I’m linking up a fourth grade story this week for MamaKat’s Writer’s Workshop.

I vividly remember the fourth grade. I had my all-time favorite teacher(who is actually still teaching – I’m pretty sure he is because you could tell even 33 years ago how much he loved his job), I knew fractions, I was our class student council representative, we just got a new puppy, but mainly I loved fourth grade because my teacher had a cool green pleather couch in the back of the classroom.  Mr. T would let us just go back there and lounge on that couch while we did our reading or when he was teaching math or just to hang if we needed to get up from our desks a bit for a change of scenery.

Or.

Mr. T also let us stay inside for recess if we chose to(he was really into free-choice), and so a group of about 10 of us would stay inside many days and play The Newlywed Game.

It was all the rage in 1978 and my parents rarely missed an episode. We would listen to Bob Eubanks talk about ‘making whoopee’ as talking about the s.e.x on the TV was verboten way back then in the olden days.

I was always married to James. He was cute and blond and super short but a good kisser..so he was always my husband.  We would answer questions just like the real Newlywed Game and we would kiss and make a scene each time we got a question right.

Mr. T always went outside for recess. Sometimes I wonder if he knew that a third of his class was making out on the green pleather couch. Damn I loved that teacher.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about fourth grade(and James) a lot lately because Eloise will be a fourth grader in just a few short weeks. Thank god The Newlywed Game went off the air 20 years ago so I know she won’t play that in the classroom. But what reality television show will they play now?

The Real Housewives of Orange County? – Will they take turns getting botox and boob jobs?

Dancing with the Stars? – Will they take turns being b-list stars who cry on television because the whole thing is just so damn life-changing?

Dance Moms? – Will they fight over who gets to play Abby Lee and then humiliate small children or act like the immature dance moms?

Survivor? – Will they form cliques and vote people out of the forth grade(um bully!)? Will they eat bugs?

The Apprentice? – Will they back-stab their fellow students just to impress their egotistical teacher?

The Bachelorette? – Will they have to sleep with everyone in the whole grade before dumping the guy at the end because he’s just not good enough and it keeps ratings high?

See – now that I think about it, playing The Newlywed Game seems pretty damn innocent.

Also, where do I buy a green pleather couch?

My parent’s computer is dying a slow death so I gently suggested that when it dies they should really just get an iPad.   This suggestion was pretty much met with silence(also some googling of ‘what’s an iPad’ I’m sure)  but I guess they figured ‘what the heck’ one day and went to Target and bought an iPad right after they put toilet paper and Polident in their cart.  Old people are adorable.

Anyway, at this point I’m pretty sure it’s being mainly used as a really fancy coaster but I have high hopes that they will appreciate the iPad for what it is…a complete package of beauty, art and technology all rolled into one adorable tablet.  Also, we did a Skype chat with them last week and Astrid(my 2 year old) gave them a pretty extensive tutorial on how to use it.   Astrid is preparing a two day intensive course for them during our visit in July.

So when they came home with the iPad I mentioned that my mom really needed to get on Facebook if she wanted more photos of the girls because it’s easier just to post them there than to also email them.  She is still not convinced on why she needs to be on ‘The Facebook’ but that is totally understandable as she still doesn’t have texting on her phone….because this is the email my mom sent to her whole family just a few days before buying the iPad….(note: I’m posting this without permission. I might be grounded starting tomorrow…)

FIRST LET ME SAY “I AM NOT A LOVER OF ALL THE TECHNOLOGY STUFF!”

