Living in Munchkinland

Independent, Intelligent, Thoughtful, Willful, Social, Gentle, Determined, Delightful, Patient, Strong, Quick, Love of my life, Love of my heart. My first born. Who challenges me and dazzles me and runs me around and around and straight up a wall, and drives me crazy, and brings me to my knees with love and admiration and makes my heart bigger and more open than I ever thought possible. Who has eyes that are windows to a soul more trusting, more innocent and more knowing than any other soul I have ever seen. My old soul. My sweet little boy. Happy Birthday. I love you.

Some friends and I have been talking about doing a murder mystery party for months. I decided to use my birthday party as an excuse to throw one. When my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I asked her if I could have the party at her house. She agreed, we picked a date and we were ready to go. I was limited on my guest list due to expense and logistics, so that was frustrating as I wanted so many people to come, but I finally got a guest list and picked a fun murder mystery to fit us all. The one I picked was called Murder at the Four Deuces and was set in the 1920's. We all rented costumes and really transformed ourselves. Each person was assigned a character and I sent them their character booklet a few weeks before the party. The party was set at a Speakeasy so my mom and I worked to transform their house into one. For the evening, we came up with a great soundtrack of jazz music. We lowered the lights and decorated the tables with scarves, big bouquets and bead...

Davis turns four on March 31st. When we looked at our calendar, we realized that the closest weekend to his birthday on which we could have a party was the weekend of the 21st. So yesterday we threw him a party. At first he wanted a bike party. But he also really wanted a curious George birthday party. I was hit with inspiration and created a party in the spirit of the book "Curious George Rides a Bike". I scouted all the parks in the San Marcos and picked one I really liked. We decorated with red, blue, and yellow streamers and lots of helium balloons. I spread out a blue tablecloth to make a "river" and learned how to make newspaper boats to place on the "river". I rolled up a ton a newspapers that the kids could practice throwing in a basket from their bicycles and I bought a copy of the book for each family as well as Curious George Stamps. I made Snickerdoodle Moon Pies for the dessert as well as your standard party snacks. I think the kids l...

Last weekend on the 14th I turned 32. I'm old. And grey. We had lunch with my parents, grandparents and the kids at Kobe steakhouse (which I really enjoyed) to celebrate and then we drove up to Waco where I helped coordinate Michael's cousin's wedding. When we drove home the next day, we stopped at Phil's Icehouse to eat with Marchelle. It was a mellow birthday and I didn't mind. My big party was to come the following weekend. And that party deserves a post of it's own. This last week I worked myself so hard. I got the garden planted! I planted chard, beans, 13 tomato plants of various types, radishes, onions, peppers (all sorts) strawberries, herbs, eggplant. I also planted flowers in my fountain garden and I really hope they come up. Michael worked this last weekend to create a watering system in my garden and it is beautiful. I am so excited to use it. I also worked to throw my own birthday party and to throw Davis' birthday party the day afte...

Davis really wanted me to take a video of him singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We tried several times and each time Sam would hop in and rock out over Davis. It cracked me up. I thought I would share. They are being awesome this week by the way. The play together ALL day and never need me. I have to beg to be included in their games. So far I'm really liking age two and four together. Anyway, enjoy, and I hope this gives you a chuckle.

We have rain, people! Real live rain. My trusty news 8 austin says San Marcos has gotten 1.43 inches so far. And it's still raining! As of this week, Hays County was in a severe drought and along with a handful of surrounding counties, we were considered to be in the worst drought of any other place in the United States. So rain is very good news. It's been confusing the children though. They wake up through the night wondering what that odd sound is. This morning, Sam asked me who turned the rain on. He was convinced that Daddy got up and turned it on this morning. I explained that he did not, and that rain could not be turned on and off and that it came from sky. Sam mulled that over while we drove Davis to school. On the way home he suggested that possibly Uncle Larry turned it on. When I told him no, he suggested perhaps Andrew (our farm hand) had turned it on. I again explained the whole moisture from the sky thing. He finally seemed to get it. "Rain com...

I'm building a garden! When we moved in, our huge yard had a fenced in garden just waiting for me. It seemed like too much work for our first year, since we moved into the place in February, but I bought some gardening books and promised myself we'd do it this year. It's a lot of work. The fence needs repair and the entire piping for the watering needs to be redone. I had to clear all the trash out of it. The soil is a sandy loam and so I have had to put tons of compost on it. My Uncle Larry is a great gardener and lives on the ranch and I have basically apprenticed myself to him. He has helped me tremendously already and taught me a ton. He helped me till my soil, though I've done at least fifteen wheelbarrows full of compost myself and has advised me on what to plant and when. I've also spent a lot of time with my books and on the internet doing my research. Michael helped me create a visio diagram of my garden and I am so proud of it. He's awesome li...

This is really upsetting me. He's only two years and four months. I was hoping to get at least two or three more months out of him before he started refusing the nap. The new bedroom/new bed/new time change is not helping things, but he's only been napping two or three times a week since he got over his salmonella. I wouldn't mind if he was ready to give up nap, but he's not. He's turning into a crying mess around 4PM when he skips nap. No. Fun.

1. To start a garden this summer. I need to research, the dig, then shop, then mulch, then dig, then plant, then water. This will take a lot of work. 2. To plan a fabulous fourth birthday party in the spirit of Curious George rides a bike for Davis. 3. To cut my breakfast table down and turn it into a coffee table and buy some fabulous vintage chairs to put around it. 4. To switch the kids bedrooms. 5. To find a fabulous trip to do with friends right after Christmas and to be able to afford it. 6. To write a cookbook of low carb recipes. 7. To do a one-woman cabaret show. (but I'm too intimidated to try and write one.) 8. To go to the beach a lot this summer. And wear an Ed Hardy swimsuit while doing it. 9. To be supportive of Michael's work schedule so he doesn't go crazy while trying not to get laid off. 10. To be patient with the kids and to make them a priority in this whole list!

We went last weekend to visit Martha and Clark in Sugar Land. We always love to visit and it had been too long. We loaded the kids up after Michael got home from work on Friday night and headed out around six. Around seven, Davis was ready for bed. Not sleep. Bed. His bed, to be specific. He wanted his bed, his covers, his pillows and he wanted to lie down. He refused to try and sleep in his carseat. Instead he told us how he felt over and over again and through increasingly greater decibels. We arrived in Sugar Land with two wide awake children shortly after Davis informed us that Grandma and Grandpa needed to move because they lived too far away and after I swore never, EVER again to ride in the car after Davis' bed time. We all slept hard and long and had a better perspective in the morning. We woke early and bundled up and headed for the Houston Rodeo parade. Clark is part of the exchange club and our job was to go with the exchange club ahead of the parade, but aft...

Someone else cleaned my house today. Two someones. They were professionals. They came, I left, and when I came back my house was clean. It was amazing. It was a miracle. It was expensive. It was worth it. Happy early Birthday to me! Davis walked in, gave a sniff and ran out the door yelling "It smells like poison! I'm gonna play outside!" I walked in and lovingly smelled the floors and admired the clean kitchen and bathrooms. I'm keeping those kids outside for as long as possible and then I will be following them around with a hand vac. What will I do all week without house cleaning to keep me occupied?