I haven't forgotten...

So it's been forever since I last posted.

Have you noticed?

If you haven't, then I'll stop feeling guilty that I haven't taken the time to do anything online. If you have noticed, why not leave a comment and let me know...

...is anyone even out there?

We were busy all weekend in Chicago celebrating my father-in-law Jim's 65th birthday (Jim, I hope you don't mind that I just gave away your age!) We had a really great time, but of course I didn't bring my camera out of it's bag one time. So I don't have pictures. But I am trying to get them. Because I know there are some really good ones of the kids with their faces painted and good ones of them playing in the waterpark in the hotel where we stayed. I'm sure there are plenty of not-so-good pictures with me in them...but I certainly won't be posting any of them here!

Now we're trying to get into the swing of spring. Mainly planting grass and my garden. Neither of which is done yet, both of which I hope to get a good start on before it rains this weekend.

Anyway. We don't have a computer at home for the time being (stupid spyware and stupid viruses) so until my parents leave on vacation next week (and I can confiscate their laptop), I'm forced to go elsewhere to blog. And check my email. And keep up on the blogs that I read. And everything else that I do online. On Wednesday I was trying to find a gluten-free coconut cream pie recipe to make for my dad for his birthday. And I was forced to look at my actual cookbooks. Oh the horror!

Until next time...

Birthday fun

Wow...what a whirlwind birthday weekend we had.

It's been fun. But busy.

Meredith's tea party on Saturday morning with 4 of her best friends was a lot of fun.

It was funny to see how a few of the girls preferred to play with Jesse or help me in the kitchen instead of playing with the other girls. I'm not sure if it had to do with a pecking order amongst the girls or what. But I enjoyed the help anyway!


Meredith of course got lots of fun presents.


And all the girls enjoyed the grown up tea party complete with butterfly-shaped PB&J sandwiches, fancy dishes, and hot tea in regular china teacups and tiny china teacups.

Jesse wasn't so thrilled that he couldn't eat lunch with the girls. He also wasn't thrilled that he got the leftovers of the PB&J sandwiches after I used cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Oh yeah, and he also got a cupcake without frosting. I know, I know...what a cruel mom I am!


Fire crisis averted - her hair was dangerously close to those candles.

Note to self: put Meredith's hair up in a ponytail for her next birthday!

Sunday we had a lot of fun with my family celebrating her birthday. Once again she got a lot of fun presents - everything appealed to her girly-girl self! How well everyone knows her! :) She also had time to play with her cousins - something that she totally loves to do. And at this party Jesse had other boys to play with and older girls to dote on him. So he was happy too!

I made my first layer cake for the party - it was a really easy recipe from here, so it turned out pretty good, actually.


What is it with my kids and blowing out birthday candles that makes us laugh so much? It seems like every year they do something funny...like how it took Meredith probably 5 or 6 tries before she got all the candles out.

Yeah, now I'm glad I didn't watch the episode of Food Detectives that discovered just how many germs are passed along from blowing out birthday candles on a cake!

Anyway, we had a great time and Meredith had a pretty special birthday weekend.

Pinkalicious

Have you ever heard of the book, Pinkalicious?

It's one of Meredith's favorite books. The little girl eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink. In order for her to turn back to her normal color, she has to eat only green vegetables.

Anyway, Meredith's having a bit of a pinkalicious birthday. Last night I made pink cookies for her to take to school as a treat today. (The recipe was one that I blogged about earlier this year. They are the easiest cookies ever to make! I got the recipe from here.)


The cookies were a hit with the class. Seriously - who doesn't love pink cookies?

I also made pink (strawberry) cupcakes. That will be frosted with pink frosting for Meredith's tea party with her friends tomorrow.


Meredith chose a purple cake for her family party that we are having on Sunday. I think I'm going to make a lemon cake with purple frosting. She'll just have to settle for having purple frosting instead of the whole thing being purple. (Maybe she was channeling Purplicious??)


In addition to taking snack to Kindergarten today, I got to visit the class this morning, and Meredith got a birthday present from her teacher. She got to pick out a book and a pencil, and also got a birthday certificate from her teacher.


I had a great time in Kindergarten for the morning. We had Chinese class, 2 recesses (where I totally froze outside) spent time learning about the letter and sound "x" and had lunch together. The kids really impressed me. When you have 25 or 26 kindergartners in one room with one teacher, I thought it might be chaos most of the time. But they were all really well behaved and seemed to really enjoy school.

I do know, however, that I definitely would not have the patience to teach Kindergarten!

Stay tuned to see how Meredith's tea party goes tomorrow!

Meredith's turning 6

Can you believe that Meredith will turn 6 years old on Sunday?


Seriously. How is it that in just a few days I will have a 6 year old daughter?


Like, wasn't it just yesterday that she was born?

Now, I know that I'm not old enough to have a child that will be in 1st grade next year.


It must be some fluke.

Because there's no way she's that old.


Is there some way to keep her in this cuddly, so excited with life (and her parents) stage?


I guess I'm OK with her growing up. (Or rather, I guess I have to be OK with her growing up.)


I just don't want it to happen quite so fast!

the little things

It's the little things in life.

Like wearing your sister's princess helmet.