This takes the cake!

The Boy Scouts made mini cakes last Mother's Day. Since Dan was in charge of the project, I got to purchase about 10 mini cake pans. I was quite cross when Dan returned home without my pans. I wanted those pans! I harassed him for a few months and yesterday, Dan got in the car after church with pans in hand! Yay! I was so excited to have them that the kids and I made mini cakes after school. I let them eat half their cake and the rest was saved for dessert after dinner tonight. They enjoyed their confectionary delights and it was a lot less messy than I expected. Well, with the exception of Delaney, who opened all the lids on the sprinkles and dumped them all on at the same time.

This was Marian's pose of choice. Such a silly pickle!

At least Marian's pose is better than Joshua's. I was just happy he didn't grimace!

Delaney was in rare form! This is what she did when I said I wanted to take her picture.

Then she was so busy gobbling her cake she forgot to keep her eyes shut.

Such a cutie pie!

Why I love making the kids walk to school, even when its really cold!

Oh, and look who came to visit last night!!

Random Shots this week

A few weeks ago, I heard something invading our recycling bin and when I poked my head out to see what was making the rukus, I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 fury little raccoons running away. They were really cute. I must have scared them, because I didn't hear them again. One night recently, I was excited to hear the clatter of glass and cans and I thought to grab the camera this time. Unfortunately, THIS is what was scrounging for scraps!

EEeewwwww! Ugly, overgrown rat. And Now I know why its called "playing possum". I turned on the outside light and took several pictures of this ugly guy, and he just backed up and froze. Like we were just not going to notice him sitting there!

This is what I awoke to on Tuesday morning. THIS is what they cancelled school for. I know, seriously?!! If you can't play in it, its not worth missing school for. Plus, the high temp of the day.... yeah, 43 degrees. We better not have to make up snow days this year, that's all I'm sayin'.

The chiropractor loves Rylee's little mullet. I couldn't get a great picture of it, but she has a pretty good one going on. See, business in the front.....

....... Party in the back!

And THIS is Joshua's Pinewood Derby car... er, skateboard. He chose the design and did most of the work. I did a very poor job of putting the wheels on, but he's very pleased with this.

They set the track up at church and let the boys come and practice on it. I really just needed to make sure the car met the required specs. It met them well enough. We were also able to weigh it and see how much more weight we could add. Joshua had a marvelous time!

They got to do some practice races, which was great for the boys, especially since it was a pretty good free-for-all.

Joshua's car did fine in some preliminary matches.

And not so well once the left front tire flew off. I wanted pictures, because I will miss his Derby, and I'm taking the camera with me to Africa. So these may be the only pictures documenting all of his hard work.

Adventures in Dinnertime

Yesterday I actually thought ahead and planned for dinner. I made Shepherd's Pie, which Dan likes. I like it because I can beef up the nutrition by adding shredded carrot and zucchini to the meat. Then, I add some tomato sauce and simmer it down and it makes me feel all virtuous about a healthier meal for the family. It does take a bit of time though, so I was feeling pleased that I had started early, and I was in the middle of the simmering when Dan called.

"I have leftovers from the work party, so you don't need to make dinner." he said.

Too late.

In the interest of not wasting my efforts, I changed my tactics. Rather than putting it in a 9x13 pan, I put it in two 8" pans and froze the second one. That made me feel brilliant, as well as virtuous.

As my tasty meal was cooking, I got to cuddle with Callie. She had arrived home from school with a headache, and it was bad for her. She mostly lay on the couch and whimpered. And sometimes she cried. It was so sad. I snuggled with her for a bit and then went to do the dishes. It was a good thing I did, because Callie came crying into the kitchen, "I need a bucket!"

Aack! A bucket?! There's no bucket in here! And there is no bathroom on this level of the house. I know, stupid, but there seriously is no bathroom on the main floor. In a moment of brilliance, I recalled that my sink was clean, and a must-be-a-part-of-everything Rylee had already pulled a kitchen chair to that very area to better "assist" me. I hauled Callie onto the chair and tipped her over the sink and let her do her thing. Perhaps I shouldn't put green Gogurt in her lunch anymore; it was disturbing, to say the least.

Dan came home shortly thereafter. He brought his load of goodies and I pulled my Shepherd's Pie out of the oven. I had even made salad. Between that, the BBQ Pork, meatballs, cheese, salami and crackers that Dan brought, there was a plethora of culinary delights to choose from.

Unfortunately, Delaney was completely sacked out on the couch and wasn't even roused by Joshua's enthusiastic trumpet playing in her ear. Callie lay on the other couch, dripping tears on the cushion and had no interest in eating. Actually, she was more interested in voiding all contents of her stomach (and did so with vigor). That left me and Dan, 2 children and a baby to make a dent in the food piling the table.

This is why we had leftovers for dinner tonight.

Such an imagination!

Life is never dull with Marian. She sees the most interesting things in the most interesting places. And she comes up with the most interesting ideas! Earlier this week, Rylee opened a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed the tin foil. She managed to unroll quite a bit of it before I got to her. Marian was delighted to commandeer the crumpled foil.

She was so happy to make herself these booties.

Check these bad boys out! They will be the next thing sported on the runway, I bet! What is really funny is watching her prance around the house with a crunch and a crackle at every step.

And this is her favorite thing about her "shoes"-- they stand up all by themselves! How fabulously cool is that?!