Happy Birthday Grandma Rosie!

Our beloved Grandma Rosie turned 90 this past weekend, and we were lucky enough to get to head out to Wisconsin and celebrate with her. Would you like to hear about our comedy of errors in traveling? You know you would.

Mom's platinum status on American allowed all six of us (Dad had headed out earlier) to sit in the extra leg row seats for regular price, which is nice for containing children and giving Tim leg room. When we got on, I made mom help me and my short arms move some stuff in an overhead bin so that we could jam Sara's suitcase up there - damn you business traveling dudes who think you can put your giant roll aboard AND your backpack in the bins, like your feet are too big to be near your bag underneath your seat. If you think an angry short woman and a grandma won't rearrange your possessions, YOU ARE WRONG.

Anyhow. Another extra leg room seat perk is that you get early access to the beverage cart. About forty seconds after I get my nice hot coffee, Adam announces that he has to poop. So I tell him to hang on, and we start getting ourselves ready to exit our row and scoot past the cart. As I'm telling him to wait, hang on just a second, please sit still he knocks my coffee into his own lap and begins screaming. The flight attendants and everyone around us was very nice in giving us napkins and getting us to the bathroom, where he pooped, and then changed into the jammies that I had brilliantly packed in our carry on. All is well. Kids watch videos, I take a nap, Tim reads a book. Then as we are getting ready to land, Adam is playing Minecraft on the tablet and announces in between handfuls of Cheerios that he has to throw up. I was sort of mystified by this because he is not someone who gets motion sick (in the past) but lo, it was a-coming and I didn't get the barf bag under his face quickly enough, so he barfed on his clean pajamas. UGH.

The good news is that he calmed quickly, and was not too disgusting - we waited until I was in line to get our rental car to have Tim go and change him. And the nice thing about all being grown ups now is that Kari has a very nice washer and dryer for all of our barf and coffee clothes.

I would say the rest of the trip to La Crosse was uneventful but I did get REAL salty and rude to my poor mother and husband when we didn't stop at any of the first three Culvers we drove by. I was real hangry. Ellie now does a good impression of me demanding Culvers, so that's great. Oh, and as we were pulling into the Culver's parking lot Adam got car sick/motion sick yet again, but this time fully into a bag, and he then put down a cheeseburger, applesauce, some fries and a dish of chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce, and held it down for the rest of the drive. I truly think the 5am wake up call is a part of throwing him off his game - the early wake up may have been part of him also getting altitude sick in Montana, I think.

Our weekend was so nice. It was awesome to stay with Kari and Bennett and Leah, and just get to hang out as adults, while also enjoying what a true delight Leah is becoming. She's so cute and funny and fun. I also love how much my kids loved her, especially Adam. Sunday morning I woke up and he was out reading a book to her - I was amazed at how great his reading skills were!

Also, please enjoy Tick Tock Croc, who is actually Bennett's childhood toy. Adam latched onto it when we visited a couple of years ago and Bennett let him take him home. Adam used to carry the croc with him in the stroller, etc, but has lost interest over the past year or so. Good news: Leah LOVES him, so that delighted me.

Saturday night we went out for a nice dinner all together, which was so fun. It was wonderful to have a nice meal with our nice family, and thankfully in a private room where the littles could get up and down and out of their seats and go play instead of having to sit very quietly. Also, I got to spend almost the whole meal snuggling month old baby Sophia, who is a sweet little love. I was for sure the biggest baby hog, with Adam and Ellie running as close seconds. Adam especially was very sweet with her - with all the little girls, truly. Ellie was thrilled to be with her big cousin Hailee, including a surprise sleepover at Grandma Betty's house.

Rose Marie, Elizabeth Rosemarie, and Sophia Rose.

Sunday we got the Sunshine Room at Hillview, and Grandma had ordered two fancy cakes for her own party (she can also cry if she wants to.) We'd also had a nice brunch together in the morning, and the kids helped Uncle John mow the lawn on Saturday and ride bikes - so it was a ton of relaxed, casual family time.

I think it was strategic of Grams to get small, fancy cakes, because we just didn't have the space to put 90 candles on it like we might have with a Costco sheet cake.

She also let everyone jam their fingers in

It was so nice. We all got to visit and hang out and make each other laugh. I especially enjoyed when Leah told Grandma that she was going to take her card back for HER fridge, or when Clara was doling out animal crackers and told Leah she couldn't have any more, because she hadn't had lunch yet (they had already eaten pizza for dinner.)

Our travel home yesterday was mostly uneventful. Definitely sad to go, but happy that we'll see everyone in about a month. Until next time, Wisconsin!

Mother's Day.

I joke every year, with deadly seriousness, that as far as I understand it, moms of grown children want to hang out with their children, have them come back and all snuggle up on the couch. However, as a mom of small children, I spend many many hours of the day with my kids. Adam is in school from merely 8:15 to 11:45 every day, three and a half hours. Some people spend more than than that every day commuting to work. So, I love my kids, A LOT, but a treat for me is when I don't have to parent, or really participate at all. And Tim is a good sport, and so he takes the kids to his mom's on Mother's Day so that I can go do whatever, which today included breakfast in bed, a trip to the swap meet with my mom, and then a visit to the Korean spa by myself.

