Dying for Pop Tarts

Last week Aaron went on a backpacking trip with his scout troop. Each scout had to bring all of the food they would be eating for the few days they were camping. I bought him multiple things that didn't need to be refrigerated including a box of Pop Tarts, which is a treat that I don't usually buy.
A few days ago, Brielle was complaining that I had bought Pop Tarts for Aaron, but I wouldn't buy them for anyone else.
Brielle: "Why won't you buy Pop Tarts for the rest of us?"
Me: "Because they aren't good for you, they're mostly just sugar."
Brielle: "But you bought them for Aaron!"
Me "That was because it was one of the few things that didn't need to be refrigerated that he could take with on his camping trip. Besides, they were on sale."
Brielle: "Will you buy some for me?"
Me: "I already said NO!"
Brielle: "OK, let's say that you HAVE to buy Pop Tarts for one of us, which one would you choose, me or Aaron?'
Me: "Max. I would buy them for Max, he can stand to gain some weight."
Brielle: "But what if there was a situation where you were dying and you had to buy Pop Tarts for either me or Aaron to be able to live, which one of us would you buy the Pop Tarts for?"
Me: "Seriously? In what type of a situation would I need to buy Pop Tarts for you to save my own life?"
Brielle: "???????????"
Me: "I guess if I was in that situation I would buy them for myself, because if I'm dying anyway, it won't really matter if I'm eating something unhealthy, right?"

It's a Christmas chocolate candy miracle!!!!

Last night I opened the kitchen closet and sitting there right in plain sight, and at my eye level, was an unopened package of Cadbury Christmas candy! (solid milk chocolate in a candy shell, to be exact)

Here's the deal, I don't remember buying it (seriously, as if I would forget buying chocolate) and no one else will admit to putting it there.

I do believe in Santa Claus!!

Halloween recap

This year Halloween was a little different because my kids school had all of their Halloween festivities on Friday :0)

Usually this would mean that I would be staying up late, working on costumes Thursday night instead of the night before Halloween, however, CJ is too old to go Trick-or-treating (plus, at 6'4" he looks even older than 16) Brielle wasn't allowed to wear a costume for school, and Max decided to use one of CJ's old costumes.

This meant that I only had to make one costume!!

I was excited about this, because Aaron's costume would be super easy. (I may or may not have thrown it together Friday morning)

Apparently, it was also super difficult to understand. No one in our neighborhood could figure out what he was.

Here it is, can anyone guess what his costume is?

I will be quite impressed by the first person who guesses correctly.

Max's costume was perfect for him because...

1) It's his favorite food

2) It was already made and I didn't have to do anything.

3) It was padded so every time he tripped (because the costume was a little big on him) the padding would break his fall.

There is a hole for his face, however, he was being shy.

CJ stayed home and handed out candy. I wanted him to dress as a vampire, but he was being a bit of a party pooper.

He also handed out too much candy* because we ran out!**

The best part of the evening was when we had one piece of candy left and Max waited at the door to pass out the last piece.

A large group of kids came to the door and Max waved around the package of Whoppers and said "ONLY ONE OF YOU IS GETTING CANDY!!" He dropped the candy in the bucket of the little girl at the front of the group, then turned the candy bowl upside down "SEE! IT'S ALL GONE!" Then closed the door.

Due to the fact that I didn't need to make costumes yesterday, I was able to make some treats. A friend posted the link to this recipe for pumpkin muffins on Facebook, and I knew I had all of the ingredients,*** so I decided to make them.

They are FABULOUS! Pumpkin with cream cheese filling! MMMMM!

They were really good! They even looked good, and with my track record of making really ugly food, I felt that this was an accomplishment.

I didn't realize until last night that I accidentally put twice as much pumpkin in the recipe than it called for. I guess I just assumed that I should use a large can instead of a smaller one. They were really moist and delicious, so I think I'll double the pumpkin every time I make them.

I do have on bit of helpful advice if you decide to make these delicious muffins. When you are mixing the pumpkin/sugar/eggs on low speed in your electric mixer, be sure that when you turn the mixer off, you actually turn it off and don't accidentally turn it on high.

You will end up with pumpkin all over yourself and almost everything in your kitchen.

Trust me on this one.

*We had more kids come to our house this year than ever before. I think this was due to the really nice weather and the dozens of carloads of kids being brought to our neighborhood from who knows where. Apparently, when a few of the neighbors start handing out full size candy bars, and word gets around.

**The candy I don't like ran out. The bag of Three Musketeers was left untouched in the kitchen.

***Not really, I ended up going to the store halfway through making these to get salt, pumpkin pie spice and powdered sugar.

A weighty issue

Every year at Christmas time, I will make a 5 pound batch of fudge, give most of it away, (OK, some of it) and I will gain 10 pounds.

This year, I didn't make any fudge, nor did we get any treats from the neighbors, and I gained 5 pounds.

If tomorrow, I make 10 pounds of fudge, give away 8 pounds to the neighbors, will I lose 2 pounds, or will the neighbors just think I'm strange?

Or, if I make 15 pounds of fudge, give away 12, will I gain 3 pounds, have the neighbors think I'm strange and spend the next few weeks on the treadmill while watching re-runs of The Biggest Loser.

Or, should I just get myself a big bowl of ice cream (with homemade fudge sauce) sit in my comfortable chair and eat it while watching The Biggest Loser.

Will Jillian scream at me through my television?

If I sent her 15 pounds of fudge, would she shut up?


What do you think?

Picky is as picky does

Max isn't a big eater. He is very picky and will only eat a few different things.
For the last few years, the only thing that Max ate at Thanksgiving dinner was a roll. (no butter)

Last week I made mashed potatoes for dinner (or mashapatoes as they are referred to at our house)
I asked Max to just try one bite. I told him that if he didn't like them he didn't need to eat the rest of them.

Much to my surprise, Max took a bite.

His eyebrows popped up and he had a delighted smile on his face.

"HEY!" he exclaimed "These really taste yummy!"

Then he proceeded to eat all that I put on his plate, and a second helping.

After this incident, I had great hopes that Max would eat more than just his usual roll for Thanksgiving dinner. I spent the week talking to him about just trying one bite of everything on the table, and he actually agreed.
When it came time to eat dinner today, I asked Max what he wanted to eat and he said "I'm going to try everything on the table REMEMBER???"

