Day 58: Assembly Starts

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

Today is Ash Wednesday.  This means that most activities have been cancelled…. It is time to begin building the bed!

We miss you.

Love,

Me

Translation: A chance to play

While the pieces of Oldest Child’s bed came out of their boxes, the biggest boon of the night was a Girl’s Night out at our good friend SM’s house.  As today is Ash Wednesday, all the evening activities were cancelled, giving me some free time!  And goodness, I found another friend from college, AW (now married with kids).  It was good to have some me time for a change!  …and to rekindle some old friendships to boot!

Day 57: Happy Fauschnaut Day!

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

Can ou believe that today marks the end of the second and start of the third month of you away from home! Glad to hear your Fauschnauts made it to the Front intact!  We had plenty of our own as well!

We miss you.

Love,

Me

Translation: Mmmmm Doughnuts!

So, as I was growing up near the Pennsylvanian Dutch, we always had Fauschnauts to celebrate Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday or, well…Fauschnaut Day! LOL.  The kids love this, and as we live nowhere near Pennsylvania these days, we have to improvise with donut holes.

Today was also a stay home day, so we hung out in our jammies for as long as possible.  We also made Fabulous Spouse some snickerdoodles.  Illusive Middle Child and Girl Friday were all over this, as helpers usually get some extra poison taster cookie dough.  It is amazing how well they work together when food is on the line!

Day 56: Week 8 & Visiting IKEA…or Goodbye old bed

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

Well, it has been on the promise list since the kids unbanked, but finally we had the money to make it happen.  Today was the big trip to IKEA, and the picking of Oldest Child’s new bed.  Next step…assembly.

We miss you!

Love,

Me

Translation: OMG! Never go to IKEA on a FREE Breakfast for all day!

Ok, so we finally have both money in the account, and time to go to the store to spend it.  So, as promised, we headed to IKEA with our rebate card from Black Friday to get Oldest Child a bed.

As it turned out, since it was Presidents Weekend, it was also FREE breakfast day.  So, needless to say, we were lucky to find parking.  That also meant that there was no chance of getting the little guys into kiddie land (although we think that Illusive Middle Child is too tall anyway) as they were at capacity with parents waiting in line for a chance to drop off. *sigh*

So it was an experience.  We looked at all the rooms and the storage (for future visits as budgets will allow).  Of course, leave it to the kids to find the 710 in the store and have me capture it for you.

Then we were off to the bed department.  Miraculously, Oldest Child ended up picking the same bed that we liked when we picked out the couches.  The little ones took a “nap” during the boring ordeal of mattress testing.  Of course, then we had to pick out the parts…and Illusive Middle Child dropped a palette on his hand.  But no broken bones, no lost children, IKEA delivered.  Overall, a good…albeit long…day.

Goodbye old bed… Now Oldest Child just needs to assemble the new one!

Day 55: The Fancy Nancy Ballet

Dear Fabulous Spouse,
Today we went to the Ballet…the Fancy Nancy Ballet.  Shockingly, the boys opted to stay home and play Xbox.  Therefore, a good time was had by all!

We miss you.

Love,

Me

Translation: Ballet is fancy for a chance to dress up and look FABULOUS!

Girl Friday and her Girl Scout BFF have been looking forward to this day.  The Fancy Nancy Ballet.  Girl Friday dressed in her Fancy Nancy-est ballet attire, and was ready for the show. (Note: This outfit is remarkably low key compared to what some of the girls…and their mothers…were wearing to look trer Fancy Nancy-est).

The illustrator of the Fancy Nancy series was on hand to sign autographs (as a former member of the ballet troupe), and there were glitter stickers, crowns,

... and hand art as well(to make you even fancier). Ooh La La!

Afterwards, the girls got to meet the Ballet Fancy Nancy...

...and the butterflies (especially the Azure Butterfly…the one Fancy Nancy loved)… They have both decided that we have to come back next year.

Afterwards, we went to the U-Top It Frozen Yogurt for after show refreshments, and out total came to a shocking $7.10! LOL. 

We took a picture, because like always, you can never escape the 710!

Day 54: Basketball Game Day #5

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

It is amazing how much the kids have improved.  Had a 9AM and 2:50 Game today, and picked up Girl Scout cookies in between!

We love you and miss you!

Love,

Me

Translation: Will clean for cookies

Illusive Middle child continues to improve his basketball game.  It would be amazing to see how he would do with a real coach and practice more than one hour a day one day a week (not that I am complaining).  He is getting more and more rebounds, and is even getting some goals (points? scores?) in the basket.

On our way to Girl Friday’s game, we picked up our Girl Scout cookies.  It is amazing the power of Girl Scout cookies.  Suddenly with Girl Scout cookies in her future, Girl Friday was ready to play ball… and play she did! (Translation: she followed the ball like a wild girl rather than her mark).  She did get the ball twice.  Both times she got called for travelling.  Oh, well!

When we got home, it was amazing how quickly laundry got done and folded…and the play room even got picked up a bit with the promise of the annual two free boxes of cookies on the line.

Day 53: Pizza & Movie Night

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

Tonight was boys’ night for Pizza and a Movie, as Girl Friday was invited to spend the night at the Neighbor Kid’s house.  We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2.

We miss you.

Love,

Me

Translation: Boys Rule (and Moms don’t count as girls)

It was boys’ night tonight, and they had a blast.  We had one bottle of sparkling cider left over from Valentine’s Day, so it was Costco Pizza and Apple-Cranberry fizz.  Oldest child asked if he could drink out of the bottle…whatever. LOL!

Also, we have decided that the PS3 is adult proof, as the only one who could figure out how to make it play the movie was Illusive Middle Child.  Go figure!  It was neat to have a boys night (as I do not count as a girl…I am a Mom, and that is different!).

Day 52: 1st Wrestling Match of the Season

Dear Fabulous Spouse,

Today was Oldest Child’s first wrestling match of the year.  He got to be Varsity for 250lb. weight class and did great!  He got pinned, but if he could have lasted 15 more seconds, he would have won on points. Not too shabby!

We miss you.

Love,

Me

Translation: It was a very long night for 3 minutes of action!

We started off with another half day of school.  Good news is that Girl Friday was the star student for the day in her class, and she was SO proud!

After a few hours, I packed up the little guys and the neighbor kid and we headed off to Oldest Child’s first wrestling match of the season.  I was so proud of Oldest Child for securing the Varsity spot in the 250lb. slot for the team.

We were all worried that it would be over in under 10 seconds… a regular occurrence last year.  However, this time around, I think that Oldest Child was in better shape, and had learned a thing or two, so he did much better.  He almost made it to the end of the third period, and if he had not gotten pinned in the last few seconds of the match, then he would have won on points (3-2).

However, it took FOREVER to get to his match.  The powers that be had decided to run the junior varsity matches first, then Varsity.  So, it was almost 6:30PM by the time that Oldest Child finished.  So, we had to race out and run through Taco Bell in order to get Girl Friday to basketball on time.

We got her dropped off, picked up Oldest Child, dropped him and his brother home with their dinner, popped into our Finance Council meeting, then popped back out to pick up Girl Friday and call it a night.