Return of the Kitty-Kat Princess

She's baaaack. She's a cat. She's a princess. She's THE Kitty-Kat Princess! (With side-kicks Mouse Princess and Cinderella) Saving the world, milk in tow, with one wave of the wand and able to leap piles of toys in a single bound!


Chloe had her friends, Arianna and Arden, over to play today. They ate pizza and watermelon and had a blast, in general. A lot of dressing-up and pretend play. Luckily, no pushing, biting, kicking, pinching, jabbing, punching, puncturing, eye-gouging, stabbing, elbowing, kneeing, karate-chopping, or spitting took place...... just a lot of Munchkin laughter and, of course, purring.

Cutie Patooties!

We went to the mall today and got these pics taken.  It's close to the fourth of July but I opted out of the gaudy firework background; just would have led the eye away from their beauty.  :)

My Dad

It's Father's Day
And we're so far away

I wish I could be there
To drink coffee, laugh, and share

Not only are you my dad
You were my coach and a friend
And you're still my personal comedian

Yes, you're the funniest person I know
When you want to, you can even make Robin Williams seem slow
And your charisma could easily sell snow to an Eskimo

You gave me a deep love of music; Folk and Bluegrass
And you're such a hard worker; you inspire me to just get off of my ass!

You are a writer and a poet at heart
And you gave me a love of nature right from the start

Camping and boating
Laughing and racing

Your spirit is free
And that's such a valuable lesson in me

You even built us a real tree house
And my very own regulation balance beam

You even made yard work seem fun
Like we were all a part of a team

You taught me how to drive and, to this day, I don't even have to think-
I can easily parallel park in just a blink

I still brag that I knew how to drive a standard before I was fifteen
And thank you for the fast-twitch muscles and the jogging gene

You're a mover and a shaker
And, back in the day, you even taught me how to prime a carburetor

At seventeen, when I got my tattoo
Mom freaked-out, but not you

When we would practice soccer, you'd make me spit out my gum
And even now, I hear "Another one bites the dust" when I run

Even when I ditched soccer and went for cheerleading
Although disappointed, you were supportive and it wasn't fleeting

Although you rarely give yourself credit
There are few books that you can say you haven't read it

You have a big heart and the jack-pot always seems to be yours for the taking
You're up and running when the rest of us are just waking

Your creativity mixed with tenacity has brought you far from your humble beginnings
As an added bonus, you're always gathering the winnings

You pulled yourself up by your own boot straps
And, although, not free from hard times
Your special character has guided your path

You always extend an available ear
And when I was little, you held my hand when I couldn't shake my nighttime fear

We still talk often and never run out of things to say
When I'm feeling down you give me support and tell me to pray

Maybe it's all part of the master plan
But thanks to you, I knew how to spot a good man

My girls have a wonderful Daddy just like you
And he wants to give them the world too

Thank you for being my friend and My Dad

I'll Love You Forever

Happy Father's Day

Pimp My Slide

Chloe's been in full-on play mode since yesterday's play date at the park. Afterwards, we went to the grocery store where they have an awesome play center called the "Tree House" where she played some more while Libby and I shopped. Then we had a play-a-thon in the basement yesterday afternoon for like three hours.

As not to mess with her mojo, we started the playing again this morning. She delved into her dress-up box and ended up sporting a pink pimp hat.

As you can see, she's quite the poser- I gave her minimal direction. I just told her not to slide down so I could take her picture as she's always willing to ham-it-up.

All that's missing from this picture are some phat pimp platform shoes and a bong. She had a blast modeling her boa and bling while saying "kewl" over and over. She's been saying "Kewl" a lot lately. Kinda kewl, huh?

Sex, Cries, and Video Tapes

What I meant to say is no sex and very loud, frequent cries due to our inconsiderate neighbors. And video taping may be necessary.

Why no sex? Well, we're too tired from our neighbors waking us up at 7 am on Saturday mornings! (sometimes they let us sleep in until 8 am and if we're lucky - 8:30am) Which to some people this may seem late, but my kids have always been very good sleepers and used to sleep until 9 or 9:30am. Also, my newborn can't nap peacefully during the day. I'm constantly trying to calm her after she's woken up by the loudness.

Sadly, we don't have the luxury of sleeping when WE want to sleep anymore because of our loud neighbors. We have had to adjust our schedule and go to bed much earlier than we used to. I go to bed at 9:00pm now. I used to stay up as late as 12:00am. But, no longer b/c our schedule is now dictated by our neighbors.

