Another teen!

Yes, it is official-we now have 3 teens in the house! My 3rd son just turned 13 a couple of weeks ago. He is sooooo excited to finally have the word -teen on the end of his age! Kind of a transition to manhood. Instead of a party, which he says he's too old for anyway, or going out to dinner, he opted to take his birthday budget money and save it toward Boy Scout summer camp---he's a planner. Considering he had to raise about $135 toward it, I think it was a smart move. So we celebrated at home with the family. He got to choose dinner-hot dogs and hamburgers. He chose an ice cream cake also, so that's what I made! Chocolate cake, with cookie dough ice cream layers between. A total of 3 layers-it was huge by the time I was done-you can see in the second picture...


There weren't many presents to open, as he received mostly cash from relatives (to use toward camp), but he was very pleased with that. He made a wish, blew out his candles, and everyone gobbled down cake!

A very happy 13th!!

Outdoor fun

I love, love, love when the weather starts to warm up because that means the kids can spend lots of time outside, burning off all that excess energy (my..where do they get it?) We have always had a sandbox, but started having problems with spiders getting into it. Kids+ spiders= not a good combination for sure. So, after browsing the walmart website, I came upon this.... an elevated sand table! Genius! Why did it take me so long to get one of these? They don't have to sit in the sand and get covered in it, and spiders won't get in it either. Yes, they still do get sand on the front of them (and in little guy's mouth), and not all the sand stays IN the table, but other than that, I love it! What a great toy! I see happy kids in my future...

One lost cord...

Okay, so I've been awful about posting lately, right? The reason? My power cord to my camera was lost for the past week or so, which meant no pictures being uploaded to my computer. I just can't see posting without any pictures (!) so the blog got put on the back burner. I took relatively few pictures anyway, just assuming I'd be unable to get them off my camera, but l o and behold, my son found the cord today-exactly where it shouldn't have been. So what have we been doing on this week? Don't know if you were aware, but last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday. I loooooove Dr. Seuss! Yes, the books are a little strange, but so much fun! The classic, of course, is Green Eggs and Ham. So what better to do to celebrate than have some green eggs and ham and read some Dr. Seuss? My kids were a little unsure at first-after all, they'd never seen green eggs before, but once they realized it was just food coloring and didn't change the taste, they gobbled them up!


Today is Ash Wednesday, signifying the 40 day lent period before Easter. What a great time to reflect on the wonderful sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. Easter is probably my favorite holiday-I don't do bunnies or chickens-it makes no sense to me-how much better to focus on the cross!
The day before Ash Wednesday is not necessarily a Christian holiday-it's Fat Tuesday-as in Mardi Gras. I don't celebrate Mardi Gras, never have, but this year, I decided to make a King cake as is the custom for Mardi Gras. The king cake is actually representative of the three wise men bringing their gifts to their King (Jesus) when they journeyed to see him so many years ago. Neat! Now I feel better about making it. I'm sure it's not authentic, but I did my best-my first attempt. It really tastes more like a coffee cake (plus lots of sprinkles!) and really isn't like a cake at all. I hid a coin inside of the cake, so the kids were all excited to see just who would get it in their slice. Turned out to be my 12 yo son..in the LAST piece of the cake-go figure.

But the most exciting thing this week? My 6 yo riding his bike without training wheels! I am so proud! He didn't think he could do it, but Dad gave him the confidence he needed and once he started, he just took off! Wow, he's growing up too quickly!