Ugh

On the way to church this morning LuLu had what may very well be the worst, most disrespectful temper tantrum of her life - and in full view of a family friend. That pretty much ruined the morning for us. It's not that I think my kids are worse than other people's - I've met your children, sir, and without the benefit of your rose colored glasses - but for bleep's sake, what's Dad's #1 rule: Hide your cray-cray, esp in public.

The First Communion Dinner with the family

Yes, I know I keep posting the events of that day out of order. Sue me. 

After Mass and before the recital, we treated PDiddy Wee Diddy to a nice lunch out at Omega. Lisa even brought in a cake she'd bought to celebrate, graced with a Communion remembrance LuLu had wanted to buy her brother. 

Smiley ordered chicken tacos (while wearing a white suit! Gasp! But no spills!) and everyone else had yummy stuff of their own. After that it was on to the recital . . . 

Note YaYa doing what tweens do best: text. 

House of Anubis

LuLu is a big fan of the Australian supernatural teen drama "House of Anubis"

Our New "Baby" (tree)

Somewhere on this blog - I can't find the 'tag' that leads to it - is a sad little ditty about the city cutting down the damaged tree in front of our home. That, IIRC, was in 2010. A year or two later the city ground down the stump and as they made no effort to replace the tree, I assumed we were never going to get another. 

Then, magically deliciously, we were greeted with this Friday morning!

 

Quoting Lisa's Facebook: 

I have a new baaaby!!!  The city dropped a baby tree in front of our house to replace the beautiful, mature tree they took almost 2 years ago! I'm going to tell the kids to remember how old they were when it was planted, it will be fun to see it grow with them. His name (given by the state) is "Morton" 

The kids are happy, Lisa is happy - and so, surprisingly, am I. This means that my 3 year run of 'barely any leaves to rake' is going to draw to a close, but I can deal with it. The tree's a beauty :)

A sketch YaYa made (5-16) at school

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."

I remember

On October 14, 1992 my sister Katie and I attended a performance of an Athol Fugard play at UWM's Peck Theater, then went across the street to Bodolino's for dinner. Five imaginary dollars to the person who can identify why this date is important to many red blooded Americans (clue: what was on sporting event was on TV during dinner?)

Y U No Flush?

For Mother's Day YaYa gave Lisa a pretty dry erase board that we keep in the bathroom to leave reminders, post inspirational quotes, or whatnot for the kids. 

The following is YaYa's version of whatnot. Fed up with Junie's habit of not flushing the toilet, she quickly sketched out a toilet, complete with poo and 'stink waves'. 

She drew an arrow to the poo and wrote "RIP Your taco + salad' and directed another arrow at the toilet handle with the caption "it was made so we don't have to see what you ate." 

The title of this mocking artwork "Y U No Flush?" 

for 

The American Idol Finale

Watching the Idol finale. After seeing both Kree and (3rd place winner) Angie perform, it's all the more apparent Angie was robbed. She blows Kree out of the water, and a Candice/Angie finale would have been Ali-Frazier epic.

The Railroad Walk

May 5th - the day of Smiley's First Holy Communion, was a grand day of many adventures. The others will be detailed in good time, but the final fling of the day was a stop in the park behind Pulaski High School, where we ate some Taco Bell and had the kids unwind by running around on the grass. I casually mentioned a railroad bridge nearby that I used to cross everyday walking to school. The kids wanted to see it, so what the heck - I took them across and down the tracks.  

To my knowledge, the bridge is no longer in use (I noticed the line was blocked off with gravel at the start of it, presumably by someone official-like), but the line that 'T''s with it is active. On the second trip over the bridge Smiley and Junie ran ahead and we heard a train blow its whistle. Now, let it be known that from MY vantage point I could see the train was headed down the track but if you were taking a photograph from where LuLu and YaYa were standing it looked like that train was a'barrelling down the bridge and right at the lil' ones who had nowhere to go. 

YaYa and LuLu screamed and screamed until the train went past, then ran to gather up their siblings. They (the older two) were clearly traumatized, while the little kids seemed perplexed by the attention. While it was terrifying for both of my oldest two, the incident made me fee warm inside - when push came to shove, they love their siblings and hated the idea of them being hurt. 

We may take that walk again, and soon, because the kids have expressed an interest in taking the tracks all the way to the road by our house (several miles) and to quote Lisa "they don't get as much excitement as I did as a kid. If you're with them, and its safe, I think it would be good for them."

What a great Communion day Smiley had!