Out of the Mouth of Babes

Mila has fully and completely embraced her destiny. She is going to be a beach bum later in life, JUST WATCH. It was probably November or so when she realized we didn't spend a week at the beach in 2018, and she was mad. So mad. She has since reminded me at least weekly that she better get some beach time next summer. OR ELSE.

(I'm a little scared of what is going to happen when we don't go to the beach for a week again this year. Thoughts and prayers, please, because it's not on the agenda.)

At the same time that she's realizing the universe owes her beach time, she's decided that cold weather is stupid. I'm answering, "Is it summer yet?" daily and we seem to be spending a whole lot of time arguing about how much longer Mila will have to wait for warm weather. I mean, with global warming and all, it could swing 50 degrees in the next few days and she might be happy.

::blink::blink::

My car reported -8° this morning. We're getting that 50 degree swing and then some.

She's not going to be happy. It's going to warm up long enough for her to remember that life is better without pants, and then it's going to get cold again. An angry fit is headed my way.

OH WAIT.

We already had one of those.

This morning I made Mila bundle up before going out to the car. Normally, I warm the car up and let her have a pass on wearing a coat, but there's not much I can do when we can't find any degrees. There's no magic I can toss around to make walking the ten steps to the car warm enough. (Do NOT ask why I don't park in the garage. It's a sore subject.) She was mostly okay with putting a coat on. She thought gloves were a fun idea. Her hood was okay, even.

And then I opened the door. Mila took exactly two steps out the door, spun around on her heels, and declared, "IT'S TOO COLD. I'M STAYING HOME."

I had to drag her out kicking and screaming. I'm relatively certain the entire city of Pittsburgh felt every ounce of Mila's misery.

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So Much Secreting

It's possible that there is one person who was more excited for Alexis' birthday than Alexis was.

Mila.

Mila was over-the-moon excited about the prospect of celebrating her sister for a day ... or a week. We're DAYS past the event and Mila still hasn't stopped talking about her sister's big day.

I think it might be because there was cake. Is cake. There still IS cake because of course I made too many cupcakes and now Mila is sustaining life by licking the frosting off every cupcake she can find. It should last about two more days before the well runs dry.

Mila helped make the cupcakes, which of course should be "helped" because OMG 4-YEAR OLDS. They are so eager to shove a chair across the room so they can stick their fingers in the mixing bowl. No matter that the mixer is running. And can she break the eggs? Can she put the butter in? Never mind, she wants to eat the butter. Yes, the entire stick. Wait, are there chocolate chips? CAN SHE EAT THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS?

Mila is really very excited about everything in life.

Her sheer joy is exactly why I let her go to Target and pick out a gift for her sister. I already had new bedding all planned out, but figured Mila could toss in whatever she wanted, within reason. I didn't care if it was a baby toy or something perfect for Alexis or whatever in between. The point was to let her be in on a surprise.

THAT ENDED WELL.

So, we wandered the aisles of Target looking for JUST the right thing. Mila finally settled on the Harry Potter section hidden at the back of the store. That was most excellent news because Alexis LOVES all things Harry Potter. There were no bad gifts to be found there. After much debate and consideration, Mila settled on a Hermione figurine. I was proud of her most excellent choice, so off we went to finish out our day.

That was the day before Alexis' actual birthday. Alexis was at dance class at the time, so I hid the figurine in the car and told Mila to keep it a secret. She understood, BUT THEN.

The second Alexis got in the car, Mila blurted, "I have a secret present for you!" And then a whole bunch of words fell out of her face and basically she told Alexis that she had bought her a doll for a birthday and it was a girl and she was Harry Potter's friend.

I mean. There's so many possibilities there. No way did Alexis figure it out. o_O

The next day, Alexis opened her gift from Mila and did a rather polite impersonation of a person who was pleasantly surprised. Except, she wasn't surprised. And she's a bad actress. Look, it was really obvious what had happened. Alexis was all, "Oh, is this my Harry Potter girl that is maybe/probably Hermoine?" and Mila was all, "YES!"

There was no surprise.

AND YET. Mila was super proud of herself. She was so proud that she went on and on to me about how she had surprised Alexis and Alexis had no idea and WOW she should be in charge of more surprises.

We're going to have to have a long talk about recognizing our own strengths and weaknesses ... unless we can put Mila in charge of picking winning lottery numbers. In that case, she can keep having a big mouth just as long as it's only me she spills the beans to.

Easiest Party Ever - Mall Scavenger Hunt

We long ago established that I am a nut when it comes to celebrating my kids' birthdays. There are elaborate cupcakes and themes and decorations and ... WTH IS IT WITH TEENAGERS? Why do they hate fun? I think it was a perfectly reasonable request for me to ask Alexis to have an elaborately-themed party for her birthday but noooooooo. She refused.

(It's a good thing Mila is officially entering The Nutty Birthday Zone this May. I will get to pick up right where I left off!).

She wanted a party, just an "age appropriate blah, blah, blah" party.

I turned that into dinner with her friends and then a scavenger hunt at the mall.

Which, I WIN. She has clearly stated that it was her favorite party ever and I have gloated mightily because she tried to stop me. At one point, she was all, "Scavengers hunts are dumb. We're just going to shop."

No.

Just no.

I persisted. AND I WAS RIGHT. (Clearly I'm not done gloating.) There was a point during the scavenger hunt when I had two of her friends on the phone and one standing in front of me because they were eagerly trying to smarty pants their way to solving one of the clues. AND THEY WERE SO EXCITED ABOUT IT.

Seriously.

If you want to see a hoard of 7th grade girls get excited, give them a list of things to find in the mall. They *loved* it. And they're all stupid competitive, so they nearly suffocated me trying to all watch while I scored the whole thing. It was pretty fantastic. And cheap. The entire party - dinner at Buca di Bepo and prizes included - came in at $150 for 10 girls.

I'm totally doing it again. Can 5-year olds wander the mall alone? Maybe Mila would like that ...

(Here's the clue list we used in case you want to do a similar party.)