My computer hasn’t worked well for months and I finally started dealing with it a few weeks ago.  The computer was freezing and all that crap.  Then we had Comcast come out and take a look.  By the 4th guy he finally just told us our computer is OLD.  We know that!  Last evening a very nice lady called from comcast and she walked me thru a few things and today my computer seems to be working better.  What do I do on line – email, read tracy’s blog, read the Duluth paper, play some select games and once in a while look something up.  I spend all frigon (is that how you spell it?) day on a computer so not inclined to go home and sit for another few hours.  We are considering getting a laptop or even just a Ipad (sounds like something to put on your eye)or is it an Ipod (sounds like something you should wear if you leak):(

Who uses texting?  I don’t have it, do I need it?  Is it really worth paying MORE money for something?  Troy told me the other day I need it and then he would ever have to TALK to me!  Jack and I went to the Verizon shop last Saturday because starting this Sunday any changes you make with them will cost $30.  We had this very nice young lady try to explain to two OLD people what some of this stuff means.  We left the store with nothing.  Do you really need a phone that takes pictures (I have a camera for that and I don’t even know how to use all the features for it), now they have phones you can talk into and give commands – I mean really.  Sometimes I wonder if I really need this tracking device.  What did we do when we couldn’t get in contact with someone instantly?

I can’t turn the channel on our tv, sometimes I can’t even turn the TV on!  If Jack’s not around I have to go watch TV someplace else in the house or I’ll screw up the big TV.  Why do we need 1000+ channels?  How many do you really watch? Many of the good shows are now on after 10!  So then you need a DVR to record it because by 10 you’re in bed. They should have a channel for old people that starts at 5:00am and goes off the air around 9:30.

I want to use my dial phone that you put your finger in and turn it in a circle(I still have one of those in use), I used to know numbers in my head – now I have to look them up.  I do like email, but in the long run it was cheaper to mail a letter.  For games I played with an actual deck of cards and the game was called solitaire.  Would I ever hear from any of you if I discontinued my internet, would you write me a letter once in a while?

I can not imagine what it will be like in a few years.  I am already so confused.  I believe it’s really not alzheimer’s (sp) that the older generation has it’s frigon (the spelling just doesn’t look right) OVERLOAD.  It is the easiest way to ignore what the heck is going on.

And after reading that again – I totally get why my mother bought an iPad? What the…???? I mean do I even tell her that it doesn’t start with a capital ‘i’ at this point?  Old people are adorable. And funny.

******

Speaking of mothers – This is what I wore on Mother’s Day(with my cute little coordinating iPad technical expert) Linking up with What I Wore Wednesday.

Cardigan - Target

Black tee – H&M

Belt – H&M

Skirt – Art&Soul by Bercot (Also – Astrid’ matching dress)

Wedge sandals by Fossil purchased at Karma here in St. Paul

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So have your parents embraced ‘The iPad’ technology? Please give me hope. (Also, mom – please get texting..your grandchildren would LOVE that.) xo

So I spent a good part of the predawn hours wandering my neighborhood looking for a cat named Ruby that I’ve never met. As I was finishing my run this morning I saw a cat carrier with a food and water dish alongside the apartment building next to us, and a sweet little blanket with a note that said “Please do not remove these items – our sweet Ruby cat has been missing since 5/9 and she is very timid and we hope she comes back and finds some comfort in her things.”

Ruby is white and apricot so if you see her – please let me know.  I looked everywhere – which I’m sure they have also over the last four days, but I’ve got my girls on the case too and we are hopeful.

This reminded me of the time my beloved Wilshire(you know the cat you get right out of college way before kids and he’s like totally your first baby even when your kids do arrive and he’s like 11 and pissed off at you). Anyway, he was missing for three.long.days and we called every vet and animal shelter in the city and also blanketed the neighborhood with signs.  Turns out he was accidentally shut inside our upstairs linen closet the whole time. Yeah. So this taught us three things – 1. Change your towels more often and 2. Never ever adopt a cat again who lacks the ability to meow and 3. Check your own home completely before getting the cops involved.

This leads me into telling you what I did all day for my 9 year old daughter – whom I love dearly.  Since I could not find Ruby I went in search of a plaid shirt for Eloise.   Eloise is in a play next week and needs a plaid shirt to play a cowgirl. I showed Eloise the small selection of plaid shirts that we own. All were rejected. Which honestly drove me to a very angry place because 1. It’s just a shirt and 2. It’s just for a short play and 3. The thought of spending money on a shirt for a costume seems ridiculous and 4. It’s just a shirt.

