A Candy Land Cake

 Rocky and her friend who happens to be a boy worked all afternoon to create a perfect Candy Land cake that was perfect for a 6th birthday. 

 Anyone who has been within 5 miles of this girl in the past two weeks knew that it was her birthday.  She would tell anyone who would listen, and then she'd tell them again.  She was so excited that her Tigger jumping has been in fast forward, if you can even imagine that.
Her enthusiasm is contagious and you can't help but be pulled in.
After several months of begging we finally agreed to take her to Chuck E. Cheese's.  She knows all about it because every Saturday morning she watches the Spiderman cartoon and sees about 400 commercials about how fun the place is. 

 I went in skeptically because the last time I was there was on a Saturday afternoon with about a bazillion birthday parties going on and it was ugly.  Since today was one of those rare Eugene days full of sun Chuck E's party zone looked more like a ghost town.  It was perfect!  We had a blast.

 Rocky's Primary teacher is probably one of her most favorite people in the world.  She surprised us by showing up.  Sister Davis has set the bar so high that it will for sure be downhill from here.  Sorry about the next 6 years Rocky.

 We also ran into a few of our other favorite people.

 Later it was time for the impromptu party on the front patio.  Rocky hunted down every person she could find and demanded that they eat at least one cupcake.

Rocky and Yan, BFFs

I can hardly believe that my little Rock Star can be 6.  She makes every day fun and I am so proud of the girl she is.  I really should write more but I'm so exhausted from trying to make this day a success that I've got nothing.

Bonus Picture:  I'm not sure exactly what is going on here, but it seemed worth documenting.

The Hunt

Game Faces

Some parents in our neighborhood still seem to have their stuff together.  I try and blame my lack of motivation on the previously mentioned fact that I have three children, and one of those children is the Rose Bud.  Lucky for me I have friends that still care about their kids having a good time and because of these lovely people we were able to participate in the Second Annual Red Door Easter Egg Hunt.  The "red door" part was a little misleading because while all of the fun activities at Spencer View have seemed to migrate to the red neighborhood the invitation was extended to everyone.  For those of you who are confused I'll just quickly explain that the family housing apartment complex is broken up into sections.  The sections are identified by the color of the doors.   I used to live in the yellow doors and it was nice but there weren't other kids close by.  Then last year we hung out a bunch in the brown doors because our friends there were always doing cool stuff like climbing trees and getting yelled at by the landscaping guys.  For a while in years past the Rigbys could be found at the sand park in the middle of all the neighborhoods, but these days I tend to stick closer to home.  This usually means that I spend at least half of our outside time walking around barefoot trying to find Rocky and her bike gang.

 The real point of this story is that even though our apartments at times have their issues, the proximity to parks and friends more than make up for them.
So on Saturday friends were assembled, eggs were colored, cupcakes were decorated, eggs were found and fun was had.

Rosy and Tucker fought it out to see who had the best "puppy dog" face.

 Since this is Hippie town all the eggs were filled with toys - no candy.  At first I kind of thought it was a bummer but my girls were thrilled with the tattoos they found in the eggs.  They don't care that much about getting Easter candy anyway because they know that I always take it away and then eat it all when they aren't paying attention.  But, since I am trying to change my ways and be a more selfless mother I let them keep all the tattoos for themselves.

 I am the meanest mom because I told Daisy that she couldn't go to the bathroom until I got a decent picture.  She danced for awhile and once she realized I wasn't backing down even managed a smile.

 

And now for the annual Easter photo shoot.  To cut back on stress and swearing Brandon insisted that if I wanted to take a picture of the girls I should do it an hour before I wanted to leave for church.  It was a good thing because it nearly took that long.  This was my favorite.

 
I think it looks like a press release for a folksy band.  I asked Rocky if she had a band what she would call it and she said, The Jelly Beans.  I would totally buy their record.  Daisy said that no way would she be in that band but she would join Rainbow Unicorn. Rosy had no comment...yet.  The flower that the baby dragon is holding was not supposed to be a prop, she just ripped it off the tree and refused to let go.  I hate props.
Here are a few that I have given honorable mention.

