They're Grrrrrreat!

Of all the cereals marketed to kids, the most boring of them all has to be Frosted Flakes. No rainbow colored rings of cereal. No fun shaped marshmallows. It's boring. Yet, it's Torii's favorite cereal. Why? "Because eating Frosted Flakes makes you good at sports," Torii told me. If you've ever watched any Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network then you've been treated to at least one Frosted Flakes commercial every break. (If you missed it, it was probably right after the Moon Sand commercial where you yelled at your child for the millionth time, "No! You can't have any Moon Sand!" and then stormed out of the room and into the bathroom for at least 30 seconds of alone time). In these Frosted Flakes commercials athletic young kids eat Frosted Flakes, play sports of all kinds and chant "We are Tigers, mighty, mighty Tigers". These commercials have my little future consumer begging his mom for Frosted Flakes."You know that's just a commercial, right," I asked Torii. "Mom, I know I won't turn into a tiger," Torii said like I was the dumbest mom ever, "But it will make you good at sports."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Snow is on the way and the Christmas decorations are all over the stores already. I love Christmas, but it kind of made me sick to see Christmas trees up at Walmart the other day. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. However, I have started using the "we aren't buying that today. Maybe you'll get it for Christmas" speech already. I'm sure it won't be long before I start threatening the kids with the "Santa is watching" speech. The kids are already on the lookout for what they want for Christmas and lists are being made. Rion has wanted a Pillow Pet since he saw the penguin one on TV ages ago and now they are available at Walmart. I thought Pillow Pets were kind of lame, but when we looked at them at Walmart I was sold. They are so soft! Pillow Pets must be on many kids' lists because they are really selling at Walmart. They usually only have two different kinds, but when Cordelia and I were there the other day we spotted a penguin so I picked it up for Rion for Christmas. Cordelia wants the unicorn, but it was out and I wasn't going to buy it for her with her there anyway. So I put the penguin in the cart and made Cordelia very angry that she wasn't going to get one too. But I plowed on with my angry child, I'm sure to the delight of every other customer there that day. Hey, she eventually calmed down. As we were getting ready to checkout, another family came into our lane. There was a young boy in their cart and he practically jumped out of the cart when he saw the Pillow Pet on the conveyor belt. He would have made it, if mom wouldn't have intervened. The kid was not pleased that we were getting a Pillow Pet and he was not. I guess if it was my kid I would have started the "maybe for Christmas" speech.

First crushes and imaginary friends

Cordelia has a "crush". After school the kids usually spend some time at the playground. There is a boy in Rion's grade that is usually out there too. Cordelia talks about him all the time and thinks he is really funny. Last week I picked the kids up from school since they had conferences shortly after class got out. The whole time we were outside Cordelia was on the lookout for this boy. Finally he came out and she preceded to follow him everywhere. When he had to leave he made Cordelia's day by giving her a hug.

Our little Cordelia is also becoming really great at playing pretend. She has tea parties, plays with her Barbies and her Little Pet Shops. It's so fun to watch her when she doesn't know we are watching. Since her brothers aren't big on the tea parties, she often has tea with Max. Max just happens to be Max from Max and Ruby. Dear goodness, my daughter is seeing an imaginary rabbit! Anyway, Max hangs out with her a lot and they have a lot of good times.

Man cave for a geek

One of my favorite shows is CBS's "Sunday Morning". It's like NPR on TV. A couple of weeks ago there was a story about Legos. Watch the video here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6923277n&tag=mncol;lst;6

I told Rion to watch it with me since he loves Legos so much. Now he keeps telling me how he is going to have a Lego cave when he grows up.

"Kid friendly" dinners

In my new issue of Cooking Light there was a very good letter to the editor about labeling certain recipes as "kid friendly". The writer of the letter, a mom, said that the labeling should be eliminated because then some foods are deemed for grown-ups only. Like her, I've always served my kids exactly what Fred and I eat for dinner. And like her, my kids eat a wide variety of foods. Foods that some people are surprised a child will eat willingly. Not that they like everything, but at least they try it. I've made it a point to serve healthy food and as a result my kids have pretty good eating habits. I think it's good that my kids don't expect chicken nuggets or mac and cheese every night for dinner. My hope in serving healthy meals is that they continue eating healthy into adulthood. While we do eat healthy most nights, we also have our fair share of greasy, fatty food. And dessert is a must every night. (I think that's the real incentive in eating well every night). Still, I'm proud of our family's eating habits. And our meals aren't all "kid friendly". It's just good food.

We all scream for ice cream

Loyal blog readers, you will be happy to know that my kids have finally experienced the ice cream truck! My parents had the kids on Monday and as they dropped them off they noticed the ice cream truck coming up the street, but then turning up the block in the exact opposite direction of our house. So my parents got in the car, tracked her down and sent her to our house. Talk about excited kids! (And an excited mommy too). The wait was awful as we heard the ice cream truck music weaving through the neighborhood, waiting for it to get closer and then finally in our view. Of course the timing wasn't good as it was right before dinner, but who cares? It's the ice cream truck! The kids picked out their treats and we enjoyed the beautiful autumn evening, eating our ice cream on the front porch.

