My Parallel Universe…

  

Says Cael:  “My mom likes to go to Disneyland.”

Says Mom: “That’s right, Cael, I am your mom and I do like to go to Disneyland.”

Says Cael: “No, my other mom.”

Says Mom:  “You have another mom?”

Says Cael:  “Yes, I have another mom and her name is Kristie.”

Says Mom:  “You have this mom, Kirsten, and another mom named Kristie?”

Says Cael:  “Yep, and my other mom likes to go to Disneyland and buy me suckers.  I have another dad, too.”

Says Mom:  “Who is your other dad?”

Says Cael:  “His name is Paul.”

Says Mom:  “That is your dad’s name…”

Says Cael:  “Yep, and my other dad is named Paul, too.  And he likes to go to Disneyland.”

Says Mom:  “So you have one mom, Kirsten, and another mom named Kristie, and two dads both named Paul?”

Says Cael:  “Yep, and my other mom loves to buy me suckers at Disneyland.”

I must admit to some emotional confusion--I’m not sure if I should be insulted or intrigued, or if I should really accept that this child is clearly suffering from severe sucker-deprivation.  (He is right on the money about his regular mom not buying him a lot in the way of suckers, though.)   Hmmm…this is the same kiddo that just informed me that he would like some fishy crackers tomorrow for “Kids Day” because today is “Father’s Day” and since I gave him the “every day is kids day” line and he is a kid, he would like some fishy crackers.  For Kid’s Day.  And his other mom would love to buy him a sucker… 

Things that put a smile on my face…

My dancing girlies, Kylie and Kendell with their end of the year gala, where both of their parents were actually able to see them perform in all of their dancing glory, as opposed to missing their routines while attending to their convalescing brothers (as was the case with little puking boy and big shoulder separated boy in the emergency room at the St. George competition in March)…

 

Cael’s end of the year field trip to Wheeler Farm, where he had soooo eagerly anticipated bringing his very own carrots to feed the bunnies, only to be denied and completely bummed out by the sign “please don’t feed the rabbits.”  Oh well, he gets points for preparedness and also shaking-it-off-like-a-champ-edness…

Preschool was so great for Cael this year!  Letters, numbers, field trips, crafts, songs, magic tricks, buddies –of course the letter “H” is still the BEST!!  We LOVE Miss Amber—such a grand year!!

  One of the many bonuses of being married to the wonderful husband that I am married to is the delightful extended family I consequently acquired!!  Cousin Christy’s beautiful wedding was so lovely and fun, complete with a real photo booth (so clever and totally fun) for mementos…

I LOVE the library!!  Are you kidding me??  Hart to Hart Season 1 on DVD??  How can you  not love Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, along with Max the Butler/all around domestic great guy, Freeway the dog, Hart Industries, and a car phone in Jonathan’s Mercedes?  So sweet…

I do love finding sweet notes from one sibling to another—Curtis does feel strongly that this kitchen stool should stay in the kitchen…

 

Though the lighting is less than super, I do love the orange “Nie Nie skirt” (pattern by Pink Fig) that was my first project for my new high-powered corporate gig at The Material Girls Quilts (actually it is very part-timish)—I LOVE pretty fabric and Kylie LOVES ruffles…

And then there is our goofy kitty cat, Zeke.  It would be so much easier if he could just talk and tell me exactly what is on his mind, but when he jumps up on the barbeque, stretches out all tall, and peers inside longingly, I generally get the idea… 

Good Good Times…

Captain Birthday here made the official jump from being a little guy of 4 to being a “big one” who is 5 YEARS OLD!!  He requested a Haunted Mansion (“Nightmare Before Christmas” style) birthday cake—fortunately, Jack Skellington is not a character of intricate details.  Also fortunately, Target has some fantastic striped birthday candles right now that add so much to any birthday celebration…

The parents of the birthday boy with the very favorite tree during its limited engagement week-long glory of blooms…The Goff Family spring soccer  superstars—Cael was initially devastated to find out that he wouldn’t be on the black jersey team.  He has quickly adapted to his team’s color scheme and the rest of us are also adapting to seeing him in purple at all hours of each and every day and night…

And HOORAY!!  A grand and glorious weekend was had by me!!  My one and only delightful mom came with my one and only delightful sis, who also brought her equally delightful lovely little lady, Miss Kate.  Their flight was delayed 3 hours, but we most certainly made the most of our limited time together…

We made our venture to Alpine to the fabulous “Dear Lizzie”—oooh, such fun lovely things to look at and such fun tasty items to taste…

And if one yellow apron is good, three must be super good…

Love my sis, love my mom, love my husband for holding the fort down on Saturday while I gallivanted around to every girly place we could think of in the valley and beyond…

Easter Weekend and Furniture Re-Do…

I am obviously all about clever titles, but that is exactly what’s going on—gathering with family for Easter festivities and updating furniture!!  Oh, can you even stand the excitement?!

The lovely and colorful Easter girl cousins: Morgan, Kendell, Aspen, and Kylie…

Serious Easter Egg Hunt for Kylie, Kendell, and Cael…

Coordinating Cousins: Stockton and Kendell  (Paul didn’t get the light gray and white memo)…

An old and inherited (nevertheless appreciated) peach Laz-E-Boy ready for some new life…

A sad, sad table in desperate need of something (although Cael doesn’t seem to mind, as long as he can play “go fish” with mom on it)…

And now for the big reveal:  Slip-covered chair and repurposed mod-podged world map covered old/new table!!

