A Spot of Sunday Silliness

Rylee likes to look at pictures during church services.  I have a collection of Christ themed picture cards the size of  business cards that Rylee loves to look at.  She was having a lovely time going through them and examining each one carefully.  She was particularly entranced with a picture of the crucifixion.  She was murmuring questions about what was happening and who were the other people in the painting.  Then, when the room was actually really quiet, she loudly, full-volume whispered, "Why is he wearing his underwear?!"

Daddy's Gone Dinner!

 Sometimes, when Daddy is out of town, you don't feel like cooking.  Okay, fine, when Daddy is gone, I definitely don't feel like cooking!  Sadly, the kids still need to be fed and I know our budget and health can't handle having McDonald's every time Dan is gone.  We have found a lovely little meal, that may not actually be healthier than Micky D's, but it is certainly cheaper!

Let me introduce you to Squid Dogs!  You can go to the link, but I just wanted to give credit where it is due.  I found this little gem in a Family Fun magazine a while ago.  Back before Parent's magazine bought them out and ruined their website.   So don't bother to go to their link, I'm going to do a much better job telling you how to make it!

First, you are going to cut up a package of hot dogs.  Then you are going to skewer them with dry spaghetti.  I like to put about 4 pieces of spaghetti in each hotdog, but smaller chunks of hotdog will have room for fewer pieces of pasta. And if you have kids helping you with this part, you may end up with some interesting things going on with them.

Here is what it will look like as you make them, before cooking them.

Once you have all your hot dogs speared by spaghetti, dump them in a large pot of boiling water. 

I know, they don't really fit.  This is a 4 quart pot.  Just give it a minute for the pasta to soften. 

See, the spaghetti in the water is becoming flexible, and you can just push the tops gently into the water now.  The pasta will all fit in and cook away.

 Told ya, it's all in there!

 Nearly done.

 When the pasta is soft enough to eat, drain the pot.  You might want to add some butter or oil here, so it doesn't all clump and stick together.

Serve it up and prepare to be the most beloved mom, ever!  Some of my kids like it with spaghetti sauce, but most just want a bunch of Parmesan cheese on it.

Either way, it makes them happy!

Valentines.. whatever

I know single people are suppose to be the ones who say "Bah, Humbug," at Valentine's Day, but honestly, it is not my favorite holiday. I'm not a hater, I just don't have the creativity and enthusiasm that most people seem to have for it.  This year we did do a pretty awesome Valentine for the kids though.   I was googling ideas, and I wanted something that was candy-free, cheap, and easy to make.  I mean, come on, with 5 kids, I have to make around 130 Valentines!  This is what we came up with:

 I know, totally adorable!  I saw it on a blog and loved this idea.  I did not make my own mustaches. I know, they were cuter, but I could not find adhesive felt.  So I ordered the mustaches from amazon, and they were about $6 for a pack of 36.  Sweet deal!  I took pictures of the kids and then emailed the photos to my amazing Sister in Law who put the writing on the photos. (Cuz I'm not smart enough to do that and have no program to do it.) Then I uploaded and ordered the pictures from Walmart.  Easy Peasy!  And so cute.  Well, we did have to cut out the mustaches and we used the glue dots to put them on.

I guess I didn't take pictures of Joshua's finished product.  It was awesome.  I wasn't sure how 6th graders would take it, but he said they were quite popular and kids not in his class were asking for them.  I'm so glad they liked them!

Well, Marian, being Marian, did NOT want to use a picture of herself.  So what else would she do but use a Cheetah!  I know, perfectly logical!  Again, it was quite sought after by all the kids in her class and not in her class.  So I was very pleased with these.  And, NO CANDY in them!

I should mention that my favorite Valentine girl celebrated her birthday with a party.   Her best friend has his birthday a few days after hers, so his mom asked if I wanted to do a joint party.  YES!

We had it at the local Bounce House place and the  kids had a blast. 

 Even Marian, who I'd have thought was a bit old for such a thing.  We had 22 kids in all, and it was a rowdy good time!

It was perfect because the other mom brought finger foods, and the Bounce House place supplied drinks and pizza and ice cream.  They also did all the clean up. Score! 

 I did the cake.  It was cute and yummy.

Yep, the 2 of them agreed on a dragon cake!  Isn't it adorable?  Yeah, yeah, I know, professional cake makers may mock, but I'm happy with it and the kids were delighted.  Plus, did I mention it was yummy?!

Grump

You know when you are in the middle of a deep sleep and having a great dream, and you get woken up?  I feel really grumpy when that happens.  Unfortunately, it is even worse when you have to get up to hold someone's hair and rub their back while they void their stomach.  Having to get up and out of bed to do this repeatedly during the night does not make me feel any better.  Just in case you were wondering.

(And yes, I know I'm a jerk, since the person doing the puking probably feels a lot worse than me.  But they'll get to lie on the couch all day and I will not!)

A Lengthy Discourse of Our Adventures!

