This morning, Micah and I decided that we would split up boys vs. girls, and conquer the day. And to add extra spice, we were going to compete on who had the best day. The kids were totally excited, and we went into our corners to plan. Naturally, the girls and I chose a day of pampering…nail salon, make-up counters, and some sort of delicious fine dining.
We were all set, until Navy overheard the boy’s planning session — bike riding and camping, and then everything unraveled. The girls wanted to go with the boys. For some hormonal reason, my feelings were hurt. The boys refused allowing the girls. For an hour, I just wanted to take off by myself.
In the end, the girl’s threw me a bone, and let me take them…so I tried to really up my game, to get the boys vs. girls WIN!
We started in beauty baths, that turned into artistic baths.
Then they got gussied up in my parlor, for an afternoon at Downtown Disney!
Sephora was a hit, where my girls went wild for all of the samples.
Then Jamba Juice was a nice and light beverage, while we walked around.
A major hit was watching the chocolate factory make all of their Disney themed caramel apple.
And my final attempt at making our day the best, was a bear at Build-A-Bear!!!
Pippi created “Zazzy”, and she was utterly in love — especially for my love note I put in the hand, that she played about a thousand times before getting home.
On our way home, the girls were starving, so we stopped at Navy’s pick — Ichibirri!
if you ask me, the boys couldn’t have possibly won.
NO WAY!
We called to brag, and they explained that they were just settling in their tent. When I caught eyes with Navy, I could tell that she wanted to be in that tent so badly. So I drove the 20 minutes to the campsite. The boys insisted they won with their biking and camping adventure. I was trying to sway the girls into thinking we won. After disagreeing, we were all closing our eyes to fall asleep, but one last check of the weather, so I could know what sort of covers I wanted on me showed rain at 2 am!!!
I showed Micah, then grabbed the little kids, and got the heck out of dodge! He came home a bit later with everything packed up, and told me that I had ruined the boys day.
YEAH RIGHT!
More like, I SAVED IT!
So in the end, the boys are convinced their day was better. But I told them that we ultimately won, because their day was only “better” because the girls saved it!
So congrats to me and the girls.
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Here are a few outtakes from the boy’s day — stolen from Micah’s camera:
Lately, I have had major complainers in my kids. So I implemented the “Lucky Me”. Whenever I hear one of them compalining, I look at them and say “LUCKY ME”, and they have to pull out some sort of silver lining to shift their way of thinking.
Recently, Scout was complaining about too much homework, so I said, “LUCKY ME!”
Then he said, “Lucky me, that I get to have a good education.”
Another time, Navy was complaining about a slammed finger, when I said, “LUCKY ME!”
She replied with, “Lucky me, that I didn’t break my finger all the way.”
Another time, Dash had to set the dinner table, and he didn’t want to, so I called out, “LUCKY ME!”
He called back, “Lucky me for getting to eat the good food my mom makes.”
These have evolved with Scout and Navy to include a bit of sarcasm, such as the time Scout was complaining about Navy’s teasing.
I said “LUCKY ME!”
Then he said, “Lucky me that I don’t have two Navy’s in my life!”
Good thing that Dash stays sweet on the LUCKY ME’s.
Guess who got caught in the chocolate.
Pippi said , “Not me!”
I’ve heard about Sea Glass Beach for a long time, but I have also known that it is really inaccessible…especially for young kids, and old moms.
The hike in made me nervous, but not as much as the hike out — with it getting dark.
Thank goodness for Brett and Micah, who were huge helps.
There wasn’t nearly as mush sea glass as I thought there needed to be, to make it worth it.
But being with cousins was a huge hit.
And that always makes it worth it!
There is a constant power struggle between Navy and Dash — on who has Grey as their best friend. Navy and Grey have a huge history of best friendship. They have played with each other since they were babies. But now that Dash is a bit older, the same size as Grey, and likes race tracks, Dash is taking over. Poor Navy. Her femininity is screwing her. But even though it bums her out, I just tell her that Dash can’t marry Grey, and that she can!
She doesn’t like my reasoning, but secretly — I think she actually does!
Bree gave Micah “The World’s Hardest Puzzle”. It may not look it from the picture — but the puzzle was the same on the front as the back, the back was turned to a 90 degree angle. it really did prove to be tough. But Micah and I were in sync — making it happen. Then the “Puzzle-Not-Masters”, Trilby and Skylar wanted in on the action. By the end, everything was so screwed up, it was crazy. On the one side, it looked great. On the other side — it was a disaster.
My mom gave me a book titled, “Children, The Challenge” a while back, and I have been slowly reading through it. According to her, it was the best book about raising children from her child-rearing days. I actually love reading it, and can certainly see some of the good things my mom got out of it, and put into practice. One thing my mom mastered, was encouraging all of us. I think she just has an encouraging nature, but this book really touches on the power of encouragement. It basically says that when you encourage, you allow your child to become capable of tackling life. Whereas, if you discourage, the child takes it as he/she isn’t capable of the task, and then that carries over into all tasks after years of discouragement. It can be a subtle as a child trying to make her bad. After they make it (and it is an OK job), you should just tell them it was a great effort, and then just leave it. Because if you say nice work, and then go and remake it, the child internalizes it as “I don’t do it well”. Or if a child bombs a test, rather than get on them about failing, you can bypass that bad grade, and encourage by saying, “I can see that you were really trying hard on your penmanship, and it looks nice”. Honestly, my mom would have definitely pointed out the bad grade, but then would have added the penmanship part. So, lately I have been trying to be more encouraging.
Okay — my problem is that when situations arise, I sometimes hesitate on whether or not I should encourage. For example, today Pippi got into the nail polish and glitter make up. She stayed in the bathroom (the rule with polish) and proceeded to paint her own nails and toes, and put a little glitter shadow on.
My gut reaction was to get really irritated that she was in the forbidden stuff. There could have been a disaster with her naughtiness. So was I supposed to encourage? Was I really supposed to tell her that she did a great job painting her nails and toes, and eyelids? I knew she knew she’d done something naughty, I could tell by her body language. But I tried the book’s words out. I said, “Wow Pippi! You did such a nice job of staying in the lines on your nails.” She looked up at me with her confused eyes, and said back, “I stayed ONLY in da baffwoom. And I put everything away. And I walked like dis…” (She walked on her heels with her toes in the air.) I told her that she was a big girl, and I was glad she followed the rules so carefully. And then I slyly and quickly went to check the bathroom. It was spotless. There was even a paper towel in the trash, that she had used under her. I was impressed, and then stuck the forbidden stuff in the far back of a pretty full drawer.
I’ll admit that Pippi definitely seemed empowered by my reaction. I’ll also admit that my reaction goes against my brain. But for today it worked…and I will happily accept that and read on.
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