Twin Day

L and Noah

Today was Twin Day (dress like your friend) at Ls school and she had chosen her new buddy Noah (5th grade) as her twin.
Noah is an awesome kid and had helped her last week build a robot suit while I was working so much at school.

All of the Curtner PTA kids had built Robots and as you can see they were all boys ... except for one, my L na-course.

Noah and his awesome Robot construction :)

Nico and his super-cool Robot/Transformer suit.

The boys were great with L and she LOVED hanging with the big boys!

We bought L and Noah matching shirts (Shaun White since Noah likes him) and I got her so called "skater-pants" to complete the look.

SHE LOVES IT and has instructed me to "Go back to target and buy ALL of them!".
"They are SO cool Mama!"
And then she said "I am the only one in class who had a twin in 5th grade and the only girl that had a boy twin. I think I am full to the top Tom Boy now. TO THE TOP!"

... you go girl!!!

Serious ISSUES!!!

That's what she has ... some VERY SERIOUS ISSUES.

While clearing a pathway through Lulu's room (I do that every night, in case of an emergency one should be able to walk from the door to the bed without having to jump over mountains of clothes and Barbies) L and I discovered this, hidden behind her huge pillow pet, which was stuffed on top of it all in her bookshelf.

OMG, can you believe this child???

Empty candy wrappers, piles of it.
MOST of them bellowing to L who hoards her candy for ???? ... better days I guess.

A WHOLE BOX of chocolate muffins.
A WHOLE BOX!!!!

More of Ls candy.
At this point I told her that it was her fault for not eating it fast enough.
It's first come first serve ... according to our littlest one.

????
Really?
I have been looking all over for them and thought we must have run out and was on my way to get new ones ... apparently Lulu wants to make sure she has a sufficient vitamin intake (thank God this stuff has child proof caps!!! otherwise she'd OD on it for sure!)

And even more candy.

This was too much for L and me.
We can't take it anymore.
All begging and pleading for Lulu to stay out of Ls room and away from candy is getting us nowhere.

L and I ordered trip wires and a motion detection alarm for her room on Amazon ... just now.
Within 48 hours Ls room will be decked out like a vault in a Swiss Bank.
An alarm will sound every time an "intruder" aka Lulu tries to enter Ls room, not just once but with the help of the infrared trip wires every, singe step she'll take, trying to get closer to Ls secret stash, another alarm will sound.
I bet the noise level in this house will go up 100 %!

I am thinking of doubling the order to protect my kitchen and pantry from these little klepto hands.

OMG, I think she has some SERIOUS issues, this little, super smart and very clever child of mine.
... or you could also say I AM HAVING SERIOUS ISSUES with this child of mine.

She is not even 5.
God help me ... in 3 years from now ?????
I can't even begin to imagine ....

HELP!!!!

... and she was such a cute baby!
It all must be because Pat said she looked like a troll when she was itty.
I knew this would come back to haunt us.
Good job husband ... see what you have done!!!!

You know your ...

... daughter is a TOMBOY if she does this ...

.... and looks like this ...

She is going to bed in Star Wars PJs and has a Lightsaber nightlight on, reading Star Wars and getting ready for "Twin Day - dress like your friend".
She'll be dressing like Noah, the nice 5th grader she recently started to buddying up with.
Shawn White shirt and skater shorts ... sure thing.

She is the son I never had :)

My L, my crazy, awesome, currently home-work hating, rebelling, head strong, still loving and very kind hearted sunshine!

Finally!!!!

... I am back!!!

I kind of disappeared in a mountain of recycled materials and 700+ kids trying to make something out of it.

It was SO, SO, SO MUCH work!
2 weeks on non-stop working.
WOW

Three days later and I am still pooped!!!
But it went GREAT and the kids had a fantastic time!!!!
We even heard some say "this is better than recess!" ... it doesn't get much better than that!
By tomorrow I should have my first post ready over on Art Attach ... I'll post a link.

But now I am back to being a mom (for this week, next week I am back teaching) and can just take care of my poor, very much neglected Ls.

Today we took it super slow (partially because I had spilled a VENTI latte over my snazzy Mac cordless keyboard and had drowned it).
It took Pat 2 hours of arguing with the Fry's store manager (he had purchased the extra warranty) but they wanted us to bring the ENTIRE computer in - with all my data - to test the system.
He ended up going to Best Buy and just bought a new one ... that was one fancy $70 latte!!!!

Anyhow, so we took it slow and FINALLY I made my way into the garden.

I hadn't been back there all year.
GP had planted some broccoli, tomatoes, peas and herbs with the Ls but the snails were rather quick and took huge chunks out of everything.
On top of it it had been raining like crazy and it just didn't feel like gardening time yet.

