Weekend snippets

It was a fun weekend, although I suppose I can say that about most of our weekends. Here is a brief synopsis of some of the things that occured.

Grandma Anke brought some gifts from her vacation:

  yup, it’s a shark!

I found this visitor hanging outside my second story bedroom window. I didnt allow it inside :

Our chickens started laying eggs. Lilly brought me the first, slimy egg Saturday morning!

Ela’s daddy figured out a new way to cure a cranky baby.

I went to my cousin’s ’80’s themed bachelorette party in Chicago and made Pac Man inspired cupcakes:

While I was partying there was a 3 Men and a Baby feeding fiasco going on at my brother’s place. He had Ela duty and it took him and his two roommates to get her to eat. It would’ve taken 1 man to feed her had the milk been warmed properly. Now they know 😉

Sunday morning my brother and his buddy, Andy, competed in a sprint triathalon. It was a lot of fun being downtown as the sun was rising. 5 hours carrying my 19 pound baby around Chicago left my hip flexors beyond sore and my shoulders stiff but it was awesome spending some time with my brother!

 

So that’s a quick glimps into our weekend fun. I hope you had a good one too.

Cheers!

Baby Claws

There’s always some child’s nails to cut around this house so I’ve gotten pretty skilled at it over the last 4 1/2 years. Having been clawed over and over again for a few days I decided it was time to cut the teeniest of nails. Lil had the camera and managed to capture this moment. I think Ela’s facial expression is pretty great but I’m a little offended. I haven’t once snipped her finger. Now if we’re talking about one of her older siblings, well, that’s another story…

Boys Will be Boys. And We’ll Go to the ER

We went to the ER about 1 1/2 months ago. Odin had a run-in with the Walmart floor and bashed his nose either on the ground or the cart. I thought for sure it was broken, and so did my buddy, Jana, who thankfully was with us. I called the pediatrician who directed us to go to the hospital but first I had to purchase my groceries, drop Lilly and Jana off at home, pack a bag for the hospital (because you never know how long you’re going to wait) and then I grabbed some snacky food since it was lunch time.

There was hardly a wait which was great and since there was a television on with cartoons playing it wouldn’t have mattered if we had to wait all day because my tv deprived son was enthralled. While we were in the back waiting for x-rays I took some pics because Ela just happened to be dressed up for no reason other than I wanted her to wear her cute dress. Does this boy look like he has a broken nose to you?

The radiologist came in to get Odin and told me I could wait in the room if O was cool with it. I asked him if Mama could stay put and he said, “Yeah.” And off he rolled in that big bed with his teddy bear in one hand and a granola bar in the other.

And I was left in the room with Ela feeling dejected because my boy doesn’t need his mama anymore and can go get x-rays in a big scarey hospital all by himself. He must fancy himself a pro after fracturing his leg last year. I sat and waited for my boy to come back and all I could think was, “Hey! Boy. You’ll always need your mama.”  Or maybe it’s the other way around…. either way, I’m scarred. Obviously. But he was just fine.

 

*** update since writing the original post***

2 weeks after the face bashing incident described above we wound up back in the ER because O dropped a 10 pound weight on his big toe. Like his nose, his toe was not fractured though his toe nail looked pretty gnarly and fell off after about 3 weeks. The jury is still out as to whether or not he damaged the nail bed since there isn’t a new nail growing yet. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

So for the year Odin ended up with 3 trips to the ER but only 1 fractured bone. It could have been worse I suppose.

I’m a Lucky Mama

This is Ginger Bear’s “Hi, Mama!” smile that I get to see multiple times a day, every day. Jealous? I bet you are.

Baking the Blues Away

I love baking so it’s a given that it’s one of my go-to coping mechanisms. After taking a whiff of my dad’s old cologn that was still lying around at my mom’s house I came home and whipped up some blueberry rhubarb bars and some Rice Krispy treats. It’s funny, the more time that goes by the sadder I am with my dad’s passing. I suppose that’s just how it goes. I really wish I could bake him up a delicious chocolate cake. That was his favorite.

