Cupcakes!

As a special treat for Lauren, for helping me around the house last weekend, she got to stay up late on Saturday night and make fun cupcakes with me. I recently purchased a book called "What's new cupcake?" which has all sorts of ideas for creative cupcakes. Lauren chose to make pie cupcakes.

First you start with 24 cupcakes.

Two containers of vanilla frosting, mixed with a drop of yellow food coloring, and some coco powder to make the frosting resemble pie crust.

Next its red and blue M&M's for blueberry and cherry pies.

The cupcakes all ready for their pie crust.

The finished product!

The Dentist.

Yikes! Katie is almost three and it was time for her first visit to the dentist. She was excited, I was scared to death she would have some sort of a melt down when the dentist wanted to examine her teeth, and in a moment of soon-to-be three year oldness, she would refuse with a flat out "NO!" Apparently my dentist's office has had experience with difficult children, because they know how to butter those kids up just right....

Katie was met at the front door with a purple poka-dot balloon. You can see from the expression in her face, the balloon was a big hit. After receiving the cool balloon she was ready to agree to just about anything.

Then it was on the chair with sun glasses, to avoid the bright light of course, and a funky stuffed purple animal.

Nothing like being able to play with the equipment during a fluoride treatment.

By the time the dentist arrived she was more than willing to allow him to check out her teeth.

I do believe the verdict was the dentist is way better than the pediatrician who makes you strip naked and gives you shots.

As long as we were there, we thought Mark should have his teeth checked too.

Finally, can't forget Lauren.

Verdict: No cavities, well except for mommy, but that's another story.....

Kangaroo Zoo

There is this place....its quite a wonderful place....its a place of fun....its a place of joy....but best of all its a place that wears you kids out!

What is this place...Kangaroo Zoo. It is located in Lindon, in a big industrial sort of a building. Contained in this building are 13 HUGE inflatables, that include slides and bouncy houses. Your kids jump, slide and run until they can take in no more.

Best of all, management has considered the needs of the parent. There are lots of places to sit, tables and chairs, couches, benches. All designed with comfort in mind. Clearly management understands that once you get your kids in the door, you are not going to get them out anytime soon, so at least they make the parents comfortable. And free wi-fi to boot. Bring your lap top, sit a spell, its all padded, bouncy, safe, and fun.

Katie, in an area only for those 4 and under.

Lauren, loved the big slide.


Lauren and Mark, together on the big slide.

Mark, chillin.

Stuck in the jaws of a tiger...I told you it was a zoo.

Katie on her own slide, still fun, not quite as big as the one Mark and Lauren rode.

As for me, yep I came equipped with my notebook full of cases. My children ran around like wild little Indians, jumping on everything in site, yelling at the top of their lungs, and mommy worked, and was happy it was no occurring at home on the family room furniture, which is generally treated by my children as a bouncy inflatable.....

The obligation....

Much to my children's dismay they are obligated two times a year, Easter and Christmas, to dress up in their finest attire and pose for a picture. Here was our attempt yesterday..... (note, I took 25 pictures, three turned out half way decent...how was this done before digital photography????)

Believe it or not the first photo was the best, it went down hill from there....
My two cute girls!

Yep, they are full of it.

Easter, Part three.

Finally, no Easter is complete without the traditional egg hung. A hunting my children went, and from the looks of the pictures, they were quite successful.

Mark had to run fast to keep up with those sisters, better get used to that buddy!

Easter, Part two.

Lauren, Mark and Katie were a bit concerned that if they traveled to Colorado for Easter that the Easter Bunny might pass them by....well rest assured Mommy to the rescue, I sent the Easter Bunny and email and let him know that my children were going to be relocated to Colorado for Easter and that all Easter baskets should be forwarded to their temporary location.

Apparently the Easter Bunny got my correspondence because sure enough on Easter morning my children found baskets filled with fun treats, and a few small toys. (The Easter Bunny showed unusual restraint this year.....)

What made him smile this big? A Thomas Pez dispenser of course.

Easter, Part one.

Easter....what a glorious holiday it was, and for me very QUIET! Rick, being the brave soul that he is, or perhaps crazy, I will let you decide, took the kids, as in ALL three kids, to Colorado to visit his sister Jenni for the weekend.

What did that mean for me??? FOUR DAYS, count them, FOUR DAYS, of being ALONE in my house! It was heaven. I slept in each morning, worked on projects I wanted to work on, the only mess I had to clean up was any mess made by me, I got to eat whatever and whenever I wanted to, and had NO responsibility to anyone other than me! Truth be told on Saturday and Sunday I never even left my house.....

But I do have to admit I was a little sad to miss Easter with the kids. Grandma, Grandpa, Brian and Courtney accompanied Rick, so I sent my camera with Courtney to document the weekend. You will have the let the pictures speak for themselves, because I have no witty parlay or commentary since I was not there.....

It appears to me that Easter eggs dying was a success!

Bucket List #15

Item #15 on my bucket list for 2010 was to paint a room in my house some color other than beige....So I thought I would start with the room that is used the least, and is basically purely decorative.....the formal dining room.

The Before....

The After...

I have always wanted to have a red dining room, and alas now I do. Just a simple coat or two, actually three coats to be precise, and my dining room has a whole new look. The chair rail was a great feature to have, because I think floor to ceiling red might have been a bit much...... (FYI, The red is actually the color of brick, and not as stunningly bright as the pictures make it out to be.)

Alright who's coming to dinner to celebrate my new room????

Friday Rant.....

