Introducing Mrs. Sanity....Collecting Questions

I am thinking about having a 'Q & A Day' once a week... call it a Dear Mrs. Sanity column! I would love to hear your questions!! Example: Dear Mrs. Sanity, Why does my child insist on painting everything EXCEPT the paper I gave him? Do I have to just stop giving him art supplies? Signed, Painted Mom

Dear Painted Mom,

My children see me "paint" my face every morning to keep from scaring the other kids at the bus stop, so maybe he is learning from a master? Seriously, though, as a mom, I know I am always looking for something that will keep the kids occupied when I need to cook or clean, etc. Painting is NOT one of those things that I would suggest be done without your help. At least not for the first 100 times anyway.

Painting with young children can be AMAZING and I have known many people who end up framing said artwork and showing it off in their foyer or hallway. But, it is something that takes a bit of a teacher's guide. "On the paper, please." "We don't paint on our hair." "Leave the FREAKING CAT ALONE!!! He doesn't want to be BLUE!!!!"

Sit down. Cover your area well with newspapers or garbage bags. Lay down some rules and have at it. The dishes can wait. He will only be little for a moment. Capture that precious personality FOREVER on paper, now! Enjoy!

Sincerly, Mrs. Sanity

Whether they are... personal political parenting crafting opinions discipline ANYTHING (appropriate) under the sun! Do me a favor and give me a little plug on your blog (or email your friends with this link) to spread the word. LEAVE ALL QUESTIONS ON THIS POST...let the collecting begin.

Fresh Brewed Interview...

I don't know if I mentioned it a couple weeks ago but I got an email from a wonderful woman...her name is Michelle, so she HAS to be pretty dang cool...at FreshBrewedLife.com and she wanted to email me about it's 4 the kids. Fresh Brewed Life is the brain child of Nicole Johnson, one of the women integral in making the WOMEN OF FAITH tour a reality! She's a big time celeb in my book! Michelle is her assistant. Me? Interviewed? Wait...I am the writer, I unsually interview people...this was definitely something I had never experienced. I was nervous. It crossed my mind to tell her I was jetting off to the Netherlands and couldn't do an interview that day. I could have just said, "Ask Mimi. She will fill you in!" But, I bucked up. Told her a good time to call, tied up the kids and put them in the garage made sure the kids were occupied, and held my breath. She called. We chatted like old friends for over an hour. She just emailed me this morning to tell me that our interview article went live today, just in time for September which is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month! YAY! Michelle! (her, not me...well, yay ME, too!) You can check out the article on the Fresh Brewed website. Now, maybe I can have the same luck with an editor at my SCBWI conference next month! Also, I wanted to make you aware of the STAND UP 2 CANCER special that will air September 5th @ 8pm on ALL three networks. Mimi will be in the audience as a celebrity will be reading her words while a picture of Julian is broadcast across the planet! One more thing... Please go check out Christina's Blog...she has info about how to vote for the SUNSHINE FOUNDATION through the American Eagle site that could earn the foundation $1.5 million! I will ask you to pray this week for my little buddy Coleman.

He is in NYC (and loving it especially the BIG pizza!) getting treatment after finding out his cancer is back...with a vengence. The Larson family is AMAZING. They touch my heart with every update! Go check them out and send them some love if you haven't already. Go to Carepages.com and visit ColemanScott

Paving our way with...

PAINTER'S TAPE? Well, your uber-creative mommy blogger was at it again today. After the day I had yesterday, it was either that or spend my day crying and rocking in the corner. So, I opted for a fun kid project. My older two started school this week and I was tired of standing at the end of the street where the township is doing road construction...because as the mom of a REAL BOY, if you walk out of the house and there is the "beepbeepbeep" sound of construction vehicles within a mile radius we MUST go search them out and watch...and watch...and watch. This morning I waved to the school bus and was forced out onto the sidewalk and up the street with my eyes barely open, coffee mug in hand to watch the already sweaty men dig a big hole with a "big chuck" (big truck) and a "coop dum" (scoop dump). So, we were outside for the 1,000,000th minute and I was trying to think of how to make our big flat black driveway more appealing then the sweaty men at the end of the street. SIDEWALK CHALK! I rummaged through everything in the garage looking for the tub I had just bought...I knew I had some somewhere. Do your kids eat sidewalk chalk because I am almost positive mine do! Either that or they hide it very well from their artist mom so she doesn't use it in her spare time while they are at school. Spare time. ha. None. Spare time or sidewalk chalk. What else do I have that we can make a road on the driveway with.....PAINTER'S TAPE, of course! It's bright and sticky! Love it! Hubby won't. So, that's what we did! We made a road that led from my front porch (the store), down the sidewalk to the driveway and to a little house. In that little house were play place settings and utensils. He rode back and forth from the store to the house, filling and unfilling his "trunk." We ate fake bread with spiderwebs on it. We dined with a praying mantis (of the ninja variety). And he put the groceries away just like Mommy does! He came in, ate a real lunch (no spiderwebs) and then went down for a nap. He is in his crib with all his fake loot packed in a backpack....which he is still wearing...must be why he is now screaming to get up...I forgot to take the #$%^& backpack off once he fell asleep and he can't roll over. Just for that one creative idea...I lost a FRIPPIN' HOUR of nap time! God help me!