I carefully put a small amount of everything on his plate. Turkey (Naughty Turkey, actually, Max and Aaron stuck him in the oven this morning, and he had been cooking all day) ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole.....

Max looked carefully over everything on his plate, took one small bite of mashed potatoes, then proceeded to eat a roll and nothing else.

Oh well, maybe next year.

The doctor is in!

Dr Pepper's a drink I adore,
full of bubbles and fizzles galore.
Better than Coke, Sprite or Squirt,
and it keeps me alert.
Now I think I'll go get me some more.


:0)

Random stuff.....

I remember reading the drivers education manual when I got my drivers license. I don't seem to remember the section that says that when you see someone in the next lane signaling to get into your lane, that you should speed up as fast as you can because apparently, it's against the law in this state to let someone get in front of you.

Did I miss this in the manual, or did they change it?


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I'm getting sick. I mentioned this to Max this morning, and then later when I asked him for a hug, he wouldn't come near me because "I CAN'T HUG YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE GERMS!!"

This afternoon I had to lie to my little guy and tell him I felt better, just so I could get a hug.

I will say that after getting a big Max hug, I did feel a bit better.


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I picked up the kids from school today because the weather was rainy and cold. I had a few errands to run, and I made them come with me.

After a trip to the bank and to the library (to return an overdue DVD so we don't have to fund an entire new wing of the library with our overdue fees) we were headed home when Brielle mentioned that a hot apple pie from McDonald's would sure be nice right about then.

It sounded like a pretty good idea to me too, but knowing that Max doesn't like the hot apple pies, I wasn't sure how he would react to us getting a treat and not getting one for him, so I asked "Max, do you want an apple pie from McDonald's?" you know, just in case he changed his mind about liking them.

He said no.

"Would you be sad if we all got hot apple pies?"

Much to my surprise, he said yes.

Then Aaron (sensing that there was danger of him not getting a hot apple pie) asked Max "Would you be sad if we all got hot apple pies and you didn't have to eat one?" and Max replied "No, I would be very happy if you all had them!"

Seriously, how cute is that?

I pulled into the McDonald's that was just up the street, bought 4 hot apple pies for me and the three older kids, and chocolate chip cookies for Max.

Cub Scout cookies and other random stuff

This week was Talent night for the Cub Scouts. We tried to think of a talent that Aaron could display at pack meeting.

Our ideas were:

1. A window washing demonstration.

This wasn't really an option, because the meeting was being held in the gym, where there aren't any windows.

2. Taping a pen to the end of his trombone, and having him draw a picture while playing a musical selection.

Aaron has only been playing the trombone for a month. We decided that this might be a bit above his current skill level. (however, he is doing very well with the trombone! Maybe next time)

We finally concluded that his best talent was cooking. The plan was for him to make dinner then take a picture of it and put it on a poster.

The night before Pack meeting Aaron made spaghetti with homemade sauce. (he's only 9, yes, he is amazing) Unfortunately, by the time we remembered to take pictures, dinner was over, all of the spaghetti was gone and all that was left was the dirty dishes.

Instead of pictures of dinner, Aaron decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and bring enough for everyone to have one.

I'm pretty sure that Aaron's talent was everyone's favorite.

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In other news, Max has started speaking with a southern accent, and we have no idea why. It's just weird. Cute, but weird.

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Monday, after the freak snowstorm that dumped an inch of snow in our yard, Max dumped a bag of cotton balls on his bedroom floor, so the inside would match the outside.

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Friday, Brielle made the observation that me and Max are the only ones in the family without a bicycle. (Max does have a tricycle, however, he is 5 and is getting too big for it)

The next day, Max climbed into my lap and said "Mom, I love you SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!"

I gave him a squeeze and said "I love you too!" Then holds my face in his little hands, looks into my eyes and says "And I really think we should get bikes."

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Tonight took Brielle for a girl's night out. When Max found out that we were leaving, he wanted to come with. As we were leaving I explained that he couldn't come because it was just for girls. Then he wrapped his arms around my leg and says "I DON'T WANT FOR YOU TO MISS ME! TAKE ME WITH! I DON'T WANT FOR YOU TO MISS ME!"

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I'm really beginning to think that someone should invent self cleaning kitchen floors.

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When we were at my mom's house last weekend, I pulled out some of her photo albums from when I was a teenager. I showed them pictures of me and said "Look! See how skinny I was, here's photographic evidence that I used to be thin."

Then Aaron says "Who said you were fat?"

Aaron is currently my favorite child.

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It's quite late right now. I'm beginning to think that the Diet Coke that I drank at 10:00 tonight was probably a bad idea...................

Max and the big, sweaty guy

Tonight we went to a wedding reception for the son of a neighbor.
As we waited in the incredibly long line to greet the happy couple, we heard rumors of ice cream as refreshments.
The children were elated..........except for Max. He doesn't like ice cream, because apparently, it's too cold.
After we made our way through the reception line, the kids made a mad dash to the ice cream table.
I will say that we were not disappointed :0)
Chocolate dipped waffle bowls, brownies, caramel, chocolate and marshmallow topping (which I need to say was like creamy clouds made of sugar, sent down from heaven to rest upon my ice cream) various fresh fruits, crushed candy bars, chopped nuts, sprinkles and pink m&ms adorned the table.
Max still insisted that he didn't want ice cream, however, once he saw the brownies, he got very excited.
"I want a brownie! I want a brownie!" He jumped up and down until he got his hands on the plate with the brownie.

Then he saw the ice cream.

The lady serving the ice cream asked him if she could put some on his plate. He hesitated until Brielle said "You know, Max, the ice cream has been sitting out for a while and it's melted a little bit, so it won't be super cold."
This was all it took to convince him and he eagerly handed his plate to the lady who put a Max sized scoop..............

right on top of his brownie.

I knew that this would be trouble, especially with the whole "my food can't be touching, even a little bit" phase that he's been going through lately.

Surprisingly, Max didn't even flinch, and we walked outside to a table in the garden area of the reception center.

We sat down and slid Max's chair up to the table. He picked up his spoon and then it started.

"Hey. I didn't want the ice cream on top of the brownie."

