Common Mom

A fun time was had by all . . .

We are Twins fans!!!

I remember listening to The Twins games on the radio with my Dad every evening in the summer while we were out camping. I can still hear that voice on the radio. I hope my kids love summer baseball as much as I did and still do.

Actual real live baseball players - just to prove that we were there

What’s a baseball game without cotton candy and see food with your friends?

This was an unexpected treat after the game. How fun!

The kids went to a friends house for a sleepover on Friday for our April Kid Swap. We boarded Duma for the night (she can’t be home along that long - and we left at 4:30 p.m. and werne’t getting home until after 11:00 p.m.). So, Dan and I had a date night - complete with a movie and drink afterward.

I learned that . . .

• Not all movies have characters that are animated.
• They make movies with characters named real things, such as Ben and Jill, instead of Horton and Bob The Tomato.
• Movies actually start after 6:00 p.m.! Who knew?!
• At 5′ 2″ I was one of the shortest people in the whole theater after 7:00 p.m.
• High school kids have a lot of fun on the weekend. For a minute I thought wow, they’re so immature - I hope my son doesn’t act like that. Then I thought, ya know what, I hope he DOES act like that when he’s 15 and 16 and 17. That’s what kids are supposed to do - laugh and giggle and have fun with each other. I hope he still remembers his manners, but I sure hope he has as much fun as these kids were having.
• Newborns can sleep through anything.
• Chili’s closes at 10:30 p.m. Not enough time to get there for a drink after a movie.
• Texas Roadhouse closes at 11:00 p.m. Plenty of time to get there for a drink after a movie!
• You can go to bed at 1:00 a.m. when you don’t have to get up at 7:00 a.m.
• You can get a lot more done in the morning, like scheduling camping trips and trips to Orlando and Rapid City, when the kids aren’t around and the dog isn’t begging to go out every 10 minutes.
• We still like spending time together alone, even though our kids are always our priority.
• Couples NEED to spend time without their kids, even though we love our life with the kids and our new puppy and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What did you do on your last date night?

My son was born in the year 2000. As it turned out, the Harlem Globetrotters thought it would be a great idea to offer every kid born in the year 2000 free admission to their games for life! One free game a year for life - of course we signed him up and got the free pass card

Finally, 7 1/2 years later, the Globetrotters are coming to our town on a weekend when we’re actually going to be here. So we figured we might as well go ahead and go - Dude’s ticket is free afterall.

So I call the number to get tickets. I tell them I have this wonderful pass, and they explain that I can only use the pass if I purchase tickets at the venue ticket window. What (pause for dramatic effect) EVER!

The next Saturday we all gather in the car and drive 28 miles to the venue ticket window. The lady is super nice and super helpful . . . except she has no idea what we’re talking about with this pass. And since the computer doesn’t say anything about it, well she just can’t do anything about it. But, being so nice as she was, she did call her manager, on Saturday, and explained it to her. The manager had no clue. The Globetrotters hadn’t told them anything about this special pass. She’d have to contact the Globetrotters on Monday to check it out, and then they’d call me back.

Wednesday I get a call back saying that yes indeed, the free pass we are holding in our hands is indeed valid. They have entered the information in to the computer, so we can purchase our tickets. But not over the phone . . . we still need to come to the ticket window because they need to take a photo copy of the pass. What (pause for dramatic effect) EVER!

So the next Saturday, we load everyone into the car and drive the 28 miles (up hill) to the ticket window at the venue. The computer freezes and she can’t do anything until she calls her IT guy up “from downstairs” (it’s a hockey rink . . . we’re on cement on the ground floor . . . where the hell is ‘downstairs’?!). We wait 15 minutes at the ticket window, which is just long enough for Princess to see the billboard advertising Princess on Ice or something similar and start BEGGING to go. I explain that we only do one “show” a year, and this year it’s The Globetrotters. Princess crosses her arms, softly stomps a foot, and says “Hmph! I don’t even LIKE football!” Um, honey? It’s not football . . . it’s basketball. Anyhoo, IT guy comes upstairs, gets the security guard to open the door to the ticket window office, waves his magic wand, and the computer is working. We purchase tickets for the 2 adults and the Princess - woo hoo - and get the free “Baby 2000″ ticket for Dude. I sign my life away to pay for them (not really, it wasn’t even $60 for the 3 of them) and we head out to the car to drive the 28 miles back home, up hill with a strong head wind.