A little more summer fun

Well, we finally got to Raging Rivers Labor Day weekend. We had been trying to get there the past three weekends, but between sick kids and rainy days, it just didn't happen. I find it somewhat funny that we have been to the Wisconsin Dells twice, but this was our first visit to Raging Rivers. It wasn't the hottest of days (it did get to 77 degrees), but the kids didn't mind. They had a lot of fun and I'm sure we will be going back next year. Even though I would have liked it a little hotter, it turned out to be a great day. The water park was only open until 4pm as opposed to the normal 8pm closing. I didn't mind telling the kids we had to pack up and leave at 4:00 instead of enduring 4 more hours there. And since they had reduced hours, the price was reduced as well. A win-win for me! Torii was a little bummed that he wasn't quite tall enough for the water slides, but he took it well. Next year he'll be tall enough for sure. Rion loved going down the tube slides. I made him go with me the first time I went with him. He had already been down with Fred a few times. When we got to the bottom he told me, "Now I'm going down by myself. And so are you." We also enjoyed the lazy river. It was fun because a section of it has waves at different times. That was a lot of fun. It turned out to be a great day and a nice ending to summer.

Back in the swing of things

The boys are now into their first full week of school. Torii is already complaining about not wanting to go to school each morning. He said he liked kindergarten better. Rion is doing great getting ready for school in the morning, but we have fought with him over homework already. Personally, I don't think a second grader should have homework, but that's me. It's not much, but it's enough to complain about. And Cordelia hates that she can't go to school with her brothers and then fights me about going to Grandma's house. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up is all I can say.

The boys have said they are liking school. Torii is happy he can order a salad at lunch now. Kindergartners weren't allowed to order a salad. So far he's had salads twice for lunch. Rion doesn't talk much about school, but I think he likes it. He's just bummed that they don't start multiplication until third grade. Sheesh, by then he might be into long division.

The kids also started gymnastics again on Monday. I'm really liking the Monday class. I haven't run out of steam yet on Monday. They previously had class on Thursday and by that point in the week I was ready to do nothing but veg out in front of the TV. Cordelia gets to be in the preschool class now which is super awesome for me. I don't have to supervise her in class anymore so that means a free hour for me. I was worried how she would do, but she did great. I thought that maybe she would listen to the teachers better than she listens to me and I was right. She still ran around a little bit, but not like she did with me around. She would run around and never want to do the task the class was doing. She did great listening to the teachers on Monday. She even sat down on the line when she was told too! I was impressed.

When I grow up....

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but just haven't gotten around to it. I was going to reply to Kristy's comment on my last post, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to say. So I decided that another post was in order. Basically, my reply was going to be, "Isn't it great to watch your children discover their talents and develop their interests?"

When I was in college I spent the first two years trying to "find myself" and deciding what I wanted to do with my life. It finally struck me that I wanted to be a writer. And the funny thing is that I knew that when I was a kid. I loved to write. I always did. I made my friends play "newspaper". I wrote a small play involving space aliens and President Bush (the first). And I wrote in my "All about me" American Girl book that I was going to be an author when I grew up.

I look at my kids and wonder if they already know what they want to be when they grow up too. I wonder if Rion's love of Legos will lead him to engineering. Or will it be his fascination with the human body that will lead him to medical school? Will Torii pursue Olympic gold in gymnastics because he spends half of his day on his hands rather than his feet? Will Cordelia become an artist because she always has her crayons and a notebook within reach?

It's fun to speculate and wonder what the future holds for your children, but it will be their decision to make in the end. And I will love them no matter what they choose. Even if they decide the being a rodeo clown is what will make them happy. Then I will look back at their childhood and say, "Yes, that makes sense. You always liked taunting large animals."

Math wizzes

Ok, prepare yourself for some long overdue bragging about my boys. Here goes: They are smart. No, I mean really smart. Ok, Torii is too smart for his own good, but that's another blog post. Now, I know most parents say their kids are smart, but I'm not lying. My kids are smart. I'm especially talking about the boys and math. Over the summer I have learned that my boys not only love math, but they are good at it. I shouldn't be surprised since both of their parents were good at math so I guess it's in their genes.

Before vacation I bought the boys some really great workbooks at Dollar Tree. (I love that store). I brought the books along for something to do in the car, but didn't have real high hopes that the boys would like them. They both loved the math workbooks. Rion was really interested in the multiplication section of his book. I have since found another workbook that is completely multiplication. He knows the easy stuff like multiplying by 1's and some of the 2's. He wanted to do the harder problems, but I told him to work his way to the back of the book. No, he really wanted to do the x10 problems. Fine, those are easy I told him, but instead of letting him in on the hint of just adding a zero to the number he is multiplying by 10 I told him how to figure out the answer by making groups of ten. By the time he got to x3 he had it figured out by himself and he finished the page on his own. He'll be in second grade this fall and I'm not sure if that's when they start multiplication, but either way, he's ahead of the class already.

Torii will be in first grade and his math skills impress me too. They started adding in kindergarten, but it was pretty basic 2+2 math. Torii is adding and subtracting much bigger numbers. I think Torii has taken to math so well because of his love of board games. His favorite game is Monopoly. Not Jr. Monopoly, he abandoned that long ago. He plays standard Monopoly. The first time he landed on Luxury Tax I thought I would have to help him get $75, but he looked at his money and handed me a fifty, twenty and a five. He can get correct change for any property he lands on. It's just when we get deep into the game and we are exchanging large amounts of money for landing on hotels is when he needs help. But really, he's a five year old. The box says ages 8-adult. I think he's doing quite well on Monopoly.

Torii and I also play another math related game we made up. When we are done shopping at Wal-mart I ask him to estimate how many items I bought. We each make a guess and see who is closest. Then we look at the total on the receipt for the answer. The other day he guessed 29 items, but we had 25. Without even thinking he said he was 4 off. "But was that with the video game we purchased earlier in electronics", he asked me. "No it wasn't," I told him. Well he was counting the video game so without thinking again he had to let me know he really was only 3 off. I don't know, that just seems like it would be difficult for a five-year-old to figure out and to figure out so quickly.

Ok, this bragging session has ended. But really, they are smart.