VOTE for ME!

(click above)

It's beginning to look a lot like....

S-C-H-O-O-L! a big part of me is sad. a bigger part of me feels old. the biggest part of me is my BUTT and that's a whole other post! (why are you laughing? that's so rude! here I am having issues with all three of my kids being in school and you are laughing at the size of my butt! nice.)

There's a BRAIN in my yard...

This yummy mushroom was quietly sitting (because some mushrooms are unruly?) in the wet morning grass this morning. It was bigger than my fist! You can tell by the size of the clover it is plopped on. HUGE! Gross!

My feet hit the dew-covered grass WAY too early in the morning. That's when we found the brain. Every morning my youngest (an early-riser) opens his eyes, calls to me from the crib and as soon as he sees my face he smiles and then says, "Ow-see-yi?" Translation: "How about taking me outside this fine morning, Mom. I know you haven't had your coffee and you could probably skin a wild boar with your breath, but wouldn't walking around in the wet grass in your bare feet, without a bra just make your day?"

So many of you leave comments about how GOOD I am when it comes to crafts and creative stuff. How I am not afraid to make a mess and let me kids have a great time creating something that will probably go down in history as the most beads on a single piece of paper! But I don't do everything in my Mommy Job description with that much vigor!

Well, I can't stand playing outside! OK?! That's where you are one up on me! I don't know what it is. My kids are always outside and we play soccer, hide and seek, we sled, we have lemonade stands but I don't love strolling around, chasing balls off the street, catching lightening bugs, etc. I just don't. (Shhhh. My kids don't know this!)

I guess it goes along with the CAMPING ISSUE I have! I have the same complaints about being outside in my own yard as I have about camping in a tent.

BUGS

Although I am not afraid of bugs, honestly...they really don't bother me, I just feel assaulted by them when I step out the door. I would never choose to WEAR a spider web in my hair. I would never put ants in my shoes on purpose. And if you don't want to get stepped on, get the heck outta my way! Don't just sit there!

And, under NO circumstances should I have to go NINJA on a praying mantis to get my caffeine fix! For these reasons, being outside and vying for my own personal space is a little too high maintenance for me.

SWEAT

I am really uncomfortable with sweat. I don't like to feel it drip. I can't stand when my clothes stick to me. I prefer climate control. I just like to be dry! And I just lo(insert sarcastic voice)ooove that at 7:00 am, while we are already playing 'ow-see-yi', the career moms drive by all primped and pretty with their AC cranked! They wave as I quickly wipe yesterday's makeup out from under my eyes and hope they don't notice I am in the same sweatpants I was in when I saw them at WalMart the day before. (nope, no pictures of this category!)

and TEARS

My youngest doesn't really play...with anything. He just bounces around from garage to sandbox to neighbor's playset to swings to under the deck to the street and so on and so on and so on. He also has selective hearing, he is 3, that's his job! So, I calmly call to him as he crosses the line from our yard to the neighbor's. My voice gets a bit firmer as he makes a run for their cat.

I start to yell when he heads for their garage and I am still stuck under the neighbor's deck. In he goes, grabs the toy of his choice and darts around the other side of their house. And the chase is on...all the while they are sitting at the table eating breakfast and watching me run through their backyard like it's some kind of obstacle course.

...and this is what I left behind. I thought maybe, just maybe, I could sit and sip my coffee in my favorite mug and enjoy my current read while he played in the sand! Nope. Not today.

