Mother's Day Mad Libs

Last year, I had an awful lot of fun reading what Bird thought about me... this year both kids had the chance to do some Mommy Mad Libbing in their classes.

My Mom - by Bug

Her hair is brown.

Her eyes are white. (It could have been worse. One kid said his mom had pink hair & orange eyes.)

She is 14 years old. (Well, at least an improvement from last year's 1500!)

Her favorite food is all the food. (Um....)

Her favorite color is pink. (No, but his is.)

Her favorite TV show is all the movies. (I had to laugh at this one. Other kids were naming actual TV shows. My kids don't watch live TV... neither do I, really so he was right.)

Her favorite thing to do is whatever she wants to. (How right he is. Husband couldn't stop laughing at this one.)

I love my mommy most when she plays with me!


My Mom is Special - by Bird

My mom is special because she cooks eggs. (My cake baking doesn't even hit the list. But the eggs I made for her once or twice... home run!)

I like it when my Mom plays with me. (I'm sensing a theme here.)

I like to make my mom smile by liking her. (Awww....)

My Mom is smart! She even knows that there's flowers in the cupboards. (Yeah, I don't get it either. Maybe it was supposed to be flour? Except that doesn't really make sense either.)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Her Memory Astounds Me

All I have to say about Easter is

- Bird was up early.
- She completely forgot that she was getting an Easter basket, so she didn't pester us to go look for it while we waited for Bug to wake up.
- Once both kids were up and we told them to go look for their baskets, she went immediately to the place where we hid her basket last year.

Yes, I have the child who can't find the shoes she wore yesterday, but if you need last years bag-o-treats, she's got you covered.

Spring Break Day 1 - What I Managed to Accomplish

1. Wake up without an alarm.
2. Feed breakfast to masses of hungry children. (Okay, it was just Bug & Bird, but they seem to eat so much for breakfast that I feel like I've fed hoards of hungry lumberjacks. Minus the flannel.)
3. Start GRE practice sets of questions on the computer. (GRE is the SAT for grad school/master's degree. They send you a free little practice program that you can use to practice on the computer.)
4. Complete 3 sets of practice questions on the computer while handing out periodic snacks because the bowls of cereal + a banana aren't enough food to last little Hoovers until lunchtime.
5. Everyone takes a bath or shower.
6. Teach Bug & Bird how to play Twister.



7. Do more practice questions from Official Practice Book that I got at the bookstore. (More portable than the computer, and certainly far more helpful!)
8. Feed children lunch.
9. Play more Twister. Note that Bug is still in his pajamas. But at least he's wearing sunglasses inside.



10. Complete 3 more sets of computer questions, have program completely quit working, and realize you didn't like it anyway.
11. Park kids in front of movie.
12. Pay bills online before the end of the business day.
13. Dole out more snacks.
14. Do more questions out of practice book.
15. Remember that Husband isn't coming home for dinner tonight & realize that I should probably feed the seething masses of hungry children before their little tummies turn inside out & begin munching on the other internal organs to receive sustenence.
16. Believe it or not, play more Twister.
17. Clean up the toys & get ready for bed. The kids, that is.
18. Tuck away children & mostly clean the kitchen.
19. Finish really hard practice questions.
20. Husband finally gets home around 8pm.

21. Realize that I've answered 200+ math & verbal questions today, and that didn't count any of the questions my own kids asked me.

22. Stopping now, very thankful that the test is tomorrow morning & I then I won't have to think about it anymore. I hope.

Tykes' Tips - Floor Coverings

I'm sure Martha Stewart once said that if you don't like your current flooring, you can alter the look by using area rugs.

My kids' interpretation? We don't know what area rugs are, but we have all these blankets that folks have made and/or bought for us, and they'll work just fine!

Jumping the Shark?

I've noticed (well, I'm sure I'm not the only one!) that bloggers seem to be doing less blogging lately. And I've been a little sad at that, because I really do enjoy reading blogs. Many have wondered if blogging has jumped the shark, and maybe it has.... but I still liked reading other peoples' stories.