Nice face Rocky.

Tell us how you really feel.

The Easter baskets each had a package of new underwear...and some candy that I already ate.  The unders were the highlight.  Rosy got really into it and figured that if one pair is good, four is better. 

And that brings us to the conclusion of our holiday festivities.  I hope it was as good for you as it was for us.

Something Is Missing...

 It has been awhile since I've written anything and I've been trying to stockpile stories.  The weather has been nice lately so we've been spending as much time as possible outside.  Luckily, for now the park is right outside our front door and there are always lots of other kids to play with.  We are kind of the veterans around here for several reasons.  The first is because we have been here for 6 years.  That means that the law students that started when we did finished and were replaced by another cohort who will finish at the end of this year.  We've outlasted two entire groups.  The second is that with three children we outnumber every other family around and collectively the Rigby girls can swing any playground vote.  It isn't exactly that fair because Rosy usually doesn't know what she is voting for but until she starts to say otherwise she'll stick with her sisters.  And the third is that even though Rocky is one among a bunch of kids her age, she has managed to establish herself as the leader of all games (unless Aeryn or Mohamadu are around in which cases she will defer.  Aeryn is 11 so it makes sense in her case but I don't know the magic spell that Mohamadu has her under.  Yesterday I heard her actually say the "he is the boss."  I wish I could understand his powers because she won't do a thing I ask her.)  The trouble with her leading the games is that they always require a role that nobody wants to play.  She firmly believes, and rightly so, that every story has a villain and she is always trying to assign it out to the smallest or sweetest kid on the playground.  She'll try and tell them that it is super fun to be the zombie/vampire/dragon/stepmother and they agree until they realize that the game consists of all the other kids running away screaming when they appear.  Daisy has the same instinct except that she tries to make the other little girls play the role of prince.  I've tried to convince them that they can imagine a villain and/or prince but it has done little to improve the situation.  Lucky thing usually around 5:30 Brandon comes home to ease the tensions a little bit.  He gets to play the meanie for a few minutes.  This is in stark contrast to my role which is to be the actual meanie all day.

 I haven't taken any pictures of it, but on any given day there are usually at least two or three little girls who insist on wearing ballerina leotards all afternoon.  I'm sure you already know that Daisy is one of them.  She stands out in the crowd because even though she won't eat from a bowl or drink from a cup that isn't pink she prefers the black leotard. 

 This picture exists because one morning she got out of bed and insisted that she couldn't eat her breakfast until I took a picture of her and The Last Rainbow Unicorn. 
Rocky wanted one too and it turned out to be just as valuable because it was the final photo with her baby bottom teeth.  Spoiler Alert!  Now you know what is missing.

 The dentist had to pull them because the baby teeth were growing in behind.  We have the sweetest dentist and she was really excited but she also got a little bit woozy on the way home. 

I wasn't sure what I should write about the next picture so I asked Rocky if she had any ideas.  She said, "Umm...let's just say, yes."

 For those of you who have been wondering, Rocky's restaurant, Chef Cuzine, is still up and running.  When the weather is nice they open up the verandah and serve seaweed al fresco.

 As you can see, business is booming.

Daisy is very specific when she has her photo taken.  This one was with Pinkalicious Girl Pig and she made me take a second one because she forgot her scarf in the first. 

 The Baby Dragon is still up to her crazy ways.  She never stops.  She is constantly in attack mode and is as shrewd as she is stubborn.  She is independent and quiet which means she often goes off the radar.  One second she'll be happily working on a puzzle and I'll turn my head for a second and she'll be brushing her teeth with my toothbrush or pouring out a box of uncooked pasta.  I'm pretty sure she found this cracker underneath the fridge but I was just relieved that she was standing still for a second.

 All I can say is that she'd be in big trouble if she wasn't so cute. 

