Our Adventures with Ryan and Riley Cate

confessions

time for another edition of confessions!

1. we have had a few more pizza hut big boxes since april started.  I try to remember which night of the week we ordered last week so I am sure to only order it once a week.  7 days apart is an acceptable time frame (in my crazy little mind) to order pizza, but 6 is not.  rational, right?
2. I have some beautiful plants that were sent to meems memorial service.  I love plants, but for obvious reasons, I am a little nervous about turning these plants into brown crunchy sticks.  grow, plants, grow!
3. riley asks to wear her minnie mouse ears almost daily lately, and I let her.  she is precious!  so far, she has worn them to school and out to eat.  davon drew the line at wearing them to bed and in the bathtub. 
   
4. I found a new local kolache place.  It does not have a drive thru, which makes me sad.  How am I supposed to do a drive by in my PJ's now?  I wonder if my old kolache place will notice I have moved on? 
5. ryan is going on a field trip tomorrow to a giant playground/spray park.  I am considering "sharpie-ing" my phone number on both of his forearms.
6. my whole family is ready for summer vacation from school.  them, because they will all be out of school hanging out by the pool.  me, because I will no longer have to wake in the 6am hour to rush (them) out of the house.  just waking up and working seems so... EASY!  yahoo for summer break!
7. davon and I have 2 new favorite shows this season:  revenge and missing.  they are both great and I can't wait to tune in each week!
8. I have been sick for a couple of days, having to be an adult/mommy/employee and be sick is kind of rough.  this morning ryan offered to stay home from school to take care of me.  this afternoon, riley checked me over with her doctor kit.  sounds silly, but both of them made me feel very loved today by caring so much about how I was feeling.  sometimes kids demonstrate love in ways you would not expect.
9. I may be just as excited about riley's upcoming 4th birthday party as she is!  I am not excited about her getting older (how is she already turning 4?), but I love hosting a good party, and seeing my kids feel so special and have such a good time with a day all about them!  I was born to be a party planner.  Now if only someone would PAY me to plan their parties!
10. ryan's kindergarten graduation cap and gown came home yesterday.  I wanted to see the cap on him, and my goodness, I don't think any 6 year old has ever been this cute in a mortar board!
    

friday ramblings/confessions

Thought everyone might love a little random rambling on a Friday:

• Riley's birthday invitations came in the mail this week, and I LOVE them!  So excited about mailing them in a few weeks!  I will post one on the blog after mailing and closer to her party, but don't want to spoil the surprise before then!  We are planning her party at a local waterpark, and she is so excited about it.  It is going to be all things fun in the sun with lots of aqua colored items and red and white polka dots.  Hosting an outdoor party always leaves room for a little weather related nervousness, but I am thinking good thoughts about the weather on Saturday, May 19th!
• Related to Riley's birthday, I took some pictures of her in her birthday party swimsuit to use on the invite.  Yes, I have already ordered her a birthday party swimsuit and staged an outdoor photoshoot of her in it.  No, I have not caught up on my laundry yet.  Here are a few pictures I LOVE, but are not being used on the invite itself.  I couldn't wait to show these!

• update:  since I mentioned the germs at the fair, ryan has had tonsilitis and now I have a stomach virus.  coincidence?  I think not.  maybe next year I will see if the kids will agree to wear gloves to the fair?!  or maybe I will see if I can just give them the "fair money" in cash.  I am kind of kidding.
• Ryan had another stellar report card today!  We are so proud of him!  Grades of 98, 99 and 100 with S's and E's.  Love that boy!  He is excited about adding another mario game to his collection.  That is his reward of choice!
• I ordered some presonalized labels from erincondren.com (with my finely honed internet-flash-sale-couponing-skills of course!), and I am loving them!  I am planning to use some for Riley's birthday party (on plastic cups or favors maybe?), some on meals I deliver to people in the disposable foil containers with lids (who have babies, illnesses, or just because!), and some on birthday gifts in lieu of a separate card.  I love them all!

