Win win win

Last night we went to the last PTA meeting of the year for Mia's school. It featured an "art show". It featured one painted picture from each student. They were all lovingly matted and framed and hanging neatly in rows. You could take your child's picture and buy it. For $32.50. Now they have told the kids about this show. Sent them home with stickers on their shirts that read "Aske me about my art show!" To tell your child that you do not want to spend over $30 on an item that gets sent home each week for free is like stabing a knife through her head. At this point I would have given in and bought it. But Mr. "it's quite a racket they've got goin' on here" was not falling for it. We were close to melt down right in the middle of the elementary school gym. Luckily I married a genius who said, "Mia, you know the painting I did above the fireplace? Why don't we go to the store and buy a small canvas for you and you can paint one for your room?" Tears evaporated instantly and we left for the cafeteria to pay $4 for a slice of pizza.

New Feature!

Oooh - look to the left. I will feature a quote of the day, most likely from one of my many e-mail conversations with my Converse Connies but anyone could fall victim. Today's quote is from Kim who is a walking miracle of life and science - hooray!! We're now taking bets on just how many puppies she'll push out due to said miracle. My money's on 4. Emily suggested 17 but I think she just wanted to see Kim's head explode.

You've been a perfect friend

This weekend we bought new living room furniture. It was in future plans to get a new couch, leather, to help Chuck & Mia with their allergies. But the future came to us quickly once Bella decided that a frayed couch was too irresistible and turned the fray into a giant hole! We flipped the cushion and she was like, "hey, what happened to my hole?!" and created a new one. So we sucked it up and bought a beautiful leather sectional with a matching coffee table. It's gorgeous but I'm a little sad for our old couch. I got engaged on that couch and was thrilled when we got it handed down to us from Chuck's dad. I spent many hours curled up with good books, good movies, cuddly kids, and a cuddly husband. Before kids we had a Saturday morning tradition of blueberry muffins and TV watching, wrapped up in an old comforter, not a care in the world. I feel like I need to be more grown up now with this fancy new couch and functional table. So good-bye old pal. You were very good to us. I hope the movers put you in a nice new home for some other family to love. And hopefully reupholster.

Cupcakes are for lovers

While perusing blogs I came across an adorable cupcake site and it inspired me. I flipped through my cupcake cookbook, made a mad dash to the store, and whipped up these babies:Add another thing to my happiness list! Normally I go straight for the chocolate but I had been craving some homemade banana bread lately so I made banana cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Heavenly! I still have some of the frosting leftover in the fridge and I'm trying to think of the most creative way to finish it off (barring just eating it with a spoon.) I'm thinking about spreading it between two cinnamon waffles for a scrumptious breakfast sandwich. Or is that a little over the top?? Decisions, decisions.......

To cure that case of the Mondays

Yeah, my kid's got talent. There is no music in the background, she is hitting all these notes on her own. I'm pretty impressed. I'm equally impressed at her gusto. It kills me how much she gets into it.

To the dude in row in front of us

If you come to a performance of a show based on a popular Disney cartoon, be prepared for there to be kids. Lots of kids. And they don't understand how to be quiet during the show. And my daughter? She's 5 and she's really good at it and no matter how many times you shake your head, she isn't going to stop asking questions about everything that's going on up there. Never. Ever. It's The Lion King dude. Next time, go see Rent.

Weekend Sing-a-long

When my sister Megan and I were younger, we stayed up late nights as sisters forced to share a room often do. Erase all images of bonding you may have i.e. gossip, sharing stories about our day. No, we sang. We sang Disney. A lot of Disney. Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and Newsies were our favorites. We had Newsies frickin' memorized. Not just the songs either, the entire movie. After 15-20 years we still know all the songs. I have an excuse having children of my own but Megan. Ah Megan. We'll just say you do it for the neices.