House of Estrogen

The Party That Persevered

Against all odds (and possibly against all rational thought), we kept to the schedule of holding Addison's birthday party yesterday. There were many discussions of postponing it, but there was really no available date that worked. Plus, Addie was in birthday party countdown mode, and you can't easily explain a change in countdown to a four year old. Despite my mom's broken hip and subsequent surgery on Wednesday, Addison's strep throat diagnosis on Thursday, Elise's screaming migraine on Friday, and my spending every moment those days caring for my dad rather than prepping for the party, we charged forth.

Addison's birthday is 8 days before Christmas... a pretty crappy date as birthdays go. I know in the future we will need to have a serious separation of birthday and Christmas. As of now, she hasn't figured out her rotten lot in life, so we went with a gingerbread decorating party. A bit Christmasy, yes, but what kid doesn't love decorating gingerbread?

We started out with gingerbread coloring pages.

Then, we moved on to gingerbread crafts.

Then, just when they were beginning to think there wasn't any actual gingerbread involved in this party, we moved on to decorating the real gingerbread men and houses.

No child left without an excellent sugar high.

After they were done with their masterpieces, I provided a shock to their systems - a little bit of fruit and veggies with lunch.

No birthday is complete without a cake though, so we topped off the sugarfest with a cute gingerbread cake.

Then, the birthday girl opened presents, and said thank yous and good-byes to friends.

It has been a stressful, chaotic week, but having Addison's birthday party injected a much needed bit of fun and levity! I'm glad we decided to stick with it. After friends left and the gingerbread crumbs were swept away, I headed to the hospital to pick up my mom since she had been discharged. No rest for the weary!

Quote of the Week

My mom got discharged from the hospital this afternoon. As we walked in the house, my dad scooted over with his walker to greet her. The two stood, walker to walker giving each other an awkward unsteady hug. My mom reached over to reinsert the hearing aid that was dangling haphazardly outside my dad's ear. Then, my dad spoke...  "They said we were supposed to have fun and enjoy our Golden Years. That's a load of crap."

No truer words... at least they still have a sense of humor about it though.

A Quick State of the Union

Addison - strep throat

Nina and Elise - at track-out camp, waiting to come down with strep throat

J.C. - temporarily single parenting three kids, one of whom has strep throat

My mom - in the hospital recovering from surgery for the hip she broke yesterday

My dad - mostly blind, mostly deaf, unable to care for himself without my mom's help

Me - AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!   Working on developing a cloning machine that will allow me to be in five places at once.  Engineering that technology sounds easier than actually being in five places at once, so wish me luck in my endeavors. I'll let you know when I get it patented.

Holiday stress? - Nope, no time for that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of turkey and stuffing smothered with gravy, friends and family, a nice long nap, lots of blessings, a glass of champagne, phone calls from loved ones far away, pumpkin pie, hugs, a moment of quiet to think about our troops overseas, pecan pie (pee-can or puh-cahn, whichever you prefer), the Macy's parade on TV, and photographs that captured the day, all served with a heaping helping of cranberry sauce!

Ours was all of that, and to make it even better, I didn't have to cook or wash dishes. My parents treated us to a fabulous Thanksgiving buffet in a big red barn. My dear friend S who works there scored us the perfect table in one of the "horse stalls". It was like our own private dining room.

The delicious food and beautiful Christmas decorations got me in the holiday spirit. I'm feeling duly thankful for all the blessings in my life. I'm now ready to tackle the holidays - the shopping, the baking, the wrapping, the chaos, the parties, the tree-trimming. Bring it on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy? Father's Day

I think we need a do-over for Father's Day this year. The day started out with J.C. making pancakes for his own Father's Day breakfast. I offered to make them, but I'm not sure he trusts anyone else to make them as well as he does. Plus, the only thing he really wanted for Father's Day was grilled shrimp, and I planned on making that for dinner. We spent the morning cleaning house - probably not the fun family activity that comes to mind for Father's Day, but it needed to be done. After lunch, I decided to make a quick visit over to my parents' house to wish my dad a happy Father's Day. I found him in bed, feeling rotten, and looking lousy, so my mom and I ended up spending the afternoon consulting Dr. Google trying to decide whether to take him to the hospital or not. By the time I left there, I really didn't have time to prepare the shrimp, so J.C.'s requested dinner was out.