• we have ordered the recently introduced pizza hut "big box" at least once a week in march.  it is $10 (or $11 if you get cheesesticks instead of breadsticks) of deliciousness that feeds my WHOLE family!  cheaper than grocery shopping!  it has 1 medium one topping square pizza (although it seems larger than a medium with 8 square pieces), an order of breadsticks/cheesesticks and cinnamon sticks.  deliciousness in a box!  I feel one headed to our house sometimes this weekend...

• Lowes has a 1 year plant guarantee on plants you buy from their nursery.  I have a feeling they are about to start losing money with their guarantee where I am concerned.  
  One dead plant is already headed back their way this weekend.  Hopefully no more "returns" to come...

confessions, spring break edition

it's that time, another confessions post!  this time, spring break edition...

1.  I love adele.  I went out and bought her two cd's immediately after her performance on the grammy awards.  my two favorites right now are rolling in the deep and set fire to the rain.  I am not the only one.  riley loves adele too, and begs to listen to #1 and #5 (above) on repeat.  preschool is approximately 4 "songs" away, so we listen to both of them twice.  we turn it up loud and sing along, and it is so funny to hear her in the back singing, "we could have had it aaaallllllllll" and "I set fiiiirrrrrree to the rraaaaaiiiinn, watched it burn..".  Love it! 

2.  the kids have been loving scrabble cheezits around here lately.  even for breakfast.  those have to be healthier than some breakfast food they love, like donuts.  maybe not healthier than the nutter butters I allowed for breakfast this morning.  is there enough peanut butter in a nutter butter to count it as a protein?  I did serve them with a side of fruit.  don't judge, we are a little relaxed around here this week for spring break!

3.  we (davon and I) are horrible at laundry.  when we run out of bath towels (which happens frequently), we move on to the beach towels.  for the first time ever, we went through all the beach towels before I had done any laundry.  this morning, I dried off with a hooded reindeer towel.  I am a little scared of what could be coming next.

4.  I was delighted on sunday morning (after DST) when I woke and realized my children had slept in, and it was already 8:20am.  this was enjoyable for about a half second, until my next thought was, "are they breathing?".  not sure why my mind goes there, but sleeping past 7am is a rare occurence!

5.  lately, ryan and riley have been asking to hear reasons that davon and I received spankings as children.  dark, perhaps, but maybe they are looking for behaviors to avoid which would bring serious punishment?  today, davon told a story about watching while his older brother set his parents mattress on fire while laying under their bed playing with matches.  I probably would have skipped that story.  I quickly added that "nowadays, matches are only used for camping, and people don't really have them in their houses anymore.".  hopefully it worked.

6.  speaking of mattresses!  we bought a new mattress this week!  it will be delivered on friday!  I have wanted a king sized tempurpedic for as long as I can remember.  I used to get this excited about an all inclusive vacation on a white sand beach in a tropical location.  I am at least that excited about my new mattress!  it has to be better than a vacation that lasts 5 or 6 days, since it is guaranteed to last 20 years, right?!  counting down to friday!

7.  there are lots of kids tv shows that drive me bonkers!  there have been shows that were watched in our house for awhile, that mysteriously are "no longer available on our programming". 
those zapped so far have been:  max and ruby (too bossy and whiny), calliou (too whiny), pokemon (too weird).  and then of course there were those that have never been allowed:  sponge bob (too rude) and yo gabba gabba (too annoying). 

8.  when we ran out of paper plates last week, I resorted to eating lunch on a little einsteins plate.  I hummed the theme song during the entire time I was eating lunch!  "we're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship..."


9.  I am a very particular ink pen user.  I love a good gel ball (that writes evenly), and I really love a sharpie marker or a new sharpie pen.  you will usually not ever find me with a plain blue bic pen.

10.  I make lists simply for the pleasure of the "cross off" factor.  sometimes, I have been known to add something that is already 90% complete, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off.

that's all for this edition of "embrace the crazy"!  happy spring break!

confessions, part two

I believe it is time for another confessions post!

