The Games Kids Play

Jaelyn has always been the child who will sit and play games with me. Our current favorites are Boggle and Scrabble Poker, and we've just added real Scrabble to our list. I LOVE Scrabble and I'm so excited that she's finally old enough to play with me. In addition to spelling, I also make her practice her math skills when we play. She does all the math with the scoring. Sometimes we start at 0 and go up so she can practice adding and carrying and sometimes, we start at 300 and go down so she has to practice subtracting and borrowing. She really doesn't like it when I make her subtract, but she's getting better!

It won't be long and she'll be beating me!

It IS Rock (candy) Science

The girls are working on a Science Try-it for Brownies. They came home with homework on Tuesday night. It seemed quite easy. Follow the directions and make rock candy. We started on Saturday afternoon. The girls helped me tie their strings and measure the ingredients. We added yellow food coloring and almond extract, which oddly enough smells just like maraschino cherries.

We followed the directions exactly. We checked on the jars at 12 hours, then 24 hours...

then 36 hours and at 48 hours, we had.....NOTHING! Not a single silly crystal had formed on our strings. The directions I read said you should see small crystals within 24 hours. I got online and googled for other recipes. I found several comments where people said you had to boil the sugar mixture 10-15 minutes. I found another recipe that said the mixture had to reach 300 degrees. After having issues with my last batch of strawberry jam and learning there's a magic temperature you have to reach for it to gel right, I was bound and determined to hit the magic 300.

We poured the sugar mixture out of our jars and tried again...this time with my handy dandy candy thermometer. I set the buzzer and at the magic 15 minutes, we had reached the magic 300 degrees! Finally, I was sure we'd see crystals forming just like the directions said.

Wrong! Instead, as soon as I poured the cooled sugar mixture into the jars, it started hardening into hard candy. We had lollipops, not rock candy. I tried to salvage the candy (why, I don't know - there's just something about wasting 4 cups of sugar), but we ended up throwing it all in the trash. I have my mason jars soaking in warm water. I'm not sure I can salvage them. There's big globs of hard candy stuck to the inside of the jars. They may have to end up in the trash with all the rest. At least Dan got a good laugh out of all of it. He even grabbed my camera "because it needed to be documented!" Silly man!

I'm debating a third attempt. I now know the sugar mixture has to boil more than a minute, but less than 15. Anyone know the magic number because I sure don't!

Banana Goodness

I've used the same recipe for banana bread since I was a child. I found the recipe in one of my grandmother's cookbooks. I don't know if she ever made it, but it makes me smile and think of her when I pull out the cookbook. I don't think I've ever posted it on my blog. I have a few minutes before the kids come home and the amazing smelling banana bread on the counter is cool enough to cut; so I thought I'd share. This bread is so easy with only 6 ingredients. You'll love it.

Banana Bread

3 very ripe bananas

1 stick of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

Mash bananas. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Sift flour and soda together and add to butter mixture. Combine with crushed bananas. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Yields 1 loaf or about 6 mini loaves (depending on the size of the pan). The mini loaves take about 35-40 minutes to cook.

Makes Me Smile Everytime I go Upstairs

I haven't been really strict on my kids when it comes to chores. There are a few things we require them to do like clearing the table after meals, picking up their toys and putting their dirty clothes in a laundry basket. They'll help with folding and putting away laundry and a few other things if I ask. I've been toying with the idea of a chore chart and letting the kids earn an allowance. I think they are old enough to manage their pocket money. In talking with them, one of the chores they decided they could do was make up their beds.

If you know me well, you know I'm OCD about a few things. While I'm sure my mom will tell you I never made up my bed growing up; as soon as I got married and was on my own, my bed making gene kicked in. My bed is made everyday period, end of sentence. If for some reason it doesn't get made (like Dan is off from work and sleeps in), the covers must get straightened before I go to bed. There's nothing better after a long day than sliding into between clean straight sheets.

Anyway, so the kids have been making their own beds in the mornings for about 3 weeks now. I am so impressed. I don't even have to tell them now. It's starting to become a habit and I love it! Check out their beds this morning. Didn't they do a great job? It makes me smile everytime I go upstairs and see their cleaned up rooms. Now, if only we can get the playroom to look like their rooms!

