Category Archives: caroline

Moooooooove Over Pride…We’re Eatin’ for Free

Posted on by

Last Friday, much to Derek’s dismay, we dressed in our cow costumes and headed to Chick-Fil-A for our free meal. Two years ago we dressed as Star Wars characters so we decided to be “Rock Stars” this year.

Derek was completely mortified as we walked into the building. I reassured him this was only temporary, we’d get a free meal, the kids would enjoy it, and he wouldn’t have to dress like a cow for another 364 days.

Well, as we entered the restaurant, the store manager came over and took our picture. She very excitedly informed us that our picture would be on the stores’ Facebook page. I kept staring and smiling at her, completely ignoring the look of horror that suddenly came across Derek’s face.

When the manager walked away I looked at Derek and said, “It’s for the children.”

“And more importantly, the $25 meal we are about to receive for free.”

So I present to you…..

Moo Hendrix, The Stubborn and fiercely independent 6 year old who refused a name, The Black Eyed Cow, Sheryl Cow, and MooDonna

Picture of Family Dress for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a

My chicken sandwich and waffle fries were delish!

Already contemplating our theme for next year….Derek is desperately hoping he’ll be out of town on business.

Dress Like a Cow = Free Meal

Posted on by

Friday (tomorrow!) July 8th is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A

If you and your loved ones dress like a cow your meals are FREE!

(Chick-fil A has a downloadable cow costume on their website.)

Partial costume = free entree          Full costume = free meal

Two years ago we dressed up in a Star Wars theme and ate for free. You do not need to have a theme to your costumes  but it added an element of fun. Here are our construction paper and reversed t-shirt ensembles from two years ago:Fortunately I translate baby faces and can tell you what she was thinking

Dammit lady – I don’t even eat solid foods yet and you have dressed me like this. Why must you do this? I will be beyond embarrassed. What if my friends see me? This family is a mess. I cannot wait till I go to college.

Hurry! Get a costume and have an “udderly” good time!

Pitching a Tent

Posted on by

Our house is where bed linens go to die.

It is beyond ridiculous. Enter my closet and you will find an abundance of old comforters, worn sheets, mismatched pillowcases, and scratchy throws. We could probably open a homeless shelter in our backyard if we so desired. We don’t.

Actually we have more sheets than all the other linens combined. We have inherited sheets from our parents, been given sheets as a gift, and received my sisters’ old college sheets.

I choose to ignore any subtle hint they are sending about the state of the bedding in my house.

The sheets leave our house at a very slow rate. If they ever escape it was via the Goodwill box so we have a large stack of sheets in my closet. Stack might be a nice term to describe the linen mess. It is actually a huge pile of sheets thrown every which way. I believe being able to see your closet floor is highly over rated. Technically, I think the experts call it protecting your carpet. After all, I do have children pooping in my closet.

After reading about Fort Fridays on All About Boys I was inspired to make good use of the old sheets and create a massive tent for the kids. The size of the previous tents constructed have been restricted to the size of the sheet, often leading to yelling and complaining, “He pulled the tent down!”  Factor in space taken up for chairs to hold the tent up and the actual sitting space is quite limited.

So….I started with 1 king top sheet, 1 queen top sheet, and 3 pillow cases.

I sewed them together on my machine in a haphazard fashion refusing to pin anything. It took, ten minutes at the most.

The result was a massive section of material roughly 10 feet x 25 feet. I could be exaggerrating here. I am just taking a guess. Put a queen sheet and a king sheet together and you will have the exact measurements.

The pillow cases spaced out created nice entry points into the tent.

When I peeked into the tent I saw this – Alex reading to Caroline while she sat quietly and listened. I am now putting him in charge of nap time.

The boys have requested I add another sheet onto the tent. I will certainly comply if it means more time pretending and less time asking to play the computer.

Any tents in your house this summer?

Photobucket Weekend Bloggy Reading

Undercover Veggie

Posted on by

Shhhh….my kids ate zucchini today but they have no idea.

