All's Well that ends Well

It started with Sunday - we decided this year to combine Alex's family party with Father's Day.  For those of you who know me, you know that this results in an entire day (or more) of planning, cleaning, prepping, cooking, etc.  Josh made me swear that for just one party we could get it catered.  I still haven't agreed.  Anyway...yes, it was a lot of work, but it ended up being a nice day and a great celebration of both the dads and the Al-Man.

Alex's "Fig Newton" birthday cake.  Don't worry - all other guests got my Chocolate Killer Cake. 

This year, I took on the job of putting together the end of the year gift for Alex's teacher, which included a framed poem with all of the kids' signatures on the mat and then 2 flower pots that said "Thank you for helping us grow" on the top (thank you, pinterest) and then had all of the kids' signatures on the pot (you'll see the point of me telling you this in a bit).  Thankfully, I was helping with Avery's field trip that Wednesday before, so I was able to sneak in and get all of the signatures that day (after dropping her off at school, racing to Michaels to be there right when they opened, buying all of the materials I needed (and spending $60 on said materials...ugh!) and then racing back to school to meet the bus for the field trip).  But, of course, the pots needed to be assembled and the cute "helping us grow" phrase still needed to be written.  So, in the middle of prepping for this party, I ran out to our local greenhouse, bought some plants and soil, planted them and wrote the freaking saying on the pots.  Of course, it took forever to plant the flowers because 2 weren't enough and 3 was too many, so they ended up really not looking all that great, which is why you don't see them in this picture.    But, whatever.  The pot turned out looking pretty cute. 

Now, we get to Monday.  And, what a Monday it was.  As I mentioned, Sunday was spent prepping for the party and not really much else (except of course for making the pots above).  Which, of course meant that Monday morning was going to be a total s-show.  I mean, I wouldn't be me if I actually had everything organized and ready to go.  Here's how it went down:

1. Woke up with a panic attack at approximately 3 AM thinking about everything that I had to get done that morning before leaving.  Stayed awake until approximately 5 AM. Alarm went off at 5:50 AM. Awesome. 

2.  Finally dragged my butt out of bed at around 6:20 AM - 30 mins later than I wanted to and went to put the poem into the frame that I had bought.  Only to find out.  It.  Didn't.  Fit.  Of course it didn't!  And, of course, the first time I attempted to put it in the frame was Monday morning about 3 hours prior to giving it to the teacher. 

3.  Spend the next 30 mins writing the class name and date on the bottom of the mat.  This of course, required me measuring to make sure I got it in the middle and writing it in pencil about 30 times before I got it to the point where it was at least legible (we all know my handwriting is atrocious) and then tracing over that with a pen and then erasing like hell the pencil marks.  All for a picture that doesn't even fit the f'ing frame, mind you.

4.  Fight with Alex over wearing normal looking shoes vs. his navy blue sneakers with a fluorescent orange stripe on them with his "Sunday Best" outfit for his Pre-K performance that day. 

5.  Win the battle.

6.  Race like hell to get to school on time (now a good 45 mins later than I had planned) - the whole time listening to Alex yelling at me for going too fast, Avery yelling at me for the windows being down and being too loud, and the f'ing pots of f'ing flowers that looked like crap in the first place flying around the car and getting dirt all over the place.

7.  Drop the kids off and race like hell to get to the closest CVS so that I can get cards for the teachers, a gift bag for the frame with the picture that doesn't fit and the crappy handwriting on the bottom, and 2 gift cards for each teacher with the money that I received from the parents.  Why didn't I do this a week earlier, you ask?  Because this is the way I roll. 

8.  Race like hell to get back to the school in order to get there in time to get a good seat to watch Al-Man's Pre-K performance....which brings us to this...

 

Mind you - Avery's Pre-K performance?  We heard about it for DAYS.  And, knew every song that she was going to perform. Alex's?  We didn't even know he had one until about a week before when an email came out.  In fact, I'm not even sure Alex knew he had it until the day of...too funny the differences between the two. 

