A Special Valentines Day

How did you spend your valentines day? My valentine and I spent 8 hours sorting and putting together all of these sets of legos. Romantic, huh?

About a year ago, the kids had friends over and the younger ones dumped all of our carefully-sorted-in-separate-locked-bins lego sets into one big pile. Since then, no one wanted to play with them. Finally, enough was enough.

I sat down with Aidan and started by slowly grouping them. I finally sorted them into colored piles and we went from there. But the only way to figure out which set was which was to assemble everything. So we set to it. And some of these sets are nothing to shake a stick at.

Here are a few...

And what's left as of today... 5 castle sets

If anyone dumps them into a big mess again, they will be flogged. Regardless of whose child they are :)

No Kissing Allowed

Friday night at dinner, Elliott asked if he could always live with us, forever. I explained that there will come a time that he will not want to live with us anymore - he'll want to go live his own life as a grown up, especially if he has his own family. And besides, I wouldn't let us live with us forever. Its not healthy. He said, "ew! I don't ever want to get married!" Aidan said to him, "you'll have to kiss a girrrrrrlllllll!" And Elliott was all, "ew! ew! yuck! i don't want to ever kiss anyone! yuck!".

he he he. I will remind him of this in a few years.

Art by Norah, age 6

Some recent stuff that came home with Norah. This first one is her and daddy standing in front of our fireplace, with our current heart garland behind them. She even included the 2 brown orbs I have holding it in place! And she depicted the swirly PB candleholder that's on the wall above the FP, as well.

A funky, colorful owl. I think this is super cool.

Norah's Hospital Adventure

On Thursday after school, Norah said she had a tummy ache. I asked if she felt like she was going to puke, and she said no. About 30-60 sec. later, she said, "maybe I will puke." And so it began. And did not stop for 48 hours. Poor bean. She couldn't even lick an ice cube made of pedialyte without losing it. She had nothing left and was still wretching :(

On Saturday, when she walked toward me and staggered and started to fall, I knew it was time to take her in. So off to CHW we went.

It wasn't a pleasant experience for her to get an IV. The first attempt didn't take because she was so dehydrated. She screamed things like, "that huuuurts sooo bad!" and, "why are you doing that to me?" and, "please stop hurting me. why are you hurting me?" It was awful. Torture.

But as you can see, it worked wonders. This is her right after the IV cocktail was started...

and about 40 minutes into it...a totally different kid.

Am I Martha, or what?!?!

Kidding. I have been in the kitchen all day, though. Making the pops (prev. post) and a cake. No special occasion, except that I felt the need to try to make a yellow cake from scratch before I make one for Aidan's birthday in a few weeks. I'd hate to make one and have it be dry as sand. I am not much of a baker, because I am not a huge dessert person (salt. mnnn. i love salt). But now that I have kids, I have been baking more. But especially, I am not a cake person. Carrot and cheesecake aside (oh yum), I could never eat cake again and be perfectly content. So anyway....I tried this yellow cake recipe from Bakerella. It didn't let me down. It was quite good and not dry at all. But the best part of it? The frosting. Ohhhhh... heaven on cake. I iced the cake with this swiss buttercream from Smitten Kitchen. I forgot to put my butter out, so the consistency of the frosting wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked, but it was still yummy. If you are like me and don't care for those gritty, sweet frostings, then try this and you won't be disappointed.

To make the cake fun, I made another rainbow cake. This one was prettier than our first, though.

Ready to go in the oven!

Uh, yeah. I'd never present a cake that looked like this to anyone but my immediate family. Its so homely and I enjoy making cakes funky or pretty. However, by this time it was 8:15pm and I really did not care. So I slapped it on, dumped on some jimmies (sprinkles for the freaks who have no idea what I mean), and we were good to go!

The middle of the funky cake. I am getting low on my food coloring gels. So I used what I had: purple, green, blue, yellow, orange, and teal.

Valentines Goodies

Last year, the kids and I made these crayon hearts for their classmates as valentines. This year, I decided that I'd make marshmallow pops, put them in small cello bags, and attach a small valentine card to the ribbon. I didn't want to purchase cards, because lets face it --they are pretty lame. A friend directed me to some free printable ones and I decided on these cute ones from Secret Agent Josephine. I printed them in B&W and had the kids each color theirs. They are super cute!

The marshmallow pops, in vanilla (pink, which actually tastes like those Carnival cookies. Remember those?), and chocolate. Mnnnn.

Get Fun and Fancy! With Nancy!

Norah got her hands on Mama and Daddy and made them fancy.

applying lip gloss to daddy's nails

posing with mama

this is her "rock star" look, according to her :)

We are the champions....again!!

Go Aidan!!!

Last year (with Darth Taiter) he took 3rd in the pack, but this year, Aidan won 1st place for his den in the pinewood derby race.

The trophy and winning car (the car is a spin-off of the Milwaukee Brewers, obviously)

Floating Hearts

They're nothing fancy, but the kids love holiday decor. So I made 3 of these strings of hearts, featured on One Pretty Thing and hung them in a few places throughout the house. They would have had more of a cool effect if I had been able to hang them together, but I don't have a light fixture that allows a grouping.

