Casa de Drama's Christmas Vacation

Last summer, I had a whole lot of fun chronicling our life through snippets of conversations and pictures in a fun little series I lovingly deemed "Casa de Drama." I promised, when it ended, to pop back in with it occasionally...aaaaand have failed miserably.

What? I have four kids. What more do you people WANT from me?!

But after surviving these last two weeks with the kids and the husband and all the Christmas gatherings and work...I decided it was time.

So, come! Take a walk with me through our two week holiday, filled with as much laughs as it was filled with gas. (But I am pretty sure that was just Grandma's beans talkin'.) We may not be the Griswolds, but we are, at the very least, cousin Eddie.

*****

Vacation started out well enough. I had the day off of work and so I went to school with Brennan for her Holiday Party. What a treat! Brennan was pretty excited to have mom at school and had been telling all her friends I was coming. So basically I was the center of attention of 20 cupcake-sticky-fingered 4 year olds. Exciting!

At least I got the royal treatment unlike this funny conversation I had with Brennan about her daddy bringing her birthday treat to school next week:
Brennan: I am gonna be embarrassed in school.
Me: Why?
Brennan: Because. Why can't I just take my cupcakes on the bus?
Me: Because they might spill or tip over and get ruined. Dad is going to drive you, remember?
Brennan: I think the best thing is to not go to school on Monday...
Me: You do?! Why?
Brennan: Just because.
#IthinkSheThinksDadIsEmbarrassing 
#BurnedByAPreschooler

But, I can't really blame the girl. Her daddy CAN be a bit of a spotlight stealer. And sometimes his choices in clothing....well....it's probably a good thing preschoolers can't read! And he does scare the neighborhood with his shirtless "private parts" showing as Brennan so delicately warned us...

Brennan (looking at hubs sitting on couch shirtless): ummmm, you're gonna scare people...
Hubs: why? Cuz I don't have a shirt on?
Brennan: No. With your private parts.

Thanks to the "good touch, bad touch" program at school, my 4yo thinks her daddy's "boobies" should always be covered. And she has repeatedly embarrassed us in public. A couple days ago she told the teen's friend, "Watch out! My dad's private parts are out!" (Because he was shirtless) 
Lord have mercy! I almost died.

But, I am getting ahead of myself here! The first few days of vacation went well. The kids played good together. I even gathered up the littles and created this fun Snowman project that uses up lonely socks (you know, the ones the washer eats the mate too!): 


This one belonged to the middle little, Kk. She did pretty good, I think!

But after a few days, the crazy comes out. You know what I am talking about....
The fights. The messes. The inability to hear and follow directions. All of this craziness led to my New Year's Resolution: Accept the mess.

We did manage to get things cleaned up enough for the Christmas tree to go up, at least. Which made Brennan think the presents underneath it were a free for all.

I'm bored. I think I will just open up a Christmas present. Okay, momma?!

-My 4yo. Living the life.

But eventually, we managed to survive arrive at Christmas morning. And let's face it...the wondrous looks of joy on the kiddos faces, lit only by the glow of the Christmas tree lights, as they opened their stockings...makes all the other stuff worthwhile!

And the giant mess created by opening presents is soon forgotten in the joys of trying to assemble gifts that were clearly made in China. Or not...
Hubs: Who in their right mind puts the directions to build this thing ON THE BOTTOM OF THE THING YOU ARE BUILDING??
Me: The people who made it. In china. (examining box and discovering the giant Made in the USA sign) 
Me: Okay. I guess not. It was apparently made in the good ole US of A. Probably by sweatshop children that were illegally immigrated from China.
Hubs: Too bad we couldn't get some of them over here to put this stupid thing together!
Me: Weeellll, we can always let our OWN sweatshop children do it! Ooooooh teeeeeeen!

But seriously. WHO DOES THAT? And the teen, he put that sucker together in record time.

I knew we kept him around for some good reason.

After all that fiasco was solved and the stupid, giant dollhouse was assembled, we got all dolled up for some Christmas party fun. I think we clean up pretty well, don't you?

But my favorite part of the ENTIRE vacation was when I got my Grandma to take a selfie with me. This lady is a hoot! (And pretty good with the duck lips, if I do say so myself!)











Coming in at a close second, was all the fun we had this year by staying in for New Year's Eve. The kids are FINALLY old enough to have a family game night, and that is just what we did!

Thanks to Netflix, who sent us this awesome package of party favors, we partied like it was the end of 2014. Oh wait! It was!

