Wordless Wednesday

#3 will be dancing in her recital this weekend.  Tonight was the dress rehearsal.  

She's a beautiful girl and a beautiful dancer.

April Fool's Day!

This morning I woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make my husband breakfast.  I took one look outside and walked right back upstairs.  I told my husband to look outside and asked him if he was still going to work.  What a lovely April Fool's laugh God gave us this morning. One more morning of beautiful snow.  

Happy April Fool's Day!

I've never been one to celebrate April Fool's Day.  Mainly it's because I'm not quick enough to actually come up with pranks that will fool anyone with a brain.  Thankfully, God made me smarter than my kids!  Well, at least for now He did.  

I decided this was the year that I'd have some fun.  I didn't really plan anything in advance, I just saw some facebook posts from friends and some ideas from blogs and started having fun.  The first thing I did was break out the glue and the pop tarts.

 

Yes, that  plate is upside down.  The kids came down for breakfast to find their pop tarts glued to their plates.  They found it funny till they realized they couldn't eat them because they were stuck.  Lucky for me them, I had some more pop tarts waiting for them to enjoy.

The rest of the day continued like normal, school, lunch, finished school. Grandma & Grandpa stopped by for a visit and they stayed to watch the Phillies win their opening game.  (I'm now very happy.)  Now, on to dinner...

The kids came to the table to find a special treat.  Ice cream sundae's with caramel sauce!  Too bad for them it was mashed potatoes and gravy.  They were both so very excited, and they dug in first to their special dinner treat!  Before the spoons even got to their mouths they could tell the consistency was off.  tee hee!  After dinner it was time for grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert.  Wait, what?

That's right, we had grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert!  Actually, it was pound cake slices that I toasted with my mini blow torch.  I dyed vanilla frosting with some yellow and a drop of red food coloring to make that cheesy color.  My son, even after learning that it was cake, still thought I put cheese into it because it was just the right color.  Score one for mom!

This was one grilled cheese sandwich that they could enjoy!  Before bedtime they asked for a drink.  Well, being the extra special mom that I am, I made them some lemonade to enjoy. 

What a shame that they couldn't actually drink this lemonade!  In fact, it was lemon Jell-O in cups.  Muahahahaha!  My little girl tried so hard, she finally was able to start drinking it and managed to drink half of her Jell-O through her straw.  

Overall, it has been a most fun day!  The kids enjoyed the jokes and no one played one on me!  That is a sign of a successful April Fool's day for me.  I like it when I'm not the one getting pranked!

The President's Challenge

While I don't necessarily stand behind the policies of our current president, there are some things that are good. For instance, many of you probably remember doing the President's Challenge when you were in school. This is that terrible time at the beginning of P.E. class where we had to run a mile in a certain time, do so many curl-ups, chin-ups (or push-ups), the V-sit and stretch and the shuttle run. My brain is saying ouch already!

So my boy is in 3rd grade and he's participating this year. He has to complete 40 curl-ups in under a minute, 17 push-ups taking 3 seconds each (or 5 chin-ups, he opted for the push-ups), the shuttle run in 11 seconds, has to stretch 3 inches past his feet in the v-sit and stretch and do 1/2 a mile in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I'm not sure I can keep up with him. I know, I'll just do the timing part!

Here are a couple of videos. Mind you, this is only day 2 of our practicing. #2 is showing off his curl-up ability and #3 is showing off her push-ups. Yes, I realize they both need a lot of practice!

We Did It!

I can't believe it! After 7+ years of trying, my son has stopped sucking his thumb. Not only that, but my daughter stopped sucking her fingers too! It was a little more difficult with my daughter, since she switched to each thumb after stopping her fingers, but we managed to stop all sucking!

How did we do it? Band-aids. We spent 2 weeks in band-aids. My daughter had 4 on and my son just had one, but they were on all day and all night for 2 weeks straight. I think the constant part was my problem before when I tried them. Before we would take them off in the morning and when I caught them I would put another one on. This time as soon as they got up, they took them off to eat, washed up and immediately put another band-aid on. There was no opportunity for them to suck at all.

It's been a week since we stopped putting on band-aids and there is no sign of sucking. I've checked when they've gone to bed and there has been no secret sucking going on. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am! My daughter's fingers have started healing from the teeth indentations and my son's thumb nail is growing properly again. Can you see me dancing my happy dance from where you are? On second thought, maybe you don't want to see me dancing!

Calling All Moms - Again!

Hello to all the wise mom's out there! Once again I am calling upon your help. This isn't a terrible life-threatening issue, it's just a nuisance. My kids are suckers.

My 8 year-old son has sucked his thumb since he was born. My 5 year-old daughter sucks her middle & ring fingers on her right hand. She sucks and bites and has indentations from her teeth on her fingers that I think might not ever go away.

We've tried rewarding them when they don't suck. We've tried ignoring it. We've put on gloves, band-aids, soaked fingers in lemon juice, even one episode of Tabasco sauce in which my son said it tasted good. Nothing has worked to make them stop sucking. We've been told that other kids pointing it out to them would make them stop. Well, that hasn't worked either. We've caught them on video and in pictures and it doesn't phase them when they see it.

We read in a friend's blog today that her 4 year-old has stopped sucking her thumb. My kids were excited to hear that she stopped, but haven't made any effort to stop themselves. I really want them to stop. My son is starting to have dental problems because of it.

So what has worked for you? Please leave me a message letting me know what you have done to help your kids stop sucking. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Kid Friendly Food

Over at Today's Housewife the recipe for the weekend is kid friendly food. I had a hard time deciding what to do for this because my kids don't eat. They love cereal and PB&J, but not much else. But if I make some tomato soup, one thing they will eat is grilled cheese sandwiches. And my almost 8 year-old can make them himself. No stove required!

You need:
2 pieces of bread
Butter
Cheese
Toaster
Microwave

Cook your bread in the toaster. Put a little butter on 1 side of each piece. Put the cheese on the buttered side of the bread and put the sandwich together. Cook in the microwave for about 30 seconds and you've got Grilled Cheese!

It's a cooking kind of weekend

I'm house bound this weekend since it is raining, which means the kids are house bound too. We've read books, watched cartoons, played Star Wars Monopoly, Dora Memory, played the new playstation games we got yesterday with Dad, and still managed to have stromboli and ice cream. During my down times (giggles) I am researching new recipes for this month's cooking day.

In my cyberspace travels I came upon the Baking Delights blog. They are givig away 5 autographed copies of Secret Suppers, a book about chef's, their restaurants, and some of their recipes. All you have to do to enter is leave a post on the blog. (You get 2 entries for blogging about their blog which is why I'm writing this.)

So read my pumpkin pie post, visit Baking Delights and Today's Housewife for lots of fun food recipes. Tomorrow our food of choice is popcorn since #2 is selling it in front of WalMart for Cub Scouts. If you'd like to buy some send me an email and I'll send you the info!