Party Time

So do you remember back in the day when you threw a house party and after the party it was a bit hazy and you were not sure what happened.  Was a good party? Did people have fun? etc....then you when you are cleaning up you find a random pair of underwear on the floor you realize you had a GREAT party.

This past Saturday we had a party and we found underwear!!!

Granted they were underwear from a 3 year old....but still it was a sign of a good party. 

The party was for Tommy and Kate.  They had a combined Princess/Batman birthday party at our house.  21 kids under four feet tall converged on our backyard to hit 2 pinatas, throw water balloons and eat candy, cupcakes and ice cream (3 of the major party food groups, sorry no pizza).

Mint Juleps, Lilies, Hats and Horses

This past weekend, the Dubow clan met up in Louisville, KY to attend the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.  The trip was set up by Papa Dubow to help Grandpa Dubow cross off an item on his bucket list.  While it was a once in a life time trip, we could easily get use to attending every year. 

A review of the weekend in bullet points 

• Mint Juleps sound much easier to drink than they actually are.  Picture this - you arrive at the race track around 1pm.  You are filled with excitement to experience the Derby.  You get to your seat.  It is 85 degrees with high humidity. You are very thirsty from the heat. You have not yet ate.  You hear: JULEPS, JULEPS, I GOT JULEPS.  You wave and say I will take two.  You grab the drink and take a big gulp......WHAT THE EFF IS THIS!!!  You think, maybe it is not mixed, so you mix the drink with the straw and then decide to drink it through the straw....HOLY SH*T MY THROAT IS BURNING!!!...and it is at this time you realize a Mint Julep is just a tall glass of Bourbon on ice with a mint leaf in it.  As Chris, Molly's boy friend, said "I had to drink a Bud Light to sober up after that drink".  While they did burn, we sure did drink a lot of them. 
• The Lilly is the official drink of the Kentucky Oaks, compared to the Mint Julep it is like Kool-Aid....and it goes down like Kool-Aid.  After a couple of them, it sure is easy to put a $100 exacta on 1 & 12....not that it actually happened, I am just saying it would have been easy to make that bet.
• We arrived in Louisville, with no real plans for transportation, but we found random limo driver drive us around for the weekend.  We are not quite sure if he was a "professional" limo driver, but he did have a limo and would take you places for money.  He was missing a couple of front teeth and wore t-shirts with stains on them.  His limo was a bit dirty and hand sanitizer was a must after getting out of the limo.  Overall he was a good guy and tried hard, but lacked logistic skills and a GPS.  After the derby we had to wait 3 hours to for him to pick us up, because he was lost.  Joe and Papa Dubow did not mind because they were slamming beers at the local VFW while we all waited.  See pic below.  Can't complain too much as we ultimately did get to our destinations.
• Dress to Impress everyone said and the Dubow clan did.  Decked out in pink for the Oaks, Seersucker and white shoes for the Derby, hats for each race.  No matter what you wore, you were not out of place. 
• We heard the infield is like Woodstock.  Just a crazy place.  Joe and Chris had plans to check it out, but then a local told them not to go there unless they wanted to catch a venereal disease.  Joe said something about not having up-to-date vaccinations and then decided not to go.   
• We all had our own betting strategies.  Joe used statistics, Chris looked at the horses, Molly had lucky shoes, Amy and Papa liked names and Grandpa had gut feelings.
• Finally, a huge thanks to Aunt Joan, Uncle Danny and Aunt Molly Jo for watching after the kids while the adults were at the track.   We would not have been able to attend without them.

 

Did you know....

Kate turned 3!!!!!

New Mexico

It is amazing how the hum of an airplane at 10,000 feet can be so soothing. We are traveling back from a quick family visit in New Mexico. One kid is watching Scooby Do, the other is sleeping, the adults should really be sleeping, but one is to0 busy reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the other is too busy blogging.

We had a great time!! It was bit chaotic at times with four people under the age of five all wanting attention, but it was still very rewarding visiting Papa and Coco and watching the cousins interact.   And now for some pictures......

Portable DVD players make traveling so much easier.  Put in a movie and let the kids zone out for a couple of hours....We know, we know...this is not the best parenting because TV will rot their brain, but you know what......

Drinking beer at the airport bar during a layover with your kids is not the best parenting either....but it does keep us all a bit sane

Below is the crew at La Posta enjoying some good Mexican food and drink.  We ate & drank fast at the restaurant.  One could make an argument it was the adults not wanting the margaritas to go warm…..or the craziness of 4 kids.  You decide

Tommy, Ben and Kate all made a wish at a fountain in the restaurant. 

Kate and Andy hanging out will we waited for a table

Here are all the kids.  Kate, Tommy, Ben and Andy.

 We made a trip to White Sands.  It is a really cool place.  275 square miles of a white sand desert.  We hiked around, sledded on the dunes, ate a picnic lunch and relaxed in the sun. 

  

Joe at the top off the dunes, trying to display his authority. 

Kate sliding down the dunes.

