Gifts of love for September

This month has been a special time in celebrating with family and in that it means gifts too. Thanks to Pinterest I am inspired nearly everyday to make or do different things. Here is what we gave:

From this:  click to see, and this http://pinterest.com/pin/84301824245154057/

To this:

Then a birthday present for my faraway bestie. From these:
First click, (except ours said 21 reasons which is particularly fun with oldest having 6 fingers on one hand) and Second click,

Then for son's annual bday bonfire:
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179016400593/
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179016400775/
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179016315250/

Husband made this but I opted to save it for family olympics next year:
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179015521722/


As a thank you for our Annabeth's kind pageant sponsor:
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179016547887/

Now we are working on another family bday (G):
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179015940517/
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179015708391/

The fun just never ends right?!

Healthy eating, kid style

Notice which kid has eaten the least too.
Ugh!! That child!!

My kids are so used to me and all my shenanigans of systems, competitions etc. The thing that makes this trial amazing to me is that I did nothing but show it to them. I suppose the curiosity of the 4 papers I carried to our breakfast table together turned upside down did all the work. I even had to reprimand my oldest from cheating and checking them out ahead of the game.

At the moment I flipped them over the questioned me. Is this only for Saturdays? Can we have more than 1 sweet a day? When can we have more than one? What happens if we eat more protein, fruit, veg etc? On and on and on they continued. In fact at our late lunch/early dinner they brought it up again, checking over each other's plates. That then inspired Annabeth to make a trip back to the Chinese buffet and retrieve 2 servings of veggies.
I couldn't be more thrilled that it was this easy to make them all aware of what they are eating. It has helped me also. Funny how a sense of direction makes all the difference. Check out littlest chosen lunch, it met all the food groups (even though she ate all the carrots so you can't see them).

If you are wondering just where I found this awesome chart check out this link  click here

Pinterest Hair Bow style

I am proud to say that there are MANY Pinterest projects I have followed through and completed. It feels like a true accomplishment to hit the DELETE pin button because I don't need it anymore :)

Dearest oldest daughter has always loved me to style her hair but as a non-girly girl this is all new to me too. I have gotten braver enough to go out on a limb and try random things this being a positive addition to my repertoire.
Check it out yourself:

10 minutes of peace please...

On the only weeknight where this Momma of 4 and no more gets to come home after teaching kids all day it is no surprise I had a few expectations in mind. My day while sprinkled with pleasant positive moments also held many frustrating roll with the punches kind of challenges too. These days hubby enjoys (or is reduced too) taking care of the household tasks like cleaning and cooking coupled with a large amount of projects set aside for such a time as this. Meanwhile I have switch roles and work 3 more than part time jobs. This is a mixed blessing because while, letting go of my supermom cape difficult often and a relief sometimes has been required. My #3 seems to be taking it the worst and I am for certain working on rectifying that with other quality moments, yet day-to-day leaves him a bit left out.

This night was another one of those opportunities when I had to choose between seeing the boys or letting Daddy do the chauffeur job and I took the girls home. As much as I longed to snuggle with my most chivalrous son I relented to the evening at home being the best option overall. Upon arrival littlest retrieved the puppy on loan from G next door and I arranged for cheese bread cooking via oldest daughter. As I donned by running clothes and Ipod the garage door opened. A loud "BANG" startled me into awareness just as I heard the words, "Mommy come quick Dottie is hurt!". A deep sigh and instant rushing the door we head to the baby dog together. There she is lying in the grass a slight whimper can be heard. I scoop her up and spend the next 7 minutes coaxing a description of just what happened out of the nervous curly haired beauty. She is passionate about her many, many answers that dodge the real deal. Yet finally, patiently I manage to determine that while carrying her the wiggly fur ball she fell jumped loose and landed on the rocks/ground. As Dottie attempted to still play she limped too and I decided to take her home so MAYBE just maybe I would actually get my run in.