Our goal is to be a family of geography wizzes, well that and also not to see the sorry table top underneath…

Circle of Life—end of March edition…

 

I went and had myself another birthday and now I am even more thirty-ish than I ever was before…

And as a complete bonus, two of my girlies are still off-track, which means they were able to join Cael and me at the Discovery Children’s Museum for preschool fieldtrip/big birthday festivity fun…

Paul and I celebrated being officially Mr. and Mrs. for 17 lovely years now…

Since it is springtime, Cael was again able to rejoice again in the fluffy white stuff again (it did melt by the afternoon, and we will always take all the moisture we can get)…

Big plans were made for a fun family weekend in warm/not snowy St. George for Kendell and Kylie’s dance competition (with Morgan as the #1 cheerleader)…

We got all packed and ready and poor little #5 here went and got back in his bed—that’s not the normal routine.  He was feverish and miserable, so we went for plan B—mom and Cael stay home, dad takes the rest of the crew down south.  This turned out to be a good call, Cael threw up his orange popsicle and eggs about a half hour after the crew left…

Cousin Apsen and Kylie did beautifully on their duet…

Kylie shimmied it up in her group routine, as did Kendell (insert awesome Kendell pic here from other memory card)…

The kids got to ride home with Grampa Randy and Gramma Sharlene (thanks, guys!!), because lucky dad got to stay in the sun for 2 more days for a work conference…

Of course, that was all after Curtis was trying to learn a few new sweet moves from Cousin Tanner, and, uh, the cool handstand maneuver didn’t work out all that great for Curtis…

On the minus side, Paul missed the portion of the dance competition involving the Goff girls.  On the plus side, the emergency room doctor was able to determine that Curtis’ shoulder was not broken, just separated, and could be all fixed up with the help of a sweet wrap-around brace and ice pack to perch upon his right shoulder…

Since neither mom nor dad were able to witness the fabulous dancers and their fabulous dancing, naturally Kendell’s group took first in their age group, and Kylie and Aspen took the the grand prize with the high point award out of all 45 of the performing groups !!   I may not have seen the dancing in person, but I have seen the trophies and they are super grand…

That’s so how it goes, and no way--now we are back to snow!!  But hey, we’ve absolutely also got daffodils…

Loving March…

So it is off-track time for 2 of the Goff girlies, which means instead of going to school like regular school aged school kids for the entire month of March, we can do exciting things like travel to exotic European markets for very fancy gourmet lunches of Swedish delicacies (ie: meatballs, we are soooo cosmopolitan) …

We’re going with the theme “the family that plays ‘let’s try to win a radio contest together’ stays together!!”  It’s a theme that may linger for a while-- we have yet to be the magic #20 caller, but what we do have is the very same thing that the female team on “Celebrity Apprentice” has, and that my friends is a little something called tenacity…well, that and the fact that there’s still 2 more weeks left to win, so there’s always hope.  Hope and tenacity, quite a pair…

Miss Kylie is now officially 9 years old!!  The day started out with some potential March springyness, but as the jumbo snowflakes started falling and then kept on coming and coming, the birthday girl and her curly locks found it necessary to stay inside and add more layers of clothing.  Fortunately, Layered Reese’s Peanut Butter Cake (thanks, Picky Palate) tastes delightful in any weather…

Our St. Patty’s Day green baby bundt cakes were tasty and fun (thanks again, Picky Palate!!), and eventually I’ll learn to get enough Pam spray into each individual nook and cranny of the pan to facilitate a smooth and complete baby bundt coming out of the baby bundt pan!!  (Just a little fyi—the jr. Goff’s could not have been less concerned with the lack of complete uniformity in the festive presentation of the dainty little cakes—frosting is truly a magic salve for semi-broken baby bundts.  For those playing along, that is now 4 uses of the uber-chic culinary term “baby bundt”…)

Then there’s Mr. Festive, himself, once again sporting his very best green ensemble!!  He has been so concerned that he needs to wear green that he has worn this little number to preschool for the past 3 times, just in case he had the wrong Irish holiday or the wrong date or the wrong whatever.  He’s all about being prepared and also, he likes green—it’s a win-win all the way around!!

This, the beginning of March…

One of the true highlights of 3rd grade is getting to take part in the wax museum!!  Miss Kylie was all about researching and then portraying the one and only Florence Nightengale…   Kylie’s mom was all about channeling my inner-Julie Andrews channeling her inner Maria Von Trapp—while the skirt, apron, and cape came not from old/dowdy draperies, they did come from old and not-a-bit-dowdy sheets!!  (Gramma Bev would be impressed with the resourceful re-use of aged and torn bedding.  Kylie’s mom is continually impressed with Kylie’s good-sported nature…)

We heart progress in the basement, not to mention the lifetime supply of heavy duty buckets…

March, of course, equals snow…

Cael, the “super pre-school kid of the week” could not have been more thrilled with the weatherly turn of events—“Mom!!  It’s not melted anymore!!” 

MORE progress in the basement—HOORAY!!  (Still waiting for Desi Jr. to show up with the projector that would fit right there in the ceiling, hmm, maybe??…)

And it is good for me to know that I am completely of super sound mind.  I do know that my girl, Kylie, is 8 right now, and that on her birthday she will indeed be 9.  I only got the first part of that thought on the calendar—it’s a good thing she straightened me out…