Today, we finally had the opportunity to go fly the kites the Easter Bunny brought the kids. Of course today is the least windy day we've had all month. Of course the park we chose had the least toddler-friendly play area that Kailee insisted on climbing. Kailee and Gavin both got tangled up in the kite strings and at one point had both kites tangled as well. Then I accidentally tripped Kailee with the kite string. It was an interesting experience that I'm sure will happen again, though on a windier day!
Here are some videos of the kids flying the kites.
After seeing Gavin's photo-shoot for his party invitation,
she insisted on having her own (though she didn't last as long).
Me: Is your name Kailee?
Kailee: No, Kai-Kai!
It's true, we often call her Kai-Kaie but usually she just repeats "Kailee" to the best of her abilities. She also is starting to string sentences though many are only 50-75% intelligible. She likes to insert gibberish where her words fail her :).
However, my favorite is that she is now starting to repeat "I love you," though it kind of sounds like "wuv you."
I want to begin by saying that I am a huge fan of evites but evites can't happen if you don't have all of the guests' email addresses. What you are about to read is my solution for when evites aren't an option, but you want a convenient, handy RSVP option.
Nowadays it's not a strange idea to have people RSVP via email. It's quick, convenient, easy to keep up with. Well, why not create an email address to use for all RSVP's for all of your future events? Why not create an email address like this: For the John Doe Family: RSVP2Doe@gmail.com. All future events the Doe family has can be RSVPed to that email address. Now this might not seem too exciting, but I have more...
Right now we are about to send out invitations to Gavin's birthday party. I created a similar type of email address. Within the email address, I created 2 labels "Gavin's 5th Y" and "Gavin's 5th N." I can label each RSVP and archive it so I don't lose it or have a cluttered inbox. When I need to see how many are coming, I can click on the label "Gavin's 5th Y" and go through the necessary emails. I can do this each time we have a party/event and easily keep it organized.
I know, this is pretty smart, but that's not even the most brilliant part...
I also created a "vacation" or "out-of-office" reply in my email settings. The response thanks the person for RSVPing and then includes all of the party information and my phone number in case it's needed. The auto-reply ends the day after the party. How many times have I misplaced an invitation and had to text a parent to find out the date/time/location of a party? How convenient would it be to have all of the information in my email which I can easily access on my iPhone. (Of course the responsible parent would probably put all the info in my iCalendar, but I don't always think of these things). Or, what I just thought of and probably will do in the future, take a picture on my phone (that's how I got Gavin's class list today).
Anyways, I've been sharing my brilliance with anyone who would listen today, and I have yet to find someone as excited about this as I am. I'm pretty sure people think I'm a crazy hyper person in my enthusiasm. Oh well, I'm excited and I know there's someone out there who will be just as excited by my idea when they read this! :)
Brady is out of town which means I don't have help taking care of things around the house--like our children. Most mornings with Brady gone are quite stressful because I'm worried I'll forget to feed the dogs or forget to let them outside, not to mention that I have to dress and feed 2 children. Oh yeah and myself too!
Well, as of late, Gavin is getting pretty good at dressing himself (or at least helping dress himself) but Kailee is a wild one. She tries to escape throughout the entire process. What could take 2 minutes often takes 10 when dealing with an obstinate 1 year old.
This brings me to my brilliance. The past 3 nights, I have gotten Kailee dressed in her next day's school clothes before bed. Monday night she slept in a dress, last night she slept in leggings and what might be the world's softest shirt, tonight she's sleeping in a dress. I have successfully removed one of the morning's stressors by dressing her the night before.
Gavin's birthday is coming up which of course means a big birthday party with his family and friends. Last year I got very fancy, expensive-ish invitations that probably were a waste of money but part of the appeal was that I did not have to hand write each one.
This year, I knew I would not want to write out a bunch of invitations (I mean, there's like 19 kids in his class alone; my hand gets tired just thinking about it) but I wanted to save money. Then I remembered our Christmas cards, we ordered 100 for less than $20. Remember the secret? (TBH, I don't know if I posted about it on here or not)
But anyways, here's my secret: photo prints and Microsoft paint! I took a picture of the kids by a blank wall and added text using Microsoft Paint. Then I uploaded it to Shutterfly and ordered prints at Target. Badaboom Badabing! I even alternated colors of the letters in the words and used different fonts to make them super-adorable. So tonight, I spent an hour making Gavin's birthday invitations, and I must say they turned out great!
