Mother's Day!

What a weekend!  Friday night movie night was great.  We first went over to April's house to take a walk with her and Bailey since we had Jackson for the evening.  We had a nice walk and then an impromptu dinner on the grill.  Great company, great weather, and great food.  When we got home we had another showing of Tangled.  Pretty sure I fell asleep after about 15 minutes. 
Saturday was fantastic!  The weather was beautiful with the boys very excited to wear shorts.  We took a very long walk with Jackson with a stop at the park to play.  We came home and had lunch on the patio and then James actually took a nap.  :)  Low key afternoon and evening with another movie.

Mother's Day -- it had its ups and downs.  There were a few more downs than ups, but I'd like to focus on the positive instead of the constant fighting, "I'm 2 and think I'm 15" tantrums, and pure sassyness.  Back onto the positive.  I got to sleep until 8 today.  Woo hoo!  I got to take a shower without anyone interrupting me.  We got in a little play time at the park before it rained but didn't have time for our picnic.  We came home and had a little living room picnic.  We got to spend some time at April's house.  We ordered pizza for dinner.  We watched the Amazing Race together and the kids went to bed without a fight.  Focus on the positive.  Like this:

 

Massive Meltdown

I posted something on facebook about this earlier last week.  About the massive meltdown that James had while getting his hair cut.  My previous post (about Joe's haircut) mentioned how James had a meltdown that I was cutting Joe's hair and that he was not getting it cut at Snip-Its.  The kids are big fans of Snip-Its.  I decided after that fiasco to not try to cut James' hair myself.  I thought I could avoid a meltdown (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) and I don't trust myself to cut with scissors which is how James needs the top cut.  What an ordeal.

We got there and had to wait awhile and James was a perfect angel.  "Is it my turn yet mommy?"  "No honey, not yet."  "Otay."  Then it was his turn.  The screaming started as soon as they put the little seat belt on him in the chair.  Many forms of distraction were tried -- they all failed.  His face was beat red as he screamed and cried out "I want to cut my hair at Grandma Judy's house" repeatedly.  Um, didn't you have a meltdown at Grandma's house?  I literally had to hold his head while the judging eyes of all the parents in the store stared at me.  Trust me, I wouldn't have done it if he was actually scared.  I know the difference between the "I'm scared" cry and the "I'm two and I only want to do what I want" cry.  It was a long process but we made it through the cut. 

James calmed down, they both got their prizes and suckers and then James apologized to the stylist.  I turned to thank her again on my way out the door only to have her tell me that I hadn't checked out yet.  That's right, I made her listen to my screaming child and try to cut his hair while he was all wiggly and then I wasn't going to pay her.  Ugh.  I felt mortified.  I was so happy that James had calmed down that I forgot all about the paying part.  I made sure to give her a bigger tip.  (so much for the idea of cutting their hair on my own to save money)

James was pretty exhausted after all of that and he fell asleep in the car.  (Note to self -- no more hair cuts on days that he doesn't nap.)  He normally wakes up when I get him out of the car but he just kept right on sleeping.  From 6 pm that night to 4am the next morning -- just in time for the royal wedding (or the cartoons that I turned on for him while I kept on sleeping). 

I didn't get any pictures during the actual haircut but snapped a few when we got home.

My attempt

I have all sorts of pictures to go through from our Easter weekend in Fairmont which I'll get to posting later this week I'm sure.  I thought I would share a piece of our weekend -- my attempt at cutting Joseph's hair.  We normally go to one of those kid hair places that costs $16 per kid (2 in my house) plus tip.  Of course they get their hair done at the same time so that means tipping two people.  I don't mind tipping and I don't mind paying for a good hair cut.  I just mind because my finances have changed.  My mom and Arnie had some clippers so I thought I'd try on Joe.  Joe looks better with short hair because his is thick and gets unmanageable when it gets long.  James' hair is better with a little length and I'm a little scared to do his.  In true James fashion as soon as I started cutting Joe's hair James threw a tantrum about how I couldn't do it and I needed to take him to Snip-Its (the normal hair place).  I made James take a nap and went back to finish.  It took me forever because I was terrified of having a bald child.  He did not end up bald.  Relief for me.  I'm have some control issues and I'm very particular about some things.  This turned out to be one of them.  I'm trying to let it go and accept that I didn't do to bad for my first time.  Joe's not crying at his reflection and no one is laughing -- that's success I guess.