He was uncharacteristically calm about the whole situation. I suggested that we just scoop the ice cream off of the brownie, and he happily agreed.

Then he looked at the brownie.

"Hey, there's still some ice cream on top. I don't want it there."

The already soft ice cream had melted a bit and left a puddle on top of the brownie. I scraped it off the best I could, but there was still some ice cream residue remaining.

My husband said "It's just the same as when you dunk your cookies in milk before you eat them. Go ahead and eat it, it'll taste good."

Max eyed the brownie suspiciously. "I dunk cookies in milk not brownies." Then he picked up his spoon and looked over the entire brownie, trying to find a place to dig in.

Again, I was a bit confused by his calm demeanor.

He finally looked up at me and said "Can I just pick it up with my hand and eat it?"
I told him that would be fine, so he picked up the brownie and "HEY THERE'S ICE CREAM ON THE BOTTOM OF MY BROWNIE!"

Yes, I knew we were headed for a meltdown, and it happened. I took the brownie, looked at the bottom of it, and sure enough, the bottom corner had some ice cream soaked into it. I turned the brownie around and handed it back to him. "Here buddy, just eat the other side, OK?"
He must have been really hungry because he did just that, and finished off the entire brownie, ice cream sludge and all.
I returned to my ice cream (remember, little clouds of marshmallow heaven mixed with chocolate sauce and crushed candy bars........) when Max looked at the melting scoop of ice cream on his plate.
"I don't want to eat this. Do I have to eat this?" he asked.
Almost as if they had rehearsed it, Brielle and Aaron said in unison "I'LL EAT HIS ICE CREAM"
He slid the plate over to them and they proceeded to attack the scoop seeing who could get the most of it first.
I leaned over to my husband and said "Apparently, I haven't actually fed them for like a week." (sidenote, I have fed them for the last week, I just haven't fed them ice cream)
As soon as Aaron finished of the bigger portion of the scoop, he started to shiver. It seems that the combination of eating his ice cream and Max's ice cream, plus being outside in the shade made him shiver uncontrollably.

Teeth were chattering.

This was really strange, because Aaron isn't usually a kid that gets cold easily. He's always the first one to declare that "Sure it's snowing outside, but it's really not that cold, I'm pretty sure I don't need a coat."
Brielle made some comment about how strange it was that he was cold because he's usually kind of sweaty, and then it happened. Max started singing.......

"He's big, he's sweaty, he's a guy, he's big sweaty guy!!"

We all looked at him, because this was kind of random. He must have enjoyed the attention because he sang it again.

"He's big, he's sweaty, he's a guy, he's big sweaty guy!!

This time we laughed, so you guessed it, he continued with his song, only louder.

"HE'S BIG, HE'S SWEATY, HE'S A GUY!
HE'S BIG, SWEATY GUY!!

Then again.

"HE'S BIG, HE'S SWEATY, HE'S A GUY!
HE'S BIG, SWEATY GUY!!!!"

So by now, people are staring. (You know, you'd think I'd be used to this by now.......)

At this point, we just picked him up and hauled him out to the car and we went home.

The problem is that now, I can't get the stupid song out of my head, so here it is, for your listening pleasure (or torture, you decide) Bill Nye and the Sweaty Guy song.








Is it just me, or does big, sweaty guy look a lot like an old version of Mario Lopez?

I wouldn't suggest shopping on Black Friday unless you're going to buy me a a happy bloggaversary present

We had a very nice Thanksgiving today, ate lots of turkey and lots of pie with lots of family then went and saw A Christmas Carol in 3D.
We saw the movie in the IMAX theater and the animation was amazing! I actually had to close my eyes a few times because I was getting motion sickness.
The movie was a little scarier that I thought it would be and was a bit intense for a four year old, but Max stayed glued to his seat and kept his 3D glasses on the entire time.
When the movie was over, I asked him what he thought of it and he said......

"That was a reeeeeeeally long movie."

Then I asked him if he liked it and he said "Yes, but only not the really loud parts."
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Is anyone going shopping tomorrow? (or if you're reading this after the fact, did you go today?)
I always feel like I should do the black Friday shopping thing, because of all the good deals, but I don't like crowds and I don't like traffic, and I reeeeeally don't like getting trampled on by hoards of pushy people trying to be the first one to get through the doors of WalMart at 5:00 a.m.
That's just one more reason to shop online.

Let's take a look at shopping on Black Friday. Regular shopping goes something like this.

1. Get in the car.
2. Drive to the store
3. Dodge other cars/shoppers/shopping carts while trying to find a parking place.
4. Freeze while walking into the store because the closest parking spot you could get was clear at the other end of the lot.
5. Maneuver your way through all the people in the store to try to find the object that you're looking for.
6. Hunt down an employee to ask where the item would be.
7. Hunt down another employee because the first one has no clue because this isn't their department.
8. Have the second employee call another employee because he has no idea what the item is that you are looking for.
9. Finally find the spot on the empty shelf where the item is supposed to be.
10. Ask employee if they have any more of the item, only to be told that everything they have is out on the shelf but you're welcome to come back and check again on Tuesday because that's when their shipments come in.
11. Either walk out of the store without the item, or stand in a really long check out line waiting to purchase the other 16 items you happened to decide that you really needed while looking for the original item.
12. Make the trek out to your car and get inside.
13. Drive across town to the next store to see if they have any of the item in stock.
14. Repeat #3 through #13 as many times as you need to until you find the item or give up and get home.

Now in comparison, let's look at online shopping.

1. Sit on chair.
2. Turn on computer.
3. Type in store website.
4. Type item in search.
5. If item is in stock, buy it, if it isn't in stock, repeat #3 through #4 until you find it, then buy it.
6. Wait for item to be delivered to your front door.
7. Added bonus, even though you might be shopping in your jammies, you won't end up on peopleofwalmart.com.

Now after you've seen it put that way, why would you even try to go shopping tomorrow morning.




You're welcome.

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Here's some exciting news.
Guess who's blog just turned two?

