Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008
The Kung Fu Carvers

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Lexy's Birthday Party

aka How many places can I find melted chocolate?

We rented a bounce house for 4 hours (3-7pm/party started at 2). They called me yesterday and asked if it would be ok if they dropped it off between 9-10 today. So we got a bounce house for almost 9 hours for the price of 4. Sweet! And it had Princesses all over it. Doubly sweet. It was one of those super deluxe houses that has a slide, basketball hoop and mini obstacle course inside. We invited all the kids from the neighborhood plus the kids in my family so I figure there was something like 10 kids or so here. We had the BBQ up and running with chicken, steak and hot dogs. The theme was Tinkerbell (or Tinka-bey-yo) and of course there was the Tinkerbell cake. We followed that up with the chocolate fountain we recently inherited and a snow cone machine. What can one say about a "Chocolate Fountain"? I had some girlfriends over a month ago and we used it. It was super tasty and actually not too bad to clean up (about 20 minutes including dumping the chocolate out). Fast forward to today---Said chocolate fountain with 10 kids. At about 40 minutes into it I was still scrubbing chocolate from the walls of my kitchen (which is just where I was cleaning it---it wasn't even used there). I walked back to the garage (thinking I was done) and found chocolate fingerprints all over the back of the door. I was standing at the sink and happened to glance over at the snow cone maker only to find the whole backside was coated in chocolate (especially around the on/off button). I laughed and came out to the front room and told my husband about where I had found more chocolate. He laughed too because it was on both my forearms. We all had a great time. I love having family and friends over.

P.S. I went to help my husband get my son up to bed and found more on the wall opposite of the stairs. I have a feeling there will be more to come.

P.P.S. Snow cone margaritas ROCK!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Everyone says

you should never blog drunk. Well HA! I'm drunk and I'm blogging! Except I have nothing to say. Well, not really true but it wouldn't make much sense....which is why they say you should never blog drunk.

My son is spending the night at the neighbors (twin boys the same age). Their parents and I sat in their back yard and downed margaritas. Yummy!

I did take my daughter shopping tonight. I must say, it was one of the worse mommy/child shopping experiences ever. I'm trying to think of a time I ever had to walk out of a store with my son (leaving everything in the cart behind) but can't think of one instance. She completely and utterly fell apart. She was tired but I figured it was far enough from her bedtime that I was in a safe zone. No such luck! In Target she kept running away (can't really chase her right now being so close to the surgery date) and after the third time of taking off, we left. Oh lordy did she scream!!! AND tried every trick in the book. She screamed for what we left behind. She screamed "OWIE!!" but I knew I wasn't hurting her (I had her craddled in my arms but with my arm through the middle of her legs so she couldn't kick me). And she cried "No No No NO NOOOO!" By the time we got into the car and started driving she started calming down. I wanted to get some supplies for her party next weekend. "Honey, mommy needs to go to one more store. Are you going to be a good girl for mommy?" "YES!" She lasted about 4 minutes. I was in pain from baby wrasslin' and by the time I did get home, I made Mike take her out of the car because I just couldn't carry her one more time. Kids!

And it always ends badly

And the two of them completely fell apart by the time Nick's mother arrived. At that point they weren't speaking, had been trying to hit each other with their scooters (and I'm not talking about trying to run each other over---literally swinging them at each other like baseball bats), Nick had been throwing rocks at Kiernan's head and by the time Kiernan ran to the door crying, Nick had him by the shirt and was trying to drag him back out to the front yard. I got the main gist of the story and separated them. And there they sat, one on the arm of the couch, the other on the rocking chair...separated by my daughter the two year old and watching Barbie in Swan Lake.

And Nick threw a huge fit when his mom tried to take him home. Like he wanted to stay there.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

I'm a child sitter today

Today we are watching the grandson of our next door neighbor. He's 8; 9 in November (my son Kiernan just turned 7) and has some emotional problems. My kids both like him (we call him Alexia's boyfriend because every boy in the neighborhood is "Nick") but with my son it's like a love/hate relationship. When Nick is on his meds (and he is on meds and in therapy) he is a very good playmate. He and my son play pirates and army and ride bikes etc etc. But when he's got "the devil in him" its like he loses touch with reality. He's done the typical things like pushed Kiernan down or twisted his arm too hard. My last straw was the time where he grabbed Kiernan by the neck and tried to choke him. Nick let go and begged for Kiernan not to say anything (which Kiernan told him about as soon as I saw him).

I'd like to not let him come over but my husband Mike takes these opportunities to work with him. Mike is so much more patient then I am. When we first had Nick over about a year ago, he and Kiernan got into it and Nick him in the head with something. Mike sent him home (Nick begged and begged to stay). That's become the norm. He knows that we're not going to tell him "Don't do that" or "Work it out", we send him home. In the strangling case, he was grounded from our house for the week.

When I was growing up my mother was the ONLY mother on the block who didn't forbid me from playing with other children on the street. We could always make our own choices. I can remember playing with one girl and wanting to go and expand our playgroup but "my mom says I can't play with her anymore" kind of but a kabosh on that. I always promised that I would never be the kind of mom that did that but I have been tempted time and time before.

For all his destructive ways, he is the complete opposite with our daughter. He is the only friend that Kiernan has who ALWAYS takes the time to stop and say "Hi" to her. He always makes the extra effort to let her know that he sees her and will wave or pat her head. I've even found him on the floor with her, totally absorbed in play. After the strangling incident, I don't leave the two of them alone. I can't assume he "will know better" anymore.

That is all :)