Easter

After this awful winter, we were so lucky to have a beautiful Easter Sunday. I got to host the big egg hunt in our new house.

But first we woke up to a visit from the Easter Bunny. The tradition continues with the Easter Bunny Clan leaving baskets on the porch, eggs hidden in the yard, and hilariously illustrated notes.








Caroline, the chocolate fiend, ate nothing nutritious all day, which of course resulted in a naptime meltdown that a blind man could have seen coming.

Maggie, not to be outdone, gnawed her way through plastic to get to some Reeses Pieces and ate a peanut butter cup, wrapper and all.



Later that day, we had a full house and a full yard. At least Casey's looking at the camera.

Happy Easter!

Spring = End of worst winter ever

Someone, cough..Anna…cough, recently called me out on my lack of blogging. Oh the irony… there once was a blog that she wrote, years ago...

Well here I am, blogging again. It was a really tough winter, too many funerals and not enough joy, too much snow, work and sickness, not enough sunshine and merriment. Lucky for me, Spring is coming to the rescue. It will take all the warmth, sun, bunnies and blooms to pull me out of the pit that was this past winter. 

So I’m going to help. I’m going to start running again (it’s been years people). If I can’t find the time to run at least 2 miles, I’ll do yoga. You read it here people, ON THE INTERNET, so it must happen, it WILL happen, right???

Yeah, right. Those are the things I'm going to TRY to do. I will not be mad at myself if either of those things don’t happen on a regular cadence.  I mean Maggie has GOT TO go back to sleeping through the night…Like NOW. The screaming at 2 AM is drilling holes in my brain, teeny tiny holes that don’t heal because I haven’t had an appropriate amount of sleep to rejuvenate. Teeny tiny holes that build on each other until I think there might be little bugs running around in those holes that turn me into a crazy woman in the middle of the night.

Oh yes, back to spring, happiness, positivity…. I will take better care of myself so that I can take better care of those around me. Here's to spring!

BTW, happiness is the slo-mo video function on my phone. Check it out…

Caroline is Three!

Caroline, what do you want for Christmas?”

“My birthday. And presents”

Caroline has been waiting patiently for her birthday to arrive. I keep telling her that it is after Christmas. So for a while, Christmas became just one more hurdle to get to her birthday.

It started back in September, when birthday season was in full swing. I told her after Maggie, her birthday is next. Oops forgot about the arrival of my new NEPHEW. You should have seen the look on her face when I said Arlo’s birthday was that day. Not happy.

(Welcome Baby ARLO! We were wondering if the Y chromosome was ever going to make an appearance. Two generations of X’s winning out until Arlo’s triumph)

Luckily we are close enough to Christmas that the lights, holiday music and general merriment of the season have her distracted.

BUT NOW, we can officially turn our attention to the big day. We have already updated the chalkboard with the number 'free'.

"Number one is for Maggie and number free is for Caroline!" as she would tell me.

 

 

Shopping for Christmas presents with her was the best. She knew just what she wanted. When I questioned her choice I got a firm response "NO, DIS ONE MOMMA!  Keep going."

Then when we got home, I asked her to tell Da Da what we bought for Maggie.

She promptly responded, "Da Da, we got you a tie."

DOH

 

On Christmas morning, she was emptying her stocking and when she pulled out a package of gummy bears. she thought that was hilarious. "Gummies?? Momma Santa is silly" she laughed. Who knew gummies were a ridiculous gift?

 

She brings me so much joy that I can barely stand it.

 

Happy Birthday Boogs!

Sammy so so

Sammy has been my trouble child as of late.

First she was the escape artist – I mentioned that she wandered off the first week we moved in. Instead of finding her way home, she found a person. Someone getting ready to leave for work at 4:45 AM!! They called us and Hubs hightailed it to pick her up.

So we know better than to take our eyes off her. How about letting her get some outside time when we are inside? We decided to try a tie up in the back yard and had some success. So much success that I thought I’d leave her on the tie up for a couple hours while we had somewhere else to be.

Our escape artist of a dog freed herself of her collar- the one with any/all identifying information- and went exploring. We came home to find the collar secured to the tie, but no dog. This time we were more worried. We KNOW Sammy will find people. She is more likely to jump in someone’s car than be hit by it. But how will said people find US? Social media to the rescue. After calling the dog warden, the police non emergency line and any other group we could think of, I took to the computer. I posted on craigslist and facebook. It was about 1AM when I got a craigslist reply that linked me to our Neighbor who posted on facebook that she had found a dog. The craigslist reply connected the two of us and resulted in a happy reunion at an ungodly early hour.

Then there were the pooping incidents-

Those of you with dogs know, if they have an accident in the house, they always do it in the same spot/room, right? Our childhood dog, Max, always did it in the dining room. At the old house, Sammy always did it in the basement. Now that we are in the new house, I guess she had to find a new spot. Well she found her spot, Caroline’s room! The first time it was on her rug and it was so runny/messy/gross that the rug got tossed. Luckily for cleanups sake, I hadn't had time to replace the rug before the second infraction. It would have been easy enough to clean and disinfect the hardwood if I wasn’t carrying a sleeping Caroline when I discovered it.  Stepping over the land mines and through a fog of stale poop smell, I laid her down in her bed. She woke up to hear me cursing under my breath.