Chaos averted kinda I was off for my alone time. Now you must understand that this time is something that I spend 1/2 to 1/3 of arguing all the reasons why I simply cannot continue taking any further strides and how I will let down my dear friend when I run the upcoming 5K. Ridiculous as this sounds it is the truth of my thought process. Today though, beautiful today as the sky turns a deeper shade of black with an impending doom of storms I hear from God. I am reminded that the topic of study with my Flight (Gifted) kids is the Olympics. If you look up the creed of the Olympics you will see it is that the most important thing is NOT to win but to take part. Perhaps this is why it had such an integral role in my Summer. I was drawn to it, inspired by it and quite frankly consumed as a whole. Dear God, how did I miss this? My revelation makes me smile and forget that I am in fact exude any energy at all.

The most important thing is to take part, NOT win.
I do NOT need to be Supermom, wife, teacher, dispatcher, wife, preschool coordinator or friend. I only need to walk in the footsteps God has called me meeting HIS expectations of me which are not a comparison of ANYONE I know!! WOW! Finally, I make it back to my doorstep and enter into a uneventful household. Littlest is lying in my bed quite possibly still traumatized by the puppy harming moments stating she is sick and needs the before mentioned creature to snuggle with her and make her feel better. Reassuring her I will retrieve the fluffy friend just after I take a shower. I used the term shower hoping that this would not induce a visit from her. We no longer have party in the shower together moments these days. BUT well, the running of a bath sounds extremely different than the shower and if wonders never cease the door creaked open seconds after the faucet turned on. Negotiations begin to little avail and I get in anyway. Under my breath I murmur, "10 minutes, just give me 10 minutes please."

Attempt #1 send her on an errand. She is stealth like and arrives almost as fast as she left. Next I inform that she can in fact take a bath but AFTER I get out. Adding a multi step direction of pj's, toys, pink girly soap and more ALL located elsewhere gives me about 2 minutes at most. Determined to never give in a quickly start the book Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. He writes about audacious faith. Audacious being a word I know but am grateful he defines. In just 2 minutes I am inspired and perturbed because OF COURSE a little person is back. Her little hands splashing in my tepid bath water. I ask her to turn the tv in my room off. I tell her to visit her sister and see what she is watching. I remind her to close the door which remains closed for mere seconds anyway. I holler for her to turn the tv down and off which keeps coming back on. We go back and forth in the trial of Mommy time. Big sister appears and ask if she can take a bath. Seriously child you are 9 1/2!! Last I checked she has been running her own baths for YEARS! UGH!

Trying, Lord really I was trying to withhold my frustration with her but like a teapot filled with water on a hot stove the bubbling had begun. I raised my voice and sternly repeated, "I want 10 minutes ALONE, now!" Although I didn't yell she knew my tone. Long silence and direct eye contact in a wage of war she said nothing but spoke VOLUMES!

In my head I was chanting, I am the mom I can stay calm. I am the mom I CAN stay calm. Firecracker that she is KNEW I wasn't about to escort her from the room. But I also didn't have to entertain her presence. Taking the book in my dry hand I raised it to a comfortable level, scooted myself to a comfortable position for my neck and read. I read, and reread the 8 pages in the first chapter but nevertheless I read it. 6 pages in, splashes, chatter, and more she exits. YES! 1 Page from completion and the phone rings. I lay motionless awaiting the inevitable. Loud thumping of footsteps are felt are heard. The words, "Mommy is in the shower but I will check if she is done," cause me to set the book down safe from water and prepare to take the phone. The door opens and she hands it to me. I assure the caller that I am not in the shower (its my mom so  no need to feel inappropriate) and am getting out of the bath anyway.

Mom 0
4 and no more 123,999

Is 10 minutes of quiet really this hard to attain? I suppose I can count 13 years, 10 months, and 26 days until I am an empty nester. Then the quiet rarely ends. Man, that is not very long from now folks. I have been a parent for 12 years and 1 month as I type this right now. Goodness I am halfway there...certainly this puts everything in perspective for sure!!