We've contacted the front office of the problem after we talked directly to the neighbors, nicely, about it and still no change. So I've started a log in Microsoft word. I don't know what else to do except to log the happenings. It is so bad that if I were hearing impaired, I would still be woken-up because it vibrates our bedroom as well. (and let me tell you, that's the only vibrating going on in the bedroom lately due to sleep deprivation.)

Documenting these events by way of video tapes may be necessary because it is SOOO loud. Did I mention how loud it is? Am I a hard ass for thinking of video taping? I don't think so. Simply b/c I don't think the neighbors or the front office understand how disruptive they really are.

I'm just not used to sharing walls with people much less people who think they live in a freaking barn or something. I haven't done this since college but at least we understand to be considerate simply b/c we know we live in close contact with others. (by the way, I never had this problem in college.)

Our neighbors seem to just live their lives in spite of us and everyone else. They also know that we have a new baby and they were especially loud the day the front office contacted them in reference to their loudness. My husband and I were shocked at their reaction. Very immature behavior.

But what can you expect from a lady from Jersey who still wears mall bangs and has the look of someone that has just been punched in the face. Harsh? No, not after she's deliberately been loud and refuses to control her loud kids. Besides, I can't help it if she looks exactly like a troll doll. As my sister always says, she's been chasing parked cars. These are the facts, people. I'm just speaking the truth. Nothing against people from Jersey, she's just from some remote place in Jersey that produces rude, troll-like inconsiderate folk. Maybe I shouldn't blame this on place of origin. Maybe this should be blamed on her rearing. WHATEVER! I don't want to spend my time psycho-analyzing mall bangs lady.

This is probably the most boring weblog entry I've done yet. See, every aspect of my life is being affected!

It's so bad that I fantasize about waiting until they're asleep and going out on our upper deck that's right by their deck and next to their master bedroom and slamming loud cymbals together.

Or letting our German Shepherd out there and command him to 'speak' over and over.

Better yet, I should plan a bounding up/down the stairs party and have all of my friends come over in their heaviest shoes, drink a few, then organize a race up and down the stairs. Bounders Unite!

Even more sinister, rent a large animal, like a donkey or something, to trot up and down the stairs when I know they're sleeping. Because, frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a bunch of angry swine and more assorted farm animals running up and down their stairs desperately in search of their next meal or something. Yes, it's that loud.

Crazy people. Inconsiderate people. I guess they're just stupid.

Hershey Park

We made it to the famous Hershey Park this past weekend. It went something like the following:

1. Load mini van frantically to the hilt with so much extra stuff that our neighbors probably didn't guess we were going on a weekend excursion but moving house. But where? In our van down by the river? They know we're from Texas but, come on, some benefit of the doubt would be nice.

2. Stop by the store and buy so much water that you'd think we were expecting the second coming any moment.

3. Also, fill grocery cart with so many greasy, sugary snacks that you'd think I was an advocate for or starting a campaign in favor of childhood obesity. (And adult obesity, for that matter)

4. Rub Chloe down with like SPF 1 million. This sunscreen was very close to the consistency of tar. White tar. She likened Casper the friendly ghost after I was finished with her.

5. Libby gave us a solo performance the whole hour ride.

6. Chloe scarfed down her beloved gold fish.

7. Parked far far away. Kind of like on the movie Vacation only the parking lot was FULL and we didn't run, although I did hear Chariots of Fire playing; was that in my head?

8. We didn't see a Moose at the front either - We did, however see a giant M&M creature/thingy -And I channeled Mr. Griswold for a moment and thought about punching the chocolate drop in its center nutty area after Chloe saw it and kept asking for candy.

9. Sweat our asses off.

10. Drank like a gallon of overpriced lemonade in an effort to quench my primal thirst (in spite of all of the water weighing down the stroller) only to be even thirstier and also sporting the bitter beer face.

11. Watched a bear shit in the woods.

12. Feel very sorry for all of these captured animals. People were staring and pointing at them and banging on the glass. I was hoping that the glass wall would fall and free the gator on the other side. And maybe the gator would've eaten that lady that was tapping on the glass so loudly. (Jeez, I never thought that I would turn into such an animal advocate and be such a tree hugger, in general- maybe I should volunteer for PETA or something.)

13. Last, but certainly not least, watched Chloe have the time of her life!