Old School Blogging – Pop Culture
I missed the Old School Blogging linkup last month, but I’m glad I caught it this month because you know who loves pop culture? Me.
1. What was one of your favorite shows as a kid? Why?
I can remember loving lots of shows as a kid – and I’m considering a kid pre-high school for this question. I’m going with some of the shows I remember being really into in middle school like Blossom and Roseanne, and my favorite, Wonder Years. I was so excited when Jenny watched some Wonder Years on Netflix a few months ago. Who wouldn’t love Kevin and Winnie? And the awesome music. Another show I remember loving that didn’t last long at all – so brief that I just checked IMDB to see if it was really a show or something I dreamed up – Rags to Riches. Does anyone else remember that show?
2. Which actress(es) do you see on the red carpet and kinda wish you could be for a day (or three)?
I have a slight celebrity gossip obsession, but even with my Us Weekly love, I never really feel like I’d want to be one of those celebrities. If I had to pick one, I’d probably pick Jennifer Garner because I’ve always related to her, so it’s kind of like living my life with a lot more money. And that would be fine with me! Plus I don’t feel like I’d have to start wearing a ton of makeup to be Jennifer Garner – she looks pretty relaxed.
3. Which actor do you wish you could, um… hang out with? 
I’ll just stick with the theme and go with Ben Affleck.
4. What is one (or two or some) of your favorite movies that you have seen in the last few years?
We don’t go to the movies very often. I have had two wonderful movie experiences the last couple years – midnight showings with my oldest girl. We saw the last Harry Potter movie (her reward for reading all the books by the time the movie came out) – her first midnight premiere experience. Then we went to see the Hunger Games at midnight when it came out. The most recent movie I’ve seen and loved though? Pitch Perfect. It’s exactly my kind of movie – and so much fun to watch with my girls!
5. Who is one celebrity out there now that you could totally do without? That you wish would just disappear?
Oh, there are several of these. Chris Brown. Lindsay Lohan (or she could just somehow de-age back to her Parent Trap days when she was young and good). Amanda Bynes (I don’t understand what happened to her). Gwyneth Paltrow. All the Kardashians. Just to name a few. I won’t add any pictures of any of them because I don’t want to look at them.
6. Have you ever met a celebrity? If so, who? What did you say/do when you met them?
Actually met a celebrity? I don’t think so. I was in an elevator with Rosario Dawson once, but I didn’t talk to her.
7. Which shows do you look forward to watching every week?
Right now at this point in the year: Nashville (the best new show of this TV season!), Grey’s Anatomy, Hart of Dixie, and Mad Men. While they’re not new right now, I also love Parenthood (yay for renewal!) and Breaking Bad.
Wasn’t that fun? Head on over to link up!
Quality Time #iPPP
As a working mom, I sometimes forget that I need to make an effort for my time with my kids to be quality time. Sometimes I come home and I’m tired, and I just want to sit on the couch and play on the computer or watch TV (or both). One, two, or three of my kids may be in the room with me, but I’m not making an effort to focus on them like I should. I think that’s okay sometimes if I am particularly tired, but not every night. So last night I decided to have more quality time with my family, though it may not take a form that some people consider quality.
Most of my quality time with Brinkley occurs early morning, like this morning:
He likes to run into our room when he gets out of his room on the morning and climb up onto the bed. (He is wearing his sister’s shirt in this picture. I’m not sure why – I didn’t put him in it.) I’ll admit there’s not always a lot of quality to our time together these days, but last night I did spend more time with him playing and trying to get him to point to his body parts or ever talk. That sort of thing. I want to research a bit more what we can be doing with him to try to get him learning more and talking because he’s still not there.
After he goes to bed – and we’ve been trying for earlier because I think he sleeps better then – I can do a better job of focusing on the girls. We’ve all learned how to focus while Brinky is up in his bedroom running around like a crazy person until he goes to sleep. It involves jumping on the bed and constantly opening and closing his dresser doors.