Todays finding special in the everyday

If there is one thing my kids will recall from their childhood it sure is my many attempts at making life special. Not only special but meaningful too. Some things last longer than others, and many days the effort feels useless but well at least I try.
There were behavior systems in the form of baby food jars with smile and frown faces moving marbles back and forth (prepinterest so this was MY idea), sticker chart, clips and coins. There has also been special time for each child marked on the calendar with a gold star. There are chore sticks, assigned dishwasher days and  electronic privilege time. Contest for polite words, and behavior outside of the house, races to complete mundane tasks, game nights and family meals are just the beginning of all that I instill. I could continue on but you get the point. Each idea met a specific need at the time and most worked well until they too grew weary like the kids.
While my latest concept was shown in a recent pinterest troll I do not give credit to the random pinner. I actually used this technique in my 5th grade classroom for a few kids who needed to speak in a safe confidential place. It worked very well and the notebook stayed in their backpack so the parent could see what was being said by child and myself the teacher. But when I first watched the movie Freedom Writers it set home that this could work for my own kids. Now of course in all things no person responds the same so to what extent it shall work is quite another thing. But well here goes..

Last night I handed out these pretty little journals. I of course called them notebooks as to keep my eldest son who despises writing interested. In the first page I wrote a silly rhyming paragraph. Each started with Me to you, you to me this is how I want to be. From there the rest was individualized but light and funny. 3 out of the 4 begged to read theirs and seemed thrilled.
I explained that they can write for fun, they can write because they  are bored AND they can write if something is bothering them. I added that we don't ever have to talk out loud about what they write too.
SO my thrilled eldest daughter hurried off to bed to write back in hers. This morning to my surprise youngest son also wrote in his. The sad part is both of them wrote about a frustration and not for fun but I am thankful that they have an outlet for such. Here's to this being a custom we continue for days, weeks and maybe even years to come.

Smoothies, shakes and cookies you bake

My oldest daughter is an A type personality there really is no doubt. I hate how she waivers from kind to ruthless from time to time but well we all have things we need to work on. Yet when she gets in a mode she follows it through until she has figured it completely out. This time it is in the area of chef. This year alone she has made me breakfast in bed, lunch and dinner on more than one occasion. Most of the time none of these were personally cooked, more like put together. But this month all that has changed. First she got an urge to make smoothies. Like her mother she did not seek a recipe but well "winged" it. I profess no education in my guessing. I usually am educated as in I take the time to look up a legitimate recipe but well then I replace, adjust or extract. Not her, she took a stab in the dark and mostly bombed but got a few good smoothie concoctions out of it all. Then she followed a magazine idea that I have in my foods to make binder. Here you see vanilla yogurt with cereal, raisin, chocolate chips, and skittles. It was not the best on bite number one but after that it was good enough for me to finish. I after all never finish something I do not like so that is an honest compliment.

Today came the need to make milkshakes. She really loves ice cream even though she dislikes milk. Again she did not want to explore the actual plans others used in making one. Nope she simply insisted she knew, needed me to buy a specific kind of ice cream. This time little bro got involved taking orders and serving taste tests asking for more customers. When everyone had their fill and the duo requested still more people to order I asked for the steak cooked and marinating in the oven. Yay for me cause dinner it bed it was!









Lastly, the up and coming chef dreamed with me options for her next attempt. Scanning Pinterest at that time this is what I walked her through. click here to see
I have to give her kudos for knowing how to set up and operate the beater. Unrolling the crescent rolls and rolling them back up required my
assistance but overall pretty excellent job!

Flashback to the past entertainment style

Hard to believe this was 4 months away from 2 years ago! My how the kids have grown, and well then again stayed the same. For example the girls, well they still have the most fun dancing together except not so little littlest gets her turn in the routines now.
The two additional kiddos belong to my dear friend Lisa. Funny how life gets so busy you don't see people as much as you would like. Enjoy the adorable, I know it made me crack up!! None of them are long so check them out.


Fashion show fanatics

Dance off

Show me your moooves

Christmas break 2011 was so much fun don't ya think?

Olympic inspiration

While I am on a video posting mode let me show what spending zillions of hours viewing and streaming the Olympics did for the kids...

click here

There of course was plenty of racing, and shot put style throwing, long jumping and more but none of those were captured on camera. Its such a bummer it will be 2 more years before the kids can get pumped to move like this again! But Winter Olympics is a bit tougher to copy too...

How about you?

