Thursday, November 29, 2007

Cinnamon Applesauce & Glue

Yesterday I went and helped out in Sydney's preschool class for about an hour while they were making ornaments. The recipe was a little bit odd. 1 cup Cinnamon, 3 Tbs Applesauce, 2 Tbsp Elmers Glue. It made a delicious smelling paste that the kids could roll out and cut just like regular cookie dough.They made gingerbread cookies, nutcracker, stars, and such. They all had lots of fun and I am excited to get the final results. They have to dry first. Apparently they won't get moldy either. So bizarre. But the classroom smelled great when we were done.

So the other day Emily asked me if we had any Christmas movies, and I realized that other than Polar Express we really don't have any other ones-oh I forgot we also have A Christmas Story. Anyone have any good recommendations for the 3-5 crowd? I don;t think we have rented the Grinch yet, either versions, or the Santa Claus trio for them. Thanks!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The tree

Someone somewhere must have decided the quickest way to ruin holiday joy would be the invention of the christmas tree light.  We have an artificial tree.  We normally get it up about 2 weeks before Christmas, but this year I decided in my push to actually enjoy the holidays to do it earlier. Silly me.  We got out the decorations & tree Sunday night, but it got late and we put the kids to bed promising to put up the decorations on Monday for Family Home Evening.  

On Monday night we got the tree assembled but not lit. Last year I spent about 1 1/2 hours stringing the tree then unstringing it having not tested the lights before I started, so I was eager to not do that this year.  I tested them separately and together and they worked mostly-a few bulbs here or there on most strands and one whole strand was dead. I like to work from the bottom of the tree and go up having the lights lit as you work.  Karl wanted to go from the top down-not lit while working with his method.  We ran out of lights. Always eager to conquer a challenge Karl spent about an hour fixing the other light strand, wrapped it round the tree and plugged it in.  The tree was striped.  Sections of it worked, others were dead.  

Again the girls went to bed with the promise that tomorrow we would decorate with ornaments.  I went to the store today to buy more lights.  I brought them home and started trying to figure out the 3d light puzzle. Oddly enough while I was unstringing the sections I decided to plug them in again.  I was able to get a whole unlit section back and running again.  Yeah me!  Now I had to wrap it back round the tree.  I was able to do that with both the unlit sections so the whole thing is lit up nicely.  Now I just have to get the kids to clean their room so we can do ornaments.  But by now, I have lost a little of that magical feeling.  Oh well.  I will crank up some carols and start tossing on the glass bulbs!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

We are Home!

Saturday was a long day in the car!! We made it safely home with a minimum of traffic thankfully! We definitely made good use for the laptop scouting out the traffic on the route.   We had great cooperation from the girls and they were good sports about the 12 hours in the car. Emily got sick on the way home, but seems better tonight. (I'd like to know what made McDonald's Co. create the current toys for their happy meals that they have right now! Who wants a toy that shoots the head off and shoots 3 cards all over the room when you push a little lever? What happened to good old action figures with moveable arms? But why am I thinking a happy meal should be useful?

We were very happy that we could go on our trip. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful (and there were no embarrassing comments from the kiddos this year!  In fact they were delightfully well behaved!  Yeah girls!) and it was fun staying in our hotel, swimming with April, Gary, & Caleb, and visiting the nearby Butterfly Museum and seeing all the beautiful butterflies literally flying around your head.I have never seen so many species of butterflies and so many colors! I'll post some pictures very soon!

The cats were quite happy to see us when we came home and showed their love today by offering us two dead mice. They were so proud. Yuck.

We are going to try and get our Family letter out on time this year, so if you think we might not have your address email or otherwise, feel free to email me and let me know what your info is so I can update our/my address book.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Road Tripping

Day 1
It took us 1 hour to make it farther than 3 miles from home. It wasn't just the bit of traffic we hit, but more the number of time we had to return home for different reasons. We got on anf off the same highway 3 times before finalling getting underway. traffic wasn't too bad getting to April's house, but it was late when we finally got there and it took the girls about an hour to actually settle down and go to sleep. That and Emily kept trying to fling her lungs outside her body.

Day 2
We left the house at 9am and it is almost 6pm and we are still an hour and a half away from the hotel. AHHHHHHHH. Maybe I should mention how much I dislike holiday traffic. On the other hand I did find gummy coca-cola bottles at a gas station. I used to love those as a child and had not seen them for years. Funny though, they didn't taste the same to me. But they were still pretty good.

