National Wildlife Week

This morning The First Born woke up not feeling too well. At first we thought maybe she caught some kind of stomach bug going around. After a little rest, she was back to her normal chattering self. She loves to get magazines in the mail. Right now she gets Ranger Rick and Ask, both were gifts from family members. (And both of these are excellent children's mags, with no advertising.) To keep order of all of these publications, The World's Greatest Husband went out and got all of the kids, and me, magazine files.
So The First Born has all of her magazines ordered and such. So this morning after she began to feel better, she dove right into her magazine collection, pummeling me with numerous facts about animals. She then asked me when "National Wildlife Week" was. I told her that I didn't know. (This is her way of either quizzing me, or letting me know that this is something she would like to discuss.) After a while, she informed me that "National Wildlife Week" is March 16-20, and could we put it on our family calendar. I said "Sure" and wrote it on the calendar for that week. She then proceeded to ask me what we should do for "National Wildlife Week". I said I didn't know; what did she suggest? "Maybe we could help out some of the wildlife animals around here."

Trip to WV

Last week the children were out of school for "Winter Break". We made plans to drive to WV to visit family; we had not been to WV since last summer, July 4. So we were all looking forward to our trip. Despite not feeling well the week before the trip, we trudged onward. We arrived in WV with minor difficulties and were ready to start feeling better and visiting with family. Things did not go as we had hoped. The youngest, Taz, had a fever off and on all week; I was developing a terrible cold, as was The World's Greatest Husband, and then Classic Middle Child had to be taken to the ER for an ear infection.
Now, let me explain our "arrangements" when we visit WV. Both of our Mothers live about 10 minutes from each other. We have tried to split the time and stay with one side of the family for half of the trip and then the other side for the other half of the trip. That does not work out too well, too much moving around, packing up, etc. So The World's Greatest Husband stays with his mother, and the children and I stay with my sister. It is not ideal, but generally it works out ok. I needed to explain our "arrangements" in order to clarify that the children are primarily with me. It was me who took CMC to the ER at 1 am, and it was me who was up with Taz every couple of hours monitoring his fever and giving him the remedy of choice. All the while, The World's Greatest Husband was recuperating on his mother's couch, in front of the TV! Imagine my shock when after arriving back home, I overheard The World's Greatest Husband on the phone with a friend. He was recounting our trip to WV, and I quote "I (he actually said 'I'!!!) had to take CMC to the ER at 1 am". Are you kidding me?????

Look out Comedy Central...jokes around the table

I like to think that members of my family have good senses of humor. If you knew some of the people in my family, you would agree. We like to laugh together, tell funny stories and tell jokes. The First Born and Classic Middle Child also like to tell jokes. TFB had really gotten into it and we even encouraged this new hobby by checking out some joke books from our local library. But after a few days of constant "Hey Mom/Dad, What did the ____ say to the ____?" (you fill in the blanks), we had had enough. So the joke books went back to the library shelves.
Now TFB and CMC will tell us jokes that they find in a book/magazine, and even ones that they have made up. Some of the made up jokes are pretty funny, and some are just, well funny because we are right there in the moment and the joke teller is laughing so heartily at his/her joke, you can't help but laugh too.

So here is the first installment of jokes around the table, this one by CMC:

CMC: "What did the dog say to the tree?"
me: "I like your bark"
CMC: "No. You have more leaves than I can count. Get it? Trees have too many leaves to count!" (followed by hearty belly laughs.)

Night Whispering and Giggling

I struggle with a "name" on this blog for my youngest child. He has been called "bundle of energy", "terrible twos", and "tazmanian devil". And all of these names are very fitting. But tonight, he is called the "night whisperer". When he has had a decent nap during the day, he is not always ready to go to bed. He will nurse for a few minutes (yes, he is 2.5 years and STILL nursing, and we are proud of that) and then I will ask him if he is ready to go to bed. He will tell us goodnight and I will lay him in his big boy bed. Usually he will whisper for a few minutes and then drift off to sleep. But tonight he must have a lot to say; he has been whispering and giggling in his bed for 51 minutes now. And Classic Middle Child is asleep in the same room, undisturbed! (He got this gene from his father.)
The World's Greatest Husband and I take turns going into the bedroom and telling the "whisperer" to be quiet and go to sleep. The last time I went in, I told him that we would talk tomorrow and no more talking tonight. His response: "Pwease, Mommy?"
Now you may wonder why I let him take a nap during the day if not taking a nap will ensure an early bedtime, which it does. Well, I have gone 'round and 'round on this one. And it comes down to the fact that I NEED him to take a nap during the day. We need that bit of rest, even if it means he will be up a bit later. There is always some kind of trade-off...

Birthday Extravaganza

Well, The First Born is about to celebrate her 8th birthday in 3 days. I could go on and on about how I can hardly believe she is old enough to have her ears pierced, much less try to act like a "cool dude"!

Or bemoan the fact that she is not a baby any longer, but more closely resembles a string bean. While these are all true, let us instead celebrate who she is, and the wonderful young lady she has become.
When beginning to make birthday preparation, The First Born was asked the usual questions: "What kind of birthday party would you like?" and "Who would you like to invite?". Who to invite became a tougher situation than we thought. The First Born only felt like there were 3 girls from her class that she is good friends with, so with that small number, I set out to make sure that these 3 girls would be able to attend on the date set. Next was the theme for the party...we went 'round and 'round, from craft/puppy party to a friendship party, and we settled on a cooking party. There is a local bakery that offers children's birthday parties in which the children are able to decorate cakes, etc. I thought to myself, "If they can do that, I can do it, and do it better!"
So I set out to begin preparations for this party. We decided that each child would help to mix cake batter, and we would bake 4-6" heart-shaped cakes during the party. (I had previously made 4-6" heart-shaped cakes and frozen them so that all of the girls would have a 2-layer cake to take home.)
So, day of the party, the girls arrived, and after showing them The First Born's room, and Classic Middle Child and Tazmanian Devil showed off a bit, the girls and I set to work at baking while The World's Greatest Husband took Classic Middle Child and Taz downstairs to view a movie. (They rejoined us when it was time to decorate the cakes.) While the cakes baked and cooled, the girls had a snack, made snowmen from bananas and other various fruits, and played rousing games of musical chairs and hot potato. We then made Brownie Sand Art for each of the girls to take home:

Use a 1-quart mason jar.
Layer in this order, cocoa on bottom. Baking Directions:

1/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup vanilla chips
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
½ tsp. salt 9"x 9" pan.
½ tsp. baking powder

Seal with mason jar lid and ring.

Baking directions:
Combine contents of jar with:
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
Mix until well blended. Pour into greased 9”x 9” pan.
Bake at 350 for 26-28 minutes.


After the Brownie Sand Art, it was time to decorate the cakes. This proved to be lots of fun, challenging and a great creative process! And the cakes looked awesome! (even though some of the children--Classic Middle Child--decided to see just how much candy could be piled on top of a cake.)
We did the usual, opened gifts and had cake and ice cream, although I think most of the children had had enough cake/frosting by now!
And I have certainly had enough cake--one 2-layer birthday cake, 4-6" heart-shaped 2-layer cakes, and two 1-layer cakes later! All of the girls took home their decorated cake, as well as their "shopping bag" with an apron, cooking utensils, and Brownie Sand Art.
We took the remainder of our cake to church today, and passed it out for coffee hour, and then sent many people home with large helpings!!!