It's Soup Weather...Not Really

But I wish it were! All winter, I long for the days that I can turn on my grill and towards the end of summer, I long for bubbling casseroles in the oven and steaming crock pots filled with soup. I gave in to my desire for soup yesterday and it was so good, I want to share the recipe.

I tried a copycat recipe for Chili's Southwest Vegetable Soup. I've never had Chili's soup; so I have no idea if this was close or not. It was so good. Allie ate 2 bowls and asked to have left overs for dinner tonight. The best thing about this soup is I only had to buy the chilies. Everything else was in my fridge or pantry. I did add chopped up chicken that I'd cooked the night before for a little protein.

Southwest Vegetable Soup

3-4 cups chicken broth (depending on how thick you want the soup)
1 cup water
1 cup canned kidney beans
1 cup frozen yellow corn
1 cup frozen cut green beans
1 4 oz can diced green chilies
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup tomato sauce
6 corn tortillas, minced
1 tsp chili powder
1 dash garlic powder
(and I added a dash of cumin because I think anything that has southwest in the name should have cumin!)

Combine all soup ingredients in a large saucepan (or crock pot) over high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, about an hour or until the soup has thickened and tortilla pieces have mostly dissolved. Garnish with grated cheese and crumbled corn tortilla chips.

Doing Fantastically Awesome!

Today is day 4 for the girls and day 3 for Caden. I'm happy to report that everyone is doing well. Caden comes flying off the bus every day with a big smile on his face. He LOVES school. His first day he was so proud to show me his "I was caught being good" coin. The staff have certificates and coins and they randomly hand them out to kids who are doing a good job in the hallways. He said he earned it for walking nicely in line. Only 2 kids in his class earned one that day. That was big deal. Caden loves to tell me about his day. He's making friends and loves Miss K. His job this week is the "squirter." He gets to "squirt" handitizer for everyone on their way to lunch. He's been eating all his food; although yesterday he told me I put way too much food in his lunch.

Allie really likes Mrs. F. She and Alex are playing again. She says Lucas hasn't talked to her. She loves recess because she gets to see her group of friends from last year. None of them are in her class this year. I haven't had any phone calls or emails from Mrs. F so no news is good news and I'm guessing Allie is doing well.

Jaelyn says Mrs. D is strict on the socialization (yea - Jae needs strict). Jaelyn and her friend Heather stick to themselves. I keep asking if they play with other friends, but she says no. They miss their 3rd Musketeer, Allison. She's in a different class and has a different lunch and recess time. They never see her. Jae and Heather collected acorns and wrote Allison a message with them at recess yesterday. No word yet on if Allison found her message.

As for me, I'm doing good. Tuesday was F-U-N. Panera was filled with people I knew. We all had the same idea. My friends, Krissy and Liz from preschool, met me and we laughed and laughed. There were no tears. After breakfast, we headed to Amazing Glaze where I painted a very pretty fruit bowl for the table. I can't wait to get it back. Yesterday, I grocery shopped, folded and put away laundry, filed and shredded 3 bags of papers. I had dinner started before the kids came in the door.

Today, I dropped the kids at school after Jaelyn's orthodontist appointment and headed to the gym. I haven't been there in uh ummm 2 months. I have errands this afternoon (walmart, library, haircut) and then a quick dinner (in the crockpot) before heading to a Brownie meeting. Anyone want to buy some Girl Scout Cookies????

I think we are all going to be okay!

Didn't Even Look Back

The morning of day 2 went pretty well. I had 3 kids ready for school with time to spare to watch a cartoon. I'm still not sure what time the bus will be coming so we headed out about 8:20 and only had to wait 5-10 minutes. I like the bus stop being at our mailbox. We just had to walk across the street.
Cade-man is excited about school. He knows how to get to his class, but he asked Allie to walk him encase he forgets.The bus pulled up, Caden climbed on and he didn't look back! I'm doing relatively okay. The tears haven't shown their ugly face; although typing that last sentence made my eyes well up. I didn't want him to cling to me and cry, but he could have looked back and waved! Waaaaaah!

