#4 for #3

Well, my baby turned 4 last week, and it was weird for me to realize that by the time Rylan was his age, she had 2 younger siblings. I thought of her as my big girl and my helper, and yet I still treat 4 year old Bran Flakes like he's a toddler. So sue me.

If you have had a conversation with Branik since Christmas it has likely been initiated by him asking you what level you are on in Super Mario Bros. This kid was born to play with electronics. I don't get it, because my other two were never as excited about games and gadgets as Bran is. He loves the Wii and can't stand the days I don't allow it to be turned on. If Wii is outlawed for the day, he moves on to the computer. If I say no to that too, he wants his Leapster. If I veto that one based on the principle of not needing something with batteries for play time, he has (on more than one occasion) been found sitting under the kitchen table WITH A CALCULATOR.

Anyway, it wasn't hard to figure out what kind of birthday he wanted this year, but I wasn't expecting to be doing all the work by myself until the lovely army sent Boone to Mississippi for the week, only to return him 30 minutes before Branik's little party was scheduled. It worked out and Branik was totally thrilled, even when my cake plans had to be toned down a little. But that brings me to my soapbox moment of this blog...

I have finally realized that most of these elaborate kids parties are for the parents and not the kids -- especially at this age. All the kids want is a cake, some balloons, their friends, and some presents. Kids don't care about all the other junk -- and when I did bigger, more elaborate birthdays for my kids it was really to impress the parents. I mean, at the time I thought it was for the kids, but then I realized that kids require very little to have something qualify as "fun". So I decided to quit spending gobs of money on stuff they don't care about and to quit spending gobs of time on details that don't matter to them. Would he have liked Super Mario napkins and balloons? Probably. But did he still like his plain old red, blue, and green balloons? Yep. Would he have liked it if I had rented out Jump City for all of his friends to climb on inflatables for 2 hours? I'm sure he would have. Was his day "not fun" because he played in the backyard with friends instead? Nope. Would he have been delighted to see his face screen printed on Mario's body on a sheet cake? Undoubtedly. Did he squeal with delight at my 90 minute 9 x 13 cake? You betcha'.

I'm sure there will come a day where the bigger parties will be something they want, and from time to time we will probably do something like that. But when you ask your kid what they want to do on their birthday and they say, "eat cake and play with balloons", why spend hundreds of dollars doing more than they wanted? How will you manage to keep up with that expectation year after year? Seriously, I have had people in my kids' classes who report that their kid's birthday party cost $600. For a 5 year old.

SO. STUPID.

And really? Do you think I don't notice that we hardly know each other and that you are dying to pass this information on to me? Like I should be impressed that you waste money in obscene fashion? Well done, you. Not impressed. Making fun of you on my blog.

And now I will get off my soapbox and show you some pictures, grandparents/aunts who care.


My 90 minute Mario cake and "Big Mushroom" cupcakes.

The cake and some shadows from my hands and the camera.


The boys had seen this cake already about 25 times but kept coming back to look at it. Which is why I don't care that it isn't even remotely perfect. They didn't need perfect. They needed "recognizable as a Mario Bros" cake.


Present time could easily have been called "Card time" and it would have been just as exciting for Branik. He seriously LOVES cards and opens them before the gift every time. They are all still on the mantel because he loves them so much.

Here comes my favorite picture of the whole event -- the one that screams, "My birthday was rad!"





























And for my mom: he hasn't quit playing with these in a week!



For everyone else: if you are wanting a gift idea these Wedgit blocks are awesome. Totally open-ended and engaging for all ages. My 8 year old girl and both of my boys fight over who's turn it is next. I may or may not have played with them after the kids were in bed.

So. It was a Happy Birthday for our baby boy, and we really appreciated all of our family and friends that made it a special day for him. And I appreciate myself for single parenting unexpectedly that week and still baking 48 cupcakes, a Mario cake, and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that was 100% from scratch. (And now, I appreciate my leg being healed enough that I can run all of that cake off.) Well done, Nicole. Thank you, Nicole.

You know what would be cool? If we knew where Boone was going to work in 6 weeks. Or maybe if we knew where we would live when we leave Georgia. Or maybe even if we could sign someone to a lease for this house so we don't have 2 mortgages to pay in 6 weeks when Boone is unemployed.

Yeah, any of those things would be cool.

But as of this morning, we still don't have a practice (we withdrew our offer on the first one after uncovering some "issues"). And since we don't have a work location nailed down, we don't know where to live. Or what we can afford.

And we have shown the house once to prospective tenants, and have 2 more appointments set for next week, but certainly no lease yet.

Oh, and did I mention that we are moving ourselves instead of having the army do it? We are. Because we are crazy. Also, broke -- and unable to turn our backs on several thousand dollars by doing the work ourselves.