But then I remembered that it wasn’t just a shirt. Just like when I was 13 and I went camping with friends and they all had blue insulated sleeping bags and backpacks while I showed up with a Budweiser cotton sleeping bag, that I assume my parents received for free for some beer can redemption program, and a shiny blue duffel bag with a braided handle – that YES those items do the job – but they are not right. They are just not right.  So after I yelled about what a pain in the ass this whole shirt thing was I proceeded to visit four thrift stores until I found the exact shirt – not too big, not too small, not too brown but not too blue, a smallish plaid containing no pink or purple, not flannel, must not have big buttons, no ruffles, no big collars, not an obvious boys shirt, but not girl-girly, must match a navy bandanna, and of course must coordinate with her new Justice tank top. Of course.

$2.99 later I think I found the shirt and now I’m sitting here on pins and needles for Eloise to get home to make sure this shirt makes the cut all because I had to sleep in a Budweiser sleeping bag on a camping trip when I was 13.
So these are evidently the type of important parenting decisions we have to make these days.

Anyway, crisis averted and now I’m off to search for the cat again because I cannot go to bed tonight knowing there’s a scared cat somewhere in my neighborhood just like the Earth would not spin without the perfect plaid shirt. The things we mothers do because of the comfort of things.

Just write.

The Ice Cream Truck Cometh…with a Nestlé Drumstick and $100 Walmart Gift Card Giveaway

Do you remember that period of sweet innocence – you know, that period of time when your firstborn is too small to realize the ice cream truck that drives by your home actually is carrying ice cream and isn’t just the ‘crazy music truck’ that you sweetly explain that it is? The period when you hope your toddler is sleeping soundly before the ‘crazy music truck’ comes by so you can go get a Nestlé® Drumstick® for yourself and totally not have to share?!

Yeah, those blissful ice cream hoarding years clearly don’t last long enough.

Pretty soon the oldest kid figures it out and tells her little sister and then BOOM! Drumsticks for all! The ‘crazy music truck’ turns into the ‘Hey Mom, can we have $3?’ truck and I’m all like, “Well, no, you need $4 because you need to buy one for me too!”

Every Monday and Friday at about 6:30 pm from April until September we listen for the music. My two-year-old, I swear, can hear it five blocks away. Our neighborhood is filled with kids, and all of them swarm to the ice cream truck and wait in line for their $1 ice cream. I admit I’ve taught my kids to appreciate the good stuff when it comes to ice cream – go for the chocolate or caramel. Of course, this way I will like what they cannot finish. Ahem.

To get through those days between the ice cream truck visits we keep a box of the small Lil’ Drums for just the perfect treat. (Also, I can eat them and not feel guilty, at least until I realize I’ve eaten the last one – I am usually so busted). Also, who taught these kids how to count? They are totally keeping track of my copious ice cream consumption.

I’ve always been a major Classic Drumstick fan, but have you checked out their new flavors? They are simply amazing. Who can resist Pretzel Dipped Drumstick cones, and the new Lil’ Drums Caramel Delights: Vanilla Caramel Crunch and, oh my word, Caramel Graham? It makes me want to just host an ice cream party and maybe even invite all of the kids! Nestlé Drumsticks are such an easy dessert for those summer BBQs everyone loves! Check out all the new flavors on the Nestlé Drumstick Facebook page!

Summer is right around the corner, so it’s time to get my freezer stocked! We plan to host many parties in the backyard this season.

And now Nestlé and I want to make your summer planning even easier!

Win It!

$100 Walmart Gift Card and Nestlé Drumstick Gift Pack

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries to this giveaway by selecting from the follow entry methods:

*Leave a comment on this post answering this question: “What is your favorite summer activity with your friends and family?“

*Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post.

*Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.

*For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw and will be notified by email. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/14/2012 to 6/15/2012.

