Guess who actually pooped in the potty all by himself TWO times week? Now is the time to buy a lottery ticket. Maybe. 
Yesterday I received 200 additional units of Botox from the neurologist to ward off the evil migraine monster. The injections went in my forehead, temples, hairline, neck, and shoulders. They hurt in the muscles that give me the most problems during actual migraine attacks and apparently that is a normal reaction. The neck brace is ready and waiting for the floppy sore neck to arrive. (Sadly it's not winter this time so I won't be able to look as cool as I did the first time!)Your highlights?
1. Clare's Easter outfit. A pink heart t-shirt, a lemon skirt, and black tights with neon strips. White sandals. I bought her a beautiful white and pink dress but after trying it on this morning before church she declared that it itched too much on an imaginary spot that she couldn't identify somewhere up top. Hence the homemade attire. Maybe it just gave her more speed for the hunt at home in the back yard to look for the golden egg? 
2. Sweet Baby Ben. Michael and Mikie joined us for an afternoon together to hunt eggs and share supper. Mario cooked an Italian feast which Ben gave the more signal for over and over and over until the grown ups decided it was probably best to just take the food away. He liked it. A lot. The kids had fun showing Baby Ben their rooms and toys and we had a special indoor egg hunt for him. He's a cool kid and having his parents around for Easter was a great treat.
3. I think the kids walked by the baskets about 3 or 4 times this morning while I was sipping the coffee Mario made for me before they said anything about them. And then it was just some murmured pointing between bites of Raisin Bran from Clare. We kept our baskets simple this year, really simple. They seemed tickled with the idea of eating peeps and jelly beans at 8 AM as a pleasure in and of itself so we just went with that. My whole simple Easter plan will work splendidly until they go to school tomorrow and someone announces they got a Barbie Jeep for Easter and then I'm screwed. I guess I can only counter that with letting them eat an entire row of Peeps instead of just one. Or I could let them make something cool with the cordless glue gun that the bunny left for me?
Tis the season of eggs. And more eggs. Because they like to dye many eggs. Luckily I adore egg salad and hard boiled eggs and deviled eggs. My current obsession thanks to my friend Katie's suggestion: curried egg salad. A delicious variation if you are looking at more colored eggs than you know what to do with in your refrigerator. 
But egg hunting is hard work. Wesley said he was hungry when we got home from the flashlight hunt so Mario made him a snack. By the time the snack made it to the table Wesley was sound asleep. We even woke him up and pointed to the food but he just whimpered and fell back asleep. Egg hunting must be hard work.
Y.
We finally found someone to do a sketch of our house! A parent at Clare's school, Steve Morrison, did this amazing yellow house for us a few weeks ago. Eventually we will pass it on to Wesley as a memento of his birthplace but for now I need to frame it and put it on the wall so we can enjoy it every day.
Steve did the sketch based on photos I took and emailed to him. His turn around time was fast and his fees were totally reasonable. Here's his website if you are interested! And here's a peek of something else he's working on for us.
Thursday I turn 35. I want to make my birthday as perfect as I can so I made a list of things I think would make it just dandy. *going for a walk or a run *having a clean car *coffee and cupcakes together *journal writing time *thrifting for treasures *a date with Mario *going to Holy Thursday mass *Fabrika sewing class tuition *pimento cheese *having Mario take the kids to school *mail *a cupcake from Chocolate Nirvana *flowers picked or made by the kids *cards made by the kids *a zafu *a sit *a new pen *a cordless glue gun *front porch sitting *a nap (if there's time) *making something I love making up these days! (photo from Andrea's cell phone)
Sweet beach friends. I love how once the basic rules of the beach are mastered (#1 no throwing sand, #2 no water without an adult) most anything else is fair game at the beach. It's a huge yes zone for me and I love spending time there with the kids. Having friends down for a few days to hang out with us non stop thrilled the kids. Clare even expressed disappointment that we had to go to the beach so much because she really wanted to spend more time at the house playing with her toys with her friends. But mamas and kids and the beach are meant to go together. I really enjoyed the time with Laura and her kids over Spring Break and I look forward to many more mama and kiddo combinations over the upcoming warmer months.
