recipe


Voila!!!

The first new food you need to try is Kashi's newest baby. Kashi U is so tasty!!! It has flakes like raisin bran, but it has dried currants which are a little crunchy and a little bit sour which goes great with the walnuts that are in it. Also, I have found a new spaghetti sauce. I am a little picky about my spaghetti sauces. First of all, it can't have soybean oil in it!!!! There are no ladies in Italy putting soybean oil in their zugo-I am SURE of it!!! Secondly, among other things, it must have olive oil in it. My step-mom's mom is one of those little old Italian ladies making "gravy" every Sunday morning and she definitely puts olive oil in the sauce. So, I highly recommend you pick up a bottle of Sorrisos. I got the Tomato & Basil variety. Yummers.

I get several magazines...O, Kiwi, Family Fun, and Parents. THE BEST magazine I get though is Wondertime. If you have a child in your house you NEED this magazine. It isn't a magazine about how to be a better parent as much as it is a collection of smart essays about parenting...witty, interesting and entertaining. Get it...it's cheap...you won't regret it.

They are supposed to be spraying each other, but my mom and I managed to get a little wet, too.


Cleaning the fence

This is one of those books that keeps going back and forth in time. I kind of like it when authors write like that. It keeps you on your toes! Anyways, this book is the story of a girl, Maddy, and how she copes with the death of her mother and the loss of her father and how those two losses shape her life.

My mom and step-dad took the kids today to an indoor play place (the name escapes me) that they'd never been to before. The review was that it had more games than Chuck E. Cheese. Next, they went to Panera for lunch. Then they took them to a WWII airplane show where they got to climb in and on airplanes from that era as well as a bunch of other old military stuff. Liam said his favorite was the helicopter. Colm said his favorite was everything. They even had a band playing WWII music which I thought was pretty cool. Then they took the boys back to their house to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. What did Sean and I do the whole time they were gone??? I went and got a MUCH needed haircut while Sean went to the health club. Then I CLEANED our house. It was time. It was getting kind of yucky around here. I mopped every floor that can be mopped. I had to refill the bucket three times and went through quite a bit of vinegar. I then vacuumed every floor/area rug that can be vacuumed. I cleaned all the toilets and did the dishes. The only thing I didn't get to that still REALLY needs to be done is cleaning the bathroom vanities. I know that none of that sounds very fun, but it seriously needed to be done. Then, when Sean came home, we went out to a nice lunch all by ourselves at WilJenny's. I had the yummiest lunch. I wish I would have taken a picture for you. It was about four or five huge shrimp wrapped in bacon covered with spicy mango salsa all on a bed of tomato cheese grits. Seriously. It was SOOO good. Then we went to the grocery store-by ourselves. Really, a heavenly experience. Then we came home, unpacked the groceries and went to Costco. Again, by ourselves. Do you know how much you can get done without the kids in tow. It's amazing really. Some couples have date nights, we had a date day. Thanks, grandparents. :)

Liam is at spy camp this week. He goes in the afternoons each day and let me just say, it is cool. The first day he came home talking about acids and bases. Yesterday they studied fingerprints and today they talked about the properties of light. Since they were talking about light they made "indoor firecrackers". Not sure what that is, but from the enthusiasm that I saw it must have been cool. They also did this hovercraft thing where they floated in the air on this big frisbee like contraption. Again, I haven't seen any of this; I am hearing it from Liam. They also do a lot of problem solving activities (some of which I have seen because they do them towards the end of class) and there is even some thought put into their snacks. For example, on the first day they had pretzel sticks and marshmallows so they could build stuff with their food before they ate it. The teachers are cool, too. They are two college-age men/boys who wear lab coats which Liam just thinks is awesome. The icing on the cake, however, is that the newspaper came to take pics of them yesterday at camp and a picture of Liam and two others boys made it into the paper today. He thinks he is famous. :)

I had a friend of mine from church tell me that she thought that people who didn't send their kids to Catholic schools just didn't love them enough. Now, when she said this lots of things ran through my head. It was the kind of thing where you really don't know how long it has been since they spoke and you should probably say something but you can't say what's running through your head because that would be really rude. Honestly, I don't know what I said in response because my mind was still in disbelief that these words had been uttered. I am still in a little bit of shock even though time has passed. Had I been one of those people who can just speak off the cuff and sound intelligent in any given situation I think I would have said something like this: I think that parents have to make the decision that is right for their child and that would demonstrate that they loved them since they were making a decision based on many factors and not just that it was Catholic.

