The Mother of Geese

Sandwiches are yummy! Sand is yucky!

Whenever the kids start getting on my nerves I like to send them on jobs that are away from me to keep the happy in the house. Abbie was in rare form last evening so I sent her outside with a bag to go pick apricots so we can make jam. She came back a few minutes later with a bloody nose. I thought it was just your standard dry weather induced bloody nose like I used to get all the time. Nope. An apricot dropped down on her and gave her a bloody nose. I felt like a super awesome mom. Also, lately Amelia has been doing these little Jedi Mind Tricks on me. Example: Amelia: Mom, I want to have a cookie. Say Yes. Ok? Ok Mom. Say Yes. Like This "Yes". Ok? It generally works.

Saturday the kids and I went up for an adventure at our favorite library. Imagine our good luck when we found that there was also a fun children's parade going on. (Summer Parade count now at 3) Having a great time reading stories with Papa. (leave it to Abbie to find the Heffelump books at the library. Like we don't "have it up to here with Heffelumps". Abbie was trying to get me to go someplace with her and she said we would only be gone for a few episodes. Hmmm. Might be time to monitor the TV time again. I went to the Nordstrom sale on Saturday in search of the much needed undergarment. Abbie came along so when we were at the DMV today (did my license really expire in April? So I've been driving around without a valid license? Like I did when I was 15? hmmm)-she uses her not so quiet voice and says, "So are you wearing your new bra today? How do you like it?". About 15 sets of eyes turned to inspect the product. I said, yep, but let's pretend lik...

so are the Days of Our Lives... I looked at the calendar today and realized that Abbie will be back in school in one month! I can't believe how fast this summer has cruised by. For the sake of posterity, and for a non-interesting post, I wanted to record some of the things we have done this summer. (in no particular order) Something "water-related" nearly every day. (slide, pool, sprinklers, water parks, etc..) Visited the canyon for dinners and activities Learned how to play UNO Bike-rides, walks to grandma's house Planted a garden Visited Thanksgiving Point at least once a week Gone to the library twice a week (favorites have included Junie B. Jones books (till Mom said let's have a Junie B. Break), Geronimo Stilton 1-3, Boxcar Children 1-2, and more) Parks, parks, and parks! City festivals (2) Played with Hali-licious and Nanny nearly every day Stayed up late Woke up early (grrrr.) Baked and cooked together at least once a week Picnics No wonder I have needed t...

.....because she wanted Honey Nut Cheerios. I currently have 28 (not kidding) varieties of assorted cereals in my basement. Its like your very own cereal aisle. So it kills me when she screams when I don't have the exact cereal she wants. Spoiled much? She should really learn from Max who a. isn't picky about the type of cereal, b. doesn't care if its in a bowl, c. prefers it spilled on the driveway fresh out of the box.

I did. I would love to know what she almost said the second time she nearly biffed it.

I stumbled on this blog which led me to this article ,and I have been thinking about it off and on for the last couple of days. (not really, but a gal's gotta think about something while she is trying to sleep). For you non-follower-of-the-linkers here is the run down. If you want a perfect chocolate chip cookie you should allow the dry ingredients plenty of time to fully absorb the wet ingredients. I had my doubts that it would make a difference, but in our house we have 2 very different schools of thought when it comes to cookies. Perhaps resting the dough can make everyone happy? Crispy outside, doughy delish on the inside. Brad likes his cookies hard and crispy, I like them warm and "battery." I used this recipe (which sadly, with the cookie scoop on made like 15 cookies. total. seriously.). I made them without any help from my bakers so I could let science fully do the trick. Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Demolition Desserts 8 Tablespoons (4 ounces) butter, sof...

Guess who I'm going to see August 13? Jealous?

Amelia singing her ABC's to a horse this morning. A,B,C,C,E,F,G, H, I, J, J, AND THE LETTER B, Q, R, S, T, U, B, W, X, Y, AND Z NOW ANNOYING ABCS NEXT TIME I WILL SING WITH YOU. She is perfectly perfect in every way no? Yesterday we went to a dinasaur party at the museum, which is perfect, because Amelia is OBSESSED with all things dinasaur lately. She asked for a dinasaur foot on her cheek. I wanted to say suck it pretty girls! to all the other girls that had hearts and flowers on their cheeks. Abbie wanted a skull (?). m'kay. Rock on, party girl! They made little craps (strike that) crafts for us to take home. Mr. Balloon man in the flaming shirt made a very impressive balloon dinasaur. I should have asked if I could have it for Amelia's 3rd birthday coming up. (don't worry we talk everyday about her T-Rex party coming soon, but not today).

It dawned on me earlier this summer that I have never taken my middle child to feed any ducks. Ever. She will be starting school (cue angels singing Hallelujah!!) soon so I want to make sure I do all the things that I believe make a meaningful childhood. It may not be a big deal but since I remember feeding the ducks like EVERY day growing up here , I felt a little bad that she had been missing out on the experience. So thanks to a whole heap of leftover buns from the 4th we packed it up and had a marvelous time, natch. This perma-grin was perma-nant the whole time. The tame pair. She also spotted turtles. (can you see it on the log resting in the sun? Minus Petco I have never been that close to a turtle. I know, sniff, sniff-I am the deprived middle child myself). Real life conversation: Amelia-I need to take a turtle home (in) me. Mom-But this is his home here, he has all his friends with him here. Amelia-I need to take a turtle home (in) me. Mom-No, we just visit the turtle here at ...

Who needs snow for sledding? All you need is an energetic sister... A somewhat willing participant... And mom nearby for those wipe outs...

Here are a few pictures from our driveway of fire. Look at Uncle Jared's face. I love it! Jared was throwing those little pop fireworks at Brad's butt. Brothers! The difference between girls and boys. The boys were running through the fireworks like sprinklers. (Ethan exclaimed "Its a WONDERLAND!!!" everytime we lit a new one. They moved the fireworks from the sweet spot where they used to be due to a series of pesky little fires that were started last year. (Hello! I know where to find a good fire fighter) so the girls and I drove around looking for the fireworks. They were pretty tired but we had a great time. (And yes I was in that apron all day long!)

Since I have joined the ranks of google reader I actually HAVE MORE TIME to look at blogs. One that I found that I love is Bakerella . I have been chomping at the bit for an opportunity to make these lovlies, and thought they would go nicely for the 4th of July. They just seem like happy little bites, right? Don't you agree? (This picture is from her website) So I followed her directions. Step 1: Make Red Velvet Cake from mix. See I should have stopped right there because I have only made homemade red velvet cake so I was leary about Duncan Hines. I missed the big old chocolate chunks that my recipe has. Step 2: Crumble cooked cake and mix with a tub of cream cheese frosting. Notice I said tub. I should have made my own. At least my helper was darling. Step 3: Mold into small balls. Mine looked like beet dookies. Then refrigerate the dookies. Step 4: Roll cake bites in melted white chocolate. Step 5: Realize that you may have a problem. Consult with bakerella to see what hers looke...

(Younger, Thinner, Stupider, Poorer Couple) Today I got this email from Brad: Maybe our life is getting less interesting, but your overall number of posts has really dropped off this year. 2007: 240 posts 66% 2 out of every 3 days 2008 (so far): 85 posts 47% less than 1 out of 2 days Maybe I’m really bored at this meeting, but I have created some graphs below, based on the data for your enjoyment. Brad Graphs?! Really?! Who needs google analytics when I have analyBrad?