Tea and ... snowflakes?

I've drunk enough tea in 2015 to become an honorary Brit. Brit? Briton? British? Hmm. Anyway, hot or cold, I've been going through tea like it's going out of style. I'm not even sure why.

And I've been accused of baking a lot. I can't help it. Now that we're in a cold snap, of course I'M cold, and cold people need comfort food. So I baked a cake. And I baked some cookies. And I might not be finished. Especially if it doesn't warm up.

So where's my cake? It's a chocolate cake with chocolate minty pudding in it and baked in a Bundt pan. Excellent. I shared with my moms' group. I do blame Dada for that one, as I said, "if you don't please put the cake platter away I'll have to bake another cake." He replied, "You better bake a cake then!" See? Totally his fault.

The cookies I blame email for. I got an email about 10 irresistible cookie recipes which of course I had to check out. One of them was cake batter cookies. I'd helped make them at camp before, but never at home, so I thought I'd give it a try. I had a box of confetti cake which happened to be yellow, like the recipe called for, and frozen egg yolks from when I'd made a white cake and needed only egg whites. Anyway, I threw all 5 thawed egg yolks and one fresh egg in there with the cake mix and a stick of unsalted butter. It said to mix in about a 1/4 cup of sprinkles, but confetti cake already has fun stuff in it, so I just dumped it all in there. It also said to use an ice cream scoop but I just used my usual tablespoon to measure them out. They turned out nice and golden and kid-approved. I'm kind of afraid to test out the recipes because of the sweets we already have in the house, hehe!

Yesterday I got a text from sweet Zita: I might have seen snow.

She was right. It was raining tiny snowballs when I went to pick up Damon from preschool. Nobody on Facebook was happy about it, either. There were plenty of "snow!" posts. Fickle Spring and her nofucks. It made me think of 3 Dog Night's "Pieces of April" and hope fervently that I will NOT be having "pieces of April, but it's a morning in May..."

I still haven't forgotten the lightning bug post or our new-to-us park post, but I need to steal pictures from Dada's phone for that, so it might be awhile. Technology, you know.

Have a great rest of your Positive Energy Thursday!

Midweek report

Sorry about the radio silence. We're all fine. Just busy. Apparently crazy is the new normal. We fit right in.

We got to enjoy some nice weather over the weekend, so there was a lot of running around outside. Dada has picked a spot for a garden, so he was spraying the RoundUp to kill off anything in the area so that he can till up the soil and get that all going. It's a nice, sunny spot, so keep your fingers crossed that it will produce. He even has an asparagus patch in mind, though you don't get yields from one right away.

There are pool noodle remains all over the yard from the epic battles that were taking place. I hear Prince Humperdink in my head, "they were both masters... it ranged all over..." We had the Richards crew down Friday night for dinner and a playdate. We'd thought we'd go bowling, but the kids were having so much fun just being outside in beautiful weather that we started a fire in the firepit instead and let them goof off until way past our kids' bedtimes. It was great. We all really needed it.

This week has the usual, karate, school, we're making it to moms' group today, laundry, dishes, homework, sheets, etc. Damon helped me with an Aldi run yesterday before school. He came home from preschool, zipped on his puffy vest, and completely crashed sound asleep in the big chair. Must have worn the poor guy out. I don't know how he's going to make it through all day kindergarten. I need a nap just thinking about it.

Remind me to post about the lightning bug quote. You don't want to miss it.

Must dash. There's a winter coat clad- sunglasses on his face- shoed kid clinging to my arm, telling me I smell like lotion. He's excited to see his friends at moms' group, some of whom we haven't seen since before Christmas.

Have a wonderful week! And be on the lookout for lightning bugs! ;)

Another one for the ages

Vintage Carrie (who has only been awake and functioning for half an hour today) at the bus stop, chattering nonstop about how her class was discussing reincarnation:

"I'm a squirrel." Changing her voice, "I'm a flower." Changing her voice again, "I'm a cow. I give milk and am scarred in India."

My brain decodes. "Sacred. Not scarred, from boo-boos. Sacred is holy, worshipped. Also not scared- frightened, afraid."

The bus takes her away.

Oy vey.

Dear Diary

It isn't even 8:30 yet and I can tell for sure that it's a Monday.

 Carrie staggered into the only one of the four bathrooms in our home that I was using first thing to tell me how tired she was and how she wanted to go back to bed and how it's too eaaaaaaarly. I suppose girls who pee together stay together. We headed out and caught her bus without incident. There was a fellow bus rider who waved enthusiastically to me as it pulled away, and it wasn't Carrie. Cracked me up.

On the stroll back into the house, I noticed our mini daffodils are all open and facing excitedly toward the sunrise. I'm pretty sure they weren't doing that yesterday. That's one of the best parts of a new house... seeing what comes up and where and when. All these fun plants that we didn't have to plant! Yay!

Of course, Liam isn't up at this point, though he should be. Dada even set his alarm and turned it on last night for him. Round one. Ding ding!

