School's Out For Summer

Help me now. Give me strength to keep my composure while these two completely make a disaster of the house, the car, and leave me in the dust. 



Frisbees and Peacock Feathers and Daft Punk

Oh man, my 7 year old had an experience yesterday that wasn't so great. It was a learning experience but also, she learned that so many boys have different personalities too.

We live on a block with lots of older boys - the family with 3 boys is very competitive, they rarely "let" anyone win and usually have to be first with everything and according to my Male Brain book, this is normal and not all at the same time. This family has 3 competitive boys that totally show their peacock feathers at all times - whereas the two other families on the block that have three children also have girls - those families are similar where there's two girls and one boy. Those boys have the opposite personalities of the all-boy family.

Last night The Monkey was playing Frisbee with the 3-boy family. The youngest is still two years older than her and so it's still a little unevenly matched but still - she WANTED to play. YAY!!! She rarely got the Frisbee and just handed it to one of the boys instead of throwing it. She tried diving for the Frisbee, she tried running for the Frisbee but still, she only got it a few times. The youngest tried to teach her how to throw the Frisbee/catch it maybe twice. Instead of walking away, The Monkey kept at it and kept trying to be included. She rocked at that.

But they totally ditched her.

And she came inside and was so disappointed. She called them jerks. I would have done that too.

So instead of saying, "Oh, man. I'm so sorry" I went the opposite direction.

I told her that the boys next door are so competitive that they're not going to "let" her get the Frisbee. They will absolutely battle it out until they get the damn Frisbee. That means that she has to work harder, stronger, and faster to be better at Frisbee and get the Frisbee before the boys can reach it. I told her that girls can do anything and if she practices, then she'll throw that Frisbee better than they can and that she'll reach that Frisbee before they can.

So then I played her Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and told her that this is what we'll listen to all summer - the song rings true for Mountain Biking, Frisbee, and everything else. If you want to be first, you need to work harder than everyone else and you need to practice.

Oy, I just hope I'm setting her up for success when she's an adult. I want her to be strong, not walk away from stuff if she's just learning HOW to do something when she's around experts.


Mountain Biking

Why I didn't take a picture of myself actually on the trail...I don't know. Maybe because I had too much wine the night before and almost vomited at the top of a really steep hill??? But I made it without vomiting and in the same run I actually got really good air on a bunch of rollers. That was SO MUCH FUN ON MY NEW BIKE. That bitch seriously grips and going around berm turns and over jumps is AMAZING.

Mountain biking attire is so not flattering but damn, the shorts come with so many pockets these days. And they're nice and long (but you do need to wear gel padding underneath! I haven't found a pair of mountain biking shorts WITH padding yet). My shoes are so grippy and awesome too. EEK.

Happy Monday!!!



Dress: Mud Pie

I'm testing out how dresses work in my life today. So far...so good. Later this afternoon I may have to wear running shoes for school pick up, which I'm not thrilled about because it means I'm running up to school and then back home after Baby Chewie who will be ripping down the street on his Strider. It really irritates me because it makes pick up/drop off so stressful and honestly, I just want this time to be down time for The Monkey. Baby Chewie wants his wheels and I want to rip them out from under him because they make me hate this part of the day. 

Vertical stripes look weird. But I bought this because I'm vertically challenged and it makes me seem a little taller, or so I'd like to think. Once a month I used to stop at my favorite boutique not far from here and I would buy something, this happened to be my something a few months ago, then I learned they were closing and I'm still so sad. It's not for a bad reason though, the owners decided to retire. But I loved shopping there, it was an old home that was turned into a boutique. So neat to wander around the rooms. I'm going to have to find another boutique to replace Lily & Violet that's close by. 



Open Cardigan - Old Navy
Striped T-shirt - Madewell
Jeggings - Old Navy
Socks - Probably Target and probably Hanes

Meh, I don't really need to add "Mom" to OOTD anymore. I don't want that to be my defining word. That doesn't really encompass my whole self, that's just one part of me and if there's something that I'm wearing BECAUSE I'm a mother, then I'll point that out in the future.