When I got home, I found poor J.C. shoveling mulch. A neighbor had ordered too much mulch and offered us her leftovers. Today was the only day that worked for hauling the mulch over to our house, so that's what he was doing.

So... to summarize... he made his own breakfast, cleaned house, shoveled mulch, and didn't even get his shrimp dinner. Nice.  I asked him to give me his "Happy Father's Day smile" and got this. At least he has a good attitude! He doesn't exactly look like someone who has had a fun, relaxing Father's Day though, does he?

 

I grilled some steaks for dinner. I had initially thought I would have the girls bake and decorate a cake for him. We didn't have time for that either though, so I bought some obnoxiously bright Angry Bird cupcakes for him at the grocery store.

They are nothing if not festive, huh?

When it is all said and done though, how can you not smile when sitting next to this?

Happy Father's Day, J.C.! I promise you some grilled shrimp tomorrow, and maybe we can try for "Father's Day, take 2" another day.

Dad, when you're feeling better and back on your feet, I owe you a trip to Starbuck's.

Father's Day 2012... not one for the record books.

Emerald Isle, Memorial Day Weekend, 2012

J.C. was heading to Snowshoe for Memorial Day weekend, so a couple weeks before his trip, I thought to myself, "Why should he be the only one to go away? I deserve a vacation too."  I found a reasonably priced condo, booked it, and assembled my travel mates...

Elise, age 10, an emotional, dramatic, moody tween

Nina, age 8, the instigator of most sibling battles

Addison, age 4, the fiercely independent child who is very good at being four

Mom, a woman I love dearly but we are way too much alike. Give us a couple days together, and we both get snippy. To be fair, I think I'm the main one who gets snippy.

Dad, my poor dear old father who is nearly blind, "deaf as a post" (his words, not mine), and more high maintenance than all three of my kids put together.

My mom called me "brave". J.C. called me "insane". I wasn't really sure who was right.

I put the naysayers in their place though. Even with the obvious potential for vacation disaster, we had a ball! The beach is my happy place.

We did handstands on the beach ("we" being defined as everyone under age 12 in this case),

dug holes in the sand and sat in them,

played in the waves,

jumped in the pool,

went out for fresh seafood,

laughed on the beach,

checked out the penguins at the aquarium,

and celebrated Memorial Day in our red, white, and blue!

Good Times. As always, the beach worked its magic. We came home with a few patches of sunburn, a couple stuffed penguins, and lots of great memories with grandparents. Vacation success!

Early Easter Fun with the Old Folks

This past weekend, my mom invited us to a family Easter event at their retirement community. I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out those old folks put on quite a nice little celebration for grandkids!

We had lunch, and then there was face painting.

There was a magician making balloon animals.

There was a photobooth, crafts, and the creepiest Easter bunny ever. Addie was scared of him. Can you blame her? Check out that face. He looks like something out of a horror movie.

Of course, no Easter celebration is complete without a good old-fashioned Easter egg hunt. Nina declared the age 6+ hunt "the worst Easter egg hunt EVER". (Apparently it was quite disorganized.) Addie had fun at her hunt though.

 

As we got ready to leave, I thought it would be a great opportunity for a nice picture of the girls with their grandmother. Uh yeah... maybe not. We'll have to try that again another time.

Happy Easter!

Saying Good-bye

We lost J.C.'s grandmother this week.

It has been a tough week.

Both of my grandfathers died before I was born. I lost my grandmothers when I was in high school and college.  When I came into J.C.'s family, in my mind, I think I adopted his grandparents as my own. "Granddaddy" became the grandfather I never had, and "Grandmother" filled that role in my life.

The two of them were married for seventy years. I loved watching them together. You could tell their love was still going strong even after so many years. I always loved the way her name, "Mary Elizabeth" was always pronounced as one word, "Merlizbeth" by her husband.

