Friday Happy Hour Chez les Bonds

Everyone who knows us, knows we like to kick back on Friday nights.  Well...Lila would like to start Friday Night Happy Hour off right by saying,

"Cheers!!"

Let's face it, there's nothing like a cold "Kid-Beer" after a long hard week.  You don't have to be all fancy about it...

...sometimes, drinking out of the bottle is fine.

 

Just don't forget to save the cap for your collection.  Oh, and by the way, Lila gives two enthusiastic 'thumbs up' for Boylan's Root Beer.   

We sincerely hope that wherever you are, you're enjoying your Friday night.

Time Flies When You're Making Cupcakes

It's Tuesday.  One of our busy days.  Lila's school lets out at 2:00.  Jake's school lets out at 3:00.  Lila's gymnastics practice starts at 4:00.  Jake's soccer practice starts at 6:00.  That's a lot of running around.  It's also fairly typical around these parts.  So, to make things a little easier, one of the other Team Moms and I switch off watching each other's kiddo on Tuesday afternoons.  This week was our Tuesday with Taylor.  To celebrate the lovely spring weather we're experiencing, we decided to make some springy pink flower cupcakes with purple icing...and sprinkles, of course!

After a mad dash to the grocery store to pick up a cake mix, we whipped up the cupcakes just in time to get them in oven to bake while I picked Jake up from school.  We super-cooled them in the fridge so we could decorate -- and eat them before it was time to leave for practice.  Delila & Taylor volunteered to test the sprinkles, you know, to make sure they were good.

It was unanimous -- the sprinkles passed the taste test.  But what about the cupcakes?  The batter was pink, after all.  They could be horrible!

Nope!  Pink flower cupcakes + purple frosting + sprinkles = yummy!!  By the way, Jake was not too pleased about this pink flower cupcake thing.  Not pleased at all.

Duke did his best to assure him that eating a pink flower cupcake with purple frosting would not turn him into a girl.

Sufficiently convinced, Jake decided to take the chance.  Guess what!  He's still a boy!  Can you believe it?!   (But being the devoted mother that I am, I did make him a couple of regular old round cupcakes with blue batter.  Never let it be said that I don't run a fair household.)

Well time really flies when you're making cupcakes, and that was just about all the spare time we had on our Tuesday.  Hope yours wasn't as busy, but was just as yummy!

A Great Day with MaMa

We always love having company, but especially when it's MaMa!  She came in for a visit last weekend, which meant lots of fun and lots of spoiling.

MaMa arrived Friday afternoon.  We took it easy for the first half of the weekend.  Playgroups and sports practice kind of took presidence over everything.  But Sunday...well that was our FUNday.  After a breakfast of Sunday Waffle Sundaes, we headed off to the American Airlines Center.  MaMa was treating us to the Disney on Ice presentation of Toy Story 3.  It was freezing inside and our view was obstructed, so I'm not sure the grownups had a great time, but the kids didn't seem to care.  They had a blast.  

After the show, we were happy to be outside in the warm sun.  We were starving (because mean old mommy wouldn't spring for the $10 cotton candy and the $8 snow cones), so we headed over to the Knox Henderson area for some al fresco dining.  After lunch, we crossed the highway for some ice cream and a trip to our favorite shopping destination:  Froggies!

Froggies is funTAStic!  It's a toy store, a kids' bookstore & a novelty store all in one.  Don't bother going in there unless you've got a couple of hours to kill.  MaMa wanted to treat the kids to a little something special, so this was just the place we needed to be.  Lila's first pick was a fabulous pair of princess sunglasses, but she changed her mind when she found...

...the Barbie Movie Theater Book!!!  "O! M! G!  Can I have it?!  Please oh please oh PLEASE!?!?!"  Leave it to MaMa to say yes!  And while I have a serious aversion to Barbie, I must admit this is a pretty cool little set up.  Slip a disk into the little projector, head for a dark room (like a closet or our powder bath), hit the switch and you've got yourself a slide show.  I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the projector.  It's got a focus feature, and the images are quite sharp.  I'm not sure how impressed MaMa is with the cold comfort of the tile on our powder room floor, but she was a real trouper about it.