Oh, and turning on his bedroom light so he can see what he’s doing. He does this for a while, but when he’s ready to go to sleep, he climbs into bed and goes to sleep.
So what did we do with the girls for quality time last night?
Reagan likes to look at funny things with us, so…it was BuzzFeed time. Only with age appropriate posts. Like these:
29 Pictures of ’80s Culture at the Reagan White House – bonus for including her name
If Pop Stars Were Birds, These Are The Birds They’d Be – celebrities + animals = funny
32 Pictures That Prove Vladimir Putin is Only Human – more for Lee than Reagan, but she enjoyed it
14 Things You Missed from the SAG Awards – because we love some awards shows and celebrities in this house
We kept going, especially with cute animal related posts. Those are her favorite. And of course, we read Honest Toddler’s newest post. She loves when we read Honest Toddler together. So for Reagan, quality time often involves reading and laughing at things together. It’s fun!
When Reagan decided to move on and read for a little while before bed, Lee and I started looking at iTunes because we wanted to check out the 69 cent songs – especially since we had an iTunes gift card to spend. Of course, music drew Jenny into the room. She had fun (and stayed up past her bedtime, but so did we, so it was okay) giving us her opinion on different songs and getting to choose a couple for herself. I talked last week about how music brings my girls together, but generally it can bring our whole family together, especially when we decide to listen through clips on iTunes. Jenny’s favorite thing is to go through the top 200 songs on iTunes and see which ones we know. Last night’s answer? Lee and I didn’t know any songs in the top 10! Jenny’s so much cooler than we are. And I can’t even tell you how much time Jenny spent smiling and laughing (which is becoming more rare these days) while we listened to music.
And for inquiring minds who want to know (also known as my brother), these are the songs we felt compelled to buy last night:
Daydream Believer – The Monkees because who doesn’t love this song?
Old Enough – The Raconteurs never heard this one before, but it sounded like something I’d like
Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo a Jenny choice
The Remedy (I Won’t Worry) – Jason Mraz I loved this song, okay? And the girls love Jason Mraz now.
Can’t Stand It – Never Shout Never Jenny again
Save the Best for Last – Vanessa Williams another one I loved so much – in high school
Cradle of Love – Billy Idol Lee loves this one, and somehow didn’t already own it
Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve Lee and I both realized we like this one and didn’t own it
Absolutely (Story of a Girl) – Nine Days another one I used to really like that we discovered Jenny also loves
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure seriously, we didn’t own this already?
D.A.N.C.E. – Justice I was so excited to see this in the 69 cent songs because I love it so much on Just Dance
And now that I’ve already made this post so long, I’ll also add a list of the songs the girls bought with their money last week after about a week of planning precisely how to spend their $25.
This Is My Paradise – Bridget Mendler
The Call – Regina Spektor
Sk8er Boi – Avril Lavigne
Take A Bow – Rihanna
You Found Me – The Fray
The Story of Us – Taylor Swift
Stuck Like Glue – Sugarland
Beauty Queen – Ben’s Brother
Best Friend’s Brother – Victorious Cast
Lucky – Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz
Fallin’ for You – Colbie Caillat
Mine – Taylor Swift
Realize – Colbie Caillat
Safe & Sound – Taylor Swift
I Won’t – Colbie Caillat
Ours – Taylor Swift
Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
It’s Time – Imagine Dragons
Too Little Too Late – Jojo
You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston
Never Say Never – The Fray
Bubbly – Colbie Caillat
Replay – Iyaz
The One That Got Away – Katy Perry
One last bit of information: we spent a lot of time listening to music, and I still ended the night with this song:
The girls bought it a couple weeks ago, and I think it’s been stuck in my head about half the time since then. I said that I kind of didn’t want to like it because Taylor Swift can be annoying, but I think it’s good. And Jenny said, “Yeah, I know, I don’t want to like Taylor Swift, but she’s actually my favorite artist and I love all of her songs.”
