I am a winner.

I never win anything. I'm not talking board games, because I am master at them, well, except for Boggle with the in-laws. If you want to feel good about yourselves don't EVER play Boggle with the Mud crew. It will just bring down your self-esteem when you get zero or one point (if you're lucky) time after time. I'm talking raffles, giveaways, guessing games. For almost 30 years of life I can remember winning three events like these. 1) When I was eleven years old at a church halloween party (I was bacon and eggs that year) I guessed the number of candy in one of those plastic pumpkins. 2) At my senior all night grad party my friends kept winning things throughout the night--cameras, phones...I felt robbed. Then they had us all gather in one room while they pulled some more names for the bigger prizes. At 5:00am I finally won my prize--a 19-inch T.V. Now think back 11 years...that was AWESOME! That T.V. served me well, and my brother, Craig and his wife, my roommates and I, S. and I, and even S.'s brother, Jesse at Princeton this past year. It's in fine working order, you just need the remote to turn it on because Boo broke the power button when she was 2. And I would not recommend watching a movie with subtitles on it. We just got a "new" T.V. in September (gotta love Craig's list). Once again we can enjoy foreign films. 3) At the American School Foundation in Mexico City I was at a teachers' meeting and guessed the number of candy corn in the bowl.

Well, I haven't won anything since 2001, so it was high time I won something. Well, I did. Two things to be exact. There are a bunch of blogs who have giveaways, and I have recently won two of those giveaways by pure luck of the draw. 1) From the Momblogs. A place I happened upon and visited once. I won the DVD of Because I said So (I'm still waiting for it, though). and 2) Mod Mom's giveaway of the diaper/laptop bag. She has tons of giveaways of cool stuff. Wasting time on the internet has paid off.

Fairyland Party

Boo finally had her b-day party with friends (almost a month after her real b-day)! It was a "really fun celebration" (quote by the b-day girl herself). How did we spend our fairyland time?

Decorated the house like fairyland.

Treasure hunt of Fairy and elves' favorite things: feathers, flowers, magic pebbles, shells to earn our wings.

Decorated our cookie wands.

Danced a fairy dance to the Nutcraker.

Played Fairy Freeze game.

Played Musical Flowers.

Read Peter Pan.

Ate fruit wands, star pizzas, and drank fairy punch (raspberry lemonade with edible flowers), and fairy cake.

Opened presents.

Exited into a sea of bubbles (leaving a little bit of chaos).

Boo was so cute. When she was going to sleep that evening I told her I was proud of her for playing so nicely (with 11 guests) and not crying or getting upset. She said, "Yeah, nobody cried or was mean!" A party to be remembered. My favorite quote of Boo's was when she was talking to her friend Ben who was one of the first to arrive and said, "You need to be nice to my friend Benjamin who is coming, because he's my best friend." So funny. He is still considered her best friend even though she sees him maybe once a month.

Now the question is: Do I do the idea where you only have parties for your kids every four years (the big ones--8, 12, 16)? We'll see. We had a lot of fun. I might miss it!

I need some assistance

Okay, clearly I have developed a shoe fetish. Last Friday I walked into DSW Shoe Warehouse and exited 36 minutes later with four pairs of shoes and two bags. Now, when I bought these I didn't think I would keep them all, I just couldn't make a decision, and I had to pick up my kids from Adri's. So, now, I have worn 3 pairs, but I can't decide on the fourth pair. They were only $11, but I just can't decide if they are too hoochie. I definitely want some animal print shoes (Stacey and Clinton approve), but I don't know if the combination of the peep toe and open heel give a "woman of the night" feeling. Your thoughts?

Cousins?

On Wednesday we got together with my sister-in-law Mary's in-laws. Her brother and sister-in-law are young and fun and Little Man and Boo had a great time with them. We went to the Water Mine at Lake Fairfax and if they had their way they would have never left. That night Mom M. planned a fun French dinner of Ratatouille (they all went to the movie a couple days before), French bread, grape juice with ginger ale (our wine) and cream puffs. My favorite part of watching the kids play? Boo saying, "Come on cousins..." So, what are these kids to her relationship-wise, aunt and uncle-in-law? Who knows, but they're family.

Mary's mother and father-in-law are doing this cool art project where they are asking people what their name means to them, taking a picture and recording their answer. Our names define so much of who we are, it's one of the first things we say when we meet someone, but how often do we really pay attention to someone's name? I can't wait to see the final project.

For my input I first talked about how I got my first name. My oldest sister who is 7 1/2 years older than me walked around telling everyone that my mom was pregnant with a girl who looked like her (my sister), but with green eyes (she had had a dream). My mother had to correct her and tell everyone that she was NOT pregnant. Well, to my mother's surprise, she soon found out that she was indeed expecting. My sister got to name me. And whom did she pick but the teacher's pet in her first grade class. Someone that she envied, and looked up to. I decided that I wanted to live my life so that my oldest sister could look up to me. Hopefully I have, and not just because I'm taller than her. My maiden name means a lot to me, and I love how a last name can change from generation to generation, but then there are qualities that are always the same throughout the generations. For instance, this generation of Atk girls? We're known for being loud and having big boobs (at least in our single days. I like to think I've matured just a little). All of the Atk clan are known for being hardworking and stubborn--two qualities that can be both good and bad. Hopefully we used them more for the good, but I don't think I've met someone with Atk blood who doesn't have these two qualities from age 1 (Little Man) to age 70 (Dad).

What a week

This week has been PACKED!!

Monday: Frying Pan Park with the Turner Tribe (Brooke was one of my best friends in high school--we first met when we were 12. I went on a 25 mile high with my church. I was walking with my mom, sister and brother, but they were too slow, so I pulled ahead. My father was manning one of the check points and when he realized I was walking alone he sent me with some other girls--Brooke was one of them along with her sister, Tennille and friend, Melinda. We walked the whole 25 miles, coming up with new "walks" ending with a few tears in the group. But, through that experience we are friends for life).

Tuesday: Free movie at Regal Cinemas with sis. Jeannie and cousins. Lunch with Gma and Pa Atk., party at church, dessert and reminiscing at our house with my old roommate, Sarah and hubby, Bob, and friends Tania and Ryan (we all met each other our freshman year of college--Tania and Ryan got married).

Wednesday: Breakfast with extended Atk-fam in the morning, BBQ at friends' house in the afternoon, followed by awesome fireworks there.

Thursday: American Indian Museum with roommate, Sarah. Lunch in their awesome cafeteria with Sarah, Tania and Ryan. Seminary meeting that night for new teachers (That's right. We are crazy. Sam and I are the new Seminary teachers at church).

Friday: Recover. Kids go to a friend's house while I run errands. Clean. Sam goes to Nationals game with friends (he deserves it after working while we've been playing this week!)

The week is not even over!! We have a birthday party for a friend tomorrow!