shameless plug for some etsy that i love

so, the tutus...

i received a couple of comments about the tutus that my girls are wearing at their birthday party, and i've been meaning to do a post about an etsy shop that i am a HUGE fan of, and as the tutus came from the etsy girl, it seemed like a good time to do this.

so, one of my best friends in the world (i'm talking first day of third grade - go to her house and tell all about the first time i kissed a boy - 10ish new kids on the block concerts - get dressed for high school dances at her house because her parents are at the mountains and we are not supposed to be wearing dresses that short or that tight to the dance at the boys' high school - go on a million vacations her family even though i am the only person there that does not understand italian - bridesmaid in each other's wedding kind of best friend) has opened her own etsy shop called bellina bowtique (i wasn't kidding about the italian language) where she is currently selling hairbows and eventually branch out into other girly accessories, such as the fabulous tutus that my girls wore to their birthday party.

i don't know if you all caught it, but the tutus and hairbows were coordinated to the paper products for the party (i don't play around when it comes to themes). most pictures of my girls include hairbows that stephanie has made and while i prefer the over the top, bigger is better type of bow, she does make some bows that are much more appropriately scaled to little girls' heads, too. stephanie makes bows that coordinate with gymboree's clothing lines as well as special holiday themed bows. i've even been known to take a picture of an outfit that my girls are going to wear and email it to her so she can do a bow to match that outfit specifically (what?!?! like you wouldn't?). like i said, a little over the top.

we have recently had two baby girls born into the family (shout outs to erin and maggie and lisa and keira, woo!) and i gave them killer new baby gifts from my dear friend's shop...crocheted beanie hats with big huge flowers on them and hair bows that coordinate and can be switched for the flower, pretty little pink polka dot bows and cute little purple clippies. so fun (i mean really, you're never too young to develop a passion for great accessories)!

go check out stephanie's shop, bellina bowtique. i know you will love it as much as i do!

ps - the pictures all include things (pink and purple tutus for their 2nd birthday, easter hair bow, bow on the hats for st. patty's day, tutus and coordinated hairbows for their 3rd birthday, etc.) that i have gotten from stephanie!

september

i'm back, bitches! haha...you thought i was gone, didn't you? tricked ya! i was really just buried under a pile of life. i am starting to see the light, though and hopefully will be my happy (haha) blog-posting, blog-commenting self soon.

anywho...september was a month of firsts and since i was a bad blogger and didn't post about the first day of pre-k, the first day of kindergarten, ah hell...the first day of fourth grade, too, the first day of dance class, the kickass pirates and princesses party, the third birthday, etc., etc., etc., i figure i will make this a big, fat picture post and just show you what our month looked like. you can thank me later.

if anyone is wondering...tommy is still unemployed, but doing lots of side work, so we are still hanging in there (it helps to have really super parents, too, by the way) and i am totes schooling all those silly little college kids in my classes. i'm so the girl ruining the curve for them and i love it. haha, fools! srsly, though...school is going pretty well. we are having some adhd/crappy teacher issues with thomas that we are working on and i have been spending a lot of time researching new schools and talking to therapists to get an iep and all kinds of good stuff like that. all in all, it has been a crazy busy couple of weeks for us, but hopefully, i will develop a better schedule soon. i miss you my bloggy friends!

ps - the pictures are terrible. i am using disposable cameras these days and when i got these discs back, they were so fuzzy! sorry!

life

i feel like a total blog slacker lately. real life has totally taken over. tommy is still not back to work, so that means i have to SHARE computer time during the day (wtf, right?!!?) and with taking classes, i have to spend my time doing other things like reading psychology and doing statistics homework. plus, the boys all have homework now, too. it's busy here.
i totally have to still do the girls' birthday post, as their birthday was on saturday. i also want to write something about their party, but i still don't have the party pictures on here, which i need to do, so you can see the true pirate and princess fabulousness that was the girls' birthday outfits. plus, i have to do a post about a super etsy shop that belongs to one of my best friends (like, since third grade best friend) and is the source of previously stated fabulousness. also, i really should tell you all about how caroline, the evil genius, has completely potty trained herself. f'real. lots to do, lots to do...
i figured i would share a little gem from yesterday with everyone, though. i was trying to do some reading and school work and tommy came in to see how it was going. as the boys were all in school, katie and cara made their way into the bathroom. as tommy and i listened, he wondered if they were trying to rebuild the bathroom. i replied that i thought they were just trying to break the toilet. less than five minutes later, there was a giant porcelain sounding crash. sure enough the lid of the toilet was on the floor and cara was pointing at katie saying "katie do it. shes do it." which, by the way, i totally don't believe. my two darling daughters, sweet little angels that they are, managed to break the lid of my toilet. not my three boys. sigh...

