Monday, June 28, 2010

Boring Day

This summer when the little boys are napping, Seth has to read, write, or draw. He always picks reading so sometimes I have to force him to sit at the table and write and draw. I know, call the authorities, I'm horrible. This is the book he wrote the other day: (I have to write it out b/c he wrote in yellow and the camera wouldn't pick it up)

Page 1: "Buring Day"
Page 2: big "X" to show nothing is happening
Page 3: "Look on bak-"
Page 4: another big "x" - 'because still nothing is happening' he told me...
Page 5: "I can't beeleeve it." (pictures of kids sitting looking angry)
Page 6: This is the werst day ever.

The end.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Birthdays

We had a joint birthday party for Seth and Cullen a couple of weeks ago, since their birthdays are only 3 days apart. Every year I let Seth pick out his own cake. I do find them fun to construct, but mostly I do it so Seth will always remember them and the trouble I went to. Have you ever read The Five Love Languages? Wonderful book. Really helped our marriage. Well, Friggs is little Mr. Acts of Service. We spend time researching the cake. He got excited seeing me draw it out, buy the supplies, and start baking days in advance. It filled his little love tank. Who knows if it will be important to the other two or not. Blake might rather snuggle.
This year he picked a castle cake - complete with a blue jello moat. It was a snickerdoodle cake with cinnamon buttercream icing, so it was yummy, too. The whole thing was fine - After the jet plane cake fiasco a couple of years ago, I know to freeze it in sections and then ice it together. Well, I put it all together that morning and the cake towers were too heavy (if you are reading this thinking "I could do this..." take my advice and ice some rice krispy treats for the towers instead). So it cracked down the middle and started falling apart! Kate and I (with Andy's engineering expertise) shoved so many skewers through that thing - and zip-tied them together that I didn't know how we'd ever serve the thing! In the end, it looked good, but whimsical instead of tough. It was a Tim Burton castle.


the kiddos around the cake

Cullen's first bite of cake

It's good!

Friday, June 4, 2010

A Second Helping of Blake Doings

Blake is a Messer. He's always been a Messer. He has slowed down a little bit these last few months, but I have a feeling he will always be into something. If you missed the first review of all the things he gets into, click here. He is so hard for me to get mad at for some reason. He reminds me of when I was teaching. There was always one kid who was always in trouble, but I had a hard time not laughing about it. They still got in trouble, but I was also cracking up inside. Around here it is nothing for me to go get a camera, take a picture, and then go get the spanky switch. I try really hard to not laugh, so maybe he thinks taking a picture is just the documentation phase of discipline? Who knows.

Blake helped himself to some cold pizza while I was getting dressed

Another day, another snack: velveeta

Frozen peas and a lid full of water. So refreshing!

Art time

The bountiful harvest. He is always getting into the Cheezits even though he's not supposed to. This time he outsmarted me and stashed them in the barn. Unfortunately, Cullen sniffed them out.

Painting concealer onto my glasses.

Just getting out of the shower and getting dressed.