The book fair is OVER!

The Scholastic book fair at the boys' school has eaten my life.  But last night was the last night, and now my life is mine again.  I will spare you the details because seriously.  It was a book fair.

It was a big week.

I decided to finally get my fat ass in check and I bought Shakeology shakes, and they are AMAZING.  They taste great, and you can mix up the recipe a bit for different flavors. And-- and this is the best part-- they have cut my junk food cravings in half, and they keep me full all day!  Except for today when I decided to drink wine and eat salami and chocolate chips after the kids went to bed, I have had NO ALCOHOL, and I have eaten between 1100 and 1300 calories, a good 1500 below what my Fitbit tells me I have burned.  I have lost 2 pounds (but gained like 6 this summer, so I have a way to go).  But here's the best, best part-- I HAVEN'T BEEN HUNGRY or felt deprived and crabby at all!!  These shakes make me feel so full.  I eat one for lunch because lunch is where my eating has spiraled out of control, but on days I need to work in my office, I have one for breakfast and pack a sack lunch.  Seriously awesome.  I have finally stopped lying to My Fitness Pal.

Last night, Harry and Jack had a slumber party, and everyone was up late because we went to the last night of the book fair and a literacy event at school.  And today? Everyone was a mess.  The boys woke Ben and me up at 5:45 because our room is right above Harry and Jack's.  We had to feed everyone breakfast, walk the dog and all the friends hime, pick up donuts and coffee, and make it to Harry's soccer game by 8:30.  Then we came home and scrambled to clean up the kitchen and basement, grocery shop, and throw together crockpot chicken noodle soup and pumpkin brownies before parting ways so Ben could take Harry to football and the rest of us could go to Jack's soccer game.  We met up at Jack's football game and then came home for a screamy dinner and outside playtime before finally, mercifully, putting everyone to bed.

We have been just as crabby as the kids, by the way.  I was so annoyed that Dorothy wouldn't stop stepping on the juice boxes we brought for Harry's soccer team that I scooped her under my arm and dragged everyone to the car to look at iPads and shriek.  IT WAS SO FUN.

Earlier in the week, we had nursery school picture day, and these 2 wore the outfits they chose.

 I caved and bought Coper a box of corn dogs at the store, but I only serve them with fruit and veggie smoothies.  Ugh.

 Not sure what was going on with her lunch and her Paw Patrol guy.

 Aaaaand it's my favorite outfit of the week.  He looks like a dancer.

 Oh, yeah.  The Cub Scouts seem less horrifying than they have been at a national level, so we let Jack join, despite serious misgivings.  He hasn't gotten his book, slide, and scarf.  So that's why I am procrastinating on the patches.

 Literacy game days!  Volunteers sign up to babysit grade levels for 2-hours at a time so teachers can give assessments to individual kids.  It was really fun the first couple of times, but now I feel obligated.

 Dress as your favorite book character.  A wild thing:

 And Almanzo Wilder

 Bought a thing of cream cheese the size of my fruit bowl at Costco because it's not pretty when we run out of cream cheese in the morning.  Fortunately that won't happen for another 3 pounds.

 A healthy snack for the soccer sneauxflakes.

Worst tooth fairy ever

Jack ripped a tooth out of his face because his friend lost one and because he wanted more money to spend at the school book fair.  That almost made me feel bad enough to tell him he didn't have to use his allowance money and tooth money to buy books because I would buy him anything he wanted.  Then I realized that his tooth money and his allowance money is actually my money.  And I DID buy him books on top of the ones he chose.  So.

Besides, I have way worse tooth-related things to feel bad about.

WE FORGOT TO PUT MONEY UNDER JACK'S PILLOW on Sunday night, even though Jack lost his tooth and Ben replaced it with a tooth from the creepy as fuck box of teeth he apparently keeps in the closet, and I told Facebook abut this and hilarity ensued.  

Monday morning, Jack woke up and found only his tooth under his pillow and cried softly in his bed for a few minutes.  Meanwhile , Ben realized with a jolt that he forgot the cash and sprinted downstairs to nonchalantly drop a twenty on Jack's dresser under the guise of enquiring about the tooth fairy.  Then I told Jack, slightly mollified by the $20 but still confused, that the TF left his tooth probably because she knew he felt terrible about dropping the last tooth he lost in the pool drain in Hilton Head.  And he believed me! And then Monday night, Ben left a note from the TF thanking Jack for holding onto the tooth another day, and he took the tooth and left another $5 for good measure.  Today, Jack wrote a thank-you note for the TF and told me he hopes it makes her leave more money tonight.  Erm.

