THE SMORGASBORD SATURDAY

Obviously struggling with a title today, so this is just a mish-mash of stuff we did.

Saia, our budding chef, insisted on making breakfast on her own this morning. So, after I plugged in the griddle (and maybe flipped the first egg in a nest), she was on her own...cracking eggs, flipping bread, serving juice, the whole bit.

At least I won't have to worry knowing she can short-order cook her way through college if need be.

Next on the agenda was softball. Saia, as usual, was spot-on. Having received the game ball AGAIN last week, she's been riding pretty high and putting in extra effort on the field. I can't wait to watch her play soccer!!

Then it was off to lunch, where our bibliophile could not be bothered with the cheesy burrito and a side of chips so long as Wolverine still had a job to do!!

But it's not like I can even get after him for this. He just loves his books soooo much. And this growing interest in comic books has really influenced his drawing and illustrations. I mean, if I'm gonna pimp him to Pixar by the time he's 10, I've got to continue to water this seed, people.

But anyway...

Back home and not wanting to waste a moment of the gorgeous sunshine, the kids pulled out their bikes and practiced balancing-more-than-riding up and down the sidewalk for about as long as they could stand. See, this is the first year we've lived in a house where our street is not on a steep incline or near an exit ramp, so when they discovered how much effort it was actually going to require to balance AND pedal at the same time, it became a pretty hard sell for Mama.

And then, during one of his many tumbles, he jumped back up only to discover that his 2nd huge chomper that had only been hanging on by a sinew, was nowhere to be found. So, he had Saia and I crawling on hands and knees with him around our neighbor's driveway feeling for the runaway tooth. Luckily, I spotted it in a puddle. Not so luckily, it was snuggled right up next to a degenerating earthworm.

Cut to 5 hours later, and the Toothfairy's digging through purses and wallets and piggy banks for yet another damn $5 bucks.

But wait, there's more!

It was also movie night. We decided on Lord of the Rings. And I was actually a little surprised that I hadn't thought of it before. As much as they love Harry Potter, Narnia, and Spiderwick, it really did seem like a logical choice. And, of course, they loooooved it.

It was so awesome to be able to share it with them. I loved the books, and really think the movies did them great justice. It has so many wonderful life lessons, and there's not really any actual blood, so I thought we were good as golden. Really. I did. 'Til about midnight.

See, first, I completely forgot that it was a THREE. HOUR. MOVIE. So, that made it, like 9:30 by the time we even walked upstairs. They were exhausted (as they've typically got a 7:30 bedtime), but so excited and wanted to talk more about the movie. Eventually, I got them quiet and down for the count.

But then, I forgot about the Orcs.

And four shrieking, wake-up-the-entire-neighborhood nightmares later, and the boy ended up hogging my bed for the rest of the night.

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