School's Out, Now What?

Today is the first day of summer break that we have had to just stay home and do fun things with no other plans. I decided that I had better hold "school" each morning after breakfast to help Eric remember what he learned in second grade and to get Charles ready for Kindergarten. Eric did a few Mad Minute math sheets. No problem getting him to do them because he really enjoys school. Now, trying to get Charles to play a game to help learn more letters and their sounds was a completely different story. He cried and threw a fit and said it was stupid. After trying several things to get him to come around having his brother be the teacher's helper did the trick. He's a smart kid but getting him to do school related stuff for me is like pulling teeth. Katie painted with watercolors (mostly on her face), then played with play dough (more licking, less playing) then joined us reviewing letters. Now they are running around pretending they are ghosts trying to scare Katie. She yells "boo!" at them and they run away. The noise level and energy level is definitely higher with everyone home but were having a good time (for now). Eric just came in and said there is nothing to do, at school there is always something fun to do. I guess I need to plan some fun things to fill our days.

My Baby Turned Two

Saturday my baby girl turned two! Didn't we just celebrate her first birthday? Time has gone by so fast it's unbelievable. She is such a sweet girl. She always gives lots of love and kisses. She is definitely her own person. Katie always keeps us busy. She has loved books forever, especially Five Little Monkeys. I love making my kids birthday cakes. Fourteen birthdays and only one store bought cake (Spider Man ice cream cake for Eric's fourth b-day). I always ask my kids what kind of cake they want and then try to make it. My cakes are far from professional looking but I kind of like it that way. Eric and Charles can remember almost all of their cakes. I've done some pretty cool Star Wars cakes and and a really cute blue dinosaur. Back to Five Little Monkeys. Katie loves this book so I decided to make her a Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed cake. The cake turned out differently than I had envisioned, but it was still cute. The pillows threw me off. I tried different things and ended up with Twinkies for pillows. They weren't my favorite but they worked the best. I couldn't find little toy monkeys to put on the cake so I bought a Barrel of Monkeys and dipped them in chocolate put a toothpick on the back and stuck them in like they were jumping. I decorated her cake Friday for the party on Saturday. When I was finished I put it up on the counter and while I wasn't looking she pulled a chair over, climbed up and put her fingers in it. Luckily she only got into the frosting and not the cake. Saturday we had a barbecue with the family for her birthday. Thank you to everyone for coming and for the adorable presents.