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!

An edible history lesson

We have been learning about Napoleon in history and his many conquests. During his invasion of Egypt, his soldiers uncovered a very valuable piece of history-the Rosetta Stone. This stone was discovered in the city of Rosetta (hence the name) and contained heiroglyphic writing, which, up until then, had been indecipherable. This particular writing, however, contained a Greek translation of the writings, so they could finally be translated. An amazing accomplishment in learning about the ancient world. For our project, the kids designed their own Rosetta stones, copying some of the heiroglyphics. The "stone" was a giant sugar cookie, and the writing was done in frosting....

The finished products....

Not bad! And tasty, too!

Happy President's Day!!

Hopefully you knew that Monday was President's Day! With the exception of being off school, i don't think most people do a whole lot to celebrate it-I surely never did, but in trying to stick with our commitment to celebrate most holidays this year (big and small), we decided to do something fun. We had a wonderful lunch, featuring Franklin-furters (yes, I know Franklin wasn't a president, but he is on the $100 bill!) ; George Washington's cherries (yogurt with cherries on top)...


Hamilton and cheese crackers, and lincoln legs (rod shaped pretzels). The kids scarfed it down!


And for dessert (excuse the sideways picture please) we had cupcakes, complete with the heads of those printed on our bills. That's Alexander Hamilton you see there...

We played a fun game of throwing coins in a bucket-the winner got a shiny quarter!

And then on to scrubbing pennies with vinegar and salt to brighten and clean them up. I glued each one onto some green felt and they wore them as pins. Cute!

Sorry, no Obama activities at our party-i'm thinking he won't do anything significant enough to end up on a coin....

My little sweethearts

Okay, I'm not quite sure why it will not make my pictures right side up, but here's my little sweetie after helping Dad plant some pretty flowers in front of the house-she had so much fun!
Love the boots...
My 11 yo and 8 yo saw these sparkly shoes at Walmart (Wizard of Oz-like) and decided that was what they wanted to spend some of their money on-they were on clearance, so they got a great deal, and I must say, they were grinning from ear to ear! It's so cute to see them wanting to be so girly-I would have loved a pair of these when I was younger. By the way, they get worn with EVERYTHING-from dressy to casual. Too cute!

Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day at our house, the kiddos wanted to make heart shaped cookies and then frost and decorate them. We used our giant heart cookie cutter to make a good looking cookie, then i let them loose with red, pink, and white frosting. They decorated to their hearts' content and had a ball. We had lots of cookies, so we were able to bless some of our neighbors with a little treat, too! Here are some pics from the fun time (sorry for the sideways ones...computer won't cooperate!)