Common Mom

My friend T and I have birthdays 3 days apart (yes, SHE is older) We celebrate big on the 0s (for our 30th we rented City Hall and had a band) and semi-big on the 5s (for our 25th we went skydiving and I got my first tattoo). For this year’s semi-big party we went retro and celebrated our birth decade with a disco skate party at Skate City. I know I know - the lady at Skate City was a little surprised at our response of “35″ when she asked how old the birthday girls were. But man did we have fun! About 35 guests for our 35th birthdays. That’s the general rule for my kids - they can invite as many kids as their age is going to be.

Here are the birthday girls, complete with the best Farrah Hair we could manage and blue eye shadow . . . and really, what good is chocolate cake if you can’t show it off?

I found some fun t-shirts for my fam to wear skating . . . brought back memories! I was so tempted to buy another one that had a picture of a station wagon on it that said “Mom lets me ride in the waaaaaaaaaay back” - but I used some restraint. That shirt made me giggle and brought back memories of the backward rides in the station wagon - sitting in the crash zone, waving at the people behind you, and sucking in exhaust fumes. Anyway - here’s my fam ready to go.

And yes, we did attempt to make Keira look like a mini Farrah with some blue eye shadow - but her hair is too healthy to hold that kind of curl for long

We’ve got a great group of friends, and everyone was more than willing to dress for the occassion . . . most everyone remembers the 70s well - except those who were actually old enough to experience the 60s and were recovering

Here’s our pimp…

Maybe I should have warned you all that there was a lot of chest and a lot of bling! Here is our 70s used car salesman and his disco girlfriend…

It’s amazing what you learn about your friends when you do something a little different! Todd got speed skates and showed off his groovin’ moves during Stayin’ Alive

Me and the hubby showing off more see food . . .

And yes, these are my children . . .

Of course I have to save the best for last. This is a good friend of ours who actually pulled a box out of his basement from his high school years . . . it was titled 70s T-shirts. Here he is lookin’ hot doin’ the YMCA on roller skates . . .

I know - maybe I should have given you a little more warning before throwing that one out there

I just realized that there aren’t any photos of anyone ACTUALLY roller skating. Well, everyone did roller skate . . . some even participated in events like the shuffle skate, red light/green light, the speed skating race, and the opposite direction backward skate. T and I even got the birthday song played especially for us! Woo hoo!

So there you have it, some photos of my and T’s 35th birthday - we never had a roller skating party as kids, so we figured we’d have one now. We are, afterall, just big kids anyway.

What do you usually do on your birthday?

A group I’m in, Dine In Divas, had another meal swap last night - woo hoo! More food in my freezer for those days when I just don’t want to cook. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, 7 women each make 6 meals you can freeze. It may sound like a lot, but really, for a few hours one day you just feel like a lunch lady - and who says you can’t even make a couple extra of your own meal to freeze for yourself? Anyway, then we all get together and swap food . . . so each person goes home with 6 meals to put in their freezer. Then when you don’t feel like cooking, you can grab one and voila, instant yummy meal. We try to swap at least once a quarter, which is great! Last night there were a couple women who couldn’t make it, but we went home with lasagna, pizza style meatballs, chicken and corn chowder, creamy penne with chicken and mushrooms, and tamale bake. I can’t wait to try them!

The women were giggling last night because we all had the same story. When we left for the swap, our husbands said “Bring home something good.” And we’re all like, um, I’ll bring home what they give me This was our third swap, and we’ve haven’t gotten a “bad” meal yet - but really, as far as I’m concerned, any meal I don’t have to cook is a good one!

Has anyone else formed a similar group? If you haven’t, it’s so totally worth it - I highly recommend it.

Back in May, I wrote about Short Pants Season. So imagine my surprise 4 months later when it got a little chilly and my kids tried to find a pair of pants to wear to school They each did manage to scrounge one pair that didn’t make them look like they were waiting for a flood, but I realized that we had to go shopping - the dreaded school clothes shopping. So we loaded the fam in the Jeep yesterday and headed to the outlet mall (I am SOOOO glad we have one of those!) and man did we shop! I love sales . . . and when I found pants for Keira for $6, we picked out 4 pair - one in each color. When we found pants for Jason for $8, we picked out 4 pair - although he’s not so in to purple and pink pants, so we went with jeans. On to the next store and we found even more pants and shirts TOTALLY on sale . . . Mom and Dad even found a few things at the mall, too. So, a gazillion bags and pairs of pants later, we headed home; sadly, without a single new pair of shoes . . . but I’ll get over it

I do have to say, that if kid’s pants didn’t have that adjustable waist thing happening, we would NEVER be able to buy our kids anything other than sweatpants. If we get the pants the right size for their waist, the pants are about 3 inches too short. If we get them the right length, the pants are a couple inches too big around the waist. I guess I always thought that my kids were pretty average - not too skinny (at 4 and 7 they eat us out of house and home!) and not too fat (lots of outside playtime for us). But when we try on pants, it’s a nightmare to find any that fit. Do you have the same trouble? Is the adjustable waistband a must, or have you found a brand that seems true to size? That’s another beef I have . . . yesterday, we bought my 7 year old pants in sizes 4, 6, and 7 . . . you’d think that at least with kids’ clothes they’d be somewhat uniform.

