Birthday Shopping

Finished up Kailee's birthday shop today. Ouch my debit card is hurting. I hope she loves everything we got her. She is officially in tween land-- her list consisted of clothes, accessories, and Glee items. I ordered Dylan's Boba Fett MP3/Alarm Clock/Lamp from ThinkGeek.com. I even paid the extra for 3 day shipping, but they didn't actually ship the item until today--2 days before his birthday... Boo. Jason and I are taking Aliza to Disney Princess on Ice tomorrow so we're going to run to Fry's electronics to see if we can find him something for him to open on Sunday too. I work this weekend-- Oh wait I work every weekend, so I have tons of things to do cleaning, cake baking, and present wrapping. I can't believe K and D will be 1-0. Yikes.

Motivation has arrived.

We had such a fantastic day today. Made to my morning meeting, and as meetings go it was pretty good. Then I raced home to take Aliza swimming. She did pretty well, a few tears here and there, but in comparison to some of her downright embarrassing vomit-inducing tantrums the tears today didn't even rate. She's taken lessons from EVO on Gilbert and Guadalupe since she was 12 months old, and I can't say enough good things about that place. Awesome instructors, awesome staff, and they don't make you feel like a crappy parent when your kid is screaming and kicking to get out of the pool. Not an easy task. After swimming Aliza and I headed home. She took a nap on the couch and I organized the kitchen craft cabinet, and finished my Flancer's Bruschetta. Yum! I might make a few adjustments next time, but all-in-all pretty good. Then tonight we made Oreo Chick and Bunny suckers. I stumbled across this amazing blog with a tutorial and instantly fell in love. The blog, HowDoesShe.com, is full of really great crafting ideas, recipes, and family tips. The kids all had a blast and the clean-up wasn't horrific.

Giving Aliza a much needed bath after said Oreo sucker making, and then hoping to get to bed early. Hopefully, tomorrow brings another wonderful day.

Grapes

Is it strange that my youngest daughter's love of grapes or as she calls them gwapes makes me insanely happy? All evening she's asked " for just two more gwapes pleasseee". I'd love to be that mom who only feeds her kids organic, home cooked meals, but lets face it with two working parents and three active kids Hamburger Helper and McDonald's are featured meals here at least once a week. Sigh, I'm going to try and be a better cook, but for now I'm going to smile over a love of grapes.

On another note, my Roma tomatoes are marinating in garlic, basil, and olive oil. I really hope this bruschetta turns out half as yummy as it is at the restaurant. Good night all I have a meeting in the morning--and after 8 years of working nights morning meets aren't easy.

Happy Monday

Oh happy Monday. I was sick this weekend--so sick that I missed work Saturday night, and I almost never miss work. The upside to my snot filled Saturday was that I got a jump start on this weekends homework. It's now Monday and I have all of this weeks homework done, plus a portion of next weeks. T-minus 6 weeks until graduation, and if today is any indication of how much my stress level will decrease I am going to be one happy mama. I steam cleaned the carpets AND figured out how to remove the screens from my big front window and back patio door for a much overdue scrubbing.

I should be embarrassed that we've lived in this house for 3 years without cleaning the screens, but I'm not....The windows are clean. The sun is shining, and I spent the rest of the day hanging with my three favorite little people.

Plans for tomorrow? I'm going to try making Flancer's Goat Cheese Bruschetta recipe.

Cupcakes

We spent Sunday evening celebrating Gordon's birthday. My father-in-law sent me this silly picture of Aliza. I just love her facial expressions and the sheer joy she got from a Tinkerbell fairy cupcake.

It's a wonderful life

It's a wonderful life. Jason took some great pictures of the kids

this week. The weather is beautiful and the trampoline is so much fun!

Sleep

I hate not being able to sleep. Ugh. It's the curse of the night shift worker. I'm exhausted so I take a 4:00 nap, which only perpetuates my inability to sleep at night. Aliza has swim lessons this morning, and unless I want to go looking like Zombie mom I better start counting sheep.

Is 4 am too late for Benadryl....