My Dearest Sunshine,
I can't believe that three years have gone by since the day you entered the world. I can't recall what life was like before you arrived. You came into this world fast and furious and have been a whirlwind ever since. Your love for life makes everyone smile. It is so pure. I hope you never lose that. You seize each moment and you make it yours. I would love to be able to see the world through your eyes. It must be beautiful. You have brought so much love and laughter into our home. You truly are our Sunshine. Happy Birthday, Baby Boo. You are loved beyond measure. It's rare that I get up before everyone else on the weekends. Normally, Husband gets up first, and I'll lie in bed a little longer while Monster gets up and then Sunshine. On weekdays, I'm always up at least an hour before the kids, but Husband has usually already left for work. There's just something different and peaceful of being the only one up. Today was one of the rare days that I woke up and actually got up out of bed before anyone else. It is soothing knowing that your loved ones are safely tucked in upstairs. It's quiet. Amazingly quiet. It reminds me of mornings in Athens when I'd sit on the balcony and drink coffee before the sleepy little town came to life. There's just a special feel to it. I wish I had more mornings like it, but then, they wouldn't be as special.
Sunshine can officially say she started playing soccer at age 2. Technically, soccer doesn't start until age 3, but she turns 3 Monday, so we got special permission. She has been so excited to start, and she loved every minute of it! When we got back in the car she said, "Dat was fun. Can we do it again?" Glad she liked it since we've got 8 weeks of it! Here's the girl in action. She's the one in pink, of course. Pinterest sucks my time. Really. However, it also inspires me. I saw this really cute cookie idea and thought maybe I would give it a try. Then, I got real. I knew I'd never try it. First, I rarely have time to bake cookies that are more complicated than chocolate chip. Second, it was a spiral dough, which meant rolling it in to a log. I can't do that. I can't even roll a decent burrito. Yet, for some reason I kept this recipe pinned. Maybe it's because I'm obsessed with sprinkles on my sweets, I don't know. Whatever the reason, I happened to be browsing my pins and saw this one again. I kept thinking how cute those would be for Sunshine's playgroup birthday "party". Then, I had a brainstorm, which was amazing in itself since I had it when I was down with a migraine. What drew me to the cookies was not the spiral effect, but the sprinkles. I could definitely do that. Growing up, I fully believed that Pillsbury Slice and Bake cookies were how cookies were made from scratch (my mother is not a baker). I'm pretty well schooled in those nice cookie dough logs. Basically, the fancy swirl recipe was just two layers of sugar cookie dough rolled together and then rolled in sprinkles. How nice of Pillsbury to already have a log of sugar cookie dough all ready for me. Here's my easy version of spiral sugar cookies....minus the spiral. Step 1. Go to grocery store and pick up sprinkles (any kind, all sprinkles are created equally). Then, mosey over to the refrigerated section and pick up a log of sugar cookie dough. I highly suggest Pillsbury, but that's because I grew up on them. Please remember to pay for your purchase and then you can take them home. Step 2. This is the most important step in the process. Cut the ends off the roll and then eat the raw cookie dough from the ends of the package. It's worth the risk of getting worms. Just do it, you know you want to. Step 3. This step I had to experiment with. I didn't want to just dump sprinkles on the cutting board and roll. I wanted to contain the sprinkles. I needed to find something large enough the the whole roll would fit in. First, I tried my brownie pan. Didn't work. The sprinkles instantly scattered to both sides of the pan. I then tried a casserole dish. That didn't work either, same thing happened. I ended up dumping the sprinkles on the cutting board. I rolled the dough in the sprinkles until it was pretty well covered. Messy, but it worked. I probably should have waited to clean the house until AFTER I did this because I ended up cleaning twice. Step 4 and 5. Just like the dough says...slice and bake. Step 6. Make sure your family does not eat the cookies before the party. My real plan was for them to have a swirl of colored sugar on top to make them look more like the swirl cookies, but my 3-day migraine didn't allow for that much effort to be put forth. Next time, they will be swirled.
