Edible fun

Belle loves a good family movie night, especially one that involves a yummy treat like popcorn. Well, we’re fresh out of popcorn so I had to improvise. I’d put back a bag of large pretzels and some of those melting candies for Christmas gifts, but never got around to making them.

And so the fun began. First, I melted the leftover chocolate from our fondue night (the day after Christmas) with my parents. Then, I melted red, green, and white candies. Lastly, I laid a large piece of wax paper on the counter and placed a fork in each bowl. The kids and I had so much fun drizzling the chocolate and candies over the pretzels.

Brings new meaning to belly up to the bar…

Mmmmm, so yummy!

Yes, we did get some of the chocolate and candies on the pretzels…

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Conversation of the day

While watching The Sound of Music on television tonight, Belle asked,

“Why do they call him Captain?”

“I don’t remember exactly”, I said.

“Maybe he was a pirate a long time ago”, she replied in a very serious tone.

The list has shrunk by one item…

I had such high hopes of making things by hand this Christmas. Time’s not up yet, and a few things can actually wait until just after Christmas day (because my parents will be taking them back with them on the 29th). I did manage to get one thing completed last night.

It seems my memory is not exactly 20/20 as I really thought I had made a stocking (but not quite finished) for Little Lamb. As I unpacked the decorations this year, I found no stocking for her. I looked back through the pictures only to discover I had used an old one from college. Stink! I desperately did not want another year to go by without an official depechemom stocking for her so I set my mind to it last night. I finished putting it together this morning and now it hangs on the mantle with the others. I made J’s and mine our first married Christmas and have since added one for each child as well as a tree skirt. I’d like to show you a picture of the skirt, but it is covered with presents! My mom and I will be working on making it a little more substantial when she’s here.

I wish I could show you the stockings hung by the fire place, but a line on the floor (with the tops folded down) will have to do.

off the bottom of my heart

Belle’s been singing Feliz Navidad in school music class. Because a decent portion of the words are in Spanish, she had a slightly different version of the song. I supposed I could be about to write some horrible curse words in Spanish, so little is my knowledge of the language, but it’s the last line that really cracks me up.

Here’s Belle’s version of the song:

Alise mal in ahs
Alise mal in ahs
Alise mal in ahs
erro ano blah blah huh huh huh

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
Off the bottom of my heart!

quick tip

Just popping in to leave a quick tip for you. Tis the season for colds and such which invariably leads to a round of antibiotics or two. I struggle with remembering how many times I’ve given the meds that day as well as keeping track of when we’re all finished. This is the best method I’ve come up with to help me remember. I take an index card, number how ever many days are prescribed, then mark an A and B (for two doses per day). Each time I give the dose, I check off the appropriate spot. If I miss a dose, I skip that mark and come back to it at the end.

It’s not fool proof (I forgot Little Bear’s a couple of times which has extended us by a day), but it definitely help. Little Lamb developed quite a nasty case of pink eye yesterday. We’ve got some ointment-sooo much easier with little ones than drops-so she’ll be on the mend quickly. It has put quite a kink in getting that Christmas photo taken! Some day…

Have a nice night. Tomorrow is the pajama party at Belle’s school. We’re all quite excited! 🙂

Little Bear’s big day, part 2

Now in our parts, birthday parties are a big deal. That doesn’t mean we have tons of kids and mass chaos or anything, it just means we try to make sure the birthday child knows that this is their special day. I’d planned 3 activities-decorate gingerbread men cookies, color fire truck and gingerbread men pictures, and string popcorn/cranberries for a tree outside. Unfortunately 2 of them fell through on Sunday morning-the printer ran out of blue ink and decided it wouldn’t print even black/white copies and I ran out of popcorn. I knew that only 2, maybe 3, kids were coming so I wasn’t too worried about the lack of activities. I set up a few extra toys like the train set and the Little People Christmas Village to occupy them.

His two best buddies came and boy did they have fun. They each decorated 3 cookies, they ate plenty of mini m&m’s, candy cane straws, and red hots. Ok, Little Bear was the only one munching on the red hots. They played with toys, listened to the Gingerbread Man story, opened presents, and ate cake. I’d say a great time was had by all!

Here is the photographic evidence of it all.

Little Bear’s big day, part 1

My sweet little boy is now a big three year old boy! I’ve spent the week decorating for Christmas, cleaning the house in preparation for his party, and baking, baking, baking. His birthday was Thursday when we celebrated as a family and I made a test run of the fire truck cake. I was fairly pleased with the results. Here are some of the highlights from his big day. I’ll post the party pics in a separate entry.

Of course he got a fire truck for his birthday!

Notice the writing on the shirt? Just too perfect!!

The cake

After we’d eaten cake, Little Bear looked at the leftover cake and said, “Fire truck cake broken!” with a horrified look on his face. It was yummy, though.

If you love chocolate cake (and chocolate frosting) like I do, you can’t go wrong with the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa box. Beware, if you use the Special Dark variety, the cake will be almost black. I opted for the traditional style this time.

As for the baking, baking, baking-I made this fire truck cake, sugar cookies for school, sugar cookies for the playgroup Christmas party, gingerbread men cookies for the party, and another fire truck cake. I do love baking, but the clean-up is killing me!!

OMG!

Has it really been that long since I’ve posted?? There’s been a lot going on: a trip to DC to see the national tree, a cold spreading through all the kids and Jeff, Blaine turning 2…the list goes on. I’ll try to take some time this weekend to share some highlights.

Can it really be this close to Christmas?? How am I going to get it all done? Yikes!!!

the suspense (ha, ha!) is over

So, at long last, here is the fruit of my many hours of labor. (No, I don’t really think you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for this. But hey, I can pretend, right?) It’s not so much that these are particularly difficult patterns, they just take some time to accomplish what with all the activity we have around here.They’re hanging a bit crooked here on the stairs. The hem on Little Bear’s outfit is not as crazy as it looks here. I freaked out when I first saw the photo!This is the close-up of LB’s embroidery. The elf patterns are courtesy of Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls-a most amazing blog. This particular stichette is from her freebies section, which you know if my most favorite price in the world!! I’ve got a pointy kitty nearly finished, most likely for Little Lamb. I also purchased the super boy/robot pattern book hoping to make LB a robot for Christmas. I have high hopes!And finally our beautiful children all dressed and ready for J’s department Christmas party. I’m planning to outline the patches with a green blanket stitch to give them a more finished look, but there wasn’t time before the party.

Depeche Mom math

I’m only good for random thoughts these days. Here they are in equation form! Yes, I am that dorky!

fire truck + gingerman (gingerbread man) = Little Bear’s upcoming birthday party
[LB loves to run around the house saying “You can’t catch me! I’m the gingerman!” He’s requested a fire truck birthday cake but we’ll be decorating gingerbread men as well. I figure we might as well embrace the fact that his birthday is so close to Christmas.]

Pampered Chef apple corer/slicer + me = LOVE!!!
[I’ve had it for years, but today I felt especially happy when using it.]

Coffee press @ $19.99 + 20%off coupon = happy husband
[J’s coffee pot died a couple of days ago and we couldn’t get a new one right now. Thankfully we found just the right coffee press at Bed, Bath, and Beyond!]

Belle + Kindergarten = reading machine!!

Change in bus schedule + Little Bear + stomach bug = barf in car!
[Thankfully I knew he was sick when we left the houseso I was prepared with plenty of blankets.]

Kids + starfall.com = happy mama alone time and educational fun
[Belle came home from school saying they use this website in computer lab so we checked it out. There’s lots of fun games for pre-readers and early readers alike. Even a decorate a gingerman game!]