Oh, and then there was THIS...

"D O N 'T T O U C H T H E P O O P!!!"

Thursday's Thoughts...

What is on your to-do list today?

OHM! 4 Tuesday post...

If you are thinking...what the heck is OHM? Check out this post and then you will get it! We are ONE HOT MAMAS on Tuesdays and there are a handful of us working hard to shed some unwanted weight. Then you can check out these posts to catch yourself up: OHM! 1 OHM! 2 OHM! 3 I have been struggling myself these past week with making the right choices! I don't quite understand it, I suppose there is an underlying issue that I have with food that makes me think it OWES ME SOMETHING! Funny how we (those of us who could consider ourselves career dieters) cheat ourselves out of a healthy self-image over and over and over. It is a simple choice on most occasions...fast food or a salad, a soda or water, 13 donuts, 2 ice cream cones and an peach pie or an apple? Because I have overloaded you will info the last 4 weeks, I think this week should be a form of review. Go back, digest those last 4 links above, take notes, re-vamp your plans and put your nose to the grindstone. Count your calories - every stinking one of them Visualize a healthy body when you make healthy choices DON'T EVER GIVE UP! The biggest "nugget" (no, not a chicken nugget) I want to leave you with today is this: "If you dropped one egg while cooking, would you throw the whole dozen on the floor?" Probably not. So, if you have an "oops" during the day, DON'T GIVE UP, jump back on the wagon and prove to yourself that you can come back from a fall. I used to be a Monday-dieter, it was an anal thing I had about starting a diet. I could only start them on Mondays. So, God forbid I mess up on Tuesday, I would have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (and about 3 more pounds to lose) to HOG OUT before my diet started again. Don't make that mistake. If you fall off the wagon, hit the ground running! Review and revamp! See less of you next Tuesday! Leave your comments, weight loss, uh ohs, ah has, and words of encouragement for your weight loss buddies!

Did I say that? THE CONTEST!

As moms we have all had those moments where we wish we could stuff our words back into our mouths, brace ourselves and swallow hard...voila! Gone! Oh how I wish I could do that sometimes. Based on what you all came up with for the last contest, I would venture a guess that you have had a few "Uh OH!" moments as well when your tongue gets the best of you because of your kids! Sometimes it's because we speak before we think and we say something we clearly shouldn't have. "Guys, if you can clean your rooms before lunch I will take you to Chuck E. Cheese (and instead of stopping there) and you each get $20 to spend on tokens." Do you know how many frickin' games you can play at 'Chuck E. Hell' with $20? Times THREE kids?! "If you don't stop the arguing you will NOT have a sleepover at [insert friend's name here] and you will stay home with me all day!" When your child is on your last nerve, why, why, WHY would you threaten to be a part of that pain for the rest of the day? Pick something else, take away her Wii privileges, send her to her room, GIVE HER A TATTOO for goodness sake but get her out of the house! Well, as moms there are also things we say INSIDE our house that we never intend for the general public to hear. We have strange nicknames for body parts, little goofy songs we sing and even imaginary friends we have general commentary with throughout the day; anything to appease the natives! But, just like we don't talk to the checkout girl about our favorite tampons, we don't need to use the 'secret family lingo' outside of our front doors. But how many times have we done just that and been mortified? Well, do I have a story for you! We live in Amish Country so it is not out of the ordinary to share your personal space with someone who feels the fact that you are showing your ankles is beyond inappropriate. It's a throw-back to the last century. Well, one of my favorite places to do the grocery shopping was a place called Shady Maple, it is owned and operated by Mennonites. The fresh food they have available is amazing and well-worth the not-so-updated feel of the interior of the store. It is also usually crammed with Amish and Mennonites, too, so I have always been mindful of how we dress when we shop there. No tank tops, normal-length shorts or capris. We wouldn't want to give any of the wide brim hats a stroke! You can't even buy make-up or hair products there, so a bare thigh may just send them all to church! One day we were doing our shopping and weaving in and out of the little bearded ladies (I kid you not) we walked down the crowded baby aisle in an attempt to get to the back of the store faster. As I slowed down to get around an Amish woman and her 7 kids under the age of 8, I spied the pacifier rack. A wave of nostalgia came over me as it had only been about 6 months since my almost-twins gave up what we called their "boos." (Their first pacifiers had Pooh on them and they called him "boo" so the name just caught on.) At that moment, I stopped dead in my tracks and didn't care that I was blocking twenty-six conservative moms and their trillion kids. I took a deep breath, smiled and remembered a time when I used to purchase those Pooh-faced pacifiers at least once a month. It gave me a twinge of a tear and I moved on. But, before walking far enough away that no one could hear me, I uttered the words that has kept me from that store ever since, "Oh guys, Mommy sure misses buying boos." At first I didn't understand the collective gasp and bonnet-heads spinning like Amish Linda Blairs, then it dawned on me, the above quote is what I SAID... but what they HEARD was, "Oh guys, Mommy sure misses buying BOOZE!" Rather than stutter through a blushed explanation, I took off running toward the back of the store, grabbed my lunchmeat, went through the check out and tried not to hit a horse and buggy as I squealed my tires out of the parking lot! It's rare for me to go back there. So, I have bared it all! What exactly was it that YOU said to your children in public that gave you the urge to stick your size 7's in YOUR mouth? Fess up ladies! Yes, there is another NAMESAKE as the prize and yes, the blogger who refers the winning quote wins one, too! **** Check out the article that AMAZING BLOGGER Manic Mommy wrote about ME! Yes, ME! It's a GREAT article and I am flattered to have had Manic Mommy write about ME!****