It's amazing how the world seems to stop when Mommy gets sick. Actually, more accurately, the world keeps moving, but nothing gets done. At a job, if you get sick, there is usually someone there to cover some of the things that happen. Here, as long as the kids are safe and happy, I'm fine with all the rest. It's when Mommy gets better that you look around and see the destruction one day out of commission caused.
I had a migraine yesterday. Not just a migraine, but a knock me on my butt puking migraine. For migraine sufferers, you all know exactly what that is. For non migraine sufferers, think of it like the flu, but with your head hurting so badly that think as well. Normally, I suck it up and try to function. Yesterday, I knew I couldn't do it on my own. I called in the cavalry. My parents dropped everything and came to help. Husband shuffled things around to get home earlier than normal. I slept. I woke up functioning. Not great, but I'll taking functioning. After my dad and I took Monster to swim lessons (Sunshine stayed home with Nana), Husband got home and took care of the kids for dinner and bed while I rested. When the kids were sleeping, I came down and Husband made me dinner. I stayed up just long enough to get another round of medicine and then went back to sleep. Today, I'm down to a dull ache. I rallied troops this morning though in case I had to go into battle again. And rally they did. I have awesome friends. Before even taking Monster to school I had 4 people asking if they could take my kids for me. You can't get better friends than that. Still have people on call in case I go from zero to puking again, but I've managed to make it this far today. Point being though, it's amazing what doesn't get accomplished when Mommy is out of commission for less than 24 hours. My mom rocked and unloaded my dishwasher and washed lunch dishes. My dad was awesome and got yard work done. Husband was great and got dinner ready and then got the kids bathed and in bed. So it's not like no one did anything. And I am grateful everyone did so much! Still, there were wet clothes that I had put in the washing machine yesterday morning before being knocked on my butt. Dinner dishes were all sitting and waiting for me. Floors were messy. Bathroom was chaos. And I don't think Sunshine actually brushed her teeth at all yesterday. It's not like anyone knew I had clothes in the washing machine. My mom would have certainly put them in the dryer had she known. It's just funny because I don't always realize how much I do in a day until it's not done. I've got a lot to catch up on today and I'm still not 100%. Dishes are done. Clothes are in the dryer, and another is in the wash. Box of clothes for Sunshine which I was storing at my parents house and we picked up on Easter has been gone through and sorted into sizes. Sunshine got a hair cut and manicure! Homework has been completed. Calls have been returned. Bills have been paid. Pictures have been uploaded and edited. We have no food in the house, but can't do anything about that until after nap. Funniest thing is that I find the most difficult part in all this that I don't have the energy or brain power to have a creative project for my children. It's not like they are lacking for activity, but I love having things for them to do. Guess Pineterest projects will just have to wait until this headache is fully gone. **I would like to clarify. After re-reading this, it sounds like I'm not grateful for the help I had. I am. I could not have done it without help yesterday. The the most important thing when I'm sick is that the kids are being cared for, which they were. Everything else can wait.** There are people out there who are holding out hope that I'm really a closet girly girl who will soon break out. Unless I happen to a) win the lottery and just buy fancy things for no reason, or b) Husband gets a job where I for some reason have to dress up, those people are going to be let down. I love looking at pretty, fancy dresses and nice shoes, but I hate wearing them. I do love getting my hair done, but after a while, it gets in my face and I just want a pony tail. Heck, I don't even own a curling iron or straightener and the first time my kids saw a blow dryer they thought it was for after swim lessons only. I do love getting my nails done (which is rare). However, I don't think I own a "normal" color. I want funky. Give me plaid over floral print any day. I'll take black, or any color, over pink in a heartbeat. When it comes to jewelry, simple is better. Make up? What's that? I own eyeliner, mascara (which is so old I wouldn't even use it) and lip gloss, not lipstick. I own perfume, but rarely wear it. I hate shopping unless it's for my kids.