Things that are not fun on roadtrips:
Kids can finally put in place the Don't watch too much TV rule.-Talk about timing
Kids can try playing 1 person I spy at the same time-results-two unhappy and loud kids and 1 unhappy mom
Every possible car can be on the road from the CT border onward causing it to take more than 3 times as long as usual to get through

Things that are fun:
Blogging on a laptop in a car
Singing songs as a family-granted it is the same favorite 3, but since it stopped a possible melt down, who cares
Using Google maps to plot traffic jams.
Shrek 2 in the back seat(such a great soundtrack) and it's better than hearing but not seeing Shrek 3

Monday, November 19, 2007

Family Fun

Today was a well publicized fundraising event for the girls' school. I had completely forgotten that there was a Chucky Cheese Fundraiser event tied into report cards, but thanks to very clever marketing my 5 year old daughter did not forget a thing! We went there this evening and had a really fun time-surprise surprise. If you brought in the child's' report card, you got a discount & free game tokens.

The pizza wasn't great, but the girls had a blast and we had fun playing with them. It was fun to play skee ball and whack frogs and shoot water guns to make the mouse win a race all together. Karl rocks at the dump truck game. We discovered that neither of us (parents) are naturals at the motorcycle game Emily picked. She was extremely disappointed that Mom & Dad ran into things on the course and kept admonishing us to be careful. (She also was excited to play the game, but did not want to play after the game actually started) All in all a fun night and a nice reward for our little student!

Oh, and Emily is feeling better, but no word on the wallet & phone!

Not the best weekend

Sorry for the lack of posting. We had a bit of a rough weekend. Karl lost his wallet & phone at the Y on Saturday and we spent some time trying to call people like the phone & credit card companies, the police, and the phone insurance company. We are still hopeful it might be returned, but it is very disappointing to make that kind of a mistake. We encourage everyone to take a moment to copy front and back of everything in your wallet. It hopefully we never come in useful, but it is good to be prepared.

On Sunday Emily started running a fever and coughing so I took her home from church. We both ended up crashing in bed for a nap. Sydney joined us when she got home with Karl and we had a nap sandwich. When I woke up I was roasting. I was the middle of the sandwich! Emily is feeling better today thankfully, and I hope we will not have any ill health as we travel for Thanksgiving. I may not be posting too much as I will away from my computer, but maybe I can submit it remotely. Who knows!

Friday, November 16, 2007

EWWWWWWW!

Our home was the scene of a murder today. Not of a human, but we found the feathers (lots of them) and the head of a bird when we came home from Emily's Parent Teacher Conference this afternoon! EWWWWWWW! What were those little fluff balls thinking! I know they are supposed to kill things, but not in the house! The death toll is really rising in out neck of the woods. Woodland critters beware!

Anyway, Emily got her first report card for the semester/quarter not sure of the official name, and she did wonderfully well. So well that she is getting an award on Tuesday at 9:30 am for Academic Excellence. Isn't that just adorable! Her Student of the month is also going up in the hallway at school so everyone can see her picture. We are just thrilled.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Emily got Student of the Month

We want to know a little more about how a kid gets the award but we are very proud of her. Tomorrow is Parent Teacher Conference day. We will meet with Emily's teacher and talk about how she is doing. I am hoping to get any more details about the award.

Also today was Sydney's first school trip. She rode with her class and the other two special ed classes two Walmart where we split up and shopped according to lists we (the moms) had made earlier. Myy group did wonderfully well on our lists until we bumped into another group who had a really cool toy on their list. After about 10 more minutes of distress we went to the registers and each child paid for their things. Then we headed back out on the bus to go to lunch. Lunch also went well. All the kids enjoyed their luncha nd Sydney especially enjoyed her cupcake and frosting the most. We climbed back on the bus and returned to school where it was the end of the day for preschool. Sydney fell asleep on the bus on the way home but woke up when we got back to school.

All in all it was a good day, but a very cold wet one.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Insomnia

When is insomnia insomnia and when is it just a hard time falling asleep. I never used to be a night person, but here I am just a minute before midnight trying to finish this post. I realized just a few minutes ago as I was about to get into bed that I had not written yet today. I had thought about a few different topics, but never actually written. So now I am going to write about why I have a hard time going to bed at a devent hour. I feel like I have preprogrammed myself to end the day around midnight despite intentions to go to bed early. Yesterday the plan was 10:30 but the reality was 12:00. Other night this week have been 2 and 1 am. Those nights were the worst becasue I lay in bed for about an hour thinking of different things to do. I just could not quiet my mind down to fall asleep.

