Mid Summer Update

July is almost over and it seems like this summer has just flown by!  We have been doing our best to keep cool in this heat wave.  We have found a lot of activities with water this summer.  The kids still enjoy the inflatable kiddie pool, but neighbor's pool or Mimi and Pops is still the best!  Water balloons and water soakers have provided entertainment too!  We went to a local pool's toddler time and my friend and I were actually able to relax in a lounge chair and watch the kids.  A big change from last year when our little boys weren't walking yet.  In general we have just played all summer, which is really what summer is for right?

Their attempt at giving "thumbs up."  Nice boots G!

Elizabeth did not continue swim lessons during the summer, but her swimming has really taken off.  She jumps in and swims with her head under water, she goes under water to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool (with a slight push!), she can float and back stroke.  It was like one day it all clicked and she just took off.  As a parent, it is thrilling to see your child master a skill!  Cooking class concluded a few weeks.  I failed to post about the no-bake cheesecake they made, complete with an American flag!  She enjoyed the class, but with dance being only an hour after cooking, I was ok with it being over.  There is only more week of dance.  I asked her if she wanted to do tumbling or dance this fall and she said tumbling, because she hadn't done it all summer.  I am secretly rooting for dance, but we will see what the fall schedules look like.

Grant had his first speech session this week.  It went really well and Joy (speech therapist) held his attention for 45 minutes.  We are working on words with the "o" sound since that is a sound he says well.  However, his two new words this week are "please" and "thank you" which just warms my heart.  What sweet words to have! Well "no" is still a favorite too, but we are building the vocabulary!  He repeats with the same intonation, even if the sounds aren't there.  Joy said she was impressed with what she was doing but we obviously still have work to do.

On the Pinterest home front...I have made an "Embrace it" E as a reminder to keep things in perspective.  We had a glow in the dark party and learned that Mt.Dew, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide do NOT make glowing sidewalk paint and glowing bubbles really aren't that cool.  However, breaking a glow stick into a glass jar is pretty cool!  I have yet to master photography at dark, so no pictures!  And here is my favorite new recipe:

No need to wait for Halloween or to find candy corn! I made it without and these are scrumptious!

These Halloween cookie bars, topped with candy corn, are chewy and delicious.

15 min.prep time 50 min.total time

48 bars

Crust

1/2 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened

1 (18.25-ounce) package pudding in the mix yellow cake mix

1 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg

3 cups miniature marshmallows

Topping

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups crisp rice cereal

2 cups salted peanuts

1 cup candy corn

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter and cake mix in large bowl. Beat on low speed until well mixed. Add egg; continue beating until well mixed.

Press onto bottom of ungreased 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven.

Immediately sprinkle marshmallows over hot, partially baked crust. Return to oven; continue baking for 1 to 2 minutes or until marshmallows puff.

Meanwhile, combine corn syrup, sugar and brown sugar in large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture comes to a boil (2 to 4 minutes). Remove from heat; stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Stir in cereal, peanuts and candy corn. Immediately spoon over marshmallows; spread to cover. Cool completely. Cut into bars.

"I broke the wall"

I know this feeling...the house is too quiet...the kids are being too good and then it happens...someone starts crying.  In this case it was actually more like sobbing and in between the sobs I catch these words, "Mommy, I broke the wall...it was an accident...I didn't mean to...can we fix it?"  She had my attention at "broke the wall."  All I can think is, what in the world?  How could a 3.5 year old break a wall? Surely she is wrong.  As she is pulling me upstairs we find Mr.G in tears on the steps.  I bend down to comfort him and ask what is wrong and Elizabeth answers, "I broke the wall with his head."  WHAT????!!!!  I am never trusting the peace and quiet again, they cannot be trusted!  Grant's not crying too bad and there isn't any blood and I have yet to see this broke wall.  Elizabeth takes me into her room and shows me an outlet cover that is cracked and four pieces are laying on the floor.  My first thought is, phew this is totally fixable and all the drywall is still there.  The wall is not exactly broken just the outlet cover.  The story unfolds and she admits to pushing her brother into the wall, apparently head first.  The scene of the crime is in the corner of her room behind her tent.

My text to Brandon says this: Is it wrong to make EB use money from her piggy bank to pay for an outlet cover she broke using her brother's head?  His response: WOW

My text to my friend said: I am so over this day!

I ask her who she thinks should pay for the damages and she shrugs her shoulders.  I tell her I think she should and she exclaims, "I have lots of money, but I need my Hello Kitty purse to put it in."  She is acting excited and I am thinking how does she not see this as punishment?  I explain she will have to give her money to the checker at Menards.  "Mommy I don't really know how to use money, maybe you could just give me your credit card!"  You can only imagine how pleased I am with this answer.  Second lesson learned: We must teach our children about the value of money and the explain the perks we get by using a credit card and paying it off!!