 

That said, Alex did such a great job! He even had a part where he got to speak into the microphone (was one of about 5 kids who got to do this).  Of course, he didn't even mention this until Sunday and when asked what he was going to say, he couldn't remember.  As you can see with the third picture down, he didn't remember that day either. But, it didn't phase him a bit.  He just waited until the teacher whispered it into his ear.  :)  Oh - and, just a note on the first picture.  Every kid walked down the aisle holding hands with a friend.  All of the pairs were boy/girl...until Alex and Jacob.  They could have cared less.  But, just before walking down the aisle, the teacher stepped in the middle of them with a look on her face like, "uh oh!" and walked with each of them holding one of her hands.  Yet another one of those classic "Catholic School" moments. 

 

It was a bittersweet day knowing that we wouldn't have another kid go through the Pre-K program.  Alex has done so well there and the teachers just adore him.  As it turns out, not only is he a sweet, kind, caring kid, but he's also really smart!  We were told he is one of the top boys in his class!  So, although it was a hectic couple of days, it was all worth it to see him do his thing...

 

 

May Crowning

Every year in Avery's school, the first graders put on what they call the May Crowning.  I'm sure that means something to any of you who are Catholic.  Quite frankly, I still really have no idea what it means other than the fact that May is the month of Mary and therefore, they put on a performance with various skits about her.  So, when we first got the sheet sent home explaining the performance and what part all of the kids were going to have, we were told that Avery was Mary!  Of course, I'm thinking this is pretty special, as hello?  Mary was clearly the star of the show!  And, she was....along with the 6 other Mary's in the first grade.  Ha!  Ok, so she was one of 6 Mary's, but surely, she had a large part, right?  Well, if you consider "I know that it is a long journey, but I will TRY not to complain!" a large part, then yes. 

All kidding aside, she (and all of the other kids) really did do a great job.  They all had their lines memorized and recited them with no problems.  And, in hindsight, it was probably a good thing that Avery only had that one line, as she tends to get quite nervous performing in front of people.  But, she was all jazzed up and excited and did a great job.

Guys' Weekend

Well, as the title indicates, Alex's trip to NYC was with Josh only, which means that I don't have many stories to share other than what Josh told me, but I'll do my best to at least document their itinerary as well as one funny (slightly inappropriate story). 

Their weekend started on Friday morning - Josh and Alex boarded the train to NYC and off they went.  According to Josh, the train was really exciting for about the first 10 mins and then got pretty boring pretty fast.  Of course, I had packed only about 10000 things for Alex to do on the train and do you think that they busted out any of them?  No.  But, whatever.

Once they arrived, they took the taxi to their hotel, which is where the funny story takes place.  So, apparently, the taxi driver was a very nice Indian man (turban and all) who was very talkative and immediately asked Josh and Alex where they were from.  At which point, Alex practiced what he has been learning in school and rattled off our entire address.  I mean, he might as well have just announced that his sister and mother were home all alone that weekend and that he could invite any of his friends to kidnap us.  Thankfully, we survived.  No need to worry.  Well, as they were in the cab, there was apparently quite a bit of traffic.  Specifically, there was a truck in front of the cab that wasn't moving, so the cab driver honked at him.  The truck moved and the cab driver drove by...only to stop at the next stoplight and end up right next to said truck.  Turns out, the driver of the truck was a bit annoyed and didn't like being honked at, so he proceeded to roll down his window and yell (mind you, I'm just repeating what he said - this in no way is a reflection on my views towards Indian men), "Yo!  Abu!  Where the F*UCK** did you want me to go?" All of this with my poor innocent child (not to mention, my country mouse of a husband) in the backseat.  I guess it didn't really phase Alex and Josh found the whole thing to be comical, so all was well with the world.

**Hahahaha!  I was just re-reading this and had to leave it the way that I initially typed it.  I love how I didn't actually replace a letter with an asterisk, but instead, just left the entire word in there and added an asterisk to it.  Classic Whitney. 

After arriving at the hotel, Josh and Alex headed over to FAO Schwartz to check out the toys and to buy something for both Alex and Avery.   That night, they had dinner with Josh's friend from HS - Ned.  Josh gave Ned very strict guidelines - either Italian or Steak and a meeting time of 6 PM.  I told Josh that I'm pretty certain Ned was eating a good 4 hours earlier than normal that night.