Be sure to visit the Nestlé Drumstick page on BlogHer.com, where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Good luck, and bring on summer!

Disclosure: I was provided Nestlé Drumstick samples and compensation, but the words and opinions are all my own. Also, don’t steal my ice cream.

I had to laugh this week when I posted about kissing the boys at church camp and my mom left a comment saying that I was ‘grounded’ – which is truthfully turning out to be kind of a bummer. See, we only had a one story house growing up when I’d be grounded so sneaking out of my bedroom window was really no big deal. But now I live in a 2-story house and I’ll be damned if it isn’t a pain the ass to jump down from my bedroom ladder each time I want to leave the house AND figure out how to sneak three kids out with me.

I promise not to ever kiss a 10 year old boy again mom.

So I decided the only way to get back at my mom was to post this picture of her from 1976.(Payback for the haircut you gave me...)

Yo Disco Queen. Do The Hustle…  I’m not exactly sure what a 4’11″ Catholic white girl from Duluth was doing with a ‘fro – but the pointed pink collared shirt kind of made it work.  Kind of.

I also tried to find a few pictures just of my mom and me.  This was the only one I could find.  Although I’m not sure if that is me or if my mom was actually on the set of Family with Kristy McNichol.

See….

OMG I’m a lesbian. I’m so happy.

I also found this picture of the three of us. I’m assuming that they had my mom sitting on phone books for this picture because I’m pretty sure we were both taller than she was by the time we were 10.   I call this picture “Dorothy Hamill and Her Offspring” for obvious reasons.

****

I often wonder if moms in the 1970′s worried about doing this parenting thing all wrong.  I doubt it.  I think they had their own lives and identities(besides that of ‘mom’) and just made sure we were loved, clean, fed, housed, safe, nice, educated and well-mannered and just let the rest fall into place.  I remember my mom taking us on a few trips and on a few visits to the zoo and of course forcing us to sit through church.  I remember my mom trying to show me how to do a cartwheel and throwing me in the pool and yelling ‘now swim!’ and lacing up my skates when it was 20 below zero.   But she never took me to an organized music class or story-time and never set-up a play-date with anyone.  Instead she played The Carpenters, Helen Reddy and Beatles 78s while we cleaned the house all together, she read The Saggy Baggy Elephant Golden Books to me, and would open up the front door and yell ‘now go out and play!’

I read so many stories of motherhood now with all of us wondering if we are ‘doing it right’ and agonizing over decisions that seem so big at the time while you know in a few years you will look back and think ‘my god that was such a small blip.’ I know we don’t get there without experience so I’m glad I’m finally learning.  I’m not the same mom I was four years ago when I agonized over Eloise’s kindergarten and I dare say I’m embarrassed of that mother now.

My mother was not a perfect mother. None are. She didn’t agonize over our school choices(but she expected good grades), we didn’t take extra lessons of any kind, she wasn’t a big reader, and I’m sorry but my mother could not bake an edible chocolate chip cookie if her life depended on it.  She didn’t volunteer at our school – and I never asked her to, she worked full-time, but she was the first to volunteer as our Brownie leader when no other parents would and I’ll be damned if our Brownie troop didn’t earn about 48 badges that year.

But she taught her children to be fiercely independent, to live an earnest and honest life, to work hard, to live by the Golden Rule, to fight for what you believe in, to always be there, and to laugh.  She is still my biggest cheerleader and the first to give me a kick in the ass when I need one.  My mom is one of the funniest people that I know. She’s sarcastic, witty and self-deprecating. She’s the first to lighten the mood, and every day that we talk on the phone the woman cracks me up.

My mom is my heavy – all 4’11″ of her – she will kick your ass like nobody’s business and then immediately afterwards tell you a story that will make you pee your pants.

My mom is a social worker. I think people who choose this type of career are some of the best of the bunch.  They are the ones who are always helping someone else, they are the best listeners, and they open their hearts up daily to other people’s pain.