Dan and I sort of began a tradition of taking our kids on a big trip around their 8th birthday by accident. After her 2 older siblings went on trips out of the country, Callie kept asking when she got to go somewhere.  We told her, "When you turn 8!"  

So she turns 8 this year.  We went a little early, so we could go over Mardi Gras and she wouldn't have to miss any school.  Since we live right by the New Orleans port, it was comparatively cheap to take a cruise for Callie's big trip.

We went on a 5 day cruise on the Carnival Elation. No, not the Triumph, thank goodness! We left on Saturday morning and headed off into the blue blue water!

Callie was delighted to check out our tiny little stateroom.  It was actually bigger than I expected, and pretty comfortable.  Callie had a good time trying on the life jackets and was disappointed we did not have to wear one to our Muster Point.  We did the ship's drill before we left, and honestly, I was not impressed.  I did not feel confident that we would be able to safely evacuate the vessel, should that need to happen. Fortunately, it was not an issue!  

It was really fun to go on a trip with just my little girl!  She was really excited about it and ran around checking out everything.  We were on the 4th deck (floor?) and dinner was on the 9th floor.  Actually, I don't even know if that's the right deck.  Callie could navigate her way around the ship a lot better and a lot faster than I could!  It was a confusing layout and I was not fond of it.   I could find our room though!  We went with a room with portholes- cheaper than a window and better than no window/porthole.  I definitely prefer having light come in!

We spent most of Saturday learning our way around the ship and checking out what was there.  They had the coolest room with a piano bar and a nifty Statue of Liberty that Callie had no respect for at all!  We knew that the Carnival Elation was an older ship, but I thought it was nicely decorated and it didn't feel old.  Just not user-friendly.

 Did I mention that my folks came on the trip with us?!!  Way more fun with them!  

 The ship rocked and rolled a lot more than I expected.  Thankfully Callie didn't get seasick.  Sadly my mom did.  She spent most of Sunday pretty green around the gills and hiding in her room.  Callie and I got out and played a little.

 I took Callie up to the pool and she spent the time crammed in this hot tub with 10 other kids who also thought the big pool was too cold.  Callie would have stayed to swim all day!  She had a good time.

It was Sunday evening when we learned that the Carnival Triumph was dead in the water, and it was announced we were going to be stopping to drop off supplies.  We didn't get very close, since that's a bit dangerous in open waters, with the wind blowing like it was.  Our ship dropped some of its lifeboats and shuttled stuff over for a couple hours.  Then we went on our merry way and left them to suffer for the next 5 days.  

 The food was great, and I tried Alligator Fritters!  It was really good.  We did the sit down, 2 hour dinner every night and loved it.  They had a "Didja Ever" section on the menu of things you might have wanted to try.  The Alligator Fritters were on that section.  Mom tried the Escargot one night!!

One night, I tried the Frog Legs .  Tasted like really tough chicken.  Not something I'd feel inclined to eat again. But I tried it!

Callie really enjoyed hanging out with her Grandpa.  I was really happy to pass her and her boundless energy on to him!  He was a good sport and had more patience than I would have.

We had a great room steward.  She was awesome and did the cutest towel animals for us every night!  

Monday morning we docked at Progresso and  went off to see some awesome ruins.  I wanted an educational shore excursion for Callie, but I didn't want to have to sit on the bus for 2 hours each way to see one of the big ones like Talum or Chichen Itsa.  

So we went to the small ruins of Dzibilchaltun!  Only a 20 minute bus ride, and you could climb on them, AND there was a swimming hole!

 This was kind of the coolest structure.  At summer and winter solstice, the sun shines directly through that doorway!  I thought it was impressive, but Callie was grumpy that it was hot and I made her walk so far.

There were some nifty structures and I loved that we could climb them.  There was a guide, but Callie got bored standing around, so we did a lot more roaming and climbing and I missed all the fun info. 

 So I made up my own fun!

Nestled to the side of the ruins was a Cenote, or a water hole, I guess.   It was shallow enough for Callie to stand up on one side, and deep enough to dive in on the other.  Can you see Callie jumping in?!  She LOVED swimming and for her, it made the day all worth it.  I hung my toes in the water and lots of fish tried to sample them.  I kind of wish I had gone swimming, but it seemed like too much work at the time.  Sigh.  Callie had a blast and that's really who needed to have a good time then.

On Tuesday we docked in Cozumel.  Carnival is stupid and scheduled 2 boats to dock next to each other.  So our gangplank was open for 15 minutes (And they didn't announce that it even was opened) and then closed for an hour.  People were lined up down the hallways waiting to get off and I was rather cross about the poor planning.  Fortunately, our fun stuff wasn't scheduled till 1pm!  Good thing, cuz we didn't get off the ship till 11.  We did some shopping and Callie was so cute, wanting to buy so many things for all her siblings.  She really enjoyed visiting all the shops.

