Life After Venting

Okay, so my rants are out. My complaining has ceased. My whining is no more. My venting....

well, I'll never stop that so just get used to it. HA!

Anyway, like I mentioned in the last post, I set out to tell you all about our week last week. But I decided it would be much more interesting (remember all we did was watch tv and grade papers) to tell you about this week.

Today my second born, Brownie, had a play date with a little friend, M, from preschool. She and M were in the same preschool class last year, and all fingers crossed, M's mom and I are hoping they're in the same class again this year. Guess what, we'll find out tomorrow.

SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!

Our preschool invites the children and parents to the first day of school. This way, we can all test out the waters. The three oldest girls will all go to school tomorrow. Peach will enter her third year. Brownie will enter her second year. And Bug will begin a new journey.

That's right, tomorrow is Bug's turn to be the newbie. I am so excited for her. She is the first child I have not had "attachment" worries about. She is such a social, head-in-the-clouds kind of gal. I honestly wonder if she'll realize that she's in a new environment with new toys.

Tomorrow will be quite busy for us all. We start our day taking Brownie and Bug to their first day of class {Matt and I will both attend}. We'll meet teachers, see new faces and hopefully some familiar ones as well. Then we'll come home and grab some lunch. In the meantime, my MIL will take the younger three to her house while I take Peach to her first day of class. My husband, will not be attending because he will be getting his wisdom teeth out {I know, poor guy}. Needless to say, we have plenty of soup, Jello and ice cream in our future.

Peach and I will run up to my MIL's to pick up the girls after our school visit, then we'll run home to chomp on some dinner {a new, yummy-looking potato soup recipe that is slow-cooker friendly}. We'll probably also take care of daddy and baby him just a little ;) Then, Peach and I will head out to soccer practice. I get to fill in as assistant coach tomorrow since the real assistant coach will be taking it easy. I'm happy to fill in though. I played soccer for years, and it's nice to get back into the game {even if it doesn't feel like anything more than chasing six 4/5 year olds}. And I get to run around with my oldest for 30 minutes without other tiny people {who are genetically related to me} distracting us!

It's a jam packed day. But our week doesn't slow down there. We have Peach's 5th birthday to celebrate on Thursday and this girl has put in some demands I must get started on pronto. Her presents are bought, but they are not wrapped. She planned her menu, but I have to buy the groceries {and make the food, of course}. Her guests have been invited. And her cake choice has been named. She likes to call it a chocolate volcano cake. It's really just a chocolate cake with fudgy frosting and caramel ice cream topping drizzled about. The caramel, however, makes the cake split-- and I suppose if you're young and innocent, it looks like the cake is erupting with caramel. So, Volcano Cake it is!

Of course, all of this planning finally prompted us to plan her party today. She decided that she wanted her own party this year {we try to get all 3 older girls to celebrate with one big bash since their BDAYS are 6 weeks apart}, and that is what the girl shall have. We are going with a Cowgirl theme this year. I took her out tonight to look at supplies. Sure enough we came back with some red and white checkered fabric {for a table cloth} and some cow print fabric {for exactly what, I'm unsure, but we had to get that too}. I'll have to get some pictures of them and post.

We also found bandannas, straw bales, and a horse pinata. We still need to find a place that sells little straw{?} hats for kids. I swear I've seen these hats somewhere, but I have no idea where. I checked Party America and Walmart but no luck. My next guess is Hobby Lobby, but after that I'm outta ideas. Do you have any?

We decided if it was cool out, we'd make Cowboy/girl Wagon Stew and serve rootbeer/saspirilla. However, in the event of nice weather, we'll have hotdogs, chips {I know, authentic}, beans and still some good ol' rootbeer. Apparently none of my kiddos got my distaste for that wretched drink. Ugh!

She's also decided to use her pony/horse toys and some straw with balloons as the centerpiece for the food table. No, she didn't have a clue what a centerpiece was, but I talked to her about it and we agreed that her horsies would work wonderfully! I'm thinking some extra bandannas are in order so we can make some cute decorations for the windows/walls.

Our games will consist of the pinata {DUH!}, Cowgirl boot bean bag toss, and either a kid-friendly horseshoes or ..... I'm not sure. What's your idea for a good Cowgirl themed game?

Oh, and while all this fun is going on, we'll be blaring country music {her song choices have already been made} for all to enjoy {including our neighbors. But I'm guessing they'd rather listed to music then several tiny people screaming---on second thought, they're probably used to several tiny people screaming}. The girl has her priorities and tastes, and I think it's awesome that she has so much of it all thought out. My little party planner in the making.

The older two girls are thinking of a joint BDAY bash with costumes. This mama has way too many ideas for how this one will go. Hopefully Brownie and Bug won't mind my input! We'll discuss more of this later {say, after I accomplish a birthday dinner and party for Peach}.

And back to my original topic....

Thursday is just the dinner {no party for a few more weeks}. Friday we'll continue a family tradition by taking the hooligans {in case you don't know, I use this term lovingly} out for a "first day of school" meal. Growing up, my mom always took my sister and me out for dinner on the first and last night of school. It was a tradition I wanted to keep alive--and while we still have four kids who all eat off the kid's menu, I'm going to take advantage of this time together as a family!

This weekend there is an Inter-tribal Pow Wow that we make an annul trip to. We celebrate our American Indian heritage by listening to the drums, eating Indian Tacos, and usually purchasing something. I know, real authentic, right? But hey, these are our favorite parts--so enjoy, we will! And I believe baby needs his/her first Indian taco--so I must indulge!

I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures of my little school girls.