Kerplunk!

I found the game Kerplunk at a local thrift store in perfect condition for $1! It's the kids' favorite game right now. Even Miles loves to play. He likes to lose because it means more balls (marbles) fall when he pulls a stick. The girls are perfectly fine with this. Winning is a big deal. 

       

       

    

Funnies

Molly: my baby's name is Caroline but her nickname is carol.

Sophie: my baby's name is hosanna and her nickname is hose.

Molly: like the garden hose?

Sophie: (kinda laughing) no

        

        

Molly brought home her pizza certificate from the library for completing the summer reading program. It's for a local pizza establishment and Sophie was remembering Molly received Pizza Hut coupons for the book-it program last year. She couldn't remember the name though and kept asking when Molly was getting one from huts peas! Ha ha

Miles came upstairs carrying a ball in a pan with a spoon saying, "cook ball". He then proceeded to take the ball, place it on the spoon and play baseball.

         

    

Sophie

One of the things I love about Sophie is her usually care-free spirit. She's not overly concerned with how things look or are done. She doesn't have to do things perfectly and is okay when things don't turn out quite the way she expected (most times anyway). 

It's fun to do projects with her because of this. The other day I asked her if she wanted to do a project while miles napped. She said she wanted to make a monkey and that the monkey would have her hands and feet.  She focuses hard when cutting and her little tongue goes back and forth across her lips. It's hilarious to watch. While cutting one hand she accidently chopped off the pinky finger. She looked at me and said, "this hand just isn't going to have a pinky." I laughed out loud at the way she said this. Later she decided we should trace a new hand that had a pinky. :)

                     

Here's her finished monkey. She was so proud of it and cracking up at how silly it looks. I love that she has her own sense of creativity and enjoys the things she makes. 

                    

This is life right now...

Miles and I have been up since 6:45, the girls since 7. This. Is. Early. We are a stay up late, sleep in kind of family. I love not having to stick to a schedule of strict bedtimes and just play it day by day based on moods and what we have planned. This thing called school gets in the way of my spontaneous nights and mornings. See, if the kids just stayed little we wouldn't have to worry about this.  Anyway, Molly starts 1st grade (sniff) on Wednesday, Sophie starts preschool (sniff, sniff) next Monday, and Miles is 18 months old today (sniff, sniff, sniff). Matt switched shifts at work so he's now working overnight and sleeping during the day so I can't rely on him to take the girls to school like last year. I had it made last year. This is better though because he will be awake when Molly comes home from school and we will have evenings together like a "normal" family (if normal really exists). 

I usually don't "practice" getting up early for school. I mean, the more days I can sleep in the better but I have to transition Miles to an earlier nap time, resulting in an earlier bedtime (hopefully). So, here we are up  at 7. Everyone has showered, dressed (except Miles) and eaten breakfast by 8:10. We are in good shape to be on time to school this year assuming all mornings go as smoothly (yeah, right!). Molly hates being rushed around and told to hurry up so I'm trying to allow for plenty of "take your time" in the mornings. 

The challenge today will be keeping Miles awake until 1 which, will be almost impossible because we are meeting friends at the park later on this morning and he will probably fall asleep in the car, and keeping Sophie in good spirits without taking a nap. 

Happy Monday!

That moment when something's supposed to go great and it doesn't...Christmas cookie edition

Today I planned to make christmas cookies with Molly and Sophie. We do it every year and it's something we all look forward to. I thought everything was going to go great. I found a wonderful sugar cookie recipe on bettycrocker.com and set to make them during Miles' nap. We made the dough. It was wonderful raw...with 4 sticks of butter and 3 cups of powdered sugar almond and vanilla extract what's not to like? Fast forward  2 1/2 hours and the dough is chilled. We've eaten dinner, Miles was happy; let's make cookies! Wrong! The dough is hard. When I tried to press the rolling pin, it crumbled. So I let it sit out for a bit. Now it's just as hard only dry. So I added milk (not in the recipe by the way). Then it was sticky. But with a little (or a lot) of extra flour to roll the dough out they worked. It was a slow process though because I had to keep reflouring and rolling the dough out for the girls. They tend to roll too thin and well, thin and the whole sticky dough thing don't work well. 

            

            

I also have to add that this time Miles was not happy. He cried, screamed most times, throughout. 

           

Needless to say, my nerves were shot. But the cookies are done (and the best sugar cookies I've ever made). I just hope frosting them goes smoother....

          

But this is life. And I'm glad that we finished. I did have a fleeting thought pass through my head that we could just buy Santa Christmas cookies. So glad I didn't entertain that thought. Making christmas cookies is one of my favorite christmas memories growing up and I want to pass that along to my children too.

Shout out to firefighters

      

Firefighters really are great people. We frequently see them at hyvee when we grocery shop. Matt says firefighters have to be good cooks because they are always buying food to cook at the station. Lots of practice. Today was no exception. While putting our groceries up on the conveyor belt Sophie accidentally dropped a jar of baby food and it broke. She felt so bad about it and started crying. It was no big deal and we just went right on with our checkout process while a helpful employee took care of the mess. The firefighters saw it and as they were leaving the parking lot (I was loading the van at this point) stopped by the van and gave Sophie a roll of stickers to help her feel better. Way to go KCMO fire department!

Of course, our favorite firefighter is uncle Aaron. He frequently brings his truck over when we have family gatherings and he is working. Here are some pictures from thanksgiving weekend at my nephews first birthday party. 

        

             

                 

         

                 

                 

                

Fun alphabet match turkey

Sophie worked on a fun lower and uppercase matching project the past couple days that is a perfect thanksgiving decoration also. I wasn't sure if she knew all her lower case letters so I thought a little stamping would be a fun way to find out. I cut out turkey feathers and she set to work stamping. Come to find out, she knew all the letters! 

                             

Then we assembled the turkey. Sophie got some good cutting practice in as well cutting out the turkey body, head, and legs. Here is her turkey, named Gobble!