What To Do?

Hello??? Is anyone out there???? I am debating on whether or not I should continue blogging the Adventures of Mama-Dirtyfoot. I am not sure if anyone reads my random ramblings or not. Hmmmmm......what to do?? To blog or not to blog - that is the question.

Where Did You Go????

Where did you go? Summer, that is. Well actually, you might be asking where did I go.....seeing that I haven't blogged in almost a month! We have just been so extremely busy cramming in all sorts of activities before the end of summer. Where do I begin in catching up on my blog??? Well, I guess I'll mainly blog today about our most recent activities this past weekend and then under that I will include a bunch of pictures below (with a small explanation).

This weekend was so busy! On Friday night, David and I went to the wedding of a co-worker of David. The wedding was beautiful, the music was great, the food was yummy and the reception locale was awesome....so unique (Shea's Buffalo). The only downside was that I didn't dance as much as I would have liked to - but I guess I have no one to blame but myself for that.

On Saturday, David and I went over to the house of a different co-worker of David's. David helped to hook up the electrical for the installation of a garbage disposal. As the guys worked, the girls gabbed. Where was Madeline then???? She played her butt off with their daughter who is just a little younger than Madeline.

After traveling back to Indiana the weekend prior along with our activities on Friday and Saturday, I was ready to have an easy, laid back family day on Sunday.....and that is what we did. After a lazy morning, the three of us got our butts moving in time for 12:00 Mass. Prior to leaving for church, I packed us up a picnic to enjoy later in the afternoon. After Mass, we headed up north to a park on Lake Ontario. (Okay, we made a mini-side trip (since we were in the vicinity) to pick-up some wine that we enjoy from a local Niagara vineyard/winery, Schulze Winery.) After that mini-detour, we were off to our picnic in Olcott, NY. The park was so nice because as we sat to eat our lunch we overlooked Lake Ontario. After lunch we walked to the Olcott Beach Carousel Park, which was right next to the park where we picnicked. The carousel park is an old fashioned kiddie park with 5 vintage rides (circa 1920s - 1950's) that were in absolutely impeccable condition. Aside from the fact that the carousel park was SPOTLESS (even the Port-A-Potty was spotless), the best part was that each of the kiddie rides was only $0.25! After riding each of the 5 rides the park offered, we enjoyed a Perry's (my dad's favorite local brand) ice cream cone. Already a full day? Yes, but we continued on to a nearby (Niagara county has tons of fruit & vegetable farms) U-Pick orchard and picked 3 1/2 pounds of blueberries. What a wonderful learning experience for Madeline and you can't beat the price....$1 a pound! When we got home we grilled out a pork tenderloin that was marinating (Rosemary Balsamic marinade) all day while we were out. We had that with green beans, a pasta side that included tomatoes and basil from our garden, & David and I shared the locally grown wine we had bought earlier. I had all intentions to serve a blueberry cobbler for dessert made with the berries that we picked earlier but I was missing one of the important crumb ingredients. So.....the cobbler had to wait until Monday night. But regardless, it was a perfect end to a perfect day.

Below is a collection of various other things that kept us busy during the month of August....

We hosted David's work summer party at our house 8/13. I had to take a picture of my ribbon jello and the beginning of the next generation being obsessed with it. My mom used to make this for all her parties, I often include the ribbon jello when I am entertaining and by the way Madeline was wolfing down the "scraps" as I was arranging the platter before the party, I think Madeline might carry on the ribbon jello tradition one day.

I was able to re-upholster the chairs to my dining room set (which used to belong to my mom) before the party. The fabric that was on the the chairs was on there for as long as I can remember! Below is the BEFORE picture.

The AFTER picture is below....

Here are some pictures from David's summer work party that we hosted at our house...
Bean bag toss and KanJam in the side lawn.

The kids enjoyed swimming, playing on the swing set, and many crafts and kids activities. I got a sitter for the day to supervise the kids so that the adults could relax and enjoy the party too! Here the kids are searching for goodies in the sandbox during the treasure hunt.

