Ben, The Fly Whisperer

Oh, the little quirks that make these kiddos unique.  Take Ben for example.  We went to a potluck supper last night and during dinner, which consisted of hot dogs and cake pops, his two favorite food groups, he got up no fewer than two dozen times.  It seemed for every fifteen seconds his bottom was in the chair, he needed to spend two minutes OUT of the chair.

That is to say, Ben does not stay still often unless television or other electronics are involved.

And yet....this child came to me last month holding a Squinkies ball in his hand.

Squinkies are these little squishie toys that Molly and Ben have far too many of.  They come inside little plastic balls, kind of like the 25 cent toys you can get out of machines at the grocery store.

So Ben brings me this tiny, one inch wide plastic ball and says "Mom, I caught that fly that's been bugging you, so I can let him outside and you don't have to kill him"

And as I stared at him incredulously, he opened the back door, opened up the ball, and out flew a big fat housefly.

Over the next two weeks, as the houseflies had their 'spring season' we found more and more of them sneaking into the house.  It seemed like Ben was catching them at least once a day with his Squinkie method.

I could not believe this!  How was he doing it!??

One day I caught him in action as he stalked a pair of flies.  He just snuck up on them slowly and quietly, and somehow, though they'd hop around a bit, they didn't spook like they do when I hunt them down with my trusty flyswatter. 

 He'd just inch and inch and inch up behind them with his open plastic ball, and eventually, they'd just hop inside.  He'd close the ball and voila, they'd be trapped!

Clearly, while he still can not sit still, he is suprisingly not lacking one bit in

FOCUS

DETERMINATION

OR

PATIENCE

There you have it.  The Cesar Milan of the fly world. 

Molly's Mermaid Party

This isn't the first mermaid party Miss Molly has ever had.  Back when she was turning three, she was in love with Dora the Explorer, particularly with Dora's movie "Dora Saves the Mermaids". 

But at age seven, another mermaid movie has captured her fancy.

She LOVES the Barbie movies, and frankly, so do I.  As much as I dislike the body image represented by the unattainable proportions of The Barbie Doll (I didn't allow Molly to own one until just last year) I have to say that the movies portray smart characters and fun plots, with music that keeps you singing long after the credits roll.

I'll even admit to shedding a few tears, so poignant are some of the storylines (maybe it's because I'm a sucker for a musical, I dunno).  In contrast to Disney's princesses, who all lose their mothers to unfortunate fates and whose happiness depends on their prince coming...Barbie is a pretty strong role model for all girls. 

Particularly girls who are or strive to be...

- shipwrecked on deserted islands

- living in magic castles

- searching for magic castles

- friends with unicorns and pegasus' (pegasii?)

- part mermaid

In "Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2", we are reunited with Barbie, a world champion surfing phenom, who recently learned that while her father is human, her mother is actually the Queen of the Mermaids.  Barbie used her newfound mermaid powers to free her mother from the evil Eris, who has imprisoned her and taken over her kingdom.

In this newest movie, Barbie surfs some MORE, and saves her mother some MORE, and sings some MORE, and once MORE turns all her enemies into friends.

And Molly is head over heels for ALL of that, and MORE, please.

The tricky part of making a party out of a movie that has no merchandise with the major party goods vendors, is coming up with themed things all on your own.

Added to that, this is the first birthday that our NEW FAMILY BIRTHDAY RULES are in effect. 

NEW FAMILY BIRTHDAY RULES:

Odd birthdays will be celebrated with small parties or outings costing less than $50 total.

Even birthdays will be more expensive parties celebrated at an all-inclusive, outside vendor

(i.e. Lasertag, Water Park, Pet Shop)

Last year it was really important to me, with the kids being new in town, that they be able to invite all of their classmates to their parties.  Since we don't have a big backyard to host these in at our new house, we went to outside vendors who could take care of all the details.

But doing two of them within a month's time (Molly and Jack have birthdays 33 days apart) was a big strain on the wallet, and on Mommy's mental health.)

The *new* rules ensure that everyone will get big bashes every other year (which is great for 'big' birthdays like TEN and SIXTEEN, dare I even think that far ahead), and most importantly, it ensures that Molly and Jack's big bashes will never fall on the same year (this ensures Mom's sanity).