Somewhere I failed as a parent in regards to my kids’ eating.

We are not one of those families where the kids eat everything on their plate.

“Oh, Johnny just loves his salmon with asparagus and sushi.”

No, it’s more, “Oh, Alex loves his hamburgers and grilled cheese,” over here.

But to be honest, I’m not really worried.

At one point my youngest sister ate only white food.

For years.

Mashed potatoes, pasta, mashed potatoes, pasta?

Seriously, I don’t know what she ate but she seems to be fine now.

Plus, her food groups have expanded to include green and red foods so there’s hope for my kids.

I have begun “sneaking in” veggies as a little backup for my confidence that all will be fine.

Caroline likes orange juice. In fact, she eats and drinks just about every fruit.

But not one vegetable. I’m sorry I misspoke, she is a corn on the cob connoisseur but that’s it.

So now she drinks her 3/4 orange juice and 1/4 carrot juice combo in the morning. She’s happy and I feel like I can color in one minor section of the food pyramid.

The boys are not much better since they do not stray far from salad and carrots.

I came across a banana chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe in blog world. What? One of these things is not like the other. Zucchini? There have been several gagging incidents at our dining room table over cooked zucchini. Amazingly, we’ve never had any gagging incidents from banana bread or chocolate chips.

Soooooo…I immediately printed out the recipe, gathered the ingredients, and made the bread this morning (naturally doubling the chocolate chips suggested).

I admit the smell was pretty enticing. When I announced the chocolate chip banana bread was ready there were whoops and hollers.

Well folks. Good news. Caroline ate her piece while Andrew had seconds and Alex had thirds. I am pretty sure they consumed exactly 0.05% of the daily serving suggestion for vegetables but it’s more than before.

Hmmm…anyone for turnip tiramisu?

***UPDATE*****

Apparently the one sitting where they consumed a large portion of the brad was a fluke. Alex & Andrew are now refusing to eat the the very same bread they fought over exactly one day ago. Excuse me while I go bash my head on a tree.

Rainbow Vanilla Pops

Posted on by

I first saw the idea of pudding pops here and decided it would be a fun project for the kids

Items you need: food coloring, plastic spoons, instant vanilla pudding mix and milk (not shown), and small plastic cups (not shown)

Prepare the vanilla pudding according to directions

Use food coloring to change the pudding into desired colors

Watch out for little hands who are “helping”

Fill the plastic cups with various colored pudding amounts

Argue constantly that your brother is getting more of one color than you

Place a plastic spoon in the cup and place in freezer

Enjoy your frozen treat after a rough day of playing with water balloons

Are you making any fun summer treats?

Pat Morita Lives in Our House

Posted on by

Meet our little Mr. Miyagi

Let me widen the screen a bit on Mr. Miyagi.

Notice anything?

No?

Let me point something out to you.

fly carolineOur sensei is standing next to her opponent.

Caroline and I were standing by the window looking at trucks outside our house when a fly started to bother us. I walked into the kitchen to grab a towel to swat the fly when I heard a whack, followed by, “I got it.”

A doll, a book, a sword?

No people. She meant she got THE FLY.

I walked back into the room to this.

In all fairness the fly may have been a little slow due to the pest guy spraying the day before but it doesn’t dismiss the fact that my TWO YEAR OLD KILLED A FLY WITH HER HANDS!

All of the waxing and painting I make her do is finally paying off.

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Little Bity Organizing

Posted on by

Caroline doesn’t have a dresser in her room so I needed a place to put her socks, hair bows, tights, and diaper covers. Leaving everything in a pile on the closet floor worked well for several months but was a tad embarrassing when people would come over.

Since I had great success in the past with a clear shoe organizer, I decided to try one again.

In our old house I used a clear shoe organizer for toys and general house supplies (tape, scissors, pens, batteries – loved always being able to find these things).

Do you have any simple but effective organizing tips?