I need to get rid of all the cardigans that I own that are not open cardigans. All of my cardigans that button or snap just hit me in the wrong places and aren't friendly to my figure. I don't know why I never noticed that before. OH WAIT, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE OWNED A FULL LENGTH MIRROR. It's like I'm seeing myself for the first time! So I'm adding that to my list of things to do this summer - DITCH ALL THE CARDIGANS. Our local emergency program is going to end up with a shitload of button up cardigans that I should have never been buying in the first place. 


New Beauty Buys



Got it? Good. Did you notice there's no ads on my blog? I hate ads so I don't subject any of you lovely readers to them either. I'm sharing the love.

I added these three items to my online Target cart a few weeks ago and never tapped the checkout button until a few days ago when everything was on sale and I got a gift card. WOO HOO!!

Last year I focused my New Year's Resolution on skincare - but completely ignored the "beauty" aspect and I can definitely see that it shows in my makeup case because it's almost empty of makeup. I cleaned it out last year and then never bought anything to refill it...which means probably next year I'll tackle adding makeup back into my routine. GASP. MAKEUP. To my friend Kathy - we will go shopping at Sephora together. I promise. I'm slowly adding in more lipglossy thingys so I decided to try out a Burt's Bees lipgloss stick. We'll see.

But the stick sunblock is a necessary for my purse. I've always had the Neutrogena Wet Skin Kids one in my purse because that seems to be the free add-on for lots of Neutrogena items. A few weeks ago I used it on the kids and myself and all three of us broke out in a red rash so that one was trashed. I'm determined to find one that works this year. Alba Botanica has been nice to our skin here and none of us have been sunburned yet in the past few years that I've bought the sprays. I bought this hoping the same thing. Now we just need a nice day to try it out.

Badger is always recommended by the super crunchy granola moms in the FAcebook groups (insert eyeroll here because YES, I do belong to mom groups on Facebook). I have such a problem with all the "natural" sunblocks though. We always get a sunburn. ALWAYS. I've tried other Badger products and other sunscreens and not one of them have prevented a sunburn. I read the directions. apply liberally, apply after going in the water, waiting 15 minutes, etc... And it never fails, every single one of gets a serious sunburn so I don't buy the natural products anymore. We are Minnesotans, we NEED good sunblock. I'm not beneath buying the Target brand spray stuff because that is what WORKS and keeps us sunburn-free. I'm trying but...I can't buy stuff that doesn't work anymore. This Badger gets a chance this summer. 

Happy Friday!


So Much Waiting

With an older sister in a few activities, Baby Chewie and I spend a lot of time waiting around for The Monkey to finish whatever it is she's doing (swimming/dance/karate but I stopped going to karate, I want my Saturday mornings back!) Luckily The Monkey's dance studio is close to walking trails and the walking trails are also for bikers too. Yippee!!

Last year this area scared the shit out of me because Baby Chewie didn't have fear (he now has about thismuch fear, but still...not much). He would lean over the edge and I'd have to dive to catch him before he went over. The water isn't too deep here, but it's still scary because he hasn't had swim lessons yet, and those start in June (The Monkey will now be forced to wait!). 

The best part is being able to spend one on one time with each kid while waiting for the other one. I now have to run to keep up with this child on his Strider. Bimmer Man and I are thinking about getting a different type of Strider - one that you can attach pedals to. I'm pretty sure he'll be on the pedal bike by the end of summer. He currently HATES the pedal bike because it just doesn't go fast enough for him and he loves speed. I'm trying every day to get him on it so he develops the muscles in his legs needed to pedal and balance so that way he's set by the end of summer. I'm not going to fight him on biking, but I realized last year that this is his THING. He's good at biking. He does the adult bike ramps at The Factory which is an indoor bike park. He came in first place in Strider races. He throws a shit fit every time he's not fast enough, then gets back up and wants to race again and again until he wins. This kid is GOOD. We'll see where his speed takes him!