Parents' Night In

The weekend before Christmas we got together with a few of our very favorite people...without any kids... and we pulled out the fine china... and we dressed up... and we ate fancy food... and we took silly pictures... and we had deep, adult conversations... and lots of laughter... and made great memories with people that we love and friendships we cherish.

 

 

The guys wanted to wear ugly sweaters!

 

 

 

 

Roasted asparagus and shrimp and grits on our china that has only been used one other time in eleven years!

 

Chocolate caramel trifle

Christmas ParTAY

The Tuesday before Christmas was the boys' last day of school and both Christmas parties.  Emersyn and I got to attend both and the day was quite exciting.
Our first stop was was Parker's party and it was kicking....not really there was lots of no Christmas music, lots of no laughing, lots of no celebrating.  The entire party consisted of 10 two and three year olds sitting in their seat at the table decorating a sugar cookie.  I'm sure that alone was a Christmas miracle, but I was hoping for a bit more excitement for the sake of the children.  It felt like that party alone stole my Christmas joy! 

That is how I felt too buddy.

Our final stop was Braden's school and it was the  COMPLETE opposite of Parker's party.  Music was blaring, the kids were dancing and there were 22 kids and at least that many parents if not more crammed into a classroom that was at least 118degrees with ZERO airflow.  I wheeled my gigantic limo stroller into the classroom and was finally able to navigate through the masses of excited and sugared up kindergartners to what I hoped would be a quiet corner of the classroom.  Parker was super excited to see his best bud Jack at Braden's party since his brother Ty is in Braden's class.  I guess Jack and Parker needed to get rid of all of the excess energy that they built up at their exciting boring party so they decided it would be a good time to challenge each other to see who could jump the farthest off the classroom chairs.

 

The Reindeer Dance

This is when the fun really started....  All of the kids made a plate filled with tons of Christmas goodies and proceeded to sit on the floor with their plate.  Parker and Jack, oblivious to the fact that people are eating on the floor are making their way back and forth between my corner of the room and Jack's parents.  All the while there is an old grandma and every time the boys' get close to a plate she sucks her breath in really sharp and makes an exagerated sigh.  I am fighting the intense urge to punch her in the gut and knock the breath out of her when Parker steps on some kids' cupcake and tracks green icing across the floor.  Awesome.  At this point old granny is close to having a heart attack, several parents are chuckling and Emersyn is getting antsy to exit the the limo stroller.  I am getting antsy to exit the party.  I abandon E to get a wet paper towel to clean up the carpet and the bottom of Parker's shoe.  When I finally get the mess cleaned and Emersyn out of the stroller, Parker looks at me and says, "I gotta poop mom".  Which actually meant I am pooping mom.  The stench was already permeating the 118dgree classroom with zero airflow.  At this point I put Emersyn back in the stroller.  Screaming.  I ask Braden if he wants to leave the party early or ride the bus home.  He opted for the bus ride since he hadn't gotten his class present yet.  I got my little stinker gathered up and buckled into the limo stroller and explained to Braden's teacher that we were leaving early.  She tried to convince us to stay and I tried very politely to tell her that the faster we exited this classroom the better it would be for all involved.  She finally caught on and I had to weave the limo stroller between a gazillion dancing, eating, screaming children and gazillion plates filled with cupcakes with green icing scattered all over the floor.  By the time I left the classroom I was sweating bullets and so ready to get home. 

Parker and his buddy, Jack.

All in all it was a good day, since my boys had fun.  And I learned a couple of things to help me prepare better before the EOY party.  1.  Take Parker to playground to get out the pent up energy from his boring party before we make our way to Braden's party.  2.  Leave the limo stroller at home and instead go with an umbrella stroller.  3.  Don't sit by the old granny that makes me think evil thoughts about the elderly.  4.  Make sure Parker has a  BM before going to a party. 

Parker is THREE!!!

This post is a little late.... And I hope to be more on top of things next year.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last year and knowing me I will say the same thing next year.  But I did not want to not post about Parker turning three (yes, I am aware that I used a double negative!). 
Parker is our December 23 baby...2 days before Chrsitmas.  He was our best Christmas gift!  This year his birthday was on a Sunday and on the way to church we stopped so he could get a McDonald's biscuit which totally made him happy!  After church we went me Grr and Palpaw at the park to play and have a picnic.  We had cupcakes and he got to open gifts and then it was home for a nap...because even big three year olds have to nap, so old an old mommy like m
e can get a little rest too! 

Parker has come so far this year!  His language totally exploded in May and he is a talking machine.  He started Speech therapy once a week at the end of April and just finished at the end of November.  There are still times when we have a hard time understanding him, but most of the time we can use context clues to help us figure it out.  He substitutes the /p/ for /f/ and /t/ for /s/, so he calls an elephant (his favorite animal) an elpant.  I love that he and Braden can have conversations now and he is happy to introduce himself to new kids at the park, "I Parker."  It makes me happy to see my little guy use language to explore this big world.

This is the first year that I have been able to "interview" Parker and he was so cute answering the questions.

color: green
friend: Jack (Hope, from school)
food: cereal
drink:  milk
animal:  Lion King
TV show: Curious George
movie:  Spider man (cartoon)
toy:  play do

Happy birthday to our silly, grumpy, sports fanatic, lover of spider man, bumblebee, and curious george, eater of all things sweet (especially candy from Palpaw's drawer), best LITTLE brother and best BIG brother, wearer of cowboy boots, soccer cleats, and house shoes, best snuggler and cuddler around precious baby boy!  We love you so very much Parker Reed!