Jake chose a glow-in-the-dark Nano Hex Bug & Track set.  He just loves these little guys and was so excited when he saw there was one that glowed in the dark.  Guess what that meant for MaMa?  Yep, more time sitting in the dark on the floor of our powder room.  Poor MaMa!  

 If it's any consolation, both kids have played with their gifts everyday since.  Lila's taken her book to school to share the magic with her friends, and Jake can't wait to get home to play with his tracks & bugs.  I especially appreciate Jake's little glow in the dark bug.  It's one of the only toys in the house that I don't run the risk of stepping on in the middle of the night.  It glows so brightly, it can practically light up an entire room!

But the pièce de résistance of MaMa's visit was the return of Nay-Nay.  You may recognize Nay-Nay - the pink & white, sawdust-stuffed unicorn Lila won on the Boardwalk in Ocean City last summer.  She stayed behind in Maryland because there was no room in our luggage to bring her home to keep MaMa company.  Well, there's nothing as joyful as a girl and her unicorn reunited.  Thanks, MaMa.  And thanks for coming to spoil us! 

Run for Your Life!! ~or~ Pay Up, Please

Boosterthon!  It's fun!  It's fitness!!  It's...(not) free!!!  But it comes with a bunch of really cool free junk like t-shirts, headbands, shoelaces, backpacks, footballs (yes, footballs!), etc.  Just the motivational kind of crap every mother needs laying around the house!

So, just what is Boosterthon, you ask?  Well, it's Anderson Elementary's idea of a FUNdraiser -- with the emphasis on fun.  And let me tell you, it was lots and lots of fun...except for the calling around and begging for money part, of course.  The idea is that the kid calls his friend and family and asks them to sponsor him as he runs laps around a field.  All the money goes directly to the school and is used to purchase technology products for the classroom.  Great idea, right?  Except that getting your kindergartener to make the pitch over the phone is...well...it's like trying to get a 6-year-old to do anything that requires sitting still and speaking intelligibly. We managed to muddle through that part.

Race day dawned on a beautiful morning...a bit crisp, but beautiful.  The perfect day for a race, and much better than the day before which was cold and wet.

Lila was ready to get in on the action too!  (Oh, and by the way, she'll be hitting you all up for funds in a couple of years.  So start saving!)

Music thumped and parents cheered as Kinder took the field.  All the kids were psyched up and ready to run.

Lila made sure the Rehydration Station was well stocked for all the thirsty runners.

In a sea of white Boosterthon t-shirts, Jake was easy to spot.  He was the one wearing his very serious race-day face and doing his warm-up calisthenics. 

When the whistle blew, Jake shot out of the Kinder starting blocks - determined to be the first to cross the finish line. 

Keeping track of the laps was done by parent-volunteers with strong backs.  Each child had to stop at a designated spot to get the back of their shirt marked.  It created a bit of a bottle neck, but it also gave the kiddos a chance to catch their breath since these kids only have one speed -- full-throttle.

 

Rehydration breaks also offered an opportunity to take a breather.  

Some of our more experienced 1st grade friends, like Michael, opted not to stop for water - knowing that hydration breaks eat up valuable seconds in a race. 

But race coordinators did their very best to encourage water breaks, by enlisting the assistance of pretty girls to hand out cups.

Good buddy, Christopher represented for 1st grade by crossing the finish line first.  Jake met his goal just moments after.  He was the first Kindergartener to hit the Lap Cap and finish the race.

After a quick photo-op with his oh-so-pretty teacher, Ms. Lyttle...

...he took off to encourage his best pal, Andrew finish his last couple of laps.

And for those of you who need it, here's your proof.  35 laps, run hard and fast.  Pay up!