"Hey, mom! Where'd ya get that package from? ...Netflix?" -Kk

Uhhhhh....Here's your sign kid!

#BloggingPerks #Streamteam

We had so much fun at our little New Year's party! We played all kinds of fun games. Brennan whooped us ALL in Uno and I showed the kids who was boss with a double yahtzee on my very last roll! And they all thought I was dumb for writing "mom rocks" on my score card before we started playing! Psssh.

When it's your last roll and all you need is fours and you get a Yahtzee....of all fours.

Mom rocks. #HappyNewYear

I did have to stage an intervention for the teen and his love affair with the sparkling juice, though.... I told him he was going to have to go to non-alcoholics anonymous if he didn't chill out with that stuff. Three bottles in one night is just TOO MUCH, man!

Thanks so much for joining in our adventures, not only of the past couple weeks, but the whole year! 

Wishing you many blessings in 2015

xoxo

Want to see what else happened this past year? 
Check out these posts:

All Aboard the Hoo-Hoo Express
A Bedtime Tale
Well, that's just the poops!
If you see me running....RUN!
Brennan Reviews: The Cracker Barrel Restaurant
The Great Tooth Tragedy
Brennan Tid-Bits: A Facebook year in review
Cows are for milking, NOT mommies!
Back when life was all "Raindrops on Roses"

And of course, don't miss ANY of the Casa de Drama recap posts!

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And just like that SUMMER IS OVER...

Casa de Drama- A weekly summer recap in pictures 

In a surprising twist of fate, I find myself looking forward to summer break this year. Weird, I know! But nonetheless, here I am! To commemorate this (unexpected) feeling, I am kicking off this summer long series, where I will give you a glimpse into our daily lives through pictures and brief "recaps" of some of the funny things happening in this crazy zone we call home! 
Welcome to my Casa de Drama...




Wow! The last couple weeks of this summer REALLY dragged out for me this year. (And every year. Let's keep it real!) The kids are FINALLY back in school. Only a 1/2 day today, but at least it was a couple hours of sane time! Tomorrow it is back to regular business in this house and I am SO ready. And even though summer seemed long, we managed to squeeze every last drop of fun out of it! 

Here are the last week (and a half) of highlights. Enjoy!

Last week ended off with the hubs celebrating his birthday! We had a lot of fun leaving the kids behind and heading off to the casino! Too bad my hubs is getting to be quite the old fart...
Dinner: 4p Casino: 6 Home by 9. My hubs is living up his bday in style...old man style! 38 is the new 90.
#OldFart #ButHesMYfart 
Wait! What?
And he even managed to win back all the money I lost! What would I do without this man?!

It's those glasses AGAIN! Silly girl!

Brennan kept us entertained (as always!) with these funny conversations:
As a big storm is rolling in-
Brennan:*frightened* Is that thunder, momma? I don't LIKE storms!
Me: Yes. But it's ok. We are inside and safe!
Brennan: *Looking out the window* Wow! That sure is a lot of rain, momma!
Me: Yes, it's really coming down!
Brennan: Is God bowling AND crying, momma? Why would he be doing both?! ....OH, I KNOW! He is probably crying because he's not winning!....OR.....maybe he is crying because I have been so naughty.... 
(I PROBABLY should have said something about that last part. But NOBODY said I was perfect! I wonder if that will make her pick up her markers like I have been asking her to do for the last half an hour?)

She sure was ROCKIN' the glasses this week!

And Brennan decided that she wanted a "tooth fairy" for a pet!
Kk: Momma! I am going to lose my tooth today! It is soooo loose!
Me: Awesome!
Brennan: Does that mean the tooth fairy will come tonight??!
Me: Well.....MAYBE... (I have to say this because our tooth fairy is "slightly" forgetful....errr....I mean BUSY)
Brennan: Ooooooh.....I can't wait! Cuz I am gonna CATCH that tooth fairy and keep her! I always wanted a tooth fairy... 

I guess it's a GOOD thing that our tooth fairy is so terrible at her one and only job. It just might save her life.

 And after THIS happened- 
AAAAAAH! I need a mom-cation! Seriously! I just cleaned poop out of the bathroom sink. POOOOOOP in my SINK! How does that even HAPPEN?!
P.S. It was Brennan. She has a pooping issue.
I decided if you can't beat them, join 'em! And built this living room blanket fort to TRY and get a few precious minutes to myself for writing....

It didn't work. 

 After WEEKS of feeling left out...