The grown-ups had a water balloon toss....which ended up being a balloon war between me and David.

Someone from David's work organized and brought a game. The employees at David's work were being cast by actors to play their role and two teams had to race to correctly match the actors with the correct employee. Stanley Tucci was cast to play David.

The winning team.....

I will go out on a limb to say that everyone had a nice time. Even though the party started in the afternoon, you can see from the picture that we were still enjoying ourselves into the evening.

Erie County Fair (one of the largest county fairs in the county!) I don't recall the Tilt-A-Whirl ever being so tilty!!

Madeline enjoying a bike ride at the fair

Madeline and I went bowling for the first time (we went with Tammy & her girls - Tanya & Jenna) Madeline scored a 50 with the bumpers in. Me? Well....my first game was not much better.

We made a trip back to Indiana to visit David's parents and this is the ONLY picture I have of the trip!! Yes, I am on a kiddie horse at Meijer's! Yes, I actually rode it! What the heck.....it was only a penny!

Madeline and I attempted a late August picnic (prior to our picnic mentioned above) but had to pack up half way through because the bees were too interested in us and our food/drinks

My MOMS group has a monthly MOMS night out. In August we went to a Bisons Baseball game. Here is our view

Upon entering the ballpark we were chosen to particpate in on of their promotions. We were on the ballpark's Big Board holding a Dunkin Donuts banner. One of the girls one a $20 gift certificate!

I was just happy with the SoftLips chapstick I caught when the ballpark promotions group was throwing them into the crowd.

Every little girl's dream....Madeline's first purchase from Claire's while back to school shopping

Madeline and Mama being silly while out to lunch...

Haircut time for back to school.....BUT this was Madeline's 1st "big girl cut" where she got her hair washed in the sink before the cut. Madeline was feeling pampered!

Trying to save a little money, Mama gave herself an at-home pedicure. I was trying to make sure my feet would look good in strappy heels when we went to a wedding at the end of August. Mama treated Madeline's feet to a little TLC, using all my scrubs, lotions and potions on her too! Here we are soaking our toes in preparation.

I thought I would get Madeline to help me out around the house and had her use the vacuum. She had a ball.....although I still needed to vacuum to complete the job when Madeline was done "playing"

My friend Tammy is going back to work soon (she's a teacher). We all know that having pre-planned and prepared meals makes life easier. We decided that we would get a ton of groceries, split the cost, cook all day and split the fruits of our labors. This photo DOES NOT show everything because we cooked up a storm. During one day we made a huge pot of chicken soup, apple cobbler, chicken enchiladas, meatballs, 4 meatloaves, Gołąbki (cabbage rolls) and lasagna

I think I am safe to say that you are now sufficiently caught up on the Adventures of Mama-Dirtyfoot!

Big Shoes To Fill

Mama-Dirtyfoot's feet














My sister's, Marysia's, foot



















Gosh, I wish I had a picture of my mom's feet to share with you! Big shoes to fill?? Well, yes. My mom was an amazing person so, figuratively, my mom left some "big shoes to fill" when she died. But, I guess you could say my mom literally had big shoes to fill too.

My mom didn't have particularly large feet. I believe she wore either a size 8 or 8 & 1/2 shoe. Yet, for as long as I can remember (I was probably Madeline's age & my mom would talk about this!) my mom would complain about her feet swelling. When we traveled, her feet would swell. In the heat, her feet would swell. Consuming too much sodium, her feet would swell. During our high school years, when we sisters were at the age to attend dances, we would always ask mom to wear our brand new dress shoes around the house for a couple of days to stretch the shoes out so they wouldn't bother our feet on the night of our dance.