Yes folks, I've been typing drivel for the entire internet to read for two whole years now!
It seems like just yesterday that I was writing my first post. I remember how excited I was the first time I got more than 10 comments, the first time I successfully uploaded a photo and the first time I figured out how to link to someone else.
Other milestones stand out in my memory, like when I finally installed my stat counter so that I could properly obsess about the traffic coming to my blog, my first spam commenter and then when I started Word Verification Wednesday.
These little blogs grow up so fast! Now I guess I need to worry about the "Terrible twos"

I was thinking about doing some sort of cool giveaway to celebrate my blog's second birthday, but then it occurred to me that I was too lazy.

Sorry, (sigh) maybe next time.

;0)

Cooking with the Cubs

Alternate title;

"How to lose your sanity in one hour or less."

A while ago I became a Den leader for Aaron's Cub Scout group. Today it was my turn to arrange an activity for these 9 year old boys.

I looked through all of the activities in the scout book and after a discussion with the other leader, decided that the boys would learn about cooking by fulfilling one of the requirements, "Bake cookies with an adult"

We decided that due to time constraints, we would just have the boys mix up the dough, then we would send it home with them and have their parents help them bake the cookies.

I gathered all of the ingredients and equipment that we would need and went over to the church for Pack meeting.

When we went into the kitchen, the boys were quite excited about making cookies. The first thing they all did was to hop up and sit on the counter.

"Ummm, hey guys, do you remember our first rule about cooking in the kitchen?" I asked.

They all jumped off the counter while discussing amongst themselves the "no butt germs on the food preparation surfaces" lecture that we went through the last time we had a food related activity.

Then I ask, "What's the first thing we need to do before making cookies?"

They all stare at me blankly.

Finally, Aaron suggests that they wash their hands. (That's my boy!)

So we wait while 5 very energetic little boys wash their hands at the sink.

At this point I need to mention how noisy 5 nine year old boys can be, and also the fact that the acoustics in this kitchen amplify the sound to about 5 times it's original level.

Plus, there's a bit of an echo.

As we are cooking, I try to include some useful bits of cooking information.

Me: OK guys, all of you will get a chance to help measure and stir up the ingredients. Now, what's the first thing we need to do before mixing up the cookies?"

Aaron: "We already washed our hands."

Me: "OK, so what do we do next?" I ask while holding up the recipe for them to see.

Connor: (opening the door to go outside) "Hey, can we get some fresh air?"

Me:" NO. No fresh air, we're here to make cookies, what's the first thing we need to do?"

Scott: "Do we need to bake them or can we just eat the dough?"

Me: "You have to take them home and bake them. The dough will have raw eggs in it, and you shouldn't eat raw eggs, remember, we talked about that a few weeks ago?"

Mitchell: "Why can't we eat raw eggs?"

Connor: "Because if you eat raw eggs they will make you sick."

Aaron: "Rocky ate a whole glass of raw eggs and I didn't see him get sick in the movie."

All boys in unison: "EWWWWWW!!!"

Brandon: "Why did he eat raw eggs?"

Aaron: "I don't know, but it was really gross I think he......."

Me: "Hey guys, COOKIES remember, we're here to make cookies. Now, does anyone know how to measure brown sugar?"

Aaron: "I know how! You pack it in really tight."

Then Aaron proceeded to measure a cup of brown sugar. Packed.

Scott: "Hey, it's my turn, I want to do the next one!"

Scott takes a teaspoon and starts to scoop small spoonfuls of brown sugar into the measuring cup, packing each one down as he goes.

Me: "Scott, just stick the measuring cup in the bag and scoop out a bunch."

Scott scoops out a little bit, then packs it down with the spoon, he scoops out another small amount then packs that down with a spoon.

I see that this will take a while, so I move on.

Me: "OK guys, what's the next ingredient?"

Mitchell: "White sugar. Can I measure that?"

I tell him yes, then hand him the ziplock bag holding a cup of sugar. Mitchell starts to dump the sugar in the general direction of the measuring cup. I grab his arm and help him just before he dumps most of it on the counter.

Scott is still measuring the brown sugar. Scoop and pack. Scoop and pack. Scoop and pack.....

Me: "Let's move on to the butter!" I pick up the box of butter and realize that even though I had let it sit out for several hours, it wasn't softened enough. No problem, we have a microwave! I tell the boys to unwrap the four cubes (yes, 4 cubes, this is an awesome recipe) of butter (yes! REAL butter. As if you would use any other kind)

I tell Aaron to put it in a measuring cup and nuke it for 12 seconds. It comes out perfectly softened, and Aaron dumps it in the bowl with the sugar.

The boys all get really into the whole melting butter in the microwave thing.

Connor: "Can I melt the next one?"

Brandon: "I want to melt some!"

Me: "You can each melt one."

Connor: "How long do I melt it for?"

Me: "12 seconds."

Scott finally finishes the brown sugar.

Brandon: "How long do I melt the butter for?"

Me: "12 seconds."

Scott: "I want to melt some butter!"

Me: "You can melt the next one." and I hand him a cube of butter.

Connor and Brandon both dump their perfectly softened cubes of butter out of the measuring cup and into the sugar.

Scott: "How long do I microwave this?"

Me "12 seconds."

Scott: "Do I just put it in like this?"

I look over to see Scott ready to put his unwrapped cube of butter directly in the microwave.

Me: "No, please put it in the measuring cup!"

I look back to the bowl to see Mitchell standing there, holding the hand mixer, ready to attack the contents of the bowl.

Mitchell: "Can I mix it together now?"

Me: "What does the recipe say?"

Brandon: "It says we need eggs."

Me: "No, look at the instructions, not the list of ingredients."

The boys all read together "Cream together butter and sugars."

Me: "Does anyone know what that means?"

Brandon: (looking in the bowl) "How many of those butters did you put in there?"

Me: "four."

Brandon: "I really don't like butter that much."

Me: "We'll be putting more stuff in it than butter, you'll hardly notice it."

Brandon: "That's a lot of butter. I don't like that much butter!"

Mitchell: "Can I mix it now?"

Connor: "I want to use the mixer too!"

Me: "Everyone will get a chance to use the mixer."

Scott dumps his newly softened cube of butter in the bowl. Before I knew what was happening, he turned on the mixer and put it just deep enough in the bowl to send chunks of softened butter everywhere.

Me: (grabbing the mixer and turning it off) "Hey guys, what is the first rule of using a mixer?"

Mitchell: "You need to keep it in the bottom of the bowl so all the stuff doesn't go flying out."

