lessons learned at the dollar store

I picked the big kids up from school this afternoon and instead of going home, I embarked on a little adventure. I surprised my offspring with a trip to the dollar store in a town about a half hour away. When we arrived in the parking lot I told them they could each picked out two things. Whatever they wanted. El Fuego asked "even it costs a 100 dollars". Ha-Ha, my little red head friend, I responded "everything is only a dollar so you can pick out any two things your little heart desires." This was an amazing concept for the kids. The store is the limit and they could choose any two things they wanted.

I thought this would be a fun way for them to rationalize what was really important to them. Did they really want the plastic water gun over the box of cookies? Would a rubber dolphin be more fun than the pack of Sara Bella cards? The decisions. The strategies. It was fun to watch.

And then....

Then... THEN! El Fuego announced he had to use the bathroom. BADLY!!! Too bad to hold it and wait.

We roamed the store looking for that magic door with the unisex block people. No luck. I found a dollar store employee and asked if there was a bathroom in the store. She told me there wasn't one and the nearest one was down the strip at an Asian restaurant. She apologized a few times and then went on her way.

I led my three children down the sidewalk and opened the door to the restaurant we were told to go to. The man behind the counter was NOT friendly. Not friendly at all.

I told the obvious owner of our situation and he began to argue with me about the elusive dollar store's bathroom location. I stopped Mr. Miyagi mid sentence and told him "The dollar store employee told us they didn't have a bathroom. My son has an emergency and they told us to come here. Now can we use your bathroom or would you rather clean up urine off your floor?" He agreed reluctantly. Upon leaving, I told him "Thank You (!) for understanding" and he didn't say a word. Of course.

We continued our big shopping adventure and slowly walked down almost every aisle. It didn't take long before I got the sense we were being followed. A young man, dressed like the very last place he should be is the dollar store was lurking around corner after corner. Working my way through college at a retail establishment myself, I determined he was security for the store not a customer. I think the time he spent browsing the craft paper with green flowers gave him away for sure. I really couldn't believe it. I was showered, dressed in clean clothes, none of my kids were running around the store screaming and I wasn't yelling across poorly displayed rows of cheap plastic toys that somebody was going to get their "asses beat if they didn't stop doing that right now."

None the less, after much deliberation, each child had two things they wanted to leave the store with. I even found coconut cups for Miss Divine's under the sea birthday party. Everyone was happy. Everyone except the gal behind the dollar store's cash register. Not that I expected her to be giddy, but at the very least friendly. She wouldn't make eye contact with me and refused to smile. I made a point of trying to break the ice by asking her how her day was going; to which she barely squeaked out an answer, opening her lips only enough to push out "fine" between her teeth. I quickly realized her resentment (if that's what it was) towards me was purely because of our different skin colors which somewhat surprised me.

We left with our bags of goodies while my mind reeled and my children oblivious to all the things that happened to us in the hour we spent in a town that is not our own. On the drive home I decided that my life might not be perfect. I'm not rich. I'm not the weight I wish I could be. My car isn't brand new. I'm often tired and my house is often messy. But, you can bet your bottom I am very, very, very happy I don't work at the dollar store. I don't have mean Asian men arguing the whereabouts of bathrooms. And, the people I encounter from day to day are for the most part in good spirits and pleasant.

I entered the dollar store to kill some time and empower my children's independence. I left the dollar store feeling lucky and good about myself. Who knew.

body butter

Petite Artiste and I were out and about this afternoon. We came across this little find. Lemon Lollipop based out of Seattle WA. It was love at first smell. It is yum-tastic!! Not from the Seattle area?? You can find her products on Etsy as well. I'm a fan of the Pink Vanilla whipped body frosting....and so is Petite Artiste.

mermaids taking over

I find myself in the midst of mermaids this afternoon. Miss Divine brought a friend home after school and they have been happily flipping tail fins ever since.
We've had mermaids and ocean life on the brain this week. With the delivery of an order from Oriental Trading Company, we've been having fun with starfish.
We added starfish to the mermaid crowns. So cute!
Party invitations.
And favor buckets complete with handmade mermaid soap inside.

backyard beautification project

Backyard Corner
Side Yard (also from corner)
Behind house

This is my backyard as of October 2009. We love the space but knew we had a big job ahead of us when purchasing this house. First thing we knew we needed was a fence to contain two rascally puppies. Oh how I miss opening the backdoor and letting poopy pups out to do their business while I stay warm and dry in the comfort of my living room. *Sigh*

However, before putting a fence around the backyard premises, we have to have a few ten or more trees taken down. Some are so close to the house that it limits what we can do. Beautiful, yes. Too close for comfort in a bad windstorm?? Ya you betcha.