Now you might be wondering, why did it take me a whole hour? Well... Microsoft Paint is finicky. If you save the file mid-type or click off the text box, you cannot access it again. So you are stuck with whatever text you already added, where it is, without the option to edit it (unless there's a secret way of doing so that I have not yet discovered). Stupidly, it took me 45 minutes to realize I could edit the text in Microsoft Office before copying it into the text box in Paint. I'll remember that for next time.
Now we just have to figure out the cake and party favors. Send cheap party favor ideas my way!
Here's the picture before I edited it
Here's what the final product looks like with personal information blocked out
(Can't risk a student finding this page and trying to crash)
At midnight exactly, I made my return to Facebook. It feels a little weird to be back on but I'm sure I'll get over that soon!
Last night the Easter Bunny Left some great goodies. Might I add that I have it on good authority that the Easter Bunny shops at Dollar Tree.
Daddy had to miss the kids discovering their treats but Mommy was good enough to document the event.
After only a few minutes with the Easter Bunny's lovely presents, we headed out the door to attend the Joy Mass at our church. We got to our service 20 minutes early and still had to park FAR away. Of course Christmas and Easter bring everyone to church :). It was a fun service with a cross on which the children could put flowers.
Headed to the car - Couldn't resist sharing such a cute shot!
After church, we headed to YaYa and Poppa's for a quick wardrobe change, but first took some pictures to document our Easter outfits.
Next we headed out to Aunt Kim and Uncle Mark's House for an Easter Egg Hunt. As it turns out, Kailee hardly needed any coaching before setting out on her mission. Though Ella was definitely the MVP!
My favorite part of the day was just hanging out with the family that I love! Brady, we wish you didn't have to work and could have been there!
Giving up Facebook for Lent was the best thing I could have given up. First, it was a sacrifice for me as it was my number one place to go when I had a free minute (or even less than that). Second, it was something I knew I could cut out without cheating at all, something I've never done for an entire 40 days. Even when I added drinking water last year, there were days I didn't drink my allotted amount. This year, I have stuck with it completely.
It hasn't even been difficult. At first, it was hard, but I just removed the app from my phone and the link on my bookmark bar on my computer. It's not even in my computer history anymore. I expected it to be harder for me, but I easily adapted to life without Facebook... Until today. Today, I am hungry for Facebook. I figured it out and I have just under 76 hours until I can get back on! Now that it's so close, I am eager to catch up with people that I only talk to through Facebook. I want to see pictures, find out who has had babies (thank you so much to those who shared the births on blogs outside of Facebook), see if people had exciting news to share. I'm so impatient now. It's kind of like Christmas for me!
As seen on this blog, my extra time has been put into reading thanks to my Nook Color. I take every spare moment to enjoy a few pages in a book. While Brady watches sports or whatever on TV, I sit by and read instead of playing on Facebook. My reading speed seems to have increased even more thanks to this.
I know it was good for me to give up Facebook. However, I have a feeling if I wake up in the middle of the night Saturday night / Sunday morning, I will be getting on Facebook on my phone if it's after midnight! :)
Yesterday morning I got a call from the daycare saying that Kailee had thrown up. Thankfully, Gavin already had plans to spend the night with YaYa and Poppa so Mommy could focus her attention on sicky-poo.
While Kailee did not throw up once I picked her up, it was apparent that she was not feeling that great. After a 3.5 hour nap, she still wasn't interested in eating, and preferred to cuddle with Mommy and watch 5 episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba. We had a lot of Mommy-Kailee bonding time and here are some pictures that document our 2-days.
Before beginning Dead and Gone, I tried to find synopses of all the prior novels to refresh my memory of what had happened. I still don't remember a lot but after reading this book, I understand why. So much stuff happens in one book, let alone in the 8 I had already read. I kept a running synopsis on Goodreads as I read this one for future reference. Basically, A LOT happened.