Ruh-roh

Never in my life have I ever stopped watching cartoons. Not in high school. Not in college. And not now. It's the part of me that refuses to grow up. And really a lot of the times, the best thing on TV is cartoons. As a kid I loved Scooby-Doo and now Cordelia loves it too. The other day she was watching it and ran up to me and said, "Oh no! Scooby is in trouble!" She really gets into it. While I still have a certain fondness for the original Scooby-Doo, especially the Scooby-Doo movies which featured guest stars like Batman and Robin, Don Knotts, and the Harlem Globetrotters, I still liked the new "What's New Scooby-Doo" series. But for some reason they stopped making that one and have now put on a new Scooby-Doo series called "Mystery Incorporated". I hated this show the first time I saw it. I was offended that they would screw around with the characters and develop a dating relationship between Shaggy and Velma. I'm still not crazy about the animation, but the series has grown on me. It's a cartoon, but it is definitely aimed at the parents too. There are so many jokes in each episode that only the parents are going to get. While Casey Kasem no longer provides the voice of Shaggy, he does provide the voice for his dad. There was also a Griswold vacation reference thrown in and a Beverly Hills 90210 one too. And I love that Fred is totally oblivious to how much Daphne likes him. A long time ago I had heard that the reason the gang always split up was so Daphne and Fred could have some alone time, if you know what I mean. This new series plays with some of the theories I've heard about the show. It's kind of fun. It's fun to watch Scooby with the kids. They watch it because it's a funny cartoon. I watch it because of the adult humor. It's great.

"Camping"

I feel like I'm still trying to recover from the past weekend. I started going at 8am on Saturday and didn't quit until late Sunday. But it sure was a fun weekend. On Saturday morning I got out by myself and participated in a Photowalk. We met up at Seratoma Park and had two hours to take pictures of whatever we liked. I got some great shots, but I wish I had a better camera for somethings. After the photowalk, I ran some errands, came home to put together some food and then packed entirely way too much stuff for one overnight camping stay. Camping is too much work for me.

We "camped" at my parent's house by the campfire. The kids loved sleeping in tents. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but next time I won't forget the air mattress. I didn't sleep the greatest even though it was really cozy. On Sunday I was trying to catch up on everything I didn't get done on Saturday. I also ended up doing some school shopping with Torii. We found him some new shoes for the fall. Poor Torii was so tired that he fell asleep between the mall and Wal-mart. He was surprised that we arrived at Wal-mart so quickly. Rion trying out his tent.
Our "campsite".

Ooey-gooey s'mores.

Fred made breakfast for everyone Sunday morning. It was so good.

The camping trip was fun. Rion did not want to leave the next day. We will have to try it again another weekend. The weather was perfect too. I'm not a camper, but I don't mind it when we're just down the hill from the house. I guess that doesn't really make me much of a camper.

Little Romeo

Last week Torii let me know he was going to give two flowers to two girls in school. First he was going to give them roses and then tulips. I asked him why and suddenly he got shy and wouldn't say anymore. Later he brought it up again, but wouldn't give any more information. Then just before bedtime he said he wanted to whisper something in my ear. He whispered, "The reason I want to give those girls flowers is because they are so beautiful." I giggled and he clammed up again, but I told him that was a really sweet thing to do and he felt better again. He brought the subject up again the next day and he said the girls had picked roses and he had picked tulips so that was the reason for the two kinds of flowers. Sometimes I wish I could be invisible so I could hang out with him and hear these conversations he has with girls.

On the 4th of July we enjoyed a nice evening at my parents' house. As the kids patiently waited for the sun to go down so we could do the really cool fireworks, we watched that night's amazing sunset. After the fireworks were done and we were getting in the car, Torii told me the sunset reminded him of one of the girls because it was beautiful like her.

In one of our many discussions on this flower topic and beautiful girls, he got self conscience about something he said, (I may have giggled again to make him feel that way), I told him he was really sweet and any girl would be so happy to hear things like that. On one hand, I'm nervous about what this little boy is going to be like once he hits puberty. On the other hand, I think he'll be a great boyfriend. That is as long as his daddy doesn't get to him. Hopefully, I can keep him in good boyfriend shape. What girl doesn't love getting flowers and hearing her boyfriend compare her to a sunset?

Chef Rion

I don't think Rion played the computer at all today. No video games either. Instead he was Chef Rion. I'm not sure why, but this morning he put on his chef's jacket that he's had forever, but never really played with, and pretended to be a chef. He was a chef that worked in a hotel restaurant. He pretended to be a chef all day. He has such a great imagination, but he doesn't use it as much as I wish he did. He spends too much time with the computer and video games. And he was so good today. I didn't have any bad moments with him today, which was nice for a change. He was also pretty good with Torii and Cordelia. Anyway, hoping to take advantage of Rion's pretending, I asked him if he wanted to cook something for real. He hesitated because he said he didn't know how to cook, but I told him I would help. First we did a simple strawberry smoothie. He read the recipe and I helped him measure things out. Actually, I told him how to measure it and then he did it. I taught him about fractions while measuring and my math wiz loved it. He had fun making the smoothies, which were very good by the way, so we made another recipe. I wanted to make some ham and cheese breakfast muffins for tomorrow so he helped with that. Tomorrow he wants to make something else that goes in the oven. Rion liked measuring the flour. While the muffins cooked he was practicing at measuring.

