Making Us All Silly

Do you remember friendship beads? They were popular when I was in the fifth grade. I remember a boy Derek made me one and it had a red bead in the middle of some white ones. I took that as a sign of love. He would have used a more neutral color if he wasn't sending me a message of love. I was convinced. But, I was mistaken. Derek had his eyes on Nicola and I was just a good friend in the neighborhood.

The other day, Ryan got off of the bus and said he had to have Silly Bandz. What? What are they? He showed me his arm. On it was a rubbery bracelet that stretches into a shape. He was wearing an animal. A friend from the bus gave him one. He had to have them. Kids were trading them on the bus. He listed off the stores that had them and they were cheap. Surely, we could afford Silly Bandz.

So, like any sucker mother, I stopped into CVS, Walgreens and Borders. I had no luck. What would the package ever look like for a rubbery little bracelet? I tried to look cool and collected as I raced around every store breaking a sweat. No luck.

All of the moms on Facebook were helping each other find these all over town. One mom even had three extra packs and offered to share. That is mommy love. What a friend!

I eventually found ours online. With the baby, I was done visiting every store in town looking like a fool. I let the boys pick out some packages from the Sillybandz.com website. They were so excited. I remember sticker books, the jelly bracelets from the eighties and of course the friendship pins. I had to help them find the bracelets so they could remember trading them with their friends and creating memories.

So if your child has not mentioned Silly Bandz, get ready. They are coming to your school. I have included two pictures so you know what you are looking for. I know it is silly. But the kids were so excited. It was probably the best $5 I have spent in a long time.

Wake Up in the Morning Feeling Like P Diddy

Up all night.

Getting by on caffeine

Alcohol to soften the ages.

More sleepless nights.

Girls trip?

No. Another boring week in the life of a mommy with a baby.

But this schedule prepared me for my Vegas trip for 2010. I was really ready to get out. I needed to dance. I needed to let loose and I needed to have a great time. And we did.

In Vegas, I realized that I was in training for Vegas all year. I can get by with no sleep. I can stay up all night. No sleep in Vegas, no problem.

(In this photo: Sister, Sister, neighbor and me. This is before the orange dragons and martinis at Tao. It was a very calm dinner. Until the orange dragons kicked in.)

And here is a photo of me getting crazy at Lavo. We had the best time dancing the night away. Wouldn't change a bit of this trip.

We are going to party like ROCK STARS!

That was our anthem in Vegas. We were dead serious. It had been three years since our last girls trip to Vegas. My sisters and I meet our childhood neighbors there every year. We've added extra girls and some years we have a bunch of people. This year, we had four. We missed one of our neighbors but hope she can join us again next year when life works out a little better.

Rock stars have nothing on Moms. We are a strong group that can party with the best of them. We have been beaten up by the flu, mean mommies, tight jeans, mean teachers, sleepless days/nights and celebrities that are in shape one month after the birth of their baby. We can handle it all in Vegas. Dinner with celebrities (Chey from Chelsea Lately), too tight high heals, topless pool at the Wynn and even going to Hooters to see our favorite Vegas band Purple Reign. We can hang with the best of them. And the only question we had the day after we got home was "How many days until we can go back?" Nabe, we are down to 348. Forget Rock Stars. They got nothing on us.