And the WINNER is...and another CONTEST!

HOLY SMOKES I have been laughing for days! My stomach muscles hurt thanks to all of your funny responses to my contest!! I guess I can now thank the 125+ commenters for my six-pack abs (yeah, right! My six-pack is burried so far under baby fat, at this rate, I will never see them!) Not only was this contest a RIOT, it was a comfort to me (and some of you, too) to know that your children do the same STUPID things mine do. There are days that I actually say, "What on earth made you think this was a good idea?" And apparently, on any given day, there are numerous poop-smearing, butt-touching, penis-grabbing, mess-making kids that drive their mommies (and a few daddies) CA-RAZY! Case in point, as I am trying to type this there are Alpha-Bits (sans milk) flying across my kitchen like some form of cereal-fireworks show! God help me today! So, I have to say that most of your comments made me giggle till I almost puked! I read them to my kids, my husband and quite honestly ANY HUMAN that walked through my door. TOO FUNNY! But there was one that stood out from the rest, one that made me giggle a couple times a day when I thought about it or tell a complete stranger at the grocery store about it. Shannon in Delaware's words had me snickering for days! Maybe it's because I did the something similar as a child, maybe it's because one of my children did something similar, too. Either way I laughed and laughed and laughed! "That is the cat's bottom, NOT a pencil sharpener!" BWAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA! Congratulations Shannon and Dawn from Because I Said So - you BOTH win a personalized NAMESAKE! So, I guess I could run another contest with all of you guessing WHICH one of Dawn's 6 kids will behave enough this week to EARN themselves a NAMESAKE! LOL! There is another FUN contest coming today...but I have 3,000 AlphaBits to clean up first. I will see you back here at naptime for your next contest announcement! Shannon, please email me at michellebrownlow@yahoo.com to discuss the details of your NAMESAKE!

Cocktails in the morning...