*****

I don’t want my kids to think I’m perfect. I want them to know that I’m human and I struggle, but I also want them to remember that I laughed a lot.  I want them to know that I make mistakes and bad decisions, but I want them to know that I took risks and chances.  I want my kids to know that I was/am there for them, but I want them to know that standing on their own two feet is even more important.  I want my kids to be happy.  Isn’t that really what we all want for everyone.

I see that now as an adult daughter – that no matter the love, the fights, the jokes, the groundings that my mother gave me during the past 43 years  – in the end she really just wants me to be happy. And I see she hurts when she thinks that her kids aren’t. I get that now. And as a mom, boy is it hard to watch your kids hurt.  But sometimes that is all you can do.

Sometimes I think about how much I hurt my mom 25 years ago. I was defiant and angry. I starved myself into even more unhappiness and eventually I just left home.

My mother is a forgiving type though and within a few short years we became close again. But it wasn’t until I became a mother that I really understood what my mother wanted for me. It wasn’t to control me or guide me or judge me or protect me – it was simply for me just to be happy.

******

As my daughters now approach their preteen years I need them to know that I just want them to be happy. And to laugh more.   I keep my blog lighthearted because one day I want my kids to know that laughter and humor have always been important to me – and it’s a legacy passed down from a long-line of funny women. Nobody had a laugh like my grandmother.   So I’m sharing the heavy on Just Be Enough today. It’s a story I’ve never told except for a small excerpt on my blog last year.   But maybe one day my kids will read this and realize how much they have really saved my life.  Motherhood changed my life forever. And that’s no joke. I would love if you would visit me there today.

And Mom – Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you know how much you mean to me…even when I make fun of your white tennis shoes.  I promise to bake a batch of cookies when we come visit in July.  Oh, and am I happy? I think so.  xo

When I sat down to write my first post here over four years ago – I didn’t do it while considering myself a writer. I considered myself a mother who wanted to have a place to express my truths as a mother. These truths of my being that one day my daughters would read.

I have a pink silk covered baby book filled with delicate aging pages of facts. Of truths. My mom spent 18 years writing this baby book for me. My first teeth, my growth, my first words, my first date, the first time I slammed my bedroom door. Woven into these basic facts of growing up are funny little stories that my mom has written in the margins. The memorable things and truths that she didn’t want to forget and wanted to make sure that I knew one day.

So aren’t we fortunate in this day to have our blogs to share our truths that our children may unwrap one day like an aging delicate baby book covered in a beautiful pink silk.

*****

I admit that as a blogger, not a writer, I felt inspired as I started making my way through Kate’s beautiful book. Her stories, even the painful ones, were so eloquent, beautiful, detailed, and real to me that I continually wanted more.  And I wanted to write more. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to dig deeper. I wanted to give more.

Kate’s book gives amazing examples and essays from many writers on using simple tools on how – as a mother – to use your words.  How to expand on the sensory details of an event, how to use humor, how to write the hard stuff, and how to put a voice in your narrative. Kate makes the small writing exercises personal, doable and something that you truly just want to drop everything and do.right.then.

Use Your Words will help any writer, beginning or experienced, reckon with the messy stuff of life and shape it into memoir.

- Caroline Grant

And Kate’s book will help me put my words on this page for my children in way that my truths for them will be more eloquently expressed.

******

The lovely and talented Kate Hopper has spent nearly a decade teaching women to write down the bones of motherhood – teaching classes online and at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis . Now her new book Use Your Words, gives expert guidance to encourage you to write the stories you need to write, whether your goal is to blog, publish magazine articles or pen the next blockbuster memoir.

Kate herself says -

I hope that readers will begin this book with an interest in writing, and finish it having discovered
the power of writing their lives and dedicated to continuing the important work of writing about
motherhood. I hope they will see the varied ways one can write about their children and the
transformations inherent in motherhood, and have a better sense of how to craft the stories that nag
at them, that beg to be written.

