“Want to take a picture of us?” says Lex at the mall today. Oh yes, I do!
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Lego cookies
I am getting so excited for Lex’s birthday party this year. I hope I manage to get all of my awesome ideas done before the big day… not likely!
Lex decided he wants to bring Lego head cookies to class this year, instead of cupcakes. With inspiration from much fancier bakers than myself, I got brave enough to give it a shot! This project included hand cutting rollout cookies!
I made a template out of a yogurt lid and hand cut the cookies.
Two done... many more to go!
I wish I could take the credit for this idea, but of course, I can not. Check out Sweet Sugar Belle for a great tutorial and much fancier photos.
Handing cutting 40 Lego heads and a tray full of squarish and rectangularish shapes took awhile, but it was worth it! They looked a little odd at first…
All baked, bare and ready for frosting! I could have measured those bricks and made them even and straight edged, but I did not.
These could be robot heads too! I'll have to save this template. :)
but once I started decorating them… so cute!
Decorated!
I was going to be all fancy and find a bunch of Lego faces to copy, but as usual I got lazy and just winged it! Lex helped me think of face ideas. Some came out better than others, but overall I LOVE them!
We used halved mini-marshmallows for the Lego "bumps" on the squares and rectangles. The kids cut them and put them on the cookies for me.
I'd like to say they ate the marshmallows for me too, but of course I ate my fair share as well! :)
These were super messy! In hindsight I should have skipped the marshmallows, flooded the cookies, then pressed on M&Ms in corresponding colors. That would have looked better and been MUCH easier. Oh well. Next time, right?
The icing actually settled well and they came out looking pretty good, if you just ignore all the extra icing hanging down the edges. :) I'm sure they will taste just fine!
Far from perfect, but Lex was thrilled and I think his fellow first graders will be equally happy with these.
I decided to wrap them individually. This made it easier to put them away (get them off my table before we ate them all!) and I think it will be easier for Lex to manage in school. We're sending in a few extras too, so he can deliver them to other teachers or staff if he wants.
All boxed up and ready to go! This makes me happy. :)
I was crafting a post in my head about “good enough” baking, instead of awesome baking like this, and this, and this. I used to have these blogs in my feed reader, but I had to remove them because I really don’t need a daily dose of adorably decorated sugar cookie inspiration. I really need some “get up and go” inspiration, not “break out the confectioner sugar” inspiration! I decided that “good enough” baking is good enough for me! As long as my “clients” are adorable children then I will better serve them with extra attention and “good enough” baking, instead of no attention and perfect baking!
Stay tuned for my awesome “good enough” cakes! One triple layer and one Lego cake. Bake on!
Chicks in class
I took Lex to school today for the first time in a week and a half. He and Alan have been biking to school and work lately. I miss taking him to school. On my way out I stopped to read the newsletter (darn broken technology makes it so I can’t read the e-version at home!) and I discovered that they are incubating baby chicken eggs in their classroom! And posting updates on Twitter! I was shocked! Lex hasn’t mentioned a thing about it to me. Of course I peppered him with questions when I picked him up this afternoon. Apparently the incubator is in the other classroom and the other teacher is doing the Twitter updates. He said they (the kids) have no done anything with Twitter. I thought it was a Farm/Technology unit all rolled up in one! Anyway, if you’re interested and on Twitter you can follow along with @chicksinfirst.
(Ok, I just checked their twitter feed again and apparently the kids ARE posting!)
Fun at the farm
Turtles
They ran my photo in the newspaper! :)
A peaceful day and photos from the week
This has to be a quick post, lots going on and hubby is waiting for his turn to get some attention, but first, it’s your turn!
We had a super nice day today. Alan woke up early and took the kids out to breakfast again. I woke up late (7:30am!) and had breakfast and read the paper in peace. Then he texted me and said they were at a playground, so I put on my running clothes and ran over. Literally. We all came home together and the kids went outside to play with Parrish. The three of them had a great time playing together for most of the day! In the early afternoon Eve got tired and opted for quiet time. Then Parrish had to leave for an errand so Lex came in and had some quiet time. We got the wooden train tracks out of storage and Parrish came right over as soon as he got home. They played nicely in the living room all afternoon. I got the floors cleaned (well, as cleaned as they ever get around here!) and step one of the Lego man cookie decorating done. It was a very peaceful day.
Our neighbors have fancy outdoor furniture.
They all sat on this couch for a long time, doing magic tricks, making pipe cleaner flowers, coloring, and just hanging out. Us grownups left them alone (with a mindful eye from at least one of us!) and they enjoyed each others company for the morning.
Bagels and watermelon for lunch. Yum!
Eve
Eve found a green inchworm and decided to keep it as a pet. Her first pet! She named it "pet" and stuffed the plastic container full of leaves and things. She brought it in with her for quiet time and carried it around all afternoon. Around dinner time she came to me sadly and said she could not see her inchworm in the container. We dumped the whole thing out on the porch and could not find that worm. I wonder where it got to! Hopefully not crawling around her bedroom. She was sad but decided to set up a "trap" (the container laying on its side with fresh leaves inside) to catch herself another inchworm.
Lex "walked" his way from one side of the swingset to the other, swing to swing to swing.
Eve drawing a picture of herself finding the inchworm.
Ok, I’m out of time. Sorry. The pictures from the rest of the week will have to wait for another day.
iWhat?
A little girl that Eve likes to play with at the WW meetings showed up today with an iPad. Normally the two girls color quietly together, but today she played with the iPad while Eve colored in her notebook. In the car after the meeting Eve “read” me her “notes” that she took. They started with “Sarah was playing with her iPod…” When she stopped to take a breath I told her the device was an iPad, not iPod. Then I explained the iPad, iPhone, and iPod to her. In high level. What they look like and what they do. She called it an iPod and again and I asked if she could hear the difference between iPad and iPod (were were driving in the car, after all). She huffed and said, “I’m just going to call it a Kindle! That’s easier anyway.” :)
Yes, my kids are pretty gadget-unsavvy!