I'm off to my Boo Hoo Breakfast at Panera and some pottery making!

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Allie has looked like a snaggle tooth for a week or so now. Every night for the last 4-5 nights, she's let me try to pull out her tooth and then let Dan try to pull out her tooth. Tonight was finally the night. Daddy got it out on his first try and it was in there good. Allie cried and cried and it bled quite a bit. Maybe there's something to be said for letting teeth fall out naturally.

My mom gave Allie this watering can treasure box this summer and Allie decided it would be the perfect tooth box. There's a little mouse in the bottom to watch over the tooth and the tooth fairy can fly in the mouse hole on the side!

PS The tooth fairy left a Sacajawea dollar and a Quarter bonus for the gutsy girl that let Daddy pull her tooth!

Caden's Day

The Little Man was excited to go to school today! It was pretty much the same thing I did with the girls. We started in the cafeteria with a talk by the principal (he's new and I like him). He introduced the kindergarten teachers and we followed them down to their rooms. Miss K talked about basic stuff (homework, discipline, report cards). The kids got to spend time with the teachers without the parents and then we all reunited back in the cafeteria for snacks. Caden liked going through the lunch line and getting his "chocolate" milk.We wrapped up our day with a craft project. I took Caden to lunch at his favorite place (McDonalds). Our last lunch...The girls came off the bus happy. They both reported having great days!

First Day!

I've been looking forward to and dreading this day for weeks. How can a day be so bittersweet? The kids were all up at 6:20. By 7:00, I was showered and ready to face the day. Everyone had a good breakfast (Caden even ate some scrambled eggs) and happily got ready. I'm proud to say that the kids didn't even bulk when I reminded them to make their beds. They've been making their own beds for about a month and I love it. They enjoyed coloring their signs and then we headed outside for pictures!

I can't believe Jaelyn is a big 3rd grader. It seems like just yesterday I was bawling as I put her on the bus for the first time. And I thought that day was hard. I don't even want to think about tomorrow, the bus, and Caden yet! Jaelyn is excited about 3rd grade. My prayer is she'll continue to mature and be able to control her social butterfly so that she can focus on doing well in school!

Allie-ballie in 2nd grade - again, how is that possible? Seems like just yesterday kindergarten teacher Miss B was calling on the 2nd day of school with behavior problems. My prayer for Allie is that she'll be able to slow down and focus on her work. She is smart and does so well not focusing. Can you imagine how well she'll do if she does. She's on ADHD medicine and we saw such an improvement in the spring and summer. I hope that'll continue into this school year!

My little man is going to kindergarten. He seems excited; although after a few minutes outside taking pictures, he was ready to go inside to his pokeman TV show. He's in for a rude awakening tomorrow. It's going to be a long exhausting day. My prayer is he makes new friends, loves his teacher and will look forward to going to school everyday!

And me...my prayer for me, that I don't spend my week crying LOL. Seriously, I feel like my life is about to change so drastically, like I'm at a huge crossroads. I've been nothing but a mom for 7 years. It's time to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I'm looking forward to getting our house ready to sell and volunteering at the school. I'm also thinking of volunteering with Luna's House (the organization we are fostering kittens for).

We have a new bus number, bus stop and bus driver this year. I got the biggest laugh when the bus pulled up and Richard McSwain was driving it. Well, he wasn't really Richard, but he could have been his twin.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

We wanted to do something fun on Sunday afternoon...kind of a wrap up to summer...so we took Dan to Kilgore Falls. The kids and I have been several times, but it's always been in the day when Dan was at work.

Allie says the water under the waterfall is freezing cold! I got brave and climbed the rocky staircase to the top of the waterfall. We discovered trails up on top that we are going to explore once it cools off just a little bit!

A fun coincidence, we ran into Leslie and crew who we've been playing with at the pool.

Allie worked hard to take apart a dam in the middle of the creek.