Of course, I must then notice the plank in my own eye! I haven't blogged in 6 weeks, and very scarecely since Christmas.

Apparently, after around 18 months of writing here, I needed a break. So I took it.

Those who spend lots of time teaching folks how to become "successful" at blogging would likely be horrified. I admit, I enjoyed the thought of lots of folks coming here to read. Except, I also kind of didn't like it.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVED it whenever someone made a comment. I still have all of them saved in an email folder. Well, except for the spam ones.

I think what I didn't like was the fact that I felt I HAD to post - what had begun as a place for me to remember what happened had turned into a source of entertainment. And, me being the stubborn person that I am, didn't like the idea that I was expected to do something.

Well, poo on that. I've enjoyed my break, and I hope to start writing regularly again.

At the same time, I've run out of memory on my camera. Seems that it can hold about 1500 pics at a time, the 900 imfamous Road Trip of 08 pics. So, as I pull them off & sort them onto my hard drive, I'll likely be posting some of the more amusing ones here.

I've also put up some new decorations around here. Haven't quite decided if I like them yet. Time will tell.

Back to the camera....

I swear he doesn't watch horror movies...

Earlier this afternoon, Husband was sitting on the couch & talking to a friend on the phone. Bug wandered over and asked who he was talking to. Husband replied "Mr. B.", at which point Bug began to have a conversation with Mr. B through Husband.

Bug: Tell Mr. B I'm going to throw a snowball at his house!
Mr. B: A snowball at my house?
Bug: Yes, and then your house will turn upside down!
Mr. B: But where will I sleep?
Bug: On the roof!!
Mr. B: The roof? But it will be lonely.
Bug: Don't worry, there will be squirrels there.
Mr. B: Oh, nice friendly squirrels.
Bug: NO! Mean squirrels! They'll eat your eyes and nose and ears!!!

How To Make An Alligator Cake

Bug has known for quite some time now that his birthday was in January. Fortunately, he also knew that January came after December and after Christmas.

Unfortunately, his birthday is towards the end of the month, so for a few weeks we had to endure "Is it my birthday YET? It's January! I should be turning four!"

About two weeks before his birthday, we asked him what kind of cake he wanted. The first thing out of his mouth? "Alligator cake mommy!" Not only that, he wanted CHOCOLATE alligator cake.

Huh.

All I have to say is - thank heavens for the Internet!! Turns out that this particular endeavor isn't so hard.

I baked 2 boxes of cake mixes (Duncan Hines devil's food in case you were curious); one in a regular 9x13 rectangular pan, and one in a fluted pan (bundt pan, but not a 'real' bundt pan). Oh, and I also baked lots of cupcakes for Bug to take to school; 6 of them were used for the legs & eyes.

I cut the rectangle into a Christmas-tree like shape (the mouth is the top of the 'tree'), and the bundt cake into thirds. With the leftovers from the rectangle, I added a 2nd layer to the head, and used a bunch of pieces to assemble a tail.



Kind of ugly, isn't it? Very uneven! This is where frosting is your friend. After whipping up a batch, I used it to glue things together & level things out.



Once I'd finished that, I tinted the rest of the icing green (light green mama! dark green alligators are BAD gators! very scary!), I used my icing squirter (how do you like my use of technical jargon) to squirt the stars. Honestly, that's the quickest part of the whole endeavor!

Here's a slightly better overhead shot of him:



I used bamboo skewers (cut into thirds) to anchor the eyes to the cake at the proper angle. The spikes down his back (and the eyeballs) are some generic gummy fish. Because there's nothing like flavored plastic to complete a cake! The teeth & claws are mini-marshmallows. Turns out that if you cut them in half diagonally, they naturally have that 'sharp' point.



And we end with a shot of Bug not-so-patiently waiting for his party to start so he can eat his new friend.