Heart Garland

A fun craft that I did to add some Valentine decor to the house: garland for the (yet not finished) mantle. Since the photo was taken last week, I found a much better way to secure it (not my snowmen).

(i apologize for the photo quality)

A big thank you to Sarah at Frills, Fluff, and Trucks for the tutorial on the heart garland!

Breaking Boards

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Originally uploaded by flabonganator

In December, Aidan tested for his yellow belt and part of that involves having to break a board. Here's a video of him doing that. Stop the video once he's done. The camera keeps rolling and I forgot to edit before uploading (and apparently Chris forgot to turn it off?).

My baby is growing up so fast

Aidan will be 8 on March 5th. When he was younger, 8 was the Ultimate Milestone. Everything was going to happen, "when I am 8."

We've begun birthday party planning and initially, he wanted a bowling party. Then he changed his mind -- he wants a sleepover! Wow. Having a hard time wrapping my mind around that one. I mean, he's been to a sleepover, but we've never hosted one. And he'll be 8. Sniff. And he's so considerate. He immediately started telling everyone who would listen that he was going to have a sleepover party and that, "there won't be any dairy there because my friend, he is allergic and can't have dairy."

What a sweet boy.

Tenacious N

I took the kids to get their H1N1 booster today. I knew that they'd have a crap day if I told them ahead of time, so I didn't tell them till I pulled into the parking lot, quickly adding, "but when we get home, you can make ice cream sundaes!"

Elliott was crying before we even got out of the car. But that was nothing.

We sat down to get the shots (the kids, not me). There was another firefighter/EMT there that was administering shots who, from across the room, said, "Hey! I remember you!" (from the last time). Yes - it was because my kids screamed and fought so loud last time.

Aidan was super brave for his shot. Elliott cried, but then put on a brave face as best he could. Then came Norah. Oh dear. That girl is powerful. She fought so awfully that I had to hold her on my lap and hold her in a hug while 2 other nurses helped me hold her down/still and a fireman administered the shot. She still was thrashing (and screaming. OH! the screaming) through all that. She's fights a good fight, that's for sure.

One thing I know for sure....Norah's got some will. And she can handle herself.

RIP Pizza Man - you will be missed

Early this morning, Pizza Man, a long standing pizza joint/wine bar on the East Side, burned down in a 5 alarm fire. Aside from the Christmas that the twins first came home for, my fondest memory of a holiday is our Christmas that we dined at Pizza Man. It was just the 5 of us and we stayed in our PJs all day and then our little family ventured out for some yummy pizza for our Christmas Dinner. No hustle and bustle or rushing around. Just us. And Pizza Man.

RIP.

I won! I won!

Its rare that I win anything. (I think I won a Packer hat and shirt in 1997 for being caller # 102 on a radio station and I won a gift card from Land of Nod once ---that rocked). So I was very excited to see that I won this cool print that Heather was giving away on her blog!!

What about the elf??

The kids have been concerned about fire safety lately and asking what we'd do if there was a fire in the house, so we've had a few conversations about what to do. They've asked about the cats and I've drilled into them that you DO NOT look for the cats or go back into the house for the cats. The firemen will look for the animals or the animals will get out themselves. So the question came up...

"What about the elf?"

The elf being Fred Christmas, our Elf on the Shelf. Apparently, I forgot that he was a family member.

"Will the firemen rescue him?" "Can we go back for him?"

Just as I was thinking, "oh crap, I've backed myself into a corner." Elliott says, "the elf will use his magic to get out of his box and get out of the house and go to the North Pole."

whew.

Another Elliott-ism

This was yesterday as we were baking cookies:

E: "Mommy, I think rain is God's tears."

Me: "That's an interesting insight."

E: "And sunshine is him smiling."

Me: "Could be."

E: "That means snow would be his poop."

This is where I turned and just gave him a 'whatchoo talkin' about Willis' type of look. Not sure what to say to that.

A Daisy For My Little Daisy

On January 7th, Norah had her Daisy investiture ceremony. She is officially official :) And now she's selling cookies!!

She was so happy to partake in the ceremony with her fellow Daisies, although she did clam up when it was her turn to "light" her candle and say her line. It was fun to see her running and playing with the girls. Naturally, leading a game of kitty/meow-meow (oh if you could see my eyes).

The Machine

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Originally uploaded by flabonganator

The doorbell rang again and there was Elliott, smiling, and he said, "look what I made, mommy!"
I replied, "oh - another birthday cake?"
(sure looked like the cake he made 2 minutes before)
"No mommy! Its a machine. A machine to kill all the bad guys who hurt and killed Jesus."

I am really uncertain where his mind was operating, but okaaaay.

First Homemade Gift....EVER!

I've gotta get on this train more often from now on. Much more fun. Much more inexpensive. This is the first hommade gift (christmas or otherwise, I think?) that I've/we've given the kids, aside from the wand that I made for Norah for valentines day (I don't think I ever posted my photos, but this is the tutorial I followed, for the most part).

I credit Heather with this idea. So thanks, Heather :) It turned out cute!