“Sammy poo pooed my room?”
"Yes, Sammy poo pooed in your room." I muttered
"Sammy bad dog”
“Yes, Sammy’s a bad dog. Caroline STAY in your bed, while I clean this up!”
“Momma I have milk?”
“Yes, when I’m done. STAY IN YOUR BED!”

Cue me running down and back up the stairs with the necessary cleaning items only to be greeting halfway by Caroline. Yes, she follows instructions well.

I maneuver past her, on a mission to try and finish scrubbing and disinfecting. Despite mopping the floor twice, the poop scent remains. We move our ionizing fan to her room without any other solution. I go to track down Caroline and begin the night night routine for a child that is no longer sleepy.

Lets hope we can get through the holidays without any more major Sammy events!

Happy Birthday Moo!

Man, time flies.

At one year old, you have 6 teeth, weight in over 21 lbs, are sleeping through the night (except last night, but we’ll blame teething), pull up on everything, love to chase and be chased around the house, adore your sister, and are HUNGRY all the time.

Right now it’s all about inclusion. You want to be wherever your sister is, doing whatever she is doing. If anyone else is eating, forgetaboutit, we’d better have something for you too.

You dad has even said that you’ve started to demand a snack in the car when he picks you up from the sitters. As soon as he gets settled in the drivers seat, your hand shoots up expectantly, while you grunt your demands, “eh, eh, eh”.

Your first word was dada, but it didn’t take me long to coerce a ‘mama’ from your lips.

You love to dance and sing in the car. I love that when music is playing in the car I can look back and see you and your sister bopping your heads or kicking your feet to the beat.

At home you love when I swing you around and hang you upside down. You are a thrill seeker. The more wildly I fling you around, the louder the laugh. Oh how I love your laugh! It does make Dada very nervous though.

You LOVE your dada. When you see him, you almost launch from my arms to bury your head in his chest, kicking your legs in excitement.

I can’t believe you are a year already. Can we slow things down a little? I love you so much and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Pumpkins, Costumes and Fall Stuff

It's OCTOBER. That means pumpkins, Halloween costumes, and all things fall weather. This past weekend we went to a local farm to get pumpkins. Really it was just an opportunity to let Caroline play on slides, pet the dogs (they are goats, but she thinks they are dogs), climb on farm equipment and generally run around like a wild child. And run she did. Oh, did I mention she insisted on wearing her "Let It Go" dress? It's an Elsa dress from Frozen that she rarely takes off. At least she permitted the jacket - it was cold!

We were taken aback at the cost of the pumpkins. Do they know we can get similar pumpkins for $4-$6 at Kroger??? But of course we Jonathan forked over the cash for the two pumpkins that spoke to us.

Sunday brought us gorgeous weather so we set up camp in the yard and carved the pumpkins. Sammy wanted in on the fun too (or really wanted the banana in Caroline's hand)

Maggie was the official pumpkin inspector

Caroline scooping the guts - notice the banana still securely in the other hand

This is the best I could do to get a picture of the girls with the pumpkins. BTW what is with all the pink?? I don't think they've ever been so pepto-bismal.

Maggie's already outtie

Evidently when our pumpkins spoke to us, Jonathan's said it was scary and mine said it was sad (or pooping, according to Caroline).

Fast approaching is Halloween. Caroline's request for costume has changed several times. At first she wanted to be a ghost. I don't know where she learned about ghosts, but it is her current obsession. Then, when shopping for costumes, she HAD TO HAVE a lady bug costume. Now, she wants to be a cat. And of course we have the aforementioned "let it go" dress that was handed down from a friend. It will be a beggars night decision.

As for Maggie, we are looking to dig up the spider costume that we used for Caroline when she was that age. If we can't find it, we'll head to the kids consignment store to find something quick. If that has to happen, I'll bet we'll end up with another option for Caroline too.

Birthday Cake Challenge - Year 5

The birthdays continue. This past weekend was Biscuits 30^th birthday!! And you all know what that means – Birthday Cake Challenge!

The birthday cake challenge started in 2009 – yep, 5 YEARS AGO – with the crepe cake.  

 Subsequent challenges have led us to the following tasty destinations:

This salty caramel chocolate goodness

The Rainbow cake - detailed here

Last year's Pavlova that I don't think I blogged about

This year biscuit sent me a recipe for a pineapple upside down cake. She must think I need a break because this only required me to follow a straightforward recipe. I even had a helper this year.

 

 

We made the cake and went to sing Happy Birthday and enjoy the cake.

 

 

It was good, but next time I’d probably search out a recipe that makes it in a cast iron skillet so the pineapple caramelizes and the sugar gets all crunchy on the outside edges. Next time, I’ll take your challenge and raise the bar.