Kate is one of the warmest, kindest, talented women I have ever met. Her writing is directly from her heart and you feel it with every word as she paints a picture of what truly motherhood is. I’m hoping that one day as I explore my writing roots and put pen to paper(or key to screen) that I can even scratch the surface of possibility of showing my daughters who their mother really is.

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I’m thrilled to participate in this ‘virtual book tour’ and share Kate Hopper’s Use Your Words writing guide with you.  I do hope you will click over and find out more about Kate and you can get your copy of Use Your Words A Writing Guide For Mothers at Amazon and from Powell’s Books

You can find Kate at her blog -  Motherhood and Words on twitter -  @mnkatehopper and on Facebook.

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And now that you love Kate and are ready to find your voice and tell your motherhood truths – I want to give away Kate’s book to one of my readers in celebration of Mother’s Day . 

To Enter - All you have to do is comment on this post on what you would still love to write about and haven’t yet, or comment with a link to your favorite post on motherhood that you’ve written on your own blog, or tell me what you want to work on as you continue to inspire your own writing.

The winner of Kate’s book will be chosen at random from the comments on Monday, May 14th at 8pm Central.

I remember my first sleep away camp experience. My parents sent us to church camp for a few weeks when I was in the forth grade. We sang a lot of “Father Abraham”  and “The Butterfly Song” and of course the old favorite “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory”  – and we swam a lot…but mostly I sneaked into the boys dorms and convinced boys to make-out in the woods with me.

Yeah. That was me.  I really loved church camp. Praise Jesus.

Anyway, I continued to enjoy my Summer camp experiences which grew to eventually going camping for nearly the whole Summer by the time I was entering the 10th grade(and yes I was perhaps still chasing the boys). These Summer memories are some of the best of my childhood and I’ve always hoped my kids would love sleep-away camp at some point if they chose to go. (Also, the camps would be girls only – for obvious reasons).

Last Summer Eloise asked if she could go away to camp..and I told her no, that I felt 8 years old was a bit too young but would reconsider this year.  And she talked about it constantly for the past year.

So this Summer – at 9 years old Eloise is going away to a short week of sleep-away camp. And I’m sending her 7 year old sister with her.(I know, remember most rules you make only have to apply to your oldest child)

In case you were wondering if perhaps your child is ready for their first sleep-away camp – I’ve made this handy checklist for your reference:

1.  Does your child ignore you when you call their name to come in for dinner?

2. Does your child leave toys out all over the house every single day?

3. Does your child not pick-up said toys without you asking 45 times?

4. Does your child pick fights with his siblings causing WWF activity in your living room?

5. Does your child now eat more than a 280 pound Sumo wrestler causing your grocery bill to soar?

6. Do you have to do your child’s laundry?

7. Does your child like other people more than he seems to like you as he gets older?

8.  Does your child talk-back and sass you daily?

9. Does your child like to ride on a school bus?

10.  Does your child occupy a bedroom that could be used as a fine craft room for a few weeks each Summer?

If you’ve answer ‘yes’ to 7 or more of these questions – then YES – your child is ready for sleep-away camp!

*****

In all seriousness though, I do feel my kids are ready. They already like to spend the night at friend’s houses, they are very responsible, they make good decisions, they are caring of others, and most of all – they are begging me to go!

We also have a few day camps scheduled, and a few short trips -  but mainly we are just planning some relaxing in the Summer sun this year. I talked about it a little when I was interviewed last month for care.com. You can read the full article here on striking a balance in the Summer.

Do you send your kids to sleep-away camp yet or at what age did they start going? Also, when does mommy sleep-away camp start? I’ve heard the guys across the lake are hot!

Astrid spends her days trying to be bigger. She reaches her arms to the sky and says “See how big I am today, Mama!” and I always agree that yes she must have been growing the whole time she was sleeping last night. It’s also a good way to get her to go to bed very, very early – ‘if you sleep now you will grow to be SOOO big.’ (This also works for long naps…take notes)

Her growth is marked by items she can now reach that she could not just weeks ago, being able to see over a retaining wall on our daily walk, and no longer receiving the typical head bonk as she speeds past the dining room table.

