Birthday Time!

I put an exclamation to this post because I'm trying to make up for the lack of excitement Michael had  on his birthday.  He was less than thrilled to be turning another year old.  His dad reassured him, though, that he was just now getting in the prime of his life.  You know, we decided to believe him.  His dad will be 80 this year, and when one gets older, there's more strength in one's sage advice.  Hence, the exclamation mark. 
I suppose there's more to that punctuation after all.  Could it stand for my feelings for the wonderful man I married?  You bet!  How lucky I am to be able to celebrate these special days with him because he is so great.  I am always amazed at his talent and energy to get things done and help other people.  I love when he comes home from a long day of work, and after dinner helps clean the kitchen and then plays with the kids before bed to give me a break.  He helps in our home tirelessly.  He is genuinely good, and kind, and thoughtful.  I love him and I love that he is the father of our children.  We are a lucky family to have him.
The kids and I worked hard all day grocery shopping, decorating, making a key lime cake (from a box), gift wrapping, and writing cards.  The more we prepared, the more excited they seemed to get.  By the time Mike came home, they were just bursting!  
We had a fun evening.  Right when Mike came home Kimball ran up to him with his present and said, "It's two chocolates and they're binnected (aka connected)!"  After the kids had shown him their wrapped presents and unique decorations, we had a nice birthday meal:  steaks, salad, homemade bread, and fresh California oranges. 
Then his parents came over and we opened presents.  Mike loves tools, so that's what he got, mostly (except for some binnected chocolates).  Kimball also picked out some flashlights to give.  Mike has a fetish for flashlights, and I couldn't help but noticing how similar Kimball is to his dad's interests already.  Then we all had cake and ice cream (it all happened to be green, I think the kids helped pick the flavor out).
Shortly thereafter, our neighbor came over to watch the kids and Mike and I headed out to go watch Oz at the theaters.  He and I really liked it.  It was a cleaver twist to L. Frank Baum's story and I was impressed Hollywood had created a movie with an actual moral to it.  It was a refreshing and relaxing 2 hour get-away. 
Happy Birthday Mike! 

Here's the kids all giving their presents at once.  They were excited!

Mike just read Elsie's card she worked so hard on. 

 I think Kimball is hoping Dad will share.

Mike's showing Peter how his present he gave him works. 

Mike blew his candles out from clear across the table!

Anna's first cake - it was a hit!

Green Lunches

Kimball is a bright boy.  When he was 2 years old, we were walking on the sidewalk and he yelled out in astonishment, "Look Mom, a triangle!"  When I looked down to where he was pointing, I indeed saw a triangle shape in the cement.  I was surprised and impressed.  He loves shapes and lines and what he calls "math".  What he doesn't love is colors.  Try as I might, this kid just doesn't care what color things are.  I've tried playing Candyland, he's not interested.  Oral quizes as we're getting him dressed, non responsive.  Even File folder games, he loves to match the colors, but don't make him talk about them!  So, when I was reading a friend's blog about teaching her son colors, I immediately was interested.  She used theme colored lunches in muffin tins.  Apparently they're very poplular, but it was the first I'd heard of them.  So I decided to give it a try.

 

All for the sake of this cute little stinker.

 I decided to focus on the color green (since he didn't seem to catch on to the color during St. Patrick's).  After a week of green lunches, I'm still not sure Kimball cares what the color green is, but it's still had great benefits to our home!

I bought them all their own muffin pans, and they were very excited about it.  Then I had them help pick out green food at the store.  They were coming up with all sorts of new ideas! One day I suggested we have left over pizza instead of the muffin tin lunches.  "NO!" they cried, "We want our green food!"  Okay, okay, they twisted my arm and I cooked them up some green beans and such.  All the sudden I was getting them to eat spinach, green beans, edamame, sprouts, and whatever else, as long as it fit into the muffin tin.  I was really blown away when we were at the store and they wanted to try some California roll because it had seaweed inside of it. 

Here's one of the meals I did:  Sushi, grapes, olives/pickles, 

 

 

Grammy's delicious green salsa, and pistachio pudding.

Elsie's trying the California roll.  "Not bad" was her response.

This may not be too phenominal in some people's homes.  My kids aren't super picky kids, but they are kids with many food apprehensions.  For me, this was ground breaking.  I took advantage and started teaching them all about the vitamins and healthy things inside green food, and why we can be like superheros when we eat them.  It worked like a charm. 

Kimball is taking a bite of a spinach quesadilla.  Mmmm.

This coming week we decided to eat orange foods.  I'm wondering if I can really get them to eat squash and sweet potatoes.  It hasn't worked in the past, but I have renewed hope.  We've never eaten meals out of muffin tins before either.  Plus, they picked them out themselves at the store.  It's been fun and I hope it continues to be fun. 

Great smiles!  Great fun!

Our "New" Oven

I am so excited about the new oven Mike got me this past week from someone selling it from the internet.  I'm am so grateful there are people out there who love stainless steal and are willing to sell their amazing appliances to "upgrade" to stainless steal.  At first I wondered why Mike was checking the internet for new ovens about 6 months ago.  Wasn't our oven working fine?  It seemed to cook food well enough for me.  But, I decided not to rebuttle a good deed, so I let him look without saying a word. 