Any ways, the bars were wonderful and I used up some of the rhubarb left in my garden which made me happy. With the help of my husband the Rice Krispy treats were gone in about 20 hours and the bars are deminishing quickly too but I’m the only one that will touch them (but that’s not a bad thing!)

Here’s a link to the bars in case you feel compelled to try them:

Blueberry Rhubarb Bars | Tasty Kitchen: A Happy Recipe Community!.

The best part about them is that you can substitute different berries and baking fruits to suit your fancy.

Grammy of the Year Award

This is my dad’s mom. We call her Grammy. She is beyond a doubt the best grandma around and I’m certain I get a lot of my good genes from her. We visit her at least every 2 weeks and it’s the highlight of her week. All the other old ladies tell me so. We visited her today and there was an array of treats set out for my kids. Marshmallows, pretzels, yogurt covered rasins (they didn’t touch those), strawberries, kiwi, grapes, watermelon, ice cream, jello and suckers. It’s no wonder Odin didn’t eat his pizza for lunch! The woman sure knows how to spoil her great grandkids. In addition to the food she just lets them act like the crazy kids they are. And when they accidentally break one of her porcelin birds or drops some food and stains the white chair cushions she just says, “Oh well! It can be fixed/washed/whatever.” And then she tells me to chill out as I’m trying to keep my kids in line because they’re just being kids and the materialistic stuff doesn’t matter. Bottom line: my grandma rocks! Just thought you all should know 🙂

You Look Marvelous!

My sister and I never proved to be the eager subjects for my mom to practice her Mary Kay. She was probably a little bummed that we’d rather play in the dirt than get a make over. I’m happy to report that she just had to wait about 18 years for me to produce a willing subject. It’s just another example of why I’m starting to really believe my mom’s insistance that they are soul mates. Have fun, Grandma Anke!

Ametuer Photographer

Lilly is constantly stealing my camera. She snaps about 50 phtotos in a few moments and when I upload my pictures to the computer I am bombarded by photos like these:

She seems fond of self portraits but then there are other subjects she focuses on as well:

I delete most of the pictures but I do keep some for posterity sake. And on a positive note, I think I know what to get her for Christmas!

Thief

I went shopping without the older kids yesterday. It was marvelous. I indulged a little because I could. I bought a box of Sour Patch Kids that caught my eye as I was walking by a huge bin of assorted candies. I freaking love Sour Patch Kids! Mostly I default to chocolate but there’s just something I find irresistable about these sour coated, sweet and chewy wonders. So like I said,  I bought a box. Unfortunately, in my haste to unload my purchases and get ready for some friends that were due in about 20 minutes, I threw a clothes bin into Odin’s room. I failed to notice my box of candy sitting inside the box. Odin didn’t follow suit.

Today, about mid-afternoon, my mom brought the box downstairs and said, “I found this in Odin’s bed with the contents dumped out.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. Just look at the tear. It’s like a wild animal got ahold of it, and to a certain degree one did. Of course the scoundrel had torn open the box and indulged in the goodness within. When my mom gave me the box it was at least half empty. I have no clue when he ate it all but that certainly explains a portion of his nutty behavior today.

As I was tucking him into bed tonight I noticed that he was lying in a bed of sugar. I made him get up while I brushed it off and I couldn’t help but laugh again because this kid really takes after me when it comes to all things sugar. We just have to indulge. And secret indulgences are the best!

Cute Kid Boots

So like I mentioned, we hung out with my horse loving cousin, Sarah, who also happens to work for Ariat. There were some great kids boots on sale about a month ago so Sarah picked some up for Lilly and Odin.

 

It’s been so hot outside that the kids hadn’t worn them yet but our trip to visit Sarah’s horses provided us with the perfect opportunity to wear them.

Check out these kicks!

Here they are waiting for Sarah to feed the horses.

Lilly got that cute skirt the other day from her Grandma Anke. It was perfect paired with her horse shirt and boots.  She thought she was a real cutie-pie. I’d have to agree!

And here they are showing me their boots.

I was actually surprised how cooperative they were in my requests to get cute pictures of them in their boots. I think they were just thrilled to be around horses and would have done almost anything I requested. I must remember this. Hanging with horses = agreeable children.

Thanks Sarah! You’re the Best!