But I did get these quality letters from the kids, that make me laugh. The best part about kids is watching their little brains at work, particularly when they are a sweet and funny as Ellie and Adam.

It's true! I will keep him. 

"The best mom you can." It's like the A for effort when it comes to being a subpar parent, eh? I appreciate she sees that I'm trying my damn best!

The best however, is the ceramics they painted for me the other week, and the great menu provided by my favorite, cutest waiter and bartender (who also just happens to be the father of my children!)

Recitals!

As the school year comes to a close, so does our 2018-2019 season of music. Both kids got to participate in their spring recitals - Adam as a student of the Let's Play Music program, which teaches fundamentals to 4-7 year olds, and Ellie as an individual piano student with our wonderful Miss Bri.

Mimi and Poppy were lovely enough to come to watch the kids perform, and Grizz managed to catch Ellie's performance (Gigi and Sara were doing Special Olympic competitions, so of course, I taped the performance for their benefit.)

Adam's program started off rather badly. He was walking up to the front, then realized he didn't need his music books. He turned around to jog back to me and smashed into a chest bump with a little girl heading up front. Because he was tired and lacks emotional resilience, he started sobbing about how he didn't want to perform anymore. I took him out of the space so that he wouldn't have to torture everyone with his crying, and went out to the car to get Lamby, while he told me to put him down and leave him alone, that he was scared, that he'd never done a recital before (dude, I cannot leave you to scream in the church, I'm not going to leave you alone, I'm sorry you're scared, but you were in the recital a year ago, nutbar.)

The good news is after some snuggling with Lamby and lots of fidgeting during the performances of the first year students, he rallied for the piano portion of the show.

He was glad he went up to perform, and in fact, gave one of his hilarious "yes!" first bump gestures.

NAILED IT.

He said he was glad he got up and played the piano, and I'm glad as well. Tim was too busy crying with joy.

Ellie's performance was about an hour later, and she did a lovely job. I'm so proud of all of the progress she's made this year. I love hearing her practice during the week (when she's not whining at me and Tim about it - my fave is when she tells Tim he doesn't know what he's talking about, as though he didn't play piano for a decade.)

And we got to go out to lunch with Mimi and Poppy afterwards, then everyone took a much needed nap.

So now Adam will be on a break until fall. For the third year, the kids write and perform their own piece of music. Ellie will still take her private lessons over the summer, but with breaks for vacations and camp. My goal is to get everyone to sit down and practice at least twice a week so that we don't lose the skills they've gained. And in the meanwhile, maybe I"ll work on practicing more, as I am Miss Bri's worst student.

Girls Weekend!

A couple of months ago, I started thinking of how long it had been since we saw Becca, and how Hazel was turning one, and wouldn't it be fun if I could figure out a way to go to see Becca and Hazel and bring Ellie with me for a girls weekend? And lo, I remembered that I have many frequent flier miles, and one free weekend in May, so I cashed in some points and waited until a week before we left to inform Ellie that she was finally going to get to go to Chicago with me (because usually I go to try to be a helper after Becca and Brian welcome a baby, or I go to escape my own family and have bestie time.)

It was SO FUN. First of all, we packed it with lots of good activities, including going to the wndr museum, and to see West Side Story at the beautiful Chicago Opera House, and second of all, it was so fun to just be out and about with my very best girl. She's such a gem, and it's nice to have time with her, just she and I, out of our routine, without the nagging cares of every day, or the infighting with her and Adam. Plus to see her with three year old Benjy and almost one year old Hazel made me really appreciate what a big, grown up girl she is. She was such a big help with the kids (she LOVES being big enough to pick up Hazel and carry her around) and just the logistics of traveling with an eight year old is so much easier - she can drag the suitcase. She can sit and watch the bags if I use the restroom. She can figure out her own movies and entertainment. I mean, in a few months she'll be the same age I was when my parents put me on a plane from Boston to Chicago all by myself!

It was also such a fun treat to hang out with our friends, doing a lot of good eating, staying up late and goofing off and just having bestie time. When I'm with Becca, almost every night I laugh so hard that I cry off most of my eyeliner before bed. I can't believe we now have four kids between the two of us, and as I joked to her, can we even believe that the baby who once laid face down on the carpet and cried is now big enough to go to see West Side Story like a real grown up girl?

From the wndr museum:

SPRING BREAK!

Spring break has come and gone - no crazy parties in Panama City Beach or Hawaii for us this year, just hanging out at home (VERY BORING.) But still fun - we had a lot of times with friends and family, for sure, to offset the time spent by the children playing Minecraft, and talking to me about playing Minecraft.

Monday afternoon we did our annual pilgrimage to see the Easter bunny and eat a delicious lunch with Mimi.

How are these children so giant? They still believe in the Easter bunny, but aren't scared of him anymore, which is a pity. I miss the old days of weeping in his lap, because I am the meanest mommy.

