Adventures in Cooking

The kids love to help, the Mom in me loves the idea of them helping. The type A personality in my does not love it so much, but we do it anyway! This week the project was Pizza - a crowd favorite. Keira really loved kneading the dough. She wanted to eat it right there - I think she thought it would taste like cookie dough. Mallory's favorite part was eating the toppings. I would hand her a pepporoni and instead of putting it on the pizza, she would put it in her mouth. She thought it was hilarious!

Mallory to the left super excited about the pizza. Below she is stealing a pepporoni!

B

Our next cooking club fun will be Grandma's birthday cake - I am sure that there will be good pictures of that!

How did we go from

<----------------this

to this --------------->

so quickly??

One of those things you hear about a million billion times when you are pregnant or have recently had a baby is "Enjoy them now, they grow up so quickly". And you don't listen. Because everyone says it. And you don't really want anyone's advice anyway. And really, it's just something people say, right?!? Well, I am hear to tell you for the million billion and 1 times ... it really does go by fast, really really fast, like crazy fast. Enjoy them now!

Today was the first day of school. We were up early (Mal is teething, such fun), and Keira was ready to put her school clothes on at about 6:30 am. From then on, every 5 minutes, is it time to go to the bus stop yet? Is it time now? How long is 30 minutes? Is that long? Seriously kid, you are taking the fun out of the day. But we did, at last, make it to the bus stop. She was so excited, she practically ran on to the bus. She sat with her friend Haley and they waved to us from the window as the bus was pulling away. And then the water works began. Life will never be the same. It was the end of an era. No more tuesday morning trips to the park, no more thursday lunches at chick-fil-a. Don't get me wrong ... I know this is the beginning of something new and great, but I am not quite ready to embrace it yet. Too busy remembering all the fun we had.

She came home still excited, but tired and hungry. She had a great first day, didn't get lost finding her way to the classroom. Best part of her day was lunch, followed closely by recess. We hope to get more details soon, but she was pretty tight lipped with what actually went on in the classroom. But we heard no complaints.

Mal fared pretty well. She kept asking where "KK" was, I would tell her that she was at school and then Mal would ask me Why? and we would go round and round ... eventually she would drop it and we'd find something else to do. She didn't better than I thought she would.

I wallowed in sadness for about half the day and then kept myself busy to bus pick up time.

Tomorrow is day 2 ... hopefully it will be easier tomorrow!

Tomorrow is D day

So this was it... our last bit of freedom. School starts tomorrow. The last 3 days have been filled with lots of fun. Sadly, none of it caught on camera as I just forgot to bring the darn thing. We went to The Incredible Pizza Company on sunday. It is basically a big chuck e cheese. They get you though because you HAVE to order pizza there to go in -- it is a buffet. So we walk in the door, we got there right when it opened. And their registers weren't up yet, so they let us eat for free! Y'all know I love free! So that made the experience even better. We ate, we played games, and (Keira's favorite part) got to pick out prizes from the tickets she won. Thankfully, she chose another stuffed animal ... because you know, we don't have enough of those laying around ;) And for whatever reason, anytime she brings home one of these crappy stuffed animals, Peanut thinks they are toys for her and chases Keira around mercilessly until she has to hide the toy away. Weird, right?

Monday, we spent at the zoo. It was an excellent trip. First, we hadn't been since early June because it has been so so hot. Second, the weather was awesome. It was really cloudy and the temperature didn't get above 80 degrees the entire time we were there. Third, we got to see the Hippos! This is always the girls favorite part and the Hippos weren't out last time. They have this big enclosure where you can see the Hippos swim - the girls watched for about 20 minutes! It really is cool. We rode the carousel, ate Popsicles, and got blisters on our feet from walking so much (I got over 9,000 steps at the zoo!). Fun Fun Fun.

Tuesday we went out to lunch, Keira's choice. Which was (of course) McDonald's. Mmmm, yum. Insert sarcasm here. But it was her day, so we went and loved it. We were supposed to have a playdate with a friend from preschool, but her brother broke his leg and had to get it set, so we had to cancel. And then we were going to go to the park, but it rained. So we went ot the play area at the mall and met another friend to play. Then we went and had frozen yogurt at the new Orange Leaf place. It was cool. The girls really loved the chairs and the yogurt too! It is a self serve place and you even get to put your own toppings on. Keira choose gummy bears and M&Ms on her orange flavored frozen yogurt. Glad I wasn't sharing with her. It is sort of an interesting study in marketing there - they charge by the ounce, and again it is all self-serve, and they only have one size of cup - and it is super large. So if you fill it up, you are going to have an expensive bowl of yogurt. Anyway, just something I thought was interesting. Also, the spoons are extremely well made - not the flimsy plastic that most places have. Seems like a waste to me. I know, I need a job or something right?!?

Then we came home for baths and stories and bedtime. Aunt Suzie and Uncle Ryan bought Keira the book "The Night Before Kindergarten" so that was tonight's pick. A cute story.

Check back tomorrow for pictures of Keira on her first day as well as an update on my emotional state ;)

Just something I read

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life ... He said to them, "A fight is going on inside of me, it is a terrible fight, a fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil - he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person too."

They thought about this for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win, Grandfather?"

The elder simply replied, "The one you feed".

This is what I get

Sometimes, you trust your kids too much. Wade and I were upstairs this weekend in Mallory's room putting together a new bookcase. The kids were running around, but finally landed in the basement to play. I checked on them periodically, they were playing nicely and relatively quietly ... so I startd spacing out the checking on them ... and this is what I get ...

Thankfully, it was washable marker. And it didn't get anywhere but on them. Keira got the bright idea that they could be green smurfs. Awesome. Just another day in the life. :)