Cute kids

 
 
 
 
These were all taken early one morning before school. It was pajama day for Ellie and we hadn't done her hair yet, but she's still cute.

Fog Willow Farm

 

 

 

 

Way out in Wilton there is this gorgeous farm that, I believe, is built just for the purpose of having school field trips. In the fall, classes of youngsters go there for the pumpkins and in the spring it is a science day. Along with simple science experiments, the kids get to see and pet baby animals and learn about farm life. It always amazes me that kids don't know where their food comes from. I just loved this place. If I had known about it sooner, perhaps I would have worked as a volunteer. It is so up my ally. I was happy to be a parent helper for this one. :)

Hey, my hydrangeas

Okay, so I'm a total wench. I've recently discovered that my kid's friends are all scared of me. Apparently I look mean and am always mean. Well, I've recently discovered that it's true.
Take this weekend, for example. Emma spent the entire time with one of her best friends. She spent the night with us on Sunday night. The two of them jumped on the trampoline almost non-stop. When I got up this morning I looked up and saw one of the net poles leaning at an odd angle. I had to drag it out of them, but the story goes like this. It's too hard and inconvenient to exit the trampoline under the net like we have always done. It's much easier to scale the net and try to go over the top. But the poles are not quite made to withstand 80 or so pounds at the top and they will bend. And then. . .they will not bend back.
Somewhat irritating to me. So, we had to have a little talk about thinking things through to one and speaking up when someone else isn't making a good choice and you know better, to the other. A very wenchy mother move.
Then today, Lauren and Ellie played the entire day with neighborhood friends. There is a crew of about 8-10 kids their age that like to play together. Of course, they spend a good deal of the time here. Today was a beautiful day so the rule was "play outside". I'm hearing talk of potions and decide to poke my head out to see what the concoction was made of. Right at that moment I see one of Lauren's friends reaching towards my hydrangeas ready to pick the biggest blossom cluster. (A short background: I got a blue plant for my birthday 3 years ago and a pink one for my anniversary 3 years ago. I planted them and they have never bloomed--until now. I have waited 3 years for it.) Okay, I freaked. "Hey, hey, hey," I yelled. I couldn't stop to think of names and words. "Don't pick the flowers. . .please." After the successful halting, I was able to explain that these flowers were for looking at and not picking. But that didn't stop her from giving me the stink face and storming off to cry.
Yes, I see why kids don't like me much, but . . .it takes a village. I guess I get the unfortunate title of "wench mother".

Brenden Jordon (I think) is born

We've welcomed little baby BJ into our home this week. My kids are all so excited to help feed him and sing to him and hold him whenever they get a turn. We were hoping for a girl because we have plenty of girl clothes and blankets to choose from, but unfortunately we don't get to choose these things.

I'm talking about Maddie's school assignment from Family Life. She gets to carry this sack of flour around for a few weeks. She must have done a good job of preparing us for it because you would think there has been a real birth occur here. All the kids want this baby. If I would have known that flour could be so much fun I would have done it long ago. The flour and the pantyhose cost less than $4. Very economical for a baby of any sort really.

Emma's birthday

Emma had her 11th birthday at the park this year. She wanted to invite so many kids that we had do so something like this because there was no way they were going to all fit in my house. She ended up with about 15 friends to celebrate with. There was plenty of food and slushies for all. Emma is a very friendly person and people seem to be naturally drawn to her. She has so many friends that she struggles with keeping up with all of them and keeping them all happy (she's a pleaser).

This is as close to a group photo as we got. There was so much going on that we never got everyone together for that. Darn. We played amoeba tag, had a bubble gum blowing contest, and everyone got a large squirt gun for a water fight. She chose german chocolate cake (thank you, Emma), but we struggled trying to light the candles in the slight breeze. The weather was perfect though. Everyone had a great time, except for Emma. Birthdays always seem to be really difficult days for her. I'm not sure if it's overwhelming to her senses or if she has unrealistic expectations (or maybe a combo). Perhaps it's none of the above, but can be attributed to something entirely different, but she seemed to enjoy having me take her out from school for a lunch date much more than the whole party thing. I love you anyway Emma. Happy Birthday!!

Chocolate vs. Coffee

I have, in my lifetime, come across people who have condemned me for eating chocolate; laughing because I will eat chocolate, but not drink coffee. They are obviously mistakenly equating the two. So, I thought I'd look it up and here's what I found:

The average Hershey bar is approximately one and a half ounces of milk chocolate. If one eats the whole bar, this translates to consuming about seven and a half milligrams of caffeine. One would have to eat six bars in order to equal the caffeine in strong green tea, and seven and a half bars to equal the caffeine in black tea. To match a cup of coffee, one would have to eat approximately 20 Hershey bars.

So there you have it. I don't think eating a couple of Hershey kisses can really be compared to drinking 2 or 3 cups of coffee every morning. :)

Credit Card anyone?

 

This is the pile of credit cards from credit applications that we have received over the past year. Richard thought it would be fun to keep them for a year to see how many there were. The year is up and here they are. He actually started saving them in Jan. of 2007 but I threw them away in May because I thought it was silly. I was reprimanded :) and the pile began again. The kids have fun sorting them into gas, visa, amex, etc. or by color, or just counting them. I think there are 300 something. I'm posting this to let Richard know that I threw them away again today. Sorry Hon. I know how you love to hoard things like this. We can start again later.

Western Festival

 

 

 

 

Couscous Salad

I came across this recipe in the blogosphere. Tried it. It truly is great.

1 cup couscous
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp. chicken bouillon
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cucumber, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup crumbled feta (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
parsley to garnish (optional)

1. In a bowl mix cucumbers, vinegar and garlic. Let sit 20 minutes to marinate.
2. In another bowl, add boiling water to couscous and chicken stock. Mix and let cool.
3. Once couscous is cool, add cucumber mixture, onion, tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir in feta. Garnish with parsley.

I made it without the feta because I didn't think my kids would like it, but silly me, they didn't like it anyway (ie. refused to try it), so I should have just made it for myself with the feta. Oh well.