Aside from the occasional but recurring swelling issues, my mom's feet were the strangest looking feet! They were just chub-sausage feet with little nub toes. My mom called them "good dancing feet"....so, I guess that explains why I love to dance. My niece, Christina, who is also cursed with these feet calls them "Polish feet". In addition to the peculiar shape, my mom's feet were always so scaly.....blah! I used to tease my mom about my feet but in my early 30's, I noticed that my feet would easily scale up and regular pedicures began to be a necessity. At the same time, I became more aware of the similarity of my own feet with my mom's and my mom then had the last laugh.

My sister Marysia's feet also resemble my mom's feet yet, I think at the time I was visiting her on my 40th birthday, it was decided that my feet are most like my mom's. It didn't help though that while visiting , my feet were swollen from the heat! My blog post from a couple days ago, Belated 40th Birthday Pampering, and the post's picture of my toes encouraged some gentle teasing both in the comment section of that post and on the phone. Was that the end of it? No! Today, I get a picture text of Marysia's toes. A few minutes later, I get the picture text below: (Luckily, I take after my mom's ability to laugh at her sausage feet!)

Marysia's dog's, Jesse's, paw

Be Afraid.....Be Very Afraid!

Holy cow! My dear, sweet, angelic Madeline can pull off a scary look if she wants to! Granted, these photos are really more innocent than they look. Madeline has noticed she has colors (natural highlights) in her hair but she also knows that Mama has been known to get her hair colored. Today, Madeline wanted more "colors" in her hair and, thus, the red wig. Of course, Madeline, had to sport a hat with her "new 'do" and the clip-in braid was just an added touch to her new 'do. The bling-y t-shirt was simply because I need to do some laundry. And the tattoos on her arm, well...as bad ass as they look, they were actually given out at vacation bible school (long story...not really a "Catholic thing to do" but Madeline LOVED it and Mama loved a week's worth of mornings to herself.)

So, I am not sure if, in these photos, Madeline looks more like a skater-girl or a biker babe who is ready to kick butt. Yet in actuality, Madeline is still my sweet little girl with an awesome imagination. Hmmmmm......with the ability to successfully pull of looking like a "bad ass", let's hope that Madeline paid attention during vacation bible school!

Belated 40th Birthday Pampering

Tracy is my oldest friend. Wait.....let me re-phrase that! She is not the oldest in AGE, but rather I have been friends with Tracy longer than anyone else. It is pretty safe to say that Tracy and I have known each other our entire lives. Heck, we probably sent dolphin-like sounding signals to each other while we were in utero.

Tracy lived about 2 blocks away from me when we were growing up. Not only that, but her house was directly in-between my grandmother's house and my aunt's house. We were actually baptized together at the same baptismal ceremony. We started kindergarten together and attended the same grammar school together. We had crushes on the same boys (although Tracy always got the guy), we played over each other's houses and ate dinner at each other's houses. Birthday parties, field trips, scraped knees, dance class/recitals. Much of our childhood was spent together.

But then.....life happens. Tracy moved out of my neighborhood (in 6th??? grade). As a kid, that was heartbreaking. Often times, that is the tale of childhood friendships and the beginning of stories that often end with, "I wonder what ever happened to....(insert name)". Tracy finished grade school on the other side of the city. She attended a different high school. Yet, although our families were always very friendly with each other, the bond between us was not because of our parents' relationship. Somehow, through all these years (many of them while we were still kids), we managed to keep in touch. Yes, life happens.....Tracy & I would sometimes, throughout this period of time, have greater stretches of time in between our visits, but yet we always eventually reconnected.

Tracy was born on June 17th and I was born on June 23rd (and I love to remind Tracy that she is older!) Lately, Tracy and I have started a yearly tradition on getting a pedicure around the time of our birthdays to celebrate our special days with a little pampering. Certainly, we had to pamper ourselves for our 40th!! This past Saturday, since it was our BIG 4-0, we upgraded to the next level of pedicure service AND enjoyed lunch together afterward. (My ugly corn-kerneled toes and gnarly feet need all the help they can get) Yep, we "old ladies" enjoyed ourselves as we laughed at our dwindling eye sight and aches & pains. But, we worked hard to maintain our friendship for all these years and for that, we deserve to reward ourselves!

