Tuckered Out

Luke's been a little under the weather lately with a nasty cold. He fell asleep on Aron the other night when they were sitting down watching a video.

They're so cute!

Snow!

Crafter

We did a lot of crafting over the last 2 days, too. We finger painted many pictures and our fridge is currently covered with them. I may have to start farming them out family/friends because I don't want to throw them away but there are just too many for one fridge!

Me Likes Brownies

Luke has started referring to himself as "Me." I can't get him to say "Luke" but he will point to himself and say "Me." Is this the beginnings of a narcissistic personality?

House Bound

We've been stuck in the house for the last 2 days due to snow. The kids (mainly Ella but Luke did join in) thought it would be a good idea to take the cushions off the couch and play hopscotch on them. Ok, ok, so maybe Aron and I joined in the jumping but just for a little while. Ok, ok so we jumped on them for a half hour. Jeez, who hasn't jumped on their couch cushions with their kids when stuck inside for 2 days?

Baby, It's Cold Outside

We're getting a bunch of snow today (I think we're up to about 10 inches or so right now with more on the way). The kids decided to hunker down and watch some cartoons together in the chair. They're so cute.

It's also Myles' birthday today. Wooooooooooo! Happy Big 0-3, Buddy!

It's Just Another Manic Sunday!

Whew! We had a busy Sunday. On Saturday night about 10 or so, Aron was out in the laundry room trying to do a load of laundry when BOOM! our pipes burst! Thank goodness he was here when it happened because I have no idea where/how to turn off the water. So at 8:30 Sunday morning, the kids and I went to church while he went to Lowe's to try and get the right parts to replace the part of the line that burst. By the time we got home from church at about 11:15, he had completely fixed it BUT in the process of fixing the part that was broke, he broke another part. This other part he broke involved waaaaaaaaaay more fixing than what he had just fixed. He had me call my Dad for the name of a plumber but lo and behold, my Dad decided to bring his tools over to help. Before he could come over, though, we all went to Myles' birthday bash '07. So we all went over to Myles' house and had a rockin' good time complete with a buffet of all kinds of yummies and cake. The kids had a blast running around and being goofy. After we were done there, my Dad and Mom came over. In about 1 1/2 hours the pipes were all fixed and we avoided a hefty plumber's fee (and that scary plumber's crack they always have). I hear there was saudering and all kinds of other scary things going on in my laundry room. I try not to think about Aron handling tools like that (scaaaaaaaaaary!).

And So It Begins...

Ella has been invited to her first birthday party (other than Myles' birthday parties). A little girl in her ballet class is having a birthday party in a couple weeks, and she handed out invitations at today's ballet class. It's a princess party so all the girls have to dress up in their favorite princess costume when they go. I was dismayed that I would have to search the world over for a princess costume UNTIL I remembered what hangs in her closet. A big, fat thank you to my cousin and his wife for having Ella be a flower girl in their wedding. The flower girl dress will now be transformed into a princess dress. She even has the crown to go with it (see also above photo). Now I just have to figure out what Ella will want to get her for a present...

Sheriff, There's a Thief in These Here Parts...

The Graham Cracker Bandit
His trusty sidekick

I ran upstairs yesterday to grab something. In the thirty seconds I was gone, Luke managed to get in my corner cupboard and open the box and start eating graham crackers. I think he had a co-conspirator (think the girl in the pink next to him--can you tell she picked out her own outfit?).

This in and of itself is not so bad. What's a couple graham crackers, huh?

The funniest part of this story happened today when Grammie was watching the kids while I was at work. My called me at 1:00 like she always does to give me the run down of how the kids are, etc, etc. She told me that she had walked in the kitchen and when she returned to the living room, Luke was sitting there eating a graham cracker. She thought this was odd because she hadn't given him one. He finished that one off and she left to go to the bathroom. When she came back, Luke was eating another graham cracker in the living room. She finally figured out that he must have a hidden stash of graham crackers somewhere in the living room. He must've put them in there sometime after I went upstairs yesterday and when I returned thirty seconds later to find him in the cupboard. After he stashed them, he must've been hungry and this is when I found him.