It was a fun afternoon. We had Panera for dinner, had bathes and put the kids to bed so they could get a good night's sleep before their first day of school!

Caden's 1st Soccer Game

I wasn't sure if Caden was going to love playing soccer. He hasn't done much in the way of sports and what he has done has been non-competitive at the YMCA. He's had 2 soccer practices so far and he's L-O-V-E-D it! He runs around the field with this goofy grin on his face. At practice last week, his friend, Nathan, scored a goal and I heard Caden say "Way to go Nathan" and they high fived as Nathan ran passed. So cute!

Today was his first game and he started off as goalie. Check out his grin as he makes a stop during their warm-up.

He made a couple of saves, but missed this goal (still smiling). Dan was standing right there and he said the ball was kicked hard at his head height. Caden had been practicing stopping low kicks. No one told him they might kick the ball over his head.

Caden likes to hang back and watch, but he's surprised me with his determination to stay with the ball.

He got right in there with the rest of the kids. He did get kicked once in the ankle and he didn't like that at all. It didn't stop him from going back out there and trying again.

When Caden saw this picture, he said he was gearing up for his "power kick!" :)

Caden's first question when the game was over..."Did we win?' Unfortunately, no. They lost 3-2, but he loved every second of it. Even though it's a little bit of a drive, I'm so glad we signed him up. He's going to have a ball playing this season.

Meet the Teachers

The day we've been waiting on finally arrived. We got to meet our new teachers yesterday. The kids are very excited about school. I'm the one having anxiety issues. I had the worst time going to sleep last night. I'm worried about new teachers, new schedules, new friends, a new bus driver and bus stops. What am I going to do with myself??? I have house plans for the first few weeks (carpet cleaning, painting, organizing and sorting), but then what???

Anyway, back on track...meet the teachers.

Introducing Mrs. D! When we first looked her up in last year's year book, Jaelyn said "She looks like Miss Angie." We are hoping she's as nice as Miss Angie. I've heard Mrs. D is strict, but nice. That's just what Jaelyn needs especially as school gets harder. She's going to get real grades this year. No more of this "consistantly evident" and "developing" junk. Jaelyn is excited to have several of her friends, and one of her best friends, in her class.

Introducing Mrs. F! I don't know much about Mrs. F, but a friend who subs has told me she's her favorite 2nd grade teacher. That says a lot. Allie was super excited to look at the names on desks in the classroom and discover Alex's name just a few desks away from her. You might remember Alex was her Kindergarten "boyfriend" who was back to being a friend by the end of the year after they "broke up" in the spring. In addition to Alex, Lucas is also in her class. We've played with Lucas a few times this summer (he's the brother of Jae's best friend, Heather) and Allie and Lucas really clicked. I'm worried the boys could become a distraction to her. Allie also has 2 friends from her Brownie troop in her class.

Introducing Miss K! Doesn't she look like a Kindergarten teacher? She's adorable and so sweet. She was an aide in Jaelyn's 2nd grade class so she knew who Caden was when we walked in the door. Her room is Jaelyn's old K room. I think Caden liked that. Caden is going to do awesome. I reminded him he can only start school if he promises (again) to always give me hugs and kisses.

Monday, the girls have a regular day and Caden has gradual entry. I'll go with him for 2 hours in the morning. He's on his own on Tuesday. I'm going to be a crying fool! I'm planning a boo hoo breakfast with some friends followed by art therapy (pottery painting at Amazing Glaze) to take my mind off of how fast my kids are growing up!

Jam-Packed Week

I wanted to do so much more this week, but it just didn't happen. We stayed pretty busy, however.

Monday, we headed out for our last day at the pool. It was a cool , almost fall, feeling day with a perfect blue sky. The water felt like ice to me and I was determined to sit and read my book without getting wet. Unfortunately, Caden threw his Pokemon in the 12' end and it went straight to the bottom. I bet you are wondering if the kids can go that deep. No, they can not! Mommy's help was required to retrieve the treasured toy. In hindsight, I should have gone to Five Below and bought him a new one rather than being cold and wet for the rest of our stay.