Tuesday was the day we did our super-fun excursion!  We went to the Dolphin Discovery and interacted with Dolphins and Manatees.  We got there early enough that Callie got to swim in the pool for an hour first.  That kid really could spend ALL day in the water! 

At 1pm we went and got instructions, then got to get in the water with the dolphins.  We got to pet them, give kisses, shake hands/fins, and hold up a hand for the dolphin to touch.  It was fun, but Callie was disappointed that we didn't get to actually swim with them.  She had to be 8 to do the more interactive stuff, which still didn't include any actual swimming.

Next it was off to the Manatees.  We got to get in with them and do the same tricks, but we spent longer in the water.  We also got to feed them lettuce (they eat 60 pounds of lettuce a day!!!) and we got to put on face masks and swim around with them.  We really enjoyed the manatees.  They were so sweet and really fun to be with.   Both activities were about an hour long, but less time in the water with the dolphins because we had to get instructions on shore first. We both preferred out Manatee experience.  They were just so awesome!

The Manatees were done a little before 3 and we had to hustle it! We were suppose to be back at the ship at 3:30!!  Yikes!  It took longer to negotiate buying pictures than it did to shower and change.  We were dashing own the dock towards the ship at 3:30, but there was a long line to get on, so we didn't miss the boat at all!

Wednesday was a sea day and I was disappointed at the lack of stuff there was for Callie to do.  We did go to the Towel Folding class and I learned how to make a towel animal!  Just like our room steward!

Fine, hers turn out way better than mine!  But it was still a lot more fun than I expected it to be. 

One of Callie's favorite things on the ship was the 24 hour ice cream access.  I think Wednesday might have been the day she had 8 cones!  She had at least 2 of them every day.  I limited myself to one ice cream cone for the entire voyage.  I wanted to save my taste buds for the good stuff! 

Here is Mom, enjoying the best part of the cruise!  Carnival's Warm Melting Chocolate.  Oh My!  So amazingly delicious, we had it every night.  Sometimes 2 of them!  It was so good, I'm sure I'll  be dreaming about it for years to come.

 Did I mention how nice it was to have my folks come with us?  It made it twice as much fun to have someone else we knew on board.  

And on Thursday it was all over.  So sad to have to get back to real life.  No more having someone cook and clean for me, and no one to turn my bed down at night and leave me chocolates!  It did take a while to disembark, especially since we were the very last group to get off the ship!  We had to be out of the room by 8:30, so we killed time playing games till 10, when it was time to go.

It was a fun trip with my girl and I really enjoyed it.  I would not go on this ship again, and given the option, I'd go with Norwegian over Carnival,  but I am definitely glad Callie and I got to go on a fun trip and spend time together!

Teaser

 I have been away on a lovely cruise for the last 5 days.  Yes, it was marvelous.  Less marvelous to come home and have to go back to being the mom and doing everything.  I will eventually get around to blogging about the trip, but for now, I'm going to leave you with pictures of the very best part!  And I'll tell you, the Manatees were way more fun than the dolphins!

PS  We were NOT on the Carnival Triumph!

Feeling Smart!

 Dan has a handful of medals from his races and they had been sitting in a drawer for far too long.  I wanted to get one of those medal holders, but at $50, I was not going to buy one!  I finally had the brilliant idea to check out regular coat hooks, and voila, I was pleased as punch to discover something suitable.  Thank you Amazon Prime for helping me to enact my plan so quickly!

This is what became of the drawer full of medals.  5 Triathlon medals from North Carolina, 1 half marathon from Dorchester, (but there should be 2, since he ran it twice), 1 5k first place medal from AR, one DC Ragnar, and one Richmond Marathon.  Yeah, just writing that made me fall in love with him all over again!

Since I have decided my method of dealing with life in Louisiana is to do as many fun races as I can, I felt that I needed my very own medal rack, so I got one for me too!

 I know, not as cool.  I have my Jazz 5k finishers medal, and 2 triathlon medals.  Then I put all my favorite Mardi Gras beads on it.

That made me feel quite smart.  I hopped back on Amazon to find a good rack for the kids to hang all their beads on.  We have a lot of beads.  Actually, saying we have a lot of beads is like saying the ocean is a lot of water.  We have been through the beads and have gotten rid of 3 bags of them.  I found a great over-the-door coat rack with good solid hooks and got 2 of them.  I told the girls to sort the beads and whatever doesn't fit on their coat racks has to go.  I thought it looked super cute and it has done a lovely job of keeping the beads off the floor.  Yay!

 Delaney and Rylee's collection!

Marian and Callie's prized beads.

And now, for the last of the Mardi Gras Parade pictures!  The base had their annual parade yesterday and it was short and sweet.  Less fun since school was in session and watching the kids is the most fun part, I think.

Yeah, it is a whole new military since they repealed DADT!

Just kidding, these are the Young Marines.

Coast Guard float.  

Rylee with her loot!  She had a good time and being cute definitely helps you get those beads!