Coco getting ready to launch Tommy down the dunes

We went to the Flea Market one morning.  The kids had a blast listening to the music and eating kettle corn. 

Easter

First there was the dying of the eggs....

 Then there was the excitement over the bunny.  Now....you must prepare yourself for the ultimate bedhead that will appear in this video.  It may be too much for younger viewers...

We think the kids were pleased with the bunny this year.

Time for church.  Kate is our resident fashionista.  Sunglasses are her current accessory fav....

There was an egghunt at church.  Joe thought it was creepy to hunt for eggs in the cemetery, but Tommy seemed cool with it.  That is him taking off in the black jacket...

 Kate quickly realized that there were tons of eggs on the playground that were being ignored and took advantage of that situation.

She let Tommy in on the secret.

Here are a couple of pictures from today.  Kate finally let Mom take her to gymnastics, so I got a few cute shots.  She looks so big in these pictures.

Tommy is working on his swing and we fully expect him to be ready for the major leagues by age 8.  See for yourself.  Sorry for the sideways vides.  We still can't figure out why my phone does this while taking pictures!

Cleaning out the phone photos

So we have these fancy photos and videos from our smart phones, but we have not shared them with our people.  So here we go....

A couple of week's ago, on the way home from work Joe got into a fight with a gaggle of Turkeys. 

Papa Dubow visted last week and she had a little helper in the kitchen.  The two cooks made tasty cookies. 

After about 5 weeks of saying the horse outside the grocery store was broken, Joe finally caved in and let Kate ride the horse.  Mechanical horses are like crack for kids.  Kate was more than disapointed when the 30 second ride was over. 

Riding stationary elephants can be as fun as quarter driven horses

We had a cornbeef and cabbage feast on St. Patrick's Day.  The feast included homemade green beer....yup that's Miller Genuine Draft 64....gotta watch the waist line

Here is out little Kerri Strug

Typical Saturday at the Dubows

5:45 am - Wake up to Kate and/or Tommy saying "can we go down stairs now"
5:50 am - Wake up again to "DADDY CAN WE GO DOWN STAIRS NOWWWW!!!"
6:30 am - Walk in to living room, step on Lego with bare foot, scream "CHEESE & RICE!!!", throw out Lego piece
8:00 am - Take a LONG walk with the dog
8:45 am - Take Kate to gymnastics
10:30 am - Return from gymnastics and take Tommy to karate
12:00 pm - Attempt to feed the kids something with nutrition (just hope they take a bite of the fruit or vegetables)
12:15  pm - Calm the kids down after the dog eats their lunch that they were not eating
12:20 pm - Re-make lunch due to the dog eating the previously made lunch
12:40 pm - Allow the kids to feed 2nd non-eaten lunch to dog
1:30 pm - Go to birthday party of some kid with a name that ends in yden (Cayden, Ayden, Jayden, etc)
3:30 pm - Curse 'yden's parents for giving a gift bag full of candy
3:42 pm - Watch kids melt down from having too much candy
3:50 pm - Convince kids to take a rest on the couch while watching a Pixar/DreamWorks/Disney movie
4:23 pm - Clean human pee off of floor
4:50 pm - Pour 1st glass of wine
5:30 pm - Pour 2nd glass of wine, tell kids to stop fighting, start making nice dinner
6:00 pm - Pour 3rd glass of wine, tune out fighting kids, continue making nice dinner
6:15 pm - Serve nice dinner
6:20 pm - Listen to kids say "This is disgusting"
6:25 pm -  Pour 4th glass of wine. Make kids peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chicken nuggets, Ramen noodles, mac n cheese or Eggo waffles
6:45 pm - Pour 5th glass of wine, enjoy conversation with spouse, while kids destroy living room
7:02 pm - Wine bottle is empty! What the eff? Why did we only get one bottle of Wine?
7:30 pm - Walk in to living room, See mess, Think "How did my living room turn into a 3rd world county in the matter of 10 minutes"
7:32 pm - Ignore mess, turn on music, wash dishes
8:00 pm - Give kids a bath
8:20 pm - Read books to kids
8:30 pm - Discuss with spouse watching an adult movie once the kids fall asleep.
8:30 pm - Turn off lights, lay in bed with kid,wait for kid to fall asleep
8:45 pm -  Keep waiting
10:20 pm - Wake up, get out of kids bed, stumble to big bed, hope kids stay in their own bed all night
1:34 am - Wake up to little person snuggling next to me.....when the heck did he and/or she come into the big bed.  Determine it is easier to fall asleep with a foot in the rib cage then put the child back into their bed.

Lather, Rinse and Repeat 6 days later

And now for some pictures....

Brent stopped by the other day.  We told Tommy, Brent was stopping by later.....Every five minutes it was where is Uncle Brent, when is Uncle Brent coming over, how much time until Uncle Brent arrivea.....he finally arrived.  Brent is like crack to Tommy.  He really enjoys when he stops by. 

Check out our little karate kid.....I bet he could kick Ralph Macchio's butt

We also have a little gymnast. The next Nadia Comăneci or this