ahem...(tap, tap, tap)...is this thing on?

stepping up on my soapbox...
i have some inflammatory things to say here, so i apologize in advance to anyone who is truly offended, but i gotta say...kanye west, taylor swift...i really don't care. really, really don't care. i am posting on this here, today, because facebook was so full of outrage yesterday and i found it so annoying, but if i post anything on facebook about it, i am just feeding into the frenzy.
i like kanye west's music ("run this town" is my newest ring tone). i don't mind taylor swift's music (i prefer carrie underwood or kenny chesney or even zac brown...srsly just outed myself as a country music listener...gasp). i'll leave "pictures to burn" on when i hear it. but, i like these songs. not the actual singers. they don't affect my life in any way. they don't live near me, don't talk to my kids, don't let their dog go to the bathroom on my sidewalk, nothing. these are things that would have an effect on my life. celebrities...no effect at all.
i know the argument is that celebrities are role models, blah blah blah. but...isn't that my job? and my family's? shouldn't we be providing examples for our kids to follow? shouldn't we be people that our kids can look up to try to be like? if my kids see someone acting like an ass on tv, then try to act like that, they will be corrected by an actual real live adult in their life and know that douchey behavior is not acceptable. i think that's more important than what happens on the vma awards. plus, it's not like it was a really important awards show like the grammys or anything, right? haha...kidding, people.
anywho...my point here is that i don't care what happened. please don't tell me not to listen to kanye anymore. please don't tell me that taylor swift is heartbroken and will never recover. she'll be fine, i'm sure and really i just don't care. sorry.
now, in a complete 100% contradiction to everything that i've just said (i can do that, you know, it's my blog)...i'm so sad that johnny castle has died. that is my number one, favorite movie of all time. so, so sad. i am thinking of changing jack's name to johnny in a tribute to mr. castle. also, i think the rafter kids will be retiring the michael jackson dance moves and start practicing "johnny's mambo" and the lift. i'll keep you posted on our progress.
sorry about the rant...
...stepping down from the soapbox now...

lord help me, part 2

one of my least favorite things to hear is "oh! twins! how cute! i totally hope i have twins! i think it would be so much fun!" my initial reaction is to tell the person to shut it, but i am usually able to refrain and respond with a more acceptable "oh, ha ha. they are cute but they really are a lot of work. he he."

i wonder if those wishful individuals realize that twins are able to create this much havoc while their parent is in the bathroom. the above picture is really what having twins is like. count your blessings people, count your blessings...

ps - this mess incorporates all of jack's shirts, his pajamas and bathing suits and some of thomas' shirts for good measure. awesome.

lord help me

this is a picture of the title page from thomas' (who is in 4th grade this year) spelling copybook. looks like it may be along year, no?

i'm going to go start my serenity prayers now...

09.07.02

seven years ago today, i was at the BEST.PARTY.EVER. so we're quite a few of you readers out there, too (c'mon...you know it totally rocked). i got married on september 7, 2002 in wildwood, nj (i know, right?! wildwood is for drunken hook ups, not marriage, but meh, i like to live on the wild side) and proceeded to cape may, nj for the reception (with at pit stop at the beach for some of the BEST.WEDDING.PICTURES.EVER.) i don't think the staff at the hotel alcott really knew what they were up against. regardless, it was a perfectly beautiful day, with a totally killer party to finish it out (if you don't believe me, check out the picture of grandmom breaking it down, daddy getting trapped during a rendition of "paradise in the dashboard lights" or patrick opening the breakdancing competition). in short, a totally awesome day. i would do it again in a heartbeat (and trust me, i could totally use the money that was spent on it, but i don't care, i would do it again anyway). i've included some pictures of the day for everyone else to relive the day, too. now i am off to pack the five kids in the car for a barbecue at my mom's. romantic, no?