Party dresses

One of the highlights of my daughter's morning is our walk out to the mailbox. She loves to open the door & see what came for her. Usually the answer to that question is nothing. But on occasion she receives postcards from her grandparents or from traveling friends.

Typically I hand her all of the toy & kids' clothing catalogs that come to the house since she loves to look at them while I fix lunch. Usually her interest in the catalogs is relatively short lived. She looks at them once or maybe twice & then moves on to a different activity.

This pattern was changed about two weeks ago when we received a catalog from The Wooden Soldier. I handed K the catalog before I even looked at it & she was immediately hooked. She poured over it the entire day. She even brought it to her brother's soccer practice that evening so she could look at it some more.

It's two weeks later and she has been carrying that catalog around with her almost ever since. It was getting really ratty, but thankfully we received another catalog from the same company at the end of last week. This is really good since most days she wants the two of us to look at the catalog instead of reading stories before her nap time.

She has already picked out her two favorite dresses.

She has told me that I should buy her this first dress for her 4th birthday that is coming up in October. According to her "It's a beautiful party dress"...

She's right about that, but I think it might be a little dressy for the "Puppy Party" theme she has picked out. The vibrant red corduroy would make a really pretty Christmas dress. I can already envision how cute she'll look in the holiday family picture. And the best part is that it is only $92.00! Umm...what?! Wait a second here... I don't think I've spent that kind of money on a dress since I purchased my wedding dress 12 years ago.

It is a pretty dress, but seriously I cannot part with that kind of cash for a something that will be worn at a birthday party for a 4 year old where everyone will be wearing dog ears & running relay races with plastic bones (honestly I couldn't spend that much on a dress for a 4 year old even if the theme were Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. No sir, I'm sorry but I just can't do it.)

Ok, on to the next. Maybe she just happened to pick out the one pricey dress in the catalog. What's your next favorite K?

Oooh. Good pick. Very pretty & the ivory satin is so practical (for sitting and staring off into space with your clean hands folded neatly on your lap). The price of this number is a mere $119.00. Holy Guacamole! What's going on here Wooden Soldier? You are killing me.

Now I'm not saying that these dresses aren't beautiful, because they are. And I'm not saying that this company is a little nuts for selling dresses at this price point, because I am sure that there are a couple people lots of people who think that $119.00 is a perfectly reasonable price to pay for a dress for a 4 year old. All I am saying is that none of these people happen to live in my house or anywhere in my neighborhood.

It should come as no surprise to anyone (except for K - who at 3 has no concept of the value of money) that she will not be getting a dress from the Wooden Soldier for her birthday this year. Instead, I'll be trolling through Target & Ebay to see if I can find an acceptable substitute for about a quarter of the price. Wish me luck.

I'm a little nervous about the fact she's not even 4 yet & her taste levels are running toward dresses that cost over $100.00. I can't wait to see what she's going to want to wear when she's ten. I'm picturing diamond studded jackets and platinum shoes.

A room with a new view

Those of you who have read this blog in the past know that Mr. Crackers loves a good project. Most of his endeavours have happened outdoors, primarily in the backyard. In the past few years he has built a playhouse, a patio and a play set (I'm sure he's also built things that don't start with the letter p, but the alliteration thing is working for me today...).

Normally, I (kind of) head up the projects inside the house. Mostly because they tend to be smaller & involve wall paper removal or paint -- things that are well within my limited scope of home improvement expertise and don't have to be completed before the first snowfall ( I tend to have a problem letting my projects languish a bit before completion).

Recently though Mr. Crackers decided the time had come for him to put his creative stamp on something inside the house. He had won a small incentive bonus at work for a job well done (go Mr. Crackers!) and decided he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the unexpected influx of cash. He wanted to re-do C's bedroom.

He's been brainstorming ideas for the room for quite some time (I think I've mentioned before that Mr. Crackers is an idea man). I hadn't really ignored his designs but I figured they were far-off, if we win the lottery, type of ideas. (You know what I'm talking about... ideas like re-doing the kitchen, or buying a new car, or going to vacation in Hawaii... Good ideas without funding are really just dreams, and both of us do love to dream!)

But Mr. Crackers was ready to put his (newly earned) money where his mouth was.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I thought I'd show you a picture of C's room before the re-do. There were no issues with C's room as it was. His bed & dresser were the same ones used by Mr. Crackers when he was a boy, but they were in pretty good shape. It was a comfortable room, but one that was dominated by a full size bed that took up a lot of the floor space. Despite this, we've had years of fun playing with Lego's, dress-up clothes and Hot Wheels on the floorspace that was available.




(Please note that these pictures are pretty old & that C has not slept with rails on the side of his bed for a couple of years. I should also point out that the photos were taken in December & that we don't normally keep a Christmas tree in his room year round).


In short it was a good room for a growing boy, but Mr. Crackers thought we could do better.

