Introducing...

the newest member of our family, Larry Bob Cook, the snail. Kyleigh found him outside. She named him, then wrote his name on his shell lest she should forget his name. Then she and Katelyn built a fabulous box house for him. Katelyn lost interest, but the neighbor girls (who are named Katelyn, Kyleigh, and Kelsey) arrived home just in time. They spent the next hour at their meeting spot, which is the cinderblock fence between our yards. Our girls stand on our old power wheels car hood in our yard and the neighbor girls stand on the grass in their yard (their yard is higher up). It is amazing what they think of to do together over the wall, like games with balls, a book club, and painting a house for Larry Bob Cook. We looked online to try and find out what to feed him. We ended up putting lettuce, broccoli, and a carrot in his house. When we checked on him the next day we found him with the carrot stuck in his shell opening. He must have liked the carrot. I'm not sure how long Larry Bob will be with us, but he is fun in a slimy snail sort of way, for awhile.

One of the things that is part of our school day is silent reading. We found that Kyleigh loves the American Girl series. She looks forward to reading every day. She has also been playing that she is an indian girl every day during her breaks. She gathers the nuts that fall from the palm trees and does other "indian things" that are straight out of her imagination. She asked for a snack that an indian girl would like to eat during her reading time. We decided on almonds. I can't help thinking that this is so much more fun than sitting in a desk.

Vegetable Man

We had a field trip to the Dr.'s office for preschool. I made vegetable men for each of the kids for their snack. They turned out cute, but I think the moms appreciated them more than the kids.

Valentines Day

What is Valentine's Day without a few parties? We started with a girls craft party. We made hershey's kiss rose bouquets, painted heart boxes, made candy rings (to put in the heart boxes), melted crayons to make heart crayons, and decorated sugar cookies. Kyleigh only had one friend show up for the first hour. The pictures show a nice, calm party. For various reasons the other girls arrived later. The house turned into a mad house. Especially after they finished decorating cookies for their families and made one for themselves. They all made cookies with layers and layers of frosting and candy. After they ate them they ran around the house screaming, "I'm so hyper, I'm so hyper." I just let them run and scream.

The day before Valentines we went to the Peterson's for a pink heart shaped pizza bar. Side dishes included strawberries with a pink dip, pink strawberry smoothies, and a green salad (go figure). We love all the Peterson family traditions and we're glad to be a part of them.

On the actual Valentines day we had pink heart shaped pancakes with strawberries for breakfast. At dinner we set the table all cute, complete with little token gifts for the kids. We gave the girls art project kits called Paperoni and Ridge his own zhu zhu pet to chase after. Nama and Papa had sent some gifts for the kids so we set them at their places also. (GG and Gpa had sent gifts that the girls had already opened and consumed). We had a steak dinner with twice baked potatoes and corn. After dinner we had a family home evening on love. For the activity we learned how to fold origami hearts. The girls went to bed happy. Rusty and I made a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and roasted almonds for our valentine desert. YUM! We had some leftovers and ate it again the next night.

So, Happy Valentines Day.

Curlers

Katelyn was looking at the curlers in the drawer the other night. I asked her if she wanted me to put curlers in her hair for preschool the next day. She was so excited. I put the curlers in. The next morning I went to take them out. She got really upset. I told her that you take the curlers out to get the curls. She informed me that she didn't want curls, she just wanted to show the preschool kids all of the colors of curlers she had. So this is how she went to school. When she came home she let me take them out.

Katelyn's picture

Katelyn drew a family portrait. I love it!

Ridge's Big Birthday!

Our little baby is one? I'm not really sure how that happened but it did. The day has come and gone. We decided to go with his interests on the theme for his party and his very favorite thing are balls. I made a football and basketball cake, with baseball cupcakes. The story with the cakes is a long and sad story. We were planning on having his party on Saturday night. I woke up early on Friday to make the cakes. I baked the round cake in a glass bowl and quite a bit of batter spilled out of the bowl onto the element of the stove. I figured it would just burn off. When I increased the oven temp. for the other two cakes the batter started to burn off, with flames. I just happened to look back in the oven. I thought, "Hmmm, I don't remember turning on the oven light, and why is it yellow." Next thought, "Ohh crap!" I was thinking of baking soda when I turned to grap something to put the fire out. In my panic I grabbed flour, which did absolutely nothing. My next line of defense was the fire extinguisher. I had to spray it three times to get the fire out. Kyleigh has a clear head in emergencies. She had gathered up Katelyn and Ridge and had them outside where the smoke and fumes from the extinguisher didn't get to them. I was upset when I had to throw my cakes away, and the bread dough that was rising on the counter. I was more upset when I noticed the film from the extinguisher spray. I wiped off the countertops and cupboard door surfaces. Then I opened a cupboard that had been closed and noticed the film of white on the shelves and dishes. That's when I broke down. I ended up having to spend the next 1 1/2 days washing every dish in my house, and cleaning every cupboard. I started the whole project over on Monday morning (we moved the party). I spent a good part of the day getting those cakes ready. I planned to let Ridge dig into the round basketball cake. I just knew he was going to have so much fun digging in his cake. I was SO looking forward to it. After dinner we set Ridge on the table. He reached for the cake right away. We weren't quite ready for that. The candle was lit on top. We said, probably with a little much gusto, "wait, wait, wait!" He thought he had done something bad and started screaming his head off. He wouldn't have touched that cake with a ten foot pole after that. We tried to take him outside so he would calm down. Didn't work. I even tried giving it to him the next morning. The second I put it on his tray he started screaming again. In summary of this long story, I worked for three days on some cakes that ended up being thrown away and I didn't get my favorite pictures of all time. The first birthday cake pictures. Very sad.

Other than the screaming cake incident we had a fun party. We had a "ball" dinner. It included meatballs, potatoes shaped into balls, and corn (they are kind of like little balls). We also had a jar of maltballs and everyone guessed how many were in the jar. Katelyn guessed 182,000 and Naiya guessed 2. Holly won with her guess of 57. There were 63.

When we went to open gifts Ridge was interested for a minute. The second gift he opened was a bag of balls from my Mom and Dad. After that it was all over. The only thing he cared about was throwing those balls. The next day he did love the gift we gave him. We gave him a little radio flyer stroll and ride trike. You can steer it like a stroller when they are too little to pedal themselves and take the handle off for a trike when they are bigger. We have it in the house and the girls are always pushing him around the gauntlet (the circular path). The girls also love to ride it themselves.

I don't remember what life was like before Ridge. He is such a fun little boy. He is always smiling and laughing outloud. He melts my heart every time he toddles to me with his arms up. I love to hear him say "Mamamamama." It makes me smile when he pushes his car around and makes a car noise (new event in our house). I love to watch him dance every time we turn on his ball popper or any other music. I love his sweet morning smell. I just love him! Happy Birthday to our Ridger man.