So as we celebrate Astrid’s ‘bigness’ it always catches me by surprise when she crawls onto my lap and softly says “I’m your baby today, Mommy” and “I’m really just so tiny – see I still fit in your lap perfect.”

And I kiss and hug her up until she slides down and away to show me something again that ‘she’s big at.’

Because when you’re 2 – being big is a very big deal.

Until you’re 9 and then you get to hear “you’re big enough to know better” and “you can reach that so help your sister” and “you have to set a good example for the younger kids.”

And then you sometimes have to remind your mother that truly – “you are only 9″ and I have to apologize because while 9 is big. It’s not that big. Except for when you want it to be really big…because at 9 you can still just be big when it’s convenient.

Which brings me to my question – when I do something clearly stupid and I try to say “but I’m only 43″ why don’t my kids cut me any slack.  So when you’re 43 you always have to be big? Sometimes that sucks.   I wonder if my 89 year old grandma will let me be little just for one day.

Just write.

Eloise and Esther spent three hours playing Bananagrams today.   No matter how long they play though, they will not play against each other. Even when Esther spells something wrong – Eloise grabs some other tiles and figures out how to make Esther’s word right and how it can fit in the rest of her puzzle.

Unless of course Esther feels very strongly that her word is already correct.

Eloise: “Esther ‘siton’ is not a word.”

Esther: “I know ‘siton’ is not a word. It’s ‘sit’ ‘on’”

Eloise: “But you can’t do that – you can’t put two words together like that.”

Esther: “Sure I can – I just pretend there’s a space between the two words. Just close your eyes and pretend there’s a space.”

Eloise: “You can’t pretend there’s a space or like close your eyes during a game. You play like you are suppose to play.”

Esther: “Not when you play like us – you know, just for fun.”

Eloise:  “Well what about in the future you know like when you might play this with friends or on a date – you can’t have pretend spaces.”

Esther: “I don’t think I’m going to play Bananagrams on a date.”

Eloise: “Well duh – because they’d never play with you because you make-up spaces!!”

Esther: “I’m sure we’ll find other things to do.”

I did 100% mom stuff this week. I didn’t work. I tried to stay away from the computer. Mostly. I caught up on laundry. Our dishwasher has been broken for 23 days so I’ve done a significant amount of dishes. I’ve consider resorting to take-out only so there will never be dishes again. I’ve cursed some European dishwasher makers because I hate ours so much.

In the meantime we’ve resorted to donuts only for breakfast. If you live in the Twin Cities you must try Mojo Monkey Donuts (they don’t know me nor will they even tweet me back…as if) but their donuts rock so I’ll continue to stalk them and tell my friends.

I took Astrid to the zoo – TWICE. There should be an award ceremony for that. She rode the carousel at Como Zoo. We were first in line for the first ride of the whole season. I kept waiting for confetti or a key to the city.

Today I took the girls to see their first imax movie in 3D.  Immediately afterwards we headed to Justice to exchange some items. Word of warning to you over 40 – if you watch a 3D imax movie and then enter Justice – YOU WILL FEEL REALLY DIZZY AND LIKE YOU WANT TO PUKE.  It was like a great acid trip from 1985 but with 3 children in your care and a minivan to drive home.

Other stuff we did this week – and a review for you in case you’ve been busy doing dishes also and accidentally missed my blog  – we started a garage band.  I’m still waiting for it to go viral and for Toyota to call me and either say “OMG you’re amazing” or “Maybe you should consider buying a Honda next time and leave us out of it.”

Esther and Astrid’s room redo is finally done. It’s fun to hear the comments on what your kid room-sharing statuses are.

I love when my kids celebrate each other. It’s a parenting win don’t you think? Anyway – I hope they will be there for each other until they are 122 or forever – whichever comes last.

And don’t forget to enter for $100 worth of free house cleaning!

Have a great weekend. Don’t drop acid.