Breaking Up Isn't Too Hard To Do

Earlier this week, we received some bad news from Number One Son. He told Lady Di he had something to tell her. Then he dropped the bomb. He got dumped by his girlfriend.

Well, maybe dumped is too strong a word. He was actually put into co-boyfriend status.

Back in November, N1S was in the community play Hansel and Gretel. At one of the rehearsals, he met a cast member who asked him if he liked her. She did this in front of a whole gang of her girl friends. He said, "Yeah, I guess." She answered with, "I like you too. We're boyfriend and girlfriend now.", and whole group of girls left squealing and clapping.

Knowing N1S, he probably just shrugged his shoulders and said OK. Those fourth grade girls sure are crafty.

Now fast forward to this week. When N1S son broke the news, Lady Di's first reaction was, "You have a girlfriend?" He told her the story of how they met five months ago and now she wants to 'take a break' from him to see if she likes Jason better. Considering N1S and his girlfriend were in different classes at school and haven't really seen each other for the last five months, he lasted pretty long in the relationship. He didn't even have to get her a gift for Christmas or Valentine's Day for crying out loud! Mind you, N1S still isn't out of the picture. We just have to see how things with Jason pan out. At least she didn't say she 'just wanted to be friends'. Even though that's pretty much what they were anyway.

Is this supposed to be happening already? I didn't think girls were supposed to like you until high school. Or maybe that was just me.

Lady Di said it seemed like N1S wasn't too upset over the whole deal. It probably served more as a reminder that he had a girlfriend. He may have even avoided a potentially unappetizing moment that Jason had to endure.

After relating his tale of lost like, N1S added that his ex also did something to Jason that was kind of gross. At that, Lady Di said her imagination was running wild with the possibilities. After inwardly calming herself down she asked, "What did she do that was so gross?"

"She took Justin's candy sucker and put it in her mouth." ,N1S answered.

Gross! Girl germs!

Up On The Roof Again

Spring is finally springing around here. The snowhill is now only a pancake and the air smells of thawing winter fertilizer. Liberty did a good job covering the front yard with brown Easter eggs all winter. I just need to let Lady Di know she can start collecting them anytime.

I got a little bit of a start on my job, taking down the Christmas lights. Christmas lights in March!? I know I'm a little late but if you lived in Frozen Tundra, MN, you would wait until after St. Patrick's Day too.

Anyway, I got the ladder out and anchored it firmly in the soggy, slippery mud. Up on the roof, I remembered the last time I ventured to this high place. Last year, I was taking lights down on a windy day and, of course, the ladder blew down. So I was stuck on the roof alone. The windows were locked, so I politely knocked on one to get the attention of my loving family inside the house. The knocking progressed to pounding on the wall to see if anyone missed their dear old Dad. After about twenty minutes, Lady Di came out to check on me. By then I was already trying to spell S.O.S. with shingles to signal airplanes flying overhead. Once she was done teasing me, she returned my ladder. Apparently, the kids had heard me knocking and pounding but didn't think it was more important than what Spongebob was doing on TV at the time.

Luckily, this year there had no such drama. It was a little breezy but the lights had to come down. After the roof was cleaned of its lights, the trees in the yard got defrocked. Here is the result of my labors.

Now I just have to find a place to store them. Maybe it would be better to leave them out all year. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth putting so many lights out each year.

Of course it is!

She Chose Me Again!

Friday night, I was granted the opportunity to escort a beautiful princess to a fancy ball. Sweet Pea's elementary lunchroom was the location for this years Daddy/Daughter Dance. We went to last year's kindergarten dance and I was lucky enough to have the prettiest girl in school ask me again this year. Another thank you goes to Lady Di for setting the stage for a magical evening. The girls started at the hairdresser's for a fancy bouffant. SP insisted on braids meeting in the back. Her exclusive hair stylist, Jeanette, once again worked her hair magic. Lady Di also saved my skin by ordering a corsage for me to present to SP.

SP wore a black sequined evening gown that matched the sparkle of the glitter in her hair. I wore my same old suit as last year, but with a green shirt.

For our pre-dance meal, we dined at the swankiest Subway in town. Last year, we went to Perkins, so this year I decided on a less messy, non-pancake serving restaurant. At the soiree, we got our portrait taken together. SP then ran off to squeal and giggle with her many friends. I'm used to my date ditching me at dances, but usually not before the first song. She did return to me though and we helped ourselves to cookies, goldfish crackers and punch. I tried to do the gentlemanly thing and pour her punch for her, but apparently first graders like to do that sort of thing by themselves.

The dance started with a few slow songs which brought out many graceful ballet-princess moves from the girls. We then had some fun with The Chicken Dance. Then they played the song Shout. The jumping and running part of the dance then started. At this point I was uncertain who was dancing with who. SP would be spinning with me one moment, and swinging hand in hand with one of her girlfriends the next. At least I didn't accidentally grab a Dad's hand and start jitterbugging.