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
A 9th Birthday
Reagan turned 9 yesterday, so I meant to do a post about her then, but we were too busy enjoying the day together. It’s fitting anyway because I swear that for the first year of her life I had trouble remembering whether she was born on the 20th or 21st because she was born so close to midnight. So I’ll finish the celebration with a post on the 21st this year!
I won’t go through her life from birth to now with some of my favorite pictures since I already did that last year (but feel free to go look at that post if you want – she sure had a lot of cute moments). But I will tell you about what this sweet girl wanted for her 9th birthday.
We’ve enjoyed (suffered through) a lot of fun and fancy birthday parties in the past. The Children’s Museum. Our local bounce house. Chuck E Cheese. Great Wolf Lodge (fun!). Funigan’s. But this year Reagan said she just wanted to spend the day with her family. She invited her best friend for a Saturday night sleepover so she’d be here the morning of her birthday, but she didn’t really have much she wanted to do. And she didn’t want a lot of gifts. She’s sweet like that.
So our day went like this. Her brother slept in so the sleepover wouldn’t have to end at 5:00 in the morning when he normally wakes everyone up. That was nice, wasn’t it? Reagan and her friend woke up and requested Reagan’s birthday breakfast – yogurt and fresh fruit.
Once we dragged her slightly surly big sister downstairs, Reagan opened her presents. She truly didn’t ask for much, so we were able to give her what she wanted:
An alarm clock, an owl lunchbox, and new owl earrings. Jenny’s a little annoyed Reagan’s going to have an alarm clock that she probably won’t hear that will just annoy Jenny, but Reagan’s excited!
Doesn’t she look happy?
After healthy breakfast and presents, we worked on birthday cake for an unhealthy second breakfast.
There’s not much tastier than Funfetti cake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Especially because it’s easy. Brinkley loved it too. Maybe a little too much.
After presents and cake, we spent the rest of the day relaxing and having fun and eating the meals of Reagan’s choice – McDonald’s for lunch and Mexican for dinner. We spent a lot of time playing Just Dance 4, even more fun after Aunt Charlotte arrived. We played a new board game. And Reagan played the keyboard her grandparents sent to entertain us for a bit in the evening.
Look how happy she was when she opened the keyboard on Friday:
She really got a kick out of playing the keyboard on the sound effects mode. And I was excited about the hilarious expressions I captured while she was playing, making us laugh so hard. I wish I’d recorded it, but we’ll save that for another day.
I’m so excited to hear the music (or something resembling music) she creates with her keyboard.
Christmas Roundup (featuring pictures from my new camera)!
Well, I went back to work yesterday so I feel like the Christmas holiday is officially over and I’m ready to share some of our fun. I know it’s not over for my girls – they still get to take a fun trip to their grandparents’ house before they go back to school, but we have plenty of fun to share now.
We all enjoyed spreading out Christmas fun over 4 days, especially since it meant the girls got to open gifts every day without even begging me to open some of their presents from us.
First up, my parents arrived on Saturday, followed shortly by my brothers’ families and my brother- and sisters-in-law. It was a fun crowd. My parents surprised me by getting me an awesome new camera that I couldn’t be more excited about! They brought it in for us to open right away so that I could start charging the battery.
This was the first picture I took with the new camera. Isn’t she pretty? And isn’t it so much more crisp and clear than pictures from my old camera? (Trust me, it is.)
Jenny was very happy to get her Nook from Grandpa and Boo-boo! She told me she was going to ask for one for next Christmas because she really didn’t think she’d get one this year. Now she never has to stop reading.
I managed to catch Reagan’s face when she opened up her Nook. Obviously she couldn’t believe it.
And we got a few pictures of my side of the family all together.
On Sunday we exchanged gifts with Lee’s family while my family was off watching the Steelers game. We got two awesome photo albums full of old pictures from Charlotte – we both love that sort of thing so much, so it was perfect. And another perfect gift from Justin and Nicole!