I got that vibe quite a bit when I was teaching in the Catholic schools, too. Parents who feel like their kid is better than those horrible awful public school kids. Parents who feel that their Catholic school kids can do no wrong. Well, let me tell you. I have taught those kids. I had kids who lied, cheated, stole and did a number of other things that weren't very holy. I think it would also be an eye-opener to a number of those parents just how few parents that send their kids to Catholic school actually go to Mass during the weekend. I must say, I was a little surprised, too. So, I guess my point is. Why does it matter what I do or what my neighbor does? Who cares. People have a lot of reasons for doing what they do in any given situation.

I would love to see those who chose public schooling and those who don't to not see each other as adversaries, but as parents trying to do what they think is best and to have a mutual respect for each other as parents. In the end that is what we all are, parents, day in and day out making the best decisions that we can at the time.

Colm is one of those kids who wants to have the same stories read to him every night. God bless the library. I don't mind reading the same books day after day, night after night because I get to take them back in a week. I hope to bring you a book or two each week that we are currently enjoying in our house. Just a forewarning, most of the books will be about a holiday, probably Halloween. I am also not promising that they will be "high quality" children's literature. Let's just say Colm likes what he likes and sometimes I am not sure why he likes it. That said, here are this week's picks.

On Sunday we went to play marbles and practice for the end of August when they/we will participate in a game of marbles that may get us into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people playing marbles all at the same time.

I had a great birthday yesterday. Sean and the boys gave me some lovely shirts, a skirt and some capris. Then we had a yummy breakfast at First Watch with my mom and step-dad. I had their spinach, tomato and avocado Eggs Benedict, a piece of sausage (from Liam's plate) and their breakfast potatoes. We then went home and hung out...played Candyland, Go Fish, put together a very difficult Star Wars puzzle...and then we went to Houlihan's for dinner. It wasn't my first choice, but I knew everyone would be able to find something to eat there and boy did we. Sean and I shared an appetizer of baked brie with strawberries and balsamic vinegar served with these little crisp raisin toasts. Then I had a half portion of babyback ribs, a yummy version of coleslaw and some French Onion soup. Then dessert...they have these desserts that they call minis which I had never had before, but something mini sounded too small so we ordered three minis that we could all share. Okay, minis are just regular-sized desserts that would be fine to share between two people...but we had ordered three of them. They were yummy though. We had banana cream pie, lemon meringue and creme brulee. I seriously thought I was going to burst, so we came home and went on a family walk with the dog and then the boys ran around in the sprinklers for a while. Good day.

Decorating the bikes


Big kid with no training wheels


Up the hill...slowly but surely


Hanging out at the pool with Dad


Luau boy

I almost didn't finish this book. I started reading it and it was just kind of weird in the beginning. I kept at it though and I am glad I did. It really was a good story, with a few strange bits mixed in.

Colm has to go to the dentist once a month to get his Palette Splitter expanded. He had an appointment yesterday and good news, his bite has been corrected. He still has to keep it in though to train the soft tissues in his mouth to stay put, kind of like how you have to wear a retainer after getting braces removed. Also, after next month, we only have to go back every six weeks until I don't know when. Next month we get to go twice, once for the palette splitter and then the boys both have their regular cleaning appointments. We're getting kind of chummy with the dental hygienists. :)

This will always be known as the 4th of July that Liam learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Our neighbor let us borrow their old bike that their boys learned to ride on. Let's just say this bike has seen better days; there isn't much Liam could do to this bike. Sean took him across the street, gave him a push or two and he was off. His next lesson was braking which he figured out quickly, too. Two hours later he was riding in the neighborhood bike parade.

It's my birthday month and a friend of a friend of mine had a great idea and I hope you will participate. RCM had the idea of contributing to a charity in some way during your birthday month and asking others to do the same. So, here is your challenge. During the month of July I would like for you to pick up a couple of extra food items each time you go to the store and put them in the donation barrel at the grocery store, at your place of worship or wherever you can find a place that will take food donations. E-mail me, call me, or leave me a response on this post every time you donate and tell me how many cans, packages, bags of whatever you donated and I will keep the tally. Let's see how much we can collect during the month of July. Do it for all of the people who are struggling now and are having to decide between gas and food and if nothing else do it because it's my birthday month and I am asking you to. I will be contributing,too!! Thanks in advance!!!!

I feel so sorry for our new neighbors. They just moved here-from China! They are Americans, but he works for Hallmark and they sent him and his family over there for a few years and now they're back. This is why I feel sorry for them...the moving trucks arrived today and when they opened up the trucks, they were full of these huge crates. Ugh!!! Can you imagine? Moving is awful as it is, but having to pack everything into huge crates and send it overseas just seems like a task I would not want to even consider. Moving the few miles that we did in October was enough for me.