Erin Go Bragh

We had our traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef, boiled cabbage, carrots and potatoes.  I threw them all in the crockpot at lunch time, so the house had that distinctive corned beef smell when everyone came home.  I also whipped up some homemade (green) lemonade and brownies (not green).

 We all showed our Irish spirit today with our green shirts. :)

The chocolate brownies were not very festive, so I made some mint flavored whipped cream and frosted my brownies.  Yummm.....

A Visit from the Wee Folk

We got another visit from our Little People friends.  Emma and Elizabeth took time before bed last night to make a couple of leprechaun traps.  They were sure they'd be able to catch one so they could get their hands on a pot of gold.  There were lots of serious faces and plans of what they'd do with the riches once they caught their leprechaun.

Last night came and went, and this is what we found this morning:

 The foot prints started in the kids' room and led all the way to the kitchen and beyond.  There were foot prints in the bathroom, living room, on the tv, on the dishwasher, the front door and numerous other places.

 I think the leprechauns were insulting Emma and Elizabeth's first trap attempts.  There's nothing like foot prints inside the trap to mock you.

 The other trap was checked too, I guess.

 We were left with some Rolo's to ease the pain of not catching a leprechaun.

The kids were beyond excited this morning to find the green foot prints all over the place.  (I mean Christmas and birthday excited.) They were hoping they would be led to a pot of gold, but aside from the Rolo's, all we got was a carton of green milk.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Baptism

(This is mostly for those of you related to me and mine.)

Emma's baptism is coming up on March 26th.  Email me (or facebook) for time and place if you are interested in coming.  We are planning on having a get-together (with food!) for those who are driving over for the day as well.

Hope to see you!

Sleepers

Now that Annie and Maddie have their toddler beds, they have free reign of their room at all times.  So far this hasn't been a bad thing.  I had several visions of emptied dresser drawers running through my over-active imagination, but so far, this hasn't come to pass.  (Knock on wood.)  During sleep time, I hasten to add.  They've been emptying out their dresser drawers once a week at least for the past year +, but only during waking hours. 

What they have been doing, is both falling asleep in Annie's bed:

Like their pjs in the second picture?  Well, Emma and Elizabeth were wearing some of my old t-shirts and Annie and Maddie wouldn't give us peace unless they got mommy's old t-shirts too.

Ryan has been moving Maddie back to her own bed before we go to sleep.  Figured it would be silly to let one kick the other awake any earlier than they've been waking up lately....

It's Great to be Eight

One night, several years ago, there was a new mom with a small, squalling, dark-haired baby girl.  This mom rocked her little girl back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  And while she rocked her, she sang:

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

So long as you LET ME SLEEP!"

That little baby girl grew.  She grew and she grew and she grew.  She grew until she was 3 years old.  She cut all of her beautiful long hair off.  She refused to try to potty train, and take naps.  And she would always steal her new little sister's binky.

But when that little toddler finally crashed for the night, her mom would sneak into her room, stroke her hair and sing this song,

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always

As long as I'm living.

I'm glad you aren't a baby anymore."

That toddler grew.  She grew and she grew and she grew.  She grew until she was 8 years old.  She occasionally cleaned up after herself.  She loved to read.  She would help with her younger sisters.  She could carry on intelligent conversations.

Her parents both were ecstatic to think that someday she would be fully house-trained.  :)  And wondered what the next 8 years would bring.

I made the banner last night- cut out all those letters by hand, after a really long day.  And then I realized too late the blue paper was a wee bit too busy to see the letters.  Emma liked it though. 

Emma was awake at 6 am and kindly woke Elizabeth up on her way out of the bedroom to see if it was time to open presents up yet.  (It wasn't.)  But it was after school. 

She quickly made herself comfortable on the couch with her new book from her great-grandma.

We had Chinese take-out for dinner, followed by the movie "Barbie and the Mermaid Tale" (A rental- thank goodness.  Not one of the better Barbie movies by my standards.).

Lastly, it was cake time.

Scones and a Disaster

The other night scones were sounding really good.  A quick search on Google pointed me in the direction of this recipe for jam filled scones.  They didn't sound too difficult, so I got the flour, sugar and butter out and away I went.  The sounds of food being made attracted Elizabeth's attention, and pretty soon my helper had pulled her chair up to the counter and was demanding I let her help. 

Sadly, around this time my measuring cup met its end:

This measuring cup (along with with its counterparts- 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 cups) was among our first wedding gifts.  I'm telling you, once you get almost to that 10 year mark, your stuff starts falling apart.  The towels and kitchen stuff are all showing wear....

The good news is, the scones were amazing.  Unfortunately the scones were not as pretty as the picture attached to the recipe, but those scones probably didn't have 2 and 5-year-olds helping make them.

Terrible Twos x 2

Let me just say the twins are wearing me out.

Wishes

We had the opportunity to go to the 1 year birthday party for a very special boy Tuesday night.  (I wrote a little about Cannon and his diagnosis of Menkes disease a while back in this post.)  It was a grand and memorable celebration.  Somewhere in the vicinity of 80 people turned out to wish Cannon a happy birthday.  After enjoying cupcakes, ice cream and other goodies, we all braved the freezing temperatures to send off approximately 60 wish lanterns after singing the Happy Birthday song.  The floating lanterns represented wishes everyone wrote for the birthday boy.  The written wishes were for a time capsule to be opened at a later time.

It was beautiful.

Wacky Wednesday

The elementary schools here celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday for a whole week.  During that week, the kids have dress-up days, activities and "Drop Everything And Read" times. 

This is Elizabeth's Wacky Wednesday ensemble:

 She asked for her hair to look like that.

Emma had Inside, Outside, Upside Down day:

Emma's ensemble includes a short sleeved shirt over leggings, an inside out shirt and capri- length leggings on her head.  She had a pair of old shoes for her hands that she grabbed on her way out the door too.

Pinewood Derby

Last Friday morning at play group I was asked if we were going to the Pinewood Derby that evening (family version).  Ryan was given his racer to personalize a couple weeks beforehand, but alas, with all of the sickness and other stuff going on, we'd forgotten the date was coming up.  I sent Ryan a text, and he was certain he could whip up something after work.   While I was out getting my hair cut.  (Seriously, it's been like 9 months and I needed it.)

So Ryan set to work with his saw, power drill, acrylic paints and my hair dryer with ALL of his little helpers.  The girls picked the colors, and some super sparkly, glittery finish to gloss over the whole thing.  Ryan got a casing from a 30-06 and put it on front to give it a more "masculine" touch.

There were 25 entries, Little Caesar's pizza and pop- recipe for a serious Derby party.  Note to self though- we may need to spend a little more time on next year's model.  We weren't the absolute worst, but almost.