 Cooper built a chair out of tinker toys.  Dorothy asked him if it was a potty.

 Harry and I made another vat of tomato sauce from garden tomatoes.

 Then he and I went to a fundraiser for a friend who is traveling to Peru to do acupuncture in the rain forest.

 I am running the book fair at the big kids' school this week.  It's the biggest fundraiser of the year besides the one Ben and I chair in April, a ton of work, and also really fun.  Dorothy and Cooper spent 5 hours at student preview day yesterday, and they entertained themselves the whole time.

 Books are the best.

#3's #4, Part 3

The picture above is Jack at school. I volunteer in his classroom on Friday mornings (giving spelling tests 3 kids at a time, which is both tedious and adorable), and jack got done with his spelling test and spelling packet, so he set up shop in the reading corner.

Below, we have Cooper at Old Navy, where I took him and Dorothy to pick out clothes to wear for their school pictures on Wednesday.  Dorothy picked a way less silly outfit than I was hoping she would.

We went to target to find Cooper some socks he would deign to wear to his bouncy house birthday party.  Start Wars knee socks for the win.

I pretty much love his whole party ensemble.

Dorothy scampered right in, one of the big kids.

Wind tunnel.  Jack brought his BFF to the party, and Harrison and his friend chose to go to a different party.  But I couldn't blame them-- their friend was turning 10 and having a baseball party, so.

I kept trying to get a picture of all of my children.  No dice.

I did a lot of sliding.

Cooper had a mild sock-related meltdown mid-party.

He really liked his Transformers cake.

Science is hilarious.

A pretty much group shot.

Nonplused.

SHE HAD SO MUCH FUN

He was very serious when we sang.

Almost a good one!

He was SO SWEET during present opening even though he is really shy and hates to be the center of attention in public.  He said thank you to each friend after he opened the gift-- really cute.

Here are some randoms from Ben's camera:

Then, you guys, the most bloggable event happened that I TOOK ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES OF.

Virginia and her awesome family came over for dinner!  Her children were all adorable and wonderfully behaved.  And Dorothy and Cooper were both over tired and horrible and screamed the whole time.  But still!  It was so fun!  And as soon as they left, I started kicking myself for the lack of pictures.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

New beds, no naps, Marigold Fest, and another busy week

I mean, seriously. The title really sums this up, no?

Cooper LOVES LOVES LOVES his new bunk bed.

And Dorothy is also thrilled with the firetruck. EXCEPT SHE DOESN'T NAP ANYMORE.  She just ransacks her room.  It's so relaxing.

Last weekend, we went to Pekin to celebrate Cooper's birthday with my parents and go to the Marigold festival, which I have always wanted to visit with the kids.  IT WAS SO FUN.

Cooper was happy to have another bday celebration-- he has one more this weekend.

My mom made shit on the grass shots-- SO GOOD.

We also came to town to see my brother who was in the wedding of his friend from 1-3 grade who used to live in the house behind ours (well, the house we used to live in when we were little kids).

I find so many selfies like this on my phone all the damn time.  I am SO LUCKY.

It was a chilly parade morning.

Turns out, the kids LOVE parades.  They're really good at eating candy out of the street.

We saw my best friend from grade/high school and her 3 beautiful little girls, including her 7-week-old baby.

Look how hard she is grabbing his hair!

The bar across the street had a $3 bloody mary bar.  An excellent parade location.

Oh, Jack.

Dorothy had the MOST fun

I mean, a giant piece of pizza.

Look at my little marigolds.

At Art in the Park, I had to paddle the boys around the lagoon in a giant dragon-shaped boat.

Who doesn't love a dirty old carnival?

Best ice cream sandwich ever.

This is happening.  I am not going to jinx it with commentary.

 These lovely things from my garden/CSA?  Became a lovely spaghetti sauce for the freezer and for dinner on Tuesday.  Help us.  We are drowning in tomatoes.

 Monkey

 Jack had a playdate, and he walked him home-- it was totally adorable.

 OH MY GOD SHE'S SO CUTE.