As it ended up we had an extra outlet cover in the garage and Brandon acted like he stopped at Menards on the way home and bought it and that Elizabeth had to pay him.  He charged her $2, but felt bad and later put the money back into her piggy bank.  I didn't feel bad and would have used those quarters to wash the car, but that's why there are two parents -  balance!

Grant's head is totally fine, not even a bump or a knot.  However it did provide me the opportunity to remind her that Grant's head is special (remember the helmet days) and that pushing can really hurt someone OR the house!

St.Louis Surprise

Elizabeth woke up early Saturday morning and crawled into bed with us and asked her usual questions:  Can I watch TV? What are we doing today?  Today we were able to surprise her with, "How about we go on an adventure?!"  Brandon and I had planned a quick family get away to one of our favorite cities, St.Louis.  Her reaction was priceless and later she said, "I did not know that you were  going to say that!"  We loaded up and hit the road by 8:30, only 30 minutes past our targeted departure time!

Due to the extreme heat we decided not to go to a Cardinal game, even though they were in town.  Instead we spent Saturday at the Magic House Children's Museum.  What an awesome place.  It was crowded but the kids weren't shy and still did all of the activities.  The bubble room and the Goodnight Moon exhibit were my favorites.  Elizabeth liked the play hospital with the newborn nursery the best.  Grant felt right at home in the Lewis and Clark tent as he decided that would be a good place to poop!  Brandon embraced it all and he even passed the colorblindness test, but I am not sure how! They really have a little bit of everything from electronic stuff, role/pretend play, arts, legos care races, the list goes on and on.  It appeals to a large age group so there is something for everyone and I'm sure it won't be our last trip. When we left our car said the outside temp was 117!!!

On the horse drawn wagon! I tried to explain this was the people got around before cars.  I don't think they believed me! Elizabeth said, "Mom I know, we do it at Xmas time on the square!"

We headed to the hotel and Grant caught a quick nap and we call cooled down in the AC.  We ate dinner at a local pizza place and headed back to swim at the hotel.  Elizabeth has really become quite the swimmer.  She was jumping in and then decided she could swim all the way across the pool!  It was so thrilling to watch her blow her bubbles, keep her head in the water and move her arms!  It like it has finally all clicked!  Grant didn't want to be left out and decided he likes to float on his back - while Mama holds on to him :)

Hotel sleeping is always a challenge and we have decided it is best to have a king size bed because one or both kids usually end up in our bed.  We brought Elizabeth's sleeping bag and she thought it was great fun to sleep in that on top of the pull out couch.  She even commented the next day on how comfortable the bed was!  We had a crib brought in for Grant and he slept in it for about an hour and then migrated to our bed, which as long as he was sleeping was fine.  He woke up at 3:45 am and took almost two hours to coax back to slumber.

We thought the hotel had a free breakfast in the morning.  However, when I called to ask we were informed it was $9.99 per adult and kids 12 and under were free.  Brandon said, "we'll send the kids down for their free breakfast!"  Haha!  We went to McDonalds and everyone was happy.  A storm had come through that night so the temps were a little cooler.  It's amazing how cool 90 feels compared to 100+!  We headed to Grant's Farm.  The train (really a tram) ride through Deer Park was especially good.  Bob and Sarah did a fantastic job and really took their time showing us the animals along the way.  I asked Brandon if he thought the ride seemed longer, he said it just seemed longer because it was hotter!  We got milk bottles to feed the goats, but really the kids can only feed them from outside the gate.  The goats see a bottle and they get too aggressive and jump up on the kids.  In the future we will just let the kids walk in without any milk to play with the goats and then they can feed them from the outside.  Elizabeth likes to try to give every goat just a few drops of milk.  I finally asked if she had the never-ending milk bottle.  Well come to find out her bottle was malfunctioning and no milk was coming out at all!  We walked around and saw the animals, did the carousel and got a sno-cone.  We had a good time, but it was hot and we were ready to head home.  We forgot a phone charger at the hotel so we went back for that.  We thought we were on our way out of town but we made a spontaneous stop at Union Station.  I was hoping some part of the train tracks were still visible, but it really is all just shopping.  Oh well, we saw a train along the interstate as we were leaving and the kids were happy!  We did catch a fudge making performance at the famous Fundgery.  I remember watching that as a little girl!  A quick weekend get away, but it was nice to do something different and just make memories!

On the carousel at Grant's Farm

The goat was trying to nibble Grant's shorts!

4th of July

For the first time we went to the Eureka Fourth of July parade.  It was everything I love about a small town parade! We sat in the shade and it was the only way we would have been able to survive! Luckily, Main Street is lined with big trees providing plenty of relief from the sun.  This heat wave has been brutal with triple digit temperatures several days in a row.  We meet up with a few friends and the kids had a blast collecting candy.  I am pretty sure that mine both got hit in the head by flying candy because they weren't paying attention!                   

We spent the afternoon at home in the AC taking naps! We went to Ima and Pops for dinner and then headed to the river for the fireworks. 

Almost dark enough for the fireworks to start! 

