I've Got To Start Some Traditions...

I am giving away a $25 Target Gift Card and a whole bunch of back to school type stuff here.

If you're up with Disney Princesses, I'm also giving away a family four pack of tickets to Disney on Ice in Chicago for the Wednesday September 8 performance here.

I have a new Seventh Generation prize pack filled with cleaning supplies for your back to school needs that I'm giving away here.

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I'll explain why I need traditions in another post, but let's just have this one show something I did with the wee ones last week that I think is going to become a part of our back to school tradition. Because I suppose that should be more than making them stand on the stoop and smile into the sun, right?

Needless to say, we headed off to Build-A-Bear, since I'd heard that they had the Sanrio pets debuting and were giving out cute little backpack clips for those who made the pets. Since Little Miss has a Keroppi backpack, I figured this was win-win all the way around. We headed into the store, and Mister Man was ohhhhh-so-proud to show Little Miss what to do.

Unfortunately, that dream of Sanrio pets was apparently mine alone.  Neither of the wee ones wanted to do Keroppi. Or Hello Kitty. Or Chococat.  Or Melody.  I have no idea why, but since this was for them, I allowed them to choose any animal in the store they wanted.  Oddly, they both chose the cheapest option (with no input from me whatsoever), the $10 Cub bear.

Mister Man also chose a karate uniform for his bear, which I thought was sweet since he's now so into his tae kwon do.  He had a hard time deciding initially since there was no Princess Leia costume yet, but once he was this one, he was hooked.

Little Miss wasted no time in finding the Toy Story costumes and picked out her Buzz Lightyear outfit in a heartbeat.  Did I mention the 9 times in fourteen nights they watched Toy Story while they were in Florida?

Once the animals and outfits were chosed, it was off to the stuffer.  They were so pleased to help stuff their bears and do the little heart pledge and warmup.  I love how Build A Bear makes the children really a part of creating their pet.

From there, it was time to clean the bears.  Not surprisingly, Little Miss was wayyyyyy more into making sure her bear was perfect.

Mister Man did his, too, but he was so excited to get to the next stage that he ran off to it before I could get to the bath.  I made him come back and "fake pose" for a picture.  He was so thrilled to be making a bear of his own choosing that he took a decent picture our first shot.  Phew!

After that, it was time to get the bears dressed - an important thing that the wee ones wanted to do on their own.  Well, at least until Mister Man couldn't get the black belt off the karate costume (it was sewn on, but he wanted to put on the orange belt because he is an orange belt) and Little Miss couldn't do the shoes on her own!

Meet Karate Chops, the newest addition to our menagerie.  He is a defensive warrior who helps protect Mister Man's room from invasion but never uses his karate moves to purposefully hurt anyone.

Little Miss (and yes, we got her hair cut immediately before Build A Bear, which explains the new bangs and the fact that she has a really cute ponytail) was really proud of how well she could dress her bear.  The hard thing for her was having to take everything off to put on Buzz's pants first. (PS Build A Bear, I love how you have the little straps to go over the arms to help keep pants up - genius!)

And meet Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger protecting the universe from the evil emperor Zurg - who we hope never comes anywhere near our house.

The coolest part about this is that Mister Man went through the registration process entirely by himself.  Granted, it took him some time to type in all the info required, but he did it.  And I love that he did it and didn't ask for help.  We had nowhere we needed to be, so I let him have his time to do it, and he was so proud.  I need to remember to continue to back off and let him try!

Once we were done, we had a new family photo with our new friends.  Note that Karate Chops is doing a karate kick in the photo.  He was "showing off his defensive moves" according to Mister Man.  Little Miss, on the other hand, was just excited to get home and introduce Buzz to Snowy.

In the past week, I can't count how many times I've been asked when we're going back to Build A Bear. This is the first time I've allowed them such freedom in the store, and they are smitten. I've recently instituted a new reward system (yes, a post will come on that soon) where one of the things they can earn is a Date with Mommy. I have a feeling this is going to be one of the requested dates.

Or maybe I should just save it as a special back to school tradition. What a great way for them to remember every year and what they were super interested in at the time. Nahhhhh, we'll be back sooner than next August!

(And no, I was not paid or compensated for this post at all, nor did anyone ask me to write it. This was purely inspired by our fun trip to Build A Bear and my desire to create fun and lasting traditions for the wee ones.)

Bah, Humbug!

Different families have very different traditions, and being married, I've learned that there are times when you just have to learn to compromise.

My husband's family grew up very differently from the way I grew up. He never had a birthday party. His mom made him only two birthday cakes that he can remember. Things like this just weren't a big deal to them. And for him, he doesn't get the celebrations that people do for their or their kids' birthdays.

Gift giving, in general, is the same way in his family. People hand each other lists of what they want, and they expect that you'll buy from them what you're told to. There's no creativity. There's no showing that you know a person well and figured out something that you know they'd love that they never even thought about. It's really less a present than a completion of a shopping list, and it always feels a little yuck to me. What's the fun and surprise and point even of exchanging gifts when you've told the person exactly what to get you?