Me:" Good, now can somebody please get a paper towel and wipe up the butter?"

I then notice the 4 butter wrappers laying face down on the counter.

Mitchell takes the mixer and starts mixing up the butter and sugar. After a minute, he hands it to Scott.

All of the boys are leaning over the big bowl, watching the butter and sugar being mixed together.

Connor: "Hey, this stinks! It smells like fire!"

The other boys: "Yeah, that does smell like fire!"

I realized that I hadn't used this mixer for a while, and I think the dough was making the motor work a little over it's capacity, thus the burning smell. I turn off the mixer.

Connor: "Hey, I wanted a turn!"

Me: "We need 4 eggs. Who wants to crack an egg?'

Scott grabbed an egg and started to gently tap it on the edge of the bowl. It made a small hole and he tried to shake the yolk out of the hole.

Me: " Scott, put your thumbs in it and break it apart."

He pokes his thumbs in the egg and starts to pull the shell apart, only he has moved it away from the bowl and is dangerously close to dumping the egg innards on the counter.

ME: "Scott, in the bowl....IN the bowl!"

Scott moves the egg back over the bowl, and miraculously is able to get the egg into the bowl without any shells.

I am amazed.

The other boys cracked their eggs on the counter and on other eggs, and we managed to get them in the bowl with only minimum mess on the counter.

Scott: "Now we need vanilla!"

Aaron: "Did you know that vanilla has alcohol in it?"

Brandon: "IT HAS ALCOHOL IN IT?"

Carrie: (the other Den leader who has been marking off requirements in the boys books up until this point) "Yes, Vanilla does have alcohol in it, but it cooks out."

Brandon: "But there's alcohol in it!! I think that's another reason not to eat raw cookie dough!"

Carrie: "There's really not very much vanilla in the dough. You would really have to eat a lot of raw cookie dough to get drunk from it."

At this point, I was thinking that if you ate enough cookie dough to get drunk on the vanilla, that you would have bigger problems than being drunk.

Scott: "Can't we just eat the dough? Do we have to bake it?

Carrie: "No you can't eat it, raw eggs remember?"

Brandon: "And vanilla!"

Connor: "NOW can I use the mixer?"

I look at the bowl with runny eggs in it. I do not want to see runny eggs on the wall. I do not want to see runny eggs on the floor. I do not want to see runny eggs on me.

I tell the boys that since the mixer is acting funny, I will mix in the eggs and they can stir in the flour by hand.

As I'm mixing the boys are running around the kitchen playing tag, or some other game that involves large amounts of noise and running and bumping into each other.

Me: "OK guys, there are 5 of you, and we need 5 cups of flour. Each one of you can measure one cup and stir it into the dough! Does anyone know how to measure flour?"

Aaron: "You don't pack it like you do brown sugar."

Me: "Yes, you keep it light and fluffy. Remember, light and fluffy, you scoop it into the cup lightly and don't pack it down."

Mitchell was the first to measure. He scooped some flour into the cup then tapped it onto the counter to level it out.

Me: "Hey Mitch, don't tap it down, it needs to stay light and fluffy, tapping it like that makes it compress and you don't get an accurate measurement."

Mitchell looks at me, nods his head in agreement then scoops more flour into the cup, then taps it on the counter.

Me: "Light and fluffy, Mitch, light and fluffy."

Mitchell: "Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting."

Mitchell then takes another scoop, dumps it in the cup and taps it on the counter, while the whole time I am saying:

"Light and fluffy, light and fluffy, lightandfluffylightandfluffyLIGHTANDFLUFFY!"

Then I gave up.

Mitchell dumped his flour in the bowl. I handed him the wooden spoon and he did a fine job of stirring the flour into the mixture.

Meanwhile Connor is measuring his flour. He lightly lifts the fluffy flour into the measuring cup, then smashes it down with the scoop.

I look away.

(seriously, why do these boys not get the concept of light and fluffy?)

Connor moves on to the bowl as I'm giving the "light and fluffy" flour measuring instructions to Scott.

I look over just in time to see Connor stick the big wooden spoon in the bowl, stir a little too hard, and send flour all over the wall and counter, sticking to all the chunks of softened butter that still hadn't been cleaned up.

I take a deep breath, and let it out s l o w l y as I repeat in my head "deep cleansing breath, Jill, deep cleansing breath."

Connor grins: "Sorry, I'll be more careful."

I looked at the amount of flour that flew out of the bowl and decided that it probably equaled the extra flour we got when the boys were smashing the flour into the measuring cup instead of keeping it light and fluffy.

I decided to look at this as a good thing.

We managed to get the rest of the flour mixed in. Aaron dumped in the chocolate chips, and they all took turns stirring again.

Scott: "Hey, this looks really good. Do we have to bake it? Can we just eat the dough?"

Me: "No Scott, we shouldn't eat raw cookie dough, you could get really sick."

I take the spoon and proceed to divide the dough between 5 ziplock bags.

Scott: "Hey! I want the one with the most in it!"

Aaron: "No, I want that one!"

Mitchell: "I wanted it!"

I told them that all the bags would be the same, and as I zipped the last bag Scott asked "Can we lick the bowl?"

Me: "No Scott, it's still raw cookie dough."

Carrie: "OK guys, lets get the kitchen cleaned up, everyone helps."

We started to wash the dishes and put things away when I turned around to see Mitchell sneaking a chunk of cookie dough from what was left in the bowl. He saw me look at him and he scraped the cookie dough off of his finger and into the garbage can.

The boys started playing tag again. We could see that some of the boys parents were starting to arrive to pick up their kids. Carrie told them they needed to continue helping. I told her I could probably get it cleaned up faster if they didn't help.

We laughed and she took the boys outside to meet their parents.

After they all left, I closed the door, scraped all of the leftover cookie dough out of the bowl, and ate it.

So far, I'm still feeling OK.

And now that I think about it, Aaron didn't bake the dough that he brought home, and it's just sitting there in the refrigerator........................

How I lied to Max about the cookies

And now, the rest of the story..............

When Max asked what happened to the cookies, I knew that if I told him the truth that he would be really mad at me.

I thought fast. CJ wasn't home to defend himself so I told Max that CJ was the one that ate all the cookies.

