You can put that trophy right over --------> HERE

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, one of Those Days. The kind of day that lasted forever, when I felt like a bad employee, a bad mom, like this upper respiratory thing is never going to go away ...

The day started off relatively well, with the boys not arguing about getting ready to go to school. The only small (and not entirely unusual) blemish on the morning was how groggy I was ... slow to start! But then my work day was a real killer, and I unexpectedly needed to work late AND needed to pick up all three boys (at two different schools many miles apart). Those three things don't mesh well.

I worked until the absolute last second that I could, then raced out the door at 5:30. I picked up the big boys a few seconds before closing time at 5:59, then we raced back down the mountain to pick Jake up by 6:30. By the time we picked up my prescriptions at Walgreen's (because you know Mam-maw has to have all her pills for the morning-time), we were 7:00 getting home.

Not terrible for a normal night. But AWFUL for a night on which Nathaniel had to 1) study for today's spelling test, and 2) make a 3-D teepee to turn in today; and on which Nicholas had to 1) do his reading homework, and 2) make a 3-D teepee because he was totally jealous of Nathaniel's; and on which I had to bake two dozen cupcakes to turn in this morning for the school bake sale.

And oh. Sometimes my children like to eat supper, too.

So we came home and Nathaniel and I sat down to start the teepee. (Thank goodness he'd written the required accompanying report on it on Wednesday night.) It only took us about 20 minutes from start to finish, which wasn't bad.

Um, who knew Elmer's Glue doesn't dry clear? NOT I. We were rather liberal with it when building our fire and then stacking some extra kindling nearby. I suppose we can always pretend it's snow.

Nathaniel pulled some extra twigs off of our backyard crape myrtle, which we attached as trees near the teepee. (And HI, Raid Yard Guard, which we haven't used since April! Nice to see you still hanging out there on the counter.)

Nathaniel did a great job cutting out red and orange triangles to make the fire.

I had to secure the trees, because they were stubborn little buggers. But I have to say: I think I could totally ACE 2nd grade the second time around, y'all. I can get my craft ON.

Sometime in the middle of our Expert Craftsman Session, Grayson came home and threw some Spaghettios in bowls for the boys. Meanwhile, I started baking with the groceries he'd brought home so that we could fulfill our Bake Sale Obligations today.

I would love to have made a cake from scratch, but I just didn't have it in me. I went with cupcakes (yellow cake and strawberry cake), and I realized I'd have enough of each flavor left over to make a little two-layer cake for the boys. I used my fluted DeMarle flex mold, which I luh-huv. Behold, layer 1, yellow cake:

So I iced the first layer ...

... and then I grabbed some of these.

And I threw them on top. Because I figured the boys would LOVE to find sprinkles between the layers.

And then I added the second (strawberry cake) layer, iced the whole thing and added more sprinkles on top.

They might even forgive me for not being able to sit down and have supper with them, tuck them in or do much of anything else with them last night.

Oh, except for the fact that Nicholas wanted soooooooo badly to build a teepee, too ... and you know. Why NOT add another teepee to the evening? He started it by cutting out logs and two pieces of "fire." He asked me to finish it.

After I finished icing everything, I obliged.

I even added "smoke" to his fire.

Can you see it? Guess what it is.

Yeah. That would be a little tuft of Scout's fur. I pulled it off one of the sofa cushions. Then I got worried that Nathaniel would be upset that Nick got smoke and he didn't, so I went looking for more. And usually there would be plenty more where that came from, but since I just vacuumed the couch (OH OK YOU CAUGHT ME; I just used the redneck's lint brush, a piece of clear packing tape, WHICH TOTALLY WORKS LIKE A CHARM BY THE WAY), there wasn't any more fur readily available.

So now I'm just hoping Nathaniel doesn't notice.

But anyway, I added a little tree squirrel sticker to Nick's tree.

Which made me feel like Nathaniel's was now lacking, so I added a snake sticker beside his teepee ...

... and a bird in one of his trees.

And of course then I started obsessing over whether or not he'd think that was too "girly" when he woke up today.

Which is EXACTLY the type of troubled mental state you should have expected to find me in at the end of last night. But I must say that the happy smiles and the "thank yous" that I was rewarded with this morning were well worth the late night and the stick and sticker obsession. Mom of the Year?

Maybe there's still hope for me, yet.