A weekend at the lake

We spent most of last weekend at Lake Tschida. The kids love it out there. Well, I do too. We also finally got Fred out there. He's never had weekends off before so this was his first time at the lake. I think he really enjoyed it and he'll be going out there again with us. He got to do a lot of fishing so he was happy. On Saturday we got as much swimming in as we could, but the weather did not cooperate in the evening and we were forced inside. It rained off and on, but a couple of times the rain was very heavy. But that was OK, because it's also nice to sit inside the cabin and listen to the rain. The boys as usual had a great time at the lake. It's amazing to see how much better they are at swimming a year later. They had lots of fun jumping into the lake and swimming into the bigger waves made by passing boats. Cordelia didn't do much swimming. She had more fun playing in the sand on the beach. The boys enjoying a pontoon ride around the lake after all the rain was done on Saturday.
Playing on the beach.

I tried to get a picture of Torii concentrating really hard to reel in a fish, but as I snapped it he turned to look at me. He looks like I'm disturbing him.

Sweet peaches

Years ago, Fred was on Marlboro's mailing list and they would send cool stuff every once in awhile. One of the things was a Cook like a Man cookbook, filled with BBQ and grilling recipes. Not only is it a visually appealing book, but it filled with awesome recipes. I don't think there is a single recipe that I don't want to try, although I've only tried a handful. I made these peaches the other night. I forgot to buy strawberry preserves so we had it without, but it was still awesome.

4 fresh peaches, halved, pitted or 8 canned peach halves, drained well
Large resealable plastic bag
1 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp strawberry preserves, heated
Vanilla ice cream

Coat peaches by placing in bag with honey, vanilla, and cinnamon; refrigerate until ready to grill. Preheat grill to medium heat. Remove peaches from bag; reserving honey sauce. Place on grill and cook about 2 minutes per side. Remove from grill and spoon about 1 tablespoon strawberry preserves into center of each peach. Top with vanilla ice cream and reserved honey sauce.

Happy Summer!

I hope I don't jinx it, but I think summer is finally here. On Saturday we decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo. The kids love feeding the goats. Rion was also having a really good time and he kept posing for pictures by the goats. That's unusual for him. All three kids (and two goats) were posing really nice for the above picture, but as I snapped it, one of the goats moved which made Cordelia laugh and for some reason everyone, including the goat, is looking over to the one side. I think I like this one better than a posed picture anyway. We got our new membership on Saturday too so we got some train tickets. On the train ride Cordelia had a conversation with a little older boy. He must have been about three. It was so funny to listen to them. They understood each other and kept chatting.

For Father's Day we didn't do much. Torii and daddy went fishing in the morning. Then we basically hung around the house. I made steak for dinner and hot brownie sundaes for dessert, Fred's favorite. The kids did spend some time in the sprinkler on Sunday and then that evening we went rollerblading. There is a small hill at the end of our block that they like to go up so they can roll down. They must have done that 15 times, from our house to the end of the block. They went to sleep without a peep. Rion is trying really hard at rollerblading, but he just takes tiny steps to get to where he is going. Torii, on the other hand, is a man possessed on the blades. He is a pretty good rollerblader and he has a super serious and determined look on his face when he blades. Torii may be more of the athlete in our family. He likes sports and he has the coordination and the competitiveness. Poor Rion may have to suffer through Auntie Kelly syndrome, where everyone will ask him if he plays basketball because he is so tall.

Tonight we went rollerblading again, all the way to GG's house. Torii and Cordelia had fun while GG tried to water her flowers. Cordelia started out by helping hold the hose, but it wasn't long before she was trying to spray Torii and then herself. They got pretty wet, but they tried off quickly in the sun.

I hope it continues to be nice out because I am enjoying the time outside. And I am enjoying grilling season as well. I have a yummy recipe to share, but I'll leave you all in suspense and post it later.

Michigan trip

Tomorrow we will be forced back into our "normal" lives. It's been a nice two weeks to relax, see family, and stay up late and sleep in. I think we are all in for a rude awakening tomorrow. Most of the last two weeks was spent in Michigan. We drove along with my parents. They took one kid at a time so that helped stave off fights in our car. And really, the kids were pretty good throughout the trip. It's hard being away for so long, but they did great. They were rewarded with Chuck E Cheese on our last night in Grand Rapids. Chuck E Cheese was one of the first things Rion saw in Grand Rapids. Nobody else saw it as it's sort of tucked away from the road, but he saw it right away. Unfortunately, it was close to the hotel so he saw it a lot. The main reason for going to Grand Rapids was to attend the wedding of my youngest sister Laurie. The wedding was beautiful and Laurie was gorgeous. The reception and dance was at a park and we had a great time. Torii loved dancing and even Rion joined in later. While the week leading up to the wedding was filled with fun parties (bridal shower, bachelorette party, and rehearsal) we still found some time to explore the city.

Torii at the baseball game. Grand Rapids has an "A" minor league team for the Detroit Tigers called the Whitecaps. We got seats on the lawn and enjoyed an afternoon at the ballpark.
My beautiful kids at the wedding. I didn't even see them until after the ceremony and they left me speechless. They looked so good! What handsome young men and a little lady I have.

After the ballgame (and naps) we headed to Lake Michigan. The water was still quite cold, but that didn't stop the kids from getting into the water. The kids loved the lake and beach. They built sand castles, chased seagulls, and played in the water. Rion asked to go back to the lake almost every day for the rest of the trip.

This was taken after rehearsal dinner.

Rion and Cordelia at Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids. The festival is sort of like our street fair in the fall except there is a lot more art. And a lot of hands on art. There was also things for the kids to do. I wish we would have had more time to explore the festival because I didn't get to see it all and I wanted to eat some more too! There was a lot of food that you just don't see around here and I wanted to try so much of it. And the prices were so much cheaper than what the food vendors charge at our street fair.

