Happy Mother's Day

"When you're giving up, put on your Mom Jeans!" It's from one of my favorite SNL "commercials." Here, watch:




Probably the only SNL "commercial" I might like better is the Oops! I Crapped My Pants! one.

Yo Gabba Abners

Chase & I put our family in the Yo Gabba Gabba theme song and it goes...

SIMON! He's smart and artsy!
JONAS! He's mad and funny!
CHARZIE! She's sweet and curly!
MOMMY! She does the laundry!
DADDY! He loves his iPhone!
Let's all come and play with the Abner fam today!
Yo Gabba Gabba, Yo Gabba Gabba,
Yo Gabba Gabba, Yo Gabba Gabba
Yo Gabba Gabba, YO!

Neglect

Yeah, I've been completely neglecting this blog. It's not that I haven't had ideas to blog about, it's more that I haven't felt like any of those ideas are worthwhile.

I'm tiring of blogging about what's been going on and just posting pictures of my super cute kids.

Before everyone and their grandparents were on facebook, this blog was an easy way to show my friends & family what I've been up to, but now they can just facebook stalk me or instagram stalk me or twitter stalk me and see that in real time or close to it. I'd rather write something a little more entertaining.

The problem is, I've been uninspired.

I don't think I'm going to change the world or become some sort of internet comedian or make it as a mommy blogger or anything. I just want to write something... else?

Since I'm uninspired, I'll just give an update with pictures of what's been going on:

Simon got glasses.
Jonas wants glasses (and will wear his sunglasses around the house).
We had about a week of sick kids.
We cleaned up lots of gumballs from our yard.
There are still lots of gumballs in our yard.
Simon turned 5.
I made him a bug cake & we celebrated with our church community group.
We also made a trip to Kings Island to celebrate again with family.
Chase has been playing music.
I went to a concert at a basement venue where I saw Lucius and Tall Tall Trees.
I hula hooped with a friend between sets because a hoola hoop enthusiast hangs out at the house where we saw the concert.
Chase bought me a Lucius shirt.
I waited too long to change Charzie's diaper & pee got on that shirt.
I'm working on Charlotte's 2nd birthday party.
It's Yo Gabba Gabba! themed.

Now pictures:

Simon showed me bugs in a book & I put them on his cake

Spectacled Sime blowing out his candle

Simon at Kings Island with his funnel cake

My grandpa poking a kosmoceratops with his cane at Kings Island

Simon & Jonas showing some dino-love at Kings Island

This one is almost 2!

The birthday invitation (front) I designed for Charlotte

Bat-Charz

Charlotte (just about 22 months old) was just acting tired but it's too early to put her down for a nap. We'd already read some books and I decided it would be better to let her watch some TV than to have her fussing now (from her being tired) or later (from napping too early and getting tired)...

Me: Do you want Mommy to turn on a movie for you?
Charzie: Yeah
Me: What do you want to watch? Princess? (Cinderella)
Charzie: No
Me: You don't want to watch Cinderella?
Charzie: No
Me: What do you want to watch?
Charzie: Batman!

My baby girl is borderline obsessed with Batman, and I'm not talking the modern cartoons or movies either. She loves Batman: The Movie starring Adam West. She asks to watch Batman at least once a day and will laugh maniacally if I turn it on for her. She talks about Batman, Penguin and Joker. She calls her room "My Bat Cave" and will also say that the arches from our entryway to the dining and living rooms in our house are the Bat Cave.

Charlotte actually watches the movie, too. She'll gather her blankies and some toys on the couch and just sit watching Batman. I'll hear her exclaim, "Oh no! Batman! Look out!" during parts of the movie where Batman seems be in peril. She will get up and play a little while the movie is on, but she makes sure to keep an eye on her hero.

I can only assume her Batman obsession started with her big brother Jonas being all about The Bat. But this girl is taking it to a whole nutha level. We might be in trouble here...

Valentine's Soaps 'n Stuff

So, it's Valentine's Day.  My kids love their friends and family and enjoy making things to give/send to them.  I'm kind of artsy and a bit crafty, so when the mood strikes and the kids aren't cranky and one or more of them are occupied or napping, I like to help them make things for their friends & family.  I don't think crafting with your kids makes you a good parent and the inverse of not crafting with your kids certainly does not make you a bad parent.  Other than making art using pencils, crayons, markers & stickers, we only do a handful of crafts a year (you know, because I have three small children which equals utter chaos most of the time most days).  This year it worked out for Simon (age 4) and me to make these cute little heart-shaped soaps to give to the kids' friends, their cousin and grandparents...

Cute right?  We already had the soap-making stuff (glycerin bars, soap dye & soap scent) because a couple Christmases ago we made soaps with tiny ornaments inside to give out.  As the kids and I were perusing Target a week or so ago, I came across these ice cube trays in one of the bargin bins at the front of the store:

I know melting crayons down into different shapes using trays & pans is a pretty popular craft right now, and that was the inspiration for this soap project.  When I saw the tray I instantly thought it was perfect for making little soaps!  And since we already had the stuff at home, there was no loading the kids up to make a special trip to get supplies, it really was the perfect Valentine craft.

I simply melted the glycerin in a big bowl using the microwave, Simon stirred while I added the soap dye & soap scent, then I used a ladle to pour the liquid into the tray.  It hardened in less than 30 minutes and was ready to pop out.  Simon & I used some plastic wrap to package the soap.  I tied it with some paper ties from packaging from some Imaginext toys the boys got recently (I saved the ties because I thought they would make some cute gift wrap options, glad I did).  Simon was the art director as I made tags on the computer.  Then I just cut the tags out with scrapbook scissors (because I cannot cut a straight line to save my life and the wavy scissors make that less obvious), punched a hole and tied the tag on.

I think our tag is pretty clever, if I do say so myself...

I felt the need to put "It's soap!" on the tag because I wouldn't want their friends to mistake it for candy...

The soaps are small, cute, smell good without too much scent, AND the kids love using them to wash their hands (3-year-old Jonas will purposely touch the potty so that he has to gets to wash his hands with these soaps!).  So they're decorative yet practical.  It's very likely that Simon and I will do this again next year for his kindergarten class Valentines.  How is it he's old enough to start kindergarten next school year?!?!

So the soaps were Valentines for the kids' friends.  A few weeks ago while we were at Target (different trip than the aforementioned one, we all love us some Target), on an impulse I got the kids some way awesome Valentines cups...

Target had this whole display of circus-y Valentines stuff.  If you really know me, you also know that I love love love the circus.  So I really couldn't not get these cups for the boys.

I especially had to get them because for Simon's 3rd birthday he had a circus party and I made Jonas into a strong man on the invitations & decorations...

So then I couldn't get the boys a cup without getting one for Charlotte as well...

Just look at that girl!  She likes monkeys and will often just sit on the floor saying, "Mon-kee soun, mon-kee soun... AH! AH! AH!"  So the monkey cup was fitting.

So I hope you enjoyed my super-long Valentine's post.  I'll leave you with a picture of Simon being the strong man on his cup.

Life Aspirations

When I grow up I will be a super-strong ninja.  I will be able to lift 10 houses.  If there are bad guy ninjas, I will fight them.  If there are no bad guy ninjas, then I will just save people from fires.  -Simon, age 4

A Lincoln Coloring Page for YOU!

It's Ol' Abe's birthday today.  I drew this years ago and made it into a coloring page.  Print it.  Color it.  Enjoy.

Oh, and while sitting in my lap as I posted this, Charzie looked at my Lincoln picture and said, "Oh no!  Scary Guy, don't eat me!"