Staycay Day 2

We started our STAYCAY DAY 2 with a brisk dog walk that quickly turned into a park stop

We had a VERY LAZY morning. Jack had speech coaching. Dorothy and I cleaned out her closet to make room for her dance bag to be set up in there instead of in the storage room downstairs. Minnie set up an elaborate tea party. Cooper played video games (lol). I worked out and graded for my online adjunct class (different than my overload class). Then I decided to change 5/7 beds because it was a light laundry day. DO I KNOW HOW TO RELAX OR WHAT?    

Apparently this is pizza week because the kids had movie theater pizza for lunch and make your own pizza for dinner (and we had frozen pizza for lunch Monday and plan pizza on campus for dinner tonight).

MOVIE FOR LUNCH! We saw Dog Man, and all three older kids used to read those books, so they were all delighted to attend. When we got home, Dorothy read the first book to Minnie. I took a movie theater nap, which used to be my favorite thing back in the day when the kids and I always hit up $5 Tuesdays (which are now $6.35 Tuesdays). Also! GOOD AND PLENTYS! I forgot what a perfect candy that is.

(I did not mind stepping out to get the pizza when my buzzer went off-- NOT A LOT OF PLOT TO MISS)

After the movie, Jack and Cooper went golfing, and then Jack drove Coop to dive, and our carpool friends drove home, and I did not have to drive at all, and it was heaven.

Dorothy walked Annabel. Minnie returned to her tea party. I did laundry. When Jack got home, I walked Annabel just to listen to Pod Save America, but the episode gave me panic attack feels, so I switched to a Freida McFadden gem.

We made pizzas (fruit and veggies for a side, not toppings)

Dorothy and I walked Annabel together, and then the big kids and I watched my favorite movie from high school together, and now the kids think I am a bigger weirdo than they even imagined.

Staycay Day 1

 We are going NOWHERE for spring break this year, btw. NO TIME TO TRAVEL because PTO is more than spoken for with kiddie sportsball travel this summer. SUCH A GLAMOROUS LIFE. Soooooo, we are staying in town and enjoying a slower pace for the week.

Here's a look at Monday:

Annabel got a helluva stick of the day on our walk this morning. Yes that is snow because FML.

Dorothy and I headed to Home Goods in search of a rug for her room and returned TRIUMPHANT!

YES!

She was looking at pastel pink floral rugs online on Wayfair and the devil's trading post, but the reviews made us think we needed to find rugs in real life where we could touch them and see how thick they were. Ben, Minnie, Dorothy, and I went to At Home, Wal Mart and Target (**hangs head in shame**) on Sunday night and found NOTHING (but! Minnie picked out some stuff for her room and new-to-her big girl bed, and it matches NOTHING in her current room, so I can't wait to deal with that next week.). We went to Home Goods, then Marshalls, then World Market, then back to Home Goods, and I am really surprised by her eventual pick (that I like a lot). It is nice but not expensive, and if I need to replace it because she spills a can of orange soda on it or colors on it with sharpies, I will not be sad.

Next, Dorothy, Minnie, and I got pedicures (all) and manicures (just them-- I hate having my nails painted **shrug**) while Ben worked and Jack and Cooper played video games (which they did from the moment their eyes opened until Jack had to go to work and Coop had to go to diving practice).

Quick walk to the park

When Ben, my sunglasses twin, finished his day and came to trade with me

Now I am happily grading for my online overload class (doesn't get a spring break because it's only 8 weeks long) and writing this while Coop works.

Misc

 WHAT A WEEKEND! 

Ben did the floor in Dorothy's room! And he also assembled her new night stand, which is WAY SMALLER than I thought it would be-- but it will be PEEEERFECT for Minnie, who is inhertinig Dorothy's bed. We need to buy 2 box springs (one for each room) and a rug for Dorothy's room and hope to have the exciting room makeover conclusion next week-ish.

My mom and Steve and my aunt came to visit, which was SO FUN. My mom and Steve saw some dance comp on Friday night, and we all hung out Saturday and went out to dinner-- it was lovely.

Dorothy had a monster dance weekend: Friday night she had a competition and performed 6 dances in LESS THAN 2 HOURS. PHEW! Then she took dance classes ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday (the comp was half convention). IT WAS WILD.

Minnie went with me on Friday night and lived her best life-- she made it all the way through 9pm awards, even. BUT SHE WAS TIRED.

I think I might focus on money again on Mondays since we need to rein in our spending again. But! It is tedious to think and write about, so maybe not. Groceries cost one million dollars. Kids need new clothes and shoes. Major appliances break **shrug**. BUT ALSO. Paying attention really does make me spend less, so we'll see. 

Speaking of! WHY THE HELL ARE ZBARS TWENTY TWO DOLLARS A BOX?? (Yes, I did buy them)

And! Why have I forgotten how cheap the Costco food court is? I fed everyone (absolute trash) for $14!

 

5 on a Friday: Snippets

 1. Did you think I was done talking about dance? HA! Here are some pro pics from last weekend, and Dorothy has another competition TODAY!

2. Dorothy and Cooper babysat Minnie on her school playground while I had a conference with her teacher, and it was 30 degrees and snowy and neither of them wore a coat because middle schoolers think coats are for losers, apparently. WHAT IS EVEN WRONG WITH THEM? And then I bought them Starbs because obvi.

