Yummy Treats for Fat Tuesday

We made cookies this morning, a rare occurance around here, mostly because when they're in the house I eat them!! All of them!!! But Claire got this cute little Sesame Street cookbook for Valentine's Day and we decided to make a batch of Chunky Lumpy Bumpy Granola Cookies. As Ryan pointed out, they're Elmo's favorites so they'll definitely be good. They kids have gotten used to their traditional jobs in the kitchen. Katie knows where the flour is and is strong enough now to bring the heavy canister out of the pantry. Ryan gets the mixer out and plugs it in so it's ready to go. They alternate measuring and pouring ingredients and each take a turn holding the hand mixer. Enter Claire. Last time we made cookies she was either napping or not born yet. But she is no wall flower, this one. She desperately wanted in on the action and since Claire usually gets whatever Claire wants...we had to make accommodations for her to participate.



The dough was ready and then we had a major problem... 3 little tongues trying to lick and only 2 beaters!! Oh no!! What a disaster! But since Claire usually gets whatever Claire wants... she just reached right into the bowl and helped herself to the cookie dough.



Then the cookies were happily baking, yes they were happy little cookies, they seemed to know how delicious they looked and smelled. And for 11 minutes, this is what I heard:



Ryan, "10:59, 10:58. 10:57, 10:56... yes, you get the idea..."


Katie, "Can I have 2 or just one? Can I have one after lunch? Can I have one after school?" Laying out her master plan for optimum cookie enjoyment.


Claire, "Doo-key! Doo-key!" Pointing feverishly through the oven door.



And as I turned to the sink to start in on the clean up, I felt a huge snuggly hug on the back of my leg. Oh, is that my sweet little Claire coming to cuddle? No. It's the dog and she's humping my leg. Again. Everyone loves me.


What is the appropriate amount of time to allow cookies to cool before attacking them? 2 minutes? That was long enough for us. Our fingers didn't burn as we picked them off the baking sheet so that was all that mattered. We snuggled on the couch for a couple chapters of Narnia and shared doo-keys all morning.

And in my never ending quest to get out of making dinner, we went to IHOP for a scrumptious meal of free pancakes. One day Ryan will truly eat us into the poor house. That kid has a mean metabolism. Ribs and shoulder blades poking through his skin, toothpick legs, zero body fat, but he packed away 6 pancakes. I have no idea where he put them.

A Surprise!!!

Tim and I planned a weekend getaway with the kids about 2 months ago and have been bubbling over with excitement waiting for the day to finally come. We decided to make it even more exciting by keeping the trip a surprise. Our first stop was the hotel. The both did a double take when I popped the trunk and got the suitcase out. I really believe just the treat of sleeping in a hotel (and the rare privilege of jumping on the bed) would have been enough excitement. They truly had no idea what we were up to until we got to the mountain. We watched some people tubing down the big slopes and told them, that's what we're here to do.



The whole ride out to Wintergreen the kids were guessing and trying to get us to spill the beans. We had Katie in hysterics thinking she was headed to a Broccoli Festival. At one point I thought she just might jump out of the car to avoid having to go!


We stopped at JMU on our way to Wintergreen and had a nice time looking around our old college and having dinner. Then we still had almost 2 hours left to get to the slopes and we wondered why in the world we hadn't chosen to go tubing at Massanutten which was right there in Harrisonburg!! We sure did have a ton of fun, and we met some friends there and the kids had a blast tubing together. Next year we might try skiing!!

Falling Asleep

I know lots of people who have trouble getting their kids to fall asleep. There's always some excuse... I need a drink, I have to go potty, I need a hug, I'm scared, I'm not tired, I'm hungry, I can't find (insert stuffed animal's name here). Of course we read... a lot. Either they each pick out 2 books, or we'll read a chapter or so in whatever big story we're in the middle of, these days it's the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm talking about after the storytelling, praying, tickling and tucking in. After the last kiss and nuzzle, what to do when they're still unsettled...

One night I told Ryan to count to 1000 to help his brain get tired. The next morning, he informed me that he only got to 758 before falling asleep. I almost spit my milk through my nose; he actually counted to 758? Wow, maybe he really wasn't very tired to begin with! The next night he counted the rest of the way to 1000. That was a long time ago, now we have much more creative ways to make their brains tired...

We play I-Spy, all kinds of alphabet games, name the presidents, review states and capitals, and our latest is the country game. We lay there naming countries in turn and every single time I run out of countries before Ryan does. That globe he got for Christmas is really teaching him a lot! He has a growing list of all the places he wants to visit. In order: Brazil, Arkansas, Qatar (because it rhymes with guitar), Argentina, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (because it has the most syllables of all the countries- 16).