Hubby is checking out the tickets and lets out a snort that could challenge any one of the 4 hippos at the zoo. I give him the “What?” look and he says “They charged us a $2 convenience fee for each ticket. What the hell was so convenient about getting these friggin’ tickets?!”

It’s Mommy’s Brain is Mush Friday!

This morning, Keira decided to throw an absolute fit because I wouldn’t get her heavy winter coat out of the closet to wear to take Jason to the bus stop. It’s 50 degrees out people! Apparently her medium weight one that she already had on her body just wasn’t gonna cut it. So she screamed and cried and yelled the entire way to the bus stop, and I’m sure she woke up every neighbor who might have been sleeping. On the way back home, she was freaking out because she was freezing to death . . . she couldn’t possibly go on with the medium weight coat she was cuddled up in. Half way up the hill I told her to walk faster and she’d warm up. Of course that was not possible. So she continued to complain. Then I asked her what I could possibly do to help her at this exact moment - she said “I don’t know. Nothing!” My response - Suck it up, deal with it, and get home.  Whine whine whine cry cry cry scream scream scream. So when we got back home, I sent her to her room for the 20 minutes before we had to leave to take her to school.

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Apparently while she was in her room, she taught herself how to tie her shoes. I’ve been working with her on and off for a while now, but (bad mommy!) we just haven’t spent enough time on it. I told her it was time to go so she ran downstairs to get her shoes on. I took Duma out for her last potty break and walked back in to the mud room to help her tie her shoes. But, um, there she was, sitting on the floor, with one shoe tied perfectly and tight (woo hoo - my 7 year old still won’t tie his laces tight enough so they last more than 5 mintues!) and she was working on the second shoe. I told her how awesome it was and she was so proud . . . “Now I don’t have to ask you or Daddy or Jason or Ms. Lupita or Ms. Amy or anyone for help. I can do it all by myself!”

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Jason has a music program tonight - at least I think so. He got a flyer sent home in the middle of January that said the 2nd grade music program would be February 29th at 6:30 p.m. Being the keeper of the Mommy Calendar, I wrote it down immediately. Wednesday I asked Jason to find out what time we had to be there and where he was supposed to meet his class. He came home and said “We’re supposed to meet in Mr. Krich’s room at 2:30 and he’ll take us to the cafetorium.” Um, Dude? 2:30? That sounds like it’s for your practice. He gets this weird look on his face . . . oh ya, you’re right. That’s for practice tomorrow afternoon.

So, he comes home Thursday after school and says that we need to be there at 6:10 and meet in Mr. Krich’s room (Mr. Krich is his teacher). Groovy I say. Then he says “Well, we better eat dinner and get going so we’re not late.” Um, WHAT?! Dude, it’s only Thursday. The program is tomorrow. He says “Oh nope - it’s today. Miss Erickson said it was today.” I’m like Dude . . . we have a birthday party tonight and Duma’s puppy kindergarten class . . . and the calendar says it’s tomorrow. Are you SURE she said tonight? He thinks about it for a while then says “No. I’m sure she said the 29th. So it must be tomorrow.” He called a friend to make sure - but the friend wasn’t sure.

So, we’ll see if we show up tonight with cupcakes in hand and find an empty cafetorium! I may end up being the bad mommy who’s kid misses his first music class performance! And he even had a special line to say!

