I've made a parenting error, again.

A picture of the kid who is going to ruin Easter Bunny for everyone! 

So I don't feel great about lying to the boys, but we ALL DO IT. So we have Santa under control because he only brings one gift and it's always a very reasonable practical gift. Mom and Dad's gift is always the good gift. As it should be, Santa should not bring your kid an IPad while he only brings the neighbor kid a coloring book. (This post is not about that soap box that I do get on every December.)
Where I have really shot myself in the foot is with that da** Easter Bunny. Actually, this might be more Kelly's fault than mine, follow me here.
Two weeks ago Daryl was going to the store to spend his allowance. He had saved a few weeks so he had $15 bucks. Kelly felt bad for Alex because every time Daryl goes to spend his allowance Alex doesn't get anything. I am TOTALLY OK with that. Alex whines but he knows that Daryl does chores and the money he is spending is from working. When I take Daryl for this errand I usually con Daryl into getting some candy too that he can share with Alex in the car.
Done, Everyone is Happy, and I didn't have to Buy Anything!
Well Kelly had a different plan and without consulting with me he cleaned out Alex's piggy bank and came up with about twenty bucks so Alex could get a toy too.
Before you go congratulating Kelly on such a great idea think about how many times Alex gets money in his piggy bank. TWICE a year, money only gets into that little pig on his birthday and Christmas. Do you see the picture that is being painted here. Alex is so happy with his Legos for one day, he is three. That happened on a Saturday and Sunday Alex was crying to go back to the store. We told him he was out of money, crying continues because he wants more Legos.
The Candy strategy is now out the window, this kid only wants Legos. And before you think chores and allowances for Alex I've considered that.We only started doing allowance with Daryl when he turned 5 and Daryl's chores are not throw away jobs. They help me everyday as they are all things I would have to do if he wasn't doing them. I don't think Alex can do those types of things just yet and I don't want to pay him for nothing, that's not how the world works.
So in a moment of weakness I told him maybe the Easter Bunny would bring him some Legos. WHY DID I DO THAT! EASTER IS SO FAR AWAY! So now every day I get asked "Is it Easter? Did the Easter Bunny bring me Legos?"
Last night he was talking about the Easter Bunny bringing him three Legos sets and I had to lay down the law, "Alex, the Easter Bunny is not like winning the lottery. You are getting one toy, underwear and candy. And you know mom is going to eat half your candy."
Ugh, that still hasn't stopped the constant, "Is it Easter yet?" If we make it to Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, without me calling BS on the Easter Bunny it really will be a divine miracle.
I am not a strong person, these fictional characters that keep our kids kids, get harder and harder for me every year. I need a moment, or a beer. Scratch that. I need a moment and beer and hot tub!

After owning this thing for four years we finally turned it on! Kelly is still working on the chemical balance, hope to get in it tonight! 

House Projects!

First off, people it was 80 degrees today! It was amazing!! I got to do my long run outside around Lake Shawnee. Lake Shawnee is such a treasure for Topeka.  The trail all the way around is 6.75 miles. I know because I ran it today, I needed seven miles so I went a little bit over once around. I've never run all the way around the lake so I was pretty proud of myself.
Before my run Alex and I had a picnic in the backyard. Turns out you can have a picnic with leftover Chinese food and cheerios. We couldn't waste the day eating indoors.
While we were eating lunch outside we were also supervising the work being done on the new swing set. The boys got this set for Christmas but we were waiting for it to be nice to put it together. It wasn't going to get much nicer than today!
Alex was over the moon about it, he kept calling it a tree house but said over and over, "Dad I love my tree house!"





Kelly got a lot of projects done this week as he took a well deserved week off. We had originally planned on finishing the kitchen this week but the cabinets were not in. Kelly is not one to just hang out so he made another list he could knock out. He raked up all the leaves, painted the kitchen, did some drywall, got an oil change, hung some pictures and shuffled the boys wherever they needed to be. Good Job Kelly! I have put some photos in to show the progress in the Kitchen. Our freezer stopped working in November and that is when we found out it was six thousand dollars to replace.


That was JUST FOR THE FREEZER! So we decided to get a more traditional fridge and freezer but that left us with a big hole. So we are going to put two new cabinets in, one where the trash compactor was and a bottom cabinet for where the freezer was.
We are also planning on replacing the floor tile. At this point we are stuck until the cabinets come in. That date is March 6th, lets hope that happens so we can use spring break for the floors and cabinets!

Here is the closest thing I could find to a before picture with the old fridge and freezer. They had paneling on them so they looked like the cabinets. They were huge!

Here is the new fridge! Here it sits in the middle of where the old fridge and freezer was.

This is what it looks like behind the old fridge and freezer. Yuck! 

After a couple days of work Kelly has the drywall in and it is painted. Yay! This is not the finished picture, this is just the primer.  

4-H Club Days!

Today was our County Club Days. This event is where youth get to practice public performance and it is one of my favorite 4-H events. I liked public speaking when I was younger so I really like being able to recognize and build that skill in youth.
Daryl did Club Days last year as a Clover Bud but this year he was able to participate in many many different events as a 4-H'er; he could sing, he could act, he could read a poem, the sky was the limit! He did two events. :-)
He was the mayor in our 4-H club skit, he looked very much the part. He also did his first project talk on, "How to get your dog to sit." This is his first year in the dog project so that is really the only thing he knows how to do at this point.
He kept putting off working on his talk and finally on Wednesday I said you have to do this now because you signed up for it and I won't let you scratch out of the event. So he wrote it on Wednesday, practiced once on Thursday and once on Friday. You can have a poster with your project talk but we barely got the talk part done!
He did so good at home looking at us and ad libbing. Today was a different story. He was very quiet and would not look up from his paper. Oh well, you have to start somewhere! He got a red ribbon which means we have a lot of room for upper mobility!
It was a good day and a good event. I am glad that it is over for another year and hopefully I can talk Daryl into participating more next year!

Daryl's New Hobby

We have had a pretty good week at the Manor. After a year of watching YouTube videos of other kids playing with WWE action figures Daryl decided he could do that too. He now has three videos out there so feel free to subscribe to my channel where I post them. If he has his way he would make one every night so you will get regular content from this guy! 

The other fun thing that happened this week is Kelly and I got to go to the KU vs KSU Men's Basketball game. It was great! We haven't been to a game in five years so we decided to just go for it. Allen Fieldhouse was magical as always and the Jayhawks got the W. It can be hard for me to root for my team because I work for K-State, but keep in mind I like BOTH Universities! I just cheer for my alma mater in sports. ;-) 

We are looking forward to the Super Bowl on Sunday. Believe it or not but Daryl has been cheering for the Panthers all season so he is excited they made it to the big game. He plans to wear his lucky panthers hat!