Tuesday was a cold, rainy day so we decided to head to the movies to see Nanny McPhee Returns. We got there just in time to get seats together in the cramped movie theater. The movie wasn't nearly as good as the first one, but it was fun. We laughed and ate popcorn and had a fun, rainy afternoon!

Wednesday was pretty and cool again so we headed to Mariner Point Park with our bikes. We haven't been bike riding since our fateful day to the library. Allie did great and didn't run into anything. She apparently did a little more damage to her bike than we thought at the pond, but I was able to fix it without too much trouble. We looped the park twice and played on the playground.

On our first loop, we stopped at all the fishing docks. We found a mother duck and her 3 ducklings. They were fun to watch while we fed them pieces of our crackers.

Thursday morning we hung out with the kittens.

Then we had lunch with Dan. It was fun to meet him. We should have done that more this summer, but we didn't. After lunch we attended a school supply give away with Dan's command. A private company they work with had a supply drive and collected a room full of school supplies. I was amazed at the amount of stuff. I've never taken the kids, but I did this time and I'm so glad I did. Several representatives from the company were they and they really enjoyed seeing the kids picking out their supplies rather than the parents grabbing a few things to take home. I with I had held off on buying supplies. They had just about everything we needed. We brought home a ton of stuff to refill supplies throughout the year and give us a head start on school supplies for next year. I didn't take pictures, but the base had a photographer there so as soon as they are posted, I'll share.

We are still undecided about sweet little Margie. My heart wants to keep her, but my head knows better. IF we keep her, she'll become Ziva! Look at how sweet she is.

My General's Chicken Won

I forgot to tell you that I won the contest. I've never won anything in my life (other than the love of my husband and children AHHHH). Anyway, I got my prize in the mail and I love them. Aren't they cool? Off to try some of my Great Grandmother's recipes...she used measurements like smidgen, pinch and dash all the time. Well, not really, but it sounded good, right? Thank you, your majesty! And we LOVE my recipe!

Margie, I Want to Keep You

Dear Margie,
I wasn't going to get attached to any kittens this summer. It was going to be fun to have you and play with you, but we were happily going to give you back to Luna's House when they called. I didn't want any extra cats to fill my house with more cat hair or have to clean out the kitty litter pan more often. Somehow you alone have stolen my heart. Maybe it's the way you lean into me and purr when I pick you up or maybe how you like to curl up in my lap and the couch and gnaw on my fingertips.



You came with sweet, skittish Lily (black nose) and Stinker Dino. They didn't affect me this way. I'll be fine taking them back. It's just you I want to keep.



Of course, we'll have to rename you Zelda or Zorra or Zinnia to match Zac and Zoe. What do you think of those names?

Considering to Sincerely be Yours,
Kelly

To Whom It May Concern

I received a comment today on my "And the winner is" post. Me wrote:

It was me I'm the winner.ME ME ME

Unfortunately, ME, I don't know who you are because you posted anonymously and didn't sign your name. I think I'll need a tad bit more information as well, like the day and time you say you saw the lucky #20,000 because I have an hour window when you could have seen it. So Me, if you want ME to believe you, I need a name and a few more facts :p otherwise, the Queen of Brussel Sprouts still wins! But Your Majesty, the prize won't be going out in the mail till next week as my little kidlets are taking up all my time driving me CRAZY this week!!!

And the Winner Is...

...I have no idea because they didn't leave a comment. Boo Hiss #20,000 for not playing my game. Lucky #20,001 did however so the Queen of Brussel Sprouts should be expecting a package in the mail very soon :).

Words of the Day

Goodly - as in "I can see goodly now that you turned on my nightlights."

Flossil - as in "I used dental floss to flossil my teeth."

I love kid-speak.

20,000 Give Away!

I'm getting close to 20,000 hits on my blog. I'm at 19,910 now. As a way to thank you for taking the time to check up on us, I'm having a give away. I don't know what it'll be yet, but the lucky 20,000th person to click on my blog is going to get a prize. Keep watch on the hit counter on the right and if you see lucky 20,000 leave me a comment to win a prize!