Song and Dance Man.

Purple Hair, Don't Care.

A few months ago, Ellie asked if she could have real purple hair for her birthday, after she got to use temporary hair paint at a birthday party. I told her sure, because she's a little kid and who cares. So yesterday we dyed the bottom layer of her hair a really dark, vibrant purple.

My salon is very fancy, as you can see

Ta da! Technically, at her school you're not supposed to have hair that's an "unnatural" color, but I'm willing to fight that fight if someone is going to be dumb or unreasonable about a kindergartener with some oddly colored high lights. I still did it in the underneath layer so that it's not totally obvious - she's not allowed to be THAT punk rock.

I think it's cute, and considered giving my hair a once over

Other than that, we spent the evening hanging out with the neighbors and carving pumpkins. Our creations were par for the course, given my two darling children.

A kitten and a big truck forever.

Grandparenting.

Now that Gigi is walking with just a cane (or unassisted!) she's been able to get back to doing what she loves - filling up her green bins, and hanging out with her grandkids.

Yesterday she and Ellie put together the fairy garden that Ellie got for her birthday, which was very cute. They planted some seeds, and Gigi also got some plants so that it would look fancy right from the start.

(Please note Grizz with Lamby tucked around his neck, getting a shoulder ride.)

 Pearls and Curls dressed quite elegantly for school pictures yesterday

When that was done, Gigi busted out a gingerbread haunted house from Trader Joes for everyone to put together, with bonus frosting and a ton of candy corn and candy corn pumpkins. I said "man, I don't remember you being this fun when we were kids," and without missing a beat, Sara laid down a nasty burn by saying "she wasn't." NICE ONE THIEL.

Sara kept it up today when she was my courtesy clerk at the store, and the checker commented on me buying two twelve packs of beer by saying "She needs it, her son is a turd." Auntie Sara, speaking the truth.

Birthday Party Round 2.

As the kids get older, I am getting slightly braver about having birthday parties with their friends. I don't know if it's just an Orange County thing, or the people we run with, but parties around here can easily become a kid's 30 nearest and dearest friends, and since it's on the weekend and the kids are small, both of their parents and older and younger siblings. I am not prepared for 100+ people at my house, and am too cheap to shell out a couple of hundred bucks to rent a space at one of the indoor playgrounds that they have around here. GET USED TO HOME SEWN PARTIES, CHILDREN!

Last year we did a mommy-daughter painting party with five friends, this year we had six families over and did a Nerdy Nummies themed party. Nerdy Nummies is a YouTube show by this darling woman Rosanna Pansino, who makes cakes and cupcakes and cookies and decorates them with various "nerdy" themes. We found her when Ellie wanted to watch Frozen, before it was available on DVD, because Ro and her sister Mo were making Elsa and Anna doll cakes. And so, Ellie's love was born. Ro came out with a cookbook last year, and Ellie got to meet her at the Barnes and Noble in Orange while she was on her book tour. She remains a family favorite even though up until this week, we'd never made anything out of the cook book. The actual baking isn't hard, but she does some really intricate decorating, which is beyond my skills given the fact that my sous chefs are still working on their fine motor skills, and I don't believe in fondant.

Ellie helped me make the chocolate cupcakes (which we were going to decorate as "galaxy cupcakes" and the ever popular unicorn poop cookies. First we watched Ro, and then the kids got down to business. They loved it! We gave everyone a plop of each color of cookie dough, and while the adults made a lot of jokes about "getting your poop together" the kids rolled their unicorn droppings into delicious, beautiful creations.

While the cookies baked, we brought out the cupcakes and the frosting (which I put into piping bags with different tips, because sometimes I like to be fancy) and the kids frosted and sprinkled their cupcakes into oblivion.

And because the kids already had cake on their plates, we grabbed a candle and sang happy birthday to our girl. It was rather convenient to feed the kids cake right off the bat. It certainly saved me time listening to my children whine about when cake will be served.

I also caved and got a pinata for something else to do, because I realized oh man, the kids are probably going to spend a max of a half hour decorating, what will I do with them until it's time to order pizza? Answer, let them smash an unassuming butterfly with a baseball bat. I am generally not that into pinatas because the small kids can't open it and everyone seems to get frustrated, so I was sure to buy one with the ribbon escape hatch. Each kid got a turn, and then I said we'd let Ellie go once more and then all pull a ribbon, but lo and behold, to her great delight, ELLIE SMASHED THE PINATA OPEN!

Butterfly, we hardly knew ye.

Then it turned into a regular Saturday night at our house when friends are over. The adults poured cocktails, the kids played outside between a few quiet moments of watching Ro

And then we finished the night with a pizza picnic and a great dance party.

She's an enthusiastic singer AND dancer. Thank goodness we had nothing planned for today - I don't have anything left, so we've been vegging out and finishing the leftover pizza. Sunday of Champions!

