The Bribe

I don't know how many of you parents have experienced this phenomenon when you have a child who loves and article of clothing and it it is worn no matter what.

Natalie has been wearing these brown boots since I think Kindergarten (apparently, my kids have my feet that don't grow very fast). She wears them with pants, skirts and (my personal favorite) shorts. She wears them when it's cold and when it's hot. She wears them for hiking, running and you name it. With the exception of church, she wears these things everywhere. I have grown quite tired of these boots. She has an entire basket of shoes (if you know me, you will find this entirely plausible) that she never wears.

Well, they were beginning to look pretty ratty and I have been searching for an acceptable replacement. I have no problem letting her wear boots in the summer, but they need to be presentable. Unfortunately, now is not the time to be looking for boots, unless you want rubber ones for the rain.

So despite my requests, Natalie has continued to wear these horrible boots ...until today!! When we were shopping for new shoes for Easter a couple of weeks ago, she happened upon these cute red sneakers that she really wanted. I told her no at the time because I was focused on the task at hand. However, yesterday I had the brilliant idea of bribing her. I would buy her those red shoes, but in exchange, she would have to give me the boots. I wasn't sure that she would go for it, but sure enough, she loved the idea. I thought about ceremoniously burning them, but I'll just be happy to huck them in the trash.

Here are the new shoes (she loved posing for the pciture). Don't you think every girl should have at least one pair of red shoes? :)

Easter and More

It's been over a month since I've posted to this thing. Honestly, I have been so busy that I hadn't realized how much time had gone by. The last few days have been a bit relaxed for a change, so I apologize for the lengthy post, but for me it's now or never with my blogging.

Last weekend we went to the annual Easter event at the Reagan Library. We've been taking the girls every year for the past several and it's one of our favorite traditions. There are lots of games and crafts for the kids and they had a good time. However, I noticed that they weren't as into it this year as the have been in the past. Sadly, I think they may be growing up, but they still were happy to go.

Thursday, my sister-in-law came down and brought my cute nieces to spend Easter with us. That evening we had a girls night and went to see Mamma Mia. Since my best friend Tarja's birthday is later this month, I decided to surprise her with and early b-day gift. We had a great dinner at Miceli's in Hollywood. It's a great old Italian restaurant with live piano music and the waiters get up and sing. It was fun being serenaded while we laughed, dined and had a great time. Then it was up to the street to see the play. Of course the play (at my favorite theater) was awesome. Who wouldn't love the fun music of ABBA? (Especially when Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan were NOT singing)!

The next day I was off to the desert to spend Easter with my family. Saturday, we went to a small children's museum in Redlands. Cara and Natie seem to be the perfect age for this type of thing. They have both been learning about different animals in school, so the stuffed (and live) animals were fascinating to them.

Later that evening, they colored Easter eggs with their cousins.

Easter Sunday was a great day. Of course the Easter bunny stopped by. I think the twirling ribbons he left were a big hit--and I've only been snapped in the eye a couple of times :0)

They hunted the eggs they had colored and later in the afternoon, they went on an egg hunt in Grandma & Grandpa Moody's yard. It involved baskets full of plastic candy filled eggs all over 5 acres of desert so you can imagine the amount of candy they hauled away from this. Since Jeff has a new job, he doesn't have any time off yet, so it was back home for him on Sunday evening, but not before spending some quality time with our families.

Monday was more relaxed as we just found small things to do with the kids here by Grandma's.




It has been so nice to just get away for a few days to get away from the stress about all the things I need to get done at home. Tomorrow will be back to work for me, but I have really enjoyed the break and I'm ready to go back to the real world. Hopefully it won't be quite so windy there!