Ellie looks especially sporty in the picture (even sportier than her brother sporting his muscle tee and farmer tan) because every morning of the break from 9-12 she was in a basketball camp at a nearby school. She'd expressed her interest in trying basketball a few weeks ago and then a sign up email came through and I thought that was pretty perfect.

The coaches were REALLY positive, the other kids were nice, and she had a great five days. She says she likes it better than soccer because there's less running. I liked it because it involved less sitting around soccer practices for a kid who can't be bothered to put in any effort on game day. Kids sportsball, sometimes a bit of a circus.

It was nice when things ended at noon because then we got to go and have lunch with various friends and fart around through most afternoons. One day Grizz warmed up the spa so the kids could splash around, they got to play weekday video games with their dad, and we had sleep overs with various friends, because small children love sleeping in different places so they can be extra tired.

Meanwhile, we ALL had a sleep over at Mimi and Poppy's house on Saturday night. Tim and I had a play in Los Angeles on Saturday night and it seemed to make the most sense that we could sleep there, get up and search for Easter eggs and roll right into brunch in our bath robes.

The kids actually stayed in their jammies all day, as one sometimes does on a holiday. We went over to Gigi and Grizz's for dinner, but beforehand they busted out the new stomp rocket they'd purchased to ensure that someone gets blinded in the street (just kidding, no injuries occurred.) The kids had a great time fighting over whose turn it was to do the stomping, and yelling at Tim and I to jump on it with both feet.

Earlier in the week they also decorated Easter eggs with Yogi Bear, craft assistant, and his enormous tail.

Grizz grilled swordfish for dinner on Easter Sunday, and was ready to go to battle with the kids over eating what was served. The funniest part was that they both were willing to eat the fish, but only if they could dip a beautiful piece of grilled fish in a glorp of ketchup, Grizz's least favorite condiment. But what can you do, right?

Meanwhile, this was my outfit for dinner. Sometimes, you have to be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.

Oh Ho Ho, It's Magic... You Know

NEVER BELIEVE IT'S NOT SO!

As the Focker Christmas Gift of Spending Time Together, last year Eileen proposed we all go to the Magic Castle to see Johnny Ace Palmer. The timing didn't work out last year, but it did this year, so we did it up big!

And lo, it was very magical. The only other time I've been was the last time the five of us went, shortly before Tim and I got married. This time felt extra fun - the magic shows we caught were better, and we got a really nice tour from one of the member knights. No pictures from inside, because it's AGAINST THE RULES. Per Cary Grant. And some of the many other famous people who like to see magicians and practice magic. Sadly, we didn't see former Magic Castle president Neil Patrick Harris. Or Harry Potter. But we did see Johnny Ace Palmer throw an actual rabbit out of a hat.

Our cousins were here for their spring break earlier in the month, which was awesome. It's so fun to see the four of them together, goofing off.

We also went and met some baby goats. Many kids for the many kids. Ellie was especially taken with the baby goat that fell asleep in her lap.

This week the kids' school did their Open House, which they have renamed the Showcase and gussied up as we're in the final weeks of the school choice period, where you can make a big stink to find the perfect special school for your perfect special child (our kids go to their school because it's less than half a mile from the house, and I didn't move to the burbs to do private school.) There's a much bigger song and dance this year, with lots of stuff prepared for the whole school to see. However, we mostly got our food trunk dinners (burgers and tacos) and visited their classrooms and then let the kids run wild around the grounds with their friends.

One of the things the school does is called Chalk Fest, where the kids draw a chalk picture of a book cover. It sounds very overwhelming, but they really break it down - one person grids out the squares, one person draws the outline using the grid, and then the kids are assigned a square to shade appropriately. I signed up to draw the outline for Ellie's class, and I'm amazed at how it all came out.

Then, just for fun, I also drew this tiger!

Quick Funny

Last week I took Adam in for his six year wellness visit. These one a year visits are fun because the doctor actually asks the kids the questions directly, so fun to see how they answer (please note: Ellie loves to sell me out given the opportunity. Like, asked if she always rides in a car seat, she's quick to reply that ONE TIME in Wisconsin she got to just ride in the back seat.) When asked if he slept well at night, if he had nightmares, Adam was like "I have nightmares every night!" He doesn't. I mean, maybe he does - I don't sleep in his room, I don't know what goes on in his brain, so maybe he does have bad dreams from time to time, but he almost NEVER comes in our room at night, and if he does, he wants us to come and adjust his bedding, find Lamby, or give him some water. It's NEVER that he's been in mental agony.

We also did the hearing and eye test and he's perfect. This is the funny part - so they had him read the eye chart with both eyes opened, he did great. They had him cover one eye, he did great. Then the nurse told him to cover his other eye, which he did. Without uncovering the first eye, so he goes "Oh wow, this is going to be HARD!" And indeed, I did laugh so hard (his second eye was also fine. Also, he's in the 90th percentile for height, so I guess I should stop saying "he's tall, but not super tall." He is indeed super tall.)