cock·tail /ˈkɒkˌteɪl/ –noun ~ an eclectic mixture or miscellaneous collection. (see, I was not referring to alcohol!) This morning I was longing for something; an IV of something that would just take me away...like one of those CALGON MOMENTS! (I am dating myself with that old commercial reference). I never found it but it wasn't for lack of trying. So, since I look to Kate Gosselin (my BFF!) from Jon & Kate + 8 to entertain me with her chaotic life, I will PAY IT FORWARD and entertain you with a gaze into a typical morning in the Brownlow house! It's 7:30 am and as I grab the first ingredient to my cocktail, I can hear a motor kind of sound. A faint, distant, "nnnnnrrrrrrrrrrrrr." For lack of a better idea, I yell to the baby, "What are you doing?" He replies, "mow. me mow." I scratch my head as I scoop the coffee grounds into the filter. Mow? He's mowing? "Shaving! He is shaving!" I screech as I run passed my other kids to meet him at the bottom of the stairs. Holding his "weapon of choice" my 3-year olf showed me how Daddy "mowed" with the electric razor. Promptly confiscated. I dump the 2nd cocktail ingreds (creamer and sweet & low) into the cup and kneel down onto his level. "Please, stop mowing your face. That is Daddy's mower. Only Daddy is old enough to mow his face." As I tapped my finger, waiting for the third ingredient for my cocktail, drip...drip...drip... he proceeded to quickly complete the following tasks: ~ whacked the Wii remote against the pantry doors 43 times ~ turned off the TV ~ dialed 8-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 on the phone ~ stole dirty dishes while I was emptying the dishwasher and hid them under the coffee table ~ figured out how to dismantle the child lock on the pantry and how to get out of the patio door ~ tried to snag camera off the counter As I am chasing him from corner to corner, clearing my scalp hair by hair, I try to empty the dishwasher, make coffee and simultaneously get the other two ready for camp while they sit and veg on the couch. As if there was nothing chaotic happening, my daughter whines, "Mom, what does foundation mean?" I say, "Give me a sentence." She replies with a puzzled look on her face, "I don't have one." I flash the puzzled look right back at her! Did brain matter ooze out of my ear while I was wrestling the dog's tail away from the baby? I have no idea what she is saying. Then my oldest starts spouting, " Mom! I get to be Lucario!" (Pokemon Wii game) Faking interest, I squawk, "Wow, bud! Great!" "Come look. He is not usually this color. He is usually blue with white but I made him this sort of gray." "Fun!" "Come on, look!" I grumble, shove some brain back into my head, burn my lips on my caffeine cocktail as I stop making their camp snacks to go look at some Wii beast that appears to have the DNA of a trashcan; he's all metally-looking. woo-freakin-hoo. "Wow. He's cool bud. Why is he doing th....Woah, what is th....ugh, I just don't get video games." "Mooooooom!" Then it hits me! I have to "go"! You know, the bathroom! Those of you who read my blog regularly, you may remember THIS POST! Going number 2 is usually NOT an option for me except for during naptime...but something about caffeine on an empty stomach does it to me every time! So, much to my chagrin, I take his little hand and we head into the torture chamber powder room together. It wasn't more than 3 minutes later...you know that time frame...let's just say the magazine was opened to the article I had been trying to read for like 5 years was finally being read and... he lets himself out. He closes the door behind him which, of course, locks with the baby lock. Fat feet flap across the kitchen floor. I try to hurry. I strained to hear where he was, how close he was to the bathroom door and what he was doing. I heard a lot of crinkling. I needed to see what he was into but I wasn't "done," *smash!* OK, now I had to be done. I walked out of the bathroom and find the dog fully surrounded by ice cubes and popsicles. A sort of toddler altar to all things cold, I suppose! Silly me, I thought I might get a shower before taking the kids to camp. I am tired of looking like I just rolled out of bed when I drop the kids off. My youngest is usually up sometime after 6am, so by the time I get to camp, I have been up for over 3 hours! I am sure the make-up-wearing-ready-for-a-date teen counsellors are thinking, "What does she do all morning? Why can't she at least fit a shower in before she gets here? Gag me." (Yep, dating myself again) So, this morning my cocktail consisted of 'coffee and chaos'...just a little more than I bargained for. TGIF! The CONTEST (see post below) will run through 10 pm EST Sunday, so it is not too late to spread the word and join in the fun!

Recognize this HOTTIE?

Leave her a note, here!

Another cool contest with Manic Mommy...

My dear friend, Manic, writes for Betty Confidential and they are running a very cool contest with Mott's and Tori Spelling! Simply head over to the Tori story and leave a comment about your favorite play date activity. You could win a play date planner autographed by Tori and a goodie bag of fun tot stuff. Can't wait to see all your ideas over on Betty Confidential!

MULTIPLE POSTS TODAY....be sure to SCROLL down to see the rest!

OHMs Planning Ahead!

