Outnumbered Two to One

Since tomorrow is my son’s 6th birthday, we thought we’d include his Kindergarten class in on the celebration by bringing cupcakes to school for everyone to partake in. Luckily Publix has this nifty creation called a pull-apart cake, which is basically individual cupcakes set up in rectangular formation then iced and decorated like a normal sheet cake would be. Any decorated cake they offer can be set up in this fashion.

My son, the dino nut, opted for a prehistoric theme…

Lovely, isn’t it?

The great thing about this cake is that there are roughly two and a half inches of butter-cream frosting smothering the tops of these 30 cupcakes.

In case you don’t know, most 5 to 6 year olds will only eat the frosting off the top of their cupcake, the actual cake part will end up (still wrapped neatly in its paper liner) face-down in the garbage can. Then said children will promptly ask for a second cupcake they can similarly lick clean.

Seems kind of like a waste of $40 but look at these faces…

Tomorrow, we embark on a birthday safari…stay tuned.

At some point this evening I hear this from across the house:

“Ow you bit me you little jerk! You broke the skin!”

I’m in the kitchen making dinner and shaking my head, waiting for the next installment. The voice in question is my tween’s, it rises steadily as her indignation increases tenfold. Eventually the skirmish will travel from my bedroom where they’re watching television to the kitchen where I, judge and jury, stand with wet hands and a jar of salsa.

“What?!” I inquire as my five-year-old son and ten-year-old daughter bustle in through the entryway, both talking at the same time.

“He bit me on the leg and he broke the skin and it really really hurts.”

“She bit me too but I don’t remember where and she’s being really mean to me.”

“Nuh-uh I only bit you after you bit me…”

“Because you grabbed me…”

“But I was playing…”

In unison now… “Mooooooooooooom.”

Ugh. Down comes the gavel.

“You’re both punished, keep your hands and mouths off each other, and go cry somewhere else. No video games till Thursday.”

Obviously neither of my children was paying close enough attention to the Yo Gabba Gabba episode where Muno bites Foofa for craps and giggles, then gets chided in song until he learns this valuable lesson.

“Don’t bite your friends.”

Or your siblings for that matter, it’s just not sanitary.

I’ve been trying like crazy for the past several days to eliminate the excessive amount of crap my children own. Unfortunately every time I try to banish one of their condemned toys to the “donate” box, said receptacle has been commandeered for less practical purposes. My five year old actually fits quite comfortably with room enough for his little brother to squeeze in. I might have to make an executive decision and save the box in the garage, should that fabled day ever arrive when I finally take action and ship my little band of miscreants to the circus. I can pack at least two of them in happily and still have room left for snacks.

For more Wordless Wednesday visit WW and 5 Minutes for Mom .

For more Wordless Wednesday visit WW and 5 Minutes for Mom .

For almost four years he’s been a dinosaur junkie. He could barely form sentences and he was already expressing his awe for the mighty T-Rex.

Of course, my husband and I being the good parents that we are, fed his obsession with the requisite enthusiasm, filling his closet beyond capacity with dinosaur toys, dinosaur puzzles, dinosaur books, dinosaur DVDs and dinosaur clothing. And while he was learning to identify all these prehistoric monstrosities by name, well…so were we. We know more than we ever care to about the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.  That’s why when we heard the North American tour of Walking with Dinosaurs Live was coming to an arena near us, we had to mortgage the house to get the family some tickets to last night’s show. Here’s a little taste of the main attraction, Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The dinosaurs were incredible, I’ll give them that. They were mammoth and their movements exceptionally lifelike. It would have been difficult not to be impressed. My son watched the whole thing with wide eyes, perched right on the edge of his seat. Even my toddler didn’t utter a single peep once the dinos started to march out, other than to point and say “dinosaur” in his baby speak.

I loved watching the kids’ expressions, but for me the show was so-so. I thought it was a little dull, there were some tense moments but really it was just a dinosaur robotics pageant. They came out, they roared, they did their little choreographed battles, they roared, the end. My older children were hoping for some kind of dino animatronic evisceration, but that wasn’t in the cards. And those arena seats, dear God, I don’t know how I managed to fold myself in to them and balance a two year old on my lap. By the time the performance was over and we had to stand up to leave, I swear I could hear my knees creaking, it actually took me a while to straighten them out.

Still, it was totally worth it to see the look on this kid’s face at the end of the night.

Yeah. Dinosaurs totally rule.