Max's cute little face turned red, he lifted his arms in the air, threw his head back and yelled to the ceiling,

CJ

IS

A

REALLY

REALLY

BAD

GUY!!!!

Sure I felt kind of bad about it for a while, but I was mostly just glad that he wasn't mad at me. I would have made him some more cookies right then, but we were out of oats and the mixer bowl was dirty, and quite frankly, I wasn't really hungry for cookies anymore anyway.

CJ is in the kitchen right now, making another batch of no bake cookies. This time, I will be sure to save some for Max.

So anyway, those of you who guessed #4 on yesterday's post should be very proud of yourselves. Yes, I blamed the whole thing on CJ.

Unfortunately, I didn't think of blaming Naughty Bird, Naughty Frog and Naughty Rabbit until I was writing the post last night. I wish I had thought of telling him that his imaginary naughty pets had eaten the cookies just to see his reaction.

I will remember the naughty trio the next time I need to shift the blame elsewhere. I mean, if Max can use them as an excuse for everything, why couldn't I?"

I was asked to give our recipe for no bake cookies, here it is.

2 Cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa

Beat these ingredients together for a few minutes then pour over

3 cups oats

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix together then drop with a spoon onto wax paper and let them sit for a while. (Ours never last long enough to see how long it takes to set up) They will be gooey.

CJ said that he's going to put this next batch in the fridge to see if they set faster.

This is the official recipe, however, my kids don't like coconut and nuts (weird, I know) so we make them without, and just use more oats.

Also, I don't always use the vanilla, and it's OK without.

More Halloween, just in case you haven't had enough

For two whole weeks before Halloween, I was swamped with my regular work, so I wasn't able to start making costumes until Wednesday night. I won't go into details, but two days and not much sleep later, I finished costumes for my nieces and for Brielle and Max. Aaron wore his tornado costume from last year, I just added some small farm animals on it to make it more realistic.

Here are my nieces, the Queen of Hearts and Oscar the grouch.

I can't believe my brother wanted his sweet little two year old daughter to dress up as Oscar the grouch. He says that she's grouchy. I don't believe him, whenever she's at my house, she is a sweet little angel. I told him he was full of it, and he said "You don't live with her."

I haven't been able to get the pictures of my kids in their costumes into the computer. I have to have the teenager do it for me because when I try to load them into the computer, I just can't seem to get them to work, and no amount of yelling at the computer will make it work.

It's just nicer for everyone involved if I don't need to be bothered with all this technical stuff.

We had a great Halloween. When we got up Halloween morning, we carved our pumpkins. This was Max's first year to really get into this pumpkin carving thing.

I cut open his pumpkin and he got to scoop the guts out himself, then he drew the face on his pumpkin, and I helped him cut out the pieces. He decided to make his a surprised face.

I got this brilliant idea that this would be the year that I actually roasted the pumpkin seeds. After we were done carving, Max helped me pick out the seeds from the pumpkin guts. After we got all of the seeds out (which took forever) he ended up playing with the pumpkin guts for over an hour.

Sometimes it just doesn't take much to entertain that kid.

Just so you know, I will not be roasting pumpkin seeds again, it was way too much work and as it turns out, nobody in the house will eat them.

A family down the street always hosts a "pre trick or treating" dinner. It's always a great way to start the night. This year we had spaghetti, everyone brings part of the dinner and the kids have a short parade around the block.

CJ didn't go trick or treating this year, he stayed home to hand out candy so me and DH were able to go together to take the other kids out to collect candy.

CJ did a great job with the handing out of the candy. He layered the big bowl of candy with all my favorite candy in the bottom, then the next favorite until my least favorite candy was on top so it was handed out first, so when the night was over, my favorite candy was left!

The kid is a genius. And I'm sure his method had nothing to do with the fact that his favorite candy is the same as mine.

Max was dressed as "SUPER MAX!" and yes, you must yell when you say that. I taught him to show his muscles when he said that and then point to the sky and do a little hop/jump to the side, kind of like he was about to fly away. He practiced this for several days before Halloween, and it really paid off. Whenever someone would ask him who he was, he would immediately drop his candy bucket, show his muscles, yell "SUPER MAX!" and hop/jump away.

He was hilarious.

Until the time that he hopped on the wrong foot, tripped and fell and hurt his knee. He immediately came running over to me to kiss his knee, I guess even superheroes sometimes need their mommies.

We lucked out because the weather wasn't very cold. Even though he protested, I made Max wear his warm pajamas under his super suit. I carried his warm jacket and kept asking him if he wanted to wear it and he just said "No, I'm not really really really cold yet." Apparently, he was only really really cold.

He was really excited about the trick or treating until we nearly got to the end of the block when Max announced that he wanted to go home because he had enough candy. The real reason was that his bucket was too heavy to carry. I offered to carry the candy for him, then he was fine.

Really, I feel that I earned the stuff that I got from the Candy Tax.

I couldn't believe how many people came to trick or treat in our neighborhood that don't live here. There were many carloads of people bringing their kids to get candy, and in a way, I don't blame them, some of our neighbors really get into Halloween and many of them give out really good candy. I didn't recognize probably 90% of the people roaming our neighborhood on Halloween night.

However, they didn't get the good stuff from our house, it was all in the bottom of the candy bowl.

So far, the kids have all paid their "candy tax" to me. I caught Brielle trading Max a tootsie roll for a Hershey bar, and all of her tootsie pops for all of his Twix. Someday he will catch on to this.

I've been making a list of things I need to do tomorrow. For some reason, when I have a ton of work to do and have been concentrating on finishing the work for my business, things around the house seem to fall apart, and I now have a bunch of stuff to clean up. I have several loads of laundry and dishes just waiting for my attention, and that is in addition to the Halloween costume making mess that is still overtaking several rooms in our house. I did get the pumpkin carving mess cleaned up, so I should get some sort of credit for that.

My big goal for the week is to get the refrigerator cleaned out.

I will not be posting pictures.

Now that Halloween is over...............

Dear children,
It has come to my attention that you received quite a bit of candy from trick or treating last night. It is now time for you to pay your "candy tax" for this year.