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Tomorrow it’s supposed to be 70 degrees here! WOO HOO! I’m an outdoor freak - so I’m sure we’ll go hiking or bike riding or something . . . or maybe we should clean the garage or build Duma’s outdoor kennel or rake pine needles in the backyard to get rid of Duma’s poo poo . . . or maybe we’ll just stick to the hiking plan Really, as long as we’re outside, I don’t care WHAT we do!

We’re also going to the Air Force Academy hockey game with some friends tomorrow night. It’s their last home game . . . should be a blast!

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On Sunday, it’s supposed to get back to “normal” and be 30 with snow . . . so we’re getting up at dark:30 to head up to the mountains to try our hand (um, legs?) at snowboarding again. No lessons this time - we’re just gonna go practice. Well, at least Dan, Jason, and I are. Keira is going to take a skiing lesson. She’s a bit too small for snowboarding, so she wanted to try skiing, which is just fine with me. We’d have to do something with her all day, so she might as well be out on the mountain having fun in the snow I’m sure after being out until 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, and getting dragged out of bed at 0-dark-30 on Sunday morning, the kids will be a joy about half way through the afternoon . . . that’s the price ya pay for some fun, man! At least we’ll be home early enough Sunday to order pizza for dinner and relax before heading to bed to start a new week.

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What do YOU have going on this weekend?

I have no idea why two mid-30-something-year olds decided it would be a good idea to take snowboarding lessons, but we did it! We loaded up the Jeep and the kids and headed to the mountains last Wednesday evening to hang out in a hotel before our big day. Keira was beside herself with excitement and just HAD to try on her helmet and goggles in the hotel room - while wearing purple heart footie jammies

After a completely restless night of sleep in a tiny bed in a tiny hotel room with a loud and very crappy heater, we all got up bright and early Thursday a.m. to get ready, eat breakfast, and head to the slopes. Jason and Keira KILL me! They both HAD to wear their helmets and goggles in the Jeep “for safety” as they said It WAS snowing afterall, and you never know what could happen

I must say that Breckenridge has the BEST setup for families. We called them and asked where the best place to park would be, and they led us to a lot right across the street from The Village. We walked right in, dropped, the kids off with their instructors, and were off to our lesson. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was cloudy and snowing, but really, what can you expect up in the mountains? Here are Dan and I waiting for our instructor, Matt Peacock to show up

I must say that if you ever head to Breckenridge for snowboarding lessons, definitely request Matt Peacock - he was a ton of fun and an AWESOME teacher. We certainly look ready to go, don’t we? Oh ya - we are TOTALLY bundled up - liners in our jackets, 3 layers of clothing, warm snowpants, awesome gloves, fleece gators, helmets, goggles.

After introductions, and discovering that we were by far the oldest people in class (the closest ones were maybe 21 years old . . . the youngest was 14!) we were off to the mountain! We practiced skating first so we could actually get on the lift. Getting on a 6 person lift your first time on a board is a bit of a challenge . . . but not quite as challenging as getting OFF the lift! You can’t skate off because you’ll run into the person next to you; you can’t fall because, well, there’s another chair full of people right behind you waiting to get off - and besides that, the lifties think it’s quite humorous to see the first-timers bite it We DID get off without incident - woo hoo! And headed over to the slope reserved just for snowboarding lessons. How fun! There’s awesome music playing (Green Day - one of my favs!) and the slope is perfect. Here I am learning how to stand up on the snowboard. Think it’s easy? HAHAHAHA! Try again! All I’ve got to say is that I will NEVER have to go to the gym again. All I’m gonna do is strap my feet to a board, sit down, and try to stand up - over and over and over and over. Damn that’s good for the legs and the triceps! But bad for the butt until you figure it out A little tip - bend your friggin’ knees! Here’s me falling back onto my rear because I didn’t bend my knees:

Notice how my hands are nowhere near the ground? Um ya . . . that’s good for the wrists, but NOT so good for the rear! OUCH! 3 days later and I STILL can’t sit!

After figuring out how to stand up and traverse down the hill, you get the privilege of riding the rope back up to the top. Here I am - making it look easy!