We took a few breaks for door prizes. We didn't see much luck there though. Here is the gumball machine SP wanted to win.
When the clock struck eight o'clock it was time to go. Each couple received a cup of candy to share. I got one piece of gum and I'm not sure where the rest of it ended up. We were both pretty exhausted and ready to go home and tell Mom and Number One Son all about our evening.

It was another very successful event attended by many dads and daughters. One dad was attending his 15th dance. I won't make it to 15, but hopefully, SP will keep me in mind for next year's dance to add to my total.

Here is a last shot of SP taking a break from all the fun toward the end of the night. She did let me pour her water for her that time.

The Colors of Our Kids

To me our kids are comprised of many colors. I'm not talking about purple hair, or orange stripes on their skin. I'm talking about the many characteristics about our kids that involve color.

To start with, they each have a favorite color. I know that everyone has a favorite color, but when I ask most kids their favorite color, the answer is almost always blue for boys and pink for girls. Additionally, kids usually like to change their favorite colors often, sometimes multiple times per day.

Our kids chose their favorites early in life and have stuck with them without waver. Number One Son chose his allegiance to orange when he was very young. Sweet Pea has claimed yellow as all hers. Maybe it's just me, but those colors seem to usually be the leftover crayons in the box. I guess having orange as your favorite is pretty handy in October, but somewhat rare the rest of the year. Although N1S made good use of the color last summer when he had his expressive hair.

And Sweet Pea's yellow is good for drawing pictures of sunny days and I suppose that is why she likes it. Her room is painted a bright yellow so in the afternoon, when the sun shines in her room, our hallway is illuminated through her open door.

Even though SP's favorite isn't pink, she still likes to wear it. Lady Di and SP share a common interest in looking pretty. And SP is definitely pretty in pink. Her closet is three-quarters pink. And 99% of her pj's are pink. Somehow, a blue pair snuck in there.

Almost every kid grows up with a special stuffed toy or blanket. SP has her purple blankie. When she was a baby we had three or four blankies for her to use. Multiple blankies are necessary when the formula makes its occasional return trip. When she was just old enough to communicate a little it was clear that purple blankie was superior to all others. On more than one occasion, I tried to put her to bed with an impostor blankie. Her other blankies were the same size, weight, softness and all came from the same store. But even in the dark, she could tell which one was purple. Here she is with purple blankie in front of her yellow wall. Blankie is showing a little age around the edges but is holding up pretty well for a six year old blanket.

The last color associated with our kids is blue. As in the color of their eyes. Both kids were blessed with eye color that matches their mother's. All three of them have beautiful blue eyes which haven't faded to another color yet. I am the odd ball of the family (for more reasons than one) with hazel eyes. So, in our family, we have orange, yellow, pink, blue and purple covered. We will try to work in as many other colors as we have time for. I'm trying to develop a fondness for green but my bank seems to be at odds with me.

What's New?

February seems to force us to think up new things to do. Since the weather is usually less than inviting, we bury ourselves indoors and brain storm ideas to fight the long winter boredom.

Last week, the kids and I created Tennis Bocce Ball.

I have to admit, we kinda stole the idea from our Wii summer sports 2 game.

What we did is gather four tennis balls from the garage. We marked one for each player and one for the bocce ball. We then just tossed the bocce ball around the house and tried to roll our own tennis balls closest to it. The one who rolled closest to the bocce ball got to toss the bocce ball for the next round. It is just like outdoor bocce ball without the five pound cannon balls putting holes in the sheet rock. One added challenge is trying to roll or throw your tennis ball around corners, through doors, up and down stairs, and into bathtubs.

Our dog, Liberty, also thought she was playing since we were using her fetch tennis balls.

Fortunately, no lamps or wall pictures were harmed during the match.

On an unrelated note, Sweet Pea recently was the recipient of a brand new pair of pajamas. They were the requisite color of pink with a High School Musical theme. The best part of the pj's was the matching HSM bedtime blindfold. You know, the fancy, frilly blindfold that rich people wear to bed to sleep off their merry making from the night before.

Well, SP was showing me how it worked last night. She proceeded to slip it over her eyes, laid back and then banged her head on the wall on her way down to her pillow. Maybe that's why those snooty rich people always wake up with headaches.

We told her that it might be a little unsafe to sleep with an elastic band around her head all night. She responded rather forcefully, "But I need it."

So we let her wear it that night. When we went in to check on her a few minutes later, she was sound asleep and her sleeping blind had indeed slipped from her dream filled eyes to her neck. Even though the blind is very flimsy with weak elastic, it has been removed from SP's room in the hopes that she will soon forget that she needs one.

So that's what's new with us. How about you?