I don't know if you guys know this or not but once in awhile I actually leave my house and associate with people who aren't my children.  Last Friday was one of those moments.  I went with my Hot Mamma friends and we had a night in downtown Eugene.  Sarah found a Groupon for one of those ghost tours.  I've seen advertisements for them in other cities but never before in Eugene. 

 

The tour was a complete wash except for the fact that the ridiculousness of it made it extremely fun.  It turns out that the reason nobody ever did a ghost tour around here is that there aren't any ghosts.  The girl who led it was like 19 and mostly told us about serial killers from other places.  We were walking around pretty lively streets with sticks that were meant to help us commune with spirits.  The sticks were made of wire clothes hangars and pipe.  We each had two and if you held them up they were supposed to sense the electromagnetic energy in the air.  Just picture it...a bunch of giggly moms walking around with these sticks.  Oh and there was one battery operated sensor that would light up and beep if you were around a ghost.  The girl leading us had no theatrical skills and told us about people being brutally murdered with a smile on her face and a nervous laugh.
At one point she said, "Just imagine you were walking down this alley and you found an arm.  Wouldn't that be weird?  Now imagine that you were walking down another alley on the other side of Eugene and you found a body that didn't have an arm.  Don't you think that would be gross?  I'm not going to say that something like that happened in this alley, but I'm not going to say that something like that didn't happen in this alley."
Then later on in the tour we went into another alley and Abbey said that a murder had happened there. Our guide's eyes got really big and she asked, "Are you sensing something?" 
Abbey said, "No, I read about it in the newspaper."
That was the closest that we got to any ghosts.  There was a mention of a haunted house.  This is the info we got, "I heard that place was haunted and I emailed them and they sent back a really defensive letter that said it was most definitely NOT haunted and then I knew that it had to be because they were like SO defensive."
It was the best.  I am still laughing about it.  
It was especially good because I love the ladies I was with.  It was also a notable night because on the way home Abbey used her phone to play the grossest song I've ever heard.  I won't tell you what it was because there are some things that you can't un-hear but I will say that at that moment it was kind of the cherry on top of a night of hilarity.
So what our night out was missing in the fear factor it wholly made up in laughs.

Fun With Oma

 Oma came into town to visit.  After Christmas I just kept crying until she promised to come and visit.  We even got her for her birthday.  I didn't take too many pictures but we did have a photo shoot at the Masonic Cemetery which could be one of the coolest places in Eugene.  Rosy spent most of the time with her characteristic scowl.  She has gotten the stink eye down to an art.

 We had so much fun and the week sped by so quickly.  Now I'm going to turn on the waterworks again and see if we can get her to come back.

Even though the warnings on this mini shopping cart strictly prohibit this type of thing Rosy has decided it is her new favorite place to sit.  She begs her sisters to push her around the house and screams at them if they stop.

 They are so cute and so CRAZY!

A Quiz:  What should a bunch of neighborhood girls do on a sunny afternoon?  Dress up like ballerinas and perform.  I bet you got it right.


A rare photo of us all together.  This time Rocky also did her best grumpy face just to make sure that we don't have a single picture of the family smiling.  The good news is that Daisy nailed it. 


 Bonus Picture:

The Face of Determination

 Track season is upon us again and since we are always looking for free forms of entertainment we have been cheering the South Eugene High School team.  Usually we just watch from behind the fence but once in awhile we will actually venture in.  After the meet is over is when the real competition begins.  As you can tell Rocky favors the minimalist approach to the long jump and feels strongly about the barefoot running. 

 Daisy will wear whatever is available but Rosy won't hit the track with anything other than Nikes. 

 Rosy has gotten much better.  She used to just sit down on the strip but now she at least makes it to the sand, where she stays and plays until she gets kicked out of the way.

 I know that the St. Patrick's Day business was long since over but I didn't want anyone to miss the lovely outfits these two jokers put together.  Apparently if a little green is good a lot is even better.

 A leprechaun came by and caused some shenanigans.  Rocky and Daisy laughed for hours about the glasses on the baby picture.

 Who is driving that truck?  Either way, it looks like trouble to me.