I can’t say I am unhappy that this week is over and I can breathe a sigh of relief. This was definitely a hectic week on all fronts. It started with Matty’s birthday on Tuesday, February 12th. I still can’t quite believe he is 8 – where does the time go??? I feel like it was just yesterday that he was wandering off to the dining room, a/k/a Matty’s toilet, to do his “business” where he would promptly inform us that he was “making brown”. Now he reads like a pro, flies through TIVO rewinding live TV & recording shows already in progress (Pokemon is the big favorite) etc (oh and he hits the bathroom instead of the dining room lol). He is very happy to be an even number this year – feels like it is far superior to being an odd number (which Danny, Ryan and I happen to be this year).

Ok, so back to the hectic week. Matty wanted Sandra Lee’s peanut butter chocolate cookies for his school birthday party. Ok, not a big deal – her recipes are fairly easy and delicious – got that. Picked up the frosting and peanut butter (already had the sugar cookie dough as we stock up on that). First wrench in the monkey works – Monday afternoon one of my real estate brokers brings a client for a land trust and gives me an hour’s notice. Now normally, notice isn’t a big deal for a contract signing. It is a big deal for a land trust contract signing. The trust documents are complex, transfer tax returns have to be drafted and it is all time consuming. Plus, lets add a distrustful client who thinks he is half a lawyer. Makes for a late night. Before I knew it, it was 7:30pm and I was just leaving the office. Of course when I got home, it was not a happy reception and lets just leave it at that. Still had to make cookies though. I didn’t finish until after everyone else had gone to bed but they were delicious. Here’s a picture of the yummy delights:


Of course Ryan remarked, while eating one, that the frosting looked kinda like poop (I thought the same thing myself when I was squeezing it out of the pastry bag!).

I also made Matty a birthday card cause, well, I didn’t know whether or not Danny signed my name to the card he bought lol and I didn’t want to take a chance. I finished the whole fiasco and went to bed around 1:30am. Everything did look very nice for Matty when he would wake up in the morning and come downstairs:


Thursday was the next looming event – Valentine’s Day. I also have my scrapbook lunch club that day with my little monsters – 15 kids Kindergarten through 2nd grade (including my own two little darlings). I decided to make Valentine’s Day Cards with the kids which wasn’t too difficult. I also took on making Valentine’s Day Bookmarks for the kids in Matty’s class (what was I thinking????) I created the bookmarks digitally with several different kinds, added the kids names to each one and then would laminate them and add tassels with beads. Wednesday night, I took my little printed bookmarks and we went into the basement. I grabbed my trust Xyron machine and looked for my laminate cartridge. Hmmm, found one that was practically empty and the only replacements were two laminate with magnet cartridges. It wasn’t a good time to realize that the boys’ nasty habit of laminating every piece of paper they got their hands on used up my 50 foot laminate cartridge. Also figured this all out around 8:45pm and Michaels closes at 9pm. With a sinking feeling, I realized I would have to go to Michaels in the morning, after I dropped the kids off to school. The pressure was on and the stress was mounting. Wrote out Ryan’s Valentines and went to bed.

Wednesday was the 100th Day of School and a big deal in the elementary grades. We had done Ryan’s 100th day project the week before, but Matty needed 100 of something to bring in. Thank God we had a container of mint hard candies and there was just over a 100 in the container. The 2nd graders did all sorts of math projects involving the number 100 and the Kindergarteners had a party. The boys came home with festive 100th day hats and I couldn’t resist taking pictures:

Happy Valentine’s Day – my boys gave me a 2nd generation IPOD Nano in pink – it was so adorable! I got them off to school and raced to Michaels for that laminate cartridge. Grabbed it, along with some other assorted items (I cannot go into Michaels and come out with just one thing – physically impossible) and raced back home. I laminated all the bookmarks (like 22 of them), punched holes in the top and proceeded to make the tassels and attach beads. An hour and a half later, I was done. It is now like 11am and lunch club starts at 11:40am. I gathered up my supplies for the cards and packed up my truck. Luckily, my sister-in-law, Donna, volunteered to give me a hand with lunch club that day (which made life a heck of a lot easier) and we made some really nice cards with the kids. Many of them made the cards for their respective teachers which was really nice. Raced home to get changed because I had a closing in the office. (Notice the theme for the day – racing)

When I got to the office (a good 45 minutes late) a dozen breathtaking red roses in a vase was sitting on the coffee table in my office. The closing went smoothly, signed a couple of contracts and was only a little late. We had talked about going out to dinner so when I called Danny and told him I was on my way home, I was totally surprised when he said they were heading out the door. I forgot – Matty’s guitar lesson. I drove directly there and met them at the Oceanside music school. Afterwards, we had a romantic (uh not) dinner at Moes. It was very tasty however – they make awesome Mexican food. Ah, but then the kicker of the evening – Matty had to bring the bookmarks back home. Evidently, he started whipping them around and the beaded tassels got hopelessly tangled. I couldn’t even speak – all the hours of work, the running to Michaels, for this. I tried to untangle them but it was impossible so I had to cut the tassels off. Matty was devastated – he hadn’t meant for this to happen and I couldn’t hold it against him. So, I sat down and replaced the beads and tassels. But this time, I made three groupings and tied ribbon around the tassels and another ribbon around the body of the bookmarks. I put them all in a baggie and wrapped the rest of the baggie securely around the bookmarks and secured it with tape. They made it to the kids, safe and sound this time.

I survived the crazy week – Friday was fairly inconsequential except for the evening trip to BJs so we could get Matty a birthday cake for his party the next day at Sportime (nothing like waiting till the last minute). BJs is good like that though – their cakes are simply fantastic – you pick out the one you like and bring it to the bakery lady and she writes your message on the cake in your choice of colored icing. Takes all of 5 minutes – we walked out with a nice whipped cream icing, marbled cake with a chocolate mousse and raspberry filling.

Matty’s birthday party on Saturday was absolutely perfect. We had it at Sporttime in Lynbrook. Matty got to pick three sports for the kids to play. He chose floor hockey, kickball, and soccer. He had a good turnout – a total of like 15 kids and they all had a blast. I took some really nice pictures and this great shot of Matty and Ryan:

The miracle is that they are actually both looking at me at the same time. Any parent with kids this age would realize that it practically takes a planetary alignment for something like this to happen.