Taxes will be as follows:
ALL of the Three Musketeers.
1/2 of all Reese's peanut butter cups
1/2 of Hershey bars, or if you wish, you may substitute Milky Way bars.
In addition, any Butterfingers or Almond Joys donated to me will receive a tax credit.
If you do not like nuts, I will just assume that you will be handing over the peanut M&Ms. No tax credit will be given for these, however, they most likely will put me in a better mood, which is always beneficial to you.

You may feel that these taxes are unfair, but let me point out that I did sacrifice many hours of my own sleep to make your costumes, and the cuteness of said costumes most likely earned you extra candy at certain houses. (I know this to be true after one neighbor gave Max three big handfuls of candy while saying "You're just so cute that I think you should have extra candy!)

Thank you,
Mom


************************************************************

Yes, I'm still here. Miraculously enough, Brielle was the only one in our house to get sick with the flu. I've been so busy with work that I kept saying that I didn't have time to get sick until November 1st. (which would be today.........)

So far I'm feeling OK. Except for this stupid cough that I have developed over the last few hours.

I have signed up for NaBloPoMo, so I will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day..........


Also, last night, one of my kids received a candy bar "Snickers CHARGED"
It has caffeine in it.
:0D
I've never been a big fan of the Snickers bar, however, I may just have to rethink this.

The belated birthday party post

Max's birthday was a month ago and I finally got the pictures in the computer. (thanks CJ)

We invited 5 three and four year old kids to the party. Remembering the fiasco that was Brielle's first "friends" party when she turned three (yes, I know.........A BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH A BUNCH OF THREE YEAR OLDS...... WHAT WAS I THINKING???) We scheduled the party for ONE hour.
I wanted to have a "Pirate" party. Seriously, how much fun that could have been? We could have got pirate eye patches for all the kids, had a treasure hunt, a treasure chest cake and pinata, played "walk the plank"...........

Max did not want a pirate party. He wanted a garbage truck party.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find garbage truck party stuff?

I went to the dollar store to buy invitations for the party, and the only boy type of birthday invitations that they had were some with a pirate theme.
I took that to be a sign.
I bought the invitations and some party favors and came home to show them to Max.

Me: "Hey Max, look at the invitations I got for your party, aren't they cool?"
Max: "Yes!"
Me: "See, now we can have a pirate party!"
Max: "I not did want a pirate party, I want a GARBAGE TRUCK party!"

I still sent out the pirate invitations, because I HAD spent a whole dollar on them and was still holding out hope that he would change his mind.
Naturally, Max did not change his mind, so we went ahead and planned the garbage truck party. We decorated the house with green and yellow balloons and streamers.

On the day of the party, at the appointed time, 5 cute little kids arrived at our house. (after Brielle's party the night before, this one would be a piece of cake)

When they first came, we had some crafts for them to do. I bought some plain party hats and some animal stickers, and let them decorate their own hats. This was great fun for the kids, and Max covered his hat with bird stickers.
Next, we had some pages for them to color. Brielle went to PBS.org and printed some Oscar the Grouch coloring pages. The only one available had a big number "4" on it, which was perfect, because it was Max's fourth birthday!

The first game we played was "Pin the garbage can on the garbage truck"


The next game we played was a version of duck, duck, goose which we changed to be "garbage, garbage, recycle"

The next activity we had planned was a pinata.

Just try to find a garbage truck pinata. I dare you.

At first, I planned to make a ghetto pinata, but instead we decided on a different way to get the big bag of candy to the kids.

I had bought the big Costco bag of candy (planning on having some left over) We dumped some of the candy on the living room floor, covered it in a big pile of torn up newspaper and told the kids to dig through the garbage to find the candy.

We called this game "dumpster diving"




The kids had a blast digging through the paper to find the candy. I went into the kitchen to get the cake ready, and it seemed like it was taking a long time for the kids to get the candy. I later found out that Aaron had continued to dump candy in the pile of newspaper until we had gone through the entire 10 pound bag of candy.

That's right folks, a 10 lb bag of candy divided between 6 kids. I'm pretty sure there were a few moms that weren't too happy with me that day.

When they had stuffed their goodie bags full of candy, Max opened his presents, then the kids came into the kitchen for cake.

A garbage truck cake.



I will say that it was quite delicious!

At that point, the hour was up, and the moms started arriving to pick up their children.
And Max said that it was a "reeeaolly fun birthday party" then he spent the remainder of the day playing with his new toys.

I sliced myself another chunk of garbage truck cake and sat on the couch with my feet up, happy to have the parties over.

Except they weren't over. We were having one more party (I know you are wondering "how much more can this poor woman take??")
The next day we were having a family birthday party for both Max and Brielle.

And Grandma was bringing the cake :0)




A pink elephant, you don't get any cuter than that.


As we were growing up, my mom would make these fabulous cut up cakes every year for our birthdays and also for all of our cousins and now she makes them for her grandchildren.

Breakfast bluff

Three weeks ago, my kids brought home notes from school saying that last week, they would be having their end of the year testing, so to "Please be sure that they get a good night's sleep and have a good breakfast in the morning."

I assumed that by "good breakfast" they didn't mean tossing them a frozen waffle to eat in the car on the way to school so I got up bright and early Monday morning and made them french toast.

The kids were delighted, and devoured every last slice.

Tuesday I got up early and made them pancakes.

Wednesday I got up early and made them scrambled eggs and sausage.

Thursday morning, chocolate chip pancakes

Now one thing you need to understand is that I am not a morning person. I value my sleep and really felt that I was doing an incredibly noble thing by getting up early every day that week to make sure that my kids were properly nourished, so Friday morning as I was making another batch of chocolate chip pancakes I said "Hey, this is the last morning that I need to get up early to make you breakfast so you can do well on your tests!" (While making a mental note to be sure that we were stocked up on frozen waffles for next week)

And Aaron says "We didn't do testing this week. The tests aren't until next week."





Say what?




So Monday morning of this week, I got up early again to make them breakfast, but this time I got smart. I made a triple batch of pancakes and FROZE THEM.

This week the kids have been getting up early to remove a frozen pancake from the freezer, heat it up in the microwave and enjoy a hot breakfast.


(don't worry, I still got up early and cut up some strawberries to eat with their pancakes, but next week, we are SO back to tossing them frozen waffles in the back of the car)

In your opinion................

Do you think that canned frosting qualifies as a breakfast food?

Please discuss.