So now I am going to give it a whirl. Sleeping that is. My body is really tired, but my mind still feels like it is on turbo.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Slugs and leaky pipes

Today was another day of taking kids to school, visiting the Y, picking up from school, and dinner and so forth, the only problem in our day was the gaping hole in the back of the house that we started yesterday working on yesterday. The leak in the faucet that we hoped was only a minor issue was actually a much bigger problem. Karl had to remove siding, insulation and rotten particle boards and slugs! Now we know how the slugs got in the house a few times. That was always a mystery. I just could not understand how they could climb the steps to get inside. I picked up black tar paper and new board on Monday and he is trying to get it dry so it will not mold after he reinstalls it.
He is outside right now trying to put it back together enough so that it won't get ruined tonight if it rains. He accidentally glued the pipe together in the wrong end so may have to start over with the pipe. Hopefully it will be finished for sure tomorrow.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Hunger Strike Complete

Well, I think it worked. I was really frustrated with her not eating the last few weeks. I had seperated her food, I gave tiny portions, I cooked things I knew she liked, but she would try and munch on snacks all afternoon then not want her dinner. With food she loves, she eats like a champ, with food she isn't in the mood for, holy cow! Slow poke city.

So we tried out experiment. I don;t want to do it again. My parents offered a no thank you portion which worked well for us. You took what you wanted of the food you didn't like but you had to eat what you served yourself, and if it was a not thank you serving, it had to be tiny but at least a little but went on the plate.

She had her dinner again at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and ate a little bit each time, but finally finished enough to graduate to a new plate of food. At dinner I presented it in a new bowl with a different kind of sauce. Hopefully she won't do this again. Emily seemed pretty horrified that it happened, but was thrilled to be a little tattletale about her not finishing it at each meal.

I have to say though except for the tears when it came back at dinner after she asked to throw it away, she did not complain at all.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Hunger Strike

I am not sure what the best method is parenting wise, but I am really getting frustrated with Sydney not eating her dinners. She likes most food, but she does not like stirfry. She likes the parts of stirfry, just not the combining feature. So tonight she looked at her food and refused to eat it. I was already in a less than lovely mood, so that was the last straw for me. I wrapped up the food on her plate and told her she could have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner tomorrow but she wasn't going to eat anything else until the food was gone. I mean to follow through and serve it at breakfast, but I really hope she doens't push this much past breakfast. She is such a crab when she is hungry.

Tune in tomorrow to see who has the stronger will power! Vote for Mom-or send ideas on how to handle it!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Car Tunes

So we were driving in the car listening to a song on a kids music cd by Laurie Berkner called Bottle Caps. Emily loved the song and was singing along, but the only part she heard was the chorus, "collecting Bottle caps, Bottle caps, bottle caps, bottle caps, every one I see." She thought this was the best and sang Bobcats, Bobcats, bobcats, bobcaps every one I see. She kept asking to sing the bob cat song. We told her the words were bottle caps, but that didn't sink in. Maybe she doesn't know what they are! She also told us she was singing a song from school about bobcats. Funny how the tune she sang matched ours perfectly.

Oh and Sydney is in love with a song from my childhood my mom, the master internet sleuth, tracked down for me. Our Dinosaur Friends. She loves this song called Pterodactyl. She would like nothing better than to have it on repeat for hours on end. On a positive side, she was really upset about something that happened as we left the YMCA today and I was able to change her mood by pulling out the "big guns" Then she went around singing "I'd like to be the biggest dinosaur" all afternoon. The only song that can compeat for number of repeats in one sitting is Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton. We can all sing all the words now. We got it also from my parents, but got the book version of the book years ago when Emily was little. Karl and I had made up our version of the song and dung it to Emily, but we like their tune much better!

Sweet Tooth

Today is Saturday. I get to sleep in guilt free for a little bit this morning. The kids simply don't understand that concept and were up at the crack of dawn as usual. So I woke up to a little smiling face saying "Mom can I have candy?" I could not believe it.

I said no and sent her to go find some fruit instead. On Thursday we had the girls take their pumpkin bucket with Halloween candy to their rooms becasue guests were coming for dinner and I was tired of sucumbing to temptation when I saw those yummy buckets filled with Snickers and Milky Ways so the early morning temptation must have been strong. She usually just asks for some after school. The girls have been great and asking everytime they want candy instead of just eating. Emily is very disciplined and only eats 1-2 pieces a day at the most. Sydney has the massive sweet tooth though. But at least she listens when I say no.

Friday, November 9, 2007

oops

So all week I knew today was makeup School Picture day. All week that is, until today. I let Emily go off to school with some weird cowlick action and her favorite bright orange Halloween shirt. I ran down to her class after I realized (aka Sydney's teacher mentioned it) it was picture day to get her to swap shirt, but no dice. She thought her shirt was pretty. Sydney looked cute since she had a fairly well coordinated outfit (I picked it out this morning) and she had ponytail holders in her bag. Emily only had clips, and those stay all of 2 minutes in the same spot, so she will look sort of goofy. But it is her kindergarten picture so I had to let her do it anyway.

I know one day I will look back & laugh, but I am just not there yet.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Spinning class

I went to spinning class today for the second day in a row and wow I was sore. But it turns out I have been sitting to the saddle wrong. Ooops. So hopefully it will be better now. I used to ride bikes more when I had a teenager and had a pair of clipless shoes somewhere. I finally dug them out of the garage and put them in the car to take for my next class. Everyone says the pulling motion is easier when you have those and don't try to use the little toe baskets.