This novel focuses mostly on the shapeshifters revealing themselves to the world (about a year after the vampires had done so) and the war going on in the fairy world. There's a lot of action, some romance, and a lot of death. I am not a fan of all the death but it's a part of the novels. I think I'm becoming desensitized to it in these supernatural books.
Regardless, I enjoyed the book because I love the series. I am curious to read #10 and then 11 when it comes out soon. I'm invested enough in the series to keep with it, though I definitely will keep running synopses from now on!
As I listened to Mommywood on a road trip last summer, I discovered the awesomeness that is listening to Tori Spelling's Audiobooks. Uncharted TerriTORI might be the most revealing of all of her books. Tori shares a lot of herself in this autobiography. She is absolutely adorable, a little kooky, and a normal person. She's a workaholic and a perfectionist, constantly self-critiquing; someone with whom so many of us women can identify. I enjoy hearing all of her stories and I appreciate how open she is about all of her idiosyncrasies.
Listening to Tori's audiobooks makes traffic bearable and road trips fly by. I highly recommend anything she's written. I may even go back and listen to sTORI Telling even though I read the book a couple of years ago. There's just something endearing about hearing Tori read her books. LOVE her!
And in case you were wondering, yes I do watch all of her reality shows! :)
Diary of a Mad Fat Girl is a quick, fun, feisty read (and cheap, only $.99 ebook). I love the filter-less Ace who says exactly what's on her mind. This novel reminds me of the antics of Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's series except, Ace is extremely confrontational and fairly fearless. The supporting characters are hilarious just like those in Evanovich's books.
If you are looking for a fun, fast, and lighthearted read, this is a good selection.
I don't know the date the colic began, but I do know our nights of endless screaming (5:30pm - 12:30am) ceased on October 15, 2009 (it was a Thursday and Roni, John and Jeremiah arrived in Dallas the next day for AC homecoming). Since that date, Kailee has more than made up for the hard times. She was a cheerful, easy baby until she became mobile. Then she became TROUBLE. We've always had to watch her more closely than Gavin; she's sneaky and quiet. She's been a diva since birth but always knew that Mommy would not give in. We've survived cry-it-out successfully on multiple occasions (Daddy had trouble sticking to it so Mommy had to retrain her a few times). Just when things were beginning to calm down, The Terrible Twos struck.
They began on April 14, 2011 (yes, yesterday) with a long, drawn-out fit over not being allowed to take her toy stroller in the car. She arched her back, kicked her legs, threw her head back and refused to cooperate as I forced her into her carseat. She then got so worked up as I was driving that I thought she was going to make herself sick. I pulled over to attempt to calm her down. It didn't work that well. By the time we arrived at school, she was composed but not warm towards Mommy. She hardly looked at me when I left her classroom.
When I picked her up from school, she was happy to see me and eagerly went to Gavin's room. That's where the trouble began: I wouldn't let her eat crayons. Mean Mommy! Kailee went from happy-go-lucky to enraged spaghetti-arms-and-legs baby in a matter of seconds. I carried her out screaming, flailing, bucking her back.... It was not pretty. This episode ended with me running back into the school to get a spare paci that I did not hesitate to pop in her mouth. I openly admit that I was weak and gave in! We didn't even take away her paci all evening.
Even with an all access pass to the paci, by the time Kailee went to bed last night, she had thrown 2 more similar tantrums. Here is tantrum number 3, recorded in the car on the way home from helping Kalea and Matt move a piece of furniture (Well, Brady helped anyway).
This morning she had another meltdown over the stroller and then again when it was time to leave Gavin's room after school (nope, I did not let her eat the crayons once again). It doesn't make a parent look great when s/he has to carry out a fit-throwing toddler 2 days in a row. Thankfully, we avoided any more tantrum fun after getting home though Kailee considered having one over a water hose connector when we were leaving my brothers' house (By the way, it was great to see Lee, Alex, Holly, Joey and Nick)!
I don't know if we are quite ready for another round of the Terrible Twos. With Gavin it was more like the Terrible Threes so we've only barely had a break. It seems like he just stopped throwing fits when he didn't get his way.
Speaking of Gavin... One of his teachers let me know that he had not been listening/following directions very well. He also had begun head-butting again (an issue we dealt with last year). We had been struggling with his lack of interest in following directions at home before this, but after diligent effort, things had been improving for us before his teacher notified me. Gavin is on green most days (they have a traffic light system for behavior) so I assumed all was great at school. Whenever he was on yellow or red, there usually was an incident.
