The Thursday Night Gong Show

Every family has 'those' nights where you feel like you're running around like a chicken with its head cut-off, while screaming: "Is it bed-time yet?!?!"

Today was one of those nights.

It started with me having a major brain fart.  Shannon was going to her friend's dance class because it was "Bring a Friend to Dance Class" night, and her friend picked Shannon.  She was BEYOND excited.  She was all set to go in her dance leotard, leg warmers (yes, I said leg warmers), and had her hair in a bun.  I started making dinner, while we waited for 5:30 to roll around (which was the time the dance class started).  At 5:06 I heard my phone beep, only to discover a text from my friend. It read: "Is Shannon still coming to dance?"

Oh.  CRAP!!! Dance class started at 5:00 not 5:30!!!

Well thank goodness for those leg-warmers, because I threw Shannon in the car in her coat and boots and off we went.  I'm not going to say how fast I drove for fear of incriminating myself, but let's just say that I got her there by 5:10.

Oye.

Next on the docket was making cupcakes for Aidan's class to celebrate his birthday.  I saw this cool marshmallow icing trick on Pinterest (biggest time-suck EVER) and thought I'd try it.  It entailed putting a marshmallow on top of the cupcake with 5 minutes left to bake.  Simple right?

Simple if you are a mere mortal.  If you are a talented klutz like myself.... not so much.

Chris had gone to a meeting, so the kids were all crowded around me as I placed the marshmallows on the cupcakes in the oven.  Being uber-coordinated, I knocked the tray and one of the marshmallows fell off..... right onto the burner. 

Anyone who's been around a campfire knows what happens next:  POOF!  A marshmallow inferno.

Oh.  CRAP!!!!  (I'm sensing a theme here)

Time literally stood still as I stared at the blazing marshmallow.  Do I close the oven door and let it burn out? No.  That might ruin the element.  Do I throw water on it? No. That would ruin the cupcakes.  As I'm pondering what to do, another marshmallow fell and quickly ignited.

DOUBLE CRAP!

While yelling for the kids to stay back, I grabbed a pair of tongs, pulled the marshmallows off the element, blew them out and threw them in the sink.  Aidan quickly pounced into action and turned the water on, while yelling: "NO ONE TOUCH THE MARSHMALLOWS!!"  (thank God the almost 9 year old has some sense!)

After so much excitement, you'd think I'd ditch the marshmallow icing idea.  Nope - I'm stupid stubborn that way.  They emerged five minutes later looking - meh.  I put an Oreo cookie on top (hellooooooo.... it's supposed to be a hockey puck!) and voila!  Marshmallow topped cupcakes.

Those kids better appreciate those damn cupcakes!

After I cleaned the charred marshmallow remains from the sink, I turned around to find Marin putting on a tattoo (you know, the ones where you put the tattoo on, put a wet cloth on top and count to thirty?) She had the washcloth on her arm and was saying: "firty eight, firty nine.... what comes after firty nine Mummy?"

Trying not to laugh at the sheer cuteness of it, I said: "Forty."

"Oh" She said very seriously.  "Forty.  Forty firty one, forty firty two, forty firty free...."  Oh.  my... gosh.  If we could bottle that sweetness up I'd make a fortune!!!

Next it was time to straighten Shannon's hair.  WHAT?!?!? You ask.  I know - how could I DARE straighten her fabulous curls.  Well...... she's seen me straighten my hair and has asked me to do hers.  I've always said 'no' mostly because I know how freakin' long it would take to straighten her hair and I'm lazy.  But, tomorrow is rock star day at school so I told Shannon I'd straighten her hair, and then spray it blue. (Bite your tongue mom!)

So I popped in a movie and off we went.  Half an hour later, my girl's beautiful curls were gone. (the blue spray will be applied tomorrow)  Quinn took one look at her and said: "Wow! Shannon, you look like Rapunzel."  The child hasn't stopped smiling.

Well of course Marin wanted her hair straightened too.  You can imagined how thrilled I was to attempt to straighten an almost three year old's hair.  You know what?  That little monkey sat so still it was no problem.