We also got to visit the zoo which is really nice. Rion was in heaven because he got to see real life penguins. We had planned on going to Minot this summer to see the penguins at their zoo, but Rion got to see them in Grand Rapids. He is obsessed with them. I haven't seen him that excited about something in a long time. The kids also got as much swimming in as they could at the hotel. And on our way home we stopped at the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness for the second time. We had hoped that we could explore the outdoor water parks this time around, but the weather didn't cooperate. There was plenty to do inside anyway. The kids loved the wave pool. And this time the boys were tall enough to do some water slides. Rion is tall enough that he can do them on his own. And I got to go on the water slides this time too, because I was pregnant the last time. We had a great vacation and now we must get back to real life. I've gotten used to staying up late, but now I need to get to bed or it's going to be a long week for me.

Vacation

Today was the first full day of being home from a 10 day vacation. Usually it is really nice to be home, but I had so much fun that I still wish I was on vacation. Plus having our entire family together made it a lot more fun. Our main purpose for the vacation was to attend the wedding of my youngest sister in Michigan. She married a great guy. We had a great time in the days leading up to the wedding and the wedding itself was great. There is so much to share and pictures as well, but I still need to collect my thoughts or this will be one long incoherent ramble. Congratulations Laurie and Eric!

Two sides of Torii

This week has been very busy at work as the end of the year field trips are in full swing. The fourth graders from the boys' school were out this week. One of the helpers, Miss D., that is in Torii's class a lot was helping out on the field trip. She saw me and told me she just had to tell me that I had the best kid. It told her how it was funny because out of all my kids, Torii is the one that gives me the most trouble. She said she couldn't imagine that. He is a good listener, raises his hand all the time, he's smart, and stands in line so nicely. The teacher always tells the other kids to be more like Torii. It is amazing seeing him at school. He is so quiet and polite. He may misbehave at home, but we must have done something right if that's how he acts in public.

Torii's class also had a substitute for four days this week. The sub told Fred on Thursday that the class had gotten punished for their behavior, but she didn't feel Torii deserved it. He was really great all week. Torii had to tell me all about it that evening. I was really proud of him for being so good and not following the bad behavior that the other kids exhibited throughout the week.

As far as his behavior at home, it has gotten better lately. We have tried a few things like the traffic light chart and rewarding good behavior with extra time playing video games. It seems to be working. And when he got a little out of hand the other night I told him I was going to video tape him and bring it to school. Then Miss D. would see how he acts at home since she didn't believe me. That stopped his tantrum cold.

Happy mother's day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hope you enjoyed your day today.

I had a very nice Mother's Day. I actually woke up childless this morning, which is kind of funny on Mother's Day. My parents had the kids overnight on Saturday so Fred and I had a night out. We decided not to do the usual dinner and movie date so we went bowling. I'm so out of shape that my legs hurt a little today. I bowled the worst I have ever bowled, but we had fun. After bowling we tried out Reza's Pitch. We've been meaning to try it out because we have always liked the owner. We ate there quite often when it was the A&W and the owner was always super nice so we wanted to support his new restaurant. The burgers were great, so go check it out and support a local business! While we ate we started watching the Twins game so after dinner we headed to a bar and watched the rest of the game. I have a really bad itch to see a game live now.

So this morning I planned on sleeping in late, but I was up at 7:00. The one morning we haven't had an overcast morning. It's funny because I didn't have to drag my butt out of bed like I usually have to do. Something about getting up because I wanted to, not because some kids needed breakfast or I had to go to work. The kids didn't get home until after lunch and Fred went fishing so I enjoyed my morning alone and got to watch two chick flicks uninterrupted. The rest of the day was a pretty typical Sunday. I did my grocery shopping and cooked supper. I tried to do some baking, but messed it up. (It doesn't turn out if you don't add eggs. Oops.)

It was a very nice weekend. I've got my batteries recharged and I'm ready for another week.

Cordelia stuck

Today Torii and I were playing Monopoly when I looked over and saw Cordelia. Instead of helping her like I should have, I grabbed the video camera. I don't think she will be doing that again.

That's why it's called "practicing" medicine

Rion stayed home from school today. Again. He has been battling this cold/cough/stomach pain on and off for about a month. He gets sick, gets better, then feels sick again. I feel like I am in a no win situation with him half the time. If I send him to school I get called by the school nurse to come pick him up. If I leave him at home I get a letter from the school about the amount of school he has missed. (Which happened in the fall when schools and doctors told parents to leave kids at home if they suspected H1N1). I have avoided taking Rion to the walk-in because I only leave frustrated and we end up going back because the doctor didn't get the diagnosis right the first time. In some cases the second time. So while Rion has been off and on sick I've only taken him to the doctor once. I swear the walk-in doctors only diagnosis whatever current sickness is going around. And sure enough I heard, "well, stomach flu is going around," and we were sent home with medicine for the stomach flu. That was two weeks ago and Rion hasn't gotten any better. I really didn't want to go to the walk-in again, but when Rion got sick at school yesterday I made an appointment with his regular doctor, but May 10th is the soonest I can get him in. I was hoping Rion could hold out until then, but tonight he was feeling really crummy so I brought him to the walk-in. The doctor felt a lot of his symptoms have to do with a sinus infection and he wrote out a prescription. He was ready to be on his way when I asked about the stomach pain. That was my biggest concern and Rion's biggest source pain. The doctor looked at me like this was the first time he heard me saying anything about stomach pain even though he felt around Rion's stomach and saw him grimace when he examined his stomach. The kids have a great pediatrician, but we can never see him unless we have an appointment so the walk in is usually the only option. Had I know Rion would still be sick I would have made an appointment long ago, but when I do that, the kids get better before the appointment ever comes. It's just so frustrating. The only doctor I really have any faith in is the one doctor I can never get an appointment with when I really need to. For now I'm keeping the appointment until I know Rion is completely well. We have an antibiotic for the sinus and medicine for what the doctor thought was just constipation causing the stomach pain. I really hope the doctor is right and I don't have to bring him in on May 10th, but from my experiences I feel like we will be going to that appointment.

