He's got the soul of a poet

Bugaboo is in the tween years.
Not only in years, but also in naivete.

He watches ESPN religiously, but will occasionally still flip on Cartoon Network.

He no longer has "toys", he has sports equipment or video games.

He knows all about sex, but doesn't quite get some of the nuances of more subtle "adult" things.

This last one brought us to his Language Arts assignment last night. His school requires a parent signature on all assignments and I have never been so glad of this policy as I was last night.

Here is the assignment BEFORE I signed it:

“Where I’m From”
I’m from the yelling
And screaming of younger siblings.
From the sizzling of pancakes on Sunday morning.
I’m from the ear-killing screech of the buzzer at the end of a basketball game

I’m from my mom’s chocolate sweet tooth.
From the delectable and juicy Italian meet ball from my grandma.
From the smell of lemons coming from my sisters bedroom.
I’m from the smell of cinnamon and spice coming from my mom’s magical kitchen.

I’m from the salt air coming from the sea near my house in *****.
From my grandpa’s New York accent.
I’m from the chill of my mom’s freezing childhood in Maryland.

I’m from my grandpa’s Irish heritage.
From my grandma’s Italian heritage.
I’m from my mom’s long history of tan skin (proud to say that I’m in first place!).

I’m from my family’s history of basketball.
From my dad’s golfing kingdom over at the Country Club.
From my dad’s anxiety to coach.
I’m from my new born talent of baseball.

I’m from my mom’s love of books.
From my dad’s love of hidden movies.
I’m from my mom’s reading with a flash light under the blanket.

I didn't comment initially at all. I just signed it and put it to the side. I waited for My Man to come home. And then I pounced.



I said I needed him to read this great poetry assignment Bugaboo had done for homework. My Man reads S-L-O-W-L-Y while moving his lips so lucky for me I could follow along. When he got to the second to last line........he started blushing and stuttering.........As I was cracking up!



I assured him I hadn't talked to Bugaboo yet so we went and got Bugaboo out of bed and told him he misspelled something, did he want to fix it and print a new one out? He agreed and while we were praising him and asking how he came up with all of this My Man slipped in........



Bugaboo, what does "hidden movies" mean? He said he couldn't think of anything good so he just made it up. We suggested maybe changing that to sports movies.

After I signed the G rated paper, I asked if I could send it to his grandparents as I thought they'd really enjoy it. He gave me permission to send it to anyone except a certain friend of ours who teases him un0mercifully.

That friend doesn't read my blog, but his wife sometimes does. I think I probably crossed the line posting it here.........but it was too good not to share.

Don't tell Bugaboo that I told you........

*Just to clarify: we never explained the whole hidden movies thing to him. I'll save that for another day. Maybe after the "tween" years are a fond memory.

Pillowcase Dresses

I've made quite a few of the pillowcase dresses after finding this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.

I taught myself how to sew right after college with some guidance from my StepMother. She and I didn't always get along so I really appreciate her helping me out with this. I fondly remember using rainy Saturdays as an excuse to be sitting at the dining room table at her house with cokes poured to the top, sewing away.

For a few years I dabbled with sewing, making a few pieces of clothing or costumes. Once the babies starting coming so fast it went by the way side.

Last year after looking at blogs during the holidays I started remembering how much fun I had creating. When I found this tutorial I wanted to make one for Bunnyboo.

Here's the first one I made:



Not to leave Chickiepoo out, I made matching ones for them (obviously Chickiepoo's is a shirt)......I ran out of the navy ribbon so used white for that occasion but have since changed it out.


I've probably made about 5 more since then and feel my skills are improving each time. (And I swear NONE of the other dresses had paisley on them :)....)I do have friends telling me to sell them but I realize that my self taught sewing techniques are not quite boutique quality.....YET! And I don't think they are aware how popular they are on etsy and such.

Oh but a girl can dream.....right?

Baby Shower Gift

Back in February I hosted a baby shower for a work colleague of My Man's. They didn't know the gender so I went with Red/White as the color scheme. I made my first diaper cake.......I've learned some new tricks since then. It came out ok.......but.......








I also baked the cookies for the party favor. I ordered this cute onsie cookie cutter online. I love sending decorated cookies home as the favor. I've also been working on better decorating, but that is kinda slow going for me. I tend to rush too much!





Chickie Poo and her friend decorated the cupcakes. Didn't they turn out cute?








I love giving the diaper cake for showers now.



What's your go to baby shower gift? Do you consult the registry?

She's Crafty.....

Ala Beastie Boys. Did I just show my age again?


Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the projects I did for Bunnyboo's first birthday party. I went with a pink and brown theme. I didn't take enough pictures so I only have a few to share. (Click on a picture to make it bigger)

Here's my favorite project: I made this as well as a matching one with her name hung inside the house. I've saved them to use for other parties.

I also did the ever popular modge podge project! I used stationary from the Dollar Store that doubled as her thank you notes. This now hangs in her room.



In my crafty frenzy, I tried my hand at making clothes as well. I made her outfit all the way to the bow in her hair. I had to get creative to cover my mistakes. I can't do buttonholes so her dress is pinned with the bows tied on to cover it. The dress was a little short so I made capri's to put under. Whatevah! It worked for that day.

