Guess!

Flipping through my photos this morning, I see that one of my girls tried to document our morning of errand running... Can you guess where we were and which girl was keeping me company?

















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Sounded Easy...

While snuggling a baby of the 4 pound variety at work late one night, I came across a cute craft that the girls and I could do together for their teachers. It sounded easy...

Reflecting on it now, as I am finally finishing at nearly 9:30 however....

Here is what we did:

First I located helpers




Assistant chef and designated egg cracker (cracking all eggs into a small separate bowl making shell retrieval easier).



Quality assurance officer. Assuring the quality of the cake batter. And the frosting.




We filled 5 wide mouth mason jars 1/2 full with red velvet cake batter and baked.

The cakes didn't stick, but they didn't "just shake out" as the creator of this craft claimed. Mommy had to use butter knife forceps to deliver the tight cakes. A true dystocia. Resulted in several poor outcomes. Daddy giggled at the irony of it.




Finally we have jars of cake layered parfait-style with cream cheese icing and dark chocolate fudge and tied up with little bows and a ... spoon!



The tops are decorated with a snapshot of the assistants assisting. A bigger task than I had anticipated, but worth the effort. I hope they like!!


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Love In My Heart

These are actually recent Squeaks from Mia...

After an exhausting argument with Ali, in which Ali declared in defeat,"I'm just a horrible girl! The worst sister in the whole world!" Mia burst into the bedroom with her eyes full of tears and said, "Oh no Ali! I have love in my heart for you!" It was so sincere and sweet- I love those moments!

Tonight after bringing her sister a drink of water (with extra ice, because that's how Ali likes it), I heard Mia say, "You're welcome. See? That's why it's good to have a middle sister."

Dear little Meesha Meatball- thank you for being our special yellow-haired middle sister! You bless us every day and your Mommy has love in her heart for you too! I just might squeeze you till your eyes POP OUT!!


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Running Cub

Let the end of the year programs and parties begin! Today was the summation of the 2010-2011 Running Club-

Amelia
Miles logged: 23
#1 Preschool runner!!
"The best part of Running Club was getting treats and charms (for running necklace)"

Natalie
Miles logged: 30
One of the top 2nd grade girl runners
"The best part of Running Club was getting to spend extra time with my friends."







(let the record show the spicy attitude I have spoken of previously.)



Moosey enjoyed the ceremony from her usual perch in the pink stroller while applying multiple layers of chocolate to her face.

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Hot and Steamy: A Product Review

For the last 3 years I have teetered on the verge of renting a jack hammer and demolishing the ceramic tile that covers nearly half the floor in my home.  It was dirty and hard to clean.  I managed with a Swiffer Wet Jet, but that seemed to only make matters worse.  The cleaner left a residue and the grout got progressively blacker.  Yuck!  When I got to the point of desperation (or to the point of intense nesting, which I've done a few times), I have actually spent entire days on hands and knees with a scrub brush.  I hated that stupid tile!  This spring I finally convinced Joe that his wife needed a professional: either a professional floor cleaner or a metal health professional because the floor was driving me CrAzY. 

A very nice neighbor who also happens to be a floor cleaning professional saved me from being institutionalized by cleaning my floor and educating me about STEAM MOPS.

I don't usually fall for a cleaning product, but I have nothing but affection for this lovely little mop.  If I could attach a song to this post (... sugar.. da da da da da da, oh, honey, honey...)  I would.  This little baby is amazing and suddenly my tile floors and I are friends! 

Pros:  no cleaner, no chemicals, just water!  It cleans and sanitizes in one step!  It doesn't push all that dirty water into the grout!  Nothing is disposable - it's very eco-friendly!  It doesn't smell - at all! One tank of water does my whole house!  It really leaves the floor clean!  You don't have to wait for the floor to dry - my girls actually follow me around while I clean the floors because it doesn't leave them wet at all!  You can actually hear and see the clouds of steam bursting forth and attacking the sticky apple juice spills!  I. can't. stop. mopping. 

Cons: it cleans with very hot steam, so if you have crawlers or chubby little bare feet about, you might need to find something else to do until the kiddos are napping before you get your mop-fix.  If you are one of those people who really needs things wet and scrubby to consider them clean, this might not do it for you. It sorta leaves wood floors streaky (my sister expirimented). 

Oh mop!  Where have you been my whole life?! 

Parenting Frustrations

If you've ever had a conversation with me, chances are that the subject of my children came up and you probably listened politely while I shared something funny they did, or something witty they said or something charming that occured between them.  You may have been left with the impression that my Cuties are precious angels and that their mother is infinately patient, kind and wise. 

If you could see my face right now, you'd be reassured, however, that my Cuties are regular normal little kids and I am NOT "mother of the year". 

For your blog-reading enjoyment, here is my face.  Right now. 

We have the average day-to-day struggles that land us in time-out.  No biggie.  Then there are the things that really press our buttons and push us to our parental limit; back-talking, defiance, full out screaming tantrums, to name a few.  And it's not just the kids' behaviors, but the parents' reactions.  We actually got to the point recently that Joe and I felt it necessary to spend an entire Saturday at a Love and Logic seminar.  Which was very helpful. 

The real challenge lately has been our darling seven-year-old and her behavior at school.  It started with a report one evening of "inappropriate talking" sent home in her binder.  Okay, no big deal.  We even told the darling seven-year-old that everyone is afforded a reminder from time to time.  By the third report of "inappropriate talking" in the same week, we conferenced with the child's teacher and took away the privilege of riding bikes to school. 

I know that parents have dealt with worse. But we think every kid has their own capabilities and should have their own individual expectations. We know what this little girl is capable of and she knows what the expectation is.  We try to teach our kids that this family is a "team". Nobody gets paid an allowance to do chores around here.  Mommy doesn't necessarily like staying up all night long at work, but that's one of her contributions.  School-age children in this house are students, and going to school is one of the ways they contribute. 


So the following week we received more behavior reports culminating with an incident last Friday in the cafeteria involving our darling seven-year-old, a carton of milk, a straw and a wet classmate....
I am very pleased to report that this parental unit suppressed the urge to rant, ask rhetorical questions, yell, and otherwise flap about like a rabid parakeets and rather made a very long, comprehensive, list of housework to be completed and issued the following decree (which I was VERY proud of):

"Second graders who can not follow

classroom rules and identify appropriate behaviors and

appropriate times for conversation

will be accompanied to school

by their sweats-wearing, glasses-wearing, coffee-drinking,

frowning and displeased mother

who will quietly sit beside the offending student

and offer public reminders of appropriate

classroom behavior as needed

since the student can not seem to manage

this task independently."

To this was added Amendment A:

"Offending student will then be required

to complete all the household chores

upon arriving home after school that the

displeased mother was unable to accomplish

due to babysitting second-grader

 at school all day."

Like I said, very pleased with myself and my parenting capabilities - until darling second-grader came home with a report of "inappropriate talking" tonight.  So I will be spending Friday morning, when I should otherwise be resting in anticipation of work or studying in anticipation of exams, babysitting my seven-year-old at school.  All for the sake of effective discipline and follow-through.  And to assure my seven-year-old that, indeed, her mother is crazy and will make good on her promises. 

Please refer to the picture of my face at the beginning of this post.  

A Good Squeak

"Just like Santa Claus. I'm the 'Eye in the Sky'."


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Count Your Blessings

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African Cats

It should come as no surprise that my Cuties (one in particular) went wild when they saw the trailer for the new Disney documentary called African Cats!

We took advantage of a rainy Sunday, traded Eva for cousin James, clipped on our tiger tails and headed to the theater!







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