It’s a party

You know, when we were planning J and A’s birthday party, we figured that letting each of them invite one friend from school and one friend from church would keep the event manageable. Plus, we’ve been resisting the current trend of spending hundreds of dollars on the birthday party venue by having it at our house.  We refuse to import ponies, bouncy houses or rent out places like the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for a five-year-old’s birthday party (You think I’m kidding.  People do it all the time.)

So this was going to be easy.

Until the unexpected snowstorm hit.

We’ve been hearing about some winter weather heading our way for about a week.  But every single forecast, including the one on Friday morning, was insisting that we would get a dusting.  1-2 inches at the most.

We got 8 inches.

Now let’s think about how this impacted our weekend.  We were going to have 20 people (in their 7 cars) coming to the house Sunday at 3PM.  We have a 600′ long driveway.  And a broken snowblower.

So, for most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we shoveled snow.  Again.

Finally we did get everything clear.  But this pretty much tapped out any energy reserves we had before the party even started.

Six. Hundred. Feet

That’s a “5” balloon on our mailbox.  J wondered what “S” stood for.

Playing Car Tetris

Nice Cinderella’s carriage balloon.

Guests arriving

First up, fishing for party favors.

Then birthday cupcakes

And then the presents

The Birthday Princess seemed pleased

She’s a hugger.

Dinosaur. Puzzle.  Book.  The trifecta for J.

My dad gave them some antique metal trains …

…that he had wrapped up in 1998.

The Leapsters may be detrimental to conversation.

So, who’s going to clean up?

5!?!? Are you kidding me!?!?

On Sunday, J and A turn 5.

Good googily moogily.

This is beyond my comprehension. It seems only yesterday that they were two blobs on an ultrasound screen.

Now look at them.

Glamour Girl

Hey, she can’t be on the top of her fashion game 24/7 …

Tug o’ Phone

Having an iPhone had been fantastic for a gadget geek like me.  It can even helped entertain the kids in a pinch.  However, it does have its downside.

Case in point.  When I got home from work yesterday, A greeted me with a “Daddy!   How was your day?”

And how did J greet me?

“Daddy! Where’s your phone?”

J seems to favor the dinosaur games

A likes the create-a-princess game

They even let K touch it every once in a while.
And show her how to use it.

Still stubborn

So on the way to ballet class the other day, A asked K “What’s a syno?”

Thinking she had misunderstand, K asked her to repeat the question.

“What’s a syno?” A repeated.

“Honey, I’m not really understanding you.  Did you say ‘syno’?”

“Yeah mommy.  What’s a syno?”

Still perplexed, K asked “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

A then added “You know, from the song.”  Then she started to sing … “Jesus loves me this syno.”

Holding back a laugh, K replied “No honey, the song says ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.'”

“No, mommy, I think it says ‘syno'” A insisted.

Now K started to get a  perturbed.  A has a history of stubbornly insisting she’s correct.

“No honey, it really is ‘this I know’.” K added.

A paused for a second, then replied …

“I think I’ll asked Daddy.”

Weekend Update

Some of the happenings around the imnotned household this weekend:

On Friday, K interviewed some candidates for her open administrative assistant position at work.  She was amazed that just about every candidate had an error/typo on their resume.  The most impressive resume gaff?  The statement of one candidate who was very proud of the fact that she ran “spell heck” on all her documents.

Seriously, you can’t make up irony like that.

Saturday morning, we took the kids to their weekly swimming lesson.  Since some folks at K’s office were working on Saturday, she decided to pick up some donuts and drop them off at her office on the way to swim class.  Of course, we had to purchase a couple of donuts for us as well.  After finishing swim class, we walked out of the rec center, passing all the people feverishly working out, and proceeded to consume several hundred calories of donuty goodness while in the parking lot.

Two opposing forces in the battle of the bulge.

Saturday evening, we had a date night.  K decided to appease me by wearing her skinny jeans and a pair of date-night boots.  Of course, since she got a little self-conscious when I tried to document this outfit (expressly for this blog, of course), I was forced to employ my best surreptitious picture taking methods:

I’m glad nobody called the police, thinking I was a stalker.

Sunday morning, I had my first run-in with not one, not two, but three homeless people at church. Being in a fairly urban environment, this is not an uncommon occurrence, so we have programs in place to accommodate them.  But since my last job had people with automatic weapons guarding my building from any uninvited guests, I’m still getting used to this part of the job.

If nothing else, it’s a humbling experience.

If I were the pig, I’d be a little worried

I found this animal arrangement on the kitchen table:

I don’t know what the pig did, but I think bacon is on the menu.

All he needs is a blanket

The other day,we started hearing J saying some phrases over and over.  Sometimes  he’s still a little difficult to understand, especially when he is repeating words he really doesn’t understand.

We finally realized he was repeating Linus’ “The True Meaning of Christmas” speech from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” aka Luke 2:8-14.

While we may not understand all the words, I think the meaning comes through.

What word strikes fear into the hearts of formula-buying parents?

Walking through Target the other day, I saw this out of the corner of my eye.

And I broke into a cold sweat.

If your children ever had to use Nutramigen as formula, you know what I mean.  After spending 6 weeks in the NICU and developing some fun gastrointestinal issues, we were told to supplement J’s diet with Nutramigen.

I believe we’re still paying off the second mortgage required to pay for this stuff.

My holiday tactical error

Since the church mirrors the Federal Government when it comes to holidays, I had Monday off.  So I thought taking the kids out for lunch and a spin around a mall would be a simple afternoon.

You would think I would have learned better by now.

You see, not only was the Federal Government closed (which is the major portion of the workforce around here), all the surrounding school systems were closed.

And every single government employee and thier children were at this mall.

First, I thought a stop at the play pit would be a nice diversion:

After pulling J and A out of the bottom from a pile of drooling, snotty children, we decided to grab something to eat. Our first challenge was finding a seat:

Of course, even a crowded day off is better than than no day off.  And since K’s company didn’t have the day off, I thought I’d use the opportunity for a little gloating:

Even though it was crowded, a day with the kids is never a bad thing.