Summertime horse lessons

Last year the kids ALL took horse lessons with G-MA on a regular schedule. This year though besides it being 100 to 110 for weeks Foxy (the oldest horse) is now 28 and needs more rest than before. Yet through all that 2 kids out of the 6 were motivated enough to monitor the weather and take advantage of any available time. Here you see K riding. Take note that this video was taken after she had actually fallen off of Foxy when she got startled. It was great to see her get right back up again and trust that G-ma nor I would ask her to do so if she wasn't safe. Look for me to add a video of littlest doing this herself soon. She is really the only one who asks to ride daily throughout the year.

cousin K riding video

Calming crafts

Although I already made these for my preschool kiddos the bigger ones at home made their own request to have their turn. All you need is clear tacky glue, Walmart is the cheapest at 1.97 each with Michaels being a whole dollar more each, next water bottle. I recommend collecting or using a soda bottle instead simply because they use thicker plastic than many earth friendly water bottles. Lastly, you need glitter. The original post I got this idea from (pinterest of course) said ultra fine glitter. I didn't look too hard for mine and used what I had at home so not too sure it is actually ultra fine.

First, you turn the water on to hot then fill the bottle about 3/4th full. Next you add 3/4 of a bottle of glue to the 20oz bottle though you are welcome to play around with the amount of glue. I believe the more glue the longer it takes for the glitter to settle. I didn't spend too much time trying to add more glue and glitter to adjust.
Last after you have added the glue and swirled away from the very top of the bottle then add your glitter. We used about a 1/2 small tube, though a bit more seemed better as the kids adjusted or mixed colors too. Really the most important part is hot water with the glue.
To complete shake it all up so the glitter attaches to the glue and surprise you have one of the most fun finished products!
(Funny that the children who were in the pictures are niece and nephew as we did this during electronic time).





The other craft that was completely spur of the moment was balloon shapes. I am not quite sure where I acquired an air pump for making these balloons but K started the creativity. As you can see she made flowers, then there were Olympic colored rings next along with several random things other kids made. Well, that was before the "boys" primarily my two decided popping destroying the creations was the best fun of all.  Sigh, that pretty much ended the calming factor in this weeks fun.

Cooking with boys

Ah yes... I realize that one cannot stereotype boys but at the same time if you know my oldest son you TOTALLY get the assumptions. While he is consumed with the intimate details of anything he is passionate about (Star Wars, Tornado's, Weather really, Titantic, the color purple), he is the farthest thing from detailed otherwise. Structure and order absolutely but details not so much. I can't say as I blame him because in the cooking department I am the same. My niece even has learned that leaving something out, modifying or measuring as approx is my style. We say "Cooking with Aunt Elizabeth" and smile.
Lunch is an excellent time for the kids to expand their horizons in the learning to cook department because it is flexible on time. Therefore today when oldest son wanted the white cheddar pasta I informed him he was perfectly capable to do it himself. Clenched fist later he retrieved the box set it down and promptly asked me what to do next. Sigh... clearly this is gonna take a bit. Once he read the box I had to explain what boiling meant, the temperature necessary and reading the following sentence for details needed on the current step.

That done, he managed to break off the handle. Holy cow kid! Deep sigh, cheesy grin and smile from him I figured out how to turn it off and still use it since the handle wouldn't snap back on. This of course ensured that I would have to participate from close up and not afar. More reading of directions then dictionary use to understand what the word frequently means (yep I am that evil to make them all look up since no one but me understood) he finally was at a point he could wait for it to cook.  HA! The seasoning packet looks like it exploded with powder on the floor and counter.A quick lesson in stirring so not to splash and making sure no sticking occurs he attempts to leave the kitchen.  This was our only box so I knew better than let him learn the life lesson of burning food for fear that tragedy and bad attitude the entire do would consume. Again discussion about focus and detail we are nearing the end of the journey. 

Sadly, I didn't take a picture of him with his final product. Hindsight is 20/20 of course. I will say all his siblings begged to get a taste and rated it a 10 out of 10. Maybe next time I will show him how to make it from scratch..... nah!