Have you ever played an imaginary game of Uno? Ryan and I like to play this game in his bed at night. It goes something like this: me: red 8, Ryan: blue 8, me: blue 5, Ryan: blue 9, me: yellow 9, Ryan: yellow skip, blue skip, green skip, green 2, me: green reverse, green 3, Ryan: "Oh man, I was about to have Uno, but I don't have any green cards" and he "draws" about 10 cards (presumably so this imaginary game can continue for 20 minutes and he can manipulate me into staying in bed with him, but I don't mind). The game continues for at least a hundred more turns, until finally Ryan wins in a flurry of skip, draw 2, reverse, and wild cards. I, shocked to have lost, leave him with happy dreams of kicking my butt at imaginary Uno. We've tried also to play imaginary Battleship but I can't keep track of where I put my ships and Ryan gets very frustrated with me. Imaginary Chess is rediculously tricky to keep track of too!

Speaking of Uno, there is nothing cuter than Claire playing Uno with us. Picture all 5 of us at the kitchen table with our cards, happily playing a round of Uno. Claire sporadically tosses a card from her stack onto the pile. It's never the right color or number, but we don't mind. She's so happy to just be there. Eventually she gets down to her last card and announces "Oh-no!" It really is the cutest thing!

The Last Click

Horrible news today... with a final click and a few beeps and groans, my camera has finally died. It had been on the fritz the past few months. Many times I worried I would not be able to capture a big event or happy moment. But I guess I got lucky a few too many times. Just before it's final click, in small writing in the corner of the LCD screen appeared "Q32" which I guess is code for "Go buy a new camera." Now this was not an old camera, we bought it just before Claire was born, and I'm a little annoyed that we're having to replace it so soon. But, luckily enough we sold our old sofa set on the same day so it looks like we won't be camera-less for too long. Ahh, when the door closes, somewhere a window opens...

But this does mean that one of my very best and creative mommy moments has been ruined. Last night before bed, Tim and I arranged all the kids' stuffed animals around the house. They were posed reading books, doing puzzles, making a cake, playing games, wearing dress up clothes; when the kids found them this morning, it was quite a riot of laughter. We were going to take pictures of all the silliness and we were going to write a story to go along with each page and make a very cute book and practice all sorts of writing skills. But now we just have a mess to clean!

We also set up an elaborate scavenger hunt for the kids to find their Valentine treats we had hidden. Clues like, "Oceans, Countries, Continents too... where do you think you'll find your next clue??" leading to the globe in Ryan's room, and "Make a pizza, fry an egg, or have some tea, where do you think your next clue will be??" leading to the play kitchen down in the basement had the kids running up and down stairs all morning finally leading to their stash. I would have liked to capture that moment too, but alas... we'll have to do it again next Valentine's Day. They loved it so much, a new tradition has been born!

The New Bar

After months of planning, scheming and dreaming, we finally unveil our new basement bar! Tim has once again proven his worth as a handyman... he laid the floor in August, we ordered the cabinets in September, installed them in October not once but twice because the measurements were a quarter of an inch off. Just in time for Christmas the countertop was installed and we picked out the perfect tile for the backsplash. Tim spent an entire Saturday hanging tile! I thought it would take 2-3 hours, max! But as I've found before, I tend to underestimate how long every home project will take!

We just love the way it turned out and are finding themselves hanging out down in the basement more often now for family movie night. And the Margarita Machine fits perfectly in the cabinet and we're working on stocking the fridge with some nice wine selections.

The first time we made popcorn in our new air popper, the kids just about flipped out with excitement!!! They're always begging to try out different toppings on our popcorn- garlic, parmesean, cinnamon, all sorts of yummy healthy treats!

Ice Skating

Ryan loves his sports. You name it, baseball, football, hockey, swimming, loves 'em all. Katie loves dancing and designing beautiful outfits, that usually clash, but are nevertheless beautiful in her discriminating eye. We stumbled upon an activity they could do together and have had the most wonderful time.... ice skating!! Not that we were desperately looking for something they could both enjoy, they play together better than any other kids I've ever met. But we signed them up for an ice skating class and they have had the best time!

They've picked it up so quickly! After one lesson they weren't clinging to the walls anymore. Now they can do forward and backward swizzles, and wiggle backwards! We will have 7 weeks of lessons and 7 free passes for open skate sessions to practice. And then they will have to teach me and Tim to skate!!

For Katie, ice skating combines all the gracefulness of ballet, but at a faster pace. Ballet is sooooo slooooow and boooooring. Ice skating is fast and fun!! We've been watching lots of ice skating on tv, and Katie dresses as a professional ice skater every day (which includes an old ballet leotard with tights and a sweater). And every free moment she has, she is twirling around the living room making swishing noises and the scraping sounds of her "blades" on the ice. So now she has me designing and sewing an ice skating dress for her to wear to class and she's planning for her birthday party to be at the ice house this year! Have we found the love of her life? Or is this just a passing phase? Or does she just throw herself into each new activity 100%? Time will tell, but we're signing up for the next session in March so she can continue the fun.