It first started when I married into the family and drew my SIL for the gift exchange that year. She announced that she expected whoever drew her to purchase her the Season Whatever Buffy The Vampire Slayer on DVD. Ok. Did you want me to give it to you just in the bag? When I told my husband that I intended to get her something else, something that I thought she'd like, my husband warned me against this. Given the cattiness I've seen previously, I acquiesced. Except that I made him buy and wrap the DVD because I couldn't quite stomach it. And I bought her a couple of other cute small things that I thought she'd like.

Unfortunately, this means of "shopping" for people has resulted in people who don't know how to shop for people without a specific list. As year after year went by and my husband continued to miss my very unsubtle hints and instead purchased items for me that were inevitably returned, I realized that I had to make a compromise.

The next year, I started creating a list in May. I wrote down all sorts of things that I wanted from a big NU flag to an immersion blender to a fuzzy logic rice cooker (ok, I'm realizing how boring I sound with my list). I created a long, long list, with the clarification to my husband that these are simply ideas. I don't expect nor want to receive every item on the list, but at least it gives him some options.

He purchased the first six things on the list.

After the holidays I clarified the element of surprise bit and also that maybe some items were gifts that maybe I'd want more than others and that he should peruse the list a little. That actually seemed to work, and the gift giving really improved for him (and his family).

This year has been a bit busier, and while I continued to drop my not-so-subtle hints throughout the year, I didn't update my wish list. I'm discovering that this was a mistake.

When we were in Seattle last weekend, my husband asked me on Monday (the 17th) what I wanted for my birthday. I listed off a few items before realizing the implications of his question. My birthday is today (the 24th). We weren't getting home until the 18th. Six days before my birthday, he would not have even started shopping for me.

On Wednesday, the first package arrived from FedEx. The box prominently listed that it was from something or other lids company. Ahhh, the new lid for my Cuisinart has arrived. When I showed my husband the cracked plastic top to my very old Cuisinart that I use regularly, he nodded sagely, and I thought I was getting a brand new way cool Cuisinart. Nope, I'm just getting the top.

On Thursday, a second package arrived, with a prominently placed logo about something fitness. Whooo, I now have a new heart rate monitor. I'm realizing that I really made a mistake. And that it's really hard to not look at the return address of a package that comes as you're trying to determine who it's for, especially since there are items that I've ordered online that I'm waiting for.

Lesson learned. I'm already starting on the list for next year. I'm thinking about just taping it to the refrigerator to make it that much easier for my husband. But that really takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?

Oh, and I got a nice birthday dinner last night (since it's a school night tonight and I'm working in the office and won't be home until later). We went to my Monday night sushi place and did the hibachi. I forgot they actually make you wear a balloon hat and turn on the colored disco lights and play the birthday song. And, lucky me, they now memorialize it with a photo on their "Kobe wall."

At 5:37pm today, I'm officially 33 years old. With a new heartrate monitor and a Cuisinart lid for my efforts. And yes, I do already know what I'm getting my husband, and no, I don't let him make me a list!

My Favorite Time Of Year

Do you really have to ask? No, I'm not talking about the wee ones going back to school (we aren't there yet anyway), nor am I referring to the end of hot yucky weather (hottest Labor Day in 25 years predicted).

Ahhh, I love college football. And I love my season tickets (13th row on the 40). And I love watching them play.

Especially when there's some good defense being played. Lucky me, I caught them in the midst of bringing that quarterback down.


(Sorry, no shots of scores, especially not Brendan Smith's interception for a TD as I'm too busy cheering at that point in time!) After every score, we do get to see the big Northwestern flag traipsing around the end zone and then cheerleaders doing their pushups. Unfortunately, the view of the cheerleaders was blocked much of the time because of the bad fans who would leave right after each score and make it so I couldn't see them!



Of course, the best part is when they win! Look at all those happy people!

Unfortunately, I could never be a football player. The below explains why. The team manager dips cups into the giant tub 'o Gatorade and then fills them. And they share the Gatorade bottles. And he puts his whole hand including the pitcher into the tub to fill it with Gatorade before distributing it amongst said bottles.

My seats are almost directly behind this, and I inevitably end up watching it at some point during the game and getting totally grossed out. Somehow, I have a feeling that football and hockey are just not in the cards for the wee ones!



New this year was the trivia contest in the Goose Tent prior to the game. Yes, we get two free cups of Goose Island before every game at Wildcat Alley. Except that I don't like beer, so I don't drink it. Which is probably why I noticed this:

Ten points to:

1) The person who can best answer the trivia questions above -- without cheating! Remember, we're at a football game tailgate, not sitting at our computers with Google at our fingertips.

2) The person who can find the error in the questions that is still driving me nuts!

In the end, my husband and I both entered the contest. Winner received an unnamed prize, but I'm competitive enough to go for it! We both agree that my answers were better than his. Yet somehow, he was the winner announced at halftime -- at least we assume it was him. They announced his first name and our last name. Except that our last name had an extra letter in it when they read it. I'm blaming his bad handwriting, but maybe someone else really won the Goose Gift Certificate and gear that supposedly will be mailed to us. I mean him.

This is so my favorite time of year though. Oh, and knowing I was headed to a wedding immediately afterwards (in Lake Geneva that started at 4pm -- you do the math), I was smart enough to put on sunscreen yesterday, so I only had a tiny patch of red on my thigh where I somehow missed application. Not too shabby for four hours in the sun! And lucky me, all redness is gone today, and I'm back to normal.