Never Too Old for Army Men

As of 3 weeks ago, we have a teenager!  Isaac rang in his 13th birthday {drumroll please}...playing army men with his brothers.  Oh, melt my heart, he can still be a little boy, even though he is growing so fast.

Overheard Army Men Game:
Isaac says,
[man 1] "Hey, where did all the poison go?"
[man 2] "Uh, I was thirsty."
Peals of laughter from all.

I told them they could watch a movie, but they were too busy drawing and playing together that they never got around to it.  I also told Isaac that the benefit of Dad being off island was that he wouldn't have to wait until lunch to open his gift.  He enjoyed his day so much that he didn't bother opening his gift until almost dinner time.
I wasn't going to get the camera out, because Isaac already knew what he was getting, so there wouldn't be a surprised look, but mostly because I was exhausted.  Before he opened his gift, I teased him a bit about what it could possibly be and he gave the most brilliant smile, I rushed to get the camera.

Feigned surprise, but still adorable

Eva eyeing his gift

Eva notices the better gift

Yes, Isaac is so nice that he let Eva use his gift first.  A few minutes earlier, I thought I was being smart and taped the iPod sticker onto the plastic packaging and handed it to Eva saying, "Here is an iPod for you."  She was ecstatic for all of 2 seconds until she realized it was a fake.  Then she burst into the most heart-wrenching, sincere tears, that we all had pity on her.  A two year old thinks, "Your birthday.  My birthday.  Potato. Potahto."

She still hasn't made a match.  I guess she is no genius baby, but we still love her.

Yes, Eva is naked.  She undresses herself constantly.  One of our neighbors commented that they sometimes see us through the window all gathered round the table at dinner and it looks so idyllic.  They must have missed the time when a naked Eva climbed on the table after dinner and ate ravioli directly out of the pot.  Sneaky little thing while Mama's doing dishes.  
Moral of story: Don't do dishes.  Who's with me?

Mail Drama...Not to be Confused with Male Drama

Living on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean means that almost everything we buy, we buy on-line.  When we move back to a place were you can go to a store, I might still choose to shop this way, because frankly shopping on-line is fantastic.   That being said, sometimes you benefit from getting to hold the item you are buying.  Sometimes the ~7,000 mile journey proves to be too great and just sometimes the middleman isn't very smart.

Exhibit A--Too incompetent 

Our latest fiasco was waiting for Isaac's birthday present.  I bought it two months before his birthday to gaurantee it would arrive on time.  I had been sweating bullets for a few weeks before his birthday, because not only was his gift yet to arrive, but Peter was also going to be off island for business.  His birthday was shaping up to be lame.  Finally, two days before his birthday I called the main post office to explain my plight.  Well, not only did they track down the box, but they said it was on island and had been there for ONE AND A HALF MONTHS--a.k.a. 45 days!  With a glimmer of hope I biked to the local post office and inquired about the missing package.  If you insure your package it requires one extra step in processing it and apparently that extra step was too difficult for them to manage.  This experience made this satire  piece all the more hilarious.

Exhibit B--Too big

If you ever run out of fiberfill, do not {I repeat DO NOT} buy 5 lb. Five pounds doesn't sound like much but it is a lot...like make-your-own-mattress a lot.  This box doesn't do it justice.  We have very limited storage space, so I had to transfer the fluff to garbage bags and then shove them in a closet.  It filled 4 garbage bags, because unfortunately I can't compact it as tight as a machine.  This time I was the stupid one, not the middleman.





From this fluff I made this large snake, which is both a toy and draft pillow, and it didn't even make a dent in one of the garbage bags.  At least my mistake can provide some entertainment.

   

Here is another item that was bigger than anticipated.  I bought a mini-disco ball and thought it would be more the size of the small basketball photographed.  At least this mistake won't take years to get over.  Just a few hours of the kids playing with it and I'm sure it will break.

Exhibit C--Too small

You buy a pack of beads that cost $5-10 and then this arrives.  This teeny-tiny vial!  Need I say more?

  

I ordered mini-clips and expected them to be more the size of the black or at the very least the green.  These suckers are itty-bitty.  

I like to hang the children's art with mini clothes pins.  It took me a few tries to finally get the size I wanted.  The smallest pin is so teeny you practically need tweezers to open it.

Exhibit D--Too damaged

When you spend almost $100 on quality colored pencils, you would expect some quality packing.  At the very least, something better than the equivalent of a garbage bag.  You would think, but you'd be wrong.  I had the pleasure of sorting through all 180 pencils to see which and how many fell out of the hole in their lame excuse of a package.

Now this is one of my favorites.  An entire bottle of laundry detergent leaked due to poor packing.  The company was great and sent me not only one replacement bottle, but two.  However, they requested that I send that gooey mess back to them.  Are they insane?  I threw that pile of goo out the instant I finished snapping this picture.

Early in its journey the post office had to bag the entire saturated box and put it in another box