Brennan: Hey Kk! Wanna play the game "left out" where I feel left out?
Kk: *laughing, looks at me and says* I don't know WHAT she is TALKING about!

Ah. The joys of being the youngest sister.

Brennan FINALLY got to go away for the day to Grandma's ALL by herself!

 She was SO excited! (And I was too, because let's face it...she's a tornado and I needed a break!)

The big girls got cute new hair cuts for school over the weekend. Yay! School! 

It's about TIME school was coming up...I am pretty sure the hubs was starting to get a little sick of summer too...

Hubs: Ooooh! Honey I REALLY wanna go to the buffet today! But it's so expensive...... and the kids.....We gotta make that happen!
Me: Ya gonna sell a kidney?!
Hubs: ALMOST....knock off the end of that word and you GOT it! Hey ki-ids! Come here! Daddy's got something he needs to discuss with you.....
 
And JUST LIKE THAT....summer was over! We now OFFICIALLY have a 10th grader, a 6th grader, a 4th grader, and a soon-to-be preschooler!

Thanks for following our summer adventures! The Casa de Drama will still be popping up occassionally... like maybe when Brennan starts school in a few weeks...
 

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Read the WHOLE Casa de Drama series:
Schools out! Schools out! Teacher let the fools out!
Camp Freedom
I'm gonna party like it's my birthday...oh wait.... IT IS!
Casa de Drama Americana
Casa de Karaoke
Grab yer bibs, mosquitos....THIS fam is goin' campin'!
Is summer about over yet?!
Casa de....I need a maid! And a vacation. Stat!
VBS to the Rescue!
Garage Sale Queens (otherwise known as borderline hoarders)
A Man and his Meat

A Man and his Meat

Casa de Drama- A weekly summer recap in pictures 

In a surprising twist of fate, I find myself looking forward to summer break this year. Weird, I know! But nonetheless, here I am! To commemorate this (unexpected) feeling, I am kicking off this summer long series, where I will give you a glimpse into our daily lives through pictures and brief "recaps" of some of the funny things happening in this crazy zone we call home! 
Welcome to my Casa de Drama...




Well, we are ONE week closer to school starting (dancing a mini jig over here!) As I have felt my sanity edging closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, I decided that I needed a hard-core attitude adjustment. I need to STOP looking at everything in such a negative light (o. m. g. school is NEVER going to start) and try to find a positive for each negative (at least I don't have to worry about finding a babysitter for Brennan yet) <----see what I did right there?! ;) And the reality is, we DO have a lot of fun together....we just need some breaks from each other too! 

The hubs and I took such a break Thursday night (spontaneous date nights are an AWESOME perk of your kids getting old enough to stay home alone!) and regained a little bit of our humor. Yay! 

He ordered spaghetti with meat sauce AND meatballs. That's a whole lotta meat! I told him I was going to write a blog about it and name it "A Man and his Meat"...We laughed a LONG time about that one. Yea. We have dirty minds. And we are easy to entertain. You get that way when you spend all your time with kids! And you have to admit.... that IS a catchy title!

Here's some more fun stuff we did this week: 
 

I reclaimed the TV. DESPITE that absolutely adorable face right there ----->
The kids have been watching cartoons for HOURS, so I changed the channel to something I wanted to watch.
Brennan: *bringing me the remote* Can you put something else on?
Me: I just did.
Brennan: *patting my arm* I know. But you can have a re-do mom!
Too bad I couldn't reclaim my sanity...

I've reached the "6:00 bedtime" point of summer vacation.
#LosinMyMind
#WheresTheWine

Kk and I worked on a loom bracelet that she wanted. And by Kk and I, I mean mostly me. And Google. (It's about time them dumb bands were used for something other than clogging the vacuum!) Talk about  COMPLICATED! We didn't have the right colors and had to start over about 3 times. But in the end....

<------- NAILED IT! (Ha!)

What do you guys think??!  

...I think it will be my first and LAST loom bracelet!

Got the teen all registered for school. A big ole TENTH GRADER! Whew. Feeling extra old now! As you can see he is always SUPER thrilled to have his picture taken. I am going to ASSUME that middle finger holding the I.D. is coincidence....

In his defense, I probably would have been super irritated if I had to register for school with my 3 little sisters in tow too....ESPECIALLY since Kk decided to pull out her inner Middle Eastern and wear a shawl on her head and Brennan would NOT listen and stay with us. Poor kid. Someday his wife will thank me.


And these crazy girls... Sometimes I don't know WHAT to do with them!

See what I mean about Kk and the shawl??!