But Molly was NOT pleased that she was the first one to get the short end of the stick.  And in a departure from her usual, easygoing ways, she refused to budge on having her party "her" way.  Her demands were as follows...

- Invite ALL her friends

- Watch Barbie's new movie

- Have a special mermaid cake

- Serve Lunch

The goal was to manage this on a $50 budget.  Thank goodness Little Ceasar's only charges $5 a pizza!

Okay, so back to the planning.  To start with, I created the invitation myself, taking questionable license with the art from the DVD cover, and using paper and envelopes I already had on hand, complete with labels printed in  a "Barbie" font.

I printed them out on my home printer and that was that!

I even delivered them on bicycle to save on postage - now that's thrifty!

We kept the food simple:

Little Ceasar's Pizza

Juice boxes (that I already had)

Smart Pop Popcorn (that I already had)

And THE CAKE.

Nannie sent Molly a Barbie doll for her birthday, but not just ANY Barbie doll, it was a mermaid doll from THE MOVIE.  Molly made it clear that this doll was going to be the centerpiece of the cake.  But there was no WAY I was going to be able to repeat the cake from her third birthday party, so we had to use some smoke and mirrors to bling this one up.

MOLLY'S 3rd BIRTHDAY CAKE

A domed 'bowl' cake on top of a 24" round two layer cake.

With elaborate, extravegant, "I had no idea what I was getting into when I

started this" frosting.  This bad boy took nine boxes of cake mix, plus gobs and gobs and GOBS

of buttercream.  It fed 60 people.  It was breathtaking.  And so was the MESS, lol!

Luckily I posted it for posterity on

Coolest Birthday Cakes.com

This time around, we went with a regular old cake made in my 10" springform pan with one box of Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix (because that's what I had on hand).  I cut it into two layers  and whipped up a double batch of buttercream in my trusty Kitchen Aid.  I went a little rogue with the food coloring just letting the creativity (desperation?) flow.

When the mermaid wouldn't sit up straight, I grabbed a plastic cup and turned it into a 'rock'.  And when I ran out of frosting, I busted out some brown sugar 'sand', which turned out to be the 'must have' part of the cake - every girl wanted some! 

The infamous third birthday cake took about seven hours over two days to bake and decorate.  This one took less than one hour start to finish.  Thankfully I have learned a few tricks in the last four years, and I will GLADLY enjoy that kind of economizing!

MOLLY'S 7th BIRTHDAY CAKE 

Party decorations were courtesy of the Target Dollar Spot.  I scored a host of surf-themed items; cups, straws, plates, napkins and favors, for just a dollar apiece!

When our guests started to arrive, we greeted them with an ALOHA and a flower lei.

(2/$1 at where else? Target!)

front row: Alexa, Amelie, Ben, Sophia, and Kayden
back row: Madeleine, Avery, Molly and Kate
not pictured: Meera and Eesha

First, we ate...

Then we made personalized surfboards out of posterboard cut into surfboard shapes, using letters cut out on my Cricut (from old carstock I had on hand), a pack of flower shaped paper ($3 at Michaels), and colored duct tape ($3.99 at Target).

Don't ask me why poor Madeleine's name had an F instead of an E.  Cricut hiccup?  I fixed it with marker before she left :)

Then we embellished flip flops with ribbon

I got the flip flops from Michael's for $1 each, and was more than happy to dive into my ribbon scraps for this project!
 Many thanks to Auntie Frani and Auntie Ulia for helping get this project ready!

And finally, the moment all the girls had been waiting for - the MOVIE!!

I wanted to get those cool 'movie theater popcorn' cups, but those cost money, and these white lunch sacks were FREE, so they won!  We cut them down a smidge and they worked great at keeping the popcorn contained.

Molly asked for a blanket, and then everybody wanted one.  They all felt like queen for a day I think!

Christine, do you see your handiwork?

They went through FIVE bags of microwave popcorn,

barely let a crumb hit the floor,

and did not move a MUSCLE until the end of the movie.

I'm telling you, that Barbie is riveting!

After the movie we opened gifts and sang happy birthday to our favorite girl :)

She was SOOOO HAPPY!!!

 It was the best $50 we ever spent!

