The Wisdom of the 3, Almost 4 yr old.

I always let Mary have free use of the coupons once I'm finished with them.  She loves to pull out her scissors and carefully cut them out and pretend they're money.  She even puts them in her wallet and proceeds to dole them out for special occasions.  This morning, I fixed the tear in her good princess dress.  She paid me $2, by handing me 2 $1 off coupons.  I was pretty impressed.  This evening, Doug did something especially good, I can't remember exactly what it was but it was probably extra fun playtime and it deserved payment.  He looked at the coupons and said, "Depends?  Milk of Magnesia?  Pantyliners?  Hey!  What's she trying to tell me?"  Ha,ha,ha!  He must be old, have stomach problems...and not feeling "quite so fresh".  Made me run for my "money" from this morning to see what they were...shampoo and facial moisturizer.  Ah, good girl.

The See and Grab

*Last year's event was cancelled due to rain, so they just handed out bags of eggs to the kids after church.  This year, we had beautiful weather.  This was much more fun!



I don't think you can officially call it an Easter Egg Hunt when there's absolutely no hunting involved.   I think it should be renamed a "See and Grab". Perfect for little kiddos.  The playing field was divided by age group (great idea).

Adam immediately dropped his bucket (aka, basket), grabbed an egg and busted it open for the candy.  That boy has his priorities straight.  He didn't even wait for them to say, "Go!"

Please, may I have more?

Maybe if no one's watching, I can eat more.

My turn!

Hope your day was as sweet as ours!

Happy Easter 2011!

I was on boycott this year...cooking boycott, that is.  I decided that I needed a break and didn't want to cook Easter dinner this year.  I looked into going to the Officer's Club, but they were only serving brunch from 10am -2pm.  After 10 o'clock church, the Easter egg hunt, the obligatory "good behavior" donut, and being the wild and crazy social bunnies that we are, we wouldn't make it there until noon and the kids would be exhausted.   Thankfully, Nicole, without prior knowledge of my boycott, invited us over for an Easter BBQ.  Hooray!  Saved! Hmmm, but what about Saturday night dinner?  I should have known...I can't completely skip the special holiday without cooking...I love to cook.  So, after making a quick run to the commissary, I came home and cooked an Easter feast.  Nearly 2 hours spent in the kitchen, chopping, slicing, sauteing, grilling and boiling.  This was the result...

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli:  Stuffed with button, crimini, and shitaki mushrooms, garlic, green onions, cream cheese (because of course, the commissary didn't have marscapone) and Parmesan cheese.  *I did not make the pasta.

These were then smothered in a homemade mushroom cream sauce:  Crimini mushrooms, garlic, onions (no leeks at the store, either), sage, bay leaf, cream, a dab of cream cheese and Parmesan cheese.

Fabulous!

Fillet Mignon wrapped in bacon and asparagus spears in the grill pan, mushroom cream sauce simmering in the pan and ravioli boiling in the pot.  Are you salivating yet?

The final result:  garlic bread, the fancy tablecloth and a nice glass of Chianti complete the meal.  Happy Easter everyone!  (You might wonder why we aren't in the pictures.  We might have had a fancy meal, but we pretty much looked like slobs.  Junky clothes from dying the eggs, no make-up, and I don't even recall brushing my hair today.  We wanted to prevent camera breakage from seeing our scary mugs.  Of course, here are the 2 cutie patooties.  Doesn't matter what they wear, they're still adorable.)

So much for my boycott.

Egg-cellent fun!

Tomorrow's Easter, time to dye the eggs.  Why do I always wait until the day before to do this?  I must really like the challenge of letting my kids have fun and simultaneously trying to keep them relatively stain-free for church the next day.  This year, I'm not too worried about dye on hands or faces since we took the professional pictures in their Easter outfits earlier this week.  So this morning, we dressed up in old clothes and had some fun.  Good thing Daddy made it home from work (yes, it's Saturday) in time to participate.

Adam wanted to participate, though he treated them like balls and literally threw them in the dye.  Good thing they were hard boiled.  Needless to say, he did a lot of watching after that.

We had one casualty of the day and it was consequently consumed by all.  Adam wasn't a fan, but Mary liked it and wanted one of her own.

All the egg coloring practice culminated into the final egg-traordinary egg.

And the removal of all the rubber bands...

Ta-da!

Masterpieces today.  Deviled eggs tomorrow.  Happy Easter!

It's That Time Again...

When you can't walk into a room and expect your little one to be sitting where you placed him (OK, that was gone a long time ago).  When climbing on furniture opens a new world of possibility and it's a challenge to "put something out of his reach".  It's tough, but it's also a lot of fun.  You can tell he's definitely my kid.  When he's hungry, he's hungry.