Thief I tell you! Thief!

This One's Not About My Kids but It's Still Entertaining...

My friend (who shall remain nameless so hopefully, she won't be too mad that I've shared her experience) and I were talking at work about pancakes. I gave her my recipe for banana pancakes (see also below).
Annie's Wonderful Multi-Grain Banana Pancakes
3/4 c flour
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c oats
2T cornmeal
2T brown sugar
1 1/2t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c milk
1/4 c vanilla yogurt
1 T oil
1 egg
1/2 T vanilla extract or 1 t vanilla extract and 1/2 t maple extract
Bananas, brown sugar
Combine all ingredients. Pour into skillet. While the top is still wet, add thin slices of ripe bananas and sprinkle with brown sugar (however much you want). Flip and continue cooking until done.

She was planning on visiting her Mom over the weekend and wanted to make some for the two of them. Sounds simple enough, right? I e-mailed her today to see how it went. This was her response.

Subj:
RE: (no subject)
Date:
2/6/2007 10:51:04 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: My friend who shall remain nameless
To: Annie
Sent from the Internet (Details)
It was an ugly experience but the pancakes that I cooked were good. I took all of the ingredients that I thought that I needed but then I found out that mom did not have milk or eggs- had to go to Walmart. She has one skillet which is maybe 6" wide and it's very old (unbalanced, absolutely not non-stick). When you cook with it only half of the skillet sits on the stove so it cooks unevenly and being so small I had a hard time flipping the pancakes. Half of the pancake was burnt and half was gooey. She has only a really small flipper (like a cookie flipper). Then I dropped brown sugar on her stove and flames instantly shot up. I had turn off the burner and wait for another burner to heat up since I did not want to create another fire. I kind of finished 2 pancakes and felt like my head was going to pop off so I stopped. What I did eat tasted really good. I am going to try again at my house this weekend and I promise it will be a much better experience. Thanks for the recipe! See you tomorrow.

I have a very vivid mental picture as to what happened and it is very funny. Very funny indeed.

C'mon! All the Cool Kids Are Doin' It...

I realized a month or so ago that it was getting to be time to start the potty training for Luke. I think we started around 15 or 16 months of age for Ella so it was getting to be that time. We introduced him to the potty a couple weeks ago by letting him flush it a few times, practice opening the lid, etc. Every night before his bath, we sit him on the potty and tell him to try. He's produced a couple drops a few times so I know he's getting the concept of what's supposed to happen. Ella's usually his cheerleader by telling him "You can do it, Lukie. Biiiiiig boy. Lukie a big boy. Go on Big Boy Potty." Aron put him on the potty last night before his bath and whoosh! Suddenly, there was a large amount of peeps in there. He was very proud of himself running around the bathroom clapping his hands and dancing around. Sigh. My big guy.

Who Knew Our Bathroom Is the Place To Be?

Yeah, that's a barrette in his hair. Ella just HAD to put it in. Whatever.

Ella and Luke have decided that the downstairs bathroom specifically the shower is a fun place to be. They like to run in and have Super Secret time which includes them running in, shutting the door, and sharing secrets. Luke doesn't have a whole lot to share but Ella more than makes up for him. Sometimes I get invited in but not always.

Last night I left the kids in the shower like this to have secret time. Ella had a Blues Clues toy (see also photo) and she was pretending to write on the wall of the shower with the pen part of the toy. I figured they would be fine in there while I went to the kitchen and made dinner. Seems easy enough, right? WRONG! I decided to check on them after about 15 minutes (please do not call Children's Services-I was only a couple feet away and I could hear them playing the whole time). Anyway, I checked in on them and somehow Ella had ditched her Blues Clues toy and grabbed a pencil instead and was drawing/writing all over the walls of the shower. I screamed ("ACK! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! We have a house showing this weekend!") put Ella in the corner and started scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing until I could scrub no more. Finally it came off.