Give us this day.........

The UPS man came to our house last week.

He brought us a special package that brought JOY to my heart!

We gathered the family around and opened the box.




What could it be?




Can you guess?

Is the anticipation just too much?




Do you have any idea what it is?






It's one of these!





A BRAND NEW BREAD MAKING MACHINE!!!!!!

TA DA!!!!!

(please notice the Vanna White-ish "Here's the fabulous prize" hands being used by Max and CJ)

(Yes, I forced them to do this.)


(And No, Max is not still in his pajamas at 10:00 in the morning. It was like 9:30, 9:45 at the latest)

We took this magnificent, MAGICAL machine out of the box, and stared in awe at it's greatness.

(Isn't it lovely? Does it just make your heart leap with joy ?)

At this point, I held up one of the styrofoam blocks which had been used in the packaging of our lovely bread making wonder. I looked at Aaron who had been eyeing the styrofoam packaging and gave him a look.

"THE" look.


You know the one, the "tight lipped stern frown, head slightly tilted, one eyebrow raised" glare.


The look of excitement left Aaron's face. "OK Mom" he sighed "I won't turn the styrofoam into snow."

And I was so glad that we got this settled before he broke the styrofoam block into a bazillion little pieces and distributed them all over the house.

He loves to do that.

Anyway, back to the making of the bread!

I started to read the instruction manual, but finally decided on watching the handy video instead.
We sat down as a family, and watched the riveting demonstration on bread making. And just for the record, we did not make fun of the lady in the video.






Really, we didn't.







Then, it was time for us to make our own bread!


First, we put in the water and the flour.




Then the sugar, dry milk, butter and yeast.


( the whole time we were doing this, we did not imitate or make fun of the lady on the instructional video)




(Really, we didn't)



(Notice Max's "Vanna hands")





Then we put the pan in the bread machine.




Turned it on, and waited for the magic to begin.



The little window at the top was a point of fascination for the kids. They stood there shining a flashlight inside to watch the bread being made.



For like two hours.





The heavenly aroma of baking bread filled our home. We could hardly wait for the bread to be finished!


Finally, our dear breadmaker beeped, indicating the bread was finished!!!







We gathered round, and slowly I lifted the lid to reveal...............









One great big loaf of really ugly bread.

(Not that I've ever made butt ugly bread before)







YIKES!!



I went ahead and sliced up the strange looking loaf, and what do you know?

It was delicious!!

And completely devoured within a few minutes.

Now, I do need to add that the first loaf was the only one to look like that (except for the one time when I kind of forgot to put the mixer paddles in, and didn't realize this until about an hour into the process and at that point had to dump everything out, put the paddles in and then dump it back in and start over) The rest of the loaves have turned out quite nicely.

Since then I've made quite a bit of bread. I don't have pictures of the other perfect looking loaves, because they seem to disappear before I can get my camera.


Over all, I will give the Zojirushi home bakery a 5 star rating!!

We love it!
Especially the timer feature, which allows us to wake up to a fresh warm loaf of homemade bread in the morning.

Would you like some candy little girl?

Last night after dinner, I was in the kitchen working diligently on what turned out to be an unfortunate series of cooking disasters. (more on that later, right now, the disappointment is too fresh, and it might take a day or two to see any humor in the situation) (but seriously, my mom is a FABULOUS cook. She makes all sorts of candy, fudge, cookies, you name it, mom makes it and it always turns out great. What I want to know is why that "Holiday treat making" gene didn't get passed on to me?) (and whoever the wise guy was who said that my mini muffin pan had a non stick coating on it is pure evil in my book. If it really was non stick, then things shouldn't stick to it, right? You shouldn't need to use a fork/spoon/jackhammer to get the stuff to come out of the pan, mangling the treat beyond recognition)

Anyway................

I'm in the kitchen working, my hands are messy, and the doorbell rings. I start to quickly wash my hands so I can answer the door, but Brielle and Aaron beat me to it. They came into the kitchen with a bag full of chocolates and said "Look! Sweets!"
"Oh how nice!" I said, because I really love it when someone delivers chocolate to my front door, "Who brought it?"

The kids looked at each other, then back at me and said "I don't know."

"Did you recognize this person at all?"

Brielle answered "Well, it was an older man. He looked like someone who might sit on the back row at church."
"Was it Brother Parker?"
"No, this guy was shorter and younger."
I couldn't think of anyone else fitting that description. "So does he always sit on the back row?" I asked.
"No" Brielle said "I didn't say that he sat on the back row at church, I said that he looked like someone who might sit on the back row at church."

(OK, that really cleared it up)

She went on to give more of a description, about 60 years old, kind of short blondish/brownish hair, glasses, drives a Honda, had a lady waiting for him in the car (whom she might or might not have recognized, she wasn't sure)...................but we still couldn't figure out who it was that brought us the candy.

So basically, our daughter is taking candy from strangers.

Of course that didn't stop us from eating the candy. (again, chocolate brought directly to the front door, like I'm not going to eat that?)

It's been 24 hours and we're all still alive and healthy.

And Brielle is not allowed to answer the door by herself anymore.




P.S. I'm cooking a turkey tomorrow. I've never cooked a turkey before. Please cross your fingers and wish me luck that my recent string of culinary disasters will come to an end before I get this bird in the oven.

Does anyone have a toothpick?

I just got back from the Meet-n-greet. It was fun to visit with some old friends and meet some new ones.
I even got to try some chacon.

Mmmmmm! Chocolate covered bacon! With almonds on top!

The verdict? Not bad. However, if you ever get the chance to eat any chacon, I would recommend having some dental floss nearby.

I brought my camera so I could take pictures that I could post tonight. Unfortunately, I forgot that I brought it so I didn't take any pictures, and I refuse to post the picture that I accidentally took of my chin yesterday. I was turning the camera around trying to figure out how to get the memory stick out and somehow pushed the button and took a picture (I can't seem to get it deleted from my camera. It's still there, mocking me with it's hideousness)

Since I'm running out of ideas of things to write for NaBloPoMo, I've decided to do something completely unoriginal by copying some other, more original bloggers and have you ask me questions.

What do you want to know about me?

Leave a comment and ask me a question. I'll answer in tomorrow's post. (unless I can think of something better to write about)