This morning I headed off to camp, dropped off the big kids and then the little guy and I headed to the gym. He played and I walked...and walked...and walked. Picked up the kids from camp and headed for the pool. 3 extra kids followed me home and the baby got NO nap! So, that's why this week's OHM! CHECK IN is late...so sorry! But, here I am! Are you? In the comments section, please "sign in" by telling us how much weight you have lost, your biggest "UP" this week and your lowest "LOW." And this week, how about leaving us with your favorite lo-cal snack, too. This week I want you to focus on PLANNING! There is nothing that can mess up a diet more than a poorly planned day! You have to take the kids to the doctor and there is an extraordinarily long wait. It's lunchtime and you have NO FOOD with you. Your choices are as follows: a.) grit your teeth and muscle your way through the hunger pangs b.) cause a diversion and when the receptionist turns her head you grab the bucket of lollipops and run for the bathroom where you crunch your way through 67 circles of sugary goodness. c.) leave the appt. and head for the closest fast food drive-thru ALL of the above choices are poor ones. The easiest and best one would have been: d.) calmly pull the ziploc filled with grapes/nuts and raisins/dry cereal (insert lo-cal food of choice) from your purse and share with your child while you wait for the doctor. I have come to realize that stress causes my brain to misfire. I may be on the right track all day, reaching for carrots instead of chocolate, drinking lots of water, etc. and then one too many temper tantrums or sibling squabbles and I head right for what has become known as "Mom's Secret Sanctum" - a corner cabinet that usually hides left-over chocolate from school fundraisers or teacher gifts that I broke into before I gave the gift. So, this week I had an epiphany. If I had my whole day planned out - everything that would touch my tongue would be planned ahead of time. That way, if the baby is freaking out and the clock is ticking closer and closer to noon, I don't have to bat an eye b/c I know exactly what is on MY menu today. And then, what if I used that same menu all week? The sheer simplicity of that made me giggle! So, I will be trying this for a couple weeks to see what I think about it. Here's a sample of what I am talking about: Breakfast 1/2 cups rice crispies w/ 1/2 cup skim milk (160 cals) Lunch Lean Cuisine Panini/Wrap (380 cals) apple (60 cals) Dinner Salad w/ 4 T lo-cal dressing (100 cals) 1 oz. cheese or croutons and sunflower seeds (100 cals) Snacks apple w/ 1 T peanut butter (155 cals) 18 baby carrots w/ 1 T lite ranch dressing (110 cals) 1 2% skim string cheese (90 cals) 1 cup of grapes (100 cals) (substitute one of these for a 100 calorie ice cream treat) This daily intake plan totals out at 1415 calories. Not too shabby for all that food. If you have a PLAN you won't be tempted to eat the dog as you make dinner or break up a fight. My biggest suggestion is to type up YOUR day and have copies of it on hand. As you eat something off the list, cross it off. That way you can change up your day as your cravings change. Have salad for lunch and your Lean Cuisine for dinner, etc. This PLAN also has your back when you are feeling yourself get hungry...you know what your next snack is - no wondering, no thinking and your mind won't wander toward all those BAD FOR YOU things that you WISH you could eat. Try this for the week and see how your scale pays you back for planning ahead! If you haven't joined us for the other OHM! posts (btw, OHM! stands for One Hot Mama!) head back to each Tuesday's post for the last month - Tuesdays are OHM! days! Good for you ladies! Way to stick with it! Way to be a LOSER!

Please pray...

Want to do something? Check out it's 4 the kids, now!

A Ho-Hum Weekend...NOT!

Thursday, we headed to the first home our older kids knew...Binghamton, NY!

Finding frogs in Grandma's pond...

He-e-e-e-ere Froggy, Froggy, Froggy!

Me and my girl hangin' out bythe pond! (Just puh-lease don't get pond water on me! Ick!)

Then it was off to Spiedie Fest! One of our favorite things to do in Binghamton!

We picked up an extra kid along the way... lol... isn't that the scariest mannequin you have ever seen?

These are Butterfly Potatoes...sort of fries and chips all in one. This stack was about 4" tall, I left my foot in the picture for a reference, I don't normally eat with my feet.

Up.....

Up.....

and AWAY!

My favorite balloon this year!

... and this is what we do when the ride is OVER.... ...and this is what we do when the little 'ride-running man' falls for the crocodile tears and gives us another ride, ON THE HOUSE!

...more balloons....

...then we stood in line in 90 degree weather for half a lifetime a little while and met Demi Lovato (co-star of CAMP ROCK on the Disney Channel)

...and we almost died in a lightening storm braved the weather during the second half of the day to meet Mitchel Musso from Hannah Montana!

...and then Mommy pretended to have camera problems so she could stare just a little bit longer at a beautiful hunk o' man Ace from American Idol happened upon our picnic and we got to meet him, too!

So, how's that for a weekend? Not too shabby, huh?!