I can imagine that if you had asked her how they kept the spark alive for so many years, one of her answers would have been to keep a sense of humor. She certainly had one. She would give people a hard time or make funny observations, always with a smile on her face and just a hint of mischief in her eye. She was a wonderfully sweet lady, but had a little spunk inside as well. She was deeply devoted to her husband but had such an independent streak too. Every Christmas or birthday, each of us would receive a card with money inside - cash from Granddaddy and a check from Grandmother. Grandaddy has never been a fan of banks, so you knew the cash came from him. I was never sure whether or not he knew that she included the check too.

Her obituary today in the paper said that she was well known for her chocolate pies. She was always ruler of the kitchen on holidays. If she told you to stir, you said "Yes, m'am" and started stirring. If you were charged with carving the turkey, you better know how to do it.  Along with her chocolate pies, everyone loved her chicken salad, her chicken slicks, pecan pies and sweet potato pies. I hope one day, when I'm a grandmother, my grandchildren will fondly remember my specialties in the kitchen as well. For my own grandmothers, some of my strongest memories of them are food related - Moonie for her cherry pies and cherry jam, and Gonga for her broccoli cheese casserole, slaw, and chocolate cake. One of JC's favorite parts of the holidays has always been his grandmother's sweet potato pie.

I wish my children had been able to get to know her better before her health began to decline the last few years. I know they would have loved her.

May she rest in peace after 88 wonderful years of laughter, love, family, and chocolate pies.

Christmas Wrap-Up 2011

Christmas was good to us this year. My dining room table made a rare appearance to host Christmas Eve dinner.  If you know anything about my dining room, this photo in itself is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

This is my parents' first Christmas here since their move from Texas, so they came over for Christmas Eve dinner. My dinner plans involved cooking a pork roast. Unfortunately, I forgot to pull it out of the freezer early enough to thaw it completely. Since I was hesitant about serving up roast ala salmonella, I ran out and bought a Paula Deen ham on Christmas Eve. That sucker was great! Thank you Paula Deen!

My parents were in luck. They got to hear Addie's harmonica concert. It was as lovely as you might imagine from a hyped-up four year old with a new harmonica.

After Christmas jammies were opened and donned, JoJo read stories.

Then, I had a little fun taking bokeh photos of the tree,

and late that night, Santa stopped by. He stuffed the stockings and set out the baskets o' electronics.

I usually prefer still photos to videos, but I do love videotaping the girls coming down the stairs each Christmas morning. This year, I think Nina's reaction was priceless. I'm so glad I caught it on video.

You think she like her iPod?

Elise was pretty happy with her stash as well.

One of the things on Addie's list (along with a roller coaster, a fox, and a giraffe) was "little tiny people that I can push on a little tiny swing."  After puzzling over this request for a while, I finally realized that she was remembering playing with some vintage Little People that my mom's neighbor in Dallas had. As always, Ebay can usually get me out of any jam. Who would have thought that in 2011, a four year old would be asking for 1970's Little People? When she opened the gift though, she exclaimed, "It is just what I asked for!!"

In the afternoon, we spent time with JC's family. All the testosterone bearing family members (they are few and far between) received remote control helicopters. Papa looks like he was having fun!

 Addie continued her streak of good presents.

Maybe she had just opened her Cars Play-doh set. That was a huge hit. Most other toys were neglected the rest of the day while everyone played with Play-doh.

After a couple of science experiments,

 

a few rounds of new video games, too many desserts, and saying thanks that nobody's hair got caught in the remote control helicopter blades, we all settled down for a long winter's nap.

A Proper Tea

"A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards"

~A.A. Milne

It is hard to believe that November is here, the leaves and temperatures are falling, the Christmas ads are upon us, and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is beginning. Addison and I had plans today to attend our first holiday event of the season, the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea Party, with her good friend S. Unfortunately, S had to cancel at the last minute due to an illness in the family, so Elise and my mom joined us instead. Elise was the oldest child in the room by at least 5-6 years, but she enjoyed it regardless. Addie loved it all. She was awed by the ballerinas, gobbled up brownies and cookies, and took it all in with the wonder that only a three year old can have. Last time we attended this event was when Nina was three. I think that must be perfect tea party age, or... perhaps 40 is the perfect tea party age since I get the privilege of viewing it through the eyes of my three year old. It doesn't get much better than that.