Kindergarten graduation

An oxymoron you say? Well, only if you've never had a child go through one . . .sooooo cute to see our little Emmers walk out of her classroom with her little construction paper graduation hat on, adorned with yarn tassle. Be still my heart. I can only imagine what a blubbering mess I'm going to be when she graduates from high school considering how misty eyed I got upon seeing her walk proudly by with her hat. It's a milestone, nuf said.
Her report card - fabulous. HUGE improvement (in caps) was the take home message. Ahhhh, our little girl is headed to 1st grade. No need for therapy just yet.

Well now, THAT'S what I call a perk

of working late, that is. That perk would be missing out on Miles rocketing out a poop in my husband's general direction which happened a) when his diaper was off (of course) and b) while I was driving home from work. HA! Gotta love that. Dad handled it very well - went into crisis management mode and by the time I got home, the two boys were bathed, reclothed and Miles' room was quarentined (due to the poop-spray that was hither and yon on the carpet - ewwww).

I think I'm in love all over again . . .who knew taking a poop shower would make me hot for hubby??

Germany prep and the stroller that ensued

One week from today we are leaving for Germany! I am so excited! We're headed to see hubby's family first near Cologne and will actually see a World Cup game while we're there - ahhhhh!!! So excited - did I say that already?? SO excited to see a real game!
After a few days we're going to head south to see Sleeping Beauty's castle and other fun things (yes, we're taking BOTH of our kids on this trip because we're lunatics). Then it's over to Munich to hook up with Emma's dad for a swap. He's taking her to Italy for about 10 days - she's got such a rough life that Emma. Then we head back north for our flight home via the sightseeing route. Can't wait to bask in the bratwurst, beer, castles, scenery and ack! crying from the backseat . . .hopefully not too much of that. . .we've never taken both of our kids on a trip anywhere - Miles is only 13 months, so that's not a surprise. But we decided to take the plunge and take them both to Germany - we had several offers from the grandparents to leave Miles with them, and I can always have Emma stay with her dad - but you know? We're total whimps and thought we'd miss them way too much and decided the sleepless nights and whining was all worth it. We're going to be on vacation right? So we'll just load up on the coffee to stay awake during the days and suck it up. What the hell. Anyway, that brings me to my next topic which is this: I needed a good stroller for getting around Germany that Miles would be comfortable enough in to sleep at any given moment (so we don't have to spend 2 - 3 hours every day in the hotel room smack dab in the middle of the day), could handle the potentially slightly rough terrain, had good sun/wind/rain protection (it's been raining there a lot lately) and was light enough to transport. So the search was on, and I mean the search. It took me for-ever to find the right stroller. I went from wanting something incredibly simple and light - to lusting after the much nicer models that come with all the features I was looking for. Thank gawd for all the great review sites out there - I found a particularly good one called: baby gaga
that had really great and thorough reviews on it. And otherwise I relied on the old stand-by: Epinions. Both were invaluable at providing information to this indecisive stroller buyer.
So, what did I eventually decide on? Wouldn't you know it, but one that I originally thought was wayyyy too expensive - mainly because I was convinced you could get the same features for less. And maybe you can get some of them - but no, not allll of them - and I wanted allll of them. So I decided on the Bumbleride Flyer - tee hee! If you click on the baby gaga link you can see it for yourself - I got mine in Bamboo - which I hope is not some obnoxious mint green - but rather a soothing green to calm the spirit - and at 300 bucks, I'll expect this puppy to make me a latte en route to my destination . . .and one for my shocked husband who thinks I'm a total nut for aquiring yet another stroller. Sorry babe, hadda do it.
So now I'm picturing myself strolling the streets of Germany with my sublime little tot inside blissing out on the Bamboo decor and reclining to his heart's content with no sun/rain/wind in his lovely little blue eyes . . .Mary Poppins, you got nuthin on me.

Watermelon Martinis and Thai food

Yumm-mmy! I made these the other night when some friends came over for dinner and let me tell you - no complaints. Good stuff - got the party rolling. Karen helped me make a fun Thai dinner that was enjoyed by all (ok, so the chicken was a little spicey for the kids) and the martinis were the perfect compliment.
Thai food is actually really easy to make if you know the secret: Thai Kitchen sauces in a jar. All you have to do is put a scoop-full of their curry paste into a pan, add a few simple ingrediants and voila! you've got yourself a fabulous Thai meal and your friends will think you're a genius. Works every time. The menu was as follows:

• Fresh spring rolls with BBQ'd Tiger Shrimp
• Spicey Beef Salad
• Chicken satay with peanut sauce
• Red curry Tiger Shrimp with vegetables
• Coconut jasmine rice

Makes my mouth water just thinking about it again . . .the meal was a little challenging, but much easier to pull off with help from Karen (thanks KBC!).

Give a try and prepare to impress!