BUT today we made it and this is what we found ...

eaten peas

big chunks out of my broccoli (with SLIME residue as proof)

GP had told me about this expensive soil you can buy that has added, broken shells. Supposedly the snails don't go on it since it will cut them.
We may be poor BUT we do have  a lot of shells from our trips to the beach so we made our own SNAIL-CUTTER-STUFF ;)

Lulu loaded a bag full with shells we had.

She then jumped on the bag (how fun :) but her 30 itty pounds don't do much to shells.

 I took my snail aggression and a hammer ....

and went to town ...

et voila "snail cutter stuff" as Lulu calles it.

Here is our first broccoli in the making ... so pretty!

Our first two "early girls".

Besides the snails we have three more pests to deal with.
Two of them dig, poop and dig again, the third digs, eats what the other two pooped and then then runs all over the plans.

I don't think shells will help with either of them so I hid my new seeds under some plastic lids so the little ones can grow without being pooped and trampled on.
I used pins to pin the lids down ... no paw will reach it!!!

GP; I moved the herbs all into the original herb garden you built.
The container was getting full and the herbs did so well there last year.
I planted a melon the the big container ... we'll see if it takes.

GP's ingenious idea ... plant in concrete blocks. The snails and cats want get to it.
Unfortunately the birds took the seedlings that grew but I am trying it again .... and this time with a cucumber (I have yet to be successful with them) but we'll see.

After a nice dinner for three (Pat is slaving away as usual) we played a little game of Jack Straws and had a fun time.
Both Ls were playing it and neither threw a fit ... that is what you call SUCESS people!!!

L showing off her new SHORT hair style.

I LOVE it!!!
I can brush her hair in 1 minute and NO SCREAMS and TEARS ... success again!

And then, when we were just getting ready for bed (after a quick PJ run to the grocery store since somebody was out of diapers) we found this little guy ...

Another one of Oscar's off-springs.

Remember that super territorial Shrub Jay couple that builds a nest in our Orange Tree every year?

Last year we found one of the babies and brought it to the Wild Life Rescue and today another one fell out of the nest (these kids are like their parents, NOT VERY BRIGHT!!!).

Every year I want to do something about this darn nest to make super-aggressive Oscar and his wife move out but every time it's too late and we hear little baby screams.

I haven't seen mom or dad around today ... I guess they gave up on Junior already and took off (I hope they did!).

Junior is in a box in our garage, hopefully sleeping (and not being D-E-A-D) and we'll take him to the WLR as well. 

They feed these guys and then release them, once they are ready to irritate helpless renters and their pets.

Pat said I should let nature (meaning Meow) take its course but then I had him on my arm, all shaking and sad and we just couldn't leave him out there, to be eaten by my fat cat. 

Poor, stupid, baby Oscar.

So this is it for now.

Just a quick recap of one day after missing so may other days.

Life in the CZ household is CRAZY right now. 

Summer can't come soon enough!!!

The WORST b-day card EVER!!!

While the gang was sleeping in this moring I was up at 6:30 getting ready for the BIG Earth Day Celebration at school.

I (meaning the Ls and I) have been living at school this week, cramped 700 kids into days of craft camps, prepped until the wee hours of the night for the next day of camps and then did it over and over again.

There was no time to cook, to clean, wash clothes let alone prep for a proper b-day breakfast, which is a tradition in our house.

Knowing that this week was going to be insane we had surprised Pat with a b-day supper and his gift last Friday. 

He is still living off the adrenaline that went through him once he opened his gift ... and so are the Ls :)

Instead my husband was ever so lucky and found this little note for him when he woke up:

I was beautifying the courtyards at school and poor b-day boy was left to clean the house and watch the Ls.

We made up with supper and had ice cream AND cake ... to compensate for the morning party (or the lack there of).

Lulu crowned him with his b-day hat in his half-b-day suit :)
(it was above 90 F today!!!)

Happy B-Day my Goalie!
You work so hard, have a tough job and when you come home
(if you do while we are still awake) you have to please your 3 CZ girls and the funny zoo.

We hope you know how much we appreciate how hard you work to give us everything and more!

You are a VERY loved Papa and and an even more loved leader, alpha, commander and ball chucker.
I LOVE snuggling up with you in bed, putting my nose close to you so I can smell and feel you all night.
I love licking you, your face, your hands, your everything.
I pee myself in excitement when you come home.
I can hear car out of a 100 driving by and as soon as I know you are driving into the driveway I race faster than the wind to be the first to jump up on you and lick, lick, lick you ALL over ... and then I usually dribble a bit pee ... because YOU ARE HOME MASTER!!!!

I LOVE you and will always love you!!!
Happy b-day Papa!

With Love,
Your Dork

P.S. Mama said she feels the same, just without the licking, peeing and the smelling ;)