Jumbo Bozo Blow

So, in a  moment of weakness, against better judgement, because it was another ice cold, frigid day, I let the boyz get into another Christmas present that I had been holding back for a rainy day, or a snowy day, as the case may be.  It was a giant blow up toy -  Bozo The Clown. One of those old fashioned clown punching bags with the sand bag of weight in the bottom so you could hit it and it would bounce back up. His clown face taunting the hitter to "Just try and hit me again" and then he bounces back up again for another attempt, "Hit me with your best shot!" His bright red nose actually squeaks when you made a direct hit. Bonus!  It wasn't intentional. The boyz actually happened upon it while we were down in the craft room. And before I knew it they were racing upstairs and out to the garage to use Daddy-O's air compressor air pump in the garage to blow it up and within minutes the biggest smack down heavy weight championship had begun.  Jay Boyz: Zero, Bozo: at least 10.  Other fights broke out between the brothers about whose turn it was or whose gift it was.  After stern refereeing and sending opposing brothers to their corners, the newness wore off and they moved on to other distractions, thankfully.  It wasn't until later that evening when Daddy-O and I were trying to leave for a grown up party, all dressed up and ready to go, giving last minute instructions to our favorite babysitter when we heard the Jumbo Bozo Blow from the basement.  The littlest, Fletcher, came upstairs explaining that it was Kiefer who had the last laugh. (Or something like that…) We rushed downstairs to witness the damage we had heard from above.  Kiefer was saying something in his high pitched "I didn't do it, blame someone else so they don't get me in trouble voice" that can only be understood by dogs and we quickly surmised that he must have picked up Bozo the clown from his head and swung him into the wall like a baseball bat - smashing a hole the size of a small child into the drywall of the basement.  We scolded, we laughed, we forgave and gave hugs, then we left. Remembering that thankfully, the gift givers had also given us a Lowes gift card along with the gifts for the boyz.  Perhaps they had a premonition?

"Hit me with your best shot!" (The Clown, not the wall, Kiefer!)

Direct hit! 

Kiefer delivered Bozo's final blow!

Parents of The Year

It's official. We're being named the Parents of The Year. That's right,  school even called to confirm it.  On Monday, the 5th of January, we were enjoying a relaxing morning at home, having just returned from our family ski vacation at 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, we let the boyz sleep in and were easing back into being home when the phone rang.  Daddy-O answered.  It was school calling. They asked where the boyz were. Daddy-O said, "They're here at home with us…." then asked, "Why?"  The secretary on the other end of the line explained that school started back that morning and they were missing from their classes and since they hadn't heard from us they wanted to call to make sure all was OK. Well, it was until now.

That's right. School was back in session and we had somehow missed the memo that they had changed the school calendar mid-October (due to some teacher's union change!) and the calendar we were referencing was wrong!

Well, things went from bad to worse as we had to tell the boyz that not only did they not get to hang out in their jammies and play with all their new toys but instead they had to hurry up and get ready for school.

It was like a horrible practical joke!  They all started crying!  Dirty looks were penetrating my soul! Even I was still in my jammies and I had to scramble to pack lunches and I was completely out of sync. I couldn't remember if they had any homework or if we needed to turn in library books, who wanted salami and cheese and who wanted peanut butter and jelly?  And the choir of cries only crescendoed.

My parting words as we left the house were "Well, this will be one you'll tell your children!"

Eventually we got things sorted out and we scrambled out the door and over to school.  I walked them in and the secretaries explained that there were two other families who did the same thing.  It only helped a little - at least there was fair competition in which family was to earn the title of Parent of the Year.

I'm not sure how we'll ever live that one down!!