MMM, MMM, GOOD

Most nights we eat dinner together as a family, and when we do we all eat the same thing. I usually pick something that I think everyone will like, but every once in a while, I throw something in that I just KNOW the kids are not going to go for. Yesterday it was the sushi rolls from Costco. I like their spicy tuna rolls, but I also bought some California rolls because I thought the blandness might be more to the girls' liking. The girls have their own ways of trying food they aren't too excited about :

I don't think I'll be sending sushi rolls in their lunch anytime soon, but at least they gave it a shot.

Wiping Out

The only thing better than watching our favorite show, "Wipeout"

is watching it with our current favorite snack, a fruit smoothie (when Lauren says it sounds like "movie" which has caused a lot of confusion at snack request time).

Seriously, that show just cracks us up and added to the amusement tonight was some information Robie provided. Apparently, these people actually TRY OUT! I figure they must be paying people to come in off the street, but someone that Robie works with is going on a "call back" interview to try to be on the show. Really? I mean its funny to watch, and possibly it would be fun to try alone in my backyard, but the national humiliation might be a bit much for me :) I'm scared of the Big Balls.

On a sidenote, remember how I was totally not going to be room mom again? Yeah, I guess I buckled when Brooke's teacher called me at home to let me know that no one had volunteered yet. So I agreed to do it, but I'm hoping to talk someone into helping me. Unfortunately, this led me to stick my foot in my mouth when a new friend that is in Brooke's class walked by our house (they live close by and HE wanted to come say hi) and I hit her up to help me with the room mom thing. The retarded part is that Brooke had already told me that he went to ESS and I just kind of spaced it, so then his mom is talking about how it made her feel guilty that she can't help out, which made me feel like a big jerk for bringing it up. Seriously, she is a single mom raising her son, i mean, she doesn't even ever get a break, she has to work/pick him up/put him to bed etc. all by herself and I have to make her feel guilty about not being able to help with a lame holiday party?

More family fun

We tried to make Brooke's big day fun even though it was on Sunday, so we had her cousins over to celebrate.

My parents sent Brooke a gift that keeps on giving - "Lego Indiana Jones" for the WII. Apparently, we haven't been using the WII that much because we didn't have an addictive game in our collection.

Brooke is the big 08 in 08

When Brooke was born in 2000, I remember thinking how easy it would be to keep track of how old she was by what year it was - I just didn't think it would be 2008 so fast! She is such a great kid, with so much spunk and street smarts (don't let her talk you into anything!). I wanted to put up some baby pictures but when i started looking through the boxes - that's right, we're talking about pictures so old that they are NOT digital- it brought back a ton of fun memories from her first years of life.

We traveled A LOT in her first year of life:

We took her to the Bahamas (Thanksgiving '00):

Alaska (early March '01)

New York (end of March '01 - this was just a one day stopover on our way to Rio). We hit every major point in the city and she was in this stroller almost the entire time.

Rio de Janeiro (end of March '01 - they had this deal on using Frequent Flier miles that we just couldn't pass up). It was so HOT in Rio (but maybe that was because it was so cold in the two places we had just been?)

Hawaii (August '01):

Seriously, looking through all those pictures, I couldn't even make it through all of 2001. We have had so much fun with Brooke in tow for the last 8 years.

Brooke, we love having you in our family, you are growing into such a beautiful young lady - worried about your hair looking good, and convinced that you have a much keener sense of fashion than your mother, you definitely stand on your own two feet. I love you and Happy Birthday!

Conversational tidbits

Me: Lauren, here's your cereal you requested

Lauren: Ooh, gross, that is disgusting (yes, that's the word she used)

5 minutes later (about the amount of time it took me to eat her bowl of cereal:

Lauren: Where's my cereal?

Me: I ate it because you said it was gross.

Lauren: I want my cereal.

Later this afternoon:

Me: Do you need to go potty before you go outside to the pool?

Lauren: No

Me: Don't pee in the pool, ok?

1 hour later:

Lauren: (very excited) Mom, I didn't go pee in the pool.

Me: good job, sweetie.

Lauren: I went on the grass.

I guess you can't win em all.

Just make a list already

I swear the harder I try to be organized, the worse I get. With Lauren in preschool, I have plenty of time to do my shopping and get things taken care of for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I am a total idiot! That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but in the last 2 days I have been to Costco 2 times, Rite Aid 2 times, Henry's 2 times (that one was only because Costco was OUT of strawberries), and the grocery store 2 times! Honestly, it is driving me crazy, I thought I had all these great lists for each store, so I could get my shopping done early in the week since I had things going on every night this week - so much for that idea! BUT one thing I did get successfully was a cute new tablecloth - it makes me happy just looking at it!

By the way, if you heard screaming on Tuesday night it was probably coming from the Indoor Soccer Park, since I scored a goal at our game! Of course, I also got nailed in the eye by a soccer ball - what are the chances of that? Also, I didn't score any goals for the other team, which in light of our other games, is a MAJOR accomplishment :)

I swear this is the last picture of the girls and their curly/straight hair, but today was School Picture Day. Since we didn't get any great pictures of the first day of school (Robie seemed to think the pictures with me in them were totally adequate), I thought I would try the cute "girls alone by the door" shot. Unfortunately, Brooke was not feeling this idea...

Tonight was also our school's Back to School night. So Brooke's teacher gave us a sheet that asks you all these questions about your child, the last one is: "What is the most wonderful thing about your child?" I know I like things about Brooke, but how do you pick ONE wonderful thing? Robie's vote was "her ability to change from totally cute to evil in a millisecond". I'm not sure that's what they are looking for, but "her fashion sense" is probably also not quite right. I think I'm going to go with her tenacity, because when that girl is focused she is seriously focused (now to just get her to focus in the right thing)

What a great day!

Yesterday was one of those days where we just really enjoyed ourselves. Good times at the beach with friends. I just kept thinking how lucky we are. Not only did we have fun, I got to see Robie's mad sandcastle skills!

And then the exciting moment (no, i'm not referring to seeing the sign for the new frozen yogurt shop coming into our neighborhood). I'm talking about the earrings:

ta dah. I'm not going to lie, it was a little anticlimactic - I mean, she was pretty nervous and you're waiting for the ladies to get ready (there were 2 of them so they could do both ears at the same time), and then it was just done. I can see how people get one done and then they figure they might as well do the other ones, cuz it didn't seem like that big of a deal anymore :) Brooke is totally pumped, but she did ask me this morning, "mom, do you have any ideas on how to sleep with earrings in?" Must have been bugging her last night :). On a side note, you'll notice I have started putting Brooke's hair in a low side pony. It's totally coming back, I've seen it on 3 different shows (I think they might have all been on the E! network, but still) - it looks cute on her and she likes it - we're trendsetters, if you ask me :)

p.s. Brenda's babysitting move on the new version of 90210 was an awesomely choreographed and executed "don't think of me as the bad girl" move and kelly, you still look good!