So.

I am packing, and painting, and de-cluttering, and advertising our home, and weeding and mowing and Craigslisting junk we don't want anymore, preparing for Branik's birthday and scanning legal documents for Boone's second attempt at a practice purchase, and window shopping online for a rental house in the greater Denver area (but nothing specific because of that whole "no job" thing), and occasionally making it to the gym or out for a run so I don't go totally crazy and turn into Psycho Mommy.

Which is why I don't have time to blog:)

Help Us Name Our New Baby?

Not pregnant.

Just totally devoid of inspiration and in need of help naming Boone's practice! We got Branik's name this way (asking for ideas) and we are hoping maybe one of you will wow us with a good name. I can't give you more details yet because things are not set in stone, but as soon as we have a positive thumbs up I'll write about it, mmkay?

Nothing else to say, really. So....GO!

P. S. Winner gets a free root canal. Or maybe bleaching trays or something. But you have to come to Colorado. After June 15.

One Step Closer to Philly

I've started putting together my outfit in case I am able to pull off a trip back to Philadelphia in October for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure event. If I can swing it, I'll be walking 60 miles in 3 days with Deb, Sara, and whoever else joins the team.

I'm going to do my best to be there as my way of celebrating my mom's 5 year survivor status. She has actually had breast cancer twice, and got within a month of being a 5 year survivor when they found the second cancer. It was a major bummer, but 5 years later she is free and clear!

Thanks Tiff for the sweatshirt (although my rack needs less supporting than yours these days;)

All About Rylan Week!

Well, I'm officially old. Or at least old enough to be the mother of a 96 month-old! Sweet little Rylan had events scheduled for the whole week, so she took pity on me and requested a plain old chocolate cake this year. I didn't argue (obviously).

We also didn't do a full birthday party this year because we had so many people coming into town and too many other things to coordinate. Before you start feeling sorry for Rylan read through this whole post. And then add cupcakes at school, a special date night to buy a new outfit at the mall with her grandparents and then eat at the restaurant of her choice, and a whole mountain of gifts. Homegirl has $50 in gift cards to Barnes and Noble, new jewelry, new clothes, Dance Dance Revolution, and an electronic hamster. Trust me, she is thrilled with how her 8th birthday went down.

Here are the gory details for anyone who loves my family so much that they want to see a bazillion photos of us just living life:

After her pizza and cake with just a couple of people, we headed to (yuck, I don't even want to admit it) Chuck E. Cheese. Rylan originally wanted to roller skate on her actual birthday (another yuck, in my book) but the rink was closed on Monday and Tuesday so she (I) was forced to accept option 2.


But she was happy and that's all that matters, right? Right. 100 tokens later we headed home, disinfected our children, and threw them in bed. About 4 hours after that Boone's parents arrived. Too bad our kids don't like them. And too bad they don't like our kids.


We hung out and marinated in our collective awesomeness for 2 days, and on Thursday we increased it by adding my mom and my G'pa to the mix. To celebrate 4 grandparents under one roof, we had the kids skip school on Friday and we high tailed it to the zoo in Columbia.



See? There we are, continuing the honored McQuain tradition of ditching school in the name of something better to do. And let's be honest and say that in Georgia, it's not a difficult task to find more beneficial activities than another day in school.

Per the usual, feeding the lorakeets was the highlight of the trip. G'pa was "avoiding bird poop on his bald head" (translation: he is deathly afraid of colorful birds) so he observed the mayhem from the outside of the enclosure. Ray, on the other hand, dove right in (translation: he LOVES bird poop).


Every time I look at this picture ^^^ of him I start humming, "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."


We came home from the zoo and had a food prep marathon, and then we let our slaves/guests chill for a bit with the kids, who were totally in heaven with so much family around. You can tell they are in heaven by the way Rylan looks in this picture -- possessed, that is.


Saturday morning was spent preparing for Rylan's baptism (and by "preparing" I mean being in denial that the day was really here). The hours ticked away until it was time to head to the church. I must say, she looked absolutely beautiful and too grown up for me.

***Side note -- I am going to publish several pictures in this post demonstrating how ridiculous it is to try to get my husband to smile on demand. He is a happy person and smiles all the time in real life, but the man cannot hold a cheeser for a photo to save his life.***

Exhibit A:


Me, upon seeing what I caught on camera: "Boone. Smile. This is a happy time."

Boone: "I can't smile. We've been through this. We've been through this for 12 years. I can't fake a smile."

Me: "Nobody is asking you to 'fake' a smile. Just think of something happy (like, I don't know, WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO) and hold that thought for crying out loud!"

