Jampacked

...last week was.  (Hi.  I'm Yoda.)

It started last weekend, with the J-Man's birthday party.  We went with a Harry Potter theme.  This was my Golden Snitch cake.  I realize that it sort of looks like a fat, struggling canary.  Or Athur the Aardvark impersonating Kanye West.  Or...some other thing that is not even remotely a Golden Snitch.

Whatever the case, Jeffrey liked it and that's what matters most, right?  RIGHT?  

We had been a little nervous about there being enough "big boys" at the party.  Up until now, parties have been a total friemily affair.  It's just easier that way, frankly, because if Jeffrey has a meltdown or wants to walk around in circles in the backyard, nobody blinks.  But Jeffrey is getting older and we realize that with most of his behavior issues in school resolved, we finally need to start working on the social stuff.  Accordingly, I sent out invitations to the kids in his class--a class made of up Aspies.  I wasn't sure anybody would come because (shocker), I sent the invitations veeeery late, but on Saturday, we were pleased as punch that his teacher came with one student and another kid came with his mom!  As an added bonus, our beloved Keegan and Lhogan came to the party.  We've missed these guys so much since they moved away, and we didn't tell Jeffrey they were coming on the outside chance something would go wrong.  He was SOOO excited to see them at the front door.  Sniiiffff.  

The kids had a great time.  We were outside most of the time, and they were on the trampoline for most of THAT.  It tickled me to watch the boys from Jeffrey's class:   they were all alike, even if they were all just a little bit different from each other.  Hanging out with C's mom was interesting.  So many of our experiences are alike...it makes me wonder how it takes so long for a school system to wake up and realize how to help these kids.  Sigh.

Monday, Will reminded me that he had prom coming up and that he had wanted to take River with him so that she could be a princess at a ball.  Now, I'm not trying to sound surly here, but...ugh.  It's a sweet idea, really, but what it meant for me was sewing a dress and getting River all dolled up and dealing with the kids by myself until the wee small hours during what was shaping up to be a stormy night.  Excellent.  I put off shopping for fabric.  I also put off taking Jeffrey to taekwondo that day because the house looked like the garbage monster puked on it.  I was able to get it cleaned up AND I ran the three-mile loop around the neighborhood, scoring some old straw bales from a neighbor.  They were sitting on the curb, waiting to be trashed, and so I bebopped my sweaty self up to the front door and asked for them.  (The neighbors already think I'm weird, so I figured I wasn't hurting my reputation by being the crazy lady who asks for old hay bales.)  Wooo!  Free mulch.  When Will got home, the house was clean and I was mulching the beds.  He commented that they didn't look as tidy with the straw on them.  I didn't hit him in the nose.  We're growing as a couple.

Tuesday and Wednesday are a blur.  I got the kitchen floor scrubbed on Tuesday and Wednesday I did Meals on Wheels.  Other than that, I couldn't tell you.  Except that I watched "Lost."  And felt heartened at the gleam I thought I saw in Sayid's recently lifeless eyes.  Come back to the Light, Sayid.  Come baaaaaaackkkk!

Ahem.

Thursday I didn't go to the fabric store to pick up the dress stuff because Nevvy came over to play for a while.  Nevvy and River are BFF.  See?

Thursday night, Keegan and Lhogan came to see us before heading back to Maine.  The kidlets trampolined it up before eating supper and playing inside for a while.  It was great to have the boys together again.

Actually, it was great to have ALL the kids together again.  Although they make each other insane.

Seriously.  What is WRONG with these children?

Friday, River dressed herself.  She also did her own hair.  Clearly, she gets her fashion sense from moi.

In case you were wondering, those aren't cropped jeans. But the skirt has built in panties that pulled the jeans legs up.  She wanted to put on a black knit toboggan emblazoned with a Barbie-knockoff before we went to HellMart, but I nixed the idea.  We were going to HellMart because I needed to buy the fabric and I didn't want to drive all the way to...I'm going to start calling the Nearest Largish City Copenhagen.  You know, after the dip.  Anyway, I didn't want to drive to Copenhagen, so I sucked it up and went to HellMart, where River decided that she wanted a Cinderella type dress with puffy sleeves.  Except instead of blue satin, cool chick wanted silver lamé and hot pink tulle.  Er.  Okay.  

