Nixon Birthday Party Invite

Here's a shot of the invitation to the Nixon birthday party for Miss Boo's four year old friend.


It's next weekend. I'll be sure to post pics of the decorations!

Tricky Dick

As I've mentioned before, I hang with a group of ladies I met back when Boo was a baby. The kids have grown up as friends and now we're attempting to do the same for our babies.

One of the moms is also a bit unconventional just like me with a daughter who's just as unique as Miss Boo. But now, both of them have totally out-wacked us in the wacky department. I mean that as a compliment.

Her daughter, who also sailed through her test for the gifted education program, is about to turn 4. Her mom asked what kind of birthday party she wanted. Care Bears? Backyardigans? You'll never guess what theme her daughter asked for. Never in a million years.

Richard Nixon.

Yes, Richard Nixon.

Her daughter has a place mat with the faces and names of all the American Presidents and has become fascinated with Richard Nixon. As my friend was telling us this fact, her daughter was sitting there going, "I cannot tell a lie! Tricky Dick!"

So, how do you carry out a Richard Nixon theme for a four year old? Her mom is decorating the room with red, white, and blue streamers. She printed pics of Richard Nixon to hang around the room. She got a red, white, and blue pinata and will place Nixon's picture on the front. She got Nixon campaign buttons off Ebay. She's even giving her daughter a Nixon paper doll kit. I didn't ask about the invites or the cake, but you know they are going to be a hysterical.

Richard Nixon. I mean, what four year old would ask for a Richard Nixon themed birthday party? The fact that her mom is running with it is just classic.

Friends With Benefits

I've noticed a few of you mommy-types have been writing in your blogs about longing for that perfect Best Friends Forever relationship, like the kind you had back in junior high or high school. One blogger in particular who wrote such sentiments completely caught me off guard. I figured she had to beat her BFFs away with a designer handbag. "No! I cannot possibly go out for shopping and drinks with you AGAIN! Stay back! Stay BACK!"

It's funny, these blogs. They've become a source of comfort. Don't you agree? Haven't you felt a sense of relief in knowing others share the same thoughts and feelings as you? Especially the ones we don't dare speak of in public?

I've had similar feelings about longing for that BFF relationship. And I'll say what the other bloggers already said so well. I have friends, good friends, but I don't have that stereotypical BFF situation either. It made me wonder why so many of us are saying that? How come so many of us approaching 30 or even 40 are lacking in the BFF department?

I've done some thinking on this and want to share my thoughts with you. Tell me if you agree or not.

Most of us formed those intense best friend attachments at a very young age. Back when it didn't take much time or effort to become fascinated with someone. As we aged, so did the friendships. Some more gracefully than others. We change so much between our teens and our late 20s that we often grow out of relationships. Just like many young marriages, young friendships can't withstand radical life or personality changes.

As we age, we have a better understanding that forming intense relationships takes time. We don't have sexual chemistry to speed along the bonding process. We don't have the fierce protective love that we have for our children to speed along the bonding process. We're just two people, learning about each other and hoping we like what we discover.

With the distractions of spouses, careers, and kids, bonding with a new friend can be a diffult process. I think 30 or 40 year old women can have instant connections with other women. I just think we've been around long enough that we realize taking it to the best friend level takes time. And taking it to that level with all our adult responsibilities distractions can make it impossible to find that time. We've also been burned a few times by relationships, so we're hesitant. Add up all those factors and it's no wonder so many of us are surrounded by friends, but very few of us can claim we have a Best Friends Forever friend. Or the Best Friends Forever scenario we had in our youth.

I conduct most of my friendship networking online, even with my local friends. I'm not a phone person. I rarely call someone just to chat. I don't often make the time to hang out with my friends without the kids. As a result, I bet many of my friends don't know how much they mean to me. I think many of them reading this right now would be shocked at how highly I regard them.

I need to get better about reaching out to people. I've been hurt so badly in my life that I form a big wall around me. I let people in, but only so far. I need to take more risks when it comes to friendships. I definitely need to reach out more.

