Super Bowl

We didn't really care about any of the teams playing in this year's Super Bowl, so we weren't concerned about getting together with people or having a party. But I'm all about eating appetizers and I had some NFL napkins, so we had a little shindig here at the house for just the four of us. I got to work the day before and Jordis wanted to help me make Chex Mix.

We ended up having quite the selection. Jason had requested white pizza dip, so I made that for him. The guacamole was for me. I should have made half the amount since no one else ate any. I was apparently expecting too much by thinking that my husband or children would ingest anything that's green. My peeps love sausage so I thought they'd enjoy my kielbasa appetizer, but Xander was mad that it had sauce, he just wanted plain meat. We all love deviled eggs so I knew those would be well received. My favorite part is the yellow and the kids' favorite part is the white, so this always works out really well. And it's very rare that the kids get dessert so I had no worries about the cookies. They would probably get excited about eating carpet lint if I told them it was some sweet confection. Sad, I know.

We shook our heads at Christina Aguilera's rendition of the National Anthem, looked for good commercials, then ate more cookies after the kids went to bed at half-time. And while I didn't care who won, I was really glad that Pittsburgh lost. :-)

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

I'm sure I've never told you all how much I love Sesame Street. I watched it every day when I was little and my favorite character was Snuffleupagus. As a new mom I was secretly excited to watch Sesame Street with my kids so I could see it myself and sing along to the fun songs. But guess what? My kids don't like Sesame Street.

***GASP***

Xander had a Sesame Street video with a bunch of their popular songs on it that we got him as a baby. We used to let him watch it when he was in his bouncer and we thought he liked it. But when it came time to watch it on TV he'd have nothing to do with it. Jordis will watch it if you tell her it's Sesame Street or nothing, but she's not a fan either.

But being the fan I am I couldn't let Sesame Street's 40th birthday go by unnoticed. I went to the library and got a Sesame Street video that I forced the kids to watch. I also (against my better judgment because white bread is BAD) let them eat sandwiches made with some of Jason's white bread since it had sesame seeds on it. I even made them cookies that looked like Cookie Monster. I'm talking homemade dough, rolled out and cut, made my own frosting, the whole nine yards. I even had out my decorator tools so I could pipe on the frosting to look wiry like fur, but the button broke off.

At any rate, I thought my cookies were pretty cute.

But Xander decided otherwise.

Xander: What are those supposed to be?
Mom: Cookie Monster.
Xander: Hmph. Doesn't look like cookie monster. The eyes are funny and his mouth doesn't look like that.
Mom: You could be happy that I'm letting you have cookies at all since it's not a special occasion. Xander: Are the cookies all for me?
Mom: No. I thought you didn't like them anyway.
Xander: Well they might be okay, they just don't look right.

I don't know why I'm surprised. I'm the kid who leaned over to my mom at the theater during Fantasia to tell her "This movie is dumb. Brooms can't dance." Apparently Xander is going to be a realist, just like his Mommy.

Xander meets his idol

Xander got to meet his favorite news reporter today!

I watch Fox 28 news in the mornings because it's on until 9 a.m., unlike other stations that switch over to Good Morning America or the Today show. Xander loves to watch Johnny DiLoretto, who travels to a different central Ohio locale every weekday morning to showcase a food, activity, community event, etc. I'm not sure when the obsession started, but since he started talking Xander has had to see Johnny every day. He used to scream "Johnny!" when he got up in the morning and saw the news on. Now he likes to watch him each morning as he eats breakfast. He has to know where he is, what he's doing, who he's talking to, what he's eating, and so on. It took me a long time to get him to understand that Johnny is only on TV Monday through Friday and that he'd have to watch NBC4 on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, today Johnny was in Delaware at Garth's Auction House. When I turned on the news I knew that this was the day I was going to try and get Xander to meet him in person. He was a little resistive at first since it meant an interruption in his routine and he wouldn't get to ride the bus to school, but once we talked about it he was really excited. Poor Jordis was woken up, quickly dressed and whisked to the car with a baggy of cereal so we could make it in time and still get to school.

Johnny was so nice. After his live shot he came over to meet Xander and talked to him as much as he could, since Xander was not willing to stand there for a conversation and kept roaming around. Johnny even posed for a picture with him and I was shocked that Xander came within a foot of him and stopped to say "cheese."

I wanted to stay so the kids could see him do an on-air segment, but it was pretty quiet in there and I wasn't sure if that would go over so well. Xander loved just meeting him though and then when we went outside we took his picture by the news van.

We had some time to kill before school so I took the kids to McDonald's and let them play outside on the playground while I got some coffee.

When we got to school Xander had to tell everyone that he met Johnny. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but I'm so glad I took him.

The kids' birthday party

So today's party was the quickest whirlwind of chaos I've ever seen. The first 45 minutes was supposed to be games with the kids led by the parks and rec staff. About 10 minutes into the start of the party I had to tell them to get the ball rolling and the late people would just have to miss that part. If I'm paying for 45 minutes of activities, I want them to start on time. Then they couldn't get the kids engaged. Part of me felt sorry for them, because my kids are rough to work with anyway, but I'm thinking since that's their job they should kind of have a handle on it. We were able to get some small excitement with a parachute and some hula hoops, but that's about it. The rec leaders were pretty much oblivious to the 10 kids.





Then it was time for presents. Only 45 minutes is allotted for gifts and cake/ice cream combined, so the kids had to both open their gifts at the same time. I pretty much have no idea what Jordis got. My mom worked with her and I helped Xander. The rec leaders were writing down who got what with me shouting back and forth at them to make sure they got it. They said they're sure they got Xander's but not 100% about Jordis. So hopefully I don't miss anyone when it comes to thank you notes since I didn't see everything for myself when she opened it.







The kids seemed to like the cake and ice cream, though I thought it was pretty unprofessional that they were hacking up the cake with plastic knives and no spatula. I'd think if you do this often enough you could keep a good serrated knife and a spatula on hand so you're not touching everyone's cake, but maybe that's just me. And maybe they did wash their hands first and I didn't see it. I'm not going to comment on giving little kids purple Kool-Aid. Enough said there with just the mention.

At any rate, the kids are telling us they had fun, and I think after they go to bed tonight and we sort through their gifts and they can play with them tomorrow they'll be even more excited. And I didn't have to clean my house before or after. So I guess it was worth it for the money.

After arriving home we gave Jordis her gifts from us, like we did Xander on his actual birthday last Tuesday. These few pictures are our favorites. We're raising a diva indeed.





We decided to let them watch TV after dinner so they'd quit running around the house screaming. I think this last picture just about sums up how Jason and I feel about now, too. I'm pretty sure there will be no more joint parties. We can only take so much excitement in one day.