A Long Long Long Weekend (Happy 4th of July!)

One trip through the crowds in downtown DC. One hour-long paddle-boat trip around the Tidal Basin, complete with chasing flocks of geese through the water. One 4th of July BBQ, complete with Irish and Greek dancing. Haircuts and a quick private tour of a local fire station. A 4 and a half hour 5th of July BBQ. Lots and lots of running from the rain. All by Saturday night.
On Sunday I anticipated that we would 1) not be able to top the excitement of the previous two days, and 2) have to design some activities. Cool activity number one: craft project with sticky tape animals and my awesome rendition of a zoo, complete with waterfalls, a pond, slides (!!) for the animals, and an occasional cage. And coconut trees.


However, despite our bests efforts, the SUNDAY-AFTERNOON-BOREDOM set in... And no, those are not address labels. They are "boy-earrings for the face". Okay?
Guitar lessons started this Wednesday. Which, of course, adds two child-sized rental guitars to the mule-load of stuff we drag through the tunnel to the garage every Wednesday night: stuffed animals, remnants of half-eaten snacks, new snacks that I use to lure them to the car, backpacks, etc.. The guitars make super great picture props:

.. And this is how they sound... :) I'm hoping there will be an "after" video, where our angelic guitar duet will deftly strum out "Born to Be Wild"..

Beer, coffee, and vitamins..

8:20am. Vasco's sitting on the step and I'm helping him put his shoes on, and I'm trying to multitask: one hand on his shoes, one hand swiping around for my shoes, all while I'm chewing my multivitamin (have I mentioned that I am awesome at multitasking: I can chew and put shoes on at the SAME time!). Vasco: "Mom, when I grow up, I want that (pointing to the remnants in my mouth). I want beer, coffee, and vitamins." I'm really glad he added vitamins to the mix!
And, on a related but separate theme, I know that Mike and I enjoy a cocktail or a glass of wine or two every so often, but when your kids are playing imaginary tea-party with strawberry daiquiris, it makes you wonder...Funny part, now that I think about it, is that I've never made a strawberry daiquiri. I would have been less surprised if it were a margarita-on-the-rocks-with salt party. They also seem to know about the Statue of Liberty (never been there, never discussed it!), the EXACT text of about 59 books (today I had the audacity to say "workbench" instead of "workroom" while I was reading and was severely reprimanded), can find the "author" of a book on the back cover, eagerly ask how to say words in either Spanish or Bulgarian, and are about to take guitar (pronounced kitar) lessons with Mr. Kevin next week.

We have been enjoying summer...

... the zoo, with their cousins...


..and, in other news, I am a DOMESTIC GODDESS! or at least worshipped as a minor god by Mike's colleagues, whom I supply with fancily decorated cupcakes. This one came from Family Circle magazine. I was practicing making these, which I plan to make for the kids to take to school to celebrate their birthday with their friends.

"You can't eat ONLY vegetables for dinner!"

What? That's what happens when Dad is left in charge. Ivanna went to happy hour with some colleagues from work so I was in charge of dinner. Pasta and vegetables. Our crazy kids, however, prefer to eat huge servings of peas and mixed vegetables than pasta. I suppose its good that the kids don't always listen to me. At least they didn't put corn up their noses.

Bye Bye Nebulizer!

After over 2 years of daily Pulmicort treatments for Justine, we have been given the okay to stop them!!!
I just read four Dr. Seuss books, so here is the summary:

All through the winter all day and all night
not a cough nor a wheeze did Justine have to fight
So we went to see Cathy at Children's to say,
"Please take that misty machine far away!"
Said Cathy, after checking a few lungs and a ear,
"I think that the time to stop it is near!
"You must wait till the end of cold and flu season",
and that, my dear friends, is a very good reason!
So today, on this very last day of May,
We did one more treatment and then said "Hurray!"

I got moves..

What do you call two kids that LOVE hotels? Vasco and Justine! (Crazy part is that they can even find the room by looking at room numbers now, while dragging their rollaway backpacks like little tiny cute travelers!) We were off for a weekend at Hershey Park. Here's what was planned: kids dreamily drift off to sleep on pull-out couch, mom and dad share bottle of wine in other room, watching a movie, eating chocolate, and holding hands. Here's what happened: we set up pull-out couch, kids put pajamas on while running around the room in mad circles, brushed teeth, then ate bananas in a crazed shark-feeding type frenzy, re-brushed teeth, went to bathroom, jumped on couch, squealed with excitement that we were in a hotel, went to bathroom again, and took another 30 minutes to actually fall asleep after we managed to miraculously keep them in bed without having to sit on them. That was probably 10:45pm.. We high-fived each other, thinking that that MUST mean that the kids will sleep in. Right.... At 5:59am (NOT kidding!): "Is it time to get up?" I bolt out of bed and as coherently as possible at that hour explain that the park is NOT, I repeat, IS NOT, open yet! At 7am, the kids were wide awake. Moves, here we come! ("Moves" are what Justine calls the rides, because, well, they DO move).



A lot of fun was had by all.

* * *

On an entirely different topic, my adventures in decorating cupcakes were surprisingly successful, and earned high complements from the kids.



(the idea was courtesy of an article in Redbook magazine)

Vasco, upon finishing up the last one, "Mama, let's make more!"
Me: "okay, we can make some more this weekend. Maybe we'll make different bugs: bees, maybe?"
Vasco: "Yeah!!!! More! This weekend! Bees, mama? Bees? and maybe cockroaches?"
Me: (incoherent snorting)

The Future, through Vasco's Eyes

"When I grow up, I want to drink coffee. And beer. And when I grow up, I can touch sharp things!"

When he puts it that way, how can one not appreciate anew the joys of being an adult! Especially the sharp objects! I'm going to go play with knives now, but before I do, I leave you with a ... lullabye....

Never let corn husks down the disposal and other useful tips

Yes, indeed, never let corn husks down the garbage disposal, no matter how small and innocent of a piece you may think it is. They have evil powers. Evil, I tell you. On the other hand, it's a great couples bonding exercise: on account of practically rubbing my hands raw and bruising my knuckles pulling out strand by strand of wicked corn husk rope (they should use this material in space shuttles, parachutes, and bungee cords if you ask me), Mike took over valiantly, and we cheered each other along rather joyously with every new strand that we pulled out of the disposal. Current status: it drains but doesn't grind. I'll take what I can get.

Other useful tips:

• Always shred important documents, and try to involve the whole family. Besides teaching important lessons such as how to prevent identity theft, it is a great activity for those you've-tried-every-other-activity-under-the-sun-and-
  the-kids-are-still-bored days :)
  
  

• Never ever accidentally press weird buttons on your new camera (keep all fingers under control at all times). Otherwise you will somehow mangle the recording of your daughter's very first ballet recital, reducing it to a microscopic-sized window. :( However, the pictures turned out nice, so here is the slideshow :)

• While tending to infant and toddler twins may be somewhat time-consuming, try to mulch, weed and pay some minimum attention to azalea bushes every 3 years or so! .. ours were on the verge of death, until I took 2 days off last summer to try to revive them. Miraculously, they did this this year:
  
  

And, finally, the merry-go-round!