Gonna party like it's your birthday

2nd Brother had his first birthday party when he turned 3.  We paid for a handful of friends to join us at Hop 'N' Play at the Tanforan mall.

The kids had a great time, then we headed over to the food court for pizza, juice boxes, and these tidy skewers with some of his favorite treats instead of cake:

That was pretty grand compared to his 4th birthday celebration.  For that we paid for two friends to come to open play at a bounce house place.  Then each kid got a bag of snacks to eat on the lawn while we opened presents.  I think the kids ate cheese, a little orange, juice box, crackers, and a pack of mini donuts.  Done.

For his 8th birthday, I told 1st Brother we could take a couple friends to a movie.  Then he spotted a Lego Batman show coming soon to the Redbox machine and suggested watching that instead.  We ended up having 4 friends over for lunch (TJ turkey corn dogs, string cheese and apples), they watched the Lego movie while eating treats, then we opened presents and they played video games and assembled Lego sets for awhile.  It cost about $20, required little involvement from me, and everyone was happy.

If you like making cute cakes and favors and hosting a big tribe of kids, more power to you.  But I'm sticking with my glorified play date parties.  

Latest Trader Joe favorites

It's hard to imagine the point of looking for a better brownie from a mix, from scratch, from a bakery, from anywhere. I don't think it can be done.

And bruschetta?  Making it yourself will seem pointless after you try this:

These bits of roasted coconut can sometimes satisfy my sweet tooth.  Other times I'll follow these up with tons of graham crackers and chocolate chips and feel bad about myself.
 

Lil' Crime Stopper

Hey, kids!  Can you help find the criminal before he kills again?!

"I don't have shoes!"

My husband's parents were in town this summer and wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Having sworn off crossing the bridge in anything but a car, I offered to drop them off with the boys while I went to a favorite consignment place for kids' clothes; my husband was at work. (I have obsessive thoughts about flinging myself or other things of value over the railing, a good reason not to go.  Also bad: the white alligator pit at the Academy of Sciences).  We got everything together, drove into the City, stopped where there wasn't a parking spot in the very full lot near the bridge, and started unloading in a hurry.  Then comes 1st Brother's voice from the very back of the car: "I don't have shoes!"  Ummm, what?!  It was so ridiculous that I could only shake my head.  

He came with me and waited in the car while I was in the store.  I looked through their shoes, but the best I could come up with were some Spiderman sandals that were about 4 sizes too small.  Too bad, so sad: 

We met the others for a photo op, then he hobbled around Nick's Crispy Tacos and Helen Wills playground in the shoes without much complaining.  It ended up being a good outing, definitely one with a memorable start.  

Dream Dinners

December 2012 was the worst.  My baby who had been sleeping pretty well started getting up 3-4 times per night. This was right after I agreed to be the Primary president in our ward with a zillion details to take care of before the new year started. (I was to oversee the teaching of all kids in the congregation ages 18 months-12 years if you are confused).  And the Sundays--oh, the Sundays!  I've never felt so frazzled in my life trying to run Primary, nurse my baby, follow up with 7 people on 12 different things, hurry and feel inspired about people to call to x position, pack and haul multiple bags of toys, snacks, diapers, visuals for my lessons, etc. all with a sleep-deprived muddle brain.  It's the closest I've come to a breakdown, but instead of crying to let it out - I sometimes wish I was more of a crier! - I would get super resentful and fantasize about leaving the Church.  I started telling my husband he needed to let 24 hours pass before he asked how things went; my rantings had usually calmed to a less disturbing level by Monday. Also, I might never recover from the distaste I developed for Christmas last year--must make season magical!

Dream Dinners helped take the edge off my problems.  I thought I might enjoy cooking more when I had a bigger kitchen with more conveniences, but no.  So I started going in once/month to pack up 8-9 meals I could keep in my fridge and freezer. (Cost is around $200 each time).  I realized it wasn't the cooking I disliked as much as the "what should we have for dinner?" question that was always looming, and the crappy feeling I'd have when I defaulted to frozen pizza. I still fill in with my own cooking, but I have options and don't have to plan so much. The food has been really good, and we've been eating a better variety of dishes and going to the grocery store less.  Sometimes I'll think "I could make (x dish) for less," but whatever.  It's better than eating out or having lots of processed convenience foods, and I don't know what price to put on the mental break it's given me; so worth it!  Dream Dinners has locations throughout the U.S.  I highly suggest checking them out.

Halloween 2013...and 2012

Little Sister was Cindy Lou Who at my brilliant sister's recommendation.  I ended up getting a 0-6 month baby nightgown and taping a Grinch picture on her back so she wouldn't mess with it:

1st Brother wanted to be Steve from the Minecraft video game that's all the rage, so I ordered a kit from etsy for the head.  It looked good, but he couldn't see out of it very well and wore it for about 3 minutes at our church party.  For school and trick-or-treating on Halloween, he switched to my costume idea from the days of yesteryear: Target worker.

2nd Brother went as Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes comic.  A kid at Camp Mather a couple years ago mentioned he looked like Calvin, and I followed through on my intention to use that for a Halloween costume.  I tore black Gorilla duct tape in strips and put them on a plain red t-shirt, then came across the 12 MONTH-size shorts that 1st Brother wore when he was Charlie Brown one year and used them for the bottoms.  They were a little short, but the elastic waist worked fine on my skinny little guy.  Apparently 2nd Brother's costume minus the stuffed tiger could work for Linus or Christopher Robin in the future - we got those guesses from a couple people.  

Two friends from SF came up so they could have a traditional suburban Halloween.  They handed out our mini slappy lizards and Laffy Taffy, and trick-or-treaters may have wondered when the nice mixed-race lesbian couple moved in.  (Didn't a couple with like 3 kids buy that house not long ago?).  That freed my husband and me up to take the little ones out with our cute friends Dorothy, Donatello, and the peacock:    

In 2012, the kids were a Gryffindor wizard student, Buzz Lightyear, and a baby chick.  I took the boys around with a couple friends while my husband handed out candy, and 3-month-old Little Sister screamed and screamed. I figured she was upset by all the commotion; we get around 200 trick-or-treaters on our street.