We are somewhat stumped. We want a deck or patio. The previous owner took out an old deck that was falling apart and starting building with cinder blocks. Not sure the direction previous owner was going with that whole idea but whatever. The cinder blocks are a tad dangerous for kids and dogs, so I want them gone as soon as possible. I've got backyard birthdays to plan!!

Dreams include: I would love a second story deck from our master bathroom stretching across the house passed the girls' bedrooms. I have visions of replacing their windows with french doors leading out onto the deck. How lovely would that be(!)? Mr. Hawthorne is not feeling me though. I also dream of a covered porch area off the back as well. I would love to have a green house with garden space and playground equipment as well. So much to think about.

Our dilemma is finding our vision (and the funds). We are seriously thinking about tree removal this month and I post these pictures for posterity purposes. More to come.

new favorite

I adore Bake It Pretty blog and shop. Everything is scrumptious!

playground politics

My son, El Fuego, came home with a communication slip after school today. For fighting. Physically pushing, shoving and hitting with another student. The "other kid". It wasn't until I opened his backpack and found the slip starring up at me that he remembered it was there and melted.

The first thing out of his mouth, of course, was that is was the "other kid's" fault. Which I believe. We've had problems with this "other kid" before not just with El Fuego but also with my kindergartner daughter, Miss Divine. The "other kid" reminds me of Eddie Haskell with an Italian mobster-esque look. "Other kid" even sounds like he is straight up New Jersey. Not even kidding. "Other kid" talks big to adults and stirs the pot with his peers. It drives me nuts. "Other kid" drives me nuts. Not to mention the fact "other kid" was trying to get Miss Divine to kiss and hold hands a few months back, "other kid" also managed to get Miss Divine banned from playing on all but one playground for a week while "other kid" got free rein of the equipment. In my opinion, loose lips should of had full rein of a bench in the office during recess leaving Miss Divine free to play on the monkey bars in peace.

Anyhoo....

Just last week a facebook friend was very upset about her child getting hurt by another child at a play area at the local mall. Her son walked away with a black eye and the mother of the other child didn't even seem to notice her offspring was involved in a tussle. Just days after hearing about that, I happened to come across Desperately Seeking Parents written by Dr. Paterno which I loved.

But....what do we do as parents to arm our children with protection when we aren't around??

At first we told El Fuego to be nice to "other kid" even though he doesn't necessarily like the kid. And that worked for a while. Now it's at the point where I am so annoyed with "other kid" that just the sound of "other kid's" name makes me feel stressed and angry.

We told El Fuego that it was OK to protect himself if he is being physically harmed. Of course it's best to go find a teacher for help, but in most situations there just isn't time for that. I believe this was one of those times that El Fuego was "kicked" into a situation where he felt threatened and therefore protected himself.

His very kind teacher does what she has to do although I think she understands our predicament. I heart her. We've been lucky that El Fuego's first and second teachers have been not only super people but outstanding teachers.

For now we feel we have given El Fuego the tools he deserves to protect himself and delegate his relationships. There is always going to be an "other kid" no matter what class or environment we find ourselves in. I, myself, have an "other kid". We all do really. At the end of day, we just try our best, as parents, to grow our children happy and healthy with minimal "other kid" difficulties.

as close as getting my name in lights

Last Friday I spent the day at Otion Soap with my good friend, Erin, and the Soap Queen herself. She hinted at writing a post on her blog about our fun with soaps and scrubs. You can check it out here. (Pssst! That's me in the middle.) Woohoo!! I'm famous.....well not really but it was a very fun experience and I'm looking forward to this new endeavour I'm about to embark on with Erin. More to come on that. Stay tuned.

