Kids and Playdough!

The fun of summer! The giggling of your child as you sit down to make wonderful crafts together!!! Errr what? Crafts? Uh, nooo. Yes, I am not a crafty person. What, you say? But, you make lovely soaps! Yes, but, to me that is fun and exciting and when I think of crafty, I think of rag rolling, and popsicle sticks and yes, making playdough and slime from scratch. That, is not me!! Luckily, I have a daughter who does like making that kind of thing and she reads directions rather well!! Now, her one flaw is that she does not clean up the mess she makes afterwards!

I was on the phone the other day with my sister and she was attempting to make Playdough from scratch using water and flour. When that became too sticky she started adding cornstarch. Rayne overheard our conversation and whipped out her handy dandy craft book and explained that her aunt was doing it all wrong!! Although it was too late to help her aunt, she took it upon herself to make her own playdough! Into the kitchen she went. Bowls clanging, tops popping, spoons clattering and Wallah!! Playdough!! A huge chunk of yellow dough that she could mold and meld as she wished!! This time she said she did clean up, but this entailed pouring water into the bowls she used and tossing them into the sink. At least the counters were clean!! We're making an improvement!

The next morning as I'm going through the house, I walk into my bedroom and notice on my beautiful duvet, the only thing I really like in my room, that there is something gross, runny and yellow on it!!! I call out to Rayne to find the dog that is sick! I get my duvet cleaned up and find more in the kitchen. I can also hear the dog now and it is our small 5lb Chihuahua that is not feeling well. We toss him outside and get everything else cleaned up.

As I'm sitting in the living room, Rayne comes in and says, "I think I know what happened." It seems her playdough is missing! Yes, the yellow playdough she made the day before!! Apparently, the 5lb dog has eaten the flour, salt, yellow dyed concoction and his body is now letting him know that it didn't like the taste of it! So, he's letting Rayne know this by showing her on my duvet, the floor and as we lean back on the couch, we find he has left us this message there too!!

Ahhhhh, the joys of kids, dogs and Playdough!

Let The Good Times Roll

Last Friday as I was scrolling through a mountain of emails, I came across one from a very good friend of mine whom I've known since 2nd grade! In the email she said, Berta is in town, Meesh happens to be in from Boston, we've contacted Glenda who is on her way in and it wouldn't be the same if all of us weren't here. Can you come on in as well? What fun!! I called up my wonderful husband, checked out what his plans entailed for the weekend, which wasn't much. So, I had a babysitter!!

The next day I headed out for Houston and had a mini reunion with friends I've known since high school! Well, with the exception of Rhonda as mentioned above!

We headed down to the Heights and checked out some of their shops in a very unique way and one that most people don't get to experience! Heights shopping by braille! We had intended to go down during the Yale Art show and White Nights, but it was raining so there wasn't any art out, but the shops were open. We ducked into an antique craft mall and were checking out the interesting things inside when the power went out! No problem, that's what cell phones were for, right? We were able to get out of the glass shop safely without knocking any valuables over. After concluding that the ice cream shop was not the best place to go when the power was out, we went to another shop called Retropolis! What a cool place and even cooler when there are no lights!! It's a vintage shop and it was like playing in grandma's attic!! Now, if we could've only found those go go boots!! We were in there for an hour when the power came back on and then it was a whole new experience when we saw what they really had!! MORE COOL STUFF!! After another hour of running around and playing dress up, we headed out to another friend's house for a barbeque.

I did receive a phone call from Rayne saying that she was getting a ton of restricted calls on her dad's cell phone. I told her not to answer them and to give the phone to her dad. Turns out she was at her cousins house. So, I just told her not to answer the phone. Five minutes later, I get a frantic phone call from her saying that fire trucks, police cars and an ambulance looked like they were heading to our house and she can't get her dad on the phone! I call home and get a busy signal. I wait and call home again and my husband calmly answers the phone. I ask him if anything is going on and he says no. I tell him about the phone call I got and he says didn't happen there, but he did tell her to come home. Another five minutes go by and I get another phone call from my daughter crying because she says that dad is grounding her from his cell phone since she let her cousin use the phone to dial numbers and now he thinks that she may have inadvertantly dialed 911, hence the restricted calls coming in and all the fire trucks, police and ambulances going by! Yes, my family cannot run without me!! :)

Jennifer and Sean welcomed us all into their home for great fun and great food and crack dip! Berta even stayed up past 10pm!! Believe it or not!!

Back to RubinSmo manor we went for more fun and games!

The next day we went to see Berta's mom and also got an unexpected visit from Norman! After having a great lunch at Shanghai River with the gang, I headed home. Upon arrival, my house and famiy were intact and they were very glad to see me!

Thank you Rhonda for inviting me. I had a great time and it was a blast seeing everyone again.

Old Yeller

Yes, you know. The movie about a boy and his dog? Well, Rayne decided she wanted to watch that movie this evening before going to bed. As I was trying to catch up on emails from a fantastic weekend of girlfriends (more on that on another post) she walked into my room to let me know the movie had ended. She's standing behind me to tell me the movie is over. I ask her, "Did you cry at the end?" "No" she says. I'm thinking that's a little odd, but okay she might be a little young for the movie and not apt to give in to emotions quite yet. So, I still type away with my back to her and say. "You mean, you didn't even cry when Old Yeller died?" Then I hear with a quivering voice, "No, but it was a good movie". I whip around and she's standing there with tears in her eyes!!! I laughed!! Yes, I know, bad mom!!! But, I said, "You were crying!!!!" Then she starting laughing and crying at the same time!! I told her that everyone cries at Old Yeller. You aren't human if you don't cry!!! So, now she has me crying cause she's crying and we're both laughing our heads off because we are both crying! I give her a big hug and kiss and then she starts singing the end song. Yes, it was pretty funny and cracked me up that she did get so emotional over the movie and that she also knows that it's okay to cry at sad movies!!! She's going to do great at chick flicks!!!