Grandma's Birthday

Happy Birthday Grandmama!  We celebrated the coveted day by heading out to our first hibachi grill.  Well, the first for Jack, Joshua and me anyway.  How did we not know about this secret little gem of a restaurant?!?  It's loud (perfect for loud kids), entertaining (perfect for squirly kids), delicious (perfect for picky kids), and quite comical actually (perfect for kids who also think they are very funny.)  And how lucky were we to have Uncle Adam and Auntie Sarah in town for the occasion.  We laughed a lot, ate WAY too much, enjoyed each other's company and celebrated Grandmama grandly.  

 Pretty lady.

 Love this picture.  You can see the glow from the giant fireball that had formed in front of us.  Joshua and Jack have the exact same expression on their face.

 Saki!

 Saki!

 Baby Saki!

 Too much baby Saki  Time to head home.  We'll definitely be hibachi'ing again!

No Soup for You!

When you're home alone with three boys under 6 and the littlest one is throwing up every five minutes, you tend be a little more... ummm... how shall I say it... open-minded to activities that might otherwise fall under the "OH NO YOU'RE NOT" category.  One such activity that was happily welcomed (and kept the boys busy for over an hour, I might add) was soup kitchen.  Boy oh boy, where do these youngens get their imagination?  I knew they were playing in the bathroom sink and honestly, didn't care because I was up to my elbows in toddler barf.  After 10 minutes of sink time and exactly 4 minutes until the next barf, I ran up to see what shananigans these little men were up to.  They were so excited to tell me all about their soup kitchen.  They had several varieties of homemade soup, brought in patrons to enjoy it, and even wore hairnets - which happened to be wet washcloths draped over their heads.  Once they gave me the full run down and allowed a speedy photo op, I was quickly dismissed from the private party.  All I could think as I walked away was - yep, you guessed it - "NO SOUP FOR YOU!"

Harold & the Purple Crayon

My sweeter than pie middle child and I had a date night tonight.  We went to Children's Theater to see Harold & the Purple Crayon.  It was magical, funny, technologically amazing, and clever as could be.  Joshi was all smiles as we were waiting for it to begin.  To pass the time we were counting the minutes on our fingers.  The lights went down and he was in awe... or so I thought.  After about 15 minutes of pure magic, he leaned into me and whispered "Mommy, whens it going to start?"  I laughed and said "it already started sweetie."  He responded with "oh."

During intermission we headed out to get a big purple cookie, a crayon shaped cookie of course.  As Joshua's munching away, we were chatting.

Mom: "Are you loving the show?"

Joshi: "I'm not too too loving it."

Mom: "Why not?"

Joshi: "I love most parts a lot of it, but some parts I didn't love love."

Mom: "Which parts didn't you love?"

Joshi: "Only the animals."

Mom: "Why, did they scare you?"

Joshi: "Yes.... (long pause).... and animals don't talk."

Mom: "Oh yes, you are right."

We headed back in and he managed to sit quietly through the second half.  Anyone who has an opportunity to see this amazing production - should.  I caught myself saying WOW a few times because all the coordination is mad good!

Thanks to my beyond generous friend at work who bestowed us with the tickets!  It was a fabulous date night for Joshi and me.

Clean-up, Clean-up...

With kids this messy, you gotta teach em young to do the housework!  Just for the record, this is from ONE meal.

And yes, that is our 3.5 year old in a pullup.  Pretty sure the apocalypse of 2017 will happen before this kid is house trained.

4-0

Yuk, the big 4-0!  Not an exciting milestone - kind of like your first root canal or slamming your finger in a door.  Despite my extreme wish to treat this day like any other, the boys were REALLY into it so I had to put on my best 25 year old face for their sake - yes, 25 - just because I'm 40 doesn't mean I look 40!  Turns out it was a great night!

The boys cordoned themselves off in the office to make their own special cards for Mommy.  They'd flip out if I came within 20 feet of their private "get ready for Mommy's b-day party" session.  Look at that face!

Beyond gorgeous flowers from my Dad.

my little loves

Thanks to all those involved in making it a great day!  So long 30's... it was fun knowing you but I'm excited to see what the 40's bring.  A whole lot less diapers, I'm sure!