A new game at bedtime

Obviously not at bedtime
but a cute pic of the 4 and no more

Bedtime is the true ONLY time a day when we come together as a family for one cause. No matter what happens in the day there are at least 4 to 6 nights a week we read devotions together and pray together. It is also the near only time that I spend a few minutes completely alone with each child. My youngest sweet firecracker has a laughing game we play. It is random when it happens or she requests it but I love that it is like a medicine to the soul. How do you play it you ask? Well... we laugh. But not just a ha ha ha tight lipped laugh. Oh no, we will call "CHEATING" loudly on whomever does it. You simply must laugh open mouthed and from deep in your abdomen. This is the kind that once you start it infects the whole room, sometimes even house and you can't stop at all. But in the game we make as serious a face as possible, well her serious faces are so darn funny that I break the rules and laugh too soon. Yet we pause mid laughter to take in the silence... to wait for the other person to surprise you and start laughing. Sometimes it tis I, other times baby girl but it always ends in me forgetting whatever it was that frustrated me throughout the day.
I LOVE this game!

With #3 it seems he needs to whisper and be in on a secret of sorts. I suppose the middle child syndrome of feeling left out makes this game most fun. It only happens when Daddy is not home though because otherwise I have to contend with his vegetable like game of pretending to be asleep in his bed. But on these rare nights we whisper (with littlest nearby trying her best to get in on the fun since she shacks up with little big bro) we enjoy the trickery. Most of the time the "secret" is merely what we will do the next day, or what we will have for breakfast/dinner. But tonight it was a true bonifide secret... a planned family camp-out in the living room ALL 6 of us, heck maybe 8 since K and C are staying Friday night. Can you hear the song "Memories" playing right now?
Tonight, though... after all that tonight I added a new game to the mix. If you consider the 5 love languages
click here to see what yours are then you know that kids people need varied ways of love expressed to them. While I KNOW for a fact my oldest daughter is strongly on physical touch I also KNOW that my youngest son and daughter probably have words of affirmation in their needs. Truly what female possibly male doesn't need a compliment or two that is genuine from time to time. I digress sorry, a bright idea popped in to my head to play the word game. I begun with youngest (certain that younger big bro was now paying attention and included just like Bubba, his nickname, several times) "You are _______". She in turn was to return the compliment of her own for me. We went back and forth till she struggled with ideas which wasn't too terribly long after all she is only 4. But it was sweet to hear her words choices such as nice, beautiful and huggy. Intending to do this with oldest daughter I make my way to her room next.

Dearest daughter was awaiting my entrance. She, like her sister, looks forward to it most and gets very grizzly bear mom on anyone who even considers knocking at her door when it is her turn. I snuggled up next to her just like she prefers and I intro the game. She says ok and gets a bit serious possibly because this requires thought and we all know she hates to lose. I do NOT know where she gets THAT from??? :)
Anyway, we go back and forth lasting a good 5 minutes. I begin to pause myself on word choice. She said You are tall for me LOL seriously, but I am also faithful, pretty, loving, kind. She asked what dedicated and devoted meant, her vocabulary has to have grown this summer with the daily (truly every single day) questions on meanings of words. I do believe this game will pop up often just so when others in the world tell her words less than admirable she will hear my voice repeating the real truth.

 Oldest son well had already hit a nerve by being frozen in my room with the silly Battle Pirates game he and his dad play together. Tonight we will not partake in this game. Something tells me he will struggle with it a bit more than the girls.. course he NEVER proves to be someone you can fit into a standard sized box so we shall see. To be continued there...

Salt water taffy

This week we visited Six Flags twice so there wasn't as much time for creativity. But today, well today we made up for it. Salt water taffy was one of the many items I clipped from pinterest. I would be happy to link up for the author but it appears the site doesn't exist anymore? If you search summer of fun on the site you will find it pinned tons but the link takes you nowhere. I am so glad I downloaded it right away.
Anyway, the recipe in itself is fairly easy. I had to purchase a 3.97 candy thermometer and light corn starch other than that I had the ingredients readily accessible. But if you want variety you could pick up flavored extracts (candy flavoring too). We just used vanilla this time.

I learned what a pastry brush it today. I think this worked just fine
though. Well, except I despise wood utensils!!