The before and after.  Don't mind the chocolate mouth -- he got a treat for being a good "patient."

Ick

 

November . . . . . . . . . pretty

April . . . . . . . . . . . . icky

Egg-cellent Evening

I can't believe that Easter is next weekend already.  It seems to have come up quick even though it's so late this year.  We hadn't colored eggs yet so we got busy doing it this evening after the boys came home from their dad's house.  They didn't come out looking very perfect but they're perfect enough for us.

We only had one pink one because I didn't read the directions about how to make the pink dye work effectively.  Oops.

We got the dye ready.

 

 We put the eggs in. (and watched)

 

We took the time to make silly faces while the eggs were soaking.

We tried to take a family picture. . . go figure.

 

All the while Donkey Kong and Princess Peach watched.  Mario and Luigi couldn't make it because they're currently lost and Toad and Yoshi are in the infirmary but that's another story.

 

Then we took out the eggs and admired our finished product.  Nothing flashy, just plain colored eggs.  You know, like we used to do back in the day.  Our one little enhancement was to write our names with crayon. 

 

All in all, a successful activity with no fighting.  :)  The best kind of all.  Happy Easter everyone!

RAIN!

 

This weekend we had rain.  Yes people, rain.  It was a nice change from snow and a sure sign that spring is here.  Or so I thought until I looked out the window this morning.  Ick.  That's neither here nor there though, we're talking about rain.

The boys were at their dad's house this weekend and I was wondering what we could do when they got home.  It only made sense to put the rain boots on and go splash in the puddles.  Why not?  They had a great time and came in with soaking wet pants.  (If you follow my facebook updates this would be the night we ate dinner and I was the only one wearing pants.) 

 

The kids had to keep making sure I was really saying that it was Ok for them to jump in the puddles.  I know I'm uptight sometimes but that's why I bought the rainboots -- to have a little fun.  :)  Can't wait until it gets warm enough that we can splash in the puddles without big coats and hats.  Happy Spring everyone!

Weekend Out of the City

Last weekend I went down to Fairmont for a little R and R.  By last weekend I mean the weekend that happened over a week ago -- I'm a little behind.  I've been busy and haven't taken the time to write which I really like doing.  I also haven't taken the time to take pictures which is one of my favorite hobbies.  :(  I'm taking the time now.

Anyway, back to my story.  I planned to go to Fairmont initially to do a Lia Sophia party.  I've just become an advisor recently (needed to find something to keep me busy when I didn't have the boys and help fill up my bank account at the same time) and my cousin's wife Lori said that she would host a party.  Thanks Lori!  We had a great show -- I was able to bank a little money and spend time with the girls.  The weekend turned out to be so much more than a great party though.

Friday night I got to hang out with my mom.  I had such a great time!!  It's rare that my mom and I get to hang out -- she works weekends which is when I end up going home.  She had the night off and we hit the town!  Ok, it's Fairmont, how much "hitting the town" can you actually do.  We went to the Legion for a meat raffle.  That's right folks, a meat raffle.  You may have seen me post about it on Facebook.  I had a few too many drinks (3 -- I don't have much of a tolerance), ate, and then had a few too many more.  I won pork chops and steaks in the meat raffle and the best part of the night is that my mom paid for everything.  Kidding here folks, the best part was hanging out with my mom (the not paying anything part was just a bonus).

Saturday was the party and then my dad came to town.  Woo hoo!  I hadn't seen him since Christmas so it was great to see him.  He had hair!  I didn't take a picture because I was preoccupied with everything that was going on but I will be going to visit him in a month and will take plenty of pictures then.  We went out to dinner that night with my extended family -- loved getting to see everyone.  Got to see them again on Sunday for brunch.  An added bonus . . . my uncle from California came to town so I got to see him too. 

I know that you're thinking that my weekend couldn't get any better than that, but it could.  The icing on the cake is the fact that I got to bring Jackson with me.  I don't get to see him very often and since it was Mike's weekend with the boys it was nice to have some company along.  Jackson never complained about my singing in the car either.

Isn't he the cutest?  ( I might be biased.)

The only downfall to my weekend was the weather on the drive home.  It cleared up after awhile but when I got out of the car I saw that the snow / ice had attached itself.  Thought it was a kind of cool pattern.  Thanks for listening to my wordiness this evening.