But lo and behold, it is NOT easy! First you have to skate fast enough NEXT to the rope to be going as fast as the rope, or a little bit faster. Then you have to grab on to said rope and hold on tight while trying to keep your board straight, with only one foot strapped in. Then you have to make sure to hold the rope up high enough so others can grab on. Then, when someone else grabs on and falls, you have to hold on really tight because they pull the rope down with them, which means YOU go down with them. The lucky few can remain standing during this ordeal - I was not one of the lucky few. Face plant! I did manage to make it up the entire hill on the rope a few times - which I must say is much better than unstrapping and hiking up the hill at 10,000 feet! Oh, and remember all those clothes we were wearing? BIG mistake! Damn we were hot! At lunch I shed a layer of clothing, my coat liner, and my gloves.

While we were practicing, we saw our littlest on the same practice hill. It was pretty cool to see her on the mountian with us! She’s only 5, so she’s in a class with only 2 other kids . . . it’s spendy, but they get a whole day of pretty much private lessons, which is good for ‘em. They also do quite a bit of playing so they don’t hate the mountain their first time out Here she is using her powers to convince Steve, her instructor, that she needed to hold his hand.

Silly boys . . . he didn’t know any better and complied with pretty much her every wish Including when she used her Princess powers to convince him that she couldn’t POSSIBLY carry her own board!

Hey, if she can get away with it, who am I to say anything?

Our class was doing so well that we actually got to board down the green run twice after lunch! It was a ton of fun . . . and a BOATLOAD of work! OMG! We did get proof that we actually succeeded . . . here’s Dan

And here’s me:

I look happy don’t I! That’s cuz we went down as a group the first time and took it nice and slow. After going up the lift again (we were MUCH better at skating by now!) we were kinda on our own to get down the hill practicing. Yeah . . . about 3 minutes after starting I was PISSED! You see, when you’re 35, overweight, and out of shape, your legs tend to get tired after 4 hours of snowboarding . . . and do you know what happens when your legs get tired while you’re practicing connecting your turns on a snowboard? You forget to be patient and let the board to the work . . . and you forget to bend your knees . . . and you catch your heel side edge on the snow and FLY to the snow onto your ass at mach 1 without any time to react! Of course this means that your behind takes a beating, as does your neck and shoulders from getting WHIPLASH from the crazy fall (no, I didn’t actually get whiplash - but thank heaven for helmets!). And then you have to lay there cursing and cursing at yourself and this “stupid friggin’ sport” while some little shits on the lift above you whoop and hollar and tell you the spectacular wipe out earned you an 8 1/2 on their entertainment scale! Then you get up and try again . . . and start feelin’ good about yourself cuz you’ve connected some turns and all is well. Then you catch that heel side edge AGAIN and fall with such force that you think you might actually cause an avalanche! Then you get up lather, rinse, and repeat. And to make you feel oh so much better, while you’re laying there cursing this damned sport and wondering what the hell you were thinking, you hear this teeny tiny little voice yelling “Hi Mommy! Look at my S turns!” Then you look up, scrape the snow off your goggles, and see this . . .

Your 7-year playing follow-the-leader with his instructor - both of them zipping down the hill at mach 1 with absolutely no fear, connecting their turns with ease. Of course I did what any pissed off mother strapped to a piece of fiberglass would do - I reached in my jacket pocket and got out my camera

I must admit that I did NOT make it down the whole hill the second time. After some more great turns and 4 more spectacular wipe outs, my vision was actually a little fuzzy - like that periferal fuzzy you get when a migraine is coming on. So I unstrapped and walked down the last 1/4 of the mountain. Figured it was best for everyone if I didn’t try to board down the rest of the way totally out of control. Besides, at the end of the day, all the other beginners, including the little shits on skis and boards, are heading down, and I really didn’t want to flatten a 5-year old.