Salt Water Taffy
¾ cup water 2 cups sugar
1¼ cups light corn syrup 1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter Flavoring and coloring as desired*
*(1 teaspoon vanilla or desired amount of peppermint extract, lemon extract or other flavorings; a drop or two of red, yellow, green or blue food coloring.)
Combine water, sugar, corn syrup and salt in a heavy non-reactive saucepan, and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise heat and cook quickly, about 20 minutes, without stirring. Use a pastry brush dipped in cold water to brush down the sides of the pan to keep the mixture from crystallizing. Watch the boil carefully so the taffy does not burn. When a candy thermometer reads 265 degrees, remove the pan from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter, flavorings and colorings and stir gently.
Pour the taffy in three pieces onto a cookie sheet that has been generously buttered. When it is cool enough to handle, but still warm, have the kids rub butter on their hands, partner up, take a lump of taffy and pull and stretch it. (Don't allow the taffy to become completely cool or it will harden and become difficult to pull.) As they stretch out the taffy, twist it into a rope, bring the ends together, grab the loop and stretch it again. On the last few pulls, keep the strand smooth and not twisted.

Lay the taffy strand down on a buttered sheet of waxed paper. Lightly rub butter on a pair of kitchen scissors (a job for an adult) and cut the taffy into 1-inch, bite-sized pieces. Wrap each piece of candy in small squares of waxed paper and twist the ends.
You can get creative by pressing together two thin strands of different colored taffy, pulling them once together and then cutting them into pieces for a two-toned taffy. Or come up with different ways of rolling up a strand of taffy in a different colored piece of taffy to experiment with different patterns.

Photos courtesy of youngest son M.
He didn't want to stretch any of it.

This was when we got frustrated with it sticking to wax paper so K made it into a heart. She formed valves and all.
Then both girls pretended it was their heart with jokes and all.

*Now I "may" have put a tad but more vanilla than 1tsp but not more than 1 and 1/2. I didn't see the measurement when we did it so I thought it said to taste. Also, I added more than a drop or two of food coloring. The color I chose spilled out since it was not a dropper making it more than 6 or 7 drops. Otherwise we followed the recipe to a T with the kids bailing on waiting for it to get to 265 degrees. I was left on candy detail during that time.
The only complaint we have is that it was super duper sticky on your teeth. The kids were cracking me up trying to suck on it to prevent the sticky which made them sound like they had dental work done. The laughter during the wrapping and mumbling was priceless. I do hope it wasn't the extra vanilla or food coloring that did the sticky part. I just can't ever truly follow a recipe it seems.
*Last tip too...make sure to coat the wax paper with butter so the taffy doesn't stick to it when you set down to cut and when you wrap. We ended up throwing half of it away cause it hardened quickly and there was not generous buttering on the paper.

This is what was left after we ate some, tossed some and set some aside for K & C. 

Eh we live and learn and make memories to boot too :)

Indoor / Outdoor day ideas

Zebra, horse, monkey
spider and lion
(the giraffe refused again)

What do you do when it has been 100 + temps for 9 days? You find fun things to do indoors and then you play in the water some more! With 6 kids around during the week I am ALL about inexpensive fun that can be shared. There are zillions of places to find ideas of these things, online and in magazines that is. But another place I end up getting lucky is the dollar stores (Deals and otherwise) in the area. At Valentine's day I came across these self inflating balloons you only needed to hit them to start. Super cool science fun on that one. But this time I stumbled upon these handpuppets/hanimals tattoos. So sorry that I forgot to snap a shot of the package before we tossed it. But they were located right at the checkout station for the last minute temptation purchase. Ding, Ding.. they won and it was worth the 3 dollars I spent. I even have some left over for a future date.

Best buds for life I do hope

Next, there has been TONS of pool time as with every summer. But to twist things up a bit we also headed out to a desolate place called Zachary's Park. This is an excellent place to visit early in the day in less than desert temps. But in the heat of the day any given day the playground equipment could easily give you 3rd degree burns. When we arrived with our 50 cent soda's (thank you Mobil on the Run for this Cardinals inspired promotion) and picnic lunch there was one other group of kids there. They hardly interfered with us and we were all alone shortly.
It was one or both of the bigger girls ideas to get extremely wet and then head to a slide or two. Their first idea worked pretty well and without complaint but after the first slide the dried enough to need something more. So.... add a towel and off they went again. I say they excluded my oldest son and birthday boy of course. I mean age 12 does equal party pooper!!

Look at that face! :)

Love the expressions!