Playing outside

Today was a cool and rainy day so we didn't get to spend time outside. We were outside a lot on Friday and Saturday. I started cleaning up our shed and it was like Christmas for the kids. All the summer toys they had forgotten about over the winter were found again. Torii was mad that he didn't have any Rollerblades so I had to get a pair for him. We've been doing a lot of rollerblading which the boys love. I can't wait until they are real good and then we can go rollerblading along the river trail.

I know there has been a lot of blog worthy comments from the kids this past week, but I can't think of any of them at the moment. Last week was such a long week, I'm not even sure what we did. All I know is that everyone in this house was sick at some point in the last week. I'm sick of being sick and taking care of sick people.

Easter

I haven't even posted my Easter pictures yet. We had a good Easter. Dinner ended up being at our house because my parents lost their electricity in the Good Friday storm. It still wasn't on yet on Saturday so we decided to do it at our house. Our neighbor brought over cookies for the kids. Even though they were already loaded up on sugar, they had no problem devouring the cookies.

Cordelia figured out the baskets pretty quick. She knew the place to be was parked in among all the baskets. The kids also hunted for eggs in the morning. The boys were up bright and early, but I made them wait until Cordelia got up. We hid over 50 eggs! They each had a bagful. I thought I would find random eggs for the next few days, but they must have found them all because I haven't seen anymore.

This must have been before Easter because the floor is still clean! (And Kelly and Laurie-it took dad less than a minute to complain about the Easter grass in our house on Easter).

In the kitchen

Cordelia likes to help me in the kitchen. She is the "dumper", meaning she dumps all the measured ingredients into the bowl. Today we made some whole wheat buttermilk pancakes after Sunday School. She looked so cute in her dress and mixing the ingredients, I just had to take a picture. Of course, she made a big mess as she usually does, but I love my little helpers in the kitchen.

It's like he's trying to speak to me, I know it!

Cordelia is picking up words left and right. Tonight she was twirling around the living room saying, "I'm a princess, I'm a princess." I love the learning to speak stage, mostly because I no longer have to guess what she needs, she can just tell me. Some words are coming out very clear, but most of what she says is only understandable to Fred and I, who are with her the most. It is fun to listen to your children as they learn to master the English language. And then there is Torii. He talks all the time and speaks more clearly than Rion did at that age. Yet, I don't know what he is talking about half of the time. This is what I heard the other day: "Oh Juggernoid! And Sub Terra, Ventus, Darkus!" Excuse me? It's like he's speaking a foreign language. And no, I don't even know what I just wrote. I had to take his Bakugan cards out to see what it was he said because after he said it I couldn't even repeat it. I was clueless. It's like Fred telling me what kind of hunting related gifts he would like. Five minutes after he tells me I don't have a clue so I just get him a Scheels gift card. And I try to listen, really I do, but Bakugan and hunting are foreign languages to me. So when Torii talks about Bakugan I just nod and say yes a few times like I'm listening. Then I switch the subject to something I know and we go outside and play baseball.

A new shirt for Cordelia

Here's a super easy and fun project I did yesterday. Inspiration and directions from: http://bkids.typepad.com/bookhoucraftprojects/2010/03/project-55-spring-wardrobe-update.html

I did a little thrifting over the weekend with hopes of finding something for this project. I wasn't having much luck, but then I stumbled upon this pillowcase. I don't know if those are suppose to be birds or butterflies, but I thought it was super cute.
And viola! Cordelia has a new shirt. She was so excited when I showed her. As I always do when I cook I did some improvising with the supplies I had on hand with this too. I used fusible hem to stick it to the tee. You can't see it up close, but it is noticeable when I look at it closely. I may pick up some of the fusible stuff mentioned on the tute for the next one. And I did sew around it because it looks so much better that way. I want to do a tank top with the other bird from the pillowcase.

Spring in ND

Until yesterday we were enjoying beautiful spring weather. Cordelia and I would walk down to the school to pick the boys up and then spend some time at the playground before coming home. The kids love being outside and it's hard to get them to go home. We also walked over to the park the other night and played some baseball on the diamonds. Torii is loving baseball lately and he wants to practice hitting every night. He loved going to the diamonds and playing. He didn't even want to quit baseball to play on the playground there. I'm glad we got out as much as we did because now we haven't been out for the past two days. It started raining yesterday and then today we got five inches of snow. Cordelia was mad that we couldn't go outside today. She even got her shoes on and had her jacket so she could go out. And Cordelia throws the biggest tantrums when we have to go back inside after playing outside. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing to throw a tantrum about. It's also been fun watching Cordelia outside this year. I can really see how she has grown. She wants to do everything the boys do and it's funny when she grabs the baseball bat and says "my turn". Hopefully the snow melts right away and the temps go back up because we all want to get back outside soon!