I guess I have 2 monkey children now.  Hmm, does that make me a monkey mama?

A Preview

I'm already in love and I've only seen one pic.  I've been told that there will be 20-25 pictures to choose from/look at next week when she finishes the editing.  We had photos yesterday... outdoors, where wiggle man was extra wiggly and big sister was amazingly cooperative (for about 40 minutes).  Good thing it was only an hour long session.  I finally saw one of the pictures tonight and I'm practically giddy.  I can't wait to see more, but for now, this will have to do.

Party Time!

Yesterday was a busy day.  Not only did Mary get some good quality play time with Daddy in the morning, she and I attended a birthday party for twin girls we know from ballet class.  She was so excited to learn that they had rented a bouncy house, but once she saw the trampoline, she was hooked.

I think it's funny what kids can be afraid of.  Monkey girl, who will climb a 6 ft. awning pole in our yard faster than you can say "Banana", was terrified to get her face painted at the birthday party.  Huh?  I will say that this was no ordinary balloon or heart on the cheek, like what I grew up with.  This was full blown half the face, around the eyes butterflies, curlicues with gems, monsters and super heroes.  It was pretty cool.  After watching for a long time and finally seeing her friend, Natalie, get her face painted, Mary decided she would get a butterfly...on her arm.  The painter was wonderful and patient and so kind.

Being so close to Easter, the mother decided to hold an Easter egg hunt in addition to all the fun and excitement.  Mary still hasn't quite grasped the idea of the hunt.  She pretty much ran around behind other kids and would occasionally find an egg.  She ended up with 5 and she was thrilled.  The mother of the party saw her basket when we were saying "goodbye" and ran into the house to get her another one.  It was too sweet, but seriously, we didn't need the extra candy.

And last, but not least, my favorite picture of the day.  I just love the sparkle in her eyes.

The Hostess With the (Almost) Mostest

Did you know that I'm a distant relation to Perle Mesta?  She was born in 1889, died in 1975 and was known as the "hostess with the mostest".  She was an American socialite known for throwing lavish parties in Washington, D.C. involving artists and politicians and top entertainers.  I have ideas...tons of them, in fact, just swimming around in my head.  I have ideas for parties, for dinners, for play dates.  I might have the ideas, but sometimes I have trouble bringing those to fruition.  That's where friends come in.  Social networking at it's best.


Today, my friend Kristen, and I threw a huge "Welcome Baby" party for our friend, Nicole.  She and her husband wanted to wait to find out the gender of the baby and since it was their second, we had a "welcome" instead of a shower.  Great idea, since we all got to hold little Lucy Claire.  Kristen and I had a fabulous time collaborating and decorating for a sophisticated party with a hint of flair.  Our theme was "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" to coordinate with the baby bedding Nicole was to receive.  Beautiful yellows and greens and we added a touch of pink for Lucy.  Flowers, balloons, streamers and huge sunbursts, miniature chocolates, a photo collage of the baby, a mixed CD, delicious brunch, mimosas and lots of girl talk.  (Did I mention that this was a "No Kids" party?  A big "Thank You" to Doug for taking the kids out to the the park.  It was great having adult conversations with my girlfriends without being interrupted by little munchkins.)

I found a blog about a special cake and the moment I saw it, I just had to make it.  One problem, I'm not a baker.  I would love to bake, but I don't have the patience...I also don't have the supplies.  The recipe used a standing mixer, a scale, um, baking pans.  So I turned to my good friend, Nicole G., who makes wonderful cakes (she made Kristen and my shower cake).  Here's a reenactment of our conversation. Me:  So, I really want to make this cake I saw on the Internet.  Do you happen to have a standing mixer I could borrow?  If the recipe calls for a standing mixer, can I use a hand held instead?  How do you use a standing mixer?  Do you have 9 in. cake pans?  Can I borrow a cake stand?  What's a crumb layer?  Nicole:  Do you want me to make it for you?  Me:  Yes, Please!!!!!!!!  Now, let me tell you how I have envisioned it...  

Simple, elegant.  3 yellow roses on top and a row of icing beading along the bottom.

And this is the awesome "Wow!" experience I was hoping for!

And this...

Yes, it's a rainbow cake.  Beautifully simple and deceptive on the outside, 6 amazing, vibrant colorful layers on the inside.  It was spectacular.  And yummy!

So that was the party, in a nutshell.  10 women celebrating the birth of a beautiful new baby girl.  Welcome Lucy Claire!