We all made it to the bottom, thanked and tipped our WONDERFUL instructors (really, all 3 of my family’s instructors were totally awesome!) and headed home. Here are our used up boards by the Jeep before we left the mountain - Keira’s was just so tiny and cute!

Her board was also snowless The results of our day? Keira’s leg muscles aren’t quite developed enough to actually get in to boarding . . . but she did well on her toe side and did have a lot of fun, which was our goal for her - to get our littlest out on the mountain and liking it. Jason got lucky and had his instructor almost all to himself! He’s in the 7-13 year old group, which can have up to 10 kids in it. But since it was a weekday, he had his instructor to himself for the first hour, and then another boy joined them. So it was a very small class, which meant they got lots of personalized instruction. The result? Jason passed levels 2 and 3! He’s now a level 4 boarder when we go back for our next lessons (there are 9 levels for lessons). Me and Dan? We had a GREAT time - a great anniversary - a great day - a great experience - definitely worth the money. We both passed levels 1 and 2 and will be in level 3 when we take our next lesson.

About Friday? Well, we both woke up a “little” sore - HAHAHAHAHA!!! My butt still hurt, my triceps were killing me from constantly pushing myself up on to the board (which yes, I did figure out how to do after lunch!), my neck and shoulders hurt from crashing to Earth. But really, what can you expect when you’re 35 and decide to take up a new sport?

We loved it . . . we had fun . . . we’ll definitely be going back!

My 4 year old has her Holiday Program at school today. A couple weeks ago we bought her a cute little Christmas dress for the gazillion Christmas celebrations we’ll have with family in the next couple weeks. She’s such a girl and LOVES dresses. So naturally, she was crushed when I told her she couldn’t wear it to school on regular days. But Monday I told her she could wear it to school for her program - OMG you’d thought I told her she was going to have a baby sister (another thing she would LOVE to have). She’s been counting down the days ever since, and telling everyone she knows that she gets to wear her Christmas dress in “this many” days.

Well, today she came  bounding in to my room at 6:00 a.m. - fully dressed - headband and everything - and announced “I’m READY!”

Poor little thing got her balloon deflated when I informed her that while yes you do look beautiful, it is only 6:00 a.m. - not 7:00 a.m. so you need to go back to bed; you need a bath before school today; and you need to wear your jammies for breakfast so you don’t spill on your dress.

She was still all smiles, because by golly, TODAY she gets to wear her Christmas dress!

I’m sure we’ve all read these tips before, but with the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season upon us, sometimes we forget. So here is your friendly reminder

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls.
 
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single- malt scotch, it’s rare. In fact, it’s even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can’t find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. It’s Christmas!
 
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That’s the whole point of gravy.  Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
 
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole milk. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
 
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
 
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
 
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.
 
8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
 
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.
 
10. One final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
 
Remember this motto to live by:
 
“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”

Yes, I do realize Halloween was a couple weeks ago - but hey, I went on vacation the day after Halloween for a week and well, I’ve just been too lazy/busy to get photos posted. But now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . drum roll please . . .

Here is Me and Keira. She was my little pink poodle. I love that she’s a girly girl, but she is definitely not prissy. She might look all cute and cuddly in her pink poodle costume, but she’ll be the crap out of anyone who tries to steal her candy! Me, I’m a snowcone, and yes that is a pumpkin hat on my head! I looked a bit more like a snowcone at the actual costume party (see my hubby’s costume below) but I barely made it to trick or treating after work . . . so this had to do:

Next up - Dan and Jason - snowcone and skeleton zombie. Notice that Jason’s costume is about 3 sizes too big . . . that was done intentionally. We usually have to stuff winter jackets and snowpants under costumes here . . . we do live in the snowbelt afterall! A couple year ago we trick or treated in an ice storm . . . the 4 of us were standing hand in hand walking across the top of an inclined driveway right next to the garage when I started sliding down the driveway. The other 3 followed close behind. There was nothing we could do but enjoy the ride until we got to the level street at the bottom. We threw in the towel at that point This year, however, it was actually beautiful - except for the lack of time change (thank you Congress!) which meant we either had to wait an hour for dark or start in the sunlight (we started in sunlight).