But, we’re finished buying pants, and I’m happy as a clam

Well, I’m 4 weeks in to Ladybugs Soccer, and we’re having a blast! I will admit that I get a little frustrated at times . . . girls are just different than boys. Really - they are much more flakey. With boys, you had one or two that would just refuse to play - they’d sit down and whine or whatever and refuse. But with girls, they want to be out there, but they’re always looking at something else, or hugging someone else, or pointing out the beautiful dandelions, or running across the park to pet a dog. My favorite is when we’re scrimmaging and one girl falls down, whether it’s because someone tripped her by accident or she just fell down on that one extra long blade of grass; but the result is that no less than 4 other girls will immediately stop what they’re doing and go see if she’s OK. I’m all for the empathy and wanting to make sure others are OK, but with boys, you’ll never see that. They see it as an advantage - ooooooh, someone fell down - that’s one less person trying to kick the ball away from me - advantage!!!

We had our first game last week and it was a BLAST! I never realized how much different it was for the kids to play against kids they don’t know. When you’re practicing, they all know each other and are friends and nobody wants to take the ball from their friend and make them feel sad (again, this is only applicable with girls). But get them out on a field playing against girls they don’t know, and watch out! Out come the claws - they are BRUTAL! The littlest, teeniest, sweetest girl turns into this crazed maniacal creature, something like what you might see in The Exorcist. They are AGGRESSIVE man! The game was fun and very even as far ability on both teams, and even though technically the YMCA doesn’t keep score, you know darn well the girls are keeping score. I am proud to say that my little Ladybugs beat the Unicorns by 1 goal . . . 6-5. And how fun is it that there were so many goals scored so lots of the girls had a chance at it! And believe it or not, there was even PASSING - I couldn’t believe it!

Tomorrow we have our 2nd game . . . the last game that coaches are allowed on the field to assist their players with positioning, etc. Next week we’re still allowed to coach, but we’re not allowed ON the field - just on the sidelines. We can break up the occassional scurmish that breaks out when two people want to do the corner kick and neither will back down - but other than that, it’ll be all the girls; 4 and 5 year old girls trying to figure out who gets to kick the ball this time and where the heck the rest of them should stand.

Wish me luck!

Check out the new Toys R Us site for a great source on finding all the toy recalls.

http://www.toysrus.com/safety

At the bottom of the letter, there’s a link to the list of toy recalls.

Are you an organization freak like I am? I can handle dirty - well, OK - that’s not true. I can handle not sparkling clean. But it absolutely drives me crazy when stuff isn’t organized. Everything has it’s place and should be in its place, even if that place is lined up neatly against the wall. I do not do knicknacks or anything else that just sits out to take up space. Counters are used for cooking, eating, and doing homework on. Bookshelves should have books on them. Pictures hang on walls; they do not sit on tables or counters. Clothes belong in drawers or hung in closets . . . not on the floor or piled on the dresser or the dryer. Starting to understand my sickness/curse?

A couple weeks ago I dragged my fam to The Container Store . . . OMG I could LIVE in that store . . . all kinds of cool things to organize with and places to put stuff in! I ended up buying only 3 containers, as planned, to put my kids’ toys in instead of the hodgepodge of Rubbermaids, toy boxes, and laundry baskets that we were using. We also donated lots of toys to Goodwill and threw away anything that was broken or missing a piece. I’m so happy!

Anyway - cords are another thing I can’t STAND to be messy. You know - the back of your TV where you have the cords for the surround sound speakers, the DVD player, the receiver, the VCR (yes, I still have one of those), and the cable connection. Or the back of your computer where you have cords for the speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard, Palm Pilot, headphones, printer, scanner. I used to think that using wire ties was enough, but for some reason, lately it’s not doin’ it for me.

Soooo, I entered this contest to win a wireless keyboard and mouse over at 5 Mintues For Mom. They’re always giving away free stuff - go check it out!

Lots going on today, so in lieu of a new post, have a good giggle on my behalf with this recycled post

Just the kids and me . . . for an entire week . . . such is my life every other week for the past gazillion years. These are the kinds of conversations I get to have when there are no adults around

Keira: Yummmmmmm-Y! This chicken alfredo sure is good!
Me: Good. I’m glad you like it. Man, you guys really put the hurt on that chicken alfredo! If Dad were here there wouldn’t have been enough for all of us!
Jason: Hey - I know what a herd is. It’s like a big group of deer or cantaloupe that run around together!

Adult interaction soon, please!