Parenthood is Wonderful | …And Other Lies

They Crack Me Up!

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Lisa

Not a day goes by that my kids don’t do or say something that is blog worthy. Some days there may just be one or two things, but Carter has been on a role lately.

On Wednesday afternoon he wanted to play Cowboys (we recently took a trip to Arizona and he came home with a toy gun with holster, a cowboy hat, and some really cool cowboy boots). Since Cooper was taking a nap, he needed someone to be the bad guy. I was trying to finish loading the dishwasher, so I suggested that Mr. Stan (our cat) be the bad guy for a few minutes. Carter just looked at me and said, “MOOOOOOM, Mr. Stan CAN’T be the bad guy, he’s my horse.” Poor Mr. Stan! 🙂

I had to work on Wednesday night from 6-11pm, so I had to take the boys with me so my husband, who works minutes from where I do, could meet me in the parking lot and switch vehicles. I was giving the boys my normal “Mommy has to go to work” speech, which includes:

-Be good boys for Daddy

-Eat all of your dinner so you can have your night-night snack

-Make sure to take a bath, and NO SPLASHING

-You need to go to bed at 8pm, you can call me to say good night if you want, and Mommy will come and give you hugs and kisses when she gets home.

Carter paused for a moment or two, and then said to me, “Mommy, you always say you’re going to give me hugs and kisses when you get home, but I NEVER feel the hugs and kisses.”

And then last night I was tucking Carter into bed and I told him that he was getting too big. I tell him this all the time. And then I asked him, “Carter can you do Mommy a favor and stop growing? I want you to be little forever.” When Carter was little he’d always say yes. But last night he said, “Mommy, I have to keep growing. I’m a growing boy and I have to eat, and then I get bigger. If I stop growing then my bones will stick out of my body.” I asked if he could grow a little slower, and he replied, “I’ll see what I can do Mom.”

Posted in Bath time, Bedtime, Carter aka Buddy Alligator, I Laughed Until I Peed And Then I Cried, Stan The Cat | Tagged Arizona | Leave a comment

Nummy Beans

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Lisa

The truly wonderful thing about having little kids (I’d say under three) is that you can go shopping for presents from Santa, or pick up items for an Easter baskets and your kids won’t remember. They may want to hold the toy in the shopping cart while you’re there, but come Christmas morning they won’t remember shopping for it.

Carter is a little past that age now. I did manage to sneak a few items in the cart this past Christmas while he wasn’t looking, and then had Tim distract him when we were at the check out. And if for some reason he did see something, I just told him that I remembered that he asked Santa for it, and that I was going to return it the next day.

This year we are going to my in-laws for Easter, and since my mother-in-law usually has a few baskets for them already, Tim and I decided that we would just get some eggs for an Easter egg hunt instead of more baskets. So I took both boys with me to Target to buy eggs. I told Carter that the Easter Bunny had called me while he was at school and was running a little low on eggs this year. He wanted to know if we could pick some up and mail them to him. Carter thought that was pretty cool. In fact, he thought it was a little too cool….I had to take several packages out of the cart because the Easter Bunny only asked me to pick up 2 packs (48 eggs in each).

So this morning when Carter was at school Cooper and I filled about 90 eggs up with jelly beans. I’m fairly certain that Cooper didn’t know what they were when we were filling the eggs up, because he would have ate about half of them. We filled them all up in about a half hour, and they are safely hidden from Carter. And come Easter, Cooper won’t even remember filling them up with me. 🙂

We did have a few jelly beans left when we were finished (we only put 6 jellybeans in each one, one of every color) so I let Cooper have a few. He now knows what jelly beans are, and he LOVESthem. For the rest of the morning he kept pointing at the bowl on the counter and would say, “Mama, nummy beans, nummy beans.”

Posted in Carter aka Buddy Alligator, Christmas, Cooper AKA Chunky Monkey, Easter | Tagged Christmas, Easter, Easter Bunny, Santa, Santa Claus | Leave a comment

Box Top University

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Lisa

For those of you who don’t already know, I sort of like Box Tops for Education. My little obsession started last year after Tim and I attended 4K Orientation. We learned that the 4K class was having a special contest to see which class could turn in the most Box Tops at the beginning of school. As soon as we got home, I started contacting EVERYONE that I could think of that would be willing to collect Box Tops for Carter. Within a few weeks I had people sending them to us. Not too long after, Pick N Save had a Bonus Box Top Promotion (they run these every few months), and before I knew it I had over 2000 box tops….and my basement looked like this.