Exhibit B:

At which point I gave up on Boone and moved on to ever-reliable Abby. She and Rylan are best friends and sang a duet together at the baptism. It was adorable. Like this picture.

Here are a few more shots for posterity. Please ignore Boone's black socks. I couldn't, but you should try:)




Alright posterity, you've had enough "posey posey" shots. Moving on.

Branik decided he should conduct things...

...and then he wanted in on Keaton's impromptu musical number ("I Am a Child of God", in case you were wondering) before the baptism...

So. Filthy. Stinking. Cute.

So the actual baptism went really well, and when we got home Rylan got a few special baptism gifts, including her own scriptures with her name engraved on the front. Thanks, Dad and G'pa! And thanks to everyone else who brought/sent such sweet keepsake gifts for our girl on her special day.

I love this next picture so much it makes my head hurt.


After the really important part of the day was over, it was time to eat! (Struggling here to not make joke about food always being the really important part of the day...)


Brace yourself for Round 2.

Me: "Come here husband! Let's document that we were here too."


Me: "Whoa! Hello giraffe neck Nicole! Okay, we need to take another one. I need to tip my chin down and you need to smile, you dork!"

Boone: "Okay -- I'll really try this time."

Me: "Boone seriously. What the crap is that? Are you doing Blue Steel or something? FREAKING SMILE!"

At this point I could tell he wasn't going to really try and I started laughing, but look how pretty we look!


Whatever. That's me and Boone up there in photo number 3 -- fairly representative of how we are in real life, whether you like it or not:)

Also representative of real life? My mom laughing so hard at the 2010 Grandma DDR Showdown that she nearly peed her pants. Check out how hard G'pa is laughing in the background!


Little did he know his turn was rapidly approaching:

Dear G'pa: Thank you for not breaking your hip while playing Dance Dance Revolution at my house. I don't want that on my hands -- my head would roll. As a token of my appreciation, I am not posting the VIDEO I have of you playing with Ray in the 2010 Grandpa DDR Showdown. Instead, I'll post this photo of you looking all wise and grandfatherly as you read scriptures with my children. You're welcome.

And all too soon, everyone left Georgia for the last time and we were back to being just our little family. Our totally awesome though not very good at taking pictures family. It was a great week for all of us, and we are really happy that we've had the pleasure of living with Rylan for 8 years now. She's a great big sister, a wonderful daughter, and a good friend.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in ways both big and small to making this week a special one for Ry!

Let It Snow!

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking on this one. In the nearly 4 years we've been in Georgia, we have never seen anything like this. Our babysitter has lived here her entire life and said SHE had never seen anything like this!

On your mark...

Get set...

GO!!!






So you can see that Rylan and Keaton were all over it -- making snowballs, building tiny snowmen, getting right down into it.

This is how Branik felt about 90 seconds into his first snow experience:



Boone and I had a date night scheduled for Friday and decided that 4 years in Cleveland had prepared us well for driving in our "extreme weather". The big difference turned out to be that Ohio has things like snow plows and salt trucks and people who know how to drive in snow, and Georgia does not. We arrived at our restaurant and were told we had 40 minutes to eat because they were closing at 7:00. We got to the movie theater and found they too were closing, got a refund on our pre-purchased tickets, shrugged our shoulders and headed for home. BEFORE BEDTIME. Gag me. That's the best part of going on a date! Getting out of bedtime! Happy Valentine's Day to us.

While on our way the sitter called to let us know that our power had gone out and could we please direct her to a functional flashlight? We did, and about 20 minutes later arrived to a pitch black neighborhood and 3 kiddos peering out the window with 1 LED bulb pointed right at us.

Boone took our sitter home while I took care of the bedtime routine by candlelight. When I got the kids settled I tried to mess with my camera settings so I could photograph the accumulation, but this is all I could get with my little point and shoot and a total lack of patience:



Disappointing, but I figured it was better than nothing. I thought it would start melting sometime in the middle of the night, but I was wrong (note the date, people.) We woke up to this:







(I love how the only part of the car you can see is the portion of the license plate that reads "Georgia" -- mother nature has a sense of humor.)

The kids ran to the windows again this morning and Keaton immediately started begging to go out again. Branik had quite enough yesterday and was certain he did not want to go, and Rylan had a very restless night and wasn't feeling up to it (we'll see how long that lasted shortly).

So Boone bundled Keaton back up, threw on the few warmish things he owns, and headed out with his boy.




When Rylan realized there were snow angels being made and saw the storage tote lid "sled" come around back, she caved and headed back out too. Branik, however, stood strong.




It was a fun 24 hours but now it's mostly gone, which is perfect in my book. I hear that's how Denver does it most of the time and I hope that's accurate! Good times, y'all. Good times.