Presenting the graduating class of 2008

Before I begin tonight's entry I feel I must clear up any misunderstanding which may occur after viewing my photos. These are actual photos from my camera and not from Area 51. For you believers out there, the children up top are real children and not aliens with white laser eyes. In actuality, I was in the back row with ET fighting for a tiny sliver of space between grandparents and aunts and uncles' heads to take my one or two quick shots. Yeah right!!! One or two quick shots is not easy when you have a darkened room with preschoolers moving around a lot and having to duck around everyone else. Not to mention the 20+ flashes the camera makes before actually taking the photo. Just when I get a good shot the flashes start going like I'm at a disco and I got some other random kid in the photo. ET colors all over the pew visitor cards as usual, interspersing the graduating class singers with wails of " I don't wanna listen to Mason sing!" and "I want more fruit guys!" Meanwhile, our pediatrician is sitting one pew up straining to hear her son sweetly sing the Days of the Week while looking back at me smiling though I know she's wishing I could keep my kid quiet. At least I think that's what they were singing. Being at the beginning of the alphabet with the last name Baldwin has its benefits. And not so benefits. Like having to sit through everyone else's kids being called while I wrestle 36 lbs to stay out of my purse and explain that lip gloss is not for big boys. When Matt got home we all went out for sushi which is Mason's favorite food. ET likes it too because it is hibachi as well. I had to take this picture because the guy was so funny and entertained the kids so well, but I had to have the two balls of butter. I did not have hibachi. I had sushi. When you get an eyeful of those two balls of butter(and yes, they are just two balls of butter, nothing else) and how much they use you won't ever have hibachi again. Ewwww!

AnythingBows is open, open, open!

I'm glad this has finally happened. People have been asking me for a long time when I would open up a shop and I have finally done the unimaginable and risked it all: my ego, my precious little time, and my ever-teetered sanity. The response has been overwhelming and I appreciate every bit of support. First, I'd like to thank the almighty God for granting me the patience to keep doing what I'm doing. Next, I'd like to thank my mother for passing on the skills she was so blessed with and for having the patience to teach me. Thank you to all my family and friends who took my things (solicited and unsolicited) and at least pretended to love them passionately. Kisses to my models Emma, Adeline and Nahli whom can make a paper bag look couture. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to my husband and boys who suffer through my mood swings if things don't turn out just so. There isn't much room for girly things in my household and I appreciate them letting me have my little green room of fluffy pink stuff to myself, most of the time. Check me out and don't stop at one visit as I'll be adding stuff every couple of days. I have a room full of things to list and not enough time to do it all at once. Anythingbows.etsy.com Now where's my trophy??