I felt like our efforts at home were not successfully transferring to school so we sat down with Gavin and really talked about what was going on. Gavin is a reasonable 4-year-old, but he is 4 and doesn't always think things through. Whenever he wasn't listening/following directions, I pointed it out to him and reminded him what he needed to do. He did have to serve some time-out sentences here and there, but he understood our goal and began to try harder. Everyday this week, when I picked him up, he greeted me with "I didn't head butt today, Mommy!" and when I asked if he'd listened and followed directions and he said, "Yes!" Neither teacher disagreed with him so I'm taking it as the truth. I am VERY proud of my little man.
While he was making efforts to do the right thing, I made efforts to praise him more. Gavin thrives on praise, something I don't think I'm particularly good at giving. I have made sure to acknowledge all the good things he's doing, and I can tell it makes him proud of himself. I feel bad that I haven't been better about pointing out the good things he does. I notice everything, I just need to make sure he knows I notice.
I am thankful things are improving with Gavin, now if we can just get our sweet Kailee back...
I joined an online book club and our first meeting will be to discuss The Brink by Mark Fadden. The author will be at the meeting so I will be sure to write a follow-up to this post about that experience.
The Brink is an action-packed conspiracy-theory novel that is engaging from the beginning. The first page opens with drama that continues throughout the entire book. I could not put it down, yet it seemed to never end. I don't know how Fadden was able to come up with such a crazy, intricately webbed story. Just when I thought I had something figured out, something else would happen to change everything. Thus, Fadden makes the reader feel the frustrations and distrust that the main characters feel. By the end of the book, I didn't trust anything that happened until I had finished reading. Only then could I be sure what was genuine and what was a ruse.
The Brink reminds me of a cross between a Nelson DeMille novel and the movie National Treasure. Unfortunately, it is less sophisticated than what DeMille produces and more depressing than National Treasure. The first 30 pages introduced 27 new characters--that I had to write down to keep track of. I have enough trouble keeping track of main players, let alone a gazillion other people who may or may not turn out to be important. There is no doubt in my mind that Fadden wrote this novel in hopes of having it adapted into a movie. There's not a lot of internal dialogue (which as seen by the Twilight movies does not translate well on film) and the book is maintained through action and dialogue. I could easily envision this story on the big screen.
What I liked the most were the short chapters and fast-paced action. I did want to put it down, but with the many interruptions that come with being a mom, I appreciated the organization of the book. It's definitely a quick read.
NOTE: I had the honor of attending a book club meeting with the author. Fadden is a pretty cool guy, very energetic, enthusiastic, witty, smart, down-to-earth. It seems the many characters and the short chapters are the two things he hears about the most. I agree completely! Here's a picture of me with Fadden.
Last summer, I discovered how much I could enjoy some audiobooks while on long road trips. I had tried listening to Harry Potter novels but the narrator's voice made me drowsy--not ideal for driving. After listening to all 4 Twilight Novels on CD, I decided to download Tori Spelling's latest (at the time), Mommywood. I LOVED listening to her read her story. It made long road trips alone fly by. Fast forward to this spring break when I headed to Austin to go wedding dress shopping with Leslie. I downloaded Uncharted TerriTori and iTunes recommended Chelsea Handler's book Are you there Vodka, it's me Chelsea. I decided to go ahead and get it too. Because it's length was 6 hours, I decided to begin with Chelsea's book. I figured it would last both ways of the trip. I ended up not finishing it on the road and had to wait for opportunities to listen sans kids--it is definitely not appropriate for kids!
My attention was held by this book but I won't go so far to say I liked it. There were many moments where I was shocked by things she said or did. I realize that's part of her persona but I didn't really like it. I prefer the genuine sweetness from the likes of Tori Spelling.
It's an exciting day in the Barber household... This morning I got the official document that says Gavin was approved to transfer to a school in my district! The school is 1.8 miles from where I work, which is important since I'm the one who drops the kids off in the morning and picks them up in the afternoon. I'm so relieved! I was worried we'd end up with different holidays, snow-days, make-up days, etc.