1.  I wear flip flops year round.  I have not bought a pair of closed toed shoes in YEARS!

2.  ryan is on time to school (starts at 7:20a.m.) every day;  we have not been late/tardy one time this year.  riley is late to preschool (starts at 8:45a.m.) almost every day (explanation:  we come back home, get ready, and get engrossed in things at home:  my work, cartoons, toys, etc, and leave late for preschool 4 days out of 5). 

3.  I despise styrofoam.  the touch, the feel, the noise.  ick!

4.  I am already planning riley's 4th birthday with is more than 3 months away, and have been scouring my favorite websites and pinterest for party favors, the most precious birthday outfit, etc!  I have not, however, used these planning skills to plan what is for dinner later today.

5.  if we drive thru anywhere with french fries, I cannot stop myself from eating some on the way home.  sometimes, I eat out of more than one box to "distribute" the munching.

6.  I organize my grocery basket as I am filling it.  I put like items together on the grocery store conveyor belt.  in my pantry, all the pictures on the cans must be facing forward.  if someone moves them, I move them back.

7.  when dropping ryan off at school in the carline (remember the 7:20a.m.?), I wear my PJ's and big sunglasses (even though it is barely light).  I do brush my teeth, but I will be in trouble if I am ever needed in ryan's school for something, pulled over, or have car trouble.  for some reason, that has still not stopped me.  riley follows in my footsteps and wears her PJ's with bedhead as well!

8.  I have way too many tv shows set to record each week on my DVR, and feel an obligation to watch them in a timely manner once they are recorded.  I believe this to be the reason I am always behind on laundry.  I have no immediate plans to make any changes to that.

9.  I am addicted to zulily.com.  It may or may not be a sickness.

10.  I do not believe I have ever met a potato I did not like:  mashed, smashed, broiled, baked, fried, with cheese, or any other way (see #5)!  why can't I feel this way about carrots? 

confessions, part one

since this is my childrens window to what our lives were like, I cannot only share the highlights, but must also share the lowlights.  this is our reality.  welcome to confessions, part one of a yet to be determined number!

1. my children ate cereal and oatmeal for dinner more than once this week.  I try to keep it to once a week.  reality:  I said yes to the easiest dinner ever more than once this week.
2. when requested, I put bandaids on "owies" that are "invisible to the naked eye" just to avoid conflict, begging and whining.
3. when I needed a bandaid for myself this week, I dumped out the first aid box and sought out a princess bandaid.  I can sport a princess bandaid, but I was NOT wearing a little einsteins bandaid.  enough said.
4. riley notices within 30 seconds of seeing me if I have had a manicure or a pedicure.  this week was the first time that she asked if I could take her next time.  I think I will :)
5. riley has worn ryan's socks on several occasions when I cannot locate clean matchers for her.  she asks if they are his and I tell her that white or gray socks could be for anyone. 
6. I love that ryan is learning to read, but I don't love that I can no longer spell things to davon that he will not hear (should we give them a d-e-s-s-e-r-t?), or keep what billboards/magazines say a secret from him.
7. I drive thru and get breakfast a couple of days a week AFTER I have dropped the kids off at school. 
8. I throw artwork away, and then I bury it in the trashcan so no one will see it. 
   (Sorry kids:  I cannot possibly keep every scribbled on piece of copy paper masterpiece!)
   I keep the best pieces.  Those may have to be culled eventually.
9. my favorite pallette of eyeshadow is "NAKED" by urban decay, and has that written on the cover in large letters.  I tell riley it spells "EYESHADOW".  I don't need her talking about "mommy" and "naked" during show and tell.  (it is her favorite eyeshadow too.)
10. I tell ryan we are running late for school when we are really not.  I should probably stop, I may be giving him a complex.  He only hurries if I tell him we are late though, and (almost) every day, he says, "we made it just in time AGAIN".

well, this was fun!  stay tuned for some fun valentine ideas from (where else?):  PINTEREST!