Lake-Side Dining...or....Bath-Tub Chowing

This is what my life as a single* mother has brought me to:

That's right....I fed my kids dinner IN THE BATHTUB! And let me just say, I think I may be on to something. The girls thought it was a "fun surprise" for them, so of course they loved it. Little do they know it was all about convenience for me! I was running out of time before bedtime and they desperately needed two things....dinner & a bath. Neither of those things were negotiable this evening, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I can't take full credit for this idea, because I actually saw this on someones blog. And my husband says reading blogs is a waste of time...well I say, not when it gives you GENIUS ideas like this one! Just a few great things about this:

• They ate "red sauce" and they already had their shirts off! I make them take their shirts off at home when eating anything tomato-based, because it's just too darn hard to get out of their clothes. SIDENOTE: Because of my rule of no shirts when eating red sauce, MacKenzie actually started taking her shirt off in the middle of a restaurant once because the waiter brought her spaghetti.
  
• When they were done eating, the clean up was quick & easy!
  
• I didn't have to wipe down the table and sweep underneath it.
  
• My kids were so excited over this idea that they actually cleaned their plates WITHOUT complaining about what they have to eat and asking over and over again how many more bites they have to eat.

I'm telling you, it may be something you want to try sometime. I'm thinking of making it a regular thing. Now I just need to go out and get one of those tray things that goes across the bathtub that holds soap and stuff....wait a minute, I may be on to a new invention...shhh....don't tell anyone. 

*And for those of you who know nothing of our daily occurrences, other than what you read here, and who are not caring what I have to say about feeding my kids in the tub, because you just want to know what happened to my husband and why I'm a single Mom all of a sudden, my husband did not leave me. I am not truly a single mother. He's just been traveling a bit. He comes home tomorrow! Yay!

Dear World

Dear World,

I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you'll treat her well. She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. Never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proper, she'll wave a young independent hand this morning and say "goodbye", and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse. Now, she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for sounds of school bells and deadlines, and she'll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way, and she'll learn to be jealous. Now she'll learn how not to cry. No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch on a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn to kiss lilac blossoms in the morning dew. No...now she'll worry about important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. She'll forget her blocks and dolls, and now she'll find new heroes. For five full years now, I've been her sage and Santa Claus, pal and playmate, Mother and friend. Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers, which is only right. But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest woman in the whole world. Today, when that school bell rings for the first time, she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group, with all its privileges and its disadvantages, too. She'll learn in time that proper ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms, or even watch ants scurry across cracks in the summer sidewalk. Today, she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends, and I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long lonely journey to becoming a woman. So world, I bequeath to you today, one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you will treat her well.

-Author Unknown

You didn't think I was THAT good, did you?   :)

Yep, that's right. I just dropped off my first born child at Kindergarten and I am back home, drinking a cup of coffee and blogging. As I was in her classroom getting ready to leave, I heard a little girl ask her mom, "Mommy, is that happy crying?" Her Mom was having a hard time and this is what the little girl wanted to know. So as I sit in my quiet house and I use quiet quite metaphorically because I have a three year old yelling at Diego on the TV in spanish in the background, I started thinking about that question. Really the answer for me is they are happy and sad tears. 

Happy that MacKenzie is such a delightful and beautiful little girl

Sad that she is growing up WAY too fast

Happy that I know MacKenzie will do so great in school

Sad that I know she will do so great without me

Happy that MacKenzie will be learning so many things over the next years

Sad that someone else will be teaching her those things

Happy that MacKenzie will be making lots of new friends

Sad that I may not even know some of them

Happy that this is a brand new adventure in MacKenzie's life

Sad that someone else will be guiding her through it

Happy that she has reached this milestone in her life

Sad that she has reached this milestone in her life

Happy that MacKenzie was so excited and independent this morning on her way into school

Sad that this is the last time I will ever watch her walk down the hallway with her backpack that is bigger than her on her back, on her very first day of school

Here are some pictures:

"First Day of School" Breakfast - Cinnamon Toast, Banana, & Milk

A "Sissy" that will miss her "Sissy" every day

So excited for the new adventures to come

Backpack...check, Lunckbox...check, Cute New Shoes...check, Cute New Headband...check

Walking to School

I am SO little compared to everyone else

"Ok, Mom is it really necessary to embarrass me on my VERY first day?"

