Happy Birthday Darren!

I've been waiting this whole week to blog about my Valentines Day (or I should really say our Valentines Day) and finally sat down to do it. I got out the camera, got my pictures downloaded to the computer and with one quick accidental finger move I've deleted the whole weekend.....and Darren's birthday party pictures that happened a few days ago!
AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!
How annoying. So no pictures but here's a rundown of our family happenings.
For Valentine's Day I thought it would be fun to do something together as a family. So we decided to have picnic in the living room. We've done this one other time and the girls think it's great and I think it's great when I don't have to cook:). We put an old blanket down on the living room floor, got some Quiznos, put in the Little Mermaid and had a great night. On Monday night Darren and I went out to eat without the kids and that about sums it up! Nothing too exciting but we did at least acknowledge the Day of Love.
Darren's birthday was on Sunday (the 21st) and he insisted we not do anything for it. I obviously ignored his one birthday wish and made him the yummiest chocolate cake with buttercream chocolate frosting. And we even added pink, white, and red heart sprinkles "to show daddy how much we love him" according to Abby. I, of course, agreed. Too bad I can't show you how nice my chocolate cake looked (bonehead move!) but I'm sure you can imagine. Darren was lucky enough to get a nice package of no show socks and I'm not sure who was more excited about it - me or him. I was excited just to find something at Walmart that qualified as a birthday present (and yes I do know that socks are a lame present but keep reading)! Darren was excited because now he doesn't have to wear his socks for 3 days in a row before washing them (and no, I did not know that he has been doing this for months.) For some reason I never realized I only folded 2 pairs of his socks in our weekly laundry. Disgusting, I know. However, Darren just thinks he's being green:) Happy Birthday Darren!!

A little bit about my day....

I just spent the whole afternoon cleaning....or maybe trashing things is a better way to put it! Yes, I've reached the point of no longer caring what goes as long as many things do go. It happened earlier today as I looked around my girls' bedroom and realized there had to be a better way to keep a bedroom clean. Other than the same old routine of -

"Time to clean up your room please."

30 minutes later
(Insert cheerleader mom here) "Let's get going girls! We can do it if we try, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!"

15 minutes later
(Insert big purple dinosaur )"Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your share!"

5 minutes later
(Insert getting grumpy mom) "Ok, seriously girls no more playing any games until your bedroom is cleaned up. And now we also have the living room and kitchen table to add to our list of cleaning up."

2 minutes after that
(Insert suprisingly close to insanity mom) "Now, now, NOW! Get going! To the bedroom! No one is leaving this room until it is spic and span!"

"And I mean it!"

30 seconds after that
(Insert calm, apathetic mom) "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to throw things away. I don't care. Anything you really want you better pick up now 'cuz the garabage bag is coming out!"

At this point the girls are in a frenzied state of cleaning and close to panicking......(By the way I do know that I don't win stellar mom of the year award!! But the cleaning does get done:)

Anyway, there have been one too many days like this in our home lately and I got fed up today. So I did go through a lot of toys and weeded out whatever I felt like needed going. There was no rhyme or reason to my insanity.

The grocery basket that came with a trillion food items....gone. Or at least the food no one wants to play with. You know, like eggplant. Seriously what 3 year old even knows what that is?

The little pony with "beautiful blowing in the wind" hair we got from McDonalds....won't be brushing that hair again.

The fake money that was supposed to be a learning experience...trashed with no remorse.

The list goes on but I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I was feeling pretty good with my robotic, anti-emotional dumping of treasured items.

Until about an hour ago when the doorbell rang. And my grandma and grandpa showed up. Not empty handed. Oh, no. We are now the proud owners of 23 strands of colorful, loooong beaded necklaces that came straight from Louisianna.

Thank you Mardi Gras.

Brooklyn's Obsessions

Now that Abby has started Pre-school, Brooklyn has had a lot of time to play on her own. She's gotten pretty good at being able to find things to do. I love that she can entertain herself for awhile.

But she's not so good at finishing up her "projects" or cleaning up after herself. So this (photo below) is a daily occurance at my house. There are varying degrees of, shall we say, "constructive play" all over my humble abode. Brooklyn loves to sit in her closet and find as many small, colorful objects as possible. She gathers these objects and then finds other things to put them in. Baskets, purses, bowls, rubber maid bins (that are, by the way, for the sole purpose of organization. Hmmmm.) Anything goes. And once she has "lots and lots" of itty, bitty things gathered it gets dumped somewhere in my house. And then the game is over. And then I step on these things. Because I can't see where I'm stepping. Because I generally have a baby blocking the view of my feet.

It's driving me crazy!!


This was a lucky day. Her collection actually made it off the floor!






This small object obsession has also carried over into clips to keep her hair pretty. Again, a daily occurrance.




Dramatic facial expressions. Yep. Daily.



Classic Brooklyn.



Did I mention mood swings? Well, they happen at my house and contrary to what my good husband thinks, they are not all by his wife. In fact, I'm more than a little worried about the teenage years. All these pictures were taken within about 5 minutes of each other. If you can't tell I'm about to get yelled at in this next picture. I can't really remember what happened but I do know that I made it much worse by taking pictures during her little tirade!! (And I heard all about it!)

Here I'm being told off. I'm pretty sure she's saying something to this effect. "You don't take pictures of me when I'm mad." Exclamation point.



What can I say? I just love my little Brookie!!