NOOOooooo WAY!

Ugh! So this is what back-to-school shopping is all about? Geez, Madeline will be in Pre-K for three 1/2 days a week this year. Her back-to-school list is a small one so for the most part the supplies are not going to be the issue. I am, however, getting a glimpse into what things might be like when I have to clothes shopping with Madeline as a teenager......NOT looking forward to that one! This year, I was told that Madeline will need a backpack. She was thrilled to pick out and buy this Hello Kitty backpack. I told Madeline that she had to wait until kindergarten to get a new lunch bag, so she'll be toting her Princess lunch bag to pre-school this year too. Same thing with her butterfly ice pack....this one works fine, does she really need a new one?? - No!! I was told that I would also need to pack Madeline both a lunch AND a snack for school. That's more than she eats at home....but, okay. The snack has to be packed separately from the lunch so I did pick up a small container that has an icee pack built into the lid. I figured that would be good to keep fruit cold. Other than that, the majority of Madeline's supplies (crayons, glue, etc, etc, etc) is supplied by the school through her tuition. I did have to pick up the usual tissues, napkins, clean-up wipes.

Where the problem lies is the clothing. A few issues (A) What fits her now might not fit her in November or December. I am trying to figure the best strategy to get the most use out of what we buy now. How big can I get away with buying her clothes? (B) Madeline is no longer in the Toddler sizes but rather in the girls department. Whoever is designing and buying skanky, trashy clothes for their LITTLE GIRLS should be shot. Browsing the girls department, you would think that we were dressing the girls for ladies night at a bar! (C) Why is it that Madeline is drawn to the glittery crap out there??

Prime example, look at this dress Madeline wanted!!! NO, I DID NOT BUY THIS!! But this is something she was admiring. The picture doesn't show the level of raunch in the dress, but aside from the "criss-cross" action at the boobies, all the ruffles and frills had black animal stripes. Really??? Are you serious??

Don't get me wrong...I know Madeline is growing up and I am not trying to continue to dress her like a baby. I am not trying to go the other extreme and dress her too young, but only appropriately. I didn't have much luck today. I don't have any pictures of what we actually did buy but we only purchased a pair of black leggings, a jean skirt, a short-sleeved sweater....with built in cami, (Gotta love that!) and a dress. (The dress was too cute because it came as a two piece set.....the 2nd piece being a matching dress to put on a doll) I must say that I was very disappointed in a normal favorite, Children's Place. I am thinking that I will need to head out again over the course of this month to pick up some items from Carters, Gap Kids and Gymboree. These are more my speed!! What am I going to do when I have less say in what this girl wears???? I guess I will just try to teach her well now.

Despite the clothing frustration and the need for another shopping trip, we got all but one item on Madeline's list. We ended the afternoon on a ride on the mall's merry-go-round. (No, I didn't try to jump onto this one while it was moving! And, since I posted the picture of my bruise, the bruise has gotten even darker and is in fact, such a dark purple that it almost looks black!) Maddie was happy that she was able to snag her favorite spot on the ride, the kitty. But now, can someone please answer the question of the day.....Where on earth does one find an art smock??? (No luck at Target or Walmart!)

Ouch!

Ouch! Bruise & Bump! Here is what happens when a 40-year old tries to do what she did when she was 12! This is the result of the playground's merry-go-round incident from yesterday's post. Knowing my body, I know that in another day or two this will be dark purple. In the meantime, as I watch the color show on my leg, it hurts to touch. This is tough because I am a side sleeper and the bruise is on the side I normally sleep. That'll teach me!