I took a step in that direction last night. I had met Britney years ago when our girls were babies. Hannah and Boo formed an instant BFF bond. It was priceless to see two girls toddler to each other while squealing each other's names in delight. They'd hug and knock each other over, as they were still so new to walking. Here's a photo from one of their early play dates.



The bond has continued between the girls and Matt and I have become close with Hannah's mom and dad. I called on Britney a lot during this past chaotic year. She holds my family together when I cannot. Last night, we wanted to show them our appreciation and invited them over for a holiday/thank you party.

Boo and I wanted to have a smiling snowman to greet the family as they came up our walk. We weren't sure which way they'd come in, so we covered both entrances. Here's our green greeter.

And the the blue greeter for the other door. Her nose is a rose.

We also sprayed the bushes and trees that line both walks red and green but I wasn't able to get a good picture. I was able to get a lovely picture of Britney's family. As you can see, Hannah has grown quite a bit from that picture I posted above! Hannah's beautiful long hair will soon be donated to Locks of Love. As I type this, Hannah is taking her test to get into the gifted school. Boo hangs with a smart crowd.

Britney and I, joining in the reindeer games. Because I am corny, I asked everyone to dress in Christmas colors. Not pictured is an unfortunate shot of Jack (shot of Jack, haha) and Matt and an unfortunate placement of a Santa hat on one man with an unfortunate direction facing of another man. As hilarious as that picture turned out, I cannot do that to the husbands.

Once there was just Hannah and Boo. Now there's five kids between us. More proof that it's impossible to assemble the kids on our famous red couch for a holiday picture. If we had left Avie much longer, she would have been in dream land.
I had a bitchy little experience with one of the bakeries in town. I was the nice one in the scenario. The bakery manager obviously has so much business that when I asked to order my child's first birthday cake, she rolled her eyes and sighed at me the entire time. Done with them! I've decided to learn how to bake and decorate. That way, I can control the fat and caloric content. Applesauce instead of oil being a great trick and it works wonders! I do need to get some much needed supplies. Like a cake platter. Who doesn't have a cake platter? Who doesn' t have a cake cutter and server? Who doesn't even have a plastic cake storage thingie? Me! In this picture, you can see my.... very spirited looking cake resting on the top of a tupperware lid.

Red velvet cake, with the obligatory red velvet cake crumblies on the sides of the cream cheese icing. The problem being that I decorated the cake on the tupperware container. The white tupperware container. Ever work with red velvet cake? The red dye is intense. As I tried to scape away the stray crumblies, they left red streaks on my white lid. I decided to work that into the design and just left them there. I added white sprinklies, green sugar, and Xmas M and Ms. It really does look like Santa barfed all over my cake. But it ate good and that's all that matters.

So yeah, friendships as an adult. Not always easy to accomplish. Perhaps it's not so bad having numerous good friends and no BFF. Or maybe we really do have several BFFs, but it just works differently at this age.

Me Time. Finally.

I got together with the girls this weekend.

Not the All My Children girls.

Girls who are fully potty trained and do not have accidents in their pants. At least not lately.

My friend had a mommy hobby party. Bring your your current hobby and work on it on her basement. As long as your current hobby is not schtupping the pool boy. None of us have pools, so my friend's retro orange couch was safe from schtupping.

What wasn't safe from my hobby were my friends. I taped two internet shows and got footage for a third. That meant each of my friends had to go on camera. Some didn't know they were going on camera until they showed up. "Hey, sit right here. I need to interview you for my show." Aren't I a great friend? Don't you wish you knew me in person?

I drank beer. I didn't watch my mouth. I didn't feel the need to censor myself for the sake of looking good in front of others. These ladies have known me long enough that there's no hope of ever looking good in front of them again.

10 hours later as I was driving home, I realized I haven't been out of the house alone for longer than an hour in over a year. I was on bed rest this time last year. So yeah, it's been a loooong time.

When I got home, All My Children were asleep. When we all woke up the next morning, they looked cuter and were much less annoying than the previous day. No doubt they were thinking the same thing about me.

It's important to find the right balance between Motherhood and Yourself. Too much Me Time and you're not much good to the family. Not enough Me Time and you're not much good to anyone.

Why does finding the right balance have to be so tricky?