Whilst I was lugging River out of the fishing pole aisle while juggling yards of slippery fabric (I won't even tell you about the craptastic, curse-laden service I got in the craft department.  Because I'm watching my blood pressure.), G called to say that he and A and the boys were stopping by on their way back from Florida.  Yay!!!  Not only was I thrilled that we would be seeing them, but it gave me a reason not to fiddle with the dress.  

The G and A family arrived soon thereafter and then V and P came by and a good time was had by all. V showed great form during the game, but what is really telling about this picture is the ass of my dog in close proximity to the tray of chicken nuggets on the table.  Because I think in about five seconds, that ass coordinated with the rest of Frodo's body to devour the nuggets.  I was bitter.  I drowned my bitterness in enough guacamole and hummus to choke a horse.  Or two.   

A and I stayed up late chatting about politics and religion--we're on opposite sides of the spectrum with BOTH, and yet can find so much common ground.  I wonder if you have to do shots of lemon rum with people to really be able to talk about the difficult subjects?  LEMON RUM ALL 'ROUND.

Saturday morning I woke up to thunder.  A quick jaunt over to NOAA lead me to believe that the weather was pretty much going to be awful right about the time Will headed out to the prom.  Excellent.  I watched the tornadoes rip across Mississippi with horror as I tried to sew River's dress. Okay, here's the thing.  Well, here's several things.  A:  the pattern was jacked up.  Not only was the finished bodice roughly nine sizes too big for River, there was no clear way to fit in on the skirt.  B:  although it called for tulle, there was no way that the tulle was ever going to fit on the bodice OR the skirt, short of me hot-gluing it there.  Yes, I did consider it.  For a long time.  C:  I figured out how to sew the lamé without it running, but it did, however, fray like a sumbitch at the corners.  I wanted to rip it to shreds with my teeth.

At 3:00ish, we went to Niecey's birthday party, where River and Jeffrey both got hopped up on Pop Rocks.  Did I mention I'd forgotten to bring Jeffrey's medicine along.  Wooohooooo!!!!  Parrrtayyy!

We were back at the house by five so I could iron Will's clothes (I know, WT, I know...) and send him off to the prom and then finish the ball gown from hell.  

I looked at the oversized, ragged bodice and said, "Forget this mess."

Racing to River's closet, I pulled out a little sundress and traced its shape on a piece of dark blue, starry fabric that I just keep in the house because it's awesome.

"Oooh, sparkles," River said.  

"You dang skippy," I said, pinning the fabric in place around her torso.  For the next thirty minutes, I pinned and stitched and snipped until I had a tunic-y sort of thing going with the blue fabric.  Then I grabbed the silver lamé squares that were going to be the skirt from the Cinderella dress, sewed them together, rammed a piece of elastic across the top of the circle and gave it a quick hem.  I used silver thread to accent the bottom and the neckline of the tunic. All in all, it took about an hour or so.  The princess decided on a tiara trimmed with pink marabou, which totally clashed with the dress, but we threw on a pair of pink sandals to tie it all together. I even let her put on a little bit of big girl lip gloss, which meant that she alternated between smacking her mouth like a fish and holding it anxiously open for me to check its status.

When Jeffrey saw her, he said, "Awww, you look so pretty."

I agreed.  

Then we all headed to the prom, where I got vaguely queasy from all the hormones in the air.  Jeffrey and I beat a fast retreat, managing to get out of the teenager-pocked parking lot unscathed so we could pick up Jeffrey's supper, which was a Snickers Blizzard.  Dessert was chicken nuggets and fries.  I am all about good nutrition, y'all.  Jeffrey was well-pleased with my superior parenting:  

After our meal, the Bug and I went back to fetch our princess.  When we got home, I kid you not, Jeffrey bowed River into the house and said, "Come in, my royal majesty."  Whereupon River dropped a curtsy.  And I fell over from the cuteness.  

Sunday, Will went fishing while I stayed home with the kids.  We played the Wii and read and vegged out pretty much all day.  And then last night at around 9:00, I realized that today would be Monday.

And then I cried a little.

Today, I have managed to weed the garden (odd things keep sprouting up), wash about four loads of clothes, clean the house, harvest two kinds of oregano and some lavender and get it drying, and remove all of the silvery specks of leftover lamé and thread from the carpet.  I haven't taken a shower yet, but I figure I'll just grab a sprig of the lavender in passing and rub it all over myself.  That will just have to do.

Something else happened this weekend, but I can't remember what.  Hang on...let me go through the pictures.

Oh, yeah.

I discovered Will has been letting River watch "The Godfather."

Hope y'all have great weeks!