Dessert in the Park

We went to the preschool's annual Dessert in the Park gathering tonight. It is a fun event, except for the ridiculous amount of sugar my kids consume. I'm currently eating vegan, so I made vegan cupcakes with a simple sugar glaze but didn't tell anyone they were vegan so they wouldn't get passed over.

Every time I'd get in a conversation and take my eye off Serafina for a moment, she'd be back at the table grabbing another treat.  I was so relieved when Tom got there because I thought he could help keep the kids from indulging any more.  Instead, he became their partner in crime and the three of them when to town on all the offerings - cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, even cake pops.

"Yum!  We love Daddy!"

"Don't bother me with photos; I'm eating."

Saturday is the annual preschool yard sale.  Currently, it is the biggest fundraiser the school does and I've been helping out as much as I can.  I'd like to be there for the actual sale, but as of right now, our plan is to go to Tahoe.  I'm also concerned about missing the sale because next year, I'll be the school board's Vice President and fundraising will be my main job.  I'm looking forward to doing such a grown up activity, but all the school people I've mentioned my upcoming position to have looked at me with wide eyes and said "wow, that's a lot of work."  Oy!

Buckethead*

This is how Serafina walked around the park today.

*There is a musician named Buckethead and I think he's absolutely horrible.  Google or YouTube at your own risk.

The Home Depot

There are a lot of things I love about Leo's preschool.  I'm not totally in love with all the field trip destinations.  Today we headed to The Home Depot.  The teacher asked that as many parents as possible to help out, so I hired the sitter for Serafina and wore my preschool t-shirt.

It was a bit of a stressful situation since there were 18 four and five year olds with wood glue, hammers and paint.  Leo was very good and managed to make a very attractive flower box despite his mother's lack of construction savvy.

Lined up outside before going in.  I like to see he's not the littlest, physically at least.

Checking out his package of materials.

Working the hammer.  One mom got her finger smashed and though I felt bad for her, I was super relieved it wasn't me.

Painting the box.

He got to pick out some seeds to plant.  He chose cucumbers and snap peas.  He knows not to waste his time with non-edible plants.  Good boy.

They ate snack on the floor of The Home Depot.  I once nursed in the aisle of Lowes, so I wasn't too weirded out.

Buzz

When there is a weekend that we don't have to schlep to Tahoe, we tend to take it extra easy. Don't get me wrong, we still do chores and general domestic activities, but we mostly just hang out as a family. This was one of those weekends, especially since it rained most of the time.  Tom and I cooked a lot, the kids played, we all gathered around to watch Leo's new favorite show: Top Gear.  I got a chance to get a pedicure and go to yoga.  You know, boring suburban stuff, because honestly, we have turned into boring suburban people.

Tom also gave Leo a haircut.  I guess his own new do inspired him to use the buzzer on Leo, even though Leo wanted just scissors.  A lollipop served as a sufficient bribe and Leo handled it all quite well.

He did try to creep further and further away.

A little scissor time at the end to even it out.

He's holding his lollipop and some money rolls from the bank.  One of our exciting weekend activities was sorting the coins in his piggy bank (we didn't get a chance to roll them yet).  He wants to buy a telescope.

Serafina didn't get a haircut, but she got a lollipop anyway.  Not sure why she's wearing her brother's old sunglasses upside down.  Notice the tutu.  She wears it all day and all night.  I haven't even had a chance to wash it because it's always on her.

Some times Leo asks to skip his nap.  Some times I let him.  Some times he takes one anyway.

Sharing Serafina

A couple weeks ago, Leo said he wanted to take Serafina as his sharing for school. I thought it was incredibly sweet, but I figured he'd end up choosing a toy for show and tell. But as his sharing day approached, he still wanted to take her, so I checked with the teacher and today he got to share his little sister with the class.

 Here's a video of him introducing her.

She didn't want to stay in the front of the room to be on display because she was having more fun playing with the toys.  

But then she started dancing around and seemed to enjoy the attention.

She even showed off some yoga poses.

It was all very sweet and the other parents working today were totally charmed by it, but the kids probably would have liked to have seen a toy.  I'm so glad he brought her though since it's a testament to their relationship and I can remind him of this day when he's complaining about his annoying little sister. I loved every minute.  Serafina did well during the sharing but needed me to hold her the whole walk home.  I'm not sure if it was a little overwhelming or what.   

Mani Pedi

I'm not in line to see a midnight showing of The Hunger Games right now, but I did stop by Sally Beauty Supply to pick up some Hunger Games nail polish.  Of course, the kids found some tiny bottles of nail polish they wanted too, so I let them each pick two colors.

Leo picked a silvery blue and bright orange.  He had me paint his nails in alternating colors and then use a glitter top coat I already had.

Serafina picked a bright pink and a purple glitter.  Big surprise, right?  Her toes got the purple glitter and her fingers the pink color.

This was the first time Serafina let me paint her nails.  I have a feeling she'll be an enthusiastic participant every time.  She's so very girly.  She wears this tutu all the time and changes clothes two or three times a day.

Too much of a good thing?