Jess: *rips a giant fart* Hubs: WOW! That was dad quality there!
Me: Well the one Kk let earlier was dad SMELL quality! 
Kk: Yea. Mine TOTALLY smell like yours, dad!
Jess: Well mine SOUND like dad's!
Kk: Nuh uh! Not as much as MINE do! Me: Wow. You have totally corrupted the children. They are FIGHTING over whose FARTS are most like yours!
Hubs: Yup. I love my girls.

But I guess this is to be expected when I have been spending so much time at work... 

Either the thermostat is broken at work or I am turning part ice-cube (and not the rapper/actor yo!)....BRRRR! It says 75, but I have goosebumps and my hands are freeeeeeeezing!
By the time I leave at noon I may have to be removed by fork-lift. Please send help if I don't make it home.

And to make matters worse, Brennan is back on the baby kick! I don't think she is EVER going to give up!
Brennan: I want some new babies!
Me: oooh! I want some money!
Brennan: *kissing my face and whispering* Guess what I am going to get you for your birthday (which just passed in June by the way).....some money! And some sparkly stuff. Cuz I know how much YOU love sparkly stuff! AND money!
Me: mmmm. Thanks!
Brennan: Soooooooo....what are YOU going to get ME, hmmm?!
Aaaaand there it is! The REAL motive behind this sweet moment. I hope she meant dolls.

And that was our week in a nutshell. A crazy, dramatic, yet funny nutshell. Today is the hubs birthday, so I better get to baking his cake. I promised Brennan one too...
Brennan: Mooommmmaaaaa! I got a SURPRISE for you!
Me: OOOH! What is it??!
Brennan: I can't tell you! It's for tomorrow. And it needs some cake. So if you want to know what it is you have to make me some cake FIRST.

Cake, huh?! I guess this girl takes after me AFTER ALL. Looks like I am baking a cake tomorrow... OH WAIT! I already AM baking a cake tomorrow cuz it's the hubs birthday! Win! Win!

On that note, BYE! See you next week for the very last Casa de Drama post! The kids start back to school on September 2nd and summer will FINALLY officially be over around here!

 

Did you enjoy this post?

 Clickety-click here to vote for my blog!

You can vote 1 time every 24 hours from all devices!

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A Day in the Life of a Drama Queen's Momma

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Loved it? Let me know! Leave me a comment! 

Be sure to catch up on all the Casa de Drama series by reading these previous posts:
Schools out! Schools out! Teacher let the fools out!
Camp Freedom
I'm gonna party like it's my birthday...oh wait.... IT IS!
Casa de Drama Americana
Casa de Karaoke
Grab yer bibs, mosquitos....THIS fam is goin' campin'!
Is summer about over yet?!
Casa de....I need a maid! And a vacation. Stat!
VBS to the Rescue!
Garage Sale Queens (otherwise known as borderline hoarders)

Garage Sale Queens (otherwise known as borderline hoarders)

Casa de Drama- A weekly summer recap in pictures 

In a surprising twist of fate, I find myself looking forward to summer break this year. Weird, I know! But nonetheless, here I am! To commemorate this (unexpected) feeling, I am kicking off this summer long series, where I will give you a glimpse into our daily lives through pictures and brief "recaps" of some of the funny things happening in this crazy zone we call home! 
Welcome to my Casa de Drama...




Summer is waning fast! Only 3 more weeks to go...WAIT....THREE MORE?! I keep seeing all these facebook posts "Jr.s first day of school" "Teary-eyed from dropping the kids at the bus stop" and other such nonsense. BLAH! I seriously CANNOT WAIT for that first day! I am just BARELY holding on to the last thread of my sanity. But hey, at least I am HOLDING ON! No sense lying about it now. This mom LOVES her children. And LOVES spending time with them. But ENOUGH is ENOUGH. The kids are tired of each other and that, in turn, makes me tired of them. The bickering, the selfishness, the whining, and the nonsense sends me right over the edge. Does that make me a bad mom? I don't think so. It makes me human. Imperfect. And I am totally okay with that.

But, even in the chaos, we still have love and we still have fun. Like this week we went garagesalin'...you know...the fine art of turning another man's junk into your borderline hoard. And nobody enjoys it MORE than my big girls! They scored BIG time! But first...

The weeks started out grand with us locking letting the kids play outside for more than a five minute increment...The kids have been *happily* playing outside for over an hour. 

