Anna: “Charlie”

Dad: “Brennan, are you going to beat this guy up?”

Brennan: “No”

Dad: “Why not?”

Brennan: “I want Anna to move out”

he said “yes, I’ve read the book and I really liked it”

I wonder if he’ll point out the differences between the book and the movie!

So, the fest was great fun (hot!), but we had things to do and two hungry kids. So after some searching for a place to eat, we neded up at a hot dog place close to Target, where we needed to go for school supplies. We had a nice lunch and got ready to leave. That was just about the time the monsoon started!! It was insane! The temperature dropped 20 degrees and the water came down in buckets. We made a run for it across the parking lot and ended up soaked. We dried off under the hand dryers in the bathroom at Target.

The rain had calmed down by the time we left Target, so we headed to Old Navy to pick up some back-to-school clothes for the kids. We got ready to leave, and AGAIN, the rain!!! So, we walked down the strip mall to a shoe store, got the kids some shoes. While we were in the store, the rain slowed down, but it took us a while to find sizes, so by the time we left — monsoon again! Very wet and pretty tired, we finally made it home. I worked on getting dinner ready and a few other household chores. Paul ran to the grocery for a few things we needed. Brennan watched Ace of Cakes on the food network (his new favorite channel) and this is what Anna did….

Poor Brutus lost his bed.

We went on tons of rides — even Anna went on the big log ride and the Wizzer. She wasn’t thrilled about the Wizzer, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t argue about another trip on the log ride. Brennan tackled the American Eagle (his first big roller coaster) and told his dad he was officially done with roller coasters. Paul managed to convince him to go on the Demon (up-side-down) anyway and he loved that. He also loved the Wizzer. So, I think he’s ok with the roller coasters after all.

After a fun trip to GA, we spent the night at Ken and Laury’s house. The boys camped out in the back yard, but only made it part of the night. Paul’s air mattress deflated and they kept hearing coyotes, so they decided a camp out on the family room floor was a much better idea. Laury and I, and the little kids didn’t even pretend to want sleep outside.

We all came home covered in mosquito bites and a little tired, but we had a great time!

We also managed to fit a block party into the weekend at our friends’ place (our block is lame). It was great fun and we didn’t go home until pretty late. The kids had a great time running around with their friends. Brennan and his friend Andrew collided while they were trying to run (Brennan), bike (Andrew) and watch Paul goof off on Brennan’s bike. I thought Brennan was going to break a leg the way he got wound up in Andrew’s bike, but he walked out of it pretty much ok — not even too many tears.

All in all, a great weekend.
Here’s some pictures:

Saturday was Brennan’s birthday and we had 14 boys at the Niles Family Fitness center for a big, fun sports-themed party. The boys played dodgeball, floorhocky, scooters, and more. They had ice cream cake and tried, in vain, to wrestle Paul to the floor. It was a great time.
Sunday was Brennan and Laury’s combined birthday party at our place. Brennan got more great presents and got to talk to Grandma Helen on the phone when she called.
It was a pretty amazing week! Had I not gotten food poisoning (or the stomach flu, who knows), then I would call it perfect.

The morning was rushed as usual, though I did manage to get in 10 minutes on the Wii Fit.
I mangaged to get both kids off to school and, after an hour in traffic, myself to work at a reasonable time. I crammed in a few hours of work, including a new project meeting (those are always challenging especially when there’s a ton of other things going on). Then I ran out the door to get home in time to volunteer as “Art mom” for the afternoon at Brennan’s school. I snarfed down a quick sandwich at home, threw some laundry in the dryer, then ran up to Dominicks to get a snack for the kids in Brennan’s class. I got to the school just in time.

This session of Art day was particularly messy and labor intenstive for me and the other mom-volunteer. The project was creating a color wheel using only primary colored paint (read: lots of 6-7 years mixing poster paints in little trays). It was a crazy rushed event — kids running around, everybody talking at once (remind me to get a BIG present for their teacher!). But it was fun.

We cleaned up and I took care of other school business then headed home to finish packing.
Somewhere along the lines, I noticed I had a huge streak of yellow paint in my hair. (I’m keeping in hopes of starting a new trend.)

Mom got there, we picked up Anna and drove to the airport (Thanks Mom!!). Once there, I realized I had forgotten my toothbrush, comb and razor. Great. In line for security, I got a call from the school that Brennan was waiting to be picked up (Paul’s dentist appointment ran late).

Generally, it was a mad house kind of day.

So, what’s with the title of the blog? Well… sometimes I lose track of why I do everything I do, but my kids always find a way to remind me. They cry. Not the whinny, its-no-fair cry, but the cry that comes from their sweet little faces when they tell you they’re going to miss you and that they miss you already just knowing you’ll be away. The puffy lip and teary eye cry. Its that cry that both breaks and warms my heart at the same time. Its that cry that reminds me what I mean to them. And makes everything worthwhile.

Test 2: Anna had her 4th annual round of tests for her Urinary Reflux and we’re 99.9% its GONE!!!! The doctor is letting her go off the antibiotics after we finish up the bottle we have. She did really well with the tests and was very brave. We celebrated with lunch at Portillos then a shopping trip to Target to spend her birthday money.