this one goes out to all the sugar coated grandparents

i'd like to start out by giving a big thanks to all the grandparents in my life. namely, my parents and nathan's parents. not my grandparents but the grandparents that directly affect my life at this juncture. bless their pointed heads. they love my children very much. at times, i'm convinced that they love my children more than me. let's be honest... ALL the time i'm convinced they love my children more than me. that could not have been more clear than it was made this past week.

the easter season is one of my favorites. it's also a genius marketing time for all the chocolate makers of the world. grandparents can't seem to resist those cute chocolate bunnies, teeny chocolate eggs, sugary jelly beans, fluffy colorful marshmallows and that stupid plastic grass that will be all over my house until june. and kids love it. especially my kids.

sunday we had lunch at my parents house. all the kids got goodie bags FULL of candy and fun stuff. let's lay some foundational information out there for ya......once i left their house, my parents must have been struck by lightning. i think something seriously happened to them. it's sad, really. they've lost their ability to say "NO". anything my children want.... they get. apparently, this isn't a phenomenon affecting only my parents....nathan's parents have the same disease. only at their house it's called "kids only" disease. i have heard widespread reports of the same issue from friends of mine everywhere. grandparents give candy and fun until the kid gets annoying, and then they return said child to his or her rightful owner.

so, back to sunday... every time i saw megs, she was eating something. i've learned not to fight it. my dad tends to throw mini-fits that rival a two-year-old. when i tell my kids to stop eating candy, his face gets all scrunched up, he clenches his fists, and he throws me the evil eye. it's just easier to let it go. they usually get distracted by toys and stop eating soon enough. it's never been a true issue before...... before sunday. nope. neeeeeeeever been an issue before. but apparently, meg's little tummy just didn't accept all the jelly beans she consumed that afternoon, b/c they came flying out after about two hours. nasty, sugar puke. and nathan caught it. all over his jeans, in his hands, down the front of meggie. it rivaled ava's garlic bread and ice cream puke of 2006. epic. the good thing is, nic had an extra shirt for meggie and nathan ALWAYS has extra clothes in the car. the nasty clothes were quickly bagged and banished to the outside. disgusting... disgusting.

*side note* you know, i really don't have an issue with my parents wanting to give my kids candy... or even with "kids only" treat boxes down in SC. i'm just painting the picture with wide strokes so you can understand the night we had tonight. it's one of those, "oh, this is SO going in the blog to preserve for all eternity....or until blogger tells me i'm out of space". *side note over*

so, monday morning the mailman brought a massive box directly from the great state of south carolina. it was FULL of goodies. i had a flashback to sunday afternoon and i quickly put the limit of ONE chocolate bunny or egg per child for the remainder of the day. we made it through the day with no incidents. fabulous. fast forward to this evening. the kids were playing nicely downstairs while nathan and i were upstairs going over bills and receipts. it wasn't frighteningly quiet.... if you're a parent/guardian/caretaker/babysitter you know that quiet means DANGER when kids are alone. that's what threw me off. they had been playing for a really long time and i could hear them the entire time! i should have known they'd throw me off the trail with friendly banter. UGH!

soon enough megster came creeping up the steps. we were done talking and gave her permission to come on up. she rounded the corner and gave a super peppy, "HI!" it took me a second for my eyes to focus on the chocolate mess that was my daughter. her face was COVERED. her hands were COVERED. her toy blender was COVERED..... and full of three little chocolate bunnies who were fortunate enough to have not yet lost their lives. i said, "meggie, did you eat a bunny." she said quietly, "bunny."

then came connor. i said, "connor, did YOU eat a bunny?"

"yep. and i opened one for megs."

"well..... that was nice." *i couldn't take away from a shining moment of kindness. i had no idea what ELSE happened while we were talking.*

"did any get on the couch?"

"no. we ate in my bedroom." *at least the couch was safe*

we had a little laugh about the chocolate mess that made up our megpie, and i went downstairs to assess the damage.

i walked into the bedroom fully expecting to find two foil wrappers on the rug. and i did. i found two wrappers.... then i looked over by the chair and i saw three, four, five, SIX! i stopped counting. i yelled upstairs, "connor, how many did you eat???" oh, well. no biggie, right? well, sort of, but i was in a merciful mood.

the lights were off in the kitchen as i walked toward the trash can to throw out the wrappers. something like sand swished under my feet. i didn't even want to turn on the lights. as i reached the counter i saw it.... the empty paper wrapper of the lick stick. remember those? the two pouches with a candy stick on one side and flavored sugar on the other. connor tried to open his. i thought, "oh, well...." and i reached under the counter for the dust pan. much to the delight of my mommy heart i saw that the dust pan was not in it's perfectly upright position and there was a layer of pink dust in the base. when he ripped the paper he didn't realize that you had to do it in a way to keep the sugar upright. sugar obviously went everywhere, but he had tried to clean it up. SO CUTE! how could i NOT love that??? i cleaned up the remainder of the mess and went to give my little man a big hug. he had a big day. they both had to get shots today. he was tough, and i was proud of him then, but i was even more thrilled that he helped his sister AND tried to clean up the mess.

so grandparents: thanks for the sugar. i'm sure i'll be shouting chocolate out of meg's shirts for the next two weeks. by the way.... go ahead and keep giving candy and fun stuff. they love it, and i know it makes you smile.

here are some pictures of the kids with their buddies from SC. meg's pig is named wilbur, but she calls it "oi oink". connor's dog is named "buster sausage hairgrove". he was especially excited that buster looks exactly like willie from the book "whistle for willie". they read it together last night.

oi oink loves pizza

and so does meg

"eat your pizza, buster. you need good muscles."

loves his new buddy.