In addition to these things, I made her birthday cake and cupcakes for the 50 guests, goodie bags with decorated cookies tied up with cute raffia and a pink tag, a patchwork table runner and there was pink ribbon ALL over the house.

I dabble with my crafiness........actually I go on binges. I stay up late doing some project and then have to deal with everyone and everything I ignored to get it done. Then I move onto another project. Hmmmmm, I'm seeing a bit of a pattern, but not sure what I can do about it.

I need to get better at taking pics of things I've done. Lately, I made a few pillowcase dresses and matching bows, my first apron and two LSU dresses. All of these were gifts and I failed to take a single picture of them.

I did a trial run on a tutu that came out cute. I'm planning on making costumes for all the kids for Halloween this year so I'll be sure to post those. Please hold me to that :)

My first award.......and I'm late to the party!

Tami bestowed upon me my first blog award.

I'm ashamed to admit she gave it to me three weeks ago.

And I'm just now making time to post about it.

How lame am I???

Anyway, without further ado........here's the lovely little award:


I belatedly accept this award on behalf of all the bloggers who struggle with balancing blogging and life. I wanna thank my peeps without whom I would have no readers after my first disappearing act, let alone my fourth! I do it all for you, baby!

I know I am supposed to pass this on...........but really, I'm in no place to pick and choose.
Basically, if you are reading this blog and leave a comment, I LOVE YOUR BLOG and want you to have this award!

Sidenote:
I'm actually so lame I'm also post dating this so it publishes tomorrow. I wouldn't want to shock all two of my readers with two posts in one day! Can you tell My Man is out of town today and bunnyboo is down for her nap???

Can you smell it in the air???

This is my favorite time of the year. Here in Florida we really don't get seasons...........just hot or not. For those of you wondering, it's still hot! It's also back to school time. Sort of.

I love this time of year when everyone is getting into a routine. It's a new beginning thing. This could be THE YEAR. We all are trying our best, without being jaded. In my opinion it's better than New Years Day.

I thrive on structure. It's quite the ailment. As much as I love all things in order and good intentions be dammed, I fail at follow through organization. I would love to have my desk/closets/sewing table uber organized with a place for everything and everything in it's place. However, if I am being realistic, it would only stay that way until my next mad dash with something that I had to do right now!, or my laziness kicked in.....whichever came first.

Wow, that was quite a tangent. What I was getting at was:

It's officially been over a month since my children returned to school. And I'm just now posting about it!

We went through all of the kids clothes and started matching up school appropriate outfits. We school shopped for supplies and shoes. We began going to bed earlier. We went over our typed lists of routines for morning, after school and evening. (The sickness must be genetic; as they love this as well). I stocked the pantry with lunchbox goodies. Everyone had first day of school outfits chosen. We were ready to go.

I had the camera ready for first day of school. At the crack of dawn I went out and took a picture of my very reluctant seventh grader. It's not a great shot, but you don't get a second chance with this boy!

Next is our fifth grader. She looks ready to rule the school, right? She's a *senior* in elementary school :)

And here is our third grader, complete with self gelled/spiked hair and what constitutes a picture worthy smile these days.

Then, as I am begging the two elementary school aged kids to pose together, this is what pops into my frame! Scary!!!!!!!!
Finally I get a shot of these two without incident. Might be the last time they willingly hug for a shot, ya never know.
After everyone was off to school,I realized I never took a picture of the baby. Not that she had a first day of anything. Could it be blamed on the fact she stayed in her jammies until after her first nap???? That's what I'm going with.

As far as excuses why it took me over a month to post first day of school pictures? I don't have one. At least I took pictures.........

Lucky 13!

We've been married for 13 years today!


We are lucky to have any pictures at all from our wedding. We were paying for the wedding mostly by ourselves and were on a seriously tight budget. My mom's friend's father (are you still with me?) offered to be our photographer and give us the negatives as a wedding present. Yup, 13 years ago it was negatives! He said photography was his hobby. The problem: I knew him as a young girl and hadn't seen him for about 15 years. I had certainly grown up in those 15 years; but I hadn't thought about him getting older. He was old when I was a kid.......don't "elders" just stay old???? Yeah, I know that NOW, thanks. He had a few "senior moments" at the church and we didn't know any better. All the family pictures have either the bride or the groom.....but none of the bride AND groom with the families.


I look at this picture whenever I doubt the depth of my husband's love. First, I have to get over the bad 90's hair. Then I remember how it felt to be so cherished.

When we got the negatives back we noticed there were not many pictures from the reception. We didn't know what had happened until we viewed the wedding video. This time My Man had a "friend" who could tape the wedding for us. He taped high school and college games, so what could go wrong with a little wedding? Nothing, except he apparently didn't feel the need to use a NEW tape. The first 45 seconds of our cherished wedding video show the end of a high school football game!!!
Moving on! Once we watched the video it became clear why we had few pictures from our reception. Our photographer fell asleep in a chair!!!!! You get what you pay for (or don't).


I am feeling the need to share this cheesiness with all of you. This is us slipping off to our marriage bed.........then we headed for our honeymoon.




Look how happy we are.....do we look proud of ourselves? Little did we know we had just made a baby!


To My Man: I love you........all my love, all my life! Here is to many, many more love filled years!