Hubs: We should probably call the kids in...
Me: (looks at clock) Uh, do we HAVE to?! Can't we just leave them out there? They'd be okay out there overnight, right?! They could always sleep under the deck...
Hubs: Or in the car!
Me: YES! Besides, it's not even dark yet. Let's not give up so easily.
(Goes back to watching TV)
 
Five minutes later:
Hubs: We are bad. You know that right?!
Me: Nah. We are just smart. Now shut up before you jinx it.

Brennan made herself some pretty stylish new "glasses" out of her old sunglasses in order to be "like her big sisters" ....Aww factor: 5million!

And she also made me realize that I may not make it out of parenting ALIVE, when we had THIS conversation:
Me: Brennan! You are NOT supposed to be eating in the living room! (picking up plates and food)
Brennan: I know.
Me: THEN WHY DID YOU DO IT?
Brennan: Because I didn't hear you say the rules TODAY....you have to say them EVERY day if you want me to remember them!

Somedays, I am surprised that my head doesn't just explode from all the steam building up in there!

My daughter, Kk, wowed me with her awesomeness...

Yesterday morning Kk came downstairs wearing a cute little pair of overall shorts and a tank top. I told her how cute it was and she said, "Thanks. The kids at school made fun of me for wearing this last year. But ALL the teachers gave me compliments on how cute it was. So I wear it anyway because I like it and who cares what those dumb people think!" I seriously just LOVE this girl's I don't give a sh** attitude- MOST days anyway! She is her OWN person and most of the kids at school love her for it and those who don't...she figures it is their loss. (Which it TOTALLY is) I love that she doesn't let bullies and mean people hold her down from who she knows she is.  

 
WARNING: Explicit photo
------------------------------->
I also performed some incredibly difficult and delicate arm surgery on Brennan's creepy doll. 

The things moms must do for love are sometimes unspeakable!

THEN the hubs and I actually got a BREAK when Brennan had her first little sleepover!

We decided to celebrate... err... uh... ENJOY our freedom by seeing a movie!
Going to movies (to see Lucy) for an impromptu date night Pretty much the only ones here....And somebody just sat directly in front of us....when the theater is EMPTY....Am I the only one that thinks that is weird? Just wonderin'....

The teen had some fun this week too! We (the teen, myself, and Jess) are part of a puppet ministry team that does shows for local nursing homes and charities and we had a workshop this week and CREATED our own puppets. Like MADE THEM FROM SCRATCH. And the teen made this bad ass Bob Marley puppet. Complete with dreads. Word. 

I made one too, but it wasn't NEARLY as bad ass as this, so I am not going to show you!

We finished the week with some serious garage sales.  And the girls even had a moment of complete sisterly love!
Jess: Aww man, I can't spend any of my money at garage sales! (she is saving for a new tablet)
Kk: You can sell these things that I sewed if you want!
Jess: HOW?
Kk: Well I sewed them over at grandma's....
Jess: (interrupting) NO! HOW should I SELL them!?! Am I supposed to go to a garage sale where they are selling their OWN things and ask them to buy mine?!!
Kk: ....That's what *I* would do if I wanted some money! .....so do you want to sell them or not?!
 
We approach garagesalin' like extreme couponers shop! And we SCORED big time. We got ALL the STUFF (in the top photo) for less than $20!
Our biggest scores:
Jessi's zebra print jeans $1 (yea...the 80's called and wants their fashion back!) 

Kk's recorder complete with music sheets $.25 (Too bad that sucker didn't come with some free ear plugs for mom...YIKES!)

Hooker boots for Jess for $1 (Yes. I am aware how incredibly HORRIBLE that sounds! But them boots are borderline Julia Robert's in Pretty Woman.Just sayin'.) 
  
A Barbie horse for Brennan for $.50 (Which she complained about. Well, not really the horse, but the fact she didn't get more. And she wasn't even WITH us. Little snot!)

And THAT was our week. How was yours?

Did you enjoy this post?

 Clickety-click here to vote for my blog!

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Follow me on Facebook
A Day in the Life of a Drama Queen's Momma

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Loved it? Let me know! Leave me a comment! 

Be sure to catch up on all the Casa de Drama series by reading these previous posts:

Schools out! Schools out! Teacher let the fools out!

Camp Freedom

I'm gonna party like it's my birthday...oh wait.... IT IS!

Casa de Drama Americana

Casa de Karaoke

Grab yer bibs, mosquitos....THIS fam is goin' campin'!

Is summer about over yet?!

Casa de....I need a maid! And a vacation. Stat!

VBS to the Rescue!