Cub Scouts? Camps?
We are venturing into new territory over here! I’m seriously considering signing the kids up for Splash Camp this summer, for which they are both excited. Eve also wants to do a karate camp. I may look into that. I’ve heard great things about karate for kids. Lex went to a Cub Scouts intro meeting tonight. I was not impressed but he said he really wants to join. I reminded him that the kids in his age group are all from the other elementary school and he said, “Great, I’ll make some friends!” Hmmm… it doesn’t start until fall so we’ll see if he’s still interested then. Things are happenin’ around here!
Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all you hard working mommas out there! We started the day with quick morning hugs and then Alan whisked the kids away and took them out to breakfast while I slept late.
A heart from Lex
Then we went for a Valley Quest, which is a fun hike following a poem of clues, trying to find a “treasure box” full of stamps and a sign-in book. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!
Off we go!
Eve leads the way, for about a minute, until Lex ran ahead.
Lex was in charge of reading the clues for us. He took his job very seriously.
Isn't this a cool tree?
Happy Mommy :)
"Us" pictures are hard with four people!
Happy kids
Mom is always on duty. Doling out the snacks. :)
Check out this cool turtle sunning itself on a log.
Then we saw three more turtles. A mommy and her babies, sunning themselves on Mother's Day. So sweet.
Catching frogs
Eve tried catching a frog of her own. No one had any success. Those frogs are quick!
Alan took some creative shots of the turtles as well.
The reservoir. It was a beautiful day.
We found several inch worms. Eve liked holding them and then putting them back on the ground "so they can stay alive."
I love this picture, but it would be perfect if the worm was on her index finger. Then it wouldn't blend in to her shirt.
The green inch worm in motion.
Eve is always one to stop and smell the flowers. She also picked one and ran it over to me, yelling "Happy Mother's Day!"
We came home for showers and lunch, then Eve and I gussied up and went to a Mother’s Day Tea at Grandma’s rehab. Eve LOVED dressing up and picking out my dress for me. It’s rare that I dress up and even rarer that I dress up and go out with her. I think maybe we need to do more of that. She loved it.
Eve helped me pick out my dress.
She has a lot more options than I do!
She got all dolled up. High heels and a purse. She even brushed her hair!
Puff pastry swans. Aren't they adorable?!
Happy Mother's Day!
Silly girls
We came home to find that Alan and Lex had gone for a long bike ride to the ice cream stand. Eve insisted on quiet time, the boys were away, so I enjoyed a cup of tea (yes, I drink a lot of tea!) and the Sunday paper. It was great!!
Watching Barney's latest video on FB. The kids deemed him "silly" and wondered when he was coming home again. :)
Lex built a castle out of connectagons.
Eve put pigtails in my hair. I tried to take a sweet picture of us together and this is what she gave me!
We ended the evening with our normal pick-your-own dinner, then Alan did the bedtime routine so I could get started on Lex’s birthday cookies. Yes, his birthday is still two weeks away but the cookies I’m making for him are complicated and time-consuming, so I wanted to get started early. They will be a product of love, for the sweetest boy in the world, the boy who made me a mother in the first place!
I am a very lucky mother.
I hope the rest of you had a lovely weekend as well.
Oh, what a busy weekend
Oh, what a busy weekend it has been, and it’s only Saturday!
Last night Eve’s school hosted family night at the science museum. Free admission for students and families. We brought along our new neighbor who had never been there before! It was a lot of fun. Usually when we walk into the science museum I scan the place to see if I know anyone, and often I do. This time we knew tons of people! Most of Eve’s class and some students who had been in PreK with Lex. Lots of friendly faces. Everyone had fun but it was a late night!
Little scientists
This morning at 8am our new neighbor was knocking on the door. It was cold outside so we invited him in. The crowd only grew from there! When it warmed up a bit we went outside and were joined by other neighbors. Eve and I ran a few quick errands (KAF, cupcake fundraiser, and farmers market) and then right back to the playing. At one point we had eight kids playing in our yard! Like an impromptu party! It was fun, but exhausting. Eve gave herself quiet time after a brief meltdown. A bit later Lex just up and left a crowd of boys, for no apparent reason. When he came in I asked “what’s up?” and he said he just wanted to be inside for awhile. Self-imposed quiet time for him as well. Quiet time came to an abrupt end when the ice cream truck came down the street!! Second time I’ve ever heard it around here and the first time we’ve ever gone.
Lunch on the porch. Yes, Eve is wearing winter boots. Why, I don't know. She is also on her second outfit of the day already.
Goldfish, taking a swim.
Eve at the ice cream truck (in her third outfit of the day)
Lex had a hard time making up his mind. Eve danced to the (painfully loud) music of the ice cream truck while we waited.
Ice cream! (I could NOT get all of them smiling at once! Crazy family.)
Messy girl
Eve on her fourth outfit of the day! Not because she's a fashionista or anything, just because she kept getting so messy! Rock on the head means she's well on her way to getting messy again! :)
More playing outside. Around 5:30 everyone was getting crabby so I brought my two in for much needed bathes and sent the rest of the crowds away. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!
The view from my window while making dinner tonight. That is Lex standing on the hood of the police car in the background there. They came in shortly after this and went right upstairs for baths!
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and we already have more plans than time for them. I’ll have to talk with Alan tonight about what we can actually get done. All I know is I’d like a family day, not a yard full of neighborhood kids day. :)