The Power of Advertising II

I was browsing through my old blog posts and came across this one when Elena wanted to get a dog so we could buy a fancy dog brush. I forgot to mention that she topped that about a week later when we drove by the Ford dealership. There must have been a sale going on so they had balloons tied to the cars.

You've probably already guessed it. From the back seat, I heard Elena's voice say, "Mom! If we buy a car, we can get a balloon!!!"

We watched E.T. tonight

I figured if I skipped the "scary" parts with the scientists chasing and capturing E.T., the kids would really enjoy it. And they did; they especially liked the scene where he gets drunk and falls over.

The only problem was the ending. I knew it had a bittersweet ending, but I figured I could emphasize that E.T. got to go hom with his family and all would be well. Elena did pretty well: as she put it, she "almost cried" but was fine by the time the credits were rolling. Sam, on the other hand took the 'bitter' part of that ending a little hard.

When E.T. says "Come" to Elliot, and Elliot replies, "Stay," Sam's little lip started to quiver. After the movie ended, Sam was so heartbroken for poor E.T. that he sobbed for 5 minutes. Every time I tried to console him, he would cry, "But why did E.T. say 'come' and why did the boy say he couldn't go??"

In the end, though, it was nothing a couple of Curious George stories couldn't fix. In the future, however, I will be making sure to pick movies with very happy endings :)

(And I apologize, 12-year-old Sam, if this story embarrasses you 9 years from now, but I think it's sweet)

Happy Birthday to me

I turned 29 last month. I am now too old to audition for American Idol. Fortunately I've never had any desire to do so...

I was gone most of the day on my birthday and I came home to a mini-surprise party with Seth and the kids. The surprise mainly being that they baked a cake for me while I was gone. It was Seth's first time ever baking a cake. He even made the frosting from scratch since he knows I don't like the stuff from a can.

I don't think he realized that a bundt cake is one of the more difficult to make since they fall apart easily, but they managed to correct any damage and the cake turned out very well. I was quite impressed:

One of those moments...

You know those moments when you have little kids who are a bit too honest? I had one of those with Sam the other day.

We were at the doctor's office, and she noticed something on the floor under her desk. After she bent down to pick it up, Sam said to her very innocently, "Your butt-crack was showing." Lovely.

Fortunately, she just laughed and said, "I guess that's what I get for not wearing a belt today."

Let's Go, Boys!

This video is several months old, but I haven't had the time to upload anything more recent from my camera. Here's a glimpse of one of those activities that Seth came up with to play with the kids - one that I never would have come up with myself (and wouldn't have the strength to do for long). Gotta love those Dads!