Happy Birthday Harrison!

My baby has turned 4, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

For weeks now I have been telling him that I want him to stay 3 forever. He would always respond with a sad face and say "I WANT to stay 3, mom. But I just can't. I don't know how."

His siblings were VERY intense about what he was opening.

To celebrate we went to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, which I DO NOT recommend.

The kids had a blast.

But it was OVERPRICED and the food was terrible! I couldn't even force myself to finish mine. The chicken tasted like it came out of a can. Yuck!

Luckily we lucked out with our next activity. We visited the Sea Life Aquarium which cost us 1/4 of what it did to eat, and was 400% more fun.

In my next life I want to come back as a seahorse.

On thing you may not know about Harrison is that he is freakishly good at Angry Birds. Here is something else you may not know, my mom has always helped me do my kids' birthday cakes in the past. (She has been decorating cakes for more years then I've been alive.) And by "help" me I mean I bake the cake, take it to her house and then watch her decorate.

Since we have moved to AZ now I was on my own. Thank goodness for the internet. I thought Angry Birds would be easy enough even for a cake novice like myself. So I Googled it and found these super cute Angry Bird cupcakes. And I thought, I could do that.

So I did.

He LOVED them!

And just like that, without my permission, my baby is really 4 years old. Maybe with any luck He'll stay 4 for at least another year, or so. 

Mommy Guilt: Tooth Fairy edition

My almost sister Andria once wrote a blog post about Naming Ourselves. She posed an interesting question about what names to we give ourselves, and asked what other names we could give ourselves that would give our lives greater purpose.

I commented that I wanted my name to be magic maker, because I believe in making my children's lives magical, fantastical, memorable.

At least I strive to. But let's be honest. I'm a mom. Sometimes I'm tired or cranky or out of ideas.

This was the state I found myself in when my oldest child lost his first tooth a little over a year ago. Yes, he left it under his pillow. And yes the tooth fairy left him a dollar. But it wasn't until later that I discovered that there is a whole cottage industry out there devoted to making losing that first tooth REALLY special and magical.

You can buy tooth fairy doors and pillows and even official tooth fairy dollars.

After discovering all this I, of course, felt like a horrible mom for not knowing sooner, and planning far enough ahead to have all this prepared by the first lost tooth. But I figured it was too late now so I gave my self a pass to be a little "less magical" when it came to the tooth fairy.

On Monday Adam lost his third tooth.

And then the tooth fairy forgot to come Monday night.

I mean how hard could it be? I had already given myself permission to do the minimum required in this department and here I was failing at doing even that.

Magic Maker indeed. Real tooth fairies don't just forget to come.

Then she forgot to come the second night, too. Well, sort of. She woke up at 5:00 in the morning and realized she hadn't come. So she jumped up out of bed and prayed that she had some cash in her wallet.

Luckily she did. So she made an early morning visit and then climbed back in bed.

Around 7:00 Adam wandered in with a sad look on his face.

"Mom, the tooth fairy didn't come. I looked under my pillow and the tooth was still there and I didn't see anything else."

Okay, yes I left the tooth. I couldn't find it and I was afraid I was going to wake him up so I left the tooth and the dollar.

So of course I said, "Oh really? Maybe she decided she would leave this one for you since you lost it on the Fourth of July so it was extra special. I'll bet she still left you a dollar. Go check again."

He leaves only to reappear a few minutes later. "I lifted up the whole pillow and even reached down into the pillow case. Nothing. She didn't come."

Me, in my head "YES SHE DID!!!!! I got up way earlier than I wanted to in order to make sure she came and now I'm getting no credit for it??? Go look again! I put it there less then 2 hours ago, how could it possibly be lost already?"

Me, out loud. "I'm sure she came. Let's go look again, together."

He was right about his dollar not being under his pillow. Or in the pillow case. We finally found it all wrapped up in the sheets with his teddy bear. How he managed to do that in only a couple hours I have no idea.

Talk about an anticlimactic visit from the tooth fairy.

So much for magic maker.