The Princess Academy

Well life has made a complete 180 from Thursday! Heidi's birthday was very sweet. She had a great day at school, got just what she wanted for her birthday, and had dinner at Famous Dave's with her family. On Saturday, things got interesting.

The first task of the day was to pick up eight folding chairs from the church, which is just a block away. Simple enough, right? Wrong. I got there a little early and decided to entertain the kids by pretending we were lost in the parking lot. Bear in mind that the parking lot was completely empty. I went in circles around a lamppost for a while, then said "Do you ever feel like you're just going in circles?" Clyde laughed and said "We ARE going in circles!". We were all laughing when a van pulled up next to mine. It was a friend who lives a few houses down from the church and she was very concerned. We unrolled our windows and she asked if I was alright. "I saw you driving around in circles and I thought you might be having a breakdown or something!". This made me laugh even harder. I guess that last post (Deep Sigh) must've sounded really bad! I've received a few worried emails about it too. Got the chairs. Went home. So far, so good. Pulled into the garage, opened the door from the garage to my kitchen and took in my purse and Eric (who was sitting strapped into his removable infant carseat). Clyde and Heidi zipped around out front on their scooters while I brought chairs in the house. Jack was waiting in the kitchen for me because he was barefoot and the ground was a little chilly. After I took in the last of the chairs, I stepped out front and called the kids back inside. When we got to the door in the garage, it had been shut and locked from the inside. We spent the next thirty or so minutes yelling at Jack through the door, trying to get into the house. He didn't seem to understand that 'turn the lock' didn't mean 'turn the handle'. I heard my keys jingling and his little voice "keys!" on the other side of the door. It was a nightmare. Anyway, I had my phone with me, so we called Ron and he came flying home to rescue us. Eric was very upset about being stuck in his seat for so long, and Jack was still trying to open the doors. I'm so glad he didn't start to panic. I would have done something stupid, like broken a window, if I'd heard my two year old panicking in the house alone.

With that ordeal over, I was left with about half an hour to set up the entire party. Clyde and Heidi helped me get everything ready while Ron picked up the balloons. Amazingly, the room was all set up when the little girls started to arrive. They explored their princess goody bags while I got the food ready. Sitting at a pink table with pink & silver ribbons, pink mini-lights, pink roses, heart confetti, pink balloons, and pink feather boas, eight little girls drank pink punch and dipped pink cookies in a chocolate fountain. They learned to curtsy, walk with a book on their head and hold their little punch cups with their pinkies up. Then we took care of the other things a princess must do to earn her tiara; eating lots of chocolate, having soft lips for prince charming (we made shea butter lip balm in little silver slide tins with glitter and yummy flavors-- my hands will smell like pink bubble gum for weeks to come), and mastering dragon slaying (the pinata). As we completed each lesson, the girls stuck little rose stickers on their report cards until they were filled. The graduating class was then presented with sparkly silver sequin tiaras and certificates of "princesshood". Each princess had her own princess cup cake (with a sparkly pink or purple candle in it) and we sang Happy Birthday to Heidi. Presents were opened, and the princesses went back to their kingdoms, decked out in shiny pink feather boas, sparkling tiaras, big 'diamond' rings, and pink 'pearl' necklaces. Their party favor bags (pink handled deals with pink tissue paper and pink nametags) also held a bottle of pink soda (Jones' Watermelon Soda), candy lipstick, a cello bag of pinata candy (also all pink), Disney princess stickers, a shaker of pink glitter with a pink sparkly puff, and a silver wand with a pink or purple sequin heart and streamers. The highlight of the party for me was watching eight little girls in dressups beating the crap out of a menacing green dragon pinata with a big wooden stick. After countless attempts at whacking the beast, they decided it would be better to rip him apart with their bare hands. During the melee, one girl (not mine, surprisingly) screamed "RIP HIS HEAD OFF!", as green tissue paper flew through the air. It was hilarious! Or perhaps it was the comment made by one little girl in regard to why they haven't met Prince Charming yet... I was saying; "he might be a six year old like you guys, or live far away..." and the sweetheart with blonde ringlets called out; "Or he might be in jail!". Um... OK. Funny, I don't think I've met her father yet, come to think of it.

