A Weekend With Family

 We were spoiled with tons of family time and an extra long weekend when our family from the East Coast arrived last Wednesday. I haven't seen some of them in 10 years and most of them had yet to meet my husband and kids. Needless to say, we had a beyond wonderful few days and thoroughly enjoyed our time with all of them.

 We had cook outs, homemade Mexican food, weenie roast, and lots of sugary treats on the menu.

 Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of absolutely everyone together, but we still managed to get a good majority of us in a couple of pictures.

 These kids had so much fun together! The minis were really sad when they realized their playing buddies "got on the airplane to fly back home." It was amazing seeing the bonds of family run through these kiddos.

 We got in a few nights of Pictionary. Obviously Elizabeth was a huge help..... Max and cousin Jack were pretty awesome at it though! We may need to add this game to our family game nights.

 The minis and I took a moment to grab some fuel at Grounds For Celebration. We dropped Max off at school and then headed to the Blank Park Zoo for a big family outing! Harrison nailed it when he said "this is the best zoo trip ever!"

 The kids were really excited about the bounce house!

 Max and Elizabeth snuggling before heading off for a night at the fire pit.

 Harrison's newest bff: cousin Natalie.

 We made signs for Carly who was a competing gymnast in the Junior Olympics National Invitation Tournament. This was the first time I've ever experienced something like this (other than watching the Olympic gymnastics on TV every four years) and it was quite interesting to see up close. I've never truly appreciated just how much concentration has to go into this sport--there was so much going on at this competition that I was shocked.

I'm so proud to report that Carly did an amazing job and placed 2nd on floor and 5th on bars! I think it's safe to say that we all felt blessed to be a part of her day!

Priceless memories with priceless people. Sometimes it's easy to forget how important family is in life, but I'll never forget this time or the excitement my minis conveyed as we saw everyone each day. We're all exhausted from our many late nights, but they were totally worth it!

Naturally Max asked when we could go visit everyone on the East Coast. My reply: "soon son. Very soon."

12 Empty Threats Moms Make

Parents make empty threats to their kids all of the time. I totally feel you should occasionally follow through on some of those threats--I've even written about it before (here). A lot of these threats I remember my mother using on me and even then I thought 'yeah, right. Like that's gonna happen." As a mom I still have that thought, yet I still use them with my kids every now and then.

1.) Get ready to go or I'll leave you here. No way in hell I'll leave you home by yourself. Not until you can pee without getting it all over my bathroom. So at this rate: never.

2.) Get dressed or I'll take you to school naked. I will totally never do this to you. You'll either enjoy it too much or not even care and I'll be the one smiling nervously at the school principal.

3.) Eat your dinner or I'll stop feeding you. As if. You know if you don't eat properly I'll be shoving food at you!

4.) I'm not doing anything about it if you get hurt. And I'll be the one holding you while the doctor stitches up that 3 inch gash in your arm. You know, the one that you got because you didn't seem to hear me tell you to “stop doing that” at least a billion times.

5.) Don't make me come in there or you'll be sorry. I really have no idea what I'll do once I come in there. Just please behave so I don't have to come up with something.

6.) Come take a bath this instant or you'll go right to bed. No way in hell I am letting that sticky, smelly body of yours into clean sheets. It's the end of the day and I'm just totally not in the mood to wrestle you out of your clothes and into the bath.

7.) Pick up your toys or I'll throw them away. I'll be damned if I throw away thousands of dollars in toys that I paid for!! Just stop being a shit and pick them up because I almost broke my back when I tripped on Barbie and Ken making out in the corvette.

8.) I'll stop this car right here and come back there. We're in the middle of traffic. I couldn't stop if I wanted to. Plus, by the time I find somewhere to pull over, park, get out, and climb in the back seat, I've added at least an extra twenty minutes to our trip, which will make us late. Knock it off and believe me!

9.) That's it, I'm taking you back to your real mom. That demon child, thrashing about on the floor because you can't have a cookie since you didn't eat your dinner, surely cannot be mine. Could it? No, impossible. I must have been given the wrong child upon leaving the hospital. I'm quite certain no child of mine could act that way....

10.) Do you need me to call your father? I don't even know what this fully means. Really, like what is he going to do? It's not like he can come through the phone to provide more empty threats.

11.) This is the last time I'm going to ask you....Until tomorrow, when I'll ask you to do this same thing another hundred times.

12.) I'll call Santa. Really I'm just going to call other mommies to bitch about the rough day I'm having, but if you think I'm talking to Santa about that Barbie Dream House he won't be bringing, then points for me.