I love the faces I was able to capture in these pics too!! Course this special slide caused the towel to roll up so they got even more brave, re-wetted themselves and tried a bigger piece of equipment further away. I probably should have pressed them to wear shoes but well, kids are kids. A few hot feet complaints later they slid just one time each like Aladdin with their towels and that was it for the slide playtime.
We all kind of hovered about the water area until I went to the restroom to change into my swimsuit. These temps are warm enough for me to enjoy the cool water, amazing I know since it takes a lot for me to not be cold. I found all but oldest on the swings (with towels of course). I wish I could have heard what the topic of conversation was. That is always interesting. Anyway, we began playing a follow the leader type game with littlest and the girls when they boys (again all but 1) started playing. He didn't stay off the hook bday or not because he was forced to join. That game getting a bit old after 30 min, turned into red rover. I had to explain a few rules but we laughed away, and pretty much didn't get hurt :)

Precious!

The last part of the water fun is the best though, inspired by a bright orange bouncy ball and my dear niece. I am guessing oldest would have thought so himself and enjoyed the experimentation but again pouting boys miss out.
There are 2 spouts that work, 2 that do not. Also, there is a technique to getting the ball up higher than before. But this my friend's is well worth the effort to discover rather than me elaborating. I whole-heartedly recommend that you find your own splash pad fun soon. When you do make sure to bring along some bouncy balls of different colors, sizes and types too!

serious and well played

so intense skinny man

giggly baby girl, look at those little feet
this is the sign of her still being young for sure

Happy 12th bday dear son

Chef's the name, birthday is the game

It seems this summer is including daytrips and food. The calendar is filled with places to go and things to make thanks to the three aspiring chefs in the house (A, K and C that is). Yesterday though, well with the sweltering temps (it got to 110 I believe) we didn't make it very far for long. Instead we attempted to fry an egg. Though it didn't work it was fun to just plain try. I guess I will have to google some tips on that one.

This week it was Aunt K's bday so I suggested we make a treat for her too. My first suggestions was the cheesecake pops A has been wanting to make but that was overruled by niece. She seemed unsure if she liked cheesecake and then cake pops were born.

As with all cooking in my house there is not an exact bone in my body with measuring items. I simply do not enjoy cooking much so I suppose that is my subconscious way of bucking the system. Anyway, I once again made the cake recipe posted earlier reducing the sugar even more (still not enough). I recommend maybe a half cup really. Then we baked the cake like normal but upon removal from the oven we stirred about 1/3 of an icing container into the cake and rolled small balls. We then stuck the stick in them to cool. Once cool (per K's idea) we melted white chocolate and covered the balls helping "glue" the sticks in. This part was a bit tricky for K but she picked it up nicely. Then she arranged 14 of the best looking ones to decorate with the letters Happy Birthday. Sadly I failed her by realizing that there wasn't much left of the writing icing. We did what we could and it turned out just fine I think.

All the kids sampled the cake pops and even ate more than one. I think if I would have reduced the sugar to what I suggested above I may have done the same. Otherwise the one pop I tried was plenty for me. Well, that and the one on one time with K creating this dish is pretty priceless too.
To make it a 4th of July treat you could roll in red, white and blue melts too. Stay tuned for more of that fun this week!

Boys will be boys

On last Thursday we planned our stay at home day. Well, it was bike ride day but the temps were pretty darn hot so we switched it to Friday. In light of that I had to find a way to occupy my oldest son whom gravitates towards anything more than electronics when given a choice. Swimming works for a bit, especially on these warm day but well it doesn't fill 6 hours. Archery would have been an option too except one arrow is on the roof, and the other in the trees from said son.

So, I made the suggestion that he hammer a scrap piece of wood. Previously he tried to break a board and busted my picnic table into pieces in the process. Although a complete blue collar kinda kid case and point when he was 2 1/2 he refused to play in the snow. Standing still where I set him down he looked up squinting his eyes repeating the words "mess, mess" over and over. He rarely gets his hands dirty in any real work to this day (by choice) I am reminded the boy hormones still exist. Satisfied with the suggestion he headed to retrieve the wood somehow inspiring brother and cousin into joining. I made it a fair competition with a winner for all of a "free" (no snack shop purchase required) icee bar. They were sweet in encouraging each other along the way and learning techniques to be more thorough. Who knows this might serve to be a life lesson when they have to take apart something. Maybe that is a lofty thought too, but it got them active and smiling.