Did you know we have a fireplace in our house! It is fun to have a mantle place to hang stocking from this year, but until last night we never used the fireplace itself. It is gas. And it has been really hot up until just the last few weeks. The fireplace has a glass shield in front so I didn't feel a lot of heat kicking out of the thing. It was a little disappointing, but it looks pretty.

I just think this was odd

So we took Emily to the doctor on Monday-for stomach cramps and allergy tests, and both of these doctors routinely called me just Mom. Not Mrs. Pilz or Heather or anything like that. Is that normal? I have never experienced that before.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Cockroach Allergy

Today is also a long day. We started out headed to the allergist for Emily. We want to figure out how we can get rid of the perpetual sniffle for her. Turns out she is quite allergic to dust/Dust mites & cockroaches. One of the key things not to have on your kids bed, stuffed animals. Another thing to have frequently washed bedding. So we stripped both beds and dumped the whole mess in the washer. I am so glad we got that washer in the sale of the house. I really did love my old one-that we sold with the house, but this one is way better! I have the bedding on sanitize. We'll see how it turns out.

I have a whole handy sheet all about cockroaches if anyone would like to learn more. It turns out to be a fairly common allergy. Not so much the roach itself, but more the roach droppings. Scrumptious mental picture! The one good thing, as far as we know we have no roaches in or near the house and we hope to keep it that way. I hate those little biggers!

We are off to the store to get some dust mites covers for her pillow & mattress, lotion for her arms, a shower head sprayer for their bath-just because it's great to have when bathing kiddos & cats, and a little medicine which might help get things under control for now so she doesn't get so much fluid in her ears so she can hear. Coolest part of the visit-the doctor let both of us look up inside Emily's nose. It was very red and it isn't suppossed to be like that. Emily has been doing well with her nasal spray, but apparently we were not spraying it correctly. Ah well, now we know!

Monday, November 5, 2007

There were 3 in the bed and the little one said...

Sydney climbed in bed with us last night and for a little person, she takes up quite a bit of room. She snores, and she whacks you with her knees and feet. (My parents would say I deserve it though.)

She also has a bizarre habit of shoving the covers off her body, and throwing your part along with it. I like covers. Infact I just switched from my light summer wuilt to my heavier duvet and so I coped by curling up lower in the bed so I got the cover up to my neck just the way I like it.

Emily is not feeling well today so she stayed home. It looks like it will be a long day.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Budding Muralist


sorry it's sideways, but this is full size

So I woke up this morning when Sydney came to get me to show me a picture her sister had drawn. Normally, that might make me a little bit grumpy, but since they had let me sleep until 8:30 (Yippee Daylight Savings), I didn't really have a leg to stand on. On the other hand, the artwork was absolutely wonderful! We got a roll of newsprint from a Recycling company for a church kids activity and we took the rest of roll home after the activity. I think I will be wrapping this year's christmas presents in Emily's originals! Enjoy this first one.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

National Blog Posting Month

Did anyone know (besides Kristen) it is national blog posting month or National Novel writing month??? I just read the the link on Kristen's site and was intrigued by the idea. the idea either write a novel in 30 days-yikes-or write in your blog every day for 30 days. I will choose the blog obviously as my novel writing skills are a tad rusty never having been used even once! I love to read though. So I look forward to all those new books hitting the shelves next year from all the highly skilled novelist who wrote November novels. I will have to plead ignornace for the first 3 days of November though. This should be fun!

Happy Halloween




The girls have been so excited all month about Halloween, but they very sweetly saved me a lot of work by asking to wear last year costumes. I had not seen Sydney in her costume in about 2 months, but I assummed it still fit her. Silly me. The little thing finally grew a few inches. Her little costume was about 2 inches too short on her wrists, and 3 inches too short on her legs. But she was so happy to get dressed up and go out trick-or-treating and it didn't matter to her.

We went with several friends in their neighborhood which is right next to ours. There was a group of 12 kiddos and about 8 parents. It was crazy trying to get to each door and it was a little intimidating for the home owner. At first, no one was home and the kids were extremely disappointed, but things quickly picked up and they got lots of candy in the hour we were out. The dads stayed home and passed out candy while the moms took the kiddos around. It was the first year I did not have to bundle the kids up underneath their costumes. I actually got too hot in my costume and was very happy to take it off at the end of the night (I was Kanga). After trick-or-treating, we had cider & doughnuts then took our sugary sticky children home and put them to bed feeling somewhat guilty for their teachers in the morning.

When we got to the house I discovered I was nowhere near prepared for the hoards of kids who came to our door. I had completely run out of candy. Oops. Now I know!