Sam's third birthday party

All in all, Sam's safari party was a complete success! I was thrilled to use fondant for the first time in a cake decorating attempt, and it actually worked out pretty well. I made binoculars for each of the kids out of toilet paper tubes, and they went on safari for animals with their names on them that their parents had hidden around the house. They also played "Simon says" with jungle animals, and we danced to some playlists that included Jungle themed songs like "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and songs from "The Lion King" and "Jungle Book." The themed food included "Warthogs in a blanket," "Tropical fruit kabobs," "Ants on a log," and "Chips with quicksand" and I draped the entire first floor in green streamers (intended to look like vines, but whatever!) My good friend did face painting for the kids, and Sam had a blast. Time to start planning for next year! Happy Birthday my sweet big kid 3 year old boy!

SERENITY NOW!

New Baby Brother Jonah

Crazy friends camping out with me for
preschool classes ;-)

I loved that episode of Seinfeld, and could totally use a dose of it right about now. My week has gone like this thus far:
Sunday: go to 10 stores in search of a coveted party favor for Sam's upcoming safari birthday party. Come up empty handed
Sunday night: get picked up at 8:15 to spend the night trying to catch sleep either on the ground in front of the preschool or in the back of a minivan in the preschool parking lot. Have big plans to organize coupons, synchronize calendars, solve world peace, etc. etc. Accomplish nothing, including sleep.

Monday morning: arrive home at 7:45 having successfully registered all three kids for preschool to a quiet house with sleeping kids and a showering husband. Talk to hubby for a few minutes before he dashes off to catch a 10 plane, handing you a paper before he leaves to take care of for him. Paper is a traffic ticket, for which the court date is TODAY at 9:30. Call to make payment and discover payment cannot be made over the phone. Make mental note to kill husband. Call neighbor to come to your house and feed your kids frozen waffles while you run to a friend's house to fax necessary info to the courthouse with a 45 min deadline. After several failed attempts, success at last! Catch husband on cell before he boards plane to threaten that if this ever happens again, jail will be preferable to living with extremely pissed off wife. Husband understand and apologizes profusely. Run home to shower and get kids ready to get in the car. Drive an hour and a half to sister's house to meet Dad, stepmom and new adopted baby brother for the first time. Spend the whole day there and leave at 8:00 still functioning on no sleep and listen to Olivia yell "MOOOOMEEEEE" over and over the whole way home. Fall asleep on the floor of the boys' room at 9:30 and sleep there all night.

Tuesday: Rush to get the boys to school on time, then run errands like a madwoman. Pick up boys from school and run home to make lunch/put Olivia down for a nap. Talk to neighbor (and best friend!) who needs you to caulk her ceiling TONIGHT cause she has a showing on her house tomorrow and it has to be done. Decide to run errands with kids in the afternoon instead of after bedtime because that time is now allocated! Come home to make dinner and begin crafts for Sam's party. Finish around midnight and collapse into bed. Comfort Sam who crawls in my bed around 4:30 am and begins coughing. Medicate him and fall back to sleep with him sharing my pillow around 6.
Wednesday: Get up late and finish crafts for the birthday party. Clean and organize upstairs and down, make frozen pizza for lunch, and prepare for a playdate in the afternoon. Playdate comes, house is trashed again. Invite playdate to stay longer while making salad for a neighborhood girls' night birthday event because why not at this point, and hope hubby gets home soon!
Dash out for some fun and wine, and come home to a house retrashed. Do dishes and reclean playroom. Current status: sitting in the glider waiting for Jack to fall asleep and listening to Sam cough. Thinking anxiously about all that still must be done and the 3 other social obligations in the next two days, not counting school. Sigh. No wonder I'm so tired. I need a vacation!

WHAT did he just say?

Last night after bathtime we were getting the boys in their pjs. Sam wanted to put his shirt on by himself, but he was putting it on backwards and all twisted up, so I helped him straighten it out. After he got it on, he said "Mom, I sure do have my shi* together!" Ryan said "WHAT did he just say?" I said, "He said he sure does have his shirt together!" But when Ryan started laughing I realized what it sounded like to someone who doesn't speak "Sam"ese as fluently as I do! So no, he didn't swear...it just sounded like it, and the context was too perfect!

Happy New Year!

That's what Sam said to Olivia when he kissed her goodnight tonight....um, yes, it is January 6th!
Since turning three, Sammy has been hammin' it up even more than ever! Today was the boys' first day back at school, and I made cupcakes for Sam's preschool class. When I picked him up, his teacher returned the basket I used for the Christmas favors, and I had to ask about the cupcake container.
Me: Is the cupcake container still downstairs?
Her: What cupcake container?
Me: The one I used to send in the cupcakes for Sam's birthday today?
Her: We didn't get any cupcakes today.
Me: Um, are you SERIOUS? Cause I sent in a dozen cupcakes with the teacher with the little raccoon puppet this morning!?!
Long story short, they were left in the wrong room and I'll be sending cupcakes again Thursday! HOWEVER, she also said when Sam got to school he wanted to sing the "Shake, shake" song. She said "Sam, I don't know what song the Shake Shake song is" and he said "You know, the shake your booty song!" Heehee! I still don't really know what that means.
For Christmas Santa brought him the geotrax airplane track barn and Loopy Loco the airplane, so when I asked him what he would say if his teachers asked him what Santa brought, he said "He brought me a stable, right Mom?" and proceeded to chant "Stable, stable" while dancing in his car seat. Too funny!
Then tonight after bathtime he was running around in a hooded towel. Ryan said to him "Oh, are you a little baby" and he said "No, I'm a wedding one." I guess he meant a bride! Our naked little bride...