It's Not Mr. Chocolate Tooth

the shirt hole
the search party
There are some very special first moments in our children's lives that we mothers insist on being there for: the first smile, the first step, the first word, the first time they clap, the first haircut. I was there for ALL of them and am proud of it as the experience is priceless. I will never get those back. I have my boys' first lock of hair in an envelope and every other moment filmed and documented in their baby book. Keeping that in mind, Sunday night I was very innocently sipping a margarita with my girls on book club night when my phone did a little "You have a message" dance. I click on READ and up pops a picture of Mason with his mouth in a big O with a note at the bottom, "where's my tooth?". hee hee I chuckle. What a funny husband sending me pictures of the kids being goofy. My friends and I agree that they must have been eating brownies and his teeth are hiding in the chocolate. We turn back to our book and drinks and forget about Mr. Chocolate Tooth. When we get in the car and are searching, in vain mind you, for a store that is open at 7pm on a Sunday night just so we can prolong our one night out a month a wee bit longer, Jackie gets a call from Rick who tells her to tell me that Matt wants me to check my messages. So imagine how my gut must have felt when I think back to Mr. Chocolate Tooth. I pull over into the mall parking lot so I can take a closer look at the pictures and call that husband of mine. He proceeds to tell me, while laughing, that all the husbands and kids (yep all 9 of them) got together for dinner and playtime.Rick was swinging Mason and then put him down, but Mason didn't want to stop so apparently he figured if he sunk his incisors into Rick's shirt he could keep swinging. Didn't work that way. Rick went around, Mason sort of stayed, his teeth went with Rick's shirt where a hole was ripped and the tooth next to the two front teeth was catapulted into a 1/4 acre yard of grass. Thankfully it was a clean ejection, roots and all and not a break else we'd all be crying. Mason didn't know what happened. He claimed it didn't hurt but a little but as soon as he saw the blood...he's a baby. He doesn't like blood. Anyway, I'm listening to this account on speaker meanwhile changing my direction to go home. I was not happy to say the least. Why couldn't he just call me? Why is this funny? OK-it is a little funny now. The way Matt was telling the story I was picturing Mason's teeth stuck in Rick's back and wondering why my son is acting like a werewolf and biting people! Jackie's daughter Emma was the most diligent of the search party since she just lost her first 2 teeth about 2 weeks ago. she was adamant about finding that tooth as the tooth fairy had to come and there had to be a tooth. Thank you Emma!! They all searched for about an hour and then some. When we got home I went to the backyard and searched a few minutes before Matt came out. "Babe, it's getting dark. We've looked forever with 5 of us out here. Just put a rock in the box and tell him it's his tooth." OK- for normal people that would suffice. But I'm not normal. I have to have it. For him and for me. I have all his firsts. I wasn't here for this first and so I have to have something tangible to show and remind me that it happened. After 20 minutes I got up off my knees and started to go into the house. I glanced back down at the ground and HALLELUJAH! There is the tooth! I run back inside and Matt is on his knees worshipping me. "How on earth did you find that?" he asked. "I'm his mom," I answered with a very proud and maybe somewhat smug smile.

Crabs and Mommys, We Got 'Em!

Although Mom's Day started out a bit stormy it cleared up by brunch time.The boys and Matt took me to Crabs on the beach where we drank a very large Bloody Mary and just hung out for a bit and watched the waves crash up onto the shore. I'm really going to miss the beach when we leave in July. We try to make it down at least once a week and the boys love it so much. Mason loves the shell finding and the waves and ET is just content to go and be one with the sand.

Five for me, one for the basket

It's almost the end of the strawberries here in Milton and since we hadn't been picking all season I decided to pack the kids up and head up to Double D Farms, ignoring the 20% chance of thunderstorms. The boys were so excited and all they could talk about was feeding the goats. The farm has this huge vegetable garden with the most amazing onions, and strawberries of course, and at the end of it all is a fenced area where they keep the goats. I'm not sure what they keep the goats for as I never got that far in any conversation with the owners. I do know they eat EVERYTHING! We used to feed them the rotting berries from the ground and watch them pile on top of each other and butt each other to get to our hands first. Sometimes a shirt got in the mix but the goat didn't care. He would just keep munching and munching, hoping at some point to get a berry to wash down all that cotton. Well, we get to the farm today and it is completely different and yep, you got it...no goats. It wasn't too bad though. Ethan would only ask every 5 minutes "Where are the doats Mommy?" instead of screaming and throwing himself in the dirt which is what has been happening lately when he doesn't get what he wants 5 minutes ago. I am presenting Exhibit B today; Ethan's crab bucket. It has his motto printed on it, Don't Worry, Be Crabby, and he doesn't go anywhere without it. He eats cereal out of it, chips, fruit guys, you name it. It also doubles as a carrier for his Hot Wheels and if the mood strikes he might choose to use it to beat his brother or dog over the head with it. So many uses, so little time. This day he thought it might prove to be a useful strawberry bucket. It certainly did and it proved to be quite handy on the way back to the car: he held it in the crook of his left elbow and could easily and ergonomically reach into the bucket with his right hand and pluck out a ripe juicy berry. He then brought it fluidly up to his mouth without missing a beat. He even saved us some money by having breakfast on the way to the scales. That's my guy! Mason did such a good job and chose only red ones unlike all the green ones last year. He really enjoyed the picking part this time around and liked to choose all the big ripe peaches too. Peaches are his favorite fruit and loves to eat them whole like an apple. I convinced him to wait until we washed the fuzz off though.

