Shopping for Father's Day

Yesterday I realized that Father's Day is Sunday. In the midst of my weekly running around on top of the local Carnival/Festival that is in town, I needed to figure this out. And the kids are at that irritating stage where they completely get and acknowledge the appreciation for Father's Day (and Labor Day, and Veterans Day, and Cinco De Mayo, and basically any other day that might be a reason to celebrate anything) but they are completely incapable of doing anything to prepare for themselves. So off we went to Boise.

We started the day at Gymnastics. I think I may have mentioned that Cameron is "trying" gymnastics at a gym in Boise this summer. She is loving it. I am loving it. The boys, however, are not loving entertaining themselves in a gym where they can't run and do sumersaults for an hour.

After that hour of "fun", we headed on up the road to the Boise Mall. A place that used to be held dearly in my heart as somewhere to go and something to do for an entire day. Somewhere that included leisure. Somewhere that included shopping for myself. Buying new clothes. Trying new styles. Now, this is one of the seven levels of Hell for a parent. Nothing fits, I realize each and every time that I am old. And everything is four times the price that it seems it should be. But, alas, Daddy needed some new cargo shorts and Mommy forgot to online shop.

We circulated the parking lot looking for somewhere close enough for an emergency run to the car. All the while, giving the lecture about how they are going to walk beside me the entire time, not ask for everything in sight, not fight, use manners, and for the love of God, please use the bathroom as SOON as we get in the door so we can get this shopping excursion finished in a short amount of time. There may have been bribes of ice cream.

Right.

First stop, the bathrooms. Of course, they all have to go try it out, check out the decor, make sure that it is the same as every other bathroom they have ever seen. But, because it was convenient and planned, Tucker did not have to go. On to the Food Court to attempt lunch.

All the options in the world and the kids still choose a Happy Meal. Fine. Two more obnoxious Kung Fu Panda Toys to carry in my purse, both of which include 4 pieces. 8 plastic toy pieces floating aimlessly in my purse. Awesome. Thanks McDonalds!

After answering the question, No, you may not bring your fries and ketchup shopping, We stop at Payless Shoes. They each ask for a tacky trash backpack. I say no. They each ask for ugly plastic shoes. I say no. Remember the whole lecture about not asking for everything they see? Yeah, they didn't either.

Into the Icing jewelry shop. Cameron decides for the 15th time that she is ready to get her ears pierced. She sits in the chair, gets the spill from the young girl, can't make up her mind. I threaten her with her life that if she makes the choice to do this, she's going to do it NO MATTER WHAT because I'm not paying out $35 again and walking out with no earrings. Yes, thanks Claires! For making your earrings sterile to the point that once the seal is cracked on your studs, you can't re use them again. And yet, you have to pay for them regardless. Thanks for that. I carry a pair of gold studs around in my purse just as a reminder of why I don't let her try to get her ears pierced every time we go to Boise. Hope they are still in style when she does finally get hers pierced, because she's gonna wear them if it's the last thing I do.

So then all the parents are watching what they thought was going to be a cute girl getting her ears pierced for the first time end up being her Mother going ballistic on her for making her pay out $35 and no piercings. Cameron starts crying because she just can't decide if it's going to hurt. She swears she wants them, but doesn't want them. So we decide to wait. This time until we are 16. Fine by me. On we go.

A few t-shirts, a few pairs of shorts. A few coffee mugs for the Grandpa's at Hallmark. And we are out. Tucker only hid behind every rack of clothes and was adamant that we buy Sexy Logger a Mario T-Shirt in a size XXL. I'm not sure how that would have went over. Brody of course wouldn't ride in the stroller, so I carried him, Tucker pushed Cameron around, which was ridiculous, but it worked.

On down the road to the Sportsman's Warehouse. $33 worth of lures later, we were out. I pretty much just tell the kids to pick out three each that look like they are lucky. Cameron's choice was a metallic pink sword fish looking thing. Pretty sure it's for salt water ocean fishing. But hey, it's Father's Day! Maybe it'll be the lure that wins the next tournament, which is not in a Salt Water area.

On for ice cream for the kiddos and a LARGE Diet Pepsi for Mom. Stressful and I felt like I was running a marathon. But, we got it accomplished with little to no failures. Success.

On to the Carnival Friday.

My Monday In Numbers

12-Weeks of summer vacation that we still have left before routine and organized chaos will return to this house.

6-the hour in the morning that Brody has decided that he absolutely must eat. Even though all throughout the school year I had to wake him up to take Cameron to school almost every single day.