 

So there you have it - the wonderfully amazing Halloween pictures

Apparently I’m still on the topic of birthday parties Of course, now that school has started, the birthday party invitations have been pouring in. I will never forget the October of 2005 . . . my son was invited to 9 birthday parties in that single month! We went to 4 of them. So far this year, my son has only gotten one, which he declined. He didn’t want to go. I was surprised, but I certainly wasn’t going to force him to go (he’s a partier and has never turned down an invitation before!). My daughter got two last week. The first one was for Girl A, and the typical parental interrogation ensued…

Me: Hey, who is Girl A? Do you play with her?
K: No. She’s a not very nice girl. She hits and pulls hair and pushes. I don’t play with her or sit by her at lunch. But Teacher makes me lay by her for resting time.
Me: I think we’ll decline the invitation to her birthday party, then.
K: Noooo - I really want to go to the party!

I went on to explain that there would be other parties, and besides, she has a soccer game at 12:30 that day - right in the middle of the 11:00-1:30 party. We of course had the “you wanted to play soccer and  you made a commitment to the team and you can’t just not show up - and besides, I’m coaching and I certainly can’t just not decide to show up” talk. She was actually OK with it and said she really did not want to miss soccer for Girl A’s party anyway since she’s not very nice. So, I tried to respond for Girl A’s party, but the e-mail address provided was invalid (I tried 3 different days) and the phone number was “inconclusive” - meaning, I was not sure of the numbers that were written, and the message on the answering machine gave no indication that I had actually reached the correct house. I ended up writing a note of decline on the back of the invitation and putting it back in Girl A’s folder at school. Hopefully she got it.

The next day arrives and yet another invitation is in Keira’s folder. She hands it to me and says, without prompting . . . “I like Girl B. We play all the time. She is very nice. I sit by her at lunch. I want to go to her party.”

HA! Fast learner that one is I have actually heard about Girl B before and knew that Keira actually did like her and play with her. So, we are going to Girl B’s birthday party.

But, I have many questions about kids’ birthday parties . . .

When your children have parties, do you typically invite the whole class, or let your children choose who to invite? I’ve always been against the whole class thing for many reasons. First, my kids don’t play with everyone, and not every other kid plays with everyone. Kids at any age have friends and they know who those friends are. Second, no kid needs 20 kids at a party - and no kid needs that many gifts - and no kids’ parent needs to pay that much for a party.  My kids are typically allowed to invite their age . . . and they are not allowed to talk about their party at school since they do not invite the whole class.

Do you have your kids’ parties at home or at a birthday party factory? We’ve done both, and they seem to end up costing about the same amount of money depending on what you choose. Main difference is that when you go somewhere, less clean up

Do you invite your child’s friends’ siblings to the party? We always invite the siblings. We’ve got two kids and it really is tough to take one and not the other when one parent is gone. I have no problem with telling my kids the party is not for them, it’s for their sibling to attend, but I refuse to pay a sitter to watch child #2 while I take child #1 to a birthday party if hubby is gone. And besides, it just so happens that our kids are friends with the “main” friend and the siblings as well, so they usually end up inviting the siblings as part of their list anyway.

Do you let your child go to every party they’re invited to?

Finally, how much do you typically spend on gifts for kids’ birthday parties?

I’ve talked to lots of parents who believe kids’ birthday parties have gotten out of hand (one girl in the 1st grade last year actually had a limo pick up the guests and take them to the bead store for the party! sheesh!). I totally agree. What happened to inviting a few of your child’s closest friends over to play for a few hours and eat cake? I must admit that I love birthdays and parties and do throw birthday parties for my kids, but I do have a limit, both in money and energy spent I really am looking forward to the day when my kids get to choose 3 friends for a sleepover for their birthday . . . and thankfully those days are close!

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?