High of 82, slight breeze, perfect surfing conditions

I tell you, I think my children are the masters at coming up with the most asinine ways to pass the afternoon. OK we have the huge super fun fantastic water slide set up in the yard and they go grab their boogie boards to surf down the PLAYGROUND slide, in just dino undies no less. Isn't it supposed to be used in water? Why wouldn't they use it on the water slide? As I've said before though, I'm not 2 nor am I 4 so what do I know? Maybe a boogie board is absolutely worthless in the water. We should hold our own Stupid Person awards but just rename it and call it something more fun like Look What I Can Do! ET goes down the slide over and over and over again with the swing under his bum. Yes, I said swing. You know, the yellow banana seat looking thing that hooks onto the chains and suspends from a play set. He climbs the stairs with that thing under his arm, throws it up into the fort and then settles either his bum or his feet on the seat and sails down the slide yelling "Woohoo! I'm surpin!" I'm so scared he's going to be our first broken bone that I watch him like a hawk. He's a thrill seeker this is true, but he has some limits. He doesn't like the water slide. Go figure. I know I would be asking what the ham sandwich a mom was doing taking pictures while her son was attempting to sail the green slide in a transparent Rubbermaid storage bin as I'm sure some of you may be. Mason, however, is a bit more cautious and when he throws caution to the wind I tend to grab the camera. I can almost always count on a hilarious outcome when Mason tries to be daring. This is my evidence. Call it Exhibit A. The last 2 pictures are the start and finish of Mason getting into his 'boat.' He gave me the double thumbs up and tilted forward for momentum and I saw regret in a flash, but it was too late. His boat had launched and there was no turning back although I could clearly see he wanted the rewind button for time. At the end of the slide, Mason's boat was catapulted into the air and then fell like a Looney Tunes anvil and slammed straight down onto the ground. The picture captures his flight very well I must say. He jumped up and was laughing hysterically and kind of whimpering at the same time. He was rubbing his bum and running around the yard to shake it off. It being the hurt tailbone, the fear, the insane amount of endorphins that had to be pumping through him. Mostly though I think he was just proud and excited that he had not only thought of making a Rubbermaid storage bin into a boat, but he had sailed and flown it too! Stay tuned for the next episode of Look What I Can Do!

A Day Out With Mr. Potts

You can't go wrong with a picture that involves three very adorable boys, a sunny day and a half dilapidated bridge, although these days half-dilapidated, rusted, broken, etc is referred to as a positive thing known as "shabby chic." My shabby chic picture came out perfect and the day was pretty darn close too. We all loaded up in the car and made up our own song to the noises it made and came up with a catchy little tune. Then we picked up Mr. Potts (aka Reece) and headed to the park to feed the ducks and climb on various jungle gyms. After running around and getting sandy then sweaty, then sandy again we jumped back into our musical mobile, which amazingly had turned into a ship and trolled down the Blackwater River where we got to see a mama duck with two brand new fluffy baby chicks.
We threw some old bread I had brought just for the occasion and watched them gobble it up. Our old ship came to a bend in the river and it morphed into a flying machine and flew to the nearest
Tom Thumb which any good Truly
Scrumptious knows has the biggest selection of cold Tummy Ticklers and Belly Washers this side of Bagdad. One Scooby Doo, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Tasmanian Devil later, Mr. Potts and his crew set off for home. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang we love you.

I DID Say Lick

When I tell Ethan, or any child under the age of 3 for that matter, something I always forget that he will take the most literal interpretation and roll with it. Soooo we're making chocolate cupcakes one night and I handed Mason the spoon and Ethan the bowl and said they could lick it. Bear in mind, this action alone goes against all sanitary, health and other heebie geebie common sense I have. Ewww! But they were bugging me and my pants were coming off from them yanking at them. Without further ado, I give you the video I am going to send into America's Funniest Videos where we will then be winning the $100,000 prize if the boy hitting his dad in the nuts with a pinata bat AGAIN isn't entered. Enjoy!