250-Calories in my morning Herbalife Shake. The one that I am forcing myself to gag down in some sick attempt to loose this baby weight. Did I mention how much I hate these shakes?

30-Pounds that seem to think that they don't need to go anywhere, regardless of my excuse, "It took me 9 months to get this way, I should get 9 months to loose it". Well, ladies and gentlement, guess what? Brody will be 9 months old this month? Why the HELL won't this baby weight just disappear?

6-loads of laundry that I washed, dryed, folded, and put away over the course of the day.

2-number of teeth that Brody finally did get while fussing and needing to be held.

2-number of kids that I fed breakfast, yelled at to make beds, brushed teeth, combed hair, washed faces, and sent out the door.

4-number of times the neighbor kids rang the doorbell while were were getting ready for our morning. Seriously? Didn't I just say they'd be out when their rooms were cleaned?

1-Mom that can't get anything done except hold the teething baby so she has no excuse but to finally beat Super Mario Brothers with Tucker. I'm a rock star now!

2-amount of times I asked the neighbor kids to stay out of the garage with thier bikes because of scratches on the car.

1-child of mine who is now grounded from neighbor kids due to the fact that she decided it would be okay to ride bikes in the garage anyways

1-dramatic fits that followed being grounded

1-proud Mommy watching same dramatic daughter rock it in her t-ball game later that day

75-degrees of warmth that we have here in Idaho in June. Seriously, this just sucks!

2-number of times I had to take Tucker to the Port-a-Potty at the ball game

0-times Tucker was able to use the Port-a-Potty without touching every surface in the entire structure

85-cold peas, olives, pieces of breadsticks, and peaches that got thrown on the floor at the local pizza join since Brody thinks he is going to only eat big kid food now.

4-times Tucker had to use the bathroom at the restaurant

0-amount of urine that Tucker's bladder apparantly can hold

1-late night trip to the local grocery store minus the kiddos so I can actually think.

8-chapters read with the kids of Junie B. Jones and the Stinky Smelly School Bus

10-hour that is now considered early for the kiddos to be in bed

1-huge sigh of exhaustion as I sit in the silence and check facebook. Will my life ever be boring again? I doubt it...I seriously don't know how people keep having kids. Three kids are priceless, the loves of my life, but the work! And just think, I get to get up and do it all again tomorrow!

Summer Update

Alas, posting on my blog is not easy these days. I am finding out just what it means to have three kids at home all day. And believe it or not, it was absolutely a little easier when Cameron was at school each morning, and Tucker was at Preschool some of the afternoons. And now they are not. And I am ready to loose. My. Mind.

Not only are they all home, Brody is teething. And has decided to walk. Except he really can't. Yet. So he's just one big accident waiting to happen. He can get anywhere he wants to go, but not without one huge injury. Every time. The kid won't stay in the play pen. And he follows me everywhere. So just not a lot of leisure time at this point. Any time he's not being whiny over teeth, or trying to get where the other kids are at, I am scrambling to do laundry. Or clean something.

And the weather her is ridiculous. It is June 6th, we haven't hit 85 more than once. If at all. Today the kids had on jackets. We planned to go to the pool yesterday, regardless of temperature, and it started to storm. Like tornado warnings in the surrounding areas storm. So we all stayed home. Again.

The one perk of not being able to do anything outdoors and only holding Brody indoors, is that we did finally beat Mario Brothers on the Wii. And when I say "we" I mean me. But somehow, the kids think that they were involved. So it was a group effort. And I am officially the coolest Mom in the neighborhood for beating Bowser and saving the princess.

And so we are anxiously awaiting a few things. The first is our pool passes and the opportunity to sweat enough to make it worthwhile. The second being next weeks annual Cherry Festival. Always a hit with the locals. And thirdly, Cameron is taking gymnastics this summer and we are liking that. Gives us a reason to get going in the morning and head over the hill for that and some shopping.

The neighborhood is out and bored and you can always find kids on bikes and trikes and wiggle cars. Sammy, our dog, is the happiest of all. Love this shot of the three "racers".




Love the bikes. It just says fun.



Came across this old photo. It has no relevance to this post, but I couldn't help but smile at these old Prohibition brods. I could search through vintage photography all day!



Last weekend I watched my baby brother graduate from high school. I guess I have a different relationship with him because I was 12 when he was born. Therefore, I didn't have much of a social life yet but I was old enough to take on sort of a second mother role. He was the closest relationship to my own children that I have ever felt. Hard to believe he's all grown up and off to college next semester. He's going to play football and study secondary education. What a lucky student to get him as a teacher and coach! Can't wait to watch him grown over the next four or five years! Love you!