Category Archives: Alex

All About Me!

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I just added a new All About Me form for kids to fill out in my etsy shop.

This form is great because your child can document all kinds of fun information about themselves.

Even better, you can see how their answers change year after year.

The form comes in three different colors: blue, yellow, and pink.

I loved seeing how much Andrew dislikes sloppy joes, that Alex loved learning about Texas History in 4th grade, and that my 3 year old wants to enter the very noble profession of “being a princess when I grow up.”

This would be such a fun form for students to fill out at school, in Sunday school class, in Girl Scouts, as new birthday tradition, or just a way to spend a little time this summer.

If your interested in the All About Me form, visit my etsy shop here.

 

Backpack

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For our recent trip to Indiana, I packed each of our boys a backpack full of activities and books. I expected the boys to be responsible for their backpacks but thought I would carry everything for my 3 year old in a big bag.

That was not the case.

Caroline insisted on having a “pack pack” while we were getting ready and continued to insist on one throughout the trip.

She adores her two older brothers.

Whatever these big guys do…

she wants to be a part of it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Fart Cake

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Two years ago my son had a bowling party so naturally I thought I would make a bowling cake.

Instead, I made a fart cake.

When asked what kind of cake he wanted me to make in true little boy humor he declared, “I want a fart cake.”

So I pondered. And pondered. And pondered.

And finally we came up with this… A Bowling Fart Cake…

Where’s the fart part you ask?

Take a close look at Alex’s rear end…

The green fart smell than inundates poor Andrew who is sitting at the back of the lane.

Earlier in the day we took pictures of the boys, shrunk them, and used them on the cake.

Add in a bowling bowl and chair made out of fondant, two signs printed out, and your fart cake is all done.

Trust me when I say this cake was a huge hit with eight year olds.

Oh, and the cake tasted great, I decided not to take the theme too far 🙂


HookingupwithHoH The 36th AVENUE button A Crafty Soiree

Drowning in Paperwork

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The end of the school year always means tons of paperwork.

Notebooks. Folders. Projects.

All of which contain paper and lots of it.

And while everything my children make is precious and dear to me, cough, I needed a way to get some of it out of the house.

Instead of doing what I normally do – stand at the recycling bin and chuck the papers – I had the boys go through their papers and choose some of their must keeps.

It was a large pile.

I then brought out 4 envelopes and told them we were going to send some of the work to family. (My family members are now shaking their head).

The boys divvied up the papers among the grandparents while deciding to keep a few.

Tomorrow will be a trip to the post office where they can send their school work off.

And don’t worry Mom, I won’t mind if these papers end up in your recycling bucket.

But your grandchildren might.

🙂

Intellectual Balancing Act

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Parenting can be a delicate balancing act.

Whether you are guiding your children in friendships, school, or at home, parents are always looking for this balance.

This past holiday weekend, my husband and I decided to take our family on a short “staycation” in town, visiting local attractions and spending one night in a hotel.

Our first stop was the Dallas Museum of Art – a fine institution in the art world.

There we contemplated. Observed. Pondered.

Found what the art meant to us.

We were one with the art.

At this point of our trip we were enlightened and philosophical.

And oh so bored.

We decided to change things up for our second stop.

Yes. We. Did.

We went to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum!

Want to broaden your children’s horizons and redeem yourself in their eyes as a satisfactory trip planner?

Go here. Nothing like a few shrunkin’ heads to help with that.

As our day ended my husband and I reviewed our two museum stops and felt like we had done our job as parents and found some balance for our children.

Refined and freakish all in one afternoon, in terms of parenting, you really can’t beat that.

He’s Not Mikey…He Doesn’t Like It

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In an effort to have my boys try more food I took them to the grocery store to choose something for dinner.

My rule was the food needed to be something neither of them had ever tried.

We walked past the fruits and vegetables and nothing caught their eye.

The seafood department was different. I blame it on the worker who offered to take out a lobster for them. They were fascinated, getting to touch it and ask questions about the animal.