Monday evening he traveled over an hour to pick this sweet thang up.  He came home at around 9:30 and began cleaning.  He cleaned and cleaned an already fairly clean looking oven until it looked new.   We didn't go to bed until midnight (I was on the computer).  Isn't he great? 
I must say, immidiately I was very excited about the dual ovens and clean range.  After cooking on it for a few days, I understand what I have been missing these long 8 years in this house with the former oven.  No longer am I having to light the gas stove manually every time.  It became to mechanical for me, I forgot I was even doing it.  My cakes bake on a level surface, my pans fit lovely on the stove, and  I can bake 6 loaves of bread all at once without having to play a game of Tetris.  I have been amazed at how uniformly cooked everything has been coming out of the oven as well.  We still have much to learn about this oven, but even so, I'm lovin' it. 
It's a love affair for me, really.  I have plans for this baby and me.  Oh, the things I'll be able to cook, the meals we'll be able to have!  I am very excited! 
I have the greatest hubby in the world to see a need, even when I didn't, and treat me to something so grand.  Thanks Mike!  You're the best!

Saint Patrick's Day

Some years Saint Patrick's Day sneaks up on me and I'm lucky to remember to make sure the kids have something green on in the morning.  This year, however, I have been anticipating the holidays a bit more.  I did miss Pi day, but maybe we'll hit that one next year.  However, the day after was the Ides of March.  Peter has loved the story of Brutus and Julius Ceasar, so I thought we'd celebrate by drinking Orange Julius' and watching an animated Julius Caesar half-hour video off of You Tube.  We had a fun time.
But this post is about Saint Patrick's Day.  The kids woke up to find a leprechaun had left coins all over the house for them to find.  They were all beside themselves, searching high and low for a coin, running around using shrill voices.  I finally got them to sit down and eat their green breakfast.  This year they actually drank their green smoothies (that wasn't the case last year). 
After breakfast they had to find a pot of gold the leprechaun had left in our backyard.  The "pot" consists of a gold spray painted diaper wipe container with green glitter on it.  It works.  The kids each found some gold chocolate coins, andes mints, and something green to wear to church.  It was a lot to fit in before our 9:00 church, but somehow we managed and got there on time.  It was a great morning - full of energy and excitement.  I love that feeling.

Aren't they the cutest bunch?!!

Church was really nice.  I thought for sure the kids in Primary would be pinching each other and squirming around, but quite the contrary.  I was very relieved as well because I had a special lesson about Christ's resurrection I wanted to share.  It went over really well - I know my testimony was strengthened. 
After church I came home and took a nap.  Then Elsie and I made some rainbow cupcakes.  My good friend gave me this idea.  We just took a white cake mix and divided it into several ziploc bags and added food coloring.  Then we just squirted a little bit into each muffin tin.  They turned out really well, and I promise they tasted better than a regular white cake.  Color always makes a difference.:0).
We wrapped everything up with a good ole Irish dinner, drinking root beer in a bottle and everything.  There was fiz coming out from everyone's bottles everywhere.  It must have been quite authentic, I think. 
 

It was a fun day.  As my dad and I agreed, it's always great to have a holiday where there's not much meaning, so you don't have to feel guilty for overlooking any true meaning.  I feel like I've got it out of my system, and now we can really focus on Easter these next couple weeks.  Happy holidaying!

Storybook Ballet

Elsie finished up another little class of ballet from our great neighbor.  She gives 4 to 6 week segmented classes that revolve around a specific ballet, be it the Nutcracker, Giselle, or Cinderella.  This time, the theme was children's storybooks.  Elsie loves it, and her teacher is excellent at providing a low key environment while still carrying a high level of education and legitimacy.  I love that Elsie is getting a love of music, history, and dance in the process of learning posses and dance steps.  Elsie was finally brave enough to perform in front of all the moms and dads at the end of the month long lessons (even the ones she didn't know - she was feeling very brave).  She has improved in her grace, and I love watching this cute video.


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Lazy Morning

 I was enjoying a morning of sleeping in and a slow start (okay, there's been more than one, and more than two or three even).  This morning was extra nice because everyone was lazily enjoying themselves, each other, and learning.  It was a defining moment in my mind as I've been converting our home into more of a house of learning as we take our shot at homeschooling this year. 

Kimball had gotten out our puzzles and was working hard away at them.  I thought it was cute how he lined them all up.  He is fascinated about and really into making lines. 


When I meandered downstairs I saw Elsie and Peter (in the green blanket) surrounded by blankets and stuffed animals, listening to Winnie the Pooh.  It was really cute.  Everyone was enjoying themselves, and I enjoyed the rest of the morning.

Little Bug

Anna's hair is finally long enough to put into TWO pigtails.  It's exciting, and especially cute.  They remind me of little antennas.  How can anyone resist this little munchkin!