Now I just have to get him registered.
How is it that he's already headed to kindergarten????
Mockingjay is my least favorite of the three books, sadly.
I had high hopes for the direction of the trilogy and I was sadly disappointed. This finale is very action-packed with lots of drama and plot curve-balls. There's lots of gore--which I hate--and sad deaths (including graphic deaths of children)--which I absolutely DESPISE. That alone, ruined the book for me. It was completely unnecessary and horrific. The blatant message of the author is that war is bad, it changes people for the worse, and it ruins/ends the lives of so many innocent victims. Message received.
If she wanted to leave a lasting impression on her readers, Collins succeeded. I am haunted by the horrors she included. I wish I did not have such gruesome images in my head, but when you invest yourself in characters and then have to read descriptive accounts of their deaths, it's quite disturbing and hard to forget. My guess is that Collins wanted the reader to feel the way I do. There's no way she wrote this novel thinking, "People will feel inspired and hopeful." Well, I am affected and fear that I will suffer from some nightmares like our heroine.
I was so excited to read this book when I first heard about it. I could not wait to see what happened to all of the Sweet Valley High gang. I inherited a bunch of Sweet Valley High books from my aunts'--they ended up at my great-grandmother Michie's house and she gave them to me when I was around the age of 10. Fortunately, Kristi and/or Kim had a collection of about 30 novels in the series and I read each one at least once if not a bunch of times.
Sweet Valley Confidential: 10 Years Later... begins when the twins are 27 and a rift has come between them, a BIG rift. There is much hate between them and they are estranged. Because of this, the tone of this continuation of the series is very dark, sad, angry, and not at all like the original series. For 3/4 of the novel, I was disappointed and missed the spirit of Sweet Valley High. Finally in the last quarter, the spirit returns, the saving grace of this book. If not for the last part and the epilogue, I would not be satisfied at all with this twist in the lives of the Wakefield twins.
I won't say anything more about the plot because I don't want to give anything away, but this book is definitely for an adult audience (as opposed to the earlier novels intended for teens). There also is a bit of a political agenda mentioned a few times but I can't say anything here without giving something big away.
If you are a fan of the series, you will appreciate this followup novel, though know that it is not the same as the prior novels at all. When I say I appreciate it, I don't necessarily mean I like it or that it's a book I'd rate very highly. I did have to know where the author was taking Elizabeth and Jessica's story but to be honest, my favorite part was the epilogue where we find out where all the major players from the high school novels are now.
As soon as I finished The Hunger Games, I was DYING to know what happened next. I downloaded Catching Fire and finished it in 2 days.
The story continues with us unsure of what will become of the main characters (I don't want to give anything away by naming names). At the end of The Hunger Games, I wasn't sure where the series was headed and how it could possibly last for 2 more novels. I feel a little stupid that the direction it's headed did not occur to me at all. I think I was too engrossed to see the obvious. It's kind of like the saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees." I was too focused on the details to see the much bigger picture.
Catching Fire threw me for a loop SEVERAL times and kept me wanting more. There's nonstop action up to the last page which of course leaves the reader eager for whatever comes next. Now that I have an idea of what the ultimate goal is, I am excited to see it play out. I'm sure the next novel will have it's fair share of action, romance and of course pain/death.
This is #5 of the House of Night novels by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. They are a vampire series about an adolescent who discovers she's a vampire (it's not your typical vampire storyline) and then has to go to the House of Night for her new life. The series begins more or less lighthearted and reminds me of Harry Potter/Hogwarts. As does Harry Potter, it turns darker the further along the story progresses through the series.
But this is a review of #5 in the series, Hunted... I have been trying to get this book FOREVER. I am washing my hands of it less than 200 pages in and am moving on. I love the first few of these books but the further in I get, the more irritated I get with Zoey. I just don't like her. I mean, come on, pick a guy! I don't like her wish-washy-ness at all. The other characters are very fun and entertaining throughout, except for Heath who I also can't stand. I think it's time for me to move on from this series.
So disappointed :(
While I strongly dislike this one in the series, the first few were really fun reads and difficult to put down. I definitely enjoyed the other books in the series and recommend them as quick, entertaining reads.