Happy birthday to our

sweet

shy

sensitive

smiley

silly

SEVEN

year old girl!!

Somebody SWEET turned SEVEN!!!

Seven was my FAVORITE.  I tell my kids that all the time.  17 was also really good, and 27 too, and 37 even (what is it with those '7's?)  But in all honesty, age seven is STILL my favorite. 

And Molly got to enjoy her own self turning seven finally!!  I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.

She got to start her day off coming down the stairs to a pile full of goodies.

Mommy even splurged on a few small things from Chasing Fireflies.  A mermaid cookbook and her first pair of Converse!

But the thing that made her eyes sparkle was her new friend "Tessa".

Even though she already has one American Girl Doll, her longing for one of the "My Twin" dolls (an American Girl Doll that looks like YOU) was overpowering.  She's been brushing Tessa's hair and dressing her up, and taking her everywhere since this first meeting!

Molly also had some special guests for her birthday.  Auntie Frani and Uncle Jon were in the 'neighborhood' (meaning, seven hours away in Columbus, OH!) and thought they'd stop by.

The kids had a BLAST with them, and so did I!  We introduced them to Fazoodles...

 

Made up stories...

And enjoyed Uncle John's Ipad for all it was worth!

Mostly to watch this guy...

And because Molly's birthday fell directly on Memorial Day, we were able to have her party exactly on her birthday!  But I'm going to put that in a separate post, because it deserves it's own billing :)

Holey Backlog Batman! In other news, I am now Mac-Free!

In a stunning turn of events,

I am pleased to report that as of Mother's Day,

I am officially back on team PC!! 

Marc was probably so tired of listening to my kvetching and whining that he couldn't take it anymore.  It was just TOOO HAAARRDD (see?  the whining?).  I had twenty years to learn the PC environment.  And for half of those years I had nothing to do BUT learn the PC environment - heck it was my JOB!

So to try and learn a completely new environment during a time of my life where I'm lucky if I get to eat a meal sitting down some days, lucky if I get to use the bathroom without company?  Well, it's simply not possible.

 I pretty much do FIVE THINGS with my computer

• Email
• Surf the Net
• Blog
• Create documents (grocery lists, planning lists, notes and letters, homemade forms, etc.)
• Import, Edit, Organize and Store Photos

And while the Mac was valiant at the first three, it was DEPLORABLE at the last two.  And those two were dealbreakers.  In fact, I pretty much gave up editing photos altogether, so horrible was the interface between the Mac and any Adobe product I use.  And trying to share anything was a nightmare because I had to convert it to a form that non-Mac users (like, the majority of the world) could use, which usually took away half my formatting.  It was BEASTLY trying to help Jack create slideshows that he could use for school projects.  BEASTLY!!

But, AAAAAHHHHHH!  I can heave a giant sigh of relief now, because, to quote Celine, A new day has come!  I feel peace like a river, let me tell you.  The dog days are OVER.

Funny thing though... 

Seven months of Mac use has warped my brain into forgetting thing that used to be second nature.  Like where the CTRL key is.  Or how to scroll.

But all that will come back in due time.  Right now, I'm so happy to have my  END key back!!!  My HOME key back!!!  My PGDN and PGUP and sweet mother my DELETE key back! 

Halleluia, it's a new day!!

NAPERVILLE YARD SALES DOT COM ROCKS MY WORLD

We're having a GARAGE SALE!!  And not just any garage sale.  This is the mother of all of them.  Why?  Because I'm a hoarder person who appreciates holding on to things for a very long time.  In mulitples.  And apparently, so are my neighbors.  So we're doing this together!

You can check out our listing, along with many others, at Naperville Yard Sales.  A place where I will finally, hopefully SELL something, instead of buying.

The lovely folks at Naperville Yard Sales offered to upgrade our listing for FREE in exchange for a simple link on the ole bloggity blog.  Clearly, I'm a yard sailor.  And FREE is my language.  So there you go.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday my friends.  That's when the magic is going to happen!  And hopefully, I'll still be standing at the end of it all, with a fanny pack full of cash and a whole lot less STUFF. 

Otherwise, my dear husband may go on Naperville Yard Sales to find a flamethrower, which he will use to ignite all of my garbage treasures.