Finnisms.

Finn: Mom, what did the world look like in the eighties?  Was it all white?  {Not sure if he thinks it was some kind of bad sci fi futuristic planet 20 years ago or what??}
Me: Well, it looked a lot like it does now.  
Finn: Well, were you a grown up?
Me: No, I was a kid. 
Finn: And Punka was a kid too?
Me: Yep.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me {to Tate}: Want to go shopping with Aunt J?  We get to go to Costco while Finn is at school.
Finn:  Um, WHY do you guys get to have fun and I get to have NO fun?
Me: School is fun! 

{Followed by an eye roll from Finn.}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finn: What are you doing? 
Dave: Reading a story about an aggressive turkey in Detroit. 
Finn: Huh?
Dave: You know turkey that we eat at Thanksgiving?  That is a picture of a turkey.  It is chasing someone around. 
Finn: Do we eat that kind of turkey?  The aggressive kind?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have questionable neighbors across the busy road by our house, there are 83 of them... or they have a lot of visitors very often. They refuse to mow their lawn and spend and extraordinary amount of white trash time on the porch, just sitting there in the morning, the middle of the day, the evening, at night... you get the jist.  They don’t really have a porch sitting porch, but they’ve made it a porch sitting porch with a hodgepodge of junk to sit on.  Recently, the weather has warmed up.

Finn: There they go again.  Out on the porch smoking and talking.  DAD!  Dad, go by their house and honk the horn at em.  Tell em to get off that porch. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me:  I can’t believe you’re going to be FIVE!  I don’t want you to get big! 
Finn: Well, don’t worry Mom, I will still love you when I am five… 
Finn: and six and seven and eight and nine and ten and eleven and twelve and thirteen.  And that’s it. 
Dave: That sounds about right.
Me: What??
Finn: You get thirteen years.  Don’t worry, you still have TayTay.  See?  She will love you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finn: Mom, this shirt is too big, look.
Me: Well you have your pack on your shoulder and it’s puling it over.
Finn: {takes the pack off} Look!
Me: Yeah, it is kind of big, isn’t it?
Finn: {He pulls the shirt up.} Belly shirt! {Then he pulls the neck down. To his credit, it is way too big.} Mom, look at my nipple. Nipple time. Nipple party.

Make Your Own Veggie Pizza Bar

The Veggie Pizza Bar ended up being a fun addition to Jen’s baby shower and it was really easy to pull together.  Cold vegetable pizza appetizers are always good, but not everyone likes every vegetable.   Here, you can make it to suit your tastes!   You can add as many different vegetables, types of shredded cheese, or veggie dips as you’d like.  Next time I might add some hummus or dill veggie dip also.   You are only limited by your imagination.

For ours we used:

• carrots
• black olives
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• red peppers
• cucumbers
• shredded cheddar
• ranch veggie dip

I used two cups of the most popular veggies as well as two of the shredded cheddar.  To make the pizza ‘crusts’ you will take a package of crescent rolls, open and press the seams together.  Leaving flat, cut the rolls into squares or whatever shape you’d like and bake according to package directions.  These would be fun in fluted circles or smaller triangles.

 

Pink.

My friend Lori and I threw a sweet little shower for our friend Jen who is expecting a baby girl in just a few short months.  She is one of those glowing, perfect pregnant Mamas with the tiny little baby bump.  She looks freaking adorable. 

It was so nice to shower her with lots of fun baby gifts and spend an afternoon with some of my very favorite women. They are hilarious and completely riotous and they are still friends with me despite my f-bombs. We always tease Jen for having a box full of chicken trophies from her younger years… she was apparently one hell of a chicken raiser. Thus, the silly chicken sign.

 

There were lots of goodies including our group’s “must have,” Emily’s Party Bread. We also had cake pops, strawberry cupcakes, delicious fresh fruit skewers, sea salt chocolate covered Oreos, a make your own veggie pizza bar, and other goodies.

Lori also whipped up a batch of these {found via Pinterest} for those of us not baking a baby.

I also should mention that Lori is a hygienist so a million years ago when she was in school, we {and by we, I mean, I can accept the blame solely} started calling her DentaLori and it stuck.  So when I forgot the ribbon for hanging the paper lanterns, we substituted with none other than floss.  She’s got that in massive supply at her house and it put a signature minty freshness on the decorations. 

We can’t wait to meet baby girl, Jen. 

88.

Today, my Meme turns 88.  I would say 88 years young, but she would call me on my bullshit.

She quietly keeps our secrets.  She marvels at our achievements.  She laughs at our irreverent humor.  I wish more than anything that all of you could know her awesomeness.

She is the sun and the moon and the stars.

Happy Birthday Meme, you are immeasurably loved.  I’m glad Ohio State pulled a win out of their asses for you, I know it is all the present you wanted.