Life with boys

Last Friday Joseph and I had big plans.

We were headed out for a night on the town, kid free and yummy food to be eaten.

Jack had other plans.

I was trying to be a fun Mom, so I packed up the herd and we took off to our dear friend Target.

The promise of popcorn and a drink (a must for shopping with little people) and a new movie to watch with the babysitter were in the kids heads and the promise of a new necklace or 3 was in mine.

We enter the store, scoot over to the cafe to pick up the promised popcorn and drink combo (2 extra bags please!), Jack finally obeys and sits on the chair to wait for me to get the fruit punch. He is sitting on a swivel chair. I'm done with the drink. I'm getting everything situated in the cart.

I call out "ok here we goooooo, Jack come along".

He stands up. And attempts to jump from said swivel chair.

You can't jump from a swivel chair, they move.

He smashes his sweet face right into the floor.

I am not a panicky Mom. When my kids fall I'm never the one to run from across the playground, I don't make a scene. EVER.

I immediately set the drink down and move over to him.

He screams. Bloody murder. I know it's bad.

I see his chin. Bright purple. I scoop his 45lb body up.

I pull the cellphone out of my back pocket call Joseph and tell him to meet me at the ER.

He asks which kid, I laugh. He knows which one.

This all transpired in less than 5mins.

Not one Target employee (there were about 5 within 10ft of me) came over to check on us.

I stuffed 5ins of napkins under his chin, stuff him in the cart and off to the car we go.

3hrs later we came home with black "whiskers".

The joy of little boys.

Not a foodie

I love food.

But I am not a foodie.

Calling yourself a foodie seems so pretentious. kinda like Ego the food critic in Ratatouille.

or Gail Simmons from TopChef. yucky.

that's not me.

I grew up in the country. My grandparents grew up in the hollows in Appalachia.

I grew up eating corn bread, beans, smoked meats, squash casserole, apple cobbler, apple butter, cabbage and all manners of southern food. mmmm macaroni and cheese and collards.

I am not afraid to eat a Wendys burger (with cheese, mustard and onions) and a Frosty on occasion.

clearly I am not a foodie.

However, I do take issue with canned tuna. and boxed mac and cheese.

This was a huge deal in our house when we were first married.

Joseph is a LOVER of canned tuna. It makes me sick. literally. unfortunately for me my kids love it too. *puke*

I had never had any exotic cuisine until I left home at 19.

I moved 45mins away from my home and an entire world of food was waiting for me.

Joseph could careless about food. He would take a pill for all his nutritional needs if he could.

Not me.

Recently Joseph's cousin and his wife moved here. And he loves loves loves food too.

And he loves to bake bread.

So we are going to do a monthly bread baking challenge.

My hippy friend Chris recommended Peter Reinhardt's Artisan Breads Everyday and The Bread Bakers Apprentice.

Holy Amazing.

If you love to bake bread, these are the books for you.

The world of bread has been opened to me.

I am so excited to start using his techniques and recipes.

I am not a foodie.

But I love food.

five

Abbey turned 5(!!!) last Monday.

She took it upon herself to call and invite her cousins to her birthday dinner.

When it's your birthday in our house, you get to pick the restaurant.

And when you are Abbey or Jack, you always choose Red Robin.

mostly for the freckled lemonade.

We enjoyed dinner and came home for a Hannah Montana cake.

I sort of turned Abbeys birthday party over to her.

There were weeks of deliberation between princess, bounce house, sweet shop, baking, pottery, etc.

In the end the Sweet Shoppe won.

I have a tendency to go over board with everything. A friend of mine posted a blog where the Mom planned a sweet shoppe for her 1yr old twin girls.

It was INSANE. INSANE. INSANE.

I had a million and a half ideas floating in my head when my sister (inlaw) reminded me I have kids to take care of and can't sit on my duff making decorations for the next month.

I made lollipops for the invites.

They were super cute if I do say so myself, I'm not a crafter, so for me they were AWESOME.

I gave Abbey the opportunity to invite whoever she wanted.

She surprised me and only asked to invite 6 little girls and told me that only 3 boys could come.

Her brothers and her cousin. :)

We had a wonderful day.

We ate pizza and carrots to start because I knew the rest of the party would revolve around candy, icecream and the chocolate fountain. HA.

The kids make lollipops, chocolate dipped strawberries, icecream sundaes and visited the candy bar before heading home.

It was a wonderful afternoon.

We are so grateful for our sweet Abbey.

We love her so much.

In awe of her bitty baby. Thanks Nana and Papa.

Some of the goods.

The newest Gillespies have arrived.

We are so excited.

I might steal their baby.

Wild man.

This kid is TROUBLE. seriously.

her perfect sundae.

a little shy during the singing.

he's delicious.

a few of our guests.

my invite.
don't tell me it's crap, i worked hard.

candy bar.

Amelia and I had to disassemble this as soon as the party was over because the kids (ok Jack and Michael) couldn't stay away. Go ahead and ask Amelia about the gummie bears.
HA.

i love this.

And as you can see I finally refinished my chairs!

YAY me!