Heard around Mayhem Mania plus Random Pictures

 A few weeks ago we were leaving the preschool when Ruby said, "look Mom, a mini ambulance!"  I looked all over the parking lot and the street and couldn't find an ambulance anywhere.  I kept asking her where and she kept insisting she saw a "Mini Ambulance!"  Finally, I realized that what she thought was an ambulance was a white Scion xB that belongs to one of her classmate's family.  I have to give it to her, it is white and very boxy in shape and if you added a few lights and stripes to it would look just like a miniature ambulance.

I got the privilege of attending a baby shower recently for one of the ladies from my Pregnancy and Infant Loss group.  Ruby and Eliza Claire helped me pick out the gift.  They did not understand the concept of a baby shower at all!  They of course kept getting stuck on the name of the event.  They also kept referring to it as "your baby shower, Mommy."  I was waiting for rumors to start that I was expecting - I'm not!  One morning after the shower Ruby wanted to know, "who got wet at the baby shower, mommy?  The baby or the Mommy?"  Obviously they still don't get the concept.

Eliza Claire pointed to a mole on Charlotte's neck and announced, "Charlotte, you have an ankle!"  Eliza Claire now knows where her ankles are and what the brown spot on Charlotte's neck is called.

 Charlotte asked me if "stars ever go away."  I explained that they do but that it doesn't happen often and wasn't something she would probably ever witness.  Then she said that her teacher had a "star" on her shoulder.  I was confused.  I asked her if her teacher had a tattoo of a star on her shoulder?  I couldn't really imagine her teacher with a tattoo but couldn't figure out what else she could be talking about.  That is when she said, "not stars, Mommy, stars!"  And that is when I remembered that my daughter is incapable of pronouncing s blends.  She had been saying "scars" all along and I had misunderstood her.  Maybe it is time for speech therapy. 

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Michael was doing tongue twisters with the kids the other day.  I think "Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore."  He said "that is a tongue twister."  Charlotte responded, "No it isn't, Daddy! That is alliteration!"

Independent Study

Rehm and Charlotte both had to do Independent Study this year for school.  Rehm's class had each student pick a country to research.  Charlotte's class had each student make up a bug to do a model of and write a book about the bug.

Once again, Rehm procrastinated (I wonder where he gets that from?) until the last minute and I thought I was going to do him bodily harm before it was all said and done.  But just like last year he pulled it all together at the last minute and had an awesome presentation - his board could have been much neater and more detailed but I refused to make suggestions or help unless asked this year.

Rehm is such a natural public speaker.  He did a 20 minute presentation on Italy.  He was an italian chef and explained how Italy was a pizza, where each ingredient represented a different part of Italy - the geography was the crust, the sauce was the government, etc.  He had great audience participation and while his facts could have been more in depth he really did do a great job.

Unfortunately, he has still to learn the value of planning and actually doing the four month project over four months instead of two weekends.  His excuse this year was that he was a "slow typer ."  I tried to explain to him that he actually had to open a word processing program and have something he wanted to type before his typing skills were the problem.  His real problem is doing the actual work and producing actual work product is boring to him as it does not involve playing video games.  He is great at reading the information and presenting it but I can not get him motivated to actually turn that research into tangible results.  I guess that will come, or there will be two weeks every year that I want to wring his neck while he complains about losing privileges while getting his project done.

Charlotte's project turned out adorably.  She did all of her work at school.  She did a wonderful job presenting about her bug LeeLee.  She is also a great public speaker.  I just love the story she wrote about LeeLee.  Hopefully, she will learn the value of planning and I won't have two children driving me crazy every spring.

Water Day

Getting washed off

Covered in Shaving Cream

Yummy Watermelon

Bubble Fun

Water Day Rocks

Love all this messy fun!

A Study in Contrast

In case you haven't figured it out yet, they are very, very different girls.
Jenn

More Softball

Her coach is so awesome she has even made these cute nametags for the dugout. Their box that holds their water bottles and such has a matching nametag. So different from baseball

I think she is having fun. Only the end of season tournament to go.

Jenn

I probably shouldn't post this...

...but it was too funny not to.

This evening Ruby and I were in the restroom at church at the same time.  We were both going to the bathroom.  She piped up with, "Mommy, our pee-pee sounds different, yours sounds peeing and mine sounds lower!" 

I'm not entirely sure what that means but it struck me as very observant and hilarious at the same time.  Hilarious because who notices how pee sounds and who comments on it if they do? 

I think that translates into you pee louder than me, Mommy.

Told you I shouldn't share,Jenn

Huh?

What are you looking at?

Phineas has taken to sitting on the couch like this. I've found him a couple of times. Just lounging. Silly cat.