His vision for the room included a loft bed which would give us more floor space for a desk & room to play. So with these ends in mind, we headed to our local Ikea store.

Low & behold, they had just what we were looking for & last weekend we got the whole thing set up. I have to say, it's pretty awesome.

Once I got over my initial fear that C would fall out of bed in the middle of the night & break all of the bones in his body, I have come to love this room. C loves it too. Not only does he have a lot more room to play, but he's got a big boy desk that's entirely his own. He spends hours at that desk drawing his favorite scenes from the Star Wars movies & looking at his favorite books & magazines.

The real unexpected bonus of the room is that I have stopped nagging C to make his bed since I can't see it anymore (frankly, making the bed when it is 5 feet off the floor & fit tightly into a corner is a near impossible task that I can barely do myself. Mr. Crackers has not only given his son a cool room, he's also manage to eliminate a chore for him!).

The shelving units are so cool. I love how much space he has now to display his books, stuffed animals & of course his many, many Legos...

I really can't believe how great the room looks. I'm really impressed that Mr. Crackers was able to visualize this layout & get it all accomplished for so much less than I thought possible. Mr. Crackers & Ikea seem to be a formidable team.

I'm also really happy that C has done so well in his new higher bed. Thankfully my fears of a fall have not been realized. He's been in the new bed for a week's worth of middle of the night bathroom runs & has never even stumbled down the stairs let alone taken a fall. I think I can relax a bit now.

We'll be putting all the finishing touches on the room this weekend. I found some Star Wars vinyl decals which will go up to replace the pictures from the movie Finding Nemo that have decorated his walls since he was an infant.

Well done once again Mr. Crackers! You are a good Daddy. C will be loving this room for a lot of years to come.

Tuesday mornings make me smile

There are times that even though my children don't look much like me, I know they are mine.

K has been wanting to take ballet lessons for quite a long time (which is really saying something since she's not quite 4 years old). This fall she was finally old enough to take lessons so we got her signed up for the Tuesday morning class & bought all the appropriate paraphernalia.

I myself never took ballet lessons, I was missing the all too important "grace" gene that is crucial to success as a ballerina. I seemed to gravitate more toward sports where falling down a lot & injuring myself was a little more acceptable.


As you watch this video, I think you will see that I may have passed on this lack of grace & coordination to my youngest child. K is in the black skirt closest to the teacher who is attempting to teach them all how to execute a curtsy (just in case you were wondering...)



The good news is that grace isn't required for the 3 & 4 year old pre-ballet class - just a willingness to participate & have a good time. I think we've got those two items covered in spades.

Revising my expectations

So it's been more than two weeks since my last post. You are probably thinking, "Mrs. Crackers I thought you said you'd do a better job of keeping up with your blog once your kids went back to school! What's the problem? Just what are you doing with your time?"


Umm...good question. You see, I thought I'd have buckets of down time once the kids got to school. I had fantasized using that time to accomplish all sorts of feats. I imagined I'd be living in a clean and clutter free house and that I would have plenty of time to do all of my laundry, iron it & put it away in the proper drawers. I thought I would be filling all of my new free-time with all sorts of worthwhile pursuits like:

1. Getting my endurance levels back up by running 3-4 times a week so I could prepare for an upcoming race.

2. Focusing myself into learning web design - my aspirational career once the kiddos are both in school full-time.

3. Planning out weekly menus again & spending more (child-free) time in the grocery store so that I didn't leave forgetting half of the items that I needed (like I normally do).

4. Redecorating the dining room, kid's bathroom & the office

5. Posting daily blogs & keeping up with all of my favorite bloggers.

6. Organizing all of my photos on the computer & correcting the ones that still need a little help.


I'll just stop listing all of my plans at this point, since I am starting to depress myself with all of the things that I now know I won't be accomplishing anytime soon.

It's clear to me now that I must've been smoking crack if I thought I'd come close to getting even 1 item on the list accomplished these goals weren't all that realistic. You see, it turns out I am childless for a mere 6 hours a week (less than that if you count the commuting time to & from school). When you also factor in that I have volunteered at my son's school to work in the library as well as assisting with some of the art classes, it is suddenly apparent that I must have had a screw loose if I thought I was going to have a lot of down time on my hands. (I won't even bore you with the details of our extra-curricular activities that sounded like fun during the lazy days of summer but that are now causing us to spend our evenings running around like crazy people.)

So, it's time to deal with the reality that I am not living in the clean & clutter free house of my imaginings. My laundry isn't getting done any more quickly than it was this summer & the ironing (let's not even talk about the ironing OK?!) isn't even close to being complete.

Luckily, the kids both love school & I have found a little time to squeeze in a few good runs over the past couple of weeks. Maybe it's not what I had originally planned, but for now it's good enough for me. I'll save all those grand plans for next fall when K starts Pre-Kindergarten & I'll have 10 whole hours of down-time. It's those extra 4 hours that will make all the difference, right?