This is Andrea! We met when I was 11 and she was 12 on the Outer Banks during our own Spring Break (where it was so cold it SNOWED!) twenty three years ago. Ever since that week: loyal pen pals. This was the 7th time I've seen her. Ever. (And one of those times she was in my wedding on St. Simons Island.) So even though we know all of the juicy tidbits about each other, we still had oodles to catch up on in between entertaining these kiddos. Seeing her interact with Clare and Wesley felt kind of surreal, they certainly didn't exist last time I saw her, and well, now they do. We talked and talked, climbed the light house, hung out on the dock, drank wine, made gourmet veggie burgers, went on nature walks, and took tons of pictures. Seeing her unexpectedly over Spring Break was even better, much better, than catching that awesome red fish in my owl pajamas.
Night fishing. One night Laura and I went down to the dock to see what the guys down the street were catching. I wore my super lucky night owl flannel pajamas and orange crocs for comfort and supreme embarrassment. First impressions rock. Soon we both had poles in our hands and were fishing for the magical red fish. And then I reeled one in. Wow. That was awesome. I've caught many many many fish using our seine net in the creek but never reeled a fish in on a rod there. Holy high fives. I can't wait to do it again.
The jellyfish. They were everywhere. At first this caused alarm. But later we declared ourselves jellyfish tamers. The kids were picking them up, examining them to find shrimp and crabs tucked inside, and tossing them back into the water. We had buckets filled with 10+ jellies each inside. They became like pets...and no, this kind of jellyfish doesn't sting. (According to the science teacher near us and the fact that we surely would have at least 1 of 4 children stung out of 3 beach days with the jellies out in full force.) Who knew jellyfish could actually be fun?
Good thing: Constant company meant that Clare and Wesley had constant entertainment. They had very few quiet moments. I probably took this picture before anyone arrived during a dull moment where we went to just look at the marsh. They are sitting in my happy zone. The place I look forward to going each time we head to the island.
I'm pretty sure that I broke my fillings and chipped my teeth clenching my jaw at night. I also think that Kristin was on to something when she linked my migraines with my teeth. This morning I went the dentist just to have them take a peek at my mouth to determine the cause of my most recent mouth pain. Not to have fillings just to look. Dr. Jennings looked around, confirmed some chipped fillings, some cracks, and the location of my jaw pain. He shook his head and said very seriously that 'as your dentist the mouth guards we talked about earlier are the best thing I can suggest.' Those are the top and bottom guards linked together with a pivot system to prevent grinding and clenching. Impressions would take 15 minutes. Cost: $900. But after another week of migraines and now jaw pain $900 didn't seem so bad to me. I excused myself to call Mario. His office pulled him out of some important meeting where I'm sure they were talking about more than $900 and he said 'do it.' So I did it. Mouth contraption, which apparently is the LAST thing you put in your mouth at night because you are rendered speechless, arrives in 2 weeks.
Nothing that happened this week went according to plan. Not that there really was a plan in the first place, I just went to the beach with the kids to hang out and relax. A day after our arrival the migraines hit hard and claimed a few days knocking me flat. Mario took over and I took to bed. Sleeping masks, medications, darkness, ice, pain and quiet became my most wanted things. When he left I switched over to the good drugs and those left me on a higher functioning plane but at some point every day the migraines invaded. I hate migraines. Tuesday afternoon Andrea treated us to a surprise visit. We met on Spring Break in the Outer Banks 23 years ago and have been pen pals and friends ever since. This was our 7th visit since our initial meeting at the beach when we were 11 and 12 years old. Watching her hang out with Clare and Wesley felt surreal but I loved every single minute. Thursday afternoon Laura and her girls arrived for three days at the beach. We crammed in as much sunshine, marine science, water, and island touring as possible. Laura and I collapsed each night but somehow had enough energy to somehow keep talking into the wee hours. All of this could explain why our whole family is so tired today. Or why Clare told me tonight, "Mama. Spring Break felt like 2 weeks!" It sure did if you measured it by what we managed to do but it really seemed like it lasted about 25 seconds because I would never guess an entire week passed.
Go play outside. So they set to work doing lots of things like digging holes along the sidewalk to make dirt pizza with Spanish moss toppings. They did this for at least forty five minutes. I watched from the deck and waved a lot. Occassionally I took a taste or sampled a new topping. Whatever this part of childhood they are in right now (aside from the poop thing) I like a lot. It's time to install outside video cameras and mirrors so I can see all angles and views from inside the house.
Clare's fairy church.
We added a bit more decoration this time around. Next time we need to bring a bunch of shells from the beach and items from our yard to make the decorating aspect more 'exciting' for the kids. They did make several camp fires for the fairies around their houses out of twigs and put pine cones up for trees but that's about it. 
Wesley's happy fairy monster house. 
Mommy's fairy house.