A Wii to replace ours that hasn’t worked in forever so we can play our Just Dance games again! (Also both girls are wearing their new favorite outfits that my mom gave them in this picture.)
We opened a couple important family gifts like Pitch Perfect so that we could watch it immediately. Can you tell Jenny really wanted that movie?
We followed up that fun with a delicious dinner at the Japanese steakhouse, followed by Brinky’s birthday cake (finally).
He was really focused on eating that cake.
On Monday we said goodbye to my parents and Justin and Nicole as they headed out for their next holiday destinations. And we had a fun Google hangout with Lee’s brother Marcus and his wife Jodi Ann since they couldn’t be here. I made the girls wait to open their gifts from them while they were watching. It was a fun way to spend time together even though they weren’t physically here.
Brinkley tried out his new bike from my parents before they left.
We enjoyed a delicious Christmas Eve meal including plenty of food for vegans and non-vegans and then broke out the one Christmas Eve gift I give – Christmas jammies!
Jenny didn’t want to be in a picture, so…she’s not. The kids headed off to bed with their Nooks to wait for Santa Claus.
Finally, Christmas day!
Brinky started the day playing with one of his favorite gifts – the ribbon from the top of his birthday cake – while we waited for his sisters to wake up.
Once they came down, they went straight to work opening their Santa gifts and gifts from us, along with gifts from Uncle Mario and Aunt Nicole who were still here celebrating with us.
Jenny studied the gift certificate for books on her Nook that Santa brought her.
Charlotte and Zero checked out Reagan’s guitar.
Jenny kept opening presents.
Brinky sat with daddy and observed. He wasn’t that into present-opening this year.
So his sister helped him by opening his presents in front of him. (This was a cool robot from Uncle Mario and Aunt Nicole.) Is it weird that he likes to sit in that bin?
Reagan rocked out on her guitar.
Jenny got dressed so she could wear her new boots. She’s still going strong with that vest my mom gave her that she loves. I tried to say that she may not want to wear it every day, but she disagreed.
Reagan and Brinky had fun playing with his Leapfrog laptop. He really likes it.
And Zero very patiently sat with Reagan for her first guitar lessons.
We also squeezed in a couple more fun family movies like Step Up Revolution and Inception. Perfect for the holidays, right? We packed a lot of fun into four days.
I’m following up my Christmas roundup with this week’s Celebrity Roundup at It’s Blogworthy tomorrow! Don’t forget to check it out (I’ll probably remind you.)
Want to Know What Your Kid Thinks? (Do-It-Yourself Book)
Give your kid this book:
I actually got this book for Reagan for Christmas two years ago when she was into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. She found it again recently (it’s amazing what happens when you thoroughly clean your room). She had previously completed some of the pages in pencil, so she erased it and filled in her FINAL answers with pen. I learned some interesting things when I looked through the book (besides the fact that Reagan has amazing handwriting – I already knew that).
I’d never heard of the song “The A Team” – but I have now and I know that Reagan loves it. I have no idea why she picked The Avengers as her top movie she’d take with her on a desert island. Or Shrek or Scooby Doo for that matter. But it’s written in pen, so she can’t change her mind now.
This page was hilarious too. Her favorite animal is an owl, but with “all bears” in parentheses? And she likes the owl because it’s fly-y. And a bear because it’s huggable.
I’m thinking she doesn’t quite know what an adjective is. Or maybe I just don’t get it. Cabin Fever probably is “describabal.” And The Avengers is definitely “Hulky.”
I know that the catchphrase “Hey, you wanna gummy bear?” would certainly annoy me in the future. And wearing patterned socks.
I guess she’ll have servants in her dream house. And McDonald’s. Sounds perfect.
And guess what? I guess that will be my dream house too since she never plans to move out of our house.
Reagan never fails to amuse me with the things she writes, so I thought I’d share with you, too.
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