Mary the Monkey

My little girl loves turtles and butterflies, trains and princesses, Shrek and Dora.  My little girl dances ballet, sings at the top of her lungs while sitting on the potty and loves to read books.  She's a beautiful mix of tomboy and girly-girl.  My little girl has turned into a little monkey.  She loves to climb trees, playgrounds and the pole of our awning.  She's a fireman, an explorer, a daredevil.  She's Mary...the monkey.

I told her I can't cheer for her anymore when she cheats and stands on the picnic table to start half way up.  In order for me to be super excited, she has to start from the bottom.  Not only did she start doing that, but she added this little bit of daring (no longer being satisfied with just briefly touching the awning).

Yep, she grabs on to the awning and dangles.  Doug told her she now has to start trying it with shoes.  Ah, anything to make it more difficult.

I have a video, but it's been days and it just won't load.  I'll try posting it on facebook.

I had a weird dream last night.  I was selfish.  I was more concerned with how I looked to the world versus Doug's feeling.  He was so happy, but I was embarrassed.  At the end, I finally realized that his happiness was all that mattered, but I was still feeling self centered.  I know dreams aren't reality.  I know they can't be interpreted literally.  But somehow, I still carry this feeling of guilt and it's been hours since I woke up.  I truly want to live my life in such a way that my husband feels loved, supported and yes, even challenged to grow as a person.  I want my children to see how love and respect and commitment make a strong and happy family.  I strive for that everyday and hope that's the message they're receiving, even though they're too young to understand.

First haircut

Well, it was time.  Little man was starting to look pretty shaggy and there's only so much yogurt, spaghetti or taco you can put in there to make it cooperate...and that tends to leave a lingering odor.  So the big question was, where do we take him?  Mary has been going to the same lady at the beauty parlor on base and we've developed a nice rapport (and a handful of pantomiming gestures through the years) to help us with the language barrier.  However, I think Kyoko-san's gotten used to the nice cooperative little girl who loves to get her hair cut and was a bit shocked/worried/scared when I asked her to trim around wiggly Adam's ears a few months ago.  I decided not to put her through that kind of torture for a full blown haircut.  I looked into taking him to the barber shop on base, but the youngest boys I saw were 7-8 yrs old. Hmm, no squirmy kids in sight.  No parents holding kids in vice like grips.  I've heard rumors that little boys go in and little marines walk out.  I wasn't so sure I wanted my baby to look like a Marine.  I looked into places out in town and found one near Comprehensive Park.  After much pantomiming, confused looks and shouting (because we all know if you don't speak the language, they'll understand you if you just  increase your volume) we secured an appointment at 4:30pm.  It was a great time, actually.  Doug was back from work and had enough down time not to feel too rushed out the door.  I was able to sit back and watch the experience (and take the obligatory photos) without having to hold Adam and worry that all the pics Mary was taking would be blurry.  They even had a t.v. right in front of him and they turned on Tom and Jerry.  He had never seen it before and it worked perfectly.  He held still (well, pretty still) and now he looks so much better.  Can't wait for his Easter pics now.

Doug was "gowned" to prevent hair getting on him.  Great idea.

This grey piece holding his cover in place was saturated with drool by the time we were finished.  That's my boy.

Yea!  The magic of cartoons!

Comprehensive Park

For those of you that don't live here or have never visited during the summer, it get super, duper hot and humid here and it's miserable.  That's why whenever we have a beautiful day now, I try to get us outside.  Before we know it, summer will be here and we'll be searching for air conditioned play areas.

Once again, Doug had to go into work (on a Saturday).  Poor man's been working 6-7 days a week since the earthquake/tsunami/radiation scare.  I took the kids to comprehensive park.  Last time we went, I was pregnant and I had to stop and check my blood sugar there.  Now, Adam's 16 months old and running around after his sister.  Time sure does fly by.

I have to say that I'm glad that we know of other parks/playgrounds to go to.  Even though this one looks super cool, it's starting to show signs of neglect and misuse.  Mainly, in the form of trash (it's so hard to find trash cans at parks, but it's common courtesy to take what you bring, right?) left all over the place (which my curious little boy wants to pick up and taste) and a strange scent of urine.  Even though that smell invokes wonderful memories of our first anniversary in Paris, it doesn't belong here.  Mary said, "It smells like animals."  We cut play time short and headed for a walk along the water.  There was a great path for runners, joggers, walkers and my kids.

Who is this kid?  He looks really, really Asian in this picture.  OK, maybe really half Asian.

The water was beautiful and the breeze was fantastic.  There was only a minor incident when Mary got her head stuck between the bars.  Not to worry, it was only slightly stuck and she walked away without even a red mark.  Now she says, "Mama, I have a BIG noggin."  Like mother, like daughter.