Mini Me

I think Emma has officially become more like me than I am like myself. Uh, whatever. What I mean is that she does a lot of stuff to me that I remember doing to my mom. Her newest thing is writing me notes. (I know I wrote you some doozies. Sorry, Mom.) Here are a couple of her recent ones, original spelling and all:


"I burlie can breath and my lieft eye hurts and my nose. Emma."


"Dear Mom. I'm glad your my mom. I sorry abuot all the mishif I made and all the fighting and all the mad stuff and the thing I did today. Love, Emma."

I had to include this photo because it shows another habit Emma and I share - wearing our sister's clothes. She organized this photo shoot of herself, wearing Audrey's dress as a shirt. I wasn't too thrilled about my 7-year-old borrowing clothes from her sister who is not yet 2, but I gotta give her props for at least making sure she had "sleeves."

One morning recently Ry Ry had the garage door clicker and closed the door on my car as I was backing out. I heard the door crash on my car roof and yelled at him to stop and give me the opener NOW! He thought he was in big trouble and began to whimper, as I angrily assessed the damage to my car. Then I peeked in my rearview mirror and saw him buckled in his carseat. There was my darling five year old – red hair, freckles, his spiderman outfit sticking out from under his elastic-waist jeans…. And I crumbled.

I pulled him into my arms for a love.

When I asked him why he had the clicker, he told me it was because he didn’t want his blanky to get stuck inside the house. Then we discussed all the ways we could get his blanky out of the house, even if it was locked and the garage door was shut. His five-year-old logic was so tender. I should have guessed it was about his blanky. This is the boy who doesn’t let me wash it without him giving it a kiss and a hug.
I am not tooting my own motherhood horn, but I am so glad I was able to see through the frustration to realize what was really going on, when he shut the garage door on my car. Just a sweet little boy who wanted to make sure he could get back to his blanky

Oh please be a visit from the chocolate fairy

Today I walked into Audrey's room and found all over her and her crib what could only be melted hershey bar or a diaper disaster. Since I was pretty sure I hadn't put her to bed with a Hershey bar, I prayed it had been a visit from the chocolate fairy. Of course, no such luck. Hello Hazmat!

Why are we shopping here???

Emma and Matthew have both been asking me to get them some skinny jeans. I'm not a big fan of that look, but they have valiantly worn hundreds of Children's Place clearance rack outfits, and they deserved an update. Plus, I know what it's like to want to be like the "cool kids." So I packed everyone up and we headed to the mall. We found ourselves in Tillys, (see photo above for an idea of what kind of gems you'll find in the store.) and I tried in vain to navigate the racks with stroller, diaper bag, and wiggly baby and toddler in tow. Literally, I could not get my whole gaggle to the back of the store where I needed to be. So I stranded my stroller in a random spot towards the front of the store and dragged all the kiddies to the back. If that wasn't enough of a spectacle, at that point Nathan arrived to help me out. He walked into the store and rhetorically asked everyone in earshot "WHY ARE WE SHOPPING HERE???" I guess I hadn't made him aware of my mission to help the kids up their cool quotient.

In the end, I think I was succesful. And if the skinny jeans didn't do it, I"m sure the family shopping trip did the trick.

Tillys aside, what am I supposed to do with these pwe-tween kids? It's so much less complicated to care for a baby. I know how to change diapers and hug squishy tummies. It's these gangly limbs and complicated emotions I don't know what to do with.

Things Ry says that should never be taken out of context:

As we were reorganizing his room: "Well Mom, where am I going to put all my weapons?" He wasn't kidding. He has amassed quite an assortment of old water guns, pirate swords, and ropes fashioned out of belts, that he carries around with him as his weapons. He does not like to separate his collection and so has to have a large space in his room to store everything.

As we were getting out of the car at his friend's house: "Wait. I want to put on my fairy shoes first." He was wearing a Peter Pan costume and wanted to have the full regalia on when he greeted his friends. I should note that this is a girl's Peter Pan costume but we've never wanted to tell him that the skirt bottom is actually a "skirt."

Just call me "Dream Killah"

Today Matthew and I had this conversation:

Matthew: Mom, can I come out of my room at 3:30?

Mom: No, 4:00.

Matthew: Gosh, you really know how to kill a person's dreams.

The Newest Sugar Snap Girl is....

.....................................................................Emily Turman! She's a cutie in her
polka-dot daisies.

Petunia Pigtails is now Sugar Snap Sisters

Because a certain diaper bag company owns the word "petunia," Petunia Pigtails has now become Sugar Snap Sisters.


Check out our new etsy shop at sugarsnapsisters.etsy.com.
We'd love to know what you think.

Oh Snap!

Naomi looks adorable in her Sugar Snap daisy!

D.J. Audrey

Here's Audrey, spankin' the tables. (I don't know any DJ lingo, so I made up my own.)

You gotta love this "4th child" outfit. I don't even know what color these jammies were originally.

I'm not proud of it, but.........

I listen to the Jonas Brothers when I'm working out. I have to just get this out there becuase I'm always afraid people can somehow tell what I'm listening to on my ipod. So now, all you ipod stalkers, I beat you to it. I listen to Burnin' Up and it pumps me up!