I've been complaining about the lack of snow in the mountains this season. Well, a big winter storm hit and changed all that.  Now I'm complaining about too much snow.  Specifically too much snow on the highway while we are trying to get to our ski house.  We left Friday night at our usual time, 8pm, and the kids fell asleep on the drive.  There was quite a bit of rain coming down during the first part of the drive, but that was nothing in comparison to what awaited us.  Once we got on the mountain, there was epic downfall of snow and the road was a mess.  Tom did an excellent job of controlling the truck as it slipped along the road.  The kids woke up around midnight when we had to stop for a snow chain check.  Since the truck is four-wheel drive, we don't have to put chains on which saves Tom from having to mess around with them in the cold, dark night.  It was about midnight, which is when we usually arrive at the ski house.  But we still had to make it further up the mountain.  About 10 miles from our house, traffic came to a dead stop.  Turns out there were so many cars spinning out on the highway, they shut the whole thing down.  Yep, the highway closed with us on it.  So we sat there for over two hours.  People got out of their cars to walk dogs, chat with other stranded drivers, take pictures.  We were all stuck buddies for the night.  We finally arrived at the house at 4am.  It usually takes us a little under four hours to drive up there; this time it took eight.  And when we got to the house, we had to shovel out the driveway.  Nothing like some wee-hour snow shoveling to top off a miserable journey.  Did I mention I had an incredible need to pee the entire time?  Well, I did.  We got the kids in bed and Leo was up at 8 am despite the lack of sleep.

Here's what I've learned from this experience: I need to put my foot down and veto trips to the mountains during the worst storm of the season.  But more importantly, I learned we can handle a lot as a family and these kids were real troopers during it all.  I've been wary of taking big road trips, but I have new found confidence in our ability to handle it, especially if I can stop at a bathroom.  I want to go to Disneyland for Leo's fifth birthday (shhhh...don't tell him), but I wasn't sure about driving down (which would be preferable to flying to save money and have transportation while we are down there).  Now I know we can handle it, no problem.

We were able to have a good weekend despite the rough start.  We took our time Saturday morning.  Here's Tom getting ready to ski by stretching with the kids.

If he ever posted a picture of me doing this...well, let's say, it wouldn't be good.

Leo and Tom skied without a break, just snacking on food Tom had in his pockets.  They wanted to take advantage of the great conditions and Leo turned into a powder hound.  I didn't get any pictures of them because they were off on lifts away from the lodge.  Serafina and I kept each other entertained in the lodge.  There was a bit of static electricity.

Serafina requested I draw the Yo Gabba Gabba gang.

She had some snacks, and some more snacks and some more snacks after that.

And since she wasn't full, she had some snow.

Did I mention there was a lot of snow?

Bedtime was very early on Saturday night.  Leo asked "why am I going to bed while it still so light out?" I told him it just looked light because of all the snow.  We still had some unwinding time with the iPod/iPhones.

Today I sent Tom off to do some "big guy skiing".  These were probably the best conditions of the season and I thought Leo could survive skipping a day of skiing.  Tom said he had a great time.  The kids and I took it easy for the most part.  But we went outside to explore the snow a bit.  Here's Leo walking down the hill next to our house.

Serafina watches him go.

We have a great sledding hill next to our house.  I bought some snow saucers back when there was barely any snow as an offering to the weather gods.  Guess it worked.  But the kids don't like the saucers.  Serafina won't do it at all and Leo is scared he's going to crash (but has no fear of flying down a huge mountain on skis).  And if I try to go down on the saucer, Serafina bursts into tears.  She screamed and cried when I did it on my own.  I convinced Leo to go down on my lap, which he enjoyed but we couldn't do it again because Serafina was so distraught.  Here's Serafina standing in the snowy street.

Leo loves to throw snowballs at me.  The snow was so soft it didn't make good snowballs.

Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

It just snowed and snowed all day.  We didn't stay out too long.

On the way in, Leo found an icicle and thought it was delicious.

The drive home was much easier.  It was still very slow going down the mountain, but at least we were going.  I appreciate that Tom did the difficult driving; I was intimated by the conditions.

He did it! (St. Baldrick's fundraiser)

This evening was the St. Baldrick's event at Tom's work.  He met his fundraising goal so he knew there was no going back.  Tom's money total ranked 30th out of 144 participants , so thank you to everyone who donated.  The kids and I went to witness the de-hairing and provide our support.  Here he is with some of his team waiting for their turn in the shaving chairs.  His team raised over eleven thousand dollars.  

Tom and Serafina watch some shaving go down.

Getting prepped.

 Here's a video of the final locks coming off.  The kids were totally unfazed by the whole thing.  You'd think they watch their dad be shaved bald every day.

Tom takes it in.

The master of ceremonies offered up Tom's goatee for an extra $250 donation.  There was barely a beat before someone offered up the money and off came the goatee.  He decided to keep the mustache, for now at least.

Serafina meets her new daddy.

Both kids were fine with the new look.  Leo was a little freaked out by Tom's co-worker who kept pestering him to shave his head too.  I told him that Leo might do it next year, but he wasn't up for it tonight.  

I whipped this up so Tom's newly bare noggin wouldn't get cold.  I think I'll be making more for his co-workers.

Here's an "after" picture of Tom and his team.  

Discussing the new situation.

The balloons were Serafina's favorite part.  They kind of looked like her dad's head.

Checking himself out in the mirror at home.  Get a load of this guy!

The event was very nice, and everyone was enthusiastic and encouraging of one another.  But there was no mistaking that we were there because of devastating disease.  A man was there with his three kids.  He and his two sons were getting shaved; his wife died last year from cancer.  There was a father/son pair that were shaved.  Their daughter/sister is eight years old and in remission.  Tom described it as a fun and rewarding experience.  I'm so incredibly proud of him and I think he looks pretty good as a baldy.