Normally on Friday Mark rides the bus home from school. His school is on the other side of town, so its almost an hour ride for him. Rick was planning on taking the kids this weekend to Fort Collins to visit his sister Jenni, and did not want to wait the extra hour that it would take Mark to come home on the bus. So I decided to pick Mark up from school.

I could not recall if he got out at 1:15 or 1:30 on Friday, because again, I am not really concerned with when he gets out, I just know what time the bus drops him off. I called the school to find out what time he got out so that I could be there on time.

The receptionist answers the phone and I explain that my son is in Kindergarten and I needed to know what time he was released from school, so I could pick him up. The receptionist, (this is the regular receptionist, not a substitute) pauses for a minute and tell me she does not know what time the kids get out of school, and wants to transfer me to the classroom to speak with the teacher. I explain to her I don't want to talk to his teacher, I just want to know what time school gets out and that as a receptionist this seems to be a pretty basic questions she should know the answer too. She places me on hold while she "checks," and then comes back a few minutes later and informs me school gets out at 1:15.

SERIOUSLY???!!!!

You work as the school receptionist and you don't know what time school gets out? Why is this women employed? Does she not know the national unemployment rate is 9.7% and in the state of Utah its 7.2%? On a daily basis I see a whole lot of competent people who would LOVE to have her job, and would probably be able to answer a simple questions like "What time does school get out?"

Bucket List #9

Yep, check #9 off of that bucket list. Clean the garage. Now I realize the picture really does not show a garage with lots of expansive space, pristine in its cleanliness, however you must note that TWO, count them TWO, cars can now be parked in the garage. That alone speaks volumes about the before and after condition of the garage.

Spikes.

Mark came home on Monday sporting a new hair cut. The stylist gave him "summer" short cut and gelled him up with some spikes. He thought he was beyond cool. He kept touching the stiff peaks in his hair, making sure they were still there, and asking me if had seen the spikes in his hair. I assured him I had seen the spikes and they were very cool.

On Tuesday morning he demanded that I style his hair with spikes like his stylist. Nothing short of spikes would satisfy him. Gel I did not have, but I did have some moose. So moose it was, and he was just as proud of my "do" as what the stylist had done. He said "this is the best hair day ever."

Only problem moose does not last as long as gel....will be getting some gel....next thing you know he is going to have a girlfriend...so NOT ready for that.

Froot Loops

To this day there is no smell I enjoy more than opening a new box of Froot Loops and inhaling the fruity smell. It magical, its yummy, its wonderful. I makes me feel 8 years old. As a child growing up I would frequently spend time with my Grandma Hales when my parents went out of town. My mother would never buy sugar cereals, but you could ALWAYS count on grandma to dish out the good stuff, and one of the good stuff staples was Froot Loops.

I would come down in the morning to fully dressed breakfast table, again a novelty for me, my mother and a fully dressed breakfast table, I don't think so.... Awaiting my arrival would be bowl of Froot Loops just in need of little milk. Don't worry this milk was not poured from a jug into my cereal bowl, no at at grandma's house. It went from the jug to a small breakfast milk pitcher, and then to my awaiting bowl of cereal, making it even more special. (I am quite sure that none of my cousins received the same treatment as me. I was grandma's favorite, I just know it.)

Grandma would always try to convince me I wanted some eggs, bacon or pancakes with that cereal, but I would have none of that. It was more cereal for me. Besides in my mind eggs, bacon and pancakes were dinner food, not breakfast food.

Finally after indulging my self in a minimum of two bowls of the sugary treat, I would be full and the roof of my mouth sore. You have to get Froot Loops good and soggy in order to avoid the hard crunch of the cereal tearing up the tender roof of your mouth. I was usually too anxious to eat my yummy treat that couldn't wait for the cereal to soak up the milk.

But I still enjoyed every delicious bowl.

Road Trip!

Road Trip! This last weekend Lauren and I headed to St. George for a dance competition. It was very short trip, we left on Friday after Lauren got out of school, she competed Saturday morning, and we were back in the car heading home by Saturday afternoon.

The car is packed.

Lauren has her DVD player, and candy, she is all set.

Of course we arrived in time to do a little shopping.

We hit Old Navy for flip flops.

Lauren chose Subway for dinner. And actually breakfast too, we ordered foot longs, ate one half and saved the other half for breakfast. (We had a refrigerator in our hotel room.)

Lauren and the ballroom team warming up.

Lauren and the hip hop team warming up.

Woo Hoo! We got a trophy! (Ok, it was a participation trophy, and everyone got one...)

These are the trophies the girls actually won!

Another reason to love spring...

It is a little know fact that a good majority of decorations used in my girls rooms were actually intended for Easter/spring decor, but were repackaged by me for a new use. This weeks craft was one of those items.

This is a decoration I made for Lauren's bathroom. These are mini-wreaths I picked up at my favorite place, Tai Pan Trading. The intended use for the wreath is over a long tapered candle, as a candle wreath. Each wreath was $1.57. I added the ribbon, hot glued it together, and gathered sticks from the trees in my yard, and slipped the ribbon over the sticks.

Its stylish and cute!

Just the little things.

My Uncle John sent me an email on Sunday with a link to this youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8FdW0diox4

Sunday was the conclusion for me, of what had been a particularly challenging week, that left me with a lot of self doubt. The Lord in his infinite wisdom decided I needed to be whacked over the head a few times on Sunday to be reminded he does love me. This video was one of a number of whackings I received.....

I got the point. No more whacking necessary.