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.

So Disgusting!

A few days ago the kids and I were playing outside. Charles found a ladybug and was letting it crawl on him while Katie investigated him/her. It soon flew away to their dismay. Katie loved it and since then every bug she sees is a ladybug. Here comes the unfortunate and disgusting part of this story. A day or so later Katie woke up screaming and crying. When Dean went to check on her (he's the only one who can get the kids back to sleep when they wake in the night) she kept saying, "ladybug pillow, ladybug pillow, on hand". We think that this was not a cute ladybug crawling on her pillow and hand but a nasty spider (this is where I cringe and shudder). In the morning when I went to get her out of bed she kept telling me about the "ladybug" in her bed. I'm so sorry baby!

This just happened today. It's a nice day so I left the sliding glass door open for fresh air and so Charles could come in and out without making too much noise. Motor, our cat, had come in earlier to eat and went back out. No big deal. Charles came in to play with his moon sand when I heard him tell Motor to go outside to eat. I went to see what was going on and there was Motor in the kitchen eating a poor, little, baby bird. I tried shooing him out hoping he would take his trophy with him but he wouldn't go. I had to put a plastic bad on my hand to pick up the bird and throw it outside, along with the cat.

Charles-isms

Charles says some pretty cute things. I'm trying to remember them so I'm going to write them.

One day he was coloring with scented markers. He opened the lemon scented one and started drawing. Soon he was rubbing his eyes. "Oh, man my eyes are sweating because of this marker". When I cut onions and my eyes start to water, I think of them as sweating and so does he.

"Mom, are witches real?"
No, they are not
"Yeah, they're just moms fooling around, right?"
That's right honey

We take Eric to school in the morning and Charles likes to roll the window down to yell goodbye to him.
"Dude, I just downloaded my window to talk to Eric."

He says these things so matter of factly, no humor intended. I love it.

Easter Traditions

For the last few years I have fallen off the family Easter traditions wagon. When I was a kid we always, always dyed eggs and my mom made this cute bunny cake. I think I've made the cake once or twice since my kids were born and we've only dyed eggs once. Dean's mom made Easter story cookies with Joe and Rusty when they were little. This year I thought it was time to get back on the wagon and do the things I did when I was a kid and to incorporate the Easter story cookies. I found the recipe online and it included scriptures to go along. We've already made the cake (and eaten all but one ear too) and we are going to make the cookies on Friday and dye eggs on Saturday. Here's the website with the recipe and instructions. http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/recipes/drop/easterstorycookies.htm

Katie's First Haircut

So, Katie will turn two May 9th and she's never had a haircut. Her hair was long, but really uneven and always in her eyes so we decided it was time she got a haircut. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and did not have my phone to take picutres. The salon was supposed to take a picture but they ran out of Polaroid film. She was really cute sitting in a firetruck watching Scooby Doo while the lady cut her hair. I was excited to get home to take her picture with her hair fixed cute but she fell asleep and had to have a nap. Here are some pics of her before and after.