Ladies' Night...Lost Count

I can't believe it, I forgot my camera.  Tonight of all nights!

The first item on our long Wednesday night agenda was a stop at Aunt Boo's new salon.  The Roses have a photo shoot scheduled on Saturday, and they needed to be freshly shorn.  Aunt Boo gave them the full treatment - Rose #3 was very cute perched in Aunt Boo's chair with her cape and her wet hair.  (I am specifically not telling you about how Rose #3 was poised to climb one of the shelves in the new salon before I stopped her at the last minute, or about the, well, "delighted" looks on the faces of the other patrons as we entered the salon.  I tried to keep the Roses under control, I really did!)  Very nice new hairdos they all have.  Thanks for letting us come down at the last minute Aunt Boo!

By the way, Aunt Boo:  I think you are wrong about Zac and Vanessa.  :-)

Then we went to McDonald's just down the road.  Oh. My. Goodness.  That place is gross!  It is just filthy.  It has a playland (which is why the Roses wanted to go there, of course) and although I am not normally a germaphobe I made each Rose take a shower as soon as we got home.  BLECKY.  Never again.

After we got home it came to light that Rose #1 had not in fact yet done her homework, so we scrambled to get math and moon observation done before I packed everyone off to bed.  There are just not enough hours in the day, even when you are only 6 years old, I guess.

My little Rose #3:

This was after dinner tonight.  Rose #3 is wearing her Gabriella dress, and when she puts her hair behind her ears, she always says with satisfaction:  "I'm Gabriella now!"

(Gabriella being the lead female character in the High School Musical saga, of course.)

As a brief aside, it is sometimes disconcerting to not resemble my children at all.  Especially when they were younger, people used to ask me where I adopted them from (A very exotic country called "My Uterus," I was always too chicken to say).  They each have a little something of me in them, but there really should be ZERO doubt about who is their father:

I think Rose #3 was maybe 2 days old in this picture.   Our sweet little bunny.

Overheard last night...

As I was putting the Roses to bed last night, Rose #1 looked at me balefully and asked, "Are we going to church tomorrow?"

(Now, we do go to church most Sundays.  I teach Sunday School and Rose #3 loves the nursery, so we usually go.)

"Yes, I am teaching Sunday School tomorrow."

"I don't want go to," said Rose #1.  "All we ever do is talk about prejudice and the inherent worth and dignity of every person."

What do you say to that?

(p.s. - we did go to church today, and Rose #1 went to service and to her Sunday School class, and it turns out they did not talk about prejudice or the inherent worth and dignity of every person.  They talked about music!)

Friday Night Dance

Tonight was the 1st - 3rd grade dance at Rose #1's school. Wow, was it ever a madhouse. Tons of kids running around, super loud music, and lots and lots of grownups. So many, in fact, that they ran out of food! We had hungry crabby kids on our hands who were torn between staying because it was really fun (for the kids, that is) and leaving because they were hungry.

That was fun.

I keep hoping to make a connection at Rose #1's school with another family, to have a family that we can be close friends with. So far it hasn't happened. I have tried in other contexts - preschool, church, etc. - and I always feel like we are the odd people out. I had that same feeling tonight, like many people knew each other, and they were coming from the pre-party or going to the after-party. I know that's ridiculous and left over from junior high, but I can't shake the feeling.

Each Rose got a new shirt from Rose #1's school, and we ended up at the drive through at McD's (not me - I can't STAND McD's) so they could eat before falling into bed. They are all pretty much sacked out, and H and I are hoping to watch at least some of Knocked Up.

Oh yes, by the way, there is another movie I am going to be getting as soon as it comes out. Not long now!

Ladies' Night #5

Another Wednesday night has come to pass, and the Roses and I are having a fine ladies' night. I had a splitting headache after work, the kind that not only gives you pain in the head but also nausea. So, we hurried through dinner and now we are doing crafts reading chapter books watching a movie.

True to form, I took a few shots to show how we are all getting along just fine here at Ladies' Night.  Rose #1 has been pretty happy and smiley lately.  I worry about her, more than the others, about getting along with her school friends.   But things seem to be going OK.

Rose #2 is always smiley looking.  She is back to school this week and it is GOOD.  She needed to get back to a routine.

Rose #3 is a whirlwind of development.  The other day she asked me if I remembered the time we went shopping together (she named the store!).  It was about 4 weeks ago and she was very tired and cranky when we got there.  I can't believe she remembers it!
We are really, really looking forward to the Roses photo session at Grace Park Photography.  It is a week from Saturday and we are getting ready.  Next Tuesday the Roses have a haircut scheduled with Aunt Boo (Aunt Boo, if you are reading this, I scheduled them today!).  And, we have to get outfits that everyone will wear.  That's a challenge in and of itself!

MND...Monkey Night Dinner?

File in the: Grownups Did Not Know (Before Tonight) What Was Going On file.

Ever since they started running the B&B in earnest, my parents have basically moved into their basement (which is not quite as desperate as it seems, since they have a nice bathroom, a bedroom, a large walk-in closet, and a theater room down there).  The theater room doubles as the place where the grandkids go on Monday nights.  They have toys and, as you can see from the following, pipes in the ceiling.

Well, well, well.  We did not (at least I did not) know that the kids were treating the pipes like jungle gyms.  Rose #1, who has terrible trouble with the monkey bars because of her small hand, can do the "pipe shimmy" no problem.  Here she is doing her shimmying thing, with Rose #2 looking on appreciatively and Rose #3 (look carefully) dangling from another pipe in her diaper
The pipe skill is widely revered.  Sam, one of the Roses' cousins, is looking on with admiration.
Good times, people.  Good times.

A lazy Sunday evening...

Here is a very important person in the house of the Roses - their daddy.  He was laughing about the cowbell sketch on Saturday Night Live, that we saw as we were changing channels tonight:

Here is Rose #1.  You should see her mouth these days.  Her top right tooth is loose, and it is migrating away from her other teeth.  She has big gaps in her smile lately!
The other Roses in their nightgowns.  Rose #3 won't wear ANYTHING besides "dressies" these days.  She has changed her dress three times today.  To church she wore a pink fluffy dress with a long sleeve shirt over it.  Sigh.  Rose #2 will flex on her outfits.  Here she is wearing a hand me down Care Bears nightgown:
We had a good day today.  We got up, had breakfast, went to church, had lunch, took a nap (me and Rose #3 - OK, I admit it!  I took a nap!!  Are you Happy Now?), then brought dinners to our friends who live in Oak Park Heights.  They have recently had a rough time with health issues, so we wanted to help with dinners.  Tonight for dinner we had baked potato bar.  Yum!!