Yummmmmm

I thought it would be easier to make cake pops than a complicated Star Wars battle ship. And to some degree, I was right. But then reality hit and I was left holding one cake pop on a stick at a time waiting not