It's Always Sunny in Florida

You know how sometimes there's a blogger you read, and their posts start trickling off? And you're all disappointed because gah! Why isn't she/he posting lately? And then it turns out it's because they've been exhausted due to a new pregnancy, or busy because they're moving, or exhausted AND busy because they're moving AND pregnant?

Well, that's not the case here.

Nothing exciting going on to explain my lack of posts. Just, dare I say, contentment? There hasn't been much to write about, because it's easy to write about DRAMA, a thing we've had little of lately, and harder to write about happiness, of which we've had plenty. Thank goodness, of course. I'd take a boring blog with little action over an action packed one any day, if it means our house has been peaceful. I'm not even freaking out about Finn's impending kindergarten matriculation (yet).

I did take a quick trip down to Florida with these lovely ladies:

Stacey is on the left, MommyEsq is on the right.

We went to visit these two wonderful people:

 My Papa and Mimi, grandparents on my mom's side. I have many fond memories of visiting them at their house in Florida, but I haven't been down there since before I was pregnant with Finn, six and a half years ago. Crazy!!

These things happened: pool-side lounging, card playing, leisurely shopping, cocktail houring (LOVE my grandparents' die-hard devotion to the cocktail hour), birthday celebrating (Papa's and Poppy's, a dear family friend), carrot cake eating, lots of reading, LOTS of laughs and wonderful conversation. A little cleaning. Sadly, no sleeping late (drat my autopilot body!).

The trip was too short, and made me want to consider a career change that would allow me to live in a place where it always feels like vacation. Why is it that we don't all live in Florida? I mean, aside from the hurricanes, alligators, and oppressive summer heat, of course?

I came home to these cuties, who CLAIMED to miss me, but appeared to do JUST FINE without me. Damn their dad and his capable parenting skills. Why don't they NEED ME?? (trying for some drama):

M. took off on another work trip early yesterday morning, leaving me to deal with the fall out of the time change alone. The kids have been pretty easy to get to bed, the only problem has been getting them OUT of bed. This morning was rough, it took some convincing and my best "School is SO FUN!" routine to get them moving. It didn't help that I was pretty slow getting myself out of bed, too. We were a tad bit late getting to our respective places. Hopefully tomorrow morning will go a little more according to schedule...

I got through the solo-parenting Sunday by relying heavily on movies I borrowed from the local library. In an effort to introduce the kids to as many Disney movies as possible before our May trip to DW, I had them watch Bambi. It's been a long, long time since I watched Bambi. I clearly blocked a lot out of my memory. Lucy is enamored with Thumper, but I got the sense that both she and Finn could take or leave the movie. Not a whole lot that's laugh-out-loud funny, and quite a few "AHH! The Hunters Are Coming! AHH! The Hunters Are Coming Again! And Now There's Fire!" moments, and a total glossing over of the fact that poor Bambi's frackin' mother dies. I mean, there's a gunshot, and Bambi's prancing in the snow, all "Mama, where are you?", and then Bambi's dad tells him "Your mother cannot be with you anymore." And then 5 seconds later, Spring arrives. Cue montage of beautiful flowers and green growing things. Finn and Lucy commented, "Bambi's Mom is dead." And then they just kept on watching... I'm more than a little disturbed. We'll be returning it soon, I think.

I'd prefer to show them films like Cinderella and Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, but curses to Disney and their stupid VAULT of DOOM, where movies go after a while so we can all get hot and bothered over our inability to buy them, and then pay a fortune when they are finally re-released (and probably aired in 3-D, too, because $$$). I will pay the fortune! Just release them from the VAULT! How can my kids appreciate Cinderella's castle, if they have no idea who Cinderella is?

OK, it's a pretty awesome looking structure, even if you don't know who Cinderella is. But still.

I need to wrap this up and get myself to bed, but first I will share this little snack that I found via Pinterest and charmed the kids with yesterday: It involved banana slices, peanut butter, mini Nilla Wafers, and sprinkles. It's yummy, is not competely devoid of nutritional value, easy to make, AND the kids liked it. I will definitely be making these again. You should make them, too:

I see possibilities - sub Nutella instead of PB (or any other nut butter), switch up the sprinkles, etc. Enjoy!