True story

So as we were checking out at Target yesterday E suddenly announced he needed to go to the bathroom. No big deal, or so I thought.

I left the cart against a wall and just hoped nobody walked off with my goods (not that they would really want my eggs, cheap frozen pizza, milk, and storage bin). A and I followed E into the ladies' room (I had to convince E that he only needed to go into the men's room when he was with daddy). He walked over to an open stall, stopped at the door and said, "wait", then closed and locked the door. I find it funny that he demands privacy in the bathroom when he has absolutely no problem looking at complete strangers under the stall doors and almost always barges in on me in the bathroom and demands to know "what you doing?" I didn't fight him because independence is the goal when it comes to the bathroom right? I know I'd like my independence back. I watched what I could through the crack between the door and the stall wall. Despite my insisting that he only had to pull his pants down (I haven't shown him the flap yet for fear of how he might misuse it), he proceeded to take off any clothing below the waste, including his shoes. The next thing to distract him was the little trash bin on the wall (ladies you know what I'm talking about). He couldn't resist opening it. I started yelling, "no, no! leave that alone". Not surprising, he didn't listen and then I hear "Oh, popcorn" as he pulled the little (in his defense popcorn shaped) bag out of it's compartment. At this point I'm freaking out a little and insisting he put it down. Mind you, I am not the only person in this bathroom. I'm insisting he unlock the stall door. He doesn't. I finally get him to hand me the bag under the door. Luckily it was empty. (huge sigh of relief). At this point I finally get him redirected to the task at hand. I watch him go and realize he isn't getting a single drop in the pot. I start yelling as discretely as possible (still not alone) anything that might persuade him to redirect his aim but he is mesmerized by the "water"fall cascading down the bowl making a stream that meandered through the grout lines of the tile below. At this point I'm secretly glad he had taken his clothes off because if he hadn't he would have inevitably soaked them. After the kid emptied an ENTIRE bladder he springs half naked from the stall ready to leave. I suddenly found myself simultaneously attempting to corral my son and get him to put clothes back on, comfort my crying daughter, and clean up the flooded floor. In my crazy acrobatic endeavor to clean the floor, while not get the mess on myself, I step on my pant leg in such a way that I ripped it up the back of my calf.

Well we got the mess cleaned up, got ourselves cleaned up and returned to our thankfully untouched cart. Needless to say we headed right home. That was enough adventure for one day.

Good times

A week ago it was finally warm enough to go out and enjoy the backyard again (emphasis on the word "was"). Mr E graduated to the big swing since Miss A carjacked the little one.

Later in the week we broke out the cake supplies again and whipped up a little cake for our Ultimate Fighting Championship fan friend's birthday. While I wasn't paying attention Miss A went to work gathering things for her own culinary creation.
We met up with the birthday boy and his family and a few other friends for bowling. It was E's first time. I think he enjoyed it although he was having one of those days so most of the time he was either running around crazy, crying about things not being his way or looking like this. Despite a few hundred meltdowns it was really fun to get out of the house and bowl again (I heart bowling).

Yo ho, yo ho our pirate turned three

So ever since Christmas E has been talking about, and I've been thinking about, having a "pirate party". It had been on my mind 24-7-- coming up with ideas, making plans, keeping a to-do list, etc. Planning parties is what I live for. Anyway the long awaited (at least in the Melton household) birthday finally came.

Our first celebration was a little night out on E's actual birthday. We took him to Incredible Pizza Co. where he got a little birthday prize bag and got to spin the birthday wheel for an extra surprise. We told E he had to eat before playing games. He was so excited that he scarfed down his pizza in the salad bar line. He rode some rides, played some games and picked out some prizes.
A few days later came the main event. I morphed the pirate theme a little to be an adventure in Neverland. The kids were greeted at the front door by Nana and then Wendy, John, Michael and of course Peter Pan as they came in the door.

By thinking the happiest things and with some faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust the kids flew through London to the second star to the right and straight on til morn (AKA the kids bounced in a bounce house we set up in the living room).
We had a pirate room with a bunk bed ship, Smee in a dingy, cannon with balloon cannon balls, and hook trying to escape a hungry crocodile.

We filled Miss A's room with blue balloons and bubbles to make a mermaid lagoon.

The play room served as our lost boy hideout.
We tried to keep the kids busy sword fighting with balloon swords, decorating fairy wings or a pirate hat, making a pan pipe or coloring magic crocodiles.

The menu included a boat filled with carrots sitting over goldfish swimming in an ocean of blue m&ms, fruit pixie wands, giant pretzel panpipes, chicken salad boats with chocolate crocodiles, cannon balls (olives), and peanut butter cookies topped with Wendy Kisses (chocolate thimbles).

All the kids took a couple whacks at our pirate ship pinata (it was too cold to hang it up outside so we improvised).

After that we had cake. Thanks to making the pan, hook and crocodile figures well in advance, I actually finished the cake to my liking this time (Last year my biggest regret with E's party was not giving the cake the time it needed).

And of course it wouldn't have been a great time without all the great company. Two of our buddies were even kind enough to dress up as John and Michael.

Thanks E for turning 3 and inspiring such a fun adventure! Love you buddy.