The Kleenex and Viva Paper Towel backstock in my basement.

Cereal anyone? Chex Mix? Hamburger Helper? How about some Juicy Juice?

By the time that Back to School time arrived, Carter and I had collected over 4000 box tops. He was pretty excited to bring them into school, and his class ended up winning the Back to School Contest….by a landslide!

Carter with all of his Box Tops

I love the Box Tops for Education so much, that I asked to be one of the coordinators for the next school year. I was so excited when I found out that I could be a coordinator, and in fact they let me start a little early so I could attend Box Tops University in Chicago last Friday. I had such a blast! I learned a lot about sending Box Tops in, different contests that other coordinators have done in the past, and how to get more people involved in our community. And I was shocked when the person in charge of the Facebook account for Box Tops for Education actually recognized me when I walked past. Apparently I must post on the page a lot more often than other people. 🙂

And one of the best things about Box Tops University is the AWESOME goodie bag everyone received, not to mention the 100 Bonus Box Tops we received for attending.

My AWESOME goodie bag from BTU.....Cooper kept trying to sneak the Chex Mix. 🙂

Today I picked up my first batch of Box Tops from school to count. I’m in charge of counting and shipping out all of the Box Tops for the month of April. I only had 166 to count, but it was thrilling none the less. I’m sure when I go back next week there will be hundreds waiting for me.

My name is Lisa, and it’s been 2 hours since I clipped my last Box Top.

Posted in Box Tops for Education | Tagged Box Top University, Box Tops, Box Tops for Education | 2 Comments

The Tulip Wars

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Lisa

I can’t remember when exactly Tim and I first looked at our current house. I know that we moved in at the beginning of July 2007. I’m assuming we must have toured it for the first time at the beginning of March…..before the tulips start popping up, because I would have remembered seeing so many tulips!

I was pretty surprised in the spring of 2008 when so many tulips starting popping out in March. Carter and I went out as soon as I saw them sprouting and dug each and everyone out. Or so I thought. Later in the year, Tim and I decided to dig out most of the shrubs and plants in the front of our house (I’m not sure who planted them all, but they must have been drunk). I couldn’t believe how many more bulbs I found when we dug everything up. But at least we found them, that meant no more tulips next year.

The Tulips, before I dug them all out in 2008.

And then in late March 2009 I was horrified when I looked outside and discovered more FREAKING TULIPS! I went outside, 9 months pregnant, and dug up every tulip that I could find (cursing the whole time, and kinda hoping the Cooper would just pop out from all the bending over!)

So last year I was sure that I had gotten them all out, I mean how many FREAKING TULIPS could the previous owner have possibly planted? I’m sure that by this time I had dug up well over 150 bulbs and tulips. But at the end of March 2010 (I think I may have still had my walking cast on from my foot surgery) the FREAKING tulips made their appearance and once again I dug up what I could find.

I bet you’ll never guess what I saw outside just the other day?

One of the many tulips that have made their appearance so far this year. 🙁

Yep, TULIPS. I HATE HATE HATE TULIPS!!!!!!!! I’ve spotted well over 10 of them, and I’m sure they have friends buried in the ground that will come up next year. They are multiplying every year. I can’t win….but I will not surrender! Tomorrow afternoon I will be out with my shovel! This is WAR!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged landscaping, tulips | 1 Comment

Cooper’s Birthday Party

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Lisa

I LOVE LOVE LOVE throwing birthday parties for my boys. Tim….not so much. Carter has been a bit spoiled in the birthday party department. We had his 1st birthday party at my parents’ house, and my dad surprised us with pony rides. It’s been pretty hard to top pony rides, but I’ve tried my best! 🙂

But this year we decided we weren’t going to throw Carter a birthday party. We are going to Wisconsin Dells and staying at a hotel with a big waterpark a couple weeks before his birthday, and then right after his birthday we are planning on taking him back to the John Deere Headquarters. So since we were doing both of these things, I wasn’t going to shell out several hundred dollars on a birthday party too.

So I figured since Carter wasn’t going to have one this year, Cooper wouldn’t either. Then about a month before hand, I changed my mind. Normally I’m planning these parties for months. This time I was ordering cake toppers the week before, and was up until midnight making Mickey Mouse cake pops. But everything turned out great, and I think everyone had a good time. Here are some pictures from Cooper’s 2nd Birthday Party. We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. 🙂