Day 247 - "All the single ladies"

After picking out this rocking outfit (Tights and a shirt), she then requested to dance to a song made famous by the Chipettes, "All the Single Ladies".

Day 246 - Mission Possible

This little girl is on a mission. A mission to catch whatever germs and virus' that her brother has and she is doing an excellent job.

Mission Checklist:

*Repeatedly snuggle up to brother on the couch after mom asks me to stay away. Check.

*Share cups with him after mom begs me to drink from my own glass.

Check

*Steal his half eaten food and eat it myself.

Check

*Refuse to wash hands.

Check

Here is to knocking on wood that by some miracle we can avoid a second round of sick.

Day 245 - Sick and tired

Just when you think you are out of the woods of having less than one family member sick, this happens. Poor guy has some sort of stomach flu. On the positive side, better now than next week when it is his birthday!

Day 244 - Eggselent

February is not even over and I found this little baby and his like friends lining the aisles at the supermarket. Now while I feel that grocery stores push holidays on us too early so that by the time the actual holiday arrives you are totally done with that holiday, I really love these. So just this once, I will forgive them for putting these out ridiculously early.

Day 243 - "That's a bean!"

It began to seem that the favorite past time at our home was screaming and whining. So in an effort to curb these unwelcome behaviors, we started a new reward and consequence program at our house. Each kid gets a cup and every time someone screams, cries, or whines when they shouldn't, they get a bean. If after a month they have stayed below the half way point, they get to eat at their favorite restaurant (Chick-fil-a). If however they fill their jar, they will lose an item near and dear to them for a week. As we were trying to decide what that would be for our son, we asked him what was his favorite toy. Realizing that he would be losing this for a week if he filled his jar, he thought for a second and then said, "Um... that hanger is my favorite toy." Pretty clever.

Day 242 - No more monkeys

She was suppose to be getting jammies on, but instead I caught her jumping on the couch. Hmm. I guess the temptation was too great.

Day 241 - Yummy Cookies

Who doesn't love a good sugar cookie? For those in the mood for a little v-day treat, here is my absolute favorite recipe! (For the cookies above we used lemon extract (Yum), but if you want a cookie similar to "Cookies by design" cookies - use almond extract instead of vanilla and make the cookies thicker and a little less cooked.)

Sugar Cookies

6 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (i.e. – lemon or almond extract) 

1 tsp. salt

·      Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

·      Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  

·      Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture.  

Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

     Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

·      Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes.  

·      Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn 

     brown around the edges.  

This recipe can make up to 5- dozen 3" cookies.

HINT:  Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess – Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, 

take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.  (Wax works 

okay too)  Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and 

pop it into the refrigerator.  Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have 

used it all.  By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut.  

Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process!  An added bonus is that you are not adding any 

additional flour to your cookies.

Day 240 - Cards

We made the grandparents some cards for the day of love. I loved what the kids came up with. Sister's consisted of gluing and sticking every heart or sticker she could get her hands on, while brother chose to tell a story with his. Hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!

Day 239 - Sprinkles

Grandma brought some yummy Valentines cookies for the kids to decorate. This one decided that one cookie deserved ALL the sprinkles or as she liked to call them "sparkles".

Day 238 - Attack of the killer bubbles

Who else loves bubble? Dogs.

While Toby (the dog) may look like he is about to rip my child's arm off - he is actually attacking the bubbles. It was pretty funny to watch.

Day 237 - Bubbles

What could be more fun?

Day 236 - Cyclops bear and other V-day fun

We have been having a little valentine fun this month. This is the cyclops bear sister made at story time. Actually, it didn't start out as a cyclops, but through a tragic accident (not enough glue) he lost an eye at the grocery store. (Yes, sister insisted on carrying him around as if he was a real teddy bear - now that's love!) Next to the bear is the elusive "Box of Love". Brother made this and filled it will all sorts of goodies and love notes and left it for his Papa with the expectations that Papa would in return fill it and leave it for someone else (Preferably him). It took a little peer pressure, but Papa finally reciprocated and surprised brother with the box today. The look of absolute excitement on his face when he saw it was so worth it! Finally, we have the candy hearts which are perfect for counting, bingo and of course eating (Sister's personal favorite :)

Day 235 - Store loyalty

Is it just me or is the reward cards getting a bit out of hand? I cleaned out my wallet and came across 22 cards... 22 cards! (Can anyone beat that?) Some of these stores I have only been once, apparently long enough to get some customer loyalty card which evidently won't do me any good, but I keep it in the rare chance I do go there again (Although technically I would have to go there 9 more times for it to actually pay off)

Day 234 - Curly Q

Poor thing has stick straight hair. We have tried to curl it in the past with little luck, but today we pulled out the old can of hairspray, went to town and it worked. She loved it. She loved it enough to sit still for 15 min while I curled it. I caught her softly stroking it through out the day as if it was a small animal. While it didn't last as long as it should, it lasted long enough that we just might have to try to recreate it.

Day 233 - Chase away the winter blues

In an effort to bring a little color in our world, we spent the day learning about butterflies. We got some books from the library, we colored our own samples and finished it with a little craft project. I was impressed with each of their use of color.

Day 232- Stuck

To help or not to help that is the question...

It was a bit tempting to leave him there, but in the end he was to cute not to help.