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egg hunt

hoppy bunny day

what a difference

My mom recently pointed out these two pictures to me. The first was taken about three years ago and the second was taken this week. Both pictures taken on the same horse.

did you say chocolate?

My friend invited me to accompany her to the Otion Soap Bar today. We met with the lovely and talented Soap Queen herself. We experiment with different ways to incorporate chocolate into soaps and scrubs. The process is fascinating and less scary than I thought it was. We spent the entire day melting and pouring and testing. Pure bliss!!

mermaid crowns

My dear friend, Wendy, dropped off a bag of fabulous green tulle a few weeks ago and my heart went all aflutter. My first thought was to use this wonderful green material as seaweed decorations for Miss Divine's Under the Sea party. (and I'm sure I will have enough to do so) But I spied around the internet a cute way to make mermaid crowns. I embellished the thought a little bit. Here is what I did:

I cut strips of the green tulle and tied them around a thin girl's headband. (Found six packs at Target for 2 dollars::Goody brand)

Then I hot glued on some shells. I have a variety of shells so no two crowns will be the same, but wanted to give an idea of the basic crown.

They are super easy and very quick to do. Add cute mermaid model and these will make a great party favor.

make a splash

Miss Divine and I have been playing around with her under the sea birthday party for a while now. She decided she was fascinated with the idea of mermaids and asked if she could have a mermaid party when she turned seven. Since I like to generalize the theme and go hog wild, we agreed upon "Under the Sea" with mermaids, seashells and the color blue. I sort of love it. I am always on the hunt for anything involving the ocean.

Last month I thought a message in a bottle would be a cute way to send out the invitations. Last year for El Fuego's science party, we stuffed the invitations into a test tube. Mailing things like this is a little more spendy but the kids think it's fun. When I mailed the science party invites, the lady behind counter just could not, for the life of her, see my vision and kept telling me it would be cheaper to just hand them out. "Yes, I know that, but this is more fun!!" I repeated myself.

Anyway, I found these six packs of bottles at Michael's. They do have them at Oriental Trading Company however it was actually cheaper to buy two of these at Michael's than ordering the set of a dozen from OTC. I also picked up these cute starfish ornaments too.

I printed out the invitations on regular paper this time and ripped the edges to give them that 'been out at sea' look. If you rip the paper towards you, it will give you the white edges. Ripping away from you will not.

We rolled the messages (invites) and tied with with twine.

We added a seashell and some sand.

Then I replaced the string with twine and tied the starfish onto the bottles.

Ta-Da! Turned out pretty cute.

Now I have to figure out how to mail them.

sparkle, sparkle

This weekend I was MIA. Gone to a little town called Forks Washington. If you are a Twihard you will know exactly where I was and you are green with envy at this very moment. Although the town is nothing to write home about, the experience was a total riot. It was a town we knew no one but yet managed to see everyone we met around every corner. I loved it. We drove to Port Angeles on Friday and spent the day stopping here and there. Rounding the evening off with dinner at Bella Italia. After the mushroom ravioli, we drove into Forks.
Because the March 20th was the release date of New Moon on DVD, we happened to fall into a midnight release party at the Twilight Lounge with women and kids of all ages dressed in prom dresses and odd get-ups. It was fascinating to people watch. We happened to be the last three on the list to get a copy of the movie. After which, we retreated to our hotel room.
On Saturday, we ate at the coffee shop Stephanie Meyer ate at before heading off to our tour. We sat beside the Mitch Hansen band that played at the Vampire Ball the night before. Then we boarded a small bus and embarked on the Volturi Tour. Stopping off at Forks High School, Bella's truck, The Cullen's house, Bella's house, the Police Station, the Forks hospital, the vampire/ware wolf treaty line, La Push (first beach) and Jacob's house.






La Push Washington.

First Beach

After the tour and falling into a fundraiser/auction for the high school and shopping and grabbing dinner, we hit up Karaoke night at the Twilight lounge. Running into all the people we had met along the way. It was a blast!

It also rained on us of course...it wouldn't be Forks if it didn't.