Does Anyone Else Change Their Kid's Laces Because They Don't Match...

... I do. I think it may be a sickness. It started out as a simple solution to a pesky problem. The BLP's shoe laces were continually untied. I personally don't mind tying them a million times a day but, I thought 'Mudder Geese' (BLP thinks this is her teacher's name...) might not have 10 hours a day to devote to the BLP's unco-operating shoelaces. So I did what any good mom would do and took a trip to Dollarama. Seriously, Dollarama can probably solve most problems in the world. Or, maybe that's just me. Any how... they have these cool packs of shoes laces in different lengths (why?) and patterns. Being the genius I am I figured her old laces were simply defective and that's why they wouldn't stay tied. I decided this after I took an entire evening to bleach her shoes laces so they would look new in her newly bleached Hello Kitty runners. So I threaded a sick pair of super wide neon pink laces with dark neon pink stripes in her shoes instead. They looked sharped. It worked out well because her clothes mostly match with this pink. Great. Until today. And tomorrow. Today we broke out some of the fall clothes since it's been unseasonably cold lately. Fall clothes are blue. Blue does not match neon pink. Does not. So what do I do? I hunt down the old/new again white laces and throw those back in after threading three other patterns through trying to find something that would match. I have an illness. I then proceeded to created a new clippie just to match this outfit because I don't create very many blue/green clippies for some reason. Mr. Pretties gets seriously upset when we're late going places and he sees my glue gun sitting on the counter with a pile of ribbon and some clips. He doesn't think there is any need to have matching accessories. I guess that's why he is the man, he wouldn't cut it as the woman around here.

I also need to come up with a yellow snack for next week, what the hell?! To be perfectly honest this preschool situation is becoming a lot of work... isn't only have two kids at home two days a week supposed to make my life more relaxing? No? Well I guess that explains why it isn't. Tomorrow is wear something red day... umm, hello preschool, we don't own anything red! What does that mean? It means that I either have to make the BLP a red pillow case dress. Okay, I tried to pawn this off on Aunt Pretty because much like my camera my sewing machine hates me. Or I could buy her something, god forbid we simply not participate in red day. In this case we were fortunate and Aunt Pretty picked up the BLP and took her shopping for something red. I personally would have been happy with some red hair things (I have made her some ladybug ones, she will wear them tomorrow, I haven't gotten totally lazy) or a big gawdy red beaded necklace, but Aunt Pretty spoiled her and bought her a whole new red outfit from Gymbo to wear tomorrow. $20 says she comes home covered in paint tomorrow. Atleast with it being red week, it'll only be red paint so we may not even see it...

But to review, I (Read: Aunt Pretty) had to find something red to wear, I have to come up with a creative yellow snack. Yes I could send a banana, but really, that's kind of lame... I'm thinking more like yellow zucchini's, apples dyed with yellow food colouring, apple juice, yellow jello, yellow smarties, a new yellow lunch box and bag, etc... I have to have the whole theme going on. It's part of the illness I was telling you about. In two weeks I have to find something blue for the BLP to take to 'Show and Share'. Need I even say that we don't have anything blue worth taking to show and share? What does that mean? That's right, I'll have to go out and buy something. When does it end?! I'm also going to be one of 'those' moms and volunteer in her classroom once a month, chaperone on the field trips, and am on the social commitee. If you knew me in real life you'd know I'm not really the 'those moms' type so it makes the whole thing kind of funny, but I really want to be involved in things the BLP does so she knows I care ;)


Sorry guys, this post makes the one about my gourd tree look genius, but I only have two kids right now and I felt obligated to post while I could. Sorry, I'll come up with something better for tomorrow. I knew I should have saved the gourd post of today!

The Gourd Tree...

... Today's special edition of two blogs in one day is dedicated to our new gourd tree...

Yes, I know. Gourds grow on a vine, not in a tree. But, my gourd vine is growing in a tree :) A crab apple tree to be exact.

For the last month or so (Perhaps longer, perception of time is diminishing)we've been watching this vine grow. We did not plant this vine, it just sort of showed up one day. We believe it's from last fall when we had all sorts of gourds to show off on the very cute straw bail I made Mr. Pretties haul home in the Buick's trunk last year, which then infested our car with numerous furry ugly-assed spiders. No worries though, I took care of those with a very large can of raid. I felt bad about it, but it had to be done, we can not be taking road trips with Wolfies, sorry. We left the gourds out for the squirrels to eat once we were done with them since my other choice was to throw them in the green bin or try to remember to cart them to Aunt Pretties so she could take them to her friend's to feed to the deer. That sounded like a lot more work than simply leaving them out and waiting for the squirrels to take care of them...

So anyway, we watched as this mystery vine (Okay, it wasn't 100% a mystery, we did know it was either a pumpkin, a cucumber, or some type of squash/gourd) took over the whole garden, the pergola, and then the crab apple tree. It had lovely yellow flowers all over it and looked quite pretty, with just the flowers I was impressed.

Then Saturday as Mr. Pretties and I were enjoying the peace and quiet that only happens when The Pretties are sleeping I noticed that it appeared that the mystery vine had accomplished something over night... upon further inspection I found that it had grown a sweet little yellow gourd with white stripes and a green bottom. Awwww. I then ran back to Mr. Pretties and yelled 'I have given birth! The mystery vine has grown a gourd! It's a gourd tree!' Mr. Pretties replied by rolling his eyes. He doesn't get it. This is a good time to note though that I don't even really like plants, but this tree is too cute for words! I then counted and our gourd tree is in fact growing 10 gourds, all yellow with white stripes and green bottoms. It is so cute.

I'm sort of glad it wasn't a pumpkin vine though, since it's growing in a tree we would have had to build some scaffolding or something to support it up there and I don't think I could have talked Mr. Pretties into that whole ordeal...

Now please note I had to make a big effort to create this post about my gourds... I had to replace the camera batteries twice, removing them from the LLP's rocking horse even, to go outside, in my robe (The neighbours are under the impression I do not get dressed, they however are mistaken, I just like wearing my robe) to take pictures of the wee gourd tree. We're definitely going to keep the seeds from the gourds, and possibly seeds from grocery stores ones to plant again next year, this vine has been a lot of fun!

So there you have it, gourds can grow in trees, and because of this there will be straw bail hauling in Mr. Pretties near future again this year ;)