Must haves

On Sunday Cordelia and I went to Walmart to do some shopping. Torii usually goes with, but he didn't want to for once. Which was great, because then I could pick up all the Easter basket stuff. This might be the last holiday I'll get to do that with Cordelia in tow because she's getting a little too old to fool. I even picked up her little gift for her basket which she carried all around the store, but has since forgotten about. She also found another toy she really wanted in the Easter candy aisle. Someone had ditched a big plush rabbit right at two-year-old shelf level. She put her head on the rabbit and would not move. No amount of bribing was going to get her away from the rabbit. The other people in the aisle that it was adorable and joked I should just get it for her. Finally, I let her pick it up and take it with, but I had no intention of bringing it home with us. And she did carry it around for a couple of aisles worth of shopping. Then she sat in the cart with it and put her head down on it. Then she got back out of the cart and became more interested in the strawberries and insisted on carrying those around the store. So when the bunny once again got ditched in the candy aisle, an oblivious Cordelia said nothing and never questioned where her once "have to have it bunny" went. The kids do not need any more stuffed animals in this house and if I had to leave the bunny at the checkout despite a tantrum throwing Cordelia, I was prepared to do it. Although I was a little nervous that it might come down to that. One of the ladies we saw in the candy aisle saw us later with the rabbit in the cart and said, "well, it looks like she won." "Oh no," I said, "this bunny is not coming home with us." I only half believed myself, but hooray! I won in the end. It was a small victory, but I'll take it.

Bobcats hockey

Last night we went to the Bobcats game with GG. She wanted to take the boys to a game. And she also had an "in" and got the boys onto one of the party buses before the game. (We didn't let them go home on the bus, much to the displeasure of Torii). We had a lot of fun and the Bobcats won. Of course, the boys love Scratch and they had to give him a high five every time he came by. Then GG got Scratch to pose for a picture with the boys.

Church traditions

I love the traditions and memories that just sort of happen. You don't plan them, but they become firmly ingrained in your memory. They are usually the "little" things in life. One thing I will always remember is having hot chocolate at church. When I was a kid we went downstairs to get hot chocolate and it was always a treat. Now we have the new community center upstairs and that is now the hot chocolate location in between services. Once in awhile the church school kids might be using the community center so hot chocolate gets moved back downstairs. I don't know, but the hot chocolate just tastes better there. It's kind of weird to see my kids in the position I once was in. But at the same time, it feels totally right.

Ag day

Last week I went with Torii's class on a field trip to the Ag Day event in Mandan. Grandpa and Grandma also came with. It was a lot of fun. We got to explore the Ag Day in groups with chaperones being in charge of four students. Torii's teacher was very kind to me that day and left me with four really good kids. Torii, his girlfriend, his good guy friend and another boy were in our group. I caught Torii hugging his girl once. Grandpa and Grandma missed that one. Too cute. We had a lot of fun looking at the animals and touching all the different kinds of grain. We even got to see a sheep get sheared. They came home with a bag full of freebies which they really liked.

Yummy!

Caged animals

On Saturday it was a beautiful first day of spring and I really needed to get out. I have felt like a caged animal all winter and the kids are getting a little crazy being inside as well. We decided it was a good day to visit the zoo. I used to love seeing the otters more than any other animal, but the tigers are easily my favorite now. The white tiger was sitting right on top of the observation room you can walk over to. It's amazing seeing tigers so close. When we came back out of the tunnel we noticed one of the other tigers had left his perch high on top of a rock. We were surprised to see him right in our face when we looked to our right. It was a fun day at the zoo. We saw a couple of babies already and the animals were quite active with the cool temperatures. I think we will be going to the zoo again on Saturday as they are having an Easter egg hunt. The kids are looking forward to that.

Pictures!

I had to go back and take some pictures because I guess I was too busy before the party to do it. Usually I take pictures of everything and suddenly the party was over and I realized I hadn't taken many pictures. I wish these were all my ideas, but I found them all online. There was a lot more great ideas. A lot of kids are having Lego parties! There were some really fun ideas based on Lego sets like the Agents sets, which is Rion's favorite. Maybe next year.

Here's the invitations the kids got. I had some mailing labels that I trimmed a little then applied them to a stack of Duplo blocks. The kids had to put the blocks together to get the message.

These gift bags were 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree. I used some cardstock I had on hand to make the circles and glued them on the bags. Now they are Lego block gift bags!

I think I forgot to mention the cake in the first post! I made three cakes. The knobs of the Lego bricks are the bottoms of cupcakes that cut off and set on the cake and then frosted over them. So yeah, I made three cakes plus cupcakes. It's one of those things you would only do for your kids!

I also wanted to do this: http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com/2010/02/make-this-paratrooper-softie-tutorial.html , but that would have been a little too ambitious. Plus I just ran out of time. I made a couple for Rion and he really liked them. I still have enough supplies for a good size army so one of these days I'll get around to it.

In the gift bags the kids got: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39303906 and http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39053170

Auntie's donut shop

On Wednesday I had to stop at one of the bakery outlets to get my rye bread for our St. Patrick's Day Patty Melts. The outlet is known to my kids as "Auntie's donut shop" because their Aunt Vicki works there. And when she is there she has to buy the kids a treat. And they know the routine: grab a basket and pick out a few individual treats. Then they lug their baskets up to the counter and Auntie Vicki gets each kid their own bag to carry out. And she often adds a chocolate milk to the bag because we all know that the best thing to wash chocolate down with is more chocolate. We really don't need any more chocolate or sugar in the house, but I'm pretty sure this will be one of the little things the kids will always remember so big deal if we have way too many donuts in our house.

Neighbors

I often talk about moving out of town to a little bigger house, a place with some land and someplace with more privacy. But in reality it would be really hard to leave the place we are at now. I love our old drafty house, but more importantly we have the best neighbors. Thankfully we've never really had any problems with any of them. Instead we have had neighborhood block parties and on summer evenings it's not uncommon to gather in one neighbor's driveway and have a beer and share some laughs. We couldn't ask for better neighbors and sadly we lost one of them suddenly last week. At the funeral it was said several times how giving and caring Cherie was. We were on the receiving end of her kindness many times. She also loved it when the kids came over to play with the dog. She usually had a treat for the kids too. We would see Cherie most times in her garden as the kids played in our backyard. Until the funeral I didn't know she had planted the flowers around the Virgin Mary statue outside of St. Mary's Church. Here's a picture I had taken last June of those flowers. We will miss her very much.

