I'm dreaming of a white Easter?

I knew that if I put the boots away it would surely snow again. Murphy's Law a.k.a. Mallet's law. I figured it was better to press my luck in March then in April, so I put the boots away this weekend, and this is what greeted the children this morning as they got on the bus...

Oh my YUM!

It is RARE when we come upon a new food that knocks our socks off, so varied and wide are the many food aversions of this 6 person family.  Marc and I are not 'fruit people' and I have tried very hard to not pass this on to the kids, but apparently there may be a genetic component to the trait. 

However, these Sumo Oranges have crossed the great divide - we are all in LOVE with them!  They are ugly little suckers, but so amazing.  You simply twist off the top 'knob' and the orange sits inside the bottom skin in an air pocket that makes it so loose and easy to peel.  

Not only are they easy, but they are incredibly tasty too.  Juicy, sweet, perfectly citrusy.  So many of the oranges you can get this time of year are mealy and devoid of any flavor.  These have been a total game changer for us!

Sick Kids, story of my winter

This poor, sweet, snot ball of a toddler pitched a hissy fit when I dared out her down for a nap.  Not wanting to exacerbate her boogeriness, I gave up and plopped her on the couch.

Five minutes later...

Yep, thought so.  Just adds another layer of challenge to my quest to take a shower before I start scaring people!

My kitchen floor

I'm not sure Mr. Fleetwood catches as many crumbs as I do when he sweeps the lunch room floor each day at school.  Some days it feels like I share my table with a pack of wild animals!

Happy New Year, 2015!!

Our babysitter had better New Year's Eve plans than we did this year, and the only babysitter left in the neighborhood was 13 and could only stay out until 11pm...so we decided to stay in.  And with 48 hours until the ball drop in Times Square, we invited any of our friends without sitters to join us.  It turned out to be a fun time!

It was Marc's birthday, but he brought ME flowers!  And even better, they were the kind I would have bought myself if I'd have been in the store, they make me smile every time I look at them!

Last year we filled out a New Year's list and the kids' answers were so fun I wanted to make it a tradition .  It will be so cool to see how they grow through the years based on their own year-end reviews.  

Maeve's 1st Birthday cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes was such a hit, I ran with the idea again for Marc's cake.  White White Chocolate on top and Chocolate Chocolate Chip on bottom.  And we finally had reason to bust out all the champagne glasses I bought for Molly's First Communion and Maeve's Baptism in 2013.  They are stemless because they were 1/4 the price of stemmed ones on Amazon.com that year.  That made them so much more good-looking to me I had no choice but to buy them!

I had 48 hours to whip this party together, so the veggies were store bought and the dip was homemade from a Tastefully Simple mix that takes seconds to prepare.

The entertainment was storebought too!

The only other thing that wasn't storebought were the two special sauces I tmade for Marc's cake.  He's obsessed with bourbon these days, so I used one of his favorites to make a Bourbon Cream sauce and a Bourbon Caramel.  They were amazing, but I halved the bourbon in the cream sauce after taste testing the caramel and nearly growing chest hair!

Disclaimer: anyone who knows me knows it killed me to not have cute little labels on these canning jars.  With 48 hours to plan, something's got to give!  for the record though, it would have been something like this....

Someday!

For the record though, both sauces were DIVINE on the cake. 

And the sparklers on top were loads of fun too!

I tried to get pictures of the 13 kids that were in attendance, I swear I tried!  But the boys were too fast for me and the girls were BANANAS - this was the best I could get!  

Unlike their mommas, who are more than happy to pose for the camera!

I wanted to keep Maeve up to sing Happy Birthday to Daddy, but the last of the guests didn't arrive until 9:30, so she was starting to get glassy-eyed  (her bedtime is usually 8:30).  The Elmo app on my iPhone came to the rescue though!

This girl had a BALL.  But she kept stealing my fancy tiara.  Next time I'll make sure to buy her one too!

She  made a point to 'match' her outfit to Maeve's dress.  Too sweet!

She was looking so grown up tonight.  Maybe it's the Katy Perry bangs she got butchered with at the salon?  Wisftully, I think it's just father time creeping up on us.

This little one was also making me wistful in her hand-me-down dress from Molly's second Christmas.  I remember Molly tiptoeing barefoot around Nana and Papa's house that year - the year she got her baby doll bed, that Maeve played with just that morning.  This evening however, she'd taken a shine to one of the woodland animals that decorated our fireplace this year.

She's got her Daddy wrapped around her little finger too.

 
  Eventually Maeve made it to bed and we tucked the others in at 12:15 after all the noisemakers were tooted and New Year's kisses and hugs given.  We paid for that dearly as they were grumpusauruses the next day and Ben was a complete train wreck at bedtime for two days running.  1-2 hours of hysterical crying because he was so overtired.  But that's the price you pay sometimes when you're a parent.  All those celebrations and late nights we enjoyed without strings when we were in our teens and twenties and could sleep until 2pm the next day....I sure appreciate them in hindsight!

Happy 2015 to everyone, and Happy 42 to Marc!  We may not be able to sleep in until 2, but at least we've got some super-cute company when our early risers wake us up!

Sands Through The Hourglass

I saw this on Pinterest tonight and it accurately describes where my heart is these days.

  

Of course it's Jen Hatmaker!  I recently read her book "Seven" and it's changed my heart in many ways, particularly in making it more tender.  Technically, it was always tender.  It's just that I only let the tenderness well up to a certain level because if I didn't keep it in check it'd spill over.  Mostly out my eyes.  You can't cry your heart out every day and be a terribly effective mother.  

However, Jen's perspective set my threshold a little higher.  

It could be the time of year (baby Jesus always makes me spill over) 

but the other day while sitting at a stop light running from one errand to another with no kids in the car, I just burst into tears thinking about how much I miss them.  Not the "them" that I interact with day to day.  That 'them' I love and kiss and hug and cherish and argue with and fuss over and nag till their sick of me.  

The 'them' I miss to the point of heartbreak is the 'them' that is lost to time.  

THEM at six months old

THEM at one year old

THEM at 18 months

THEM at 2

or 3

or 5

or 7

or 10

THEM of six months ago

or last year

or last decade.

And it seems no matter how much I soak them up in the here and now, 

it's never enough.  I guess that's love.  It's definitely 

NATSUGASHII.

Toddler Talk

Me: Maeve, how old are you?
Maeve: Maeve!
Me: Will you have a birthday soon?
Maeve: Birthday soon!
Me: And then how old will you be?
Maeve: GREEN!
Me: Will you be two?
Maeve: No! Four.