He comes down, griping that Damon kept him awake all night and that he wouldn't stop talking, which we already knew as we'd both been in there more than once to talk to them about not talking any more! I popped some trusty, fast, Eggo waffles into the toaster to get him moving and that helped turn things around. He got dressed, finished breakfast, stripped his bed, brushed his teeth, and had 10 minutes of Lego time. As I'm rejoicing over this improved morning attitude, we meander out to the bus.

He hugs me, and I notice the pockets of his fleece are BULGING. That kid tried to smuggle two pockets full of Legos to school on the first day after break!

I've been snookered!

As I'm fishing Legos out of his pockets (which are way deeper than girl pockets, naturally) and into mine, naturally the bus shows up and I can't even get them all. I send him off, admonishing him to "keep those in your pocket!!" He waves cheerfully and off he goes.

I get back into the house, not in as sunny of a mood as when I left, and I almost trip over the orange flip flops spread out in front of the door. I look in a little farther, and there's a pajama-clad, robe-clad, hoodie-over-robe-clad Damon announcing he's going outside. But needs socks.

I tipped off Liam's teacher that she may want to use her XRay vision first thing and perhaps store certain belongings in a safe location until the end of the day. Nothing like shattering illusions of a perfect first day back from spring break before she's had her mug of tea...

I was going to finish my coffee from yesterday, but when I checked my mug, I noticed what I thought was a hair floating in it. Upon further examination, the black ant must have needed the caffeine more than I did, and fresh coffee was brewed after all.

Dinner is in the crock pot, the second load of sheets is in the washer, the dog's been let outside, Damon is socked and booted and also let outside, so now maybe I can go have a bowl of cereal. I've only been up for a little over two hours.

Today they'll all have karate lessons, I hope to get to Aldi, Walmart, the post office, the tax office, and the Y.

Um, is it bedtime yet?

Play doh fun and family fun

 

We broke out the play doh while Hinrew and Muggin were here. Carrie created a desert island.

 

Liam's tropical fishies:

 

Muggin's bicycle and trail:

 

Crazy hair guys. Damon even had homework involving play doh over spring break (the kids have blizzard bags of make up work from all the bad weather days this winter) so our play doh has had quite a workout lately. I always forget how much fun it is. We even tried to get Grandma Barb to play along!

 

Who are these strangers? I'm glad you asked. And I'm sorry that I forgot to crop the photos, ha. This is my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sue, and cousins Glenn and Rachel. They were roadtripping from New Mexico to Pennsylvania before driving to Kentucky on their way back home. Damon and I skipped his last day of preschool before spring break and met up with them in PA. They hadn't been back east for several years, and had never met him. Sadly, Hinrew and Muggin both had to work and couldn't make it, though my parents were there. It was a great reunion, even if it was only a little while together. Thanks for penciling us into your busy schedule, and we're glad to hear you're home safe!

Buzzards!

 

We had some lunchtime visitors today. While there were 5 of them, not 3, and they were normal buzzard-colored instead of chartreuse, we had a great time watching these humungous visitors!

 

 

This photo above will be familiar if you're friends with me on Facebook. I like that it looks like the top one is ready to pounce on the bottom one. Maybe he was just stretching. Maybe he was protecting his friend from the rain. But he looks all Hobbes to Calvin to me!

 

I don't pretend to know anything about the ways of buzzards or turkey vultures or whatever you call them, but I know we missed seeing them all winter and are glad our huge feathered friends are back. I hope they visit plenty.

 

Feel free to help yourselves to our moles, mates.

 

Snack bar is open.

Spring silliness

 

The last weekend in March brought a visit from Hinrew, Muggin and Zia. This is the only picture I got, because we were all busy being lazy. They joined us and participated in our Friday night home group, which was really neat. There's never enough time with these guys. Thanks for making the trip to come play with us!

 

I got to meet my new cutie friend Hudson for the first time. He's only 4 months old, and I hadn't seen his mom since last spring break. Talk about never getting to see people you love enough...

 

This is another of my cutie friends, Bella. I hadn't seen her mom since last spring break, either! Bella is an 18 month old firecracker, just like her mother. She's big into sharing right now, and was pleased to hand us our own belongings all through lunch.

 

Check out those ringlets! She just lives up to her name.

 

Here's her awesome mom, Mar. Or "the Mayor" as our kids hear when we talk about her, haha!

 

Our own cute urchin snuck a photo op in as well.

 

Handsome Hudson and his beautiful mom, Lisa.

 

It was so good to catch up with these girls. They've been lifelines for me since our girlhood and I really wouldn't be who I am today without them. Priceless treasures. And their kids are cute, too.

 

Grandma Barb and Pap came out for Easter. We had way too much food, went to church, and did our general goofing off, including the kids' hunt for their Easter baskets. This year said hunt happened at sundown and they used flashlights and glowsticks to find their loot. Our apologies to any neighbors who thought there was anything suspicious happening with all the lights bobbing around...

 

Carrie's clues ranged from the playhouse to the inside top floor of the "barn" (shed) to the top of the rope in the oak tree out front. More than one of the kids found clues in our "Harry Potter" room under the stairs (game cupboard) and in the laundry room appliances. One was in the bathtub, two were in our "secret" staircase, and Carrie's lean-to hosted a couple clues itself. They had a ball, though they were incredibly late to bed. Oh well, it's spring break...