Bagel trees

At dinner tonight, Owen was eating a hamburger bun with sesame seeds on it. He picked up one of the seeds and decided that we should plant it. Then we could grow a bagel tree. Bagels with sesame seeds. We all decided that was a cool idea (except Daddy worried about the ones that fall off the tree and get moldy and in the way of mowing the lawn.) Then we decided to have a whole bagel tree orchard and we could grow different kinds, including cinnamon raison, Daddy's favorite.

Happy Father's Day

The kids were loving and wonderful to their dad today... for about an hour. Then things went downhill.

Dinner might have been awesome. I bought some wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon and Steve grilled it perfectly after I prepped everything for him. We were all sitting down to eat and I was commenting how it was "like butta," when I noticed the puddle that Owen was perched over on his chair and on the floor. So I had to clean that up. Then I sat down to continue to enjoy my dinner. Owen, who decided that he actually liked the salmon, took too large of a bite of it, and rather than just spit it out, he proceeded to let it gag him. As I tried to get a napkin for him to spit it into, he actually started vomiting. I contained most of it and got to clean up another mess before finishing my dinner. Sigh. A little while later, he pooped in his pants. Keep in mind that earlier in the day, Owen pooped in his pants, didn't tell us (we had to smell it) because he was too busy playing, and then promised to stay clean and dry the rest of the day for Father's Day.

Oh, and Sierra was just completely awful. She was going to cry and whine no matter what we did. So while I was running errands, Steve got her to take a nap. A really long nap. Have I mentioned what happens when Sierra takes a nap? She can't sleep at night. I didn't even try to put her to bed at bedtime. It was like 9:40 when I put her in bed. At 10:30 she was still wide awake. I'm not sure if she's sleeping yet.

Happy Father's Day!

A really good laugh

The Because I Said So blog always makes me laugh, but this particular posting with recipes for sandwiches from a 1930's cookbook is particularly funny. (Ooolia, take note for your next menu!)

Fun weekend for the kids

Last Thursday, Sierra had her gymnastics "show" where she got to show off what she can do and got a medal. Here's my very strong girl on the uneven bars:


And here she is with her friend Ethan ("boyee friend!") showing off their medals:


From there we drove up to North Conway, NH, where we went to Storyland. Daddy got to go on lots and lots of small spinning rides:


We also spent a lot of time on the water slide in our hotel. The kids had a great time and really progressed with their comfort in the water:



I'm not sure what they would say if you asked them, but it sure seemed like the Happy Meal toy was the highlight of the trip. Sigh.

What kind of sports car are you?

Another silly quiz!!

I'm a Mazda RX-8!

You're sporty, yet practical, and you have a style of your own. You like to have fun, and you like to bring friends along for the ride, but when it comes time for everyday chores, you're willing to do your part.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

The difference between boys and girls...

This is a recurring topic of conversation these days. For both kids. Boys have penises. Girls don't. What do girls have? Where does the pee come out?

Sierra's intrigued by penises. Imagine this: She's sitting at gymnastics class next to her dad with all the other kids and their parents waiting on instructions. She asks, "Daddy, do you have a penis?" "Yes." "Can I see it?"

Owen is confused that girls do not have penises. I'm in the mall public restroom in the handicapped stall with both kids. Owen asks, "Why do you sit down to pee?" "Well I don't have a penis to aim with, so I have to sit down to pee." "Were does the pee come out? The same hole as your poop?" "No, there's a different hole for the pee to come out." "Where is it?" "It's in about the same place as where your penis is, but there's no penis." "Can I see it?" "Owen, we're in a public bathroom, can we talk about this at home later...?"

Bathtub conversations between the two kids is becoming interesting sometimes, too. When is it time to make the kids take separate baths? I'm trying to be as nonchalant about it all as I can. I don't want the kids to be uptight about sex and sexuality, and I'm sure that attitudes I pass along now will be hard to change later. In the meantime, their curiosity is quite amusing.

I got in over my head, a bit...

Another cake! This time, I planned something not only fairly complicated and detailed, but big. I kind of got in over my head and had to spend most of the last week working on it, neglecting my kids and my exercising in the process, and staying up really late too many nights in a row. Since I promised a cool cake for the preschool's party celebrating the purchase of the building, I thought how cool to make the cake look like the building. But the building is itself is pretty boring, so how about the building and the grounds, too?? I wanted to include key elements of the playground -- the tire swing, the play house, the climber, the swings, the trees, the sandbox.... I used six boxes of cake mix, eight lbs. of confectioner's sugar, a dozen and a half eggs, ... well, you get the idea. Just all the baking and mixing frosting took a lot of time. Then I had a lot of pieces to try to prepare for final assembly, without really knowing how they would work out. Anyway, here are some photos:





Aerial view:


The swing sets and tire swing turned out very fragile, and though I got the tire swing to work (thank goodness because that's Owen's favorite) I only got one of the two sets of swings on there and part of it was replaced with a toothpick. I wanted two trees (because there are two on the playground) but really only one fit. The climber, which I made out of royal icing, had to be created in two-dimensional pieces and assembled at the last minute. I didn't know if it would fit together and work at all, but it turned out to be one of the best parts:

The climber:


Here's the real climber:


Also, the mailbox, one of the simplest pieces on the cake, which I created on a whim, added a charming detail that everyone loved.

And the number one question that people asked me about the cake: "How long did that take you?" And the answer: I don't want to think about that!!

It was a huge hit, to say the least. I'm pretty proud of it, but I don't think I'll do a cake that big and complicated again until I hone more of my skills AND have a much bigger kitchen to stage all the pieces, if ever.