Speaking of the "Mother of the Year" Award...

I earned myself another nomination this morning, by letting Adam and Grace eat Texas sheet cake (leftover from Enrichment last night)...

... for the most important meal of the day.

It can't be any worse than pancakes topped with HFCS-filled pancake syrup.

Right?

It's healthier, really.

Chocolate is good for you.

(Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the 4 sticks of butter or the 1 pound of powdered sugar that are also in it).

;)

Adam's Prize Money

Adam's upside-down self-portrait on the way home that day

A few weeks ago, Mike had to work late and I didn't feel like cooking.

It happens.

We were at the store grabbing some milk, and I told the kids they could pick out a frozen pizza to share.

(Yes, I'm totally earning the 'Mother of the Year' award here).

Adam's been saving his money and looking for extra opportunities to earn money lately, because he wants to buy some Star Wars gun. So, when he saw a pizza that advertised a contest to win cash, that was the one he chose.

The whole way home, I told him over and over that there are just a few prizes and SO many people who enter, and even though I hoped he won, he probably wouldn't.

And the whole way home, he hugged the pizza box, and told me that he KNEW he won.

When we got home, I popped the pizza in the oven, and he entered in his code online. And, guess what?

HE WON $10!

He's SO excited and very much gloating about the fact that he was right and I was wrong. He has been checking the mailbox daily, waiting for his $10 so that he can buy the gun. Today, however, we got an email about the contest. It said:

You have been selected as the winner of $10 Cash! 
Please see the Official Rules
for further prize details and eligibility requirements. 
Your win has been recorded and
is subject to verification.  Once we have verified your
eligibility, you will receive your prize
8-10 weeks after promotion conclusion. It will be
sent to the address you provided. 
The promotion ends on February 10, 2010.

So, according to this, Adam should get his money next year. IN MAY 2010.

What kind of contest does that?

We thought it would be really unfair to make him wait A YEAR, so we gave him the money. And in a year, we will be reimbursed.

Totino's pizza is totally lame.

The Most Horrible Seat in the House

This morning. Before Sacrament.

In our ward there is a "rule" that if you say the opening/closing prayer during Sacrament meeting, you have to sit on the stand the entire time.

I said the opening prayer today.

It was a horrible meeting.

The speakers were great, the musical numbers incredible, and I didn't hear a word.

I was far too busy:

- watching Grace climb OVER the bench, while Mike "helped" Adam with a word search
- listening to Grace pray LOUDLY during the Sacrament prayer
- watching Adam crawl under the bench to grab a crayon that was rolling away, and HIT his head hard, prompting a few tears
- listening to Grace YELL "Hi, Mommy!" about 50 times.
- watching Grace DUMP out her goldfish
- listening to the sound of Grace DRUMMING on the hymnbooks
- watching Mike finally give up on trying to get her to be quiet/whisper, and WRESTLE her out of the aisle into the foyer

There is no worse seat in the house or place for a mom to be, than one where she have to watch her children be the most irreverent children in the entire building.

And not be able to do a thing about it.

Sigh...

Next time I get a message from the Executive Secretary?

I'm SO not calling back.

Spring Carnival

Today, Adam's school held their annual spring carnival.

I really, really didn't want to go. Because Mike had to work during it, and I'm a chicken when it comes to big crowds + me by myself + 2 kids. Especially with one child who really, really loves running away from me.

But, Adam SO wanted to go, so I swallowed my fears, and we went.

And we had a great time!

The weather was really nice, except for the wind (we were under a wind advisory today), which made the "throwing" games a little difficult. Other than that, it was really fun to play the games with Adam and Grace, and talk to the other moms.

All of the bouncing and throwing and winning prizes just wore Grace out, though. We were waiting in line, when I looked down and found her sound asleep. I was happy because this meant no more chasing her, and Adam was happy because he got to use her tickets.


It was a win-win for all. :)

Avocados

Avocados have always seriously grossed me out: the taste, the texture, the look. I've never been a fan.

Until, I was pregnant with Grace. I literally woke up one day NEEDING some guacamole. And it continued for the rest of the pregnancy.

Next time, I am determined to crave something both lower in fat AND lower in price.

The cravings have continued for the past 2 1/2 years. I've wanted them on a daily basis. Seriously. I've tried not to indulge too often, but if they were on sale, then all bets were off.

That is, until two weeks ago. We had taco soup, and we had some avocados for topping the soup. I was dicing them, when suddenly I became absolutely revolted with the little green things. All of the past hatred for the avocado came back, and now I gag just thinking about eating one. I gag thinking about how many I ate when I was pregnant, and how many I ate long after I wasn't pregnant.

I'm so disgusted with myself.

I don't really believe in the whole "we crave what we need" idea.

But, it's very strange.

Easter

I've been putting off this little Easter re-cap. Mainly, because traditions-wise, if it could go wrong it did go wrong. Fortunately, Easter really isn't about the traditions, so we did have a wonderful day celebrating the Savior.

But, here's some of the problems. Just in case you're curious:

- Grace's Easter dress got approximately 1/4 of the way done when my sewing machine quit working on me. It won't feed material through anymore. Mike told me to buy her a new dress, and Adam a new shirt, and I really, really wanted to... but we've been trying to be more thoughtful in our needs/wants purchases, so I decided Easter clothes were definitely a want and we did without.

- Adam came up to me a few weeks ago and told me that there was no way that there was an Easter bunny. He said, "Either it's a man dressed up in a bunny suit or a real giant bunny, and neither can be true. So it must be you. I want to know the truth." I decided I didn't want to push the issue, so I let him in on the secret. I threatened his life not to ruin it for his friends/sister. And he didn't. But, he did remind me approximately every 10 minutes who the Easter bunny was, and it kinda took some of the fun out of it.