 There are really no words to describe the heat.  It was just plain hot and humid and not a hint of a breeze.  My dad was a trooper to take us out on the river.  We actually saw one guy in an inflatable raft with two little oars - not so bright!  Anyway, we made it the Red White and Boom! The Star Spangled Banner was beautiful, but we dubbed it the Whitney Houston version because it was very looooong and we were ready for the fireworks to start.  At one point Elizabeth crawled into my lap and her denim skirt was damp.  I whispered in her ear that she could take her skirt off if she wanted.  She didn't want to because she didn't want other people to see her in her underwear.  I explained that it was just us and it was dark and that no one would see.  She said, "No thank you" paused for a moment, "Did I make a good choice mommy?"  I had to laugh.  Then she asked if she could take her shirt off.  I told her of course and then she said, "I'm chaining my mind, can I take my skirt off too?"  So if we can try to forget the excessive heat we can remember EB dancing in her underwear to Proud to Be an American! Grant enjoyed the fireworks but was tired and almost fell asleep during them. His t-shirt was damp with sweat too! Both kids fell asleep on the boat ride back.  We tucked them into bed at midnight!

4th of July T-Shirts

It occurred to me at 9:00 pm on July 3rd that the kiddos didn't have festive shirts to wear for the Fourth.  I recalled a project that I did with my friends for St.Patrick's Day and whipped out 4th of July shirts.  I was even in bed by 11 pm!  Per a request, here is how I made the t-shirts.

Painted T-Shirt Instructions

Luckily I had plain t-shirts on hand, in the right sizes!  Every once in awhile my shopping ahead pays off! 

1) Iron the shirt fronts so they are nice and smooth

2) Cut your design onto freezer paper.  Yes freezer paper, like the kind they wrap your meat in at the butchers!  You can buy a huge roll of it in the saran/foil/baggie aisle and it's not expensive! I actually used my Cricut to cut the design, but you can just use scissors and free-hand a design.

3) Iron the freezer paper design onto the shirt.  The shiny side down.  Make sure to seal the edges with the iron real well to prevent bleed throughs.  

4) Place a piece of cardboard (like a cereal box) inside the shirt.

5) I used acrylic paint.  You can use a paintbrush, a q-tip, a pencil eraser, fingers - whatever method you want to get the paint on the t-shirt!  When we the kids did their St.Paddy's shirts we had them use pencil erasers and dot the design.  Just be sure if you are not filling in the spaces with paint entirely, that you do the edges with lots of dots so you can tell what the design is once the freezer paper is removed.

I added glitter to Elizabeth's star while the paint was still wet.  Only a little bit stayed on, but it gave her's a little extra bling!

6) Let it dry! Pull off the freezer paper and go to a parade! Ok, you don't have to go to a parade, that was just our plan!  

My friend who inspired this idea would probably recommend that you wash the t-shirt ahead of time.  After the paint is dry I think she said to toss it in the dryer to really set the paint, but due to my time constrains I didn't do any of this! Sorry this is not a picture tutorial, but it is so ridiculously simple I am sure you can figure it out!  

Kids in the Kitchen Week 3 & 4

No Bake Cheesecake

So I didn't blog last week's cooking class because Elizabeth ate all of her pizza and I didn't get a picture!  This week they made no bake cheesecakes.  I think she has liked the class, but having dance one hour after is a little much.  For the rest of the summer we will just focus on dance.  If I say, "dance" she will say, "and ballet?" or "and tap?"  Every time I tell her DANCE means ballet and tap (technically jazz too, but don't want to confuse her!).  At any rate, she looks adorable in her apron and her tap shoes AND her ballet slippers! But that's just a biased mother's opinion!

Practicing the "twirl" (Grant got cut out of the picture, but he was twirling too!)

Chuck E Cheeses

This weekend we took the kids the Chuck E Cheeses.  What a great way to bond as a family!  Hardly anyone else had the same idea as us - not! It was crowded, but the kids were all good.  We didn't encounter any ticket stealers!  So before leaving I politely asked Brandon if perhaps he could not play pinball, but rather just watch the kids play.  He gave me the "I don't do that look."  

 We are there about 15 minutes and Brandon asks if he can play the football game.  I roll my eyes like, "see you do that" and am blaming myself for not making my previous request more specific!  Ok, whatever, we are together as a family, having fun!  He comes back and tells me the machine ran out of tickets.  He set a new high score and won 25 tickets! He was so proud of himself.  I told him to ask for his ticket payout.  Instead they gave him two tokens.  What a curse, it now becomes a competition to beat his new high score and win more tickets.  The tickets are for the kids of course!

 In all actuality I think pulling the tickets might have been grant's favorite part!  I am sorry to say the high score was not reached again, but daddy did win lots of tickets!  What special treasures did we bring home with these tickets? Two pairs of plastic glasses and 3 rolls of Smarties.  Wow!  Of course the important thing is that the kids had fun and they did.  Grant enjoys it more each time we go.

I couldn't figure out how to rotate our special sketch picture!