Summer "Nic-Nic"

After yesterday's humidity, a thunderstorm blew through here last night leaving today's weather a bit cooler, much less humid and much more comfortable. David came up with the idea of packing a picnic for dinner tonight. In prior years we would go on several picnics a year; yet, we have yet to go on a picnic this summer.

I told Madeline of Papa's idea and told her that we would have to go shopping later in the day to get some things for our picnic. Madeline disappeared and when she reappeared Madeline handed me a grocery list for the store. Madeline's excitement motivated me to head to the store PRONTO! In general, Madeline prefers to get checked into our grocery store's play area while I shop (yes, I always give her the option and she always chooses to play - go figure), but today, Madeline was giddy - giggly and jumping up and down - about the idea of helping prepare for our picnic. I asked Madeline to read to me the items on her list and as she did, we found those items in the grocery store. Her "list" included chicken, watermelon, bread and applesauce however I persuaded Madeline to add some vegetables to the list too. I was impressed at Madeline's menu ideas. Upon coming home from the grocery store, I packed up our items and waited for David to come home from work.

We decided to try a new park that we haven't been to before. Madeline had a blast playing on all the playground equipment. Madeline was definitely having playground ADD as she would play on something for two minutes and jump to the next piece of play equipment. Additionally, Mama-Dirtyfoot and Papa played a little bit too on the swings and the teeter-totters. The park also had a small stage for community performances. Since no one was using the stage, Madeline had fun giving us a show of her own. The only thing that I thought was extremely odd about this park/playground is that it was built on an old cemetery. Scattered here and there throughout the playground area were gravestones. Bizarre!!

After some play, we enjoyed dinner as a family overlooking the small little pond within the park. Since moving from our old house last summer we rarely hear the Canadian Geese that would swarm to a park that was close to our old house. Although we were at a different park tonight, we were within the same town of our old house and able to hear the familiar honking of the geese as they flew home for the evening. Occasionally we were able to watch a flock swoop down for a brief rest in the park's pond.

After dinner, Madeline wanted to play a little more. We headed back to the playground. As if I didn't ALREADY realize that I was no longer 12 years old when I practically fell over from jumping off of a moving swing, I guess I needed to further prove this to myself. You know those playground merry-go-rounds like pictured here? I used to be able to run full speed to push them and at that same speed jump onto the spinning merry-go-round. Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh, I can't do that anymore! The 1st time (yes, I tried more than once - duh!) I mis-stepped and was not able to hop on the merry-go-round. I simply thought that it was a mis-step. Logically (not), I tried again. This time I pretty much ricocheted off the merry-go-round and ended up groaning & rolling around on the grass. No, I am no longer 12! Ummppphh!!! That's gonna leave a mark! Needless to say, we weren't at the playground much longer.

So, to make things all better - (a) for Madeline having old parents that will end up embarrassing the crap out of her as she gets older and (b) to heal my bruised ego, we ended the evening with a trip to Dairy Queen. A perfect ending to a fun day! And, oh, by the way, it hurts to walk.....I can't wait to see what color purple my thigh will be tomorrow!

A Budding Artist

I just have to say that Madeline is becoming a good artist. At the beginning of summer I could pretty much say that Madeline did NOT like coloring, yet alone drawing a picture. She didn't like sitting still long enough to create a piece of art. Over the past few weeks, Madeline has really taken to drawing - and I must say that I think she is pretty darn good for a 4 year old! Madeline is really enjoying drawing now and can spend long periods of time occupying herself with creating a masterpiece. This picture Madeline drew today of Disney's Princess Mulan. Since Mulan isn't one of the better known princesses I have included an image of Mulan so you know who Madeline was drawing. Madeline's artwork was completely from memory as she was not using another picture or toy as a model. Proud Mama is amazed at Madeline's detail in Mulan's dress, the draping in Mulan's sleeves, the fact that Mulan's hair is in a bun and the blue thing that Mulan is holding (in Madeline's drawing) is Mulan's "umbrella" (parasol). Great job, Madeline! Mama is proud of you!