If you live in the north you know that February is the worst month of the year.  That being said, us Michiganders have had it fairly easy so far this year.  Very little snow and temperatures that have been unseasonably mild.  The Farmer’s Almanac was predicting a mild and wet winter and so far that is how it has played out.  Despite the balmy temperatures, a lack of sunshine has caused some suicidal thoughts on my part.  However, as of this week we had yet to get a snow day, and when I say we I mean my kids.  Unfortunately, the powers that be at NPC realized this and decided to take two days off this week due to illness so they could disinfect the school.  Normally that wouldn’t be a big problem, but the Jansma’s are heading to Costa Rica today and we really could have used the two days in school so that Shirley and I could focus on work before we left.  We managed with Shirley taking the kids Wednesday and working from home and me taking the kids yesterday (notice I didn’t say and working from home).  My job isn’t real conducive to working from home.  Parker hit the jack pot though, it was his birthday Thursday and while I made him a cake from scratch, he and Aiden played on my phone and other electronic devices.

Lunch time rolled around and the kids decided to pass on their number one lunch go to, Jimmy John’s, in favor of Chipotle.  They both wanted burritos instead of the standard Cheese Quesidilla (the profit margin on these is 99.9%).  Did I think it was a complete waste of money to get them burritos the size of my head (not their heads, they take after Shirley’s side of the family and have abnormally large heads, especially Aiden)?  Of course I did, but it was Parker’s birthday so I figured why not.  After I got done eating my burrito and watching them struggle even to hold on to theirs without its contents falling into their lap I went tanning and then headed home.  I had a bunch of shit to do so I told them they could watch Return of the Jedi which required me trying to figure out how to use my phone for a remote control for our Apple TV. It was similar to my mom trying to figure out how to put photos on her Craig’s List adds peddling her antiques.  Fortunately, I could feel my kid’s pain as I asked them how to turn my phone into a remote having gone through the Craig’s list photo posting experience multiple times with my mom.  Parker showed an incredible amount of patience wich along with his big head must have come form Shirley’s side of the family.  Eventually I transformed my phone into a universal remote and the kids opted for the Simpsons instead of Return of the Jedi.

As I was packing and getting things done around the house, my kids called an audible and were able to watch YouTube through my phone on the television, my head almost exploded at the thought of trying to accomplish such a feat on my own at the age of 45 let alone at the age of 7.  The strange thing is my kids when given the option of watching a classic cartoon show like the Simpson or watching someone play video games, choose watching someone play video games.  After running to D n W to pick up some stuff for parker’s birthday party that night I decided to hang with my kids.  I told them no more you tube and we started to watch another Simpson’s episode.  However, Parker was bored with the Simpsons and wanted to watch Rick and Morty.  I was flabbergasted that he knew what Rick and Morty was and that he wanted to watch it.  For those of you who don’t know, it’s hilarious and it is on Cartoon Network but only late, really late.  It’s adult themed but it does bleep out the F word when Rick drops a bomb, which is quite often.  Since my kids already know what the F bomb is I figured why not?  My question is, is it bad parenting to expose them to this if they already know all the bad words that are being said and don’t really catch the adult themed humor?  This particular episode was somewhat innocuous because it involved Morty being targeted by a planet of snakes who were sent to kill him because he had altered their time space continuum by killing an astronaut snake from their planet when he was with Rick in outer space and then trying to fix his error by replying the alien snake with a snake from earth.  Hilarious right?  However, there was an episode where Morty ends up getting a sex bot and only leaves his room to rehydrate (I think he is 13 or 14 in the show).  I’ll probably save that one for when they are about to explode into puberty.

Regardless of the indiscretion I used, Shirley’s aunt and grandma rolled in for the birthday party mid Rick and Morty so we had to shut her down.  My mom and dad along with Shirley’s sister and her two kids also eventually showed up for the festivities.  Things went well, cheese pizza is probably the easiest way to bring together meat eaters and vegetarians.  However, the cake I made was not nearly the hit I had hoped it would be.  My mom decorated it and it looked great.  While serving it’s purpose for photo ops with the birthday boy (my mom also made a raspberry pie but you can’t take a birthday photo with a raspberry pie in front of you) it lacked in actual functionality. To be honest it was not light and fluffy, it was solid, kind of like a strawberry shortcake.  Aiden and Aiden’s cousin Maddy both said they were not a big fan of the cake, my dad only ate half of his which meant he wasn’t a big fan of the cake and aunt Jane said it was great, while Shirley’s 90 year old grandma ate all of hers and probably didn’t even remember it 45 seconds later.  Ultimately, I ate the cake and instantly realized it sucked.  Fortunately there was Raspberry pie to help me overcome the pain of failing in the cake department.  While the frosting was amazing (Parker had it earlier when he licked off the spatula and mixer I used to make it and said it was the best frosting he ever had) the cake mix in a box is the way to go.  It’s the rare instance where less work creates a better product.