Of course there are some girly things I love. I am a girl after all. I love romance novels. I love romantic comedies, not love stories though. Husband is definitely the more romantic one in the relationship. I don't think of candlelight dinner and sweet things to do. I'd say I'm girly because I like clothes. I hate them for myself, but I love them for my kids. Kind of like playing with dolls when you're little. You get to dress them up however you would like. Was I always a tomboy? Not really. I mean, I liked to climb trees and play catch, but I also loved to go shopping, play dress up, play with dolls, etc. My room growing up with pink with hearts and flowers. My curtains and bedding were floral and ruffles. I loved dresses and skirts and pretty shoes. I liked having tea parties. I have always loved my nails to be done, but back then, it was normal colors. I loved my hair in pretty styles. I'm not sure when the tomboy in me took over. I think it was gradual. I love watching Sunshine be a great mix of girly girl and tomboy. Yesterday, she was in her very frilly, very pink Easter dress and was bouncing around like a monkey. She's tough as nails, too. While chasing the Easter Bunny, she ran right into the bumper of Husband's truck. It took her out of commission for a couple of minutes, but she went back to looking for eggs. I love watching her dress up like a fairy and play pirate at the same time. I love that she holds and rocks her babies and then sticks them in a dump truck and runs around the house. I love that she looks at worms and digs in the dirt and then comes in and dances like a ballerina. People thought I would knock the girly right out of my girl, but she is her own person. She's a week from her third birthday, but it's more like she's going on 16. So, am I a closet girly girl? No, sorry to disappoint everyone. I am who I say I am and I am raising my daughter to be who she is...girly girl or tomboy or both. Here are the finished binoculars. Monster thinks his are super cool! (Sunshine's not awake yet)
Well, the day before. The day started out with Almond Cinnamon Color Swirl French Toast. Husband makes awesome breakfasts! Later in the day came some egg dying. This is the first year as an adult I have done this. I used to do this when I was little with my grandma. This year I decided to brave it, mostly because I found this on how to dye eggs with Kool Aid. The kids thought it was really fun. Messy, but fun! The Easter bunny will come hopping down the bunny trail tonight. He may even be able to hide eggs outside!
The sign of a good school holiday? When your almost 6 year old takes a two hour nap after asking to go to bed early the night before. I'm relishing in this because, well, I'm exhausted. Still so much left to do before Easter also, so I will trudge on and tag in Husband for today's round of activity.
Yesterday started with drawing pictures for Mr. H who did the airport tour the day before. Both kids worked very hard on their pictures of planes. After that, we headed to the park to feed the ducks. The kids loved it. In fact, they loved it so much, we went to another park and fed geese also. When we were all out of food, we took a trip to get a desk for Monster's room. 40 minutes later, no desk. The place was closed for Good Friday. So, home we went. We painted toilet paper rolls for binoculars (got the general idea from here, but put a different, and more kid friendly, spin on it) and made some superhero wristbands (again, got the general idea from here, but instead of foam stars, we used felt because they were cheaper. My kids didn't need or want glitter, they used markers and crayons). All this before lunch. At rest time, I went up to tell Monster he could come on down to play and he was sound asleep. I was shocked. In fact, I literally didn't know what to do with myself. I couldn't decide if I should work or play. I did both. After two hours, I decided I needed to wake the Monster up before he wouldn't sleep at night. Sunshine was still sleeping, so Monster and I got time to do a science experiment. Monster has Mind Blowing Science and loves to do experiments. We tried Sunset in a test tube. The first part went well. We had to wait for the final results over night. After Sunshine got up, we went grocery shopping, because I don't seem to do enough of that. When we got home, the cat from across the street was out, so Sunshine had to go pet it. Aunt C was out, too, so we chatted while the kids played with the cat. (As a side note, I hate cats. I love animals, but cats, I can't stand. Somehow though, my daughter has a love of cats. She's already rebelling against us.) We got home and I started dinner and boiled eggs for dying while the kids did some art. I can't believe how well they have gotten along all week. Husband actually got home at a decent time. He tagged in and let me sit on a heating pad for my back, which has been horrible since I dug up the garden on Monday. All in all, a great week. Technically, we have three days left, but it's a holiday weekend and Monday it's back to music class for Sunshine and swim lessons for Monster. |
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