Putting my things away

My very own place, waiting just for me

"Ok, enough...put your camera down."

"Bye Bye Sissy!"

I can't stand it when...

...the lifeguard at the pool cares more about flirting with the other lifeguards than he/she cares about making sure my children don't drown!    I'm just sayin'...

And for those lifeguards out there that do take an interest in their job and actually think of it as more than a summer paycheck, like the guy today who was splashing the kids as they came down the slide and who figured out which holes he could plug up with his fingers to make the water gun in the middle of the pool spray much harder so he could hit the kids across the pool with it, I say, "Way to go...Way to go!"

"Lollipop, Lollipop, Oh Lolli, Lolli, Lolli"

Thank you Ellie & Lexie for such a SWEET TREAT!

I'm Glad I Was Born When I Was

I saw this site on a facebook page and I had to try it out. It sure made me glad I was born when I was. 

Here's my yearbook picture if I graduated in 1954. My husband always tells me he would like for me to cut my hair really short....THIS will certainly change his mind!

Here's me in 1964. This one bares a striking resemblance to my grandmother.....seriously.

Here I am in 1966....I know what you're thinking....not too shabby. I kind of like this look on me. In fact, I think if my hair were this length and I didn't fix it, it might come out a little like this. If, the next time you see me, my hair looks like a giant football helmet on top of my head, you'll know why.

This is me in 1968. Now, my hair actually does look like this sometimes when I fix it. 

1970 would NOT have been my year! Apparently this site seems to think I would have been 50 pounds heavier in 1970. 

Now...THIS is the year I was actually born, 1980. All I can say is Thank You God, that I was BORN in 1980 and wasn't in high school!

I TOTALLY dig this one! It's 1978. I really should consider trying out an afro. 

Here's 1984. For whatever reason this one looks like it "fits me" the best. Don't ask me why...totally crazy! Hey, maybe I'll have the chance to start styling it this way with the 80's being so back in style. 80's Big Hair becomes me!

And this is the year I truly did graduate high school, 1998. My hair didn't look too terribly different from this. However I assure you, my face did not look like it grew out of one side of my neck in my yearbook picture!

If you wanna try it out for yourself, go to www.yearbookyourself.com

Little Picassos

Yesterday I went to Old Navy to do some school shopping for the girls and I noticed a new store. It's called Lakeshore Learning. It peaked my interest, so I thought I would just peek in and see what kind of things they had. Well, little did I know, that I would be walking into a FANTASY LAND for someone who LOVES school & teacher supplies! I knew I was in immediate danger of spending way too much $$$! I have always had a thing for school supplies. Maybe I missed my calling to be a teacher.....well then again.....maybe not. Nevertheless I love school supplies, teacher supplies, classroom decorations, etc. This store is filled with all kinds of these things. It had me so "intoxicated" that I actually thought to myself, "Hmm...maybe I could homeschool MacKenzie and she could start Kindergarten in a few weeks with me! I could set up a classroom with maps on the wall, a little desk for her, and chalkboard & dry erase easels everywhere. I could get one of those big felt boards and tell stories using the felt people and animals. I could get a big laminated clock to hang on the wall and move the second and minute hands around to teach her how to tell time. We could do arts & crafts!" Then all of a sudden I snapped out of my fantasy and the reality of that entire scenario came rushing in. "What in the WORLD am I thinking!? I could NEVER have the patience to teach my children all they need to learn and who knows how they would turn out if they had ME as their teacher!....whew....that was close!" THAT is what this store did to me. Thank goodness for teachers. Anyway, I did manage to get a few things that I just loved and MacKenzie & I have already been working on reading with the new tools I found there. I also had to get some supplies for the art easel we have at home. They have had the easel for a while now, but I just had never gotten the supplies they needed to truly paint on it, until now. Here are some pictures of my budding artists.