The next day was the big museum day.  From what I understand, Alex loved seeing the dinosaurs and was able to recite a lot of information about all of them.  However, just like his dad, Alex can only handle so much time in the big city away from home.  So, after about 4 hours in the museum, Josh asked him if he wanted to go anywhere else and he asked to go home.  It worked out well because they were able to catch an earlier train and got in at around 7 PM that night. 

All in all, a good trip and definitely one that I think both will remember...

Happy 7th Birthday, Avery!

It's that time of year again!  The time when my work is insane, the house is a mess from being closed up all winter and is in desperate need of a deep clean, the yard is a mess from being attacked by the winter and is in desperate need of a deep clean, the mulch needs to be spread, the deck furniture needs to be taken out, washed, and oiled, my parents come into town, oh, and Avery turns another year older.  May is crazy at our house, but once everything is said and done and we get to THE weekend?  It's great.

In keeping with tradition, Opa and Grandma flew out a few days before Avery's bday.  As always, the kids were bouncing off the walls and thrilled to see them.  We kept both kids home on Friday so that they could spend some time with them and of course, Avery convinced Grandma to get (and do) some craft that she has wanted to do for months now and Alex convinced Opa to play soccer with him for as long as they both physically could.  That night, we went out to dinner at a new place that we haven't been to and as it turns out, it passed the test with everyone...even Opa! 

Once the kids were down, Opa and Grandma helped me to blow up a bunch of balloons so that Avery would wake up to them hanging above her on her bday morning.  Which...she did and then promptly looked at me and asked me why there were a bunch of balloons on the ceiling??!!  Um....?????

Saturday was Avery's 7th bday!  Of course, we let her open the presents from us immediately (well, after we made and poured our coffee and dragged Opa out of bed) that morning...

She got some very grown up presents this year - a camera from us and a kindle from Opa and Grandma.  Plus a book from France when Opa and Grandma were there (written all in French) and of course, her beenie boo.  Not sure what it is with these things, but they are the hot item right now in the first grade. She now has about 7 of them - small, medium and large. 


Then, it was all about the friend party.  I finally got smart this year and decided to do the friend party somewhere OTHER THAN my house!  :)  We had it at SnipIts and I have to say - they did a great job!  Each girl had their own little mirror and makeup/nail polish.  And, then they took one girl at a time and did their hair (they had 5 different styles to choose from) while the other girls were busy doing their makeup.  I will say that I wasn't quite prepared for the disaster that we were about to encounter with 9 7-year-olds putting on their own makeup. Needless to say, they looked like a bunch of clowns (and I say that in only the nicest way possible).  It was pretty funny.  After they all had their hair and makeup done, they got to walk the red carpet as the girl working there announced each one of them and said a little bit about them.  It was really cute.

That night, we went to dinner at an Italian place with Opa, Grandma, Grammy and Grampy,which was fun, as it is an area that we don't visit too often.   

The next day was Mother's Day!  We started out the day with a very relaxing morning sitting on the deck, drinking coffee and of course, eating the left over bday cupcakes for breakfast.  Followed by a nice, lazy afternoon of planting flowers and relaxing.  Then, Grammy and Grampy came over for dinner and of course, we had cake and presents afterwards.

 

 

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful weekend. But, the fun didn't stop there!

Unfortunately, I had to go into work on Monday, so I kept Alex home with Opa and Grandma and sent Avery to school.  They had a great day filled with a nature hike and lots (and lots and lots) of soccer!

Tuesday, I took the day off and sent Alex to school and then picked Avery up at lunch so that she could come to Newport for lunch with Opa and Grandma. 

After lunch, we walked around Newport a bit and then went to 2 stores so that Avery could spend the gift cards that she got for her bday from friends. And, wouldn't you know it?  She took it upon herself to use part of them both for Alex so that she wouldn't be coming home with something for her and nothing for him.  Not sure whose kid she is??!!  Pretty certain Lexi was pretty much of an out of sight, out of mind kind of sister when I was that age.  No offense, Lex. I really like you now. :) 
Unfortunately, come Wednesday morning, Opa and Grandma's had come to an end.  As always, we loved having them and can't wait to see them again in July for the big Al-Man's bday!  

Happy 7th Birthday, Avery!!!!  Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!