The Big 0-6

Ellie had a really great sixth birthday. She made sure everyone knew that it was her big day, like a drunk sorority girl out at the bar for her 21st, and celebrated like only she knows how. She started the day by opening presents in our bed, while Tim and I wished for another minute or two of sleep, and then before she ate breakfast, she demanded that we frost her Rapunzel cake. Thankfully, this year I made enough cake to cover the doll up to her waist. Unfortunately, I forgot that it's hard to make purple icing from red and blue food coloring - it just comes out sort of gray.

She got to see Mimi in the morning before Adam left for music class, and she had a great time at school, since it was not only her birthday, but her time as star of the week. Then, even six year olds have to nap before their dance class (more singing of the happy birthday, more time with friends.)

Then for our family party we had breakfast for dinner, which meant just mainlining pancakes for the kids, and then presents, cake and dance party. As you can see, it went well. The hit of the night was Ellie's new ukelele, which Adam steals whenever he gets the chance.

And so, Grandma Rosie gets another six year old the Little House books.

Rapunzel is having a Ricky Bobby moment. "I'm on fire! Help me Tom Cruise! Help me Oprah! Save me Jewish God!"

Ready for Halloween!

Please to enjoy Adam doing some serious rocking out.

Last Day of Five

Tomorrow we'll have a six year old, so I should probably catch up on the weekend before the birthday onslaught begins. Ellie keeps reminding me that her birthday is tomorrow, as though I didn't carry her for forty weeks and two days and then have her surgically removed. I'm familiar with you, kid. Her enthusiasm for her birthday did help her out today - we were in line at Starbucks and the woman in front of us struck up a conversation with Ellie, who immediately volunteered that she was going to be six tomorrow, and the lady ended up buying a cake pop for Ellie. It was very sweet - she was in her seventies and there with her daughter, and I told Ellie some day that would be us. Probably will be us before I know it, since it's already hard to believe that she's turning six.

This weekend we went up to LA to visit Auntie Lauren and her new puppy, who was very enthused with all of the attention. Ellie did some of her best dog training. Adam got overwhelmed by playing with the dog and then got scratched. You win some, you lose some.

We also had the preschool class bird, Paco Verde, spending the weekend with us. No, he did not get eaten by the cats, but Lulu was pretty ticked off all weekend. The kids loved him though!

We also had our friend Whitney sleep over on Saturday night, which was fun for all three kids. Mine were already off the rails but managed to be half way decent hosts. We baked cookies, we had mani pedis, and then when I went to check on the kids before going to sleep, all three of them were laying side ways across their beds (or in Adam's case, on the floor.) He was really sad about not being allowed to sleep in Ellie's room, and in fact, woke up at 3am and laid with his fingers under the door to her room. Sorry kid, it's hard enough making two kids quiet down and go to sleep in one room, I'm not going for three!

Though, Adam's had plenty of fun on his own this past week. On Friday he and I went to the pumpkin patch with some of the girls from MOPS, and rode the Spooky Train

And while Ellie was in school yesterday, he took advantage of the rain to have a good back yard party (poor Scrawny the Elf. Those trunks are 12 month size, and still fit him, AND I have to make sure they're tied or they won't stay on.)

Plus he's always got Ellie available to read to him! Here they are, wearing chair arm covers as hats and hanging out with Gigi and her familiar, Rocky. Please note, no knee brace for Gi! And she can walk! Or rap you with her cane - she's flexible.

Party Times.

Hello from the world's worst blogger.

Here's some things that have happened: Tim discovered his old Nintendo DS when we were cleaning out the garage (he found it in a random trash bag, because that's where he keeps things he values) and the kids have been loving playing Mario.

But don't worry, Adam won't abandon his dream of being a professional Big Truck Man.

Ellie's best friend Lexi turned six yesterday, which means Ellie is in the final countdown to her own birthday. Lexi's birthday party was at the trampoline park, and since it was during nap time, I made Tim take Adam for a hair cut, because Adam is not his best self at the tramp park, and I didn't feel like carrying him around while he cried about everything. As it was, I had to leave when Ellie started sobbing about the rock wall and Whitney sitting too close to her at cake time (thankfully, pulled Ellie out before she managed to be weeping in every one of Lexi's birthday cake pictures) but here is a moment between cake crying and rock wall crying

All in all, it was actually one of our better birthday party outings, though Ellie was miffed that I told Lexi she was my favorite six year old.

Thankfully, Ellie has also started celebrating. On Saturday, Mimi and Poppy took her for a very special trip to the American Girl Store in LA. She had SUCH a good time (and not just because soft-hearted Poppy bought she and Bitty Baby new party dresses.)

She is so lucky to have such amazing grandparents. Now that she's getting older, I really hope she takes these great memories and sticks them in her brain to treasure forever.

Lastly, here is a video of her reading a bedtime story to Adam, if you're interested in some tales of Biscuit. You can see that she's memorized parts of it, but she's still actually reading it - when she hits words she doesn't know, she sounds them out. I'm so proud of her.