So they lingered in the seafood department and chose fish as their item to try.

Alex picked out some tilapia fillets while Andrew decided on catfish.

They decided to make their own fish sticks so we bought a fish fry mix as well.

Once we were home, the boys were very involved. Alex made the batter and they both dipped the fish.

Doesn’t quite live up to the Pepsi vs. Coke taste test hype but it worked.

Everyone had to taste both kinds of fish and give their vote as a favorite.

Alex loved the tilapia and ate several pieces. Of course, anything covered in tons of ketchup is always good. One vote for tilapia.

I chose the catfish as my favorite. One vote for catfish.

My husband chose the tilapia. Two votes for tilapia.

The deciding vote was all Andrew’s. Either a clear winner was about to emerge or he would declare a tie. This was his moment.

But …he was convinced we were trying to poison him.

“I can’t eat it.”

Eyes begin to water.

“It tastes terrible!”

At this point he’d eaten roughly one millimeter of the fish fry coating.

Cough, gag, cough.

“I can’t do it.”

“I hate this!”

Suddenly our fun experiment had come to a screeching halt. Just to be clear we were taste testing FISH STICKS! It can’t be that bad.

Maybe I should have just poured some Pepsi into a cup for them and called it done.

And so…the tilapia won by default.

I will call this experiment a success still and bring them to the store to choose something new to try. I’m not sure what item they will choose next but I can assure you when we walk past the seafood section Andrew will say, “There’s the catfish that I tried. It was gross. It made me cry.”

Packing Tip

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For our recent trip to Indiana I tried a new technique for packing.

You see, when packing for 5 people who are going on a 4 night trip with 3 hotel stays, things need to be as organized as possible.

Our clothing needs ran the gamut, from graduation clothes to traveling clothes to caving clothes so I decided to pack all of the kids clothes into gallon sized Ziploc bags.

I first wrote out a label for each bag with the name of the day/event the clothes inside the bag would be for.

The kids and I then chose the clothes and included a pair of socks and some underwear into each bag.

I ended up with 5 bags for each child and found this system perfect for all of our late nights. It was easy to just grab a bag, hand the kids their clothes, and yell, “Oh my God it’s 10:30! Hurry up and shower!”

Now if only I could get my husband into littler clothing all of our packing dilemmas would be solved

 

Angry Bird Cakes

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My boys recently had a combined birthday party and they requested an Angry Birds Cake.

Actually they requested a cake with angry bird lacrosse players who were shooting goals on opponents. It’s nice that they think so highly of my cake decorating skills but I said no. Instead we compromised with… 3 Angry Bird cakes.

Thanks to my good friend Duncan Hines the cakes were made in a jiffy.

I used one of my favorite baking tools…since I always have good results with it.

For the frosting layer, I went simple again by using frosting from a can. Place a desired amount of frosting in a bowl, add coloring, stir, and spread with an icing spatula.

Love, love, love this coloring. I always buy it at the cake shop (which has a retail section).

After frosting cakes, I always place them in the fridge to let the icing set a bit. I also drop the temperature in the house by about ten degrees since warm frosting is impossible to work with. (I place the cake in the fridge after each different color frosting is applied.)

To get the oval shape for the white bird I cut pieces of cake and added them to the circle cake. Putting frosting between the different sections helps hold them together.

Now onto the fancy frosting with an unfancy tool.

I like to use a metal icing tip and place it inside a ziplock bag which has a small hole cut out of the side. Simply place the icing into the bag, twist the bag, and start frosting.

For the larger sections of color I simply place the icing all over and then smooth with the spatula.

For the bird feathers I cut shapes out of black card stock and pushed them into the sides of the cake.

And for my most important tip…if you have a “helper,” be sure to provide her with her own cake and frosting bag.

Here she is actually frosting blueberry muffins since her decorated cake had already disappeared into her tummy and I needed some more time.

The final products – Red Bird, Green Pig, and White Bird.