bee and rose

See that Lego game up there?  It's not as innocent as it seems, my friends.  The tv commercial for this game is clearly harmful to grown women with teenage sons.  It has reduced me to tears on more than one occasion. How on earth can this seemingly child friendly game cause so much heartache and distress?  Allow me to weave my tale of woe for you.... A few days ago, I saw this commercial and immediately said to Irish Dancer Girl, "Your brother (aka Teen Caveboy) would love this game...He's such a Lego freak!"  She looked at me like I had just told her aliens had invaded the neighborhood.  "Uh, Mom...he doesn't play with toys anymore, remember?"  She was edging toward me slowly.  "He stopped playing with toys back when I was a little girl."  (she's 8 years old...)  The truth in her words smacked me in the heart like the Karate Kid hitting me with a five finger death punch.  Tears welled up in my eyes.  I was a blubbering fool...

Look at that awesome toe point on Irish dancer girl!  We are finally finished with what we lovingly refer to in Irish dance as "March Madness"! Whew!  As you might imagine, Irish dancers are pretty popular come March.  We've just completed our two week tour of performances all over Tucson.  We wrapped up the season yesterday with a viewing of the movie "Lord of the Dance 3D".  Here's a little peek at what we've been doing! Cat with Brandon Mull, author of the fabulous "Fablehaven" series of books! We met him after her performance at the Festival of Books! What a nice guy! (and if you haven't read this series, do it!  It's fantastic!) Parade Prep on the firetruck for the St. Patrick's Day Festival and Parade... Taking a bow at Pima College's St. Patrick's Day celebration... And here's a little video of Irish dancer girl in action!  The stage floor was super slippery, but she still managed to knock out so...

See that big pink sign up there?  That's my daily mantra.  Well, it was until life around here went seriously in the dumper over the last several months...Where should I begin?  With the loss of health insurance for my terminally ill husband?  Hmm...oh! How about the very long delay of multiple paychecks for said terminally ill husband which still haven't been paid in full (umm, yeah, my children would like for their father to live for a bit longer so being able to purchase his medications would be lovely..just sayin')...or how about the time our tires (all flippin' four of them) went bad on the car...yep, good times.  Oh! Oh! Even better!  The gas leak that kept us without heat for the two coldest weeks in the winter!  Then came the pneumonia, the sinus infections that would not leave and so much more fun.  Yeah baby, those were the days!  But even in the darkest of days, I would still awake to those encouraging words " Keep Calm and Carry...

After a bit of a hiatus created by a series of very unfortunate events, Bee is back and ready to blog!  What better way to conquer the frustrations of life than to have a party! Miss Catherine turned 8 last week and we celebrated over the weekend with a Monster High themed bash at Pump It Up! P ump It Up is an inflatable play arena...we had the whole arena filled with jumping castles, obstacle courses, and giant slides reserved just for our party guests!  It was a blast! Coming down the ginormous slide! (I made personalized student ID party favors for each of the guests!) After an hour of crazy bouncing fun, we headed into to the "Creepeteria" for pizza and cupcakes!    My new favorite cupcake topper...the candy crown cupcake pick These little tasty beauties were made by yours truly! Monster High student "Lagoona Blue", daughter of the Creature from the Black Lagoon,    came by to visit our birthday girl and her guests! We set up a birthd...

This morning upon leaving my home to run errands, I turned right instead of left....At first I was mad at myself for going the wrong way, but sighed and continued on in the opposite direction of my original destination.  I've been on "overwhelm" lately and just figured my "old age" was kicking in and my internal GPS was off kilter.  Why does it even matter that I made a wrong turn? If I would have turned left and made it to my destination at that time, I would have been in the parking lot of the Safeway store where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and many Tucson citizens were shot this morning.  I had planned to go to Safeway to check out their cupcake selection for my daughter's upcoming 8th birthday party. Had I turned left like I'd intended instead of right onto Oracle Road, I would have been there when this tragedy took place.  This Safeway store is less than a mile from my home and one that I often frequent.   I heard about the shooting whe...

Over the years here at the Smith house, we have developed traditions that help us celebrate the joys of the Christmas season... Singing Christmas carols is my daughter's favorite holiday tradition...Right now she wows us with her rendition of the Overstock.com commercial..."Ho, Ho, the Great Big Ho"....(yep, we know it's really "O, O, the Great Big O", which btw is seriously just as hilarious to me...)  She loves to belt this out in public...all...the...time.... We also play "Twas the Night Before Christmas"  (which is really just Monopoly dressed up for the holidays...)  Of course, being the generous mother that I am, I make sure I win every time by gobbling up every property I can and charging exorbitant rent prices as soon as possible.  This tradition usually ends with Irish Dancer Girl storming off to her room because she has been rendered financially destitute and Teen Caveboy shaking his head in disappointment at me for my greed.   W...

Tis the season to be...assaulting your family with real cream whipped topping!  That's right!  When you live in the desert, you make your own "snow" day fun!  I wish I had photos to show you the devastation I showered upon my family yesterday with just one can of this creamy goodness. However, I was too busy chasing everyone around the house and spraying them down in Reddi~wip.(only the best for my family!)  By the way, Connor...nice move using your sister as a human shield...that was brilliant!  All I'm sayin' is "don't mess with Mama" at Christmas because there's more Reddi-wippin' that will come your way. In other holiday news, we went to visit Santa last week. (different Santa from last year...)  Catherine was so excited to tell Santa thank you for making her last year's Christmas wish come true.  (You can read about that here ...)  Of course, she made Santa cry again .  (and Mrs. Claus...and the elves...and me...and my mom, b...