Heard around Mayhem Mania

Rehm:  in 1944 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. 

Me:  Rehm, really?

Rehm: 1924?


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Eliza Claire:  God, please make my mommy a dinosaur.

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Ruby:  I don't want pork

Michael:  But you like pork.

Charlotte:  Yeah, Ruby, we aren't veterinarians, you know!

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Instead of saying "No way" when Ruby doesn't want to do something she says "No away!"

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Listening to music in the car Ruby asked if this was the Ho-ka-pon-as song.  She meant Pocahontas.


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Eliza Claire insists on calling music, usic.  No 'm' ever. 

Jenn

Fun at School

Eliza Claire loves her some tire swing.

Propel Parenting, Again

Micheal and I have been practicing our Propel parenting again. For those of you not familiar with that approach click here and here. In a nutshell, we are cheap and mean, at least in our kids eyes.

We have recently instituted a new rule for the big kids. When we go out to eat, if the a drink is not provided as part of the cost of a kids meal, the children can choose to buy a drink with their own money or drink water. We don't feel that we need to pay for it for them. I told you we were cheap.

This week we went to one of the places my kids know they have to buy their own drinks. Both Rehm and Charlotte wanted to purchase a drink and gave me the money before we left home. When we got to the restaurant Charlotte was being slow getting out of the car. Rehm was yelling at her to get out. When that didn't work he kicked her! Yeah, that was a bad idea.

I had to come up with a consequence for him that would a) make an impression and b)be related to the offense. Since he had been mean to his sister I decided he needed to do something nice for her. Since he really wanted a sprite with dinner and was having to pay for it, I knew losing the privilege would make an impression. The consequence: he had to use his money to buy Charlotte's drink and he had to have water! Double whammy! He was not happy! In fact, he started out by refusing. When he learned that tactic would get him a seat in the car until dinner was over and then a PB&J at home he decided to hand over the cash and apologize for kicking his sister.

h the joys of parenting.
Jenn

It doesn't get better than this!

I love having a kindergartner who likes to write me notes. This one
will be on my fridge for the foreseeable future. I'm glad to see she
draws birds like Ed (Emberly).

When I was Charlotte's age I had an orange and yellow typewriter that
each key was a word. I had "I", "like", "love", "mom", "dad", "you",
"we", etc. I loved typing notes for my family members on it. This note
immediately brought back fond memories of that toy.

Impatient

Ruby and Eliza Claire's new bathing suits arrived today. They couldn't
wait to try them out. Given that temps are currently in the low 60s
this was our solution.

Granny's Caramel Cake

This is my most favorite cake.  I've never had a cake like this outside of my family.  I have no clue where the recipe originated. 

Growing up the grandchildren got to choose the dessert for the Sunday lunch closest to their birthday.  I always picked Caramel Cake. 

Rehm chose this as the cake he wanted for his birthday party.  I made it yesterday morning before I realized his party would be canceled due to illness.

Granny always made her cakes from scratch. I'm not that good.  I use a cake mix.  I have found that the Duncan Hines Golden Butter Recipe cake mix comes the closest to Granny's cake.  I follow the cake directions except I substitute milk for the water.

Caramel Icing (I double this recipe)
1/2 cup of butter (use the real stuff not the fake stuff)
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk

Melt butter then stir in brown sugar and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Boil hard for two minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in the milk - stirring while pouring the milk.  It will bubble really high and completely change consistency at this step.  This is normal.  I always think I've ruined it but it always turns out perfect. Return to heat and return to full boil.  Remove from heat and cool.  Once cool, transfer to mixing bowl and beat in confectioner's sugar, until smooth.  Add milk by tablespoon full until proper spreading consistency. 

I've found that it seems to harden up as I work with it.  I suggest starting with it a little runnier than you want it otherwise you'll have to continually stop and stir in more milk to the frosting as you are working.

Granny always made two 9 inch cakes.  She split each of these in half and put frosting between each layer and then frosted the top and sides.  I am inept at frosting cakes, so I don't split my layers.  I just frost between the two cakes and then the top and sides. 

This would also be good to add crushed pecans to the cake mix or between layers or to add banana to the cake.  I'm a purist though and only want this cake in its original form.

I haven't had one of Granny's caramel cakes in probably 3+ years since Sunday dinners at her house ended.  Now if I want caramel cake, I have to make it for myself.  I'm glad to know that I have passed the love of this recipe down one more generation.

Jenn

Random Sunday Morning Pictures

Eliza Claire thought I wasn't going to take her picture and was very sad.

I was trying to get a good picture of the girls together but Rehm was determined to distract them and be in the picture