Happy Birthday Rion

When I asked Rion what he wanted to do for his birthday party he said he wanted a party at home. I asked him a few times to make sure he didn't want it at Snoopers, gymnastics, swimming or some other place the kids are always talking about having a birthday party at. Each time he kept saying he wanted it at home. When I asked him about a theme he decided on a Lego theme. It was so much fun working with a Lego theme. I got so many fun ideas online. For invitations I put together 5 Duplo blocks (I scored a bag full for free at a thrift store!) and attached a large label. Then I wrote the details on the label, used my Xacto knife to cut around the blocks, and disassembled the blocks. Then the kids had to put the blocks together to get the birthday details. The party colors were red, yellow and blue. I love Dollar Tree and most of the supplies came from there. Tablecloths, plates, napkins, forks, etc all in the primary colors, plus some square buckets in the same colors that I filled with Legos for the kids to play with. I found some cool games to play, but the kids spent a lot of time building with Legos so we didn't play any games. Plus some of the kids had three birthday parties to go to that day so sitting around watching some SpongeBob was ok with them too. For treat bags I bought plain red and yellow gift bags from Dollar tree. Then I cut out circles from card stock and glued them on the bags so they looked like a Lego block. Inside the bags were the normal gift bag items, plus a couple of fun things I found on Etsy, Lego soap and Lego crayons. I think the party went well. It was nice not to have to go anywhere. We didn't have to load anything up and we didn't have to worry about having to leave a rented space at a certain time. It was nice hanging out at home. Rion really liked his party so that's the most important thing.

The great debate

Yesterday was Rion's birthday so he pretty much got to choose what we did. He wanted to see Alice in Wonderland so we went to the matinee. I really wanted candy, but I hate buying it at the theatres so we stopped off at Dollar Tree before heading to the movie. Fred told the boys that when we get to the theatre they shouldn't say anything about the candy in mommy's purse. Of course they asked why not and Fred explained that you're not suppose to bring food into the theatres. And what happens if they see you bring it in was the next question. Fred told them they would throw us out. And thus began the big debate about bringing candy into the theatres. Torii who breaks every rule any chance he gets said "bringing candy in the theatres is against the rules" and therefore we shouldn't do it. Among his other concerns: "If they throw us out do they take our candy or do we get to keep it?" and "What if they just throw mommy out?". I kept telling them we wouldn't get thrown out, but how do you justify breaking the rules to your kids? I told them candy was too expensive at the theatres, but they didn't care. "Everybody does it" didn't fly either and I'm sure I will regret that one the next time Torii uses because I know he will. "I do it all the time" didn't sound good either. Torii was incredibly concerned about getting kicked out so we didn't bring the candy in. When we got to our seats the first thing out of Rion's mouth was "where's the candy?" I told them I wasn't buying any candy at the theatres, not that it mattered since I barely brought enough cash along for the tickets, popcorn and pop. I nearly fell over when the ticket person told me the total. $8.50 each for a 3-D matinee! Anyway, the kids liked the movie and enjoyed the 3-D. When we got back out to the car we opened up our candy for a post movie treat. As Rion took a handful of my Snowcaps he said, "Hey mom, it says 'great with popcorn'"! "I know, I know," I replied. And the debate continues....

Birthdays galore

This Saturday the kids have two birthday parties to go to. I was actually going to have Rion's birthday on Saturday too, but after we got the two invites I had to postpone until next weekend. Oh well. At least I hadn't written out the invitations yet. So last weekend, Torii, Cordelia and I made a trip to Target for presents and some treats for us as well. Torii's Bakugan game for the Wii was on sale so I bought that for him and I finally bought a sewing machine for myself. Then we headed to the toy department to look for presents. Torii picked out some Barbie Cinderella dolls for his friend, Cordelia picked out some Sesame Street toys for our neighbor and they both found a present for Rion too. So with our cart full of "wants" instead of "needs" we headed to the checkout. And there in front of us was another family from church. I can't imagine what they thought of our purchases. I was wishing they were behind us so they could clearly hear me tell the cashier I needed a lot of gift receipts. Seriously I'm not spoiling my children! Most of this stuff isn't even for us! Oh well. It doesn't really matter what they think, but it is funny.

Parent teacher conferences

Last week the boys had their conferences for school. They are both doing really well. They have mostly met all of the year end benchmarks. I worried a little about Torii since he barely made the cut off to get into kindergarten this year, but he is doing very good. He may get some help with his fine motor skills like Rion, but other than that he is doing great. Rion did go down in one area: he talks a little too much when he should be working. He has missed out on some things because he has to stay behind and complete his work first. Although he went down in this area, it's also a good thing. Rion takes after me a little too much and he was really quiet at the beginning of the year. He's come out of his shell a little so that's a good thing. Torii's teacher didn't have much to say since Torii is doing so well. She complimented me on our very well behaved boys. I just wish she could see them at home! Completely the opposite. I'm glad they behave at school. I guess we must be doing something right after all. The kids were with during conferences since Fred was at home not feeling good at all. Cordelia loved being in the classrooms. In the kindergarten class the boys showed her the reading corner and the puppets. I thought she was happily playing when I heard "ahhhhhhh". It was the kind of ahhhh you hear on pop commercials. Sure enough, there was Cordelia at the teacher's desk with the teacher's pop in her hands. At least the teacher thought it was funny.