She may be smiling in this picture, but she was quite angry that her hair wasn't as long as Shannon's.  She kept saying: "Mummy, you didn't straighten my hair!!"

And finally, it was bedtime.  And time for a glass of red for me.

Apparently I am THAT Hockey Mom

Something happened at Quinn's hockey this past weekend, and I've been humming and hawing about whether or not I should blog about it.  I finally decided to post about it, even though I know I will come across as a stark raving lunatic.

Quinn and Shannon play hockey at the same time. They are in an instructional league, and Shannon goes to one end of the ice with the beginner group, while Quinn skates on the other end of the ice with the 'competitive group'.

Now hockey is the one sport where Chris and I don't coach.  We both love the game and know a fair bit about it, but neither of us ever played hockey, AND both of us are mediocre skaters.  (yes, Aidan solidly kicks our butt in skating now).

Because we don't coach, we often sit on the bench biting our tongues.  Why - you say?  Well, we've both played enough competitive sports, and coached enough that we know how players, and especially young kids are supposed to be coached.

Now, back to Saturday.  Quinn's 'practice' started out with two coaches, and three older kids (I'm guessing the kids were 10, 13, and 18) playing a game of coaches vs. kids.  This can often be a great learning tool because you can show the kids techniques, and teach them about spacing, looking up, and passing.

You CAN do this, but this is not what they were doing.  Instead, it very quickly became a game of keep away.  Yep, 5 people played keep away from SIX YEAR OLDS for twenty minutes.  It was beyond frustrating to watch, and you could see the little guys getting more and more dejected.

Once they wrapped up the little exercise, they decided to work on penalty shots.  They lined the kids up and off they went.  Quinn took his shot (which was stopped by the goalie).  Next thing I know is that Quinn is skating over to the bench crying his eyes out.

He was soooo.... upset that he didn't get a goal.  I managed to calm him down and told him to go back out and get in line.  Then he said: "I'm not allowed to."

"What do you mean you're not allowed to?"

Another mom sitting on the bench (consoling her crying son) piped up and said: "they were told that if they miss the shot they have to come to the bench.  They're only allowed to go back in line if they score."

Let's remember that these children are six years old.  Let's remember that this is supposed to be INSTRUCTIONAL hockey.  Let's remember that the main goal of all this is to teach kids how to play hockey and have fun.

To say I saw red is an understatement.  I was absolutely LIVID.  Here is my child, bawling his eyes out because some jerk of a coach told him that because he 'failed' he couldn't try again.  No instruction was given on what he could do better, how he could improve.... nope, just go sit on the bench.

I immediately opened the gate, and started walking on the ice, ready to tear this coach a new one.  The other mom (the voice of reason) said: "Tara, don't do it."

I took a breath and walked back to the bench. 

Then I did the next best thing (in my twisted mind).  I started yelling at the coach. 

I'm not proud of it, but I was so furious at what was going on, so angry because my child was devastated that I started yelling at the coach.

"This is supposed to be INSTRUCTIONAL hockey!!!  You're SUPPOSED to be teaching them how to play - not sending them to the bench when they miss a shot!!"

Yep.  I was that hockey mom.  Unfortunately, my personality is such that I cannot keep quiet when something is being done to hurt my child (or any other child).  I simply can't sit there and grit my teeth and bite my tongue.  Obviously it's something I need to work on, because what am I teaching my kids?

In the end, they never gave Quinn (or the other three boys standing by the bench) a chance to go back in line.  After that little exercise was done, they played yet another game of keep away for the remainder of practice.

Good times.

This is how her mind works...

I was making nachos, and was singing: "Nacho Man" (from the Simpsons) at the same time.

Marin pipes up: "I not a Nacho Man."

So I said: "No, you're a Nacho Girl!"

She replied: "No, I not a Nacho Girl."

Me, "Well what are you then?"

Her response?  "I a superstar!"

You go girl!

Just a little off the side...

Quinn has always wanted me to shave his head.  As in bald.  Totally and utterly bald.

I have always refused.  He has such gorgeous red hair it would be a crime to take it off.  AND, (as I kept reminding him) his head would get awfully cold without hair on it.