- We had planned on celebrating Easter Saturday morning, and focusing on the Savior on Sunday. But, Mike had to be at work early, so that got nixed last minute, because I wanted him to be able to see the kids hunt the eggs/open the baskets.

- The Easter egg dyeing went great, and the eggs were beautiful. Except that the dyes got spilt, bled through the paper, and my table is now a fun shade of pinkish-blue. Which actually is fine, because it's more interesting now.


- I accidentally left all of the candy for the eggs in the car, and it melted. Even the jelly beans kinda bunched together. So, Saturday night, I sent Mike out for some more. While he was gone, I looked for our big box of plastic eggs. It was no where. Finally after much searching, I called Mike, who reminded me that we had donated it to D.I. months before, because it took up so much space, with plans to buy just a couple of packages around Easter-time.

It would have been helpful to have remembered that before 11:00 on a Saturday.

Because it's kinda hard finding plastic eggs the night before Easter.

Mike finally found some super-ugly eggs at the third store, and after stuffing them with new candy/hiding them, we went to bed at around 2:00.

- Adam woke up at 3:30. He may no longer believe in the Easter bunny, but he was plenty excited for the egg hunt and Easter basket. We told him to go back to bed. Instead, he came in every 20-30 minutes, asking us if it was time yet.

We finally gave up, and let the kids have their baskets and look for eggs.


It made for a very long Sunday.

Church was wonderful, though, and we tried to focus the rest of the day on the Savior, the sacrifice that He made for us, and the Resurrection. We are so thankful for Him.

That night, we had just a regular dinner (nothing special), but I tried to make a bunny cake for dessert. And it wasn't as cute as my grandma always made, but it was okay. When I went to slice it, I found that my sweet, German chocolate bunny had been doctored and turned into Vampire Bunny.


As you can see, while Adam added fangs, he also took the opportunity of tasting the frosting around the cake. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too.

And that your Easter traditions worked out better for you than they did for us.

Spring Break

Last week was Adam's spring break. I had fun plans of playdates, the zoo, the library, cookie decorating, and parks.

And... the cookie decorating and parks happened, anyway.

Plans fell through, our car had some issues, it was insanely windy a few days here, and our librarian is super-cranky and scares me, and makes it easy it justify not paying a visit there. Which was completely fine, because I got to tune up my Lego Star Wars video game skillz.


- On Saturday, we recorded conference (not sure why I don't ALWAYS do this... actually got to watch it later!), and went to a birthday party.


- On Sunday, we watched conference, ate yummy cinnamon rolls, and went to the temple. Adam wanted to wear his gym shorts and rubber gloves.


We sent him back inside to change.


- On Tuesday, we went grocery shopping, and then I convinced the kids that it would be fun to re-read our library books again. I'm a chicken, what can I say?

So, we played Lego Star Wars.


- On Wednesday, playgroup got canceled due to the wind. That afternoon, the 'check engine' light on the car came on. We went to Autozone instead of the zoo, to get the codes read.

So, we played Lego Star Wars.


- On Thursday we had to bring Mike his keys that he forgot. When we got to D.I., he was getting ready to teach his forklift class. The kids loved seeing him drive it! I made spring sugar cookies. As I was finishing up, and getting ready to make the frosting, Grace began throwing handfuls of flour into the air. When I rushed over to stop her, she dumped out the entire flour container.

We didn't frost them that day. But, amidst cleaning up flour, we did play Lego Star Wars.


- On Friday, I went back to my ENT to get the results of my biopsy back. I'm ALLLL good! The results of the lymph nodes biopsied were normal. I'm so thankful for that! The appointment took hours, though , so Mike ended up calling in sick, and we spent the day celebrating: a picnic at the park and kite flying. And we decorated cookies that night.

So, no, it didn't turn out as planned, but we had a great week anyways. School starts back up tomorrow! And I'm kinda excited to have my routine/clean-ish house back!

April Fool's!

So, I'm not a big prankster or anything, but when I saw the cute ideas for April Fool's Day in Family Fun, I just had to try one.

For dinner I made meatloaf (with my Grandma's recipe), put it into foil liners, baked it, and the frosted them with mashed potatoes, dyed different colors (here). Family Fun's look a lot better, but you get the idea.


When I called Adam and Grace to dinner, Adam was so excited to have cupcakes for dinner! After prayer, he reached for one, got some 'frosting' on his hand, and licked it off. He made the most disgusted face ever, and then I told him what it really was. He was mad for a few seconds, but then started laughing and ate.


Grace just picked at hers the whole time, repeatedly saying, "Yucky cupcake!" And even though the meatloaf was good, if a cupcake really did taste like meatloaf, yeah, it would be pretty yucky!


We finished off the meal with some "dirt pudding," something we have every April Fool's Day.


Mike told me later that night that Adam had suggested to him that a great joke to play on me would be for him to stay out until midnight, without letting me know.

He told Adam it was a good idea, but he ultimately decided against it.

Which was a very smart move. :)

Kids + Conference

I LOVE watching the LDS General Conference. I seriously look forward to it for months. However, dealing with the kids during the 2 hours is definitely NOT something I look forward to at all. Adam normally complains non-stop for the first hour, about how long and boring it is, and then resorts to fighting with Grace for the second hour. Add in him asking, "How much longer?" every 5 minutes. Then, multiply that by 4 sessions and we have some good times at our house.

Not.

So, I'm constantly on the look-out for some fun Conference activities, and I found this fun packet here, which comes complete with word searches, color the GA's tie, and Conference Bingo.

It looks like fun.

And should probably last for tomorrow morning's session.

Anyone got any ideas for the other 3? Seriously. How do you keep your kids semi-interested/not killing each other so you can at least watch during conference?