For the Fellas

Lest you think I'm completely biased, here's a little shout out for the dads.

Amen Sisters

I laughed out loud at this special version of Bohemian Rhapsody just for us moms.


My favorite line "Lucy get your butt in the Durango!"

Girlfriends

I just returned from a weekend in Chicago with 7 of my closest girlfriends, and it was simply wonderful.

It was three nights and almost three full days of laughing, eating, teasing, and drinking. It was three nights and almost three full days of no temper tantrums, no poopy diapers, no cooking, and no cleaning. For a group of women with 21 young children between them, this is as close to heaven on earth as we can get right now.

Thursday night kicked off with a champagne toast, and we toasted to the small miracle it took to coordinate 8 different schedules in order to get us in the same city on the same weekend. More drinks followed, as well as conversations about gardening and composting and finding snakes in your dining room.

Friday found us in the most amazing seats at Wrigley for a Cubs game courtesy of Kathy's sweet brother (single ladies of Chicago - hello! He's gorgeous, smart, employed, and really tall.). Third row behind home plate. There were husbands and fathers all over the country green with envy. Then more talking, laughing, eating, and drinking.

Saturday was spent meandering around the Miracle Mile and enjoying the opportunity to shop and try on clothes without a stroller full of kids screaming in the background. Giordano's pizza for dinner, and then back to Wrigleyville to watch an old friend perform in a hilarious improv group. Then more talking, laughing, eating, and drinking.

The cups they're holding? Oh, yes. That was lunch. That's right people, some of us had chocolate milkshakes for lunch. Just because we could.

I felt lucky the whole weekend. Lucky to have friends like this, who love me exactly as I am, good and bad. Friends who were there to listen if I wanted to talk about cancer, but didn't expect me to. Lucky just to be here, and be healthy enough to have fun with my friends. And I felt especially lucky to have a supportive family to take care of my kids so I could go have this experience.

Sunday we slowly extracted ourselves from the Heavenly Beds at the Weston and tearfully went our separate ways. The only thing we had left to talk about at the end of the weekend was, "When can we do this again?"

First of First

Hard to believe this guy started his first day of first grade yesterday. He said everything was fine, but that "There are no toys in first grade," "They don't give you as long to eat lunch in first grade," and "The day is longer in first grade". You could try to convince him otherwise, and you could also convince a rock to get on the bus and go to school in his place.

So Ferb, What Should We Do Today?

Maybe we should throw a birthday party for a special 6 year old boy? Last Thursday Casey turned 6, and his requested party theme was "Phineas and Ferb", which is his favorite show. The only problem with that request is that the P&F party supplies have not been released yet, so I had to create my own (although a friend told me that she thought she saw some last week at Wal-Mart, so maybe I was just a week too early in shopping).  I found another use for the ubiquitous chalk board in the kitchen by drawing a banner, and it is still up because Casey will not let us erase it. Thankfully, the characters are easy to draw. If he ever requests a Monet themed party, I'm SOL. 

Perry! There you are boy! What, doesn't everyone request strawberry flavored cupcakes with miniature platypuses on top (is that right, or is it platyputi?) for their birthday?

The birthday boy got a new bike, so no more fighting between he & Connor over the old one. So really, it was a gift to me too!

His only other major request was a pinata, but the party store was out of the number 6. So we turned a 9 upside down, which is why it looks like it was tied to the tree by rednecks. In keeping with the Phineas & Ferb theme, the goody bags contained secret agent sunglasses in honor of Agent P (Perry's secret identity).

The glasses also made them look like rejects from a Blues Brothers convention, which only made them more adorable.

Phineas and Ferb like to invent and build things, so we had a few activities of that nature. We made our own ice cream in ziploc bags (word of advice: don't use the cheap generic bags for this project, or you might end up with salty ice cream. Small children do not enjoy salty ice cream). And we made diet soda bottle rockets. If you want to see how fast I can move, watch this:



So, all in all, much fun was had by all. I really love putting together parties for the kids, even though I bitch every year about how much work it takes. Casey declared this the "Best birthday EVER!", which is the best compliment a mom can get.