Last night it was time for a trim, so I said: "Quinn what do you want me to do?"

He looked at me with a mischievous gleam in his eyes and said: "Can you take all the hair off my sides but leave a little on the top?" (knowing full well I'd say no)

Well, normally I'd say no.  This time I said: "ah why not?!?!"

He just about fell over he was so surprised!

So here is the result, my nearly bald, mo-hawked boy:

Side view:

Yep, he wanted a 'tail' down the back:

Smug little monkey!

Toothless Joe

I've always beleived that Quinn would loose his first tooth when he was eight years old.  As a baby, his teeth took forever to come in.  In fact, the little man didn't get all his teeth until he was three years old.

Fast forward to Quinn at 6 1/2.  A lot of his friends have lost teeth, some have even lost as many as SIX teeth already!  Not Quinn.  His teeth weren't even wiggly (hence why I thought he'd be eight before he lost one).  I know his teeth weren't wiggly because last week I checked because the poor child was so desperate to loose a tooth.

Well yesterday I picked the boys up from school and Aidan said: "MOM!  You'll never guess what happened to Quinn today!"  I looked at Quinn, and saw a gap-toothed little monkey smiling back at me. 

Apparently he was running at reccess, and his tooth spontaneously popped out of his mouth.  Seriously, a previously un-wiggly tooth just up and fell out.  Bizarre.  Quinn immediately ran across the yard to Aidan to tell him what happened.  Meanwhile the tooth in question was no where to be found. 

Aidan took charge (surprisingly enough) and took Quinn to the office (because his mouth was bleeding) and had his friends search for Quinn's tooth while they were gone.

Well, the tooth was never found, but Quinn was DELIGHTED with the new hole in his mouth.  Lucky for him the Tooth Fairy is very generous and overlooked the fact that there was no tooth under the pillow.

On Being Marin

Marin, being the 4th child, often has to be extra loud just to be heard in our house.  She gets dragged to her siblings' activities (without complaint from her), but she makes sure that EVERYONE knows she's there.

She is our little Miss Personality that one.  She doesn't.  Stop.  Talking.  Ever.

Eating dinner?  She'll have a discussion with herself on the merits of carrots versus peas.

Driving in the car?  She chats away or sings songs, or suddenly bursts out with: "Punch bug, no punch backs on Mummy!!!"

Playing in the family room?  She talks to her babies and tells them exactly what's going on.

She talks so much (and so well), that we often forget she's not quite three yet.

That being said, there is such a thing as too much talking.  You'll often hear Chris or I saying: "MARIN!  Stop talking!!"

And yes, we often get strange looks from people when they overhear this.

But one thing's for sure, our little Chatty Cathy is the cutest little chatterbug there is!

(at Aidan's latest hockey tournament, cheering her heart out!)

We Go Now, or Not at All

As I've said before,  this has been a brutal winter for doing things outside.  BRUTAL.  Now for all of you who like mild, non-snowy winters, this has been the winter for you.  For those of you who have children who love to play in the snow, go sledding and skating outside, this winter has sucked.

We finally got some snow this weekend, but because we were away at a hockey tournament, we didn't get the chance to take advantage of it (unless you call driving through blizzard-like conditions to a hockey arena 'taking advantage' of it!).

Because of this, I decided to take the kids straight from school to the toboggan hill yesterday.  Why such a rush you ask?  Well, we haven't been sledding yet this winter.  Yes, you heard right.  It was Jan 30, and we still had not gone sledding.

So we piled in the car with our sleds and snowpants and hit the hill.

Of course, Marin was exhausted so she fell asleep on the way to the hill - all 5 minutes of the drive!  So I put her in the sled, covered her with a big blanket and off we went:

 

 Aidan and Shannon tried to tandem - didn't work so well.

Aidan and Quinn had better luck (too bad I can't rotate the darn picture!)

 One of the funniest parts of the afternoon was when Shannon started using this little "Zippy" sled.  She was a wild-woman!!

Listen to the little rascal scream:

I'll tell you - I'm glad we went. Today was beautiful, sunny and 12 degrees (that's 53F for my American friends).  And yes, the snow is totally, and completely GONE.