Craziness aside, the boys showed up after the guests had left. Their arrival was heralded by repeated ringing of the doorbell. I opened the front door to find a very bald Clyde standing there, grinning at me. Before I had a chance to fully realize his lack of hair, Ron stepped aside to reveal a shaved toddler. Apparently, Jack was so taken with Clyde's new do that he wanted the same done to his own hair. Ron had the presence of mind to let him keep some fuzz, so he isn't a cue ball like his brother. The two of them had their shot at the chocolate fountain, which Jack pretty much bathed in.
We had cheeseburgers, potato salad and fresh fruit for dinner, followed by a dense dark chocolate bundt cake with chocolate glaze (Mom & Dad Whitaker know this one-- they had it when they were here last). Heidi kicked all our butts at Princess Monopoly (a birthday present from her party) after dinner. During the game, we learned that Clyde's girlfriend's favorite color is purple. He said (my quote of the day); "You know how I found out? I didn't ask her, I didn't go online and find out about her, I learned about her fair and square." I don't know where he gets this stuff.

To the majority, the party was a huge success. Ron, on the other hand, was totally offended at his exclusion from the festivities. He has already mandated that the boys will have "boys only parties" and I will have to take Heidi elsewhere so they can celebrate. Clyde objected, saying he wanted boys and girls at his party, but that I could still take Heidi somewhere else during it. My rebuttal to Ron's argument that Eric and Jack should have all-boy parties, was that Heidi & Clyde wanted their party guests to be their peers, regardless of gender (although Heidi's party would have been a nightmare to any boy who was unfortunate enough to be in attendance). This would mean that Eric would only be able to have one year old guests at his party in April, and I would have to take the other three out of the house while it went on. Ron said the age was irrelevant, which is entirely untrue. I told him that he would have to plan the party himself if I was going to be banned from attending, and he immediately offered Clyde a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese's. This, of course, made Heidi extremely upset. The two kids have always wanted to go, but haven't been there yet. I argued that Chuck-E-Cheese was a different type of party altogether. The place is very large and the other kids could attend without even being seen by the party guests, whereas it would be impossible to have a younger-sibling-free party in our small home. Ron kept agitating me until I was ready to scream, at about which point I noticed the twinkle in his eye, and the smile pulling at his mouth. He absolutely loves to mess with me! I don't know why. I don't like making people angry with me. He's just weird. In all seriousness, I think he was frustrated that he wasn't able to come to her party. In retrospect, I should have found a way to have Clyde and Jack stay home during the party so that Ron could have been involved. Heidi knew exactly why they needed to be far away though. As she put it; "They'll ruin the party!". And they would have. Clyde takes great pleasure in making her furious (I wonder where he gets that), and Jack is a great destructive force (think Godzilla). The two of them together wouldn't have been able to resist tormenting the girls at the party. I didn't think that Ron would have wanted anything to do with a big pink princess affair, but I guess I was wrong.

So another week begins. My legs are weak and shaking from the heavy lower body workout I just completed. What a great feeling! I had balsamic grilled chicken salad for my midmorning meal and will be eating either an Asian chicken wrap on whole wheat with toasted sesame seeds or tuna with lemon and half a sweet potato for lunch. I hate decisions. Only ran two and a half miles on the elliptical trainer before the workout. Gotta do two and a half more (at least) later today to reach my goal. Yuck. I hate cardio. My awesome workout partner and I are going to do walking lunges with strollers around the neighborhood tomorrow, if my legs aren't too sore from today. I might just have to walk with her instead.

Oh, one last thing. I sat down yesterday and looked over our finances from the last four months. Very interesting. It looks like I can afford to hire someone to come help out around here once or twice a week! When Ron's parents were in town, I found that I got a lot more done around here. This was thanks to his Mom, who helped out enormously both by entertaining Eric and by doing things around the house. Hiring someone will hopefully make life easier for me again. Of course, having their Grandma around was special because she really loves the kids and I love having her for company. It won't be quite the same with someone who's there just because she's getting paid. Wish me luck.

OK. Off to do some housework, pick up Clyde and eat some chicken. Love to all.