3. These are good but also weird (Costco find)

4. This book is as good as everyone says-- maybe better

5. Annabel is a vicious killer

**whining**

 Not only are things crazy busy with dance and dive season overlapping, but also it is spring break season, and Harry has a different one than the rest of us (and Ben does not have one at all). We have tons of tools and boxes everywhere. OUR WATER HEATER DIED YESTERDAY. I have a million things to grade. Middle school has standardized testing, so the kids are grumpy. I am trying to decide where we want to send Minnie for kindergarten next year. Democracy is crumbling before our eyes. TOO MUCH IS HAPPENING.

I am still in a reading slump, and, to make it worse, I have like 15 (literally) brand new books from the library that I researched to get the moment they came out, and if I request them again, I will be the 300th person in line. 

My skin is a disaster, and I have a very full mustache. I haven't had a period in 107 days, and I have had PMS for the last 64 days. Or maybe that's just my personality now? All my clothes are too tight in the stomach. The only thing that makes me feel good is Cadbury mini eggs, and I cannot look away from the news.

HOW ARE YOU?

(A few positives: We have a plumber friend who immediately brought a water heater, installed it, and took away the old one. Plus he is going to fix a tiny part in our water softener, and we don't have to get a new one. Plus Ben was home when it happened, so things were less chaotic than they might have been. I had a meeting I needed to go to, so Harry stepped in to pick up Minnie and take her out to lunch. It is finally warm enough for my favorite fashion combo: jeans and heels)

Epic 12th bday weekend

In true epic birthday fashion, we started celebrating Dorothy BEFORE the big day with a Friday night dinner at our favorite birthday bar to celebrate both her birthday AND Ben's. I went into labor with Dorothy at that very bar in 2013.

She opened presents and had cake on her birthday morning (I wrapped up all the pillows for her new room, along with her unassembled IKEA nightstand, two new duvet covers and two sets of sheets, a fuzzy throw blanket, plus some super cute storage boxes for her new bookshelf (which I showed her a picture of because it is in a box in the entry way), and we assembled her super adorable new lamp. Minnie and Cooper got her some makeup, a new Touchland, and a new Sol (fml), and her big bros came through with a Lululemon gift card.

Right after breakfast, she threw on her team uniform (SO BOUGIE you guys! The team jacket is Lulu, and the kids can wear EITHER Lulu Align leggings OR Lulu studio pants with it) and put her makeup on because it was time THE FIRST DANCE COMP OF THE SZN.

I failed at taking costume pics AGAIN, but here's what I got:

Large group jazz

Large group hip hop

Small group tap (their song is "Groove Is in the Heart," and it is DARLING)

Super group hip hop

They ballon in the above pic is attached to the box of amazing cookies that I handed out all day.

We had FIVE DOZEN of these, and they flew.

Super group again

Small group lyrical. Dorothy got to be the person to get the award for this dance (they pick someone new for each dance each weekend), and she was DELIGHTED when the group took 2nd overall (losing by ONE TENTH OF A POINT to another small group from her studio)

Ben, Minnie, and Coop came to bring the bday girl her favorite pizza for dinner, and they got to watch lyrical, too.

Ian's pizza (and a Wisco salad for me)

After pizza, Dorothy got to get ready for her FAVORITE! DANCE! IN THE WORLD!, her hip hop trio

They took third overall, and her friends let her get the ward

Of her 6 dances, 5 placed in the overall awards for their category (large, small, or super group-- all different styles of the same size and level compete against each other), so she was super happy at the end of the day, and it was so fun to watch her friends win awards, too.

On Sunday, we kicked off our 4th annual bday shopping spree. (2022, 2023, 2024)

We could not decide between breakfast and lunch, so we got donuts for an app and ordered lunch food.

She hit Lulu where she bought shorts, and I bough the matching T.

Then I got her a Kendra Scott necklace, per tradition.

Next Sephora, where I bought her some stuff, and she spent ALL THE REST of her birthday money.

We rounded out the day at ANOTHER MALL to hit up Ulta, so she could get EVEN MORE STUFF with her gift card from her grandparents-- MORE SOL seriously fml. (I also got some Ordinary anti redness serum and a cheap lip stick)

Phew!

SO FUN!

Here's my makeup haul, BTW: a Nars highlighter, a new liquid blush, a cheapy eyeshadow palette, and another one of my fave drugstore lipsticks that goes on glass and dries stain. (Dorothy bought Benefit Benetint-- so nostalgic. She actually got a bunch of Benefit stuff which made me remember when I, too, was young and beautiful and only needed a teeny bit of sparkle and stain to look my best).

Ben and his helper painted her room (she picked...white) while she was at dance, and he and Harry are ripping up the carpet and putting in wide fake wood planks this weekend. If it goes well, they'll do the same thing to Minnie's who is inheriting a bed, dollhouse, and storage bench from Dorothy and has another IKEA metal nightstand waiting for her.

All we gotta do (besides the floor LOL LOL LOL) is assemble her Costco daybed, buy a mattress for it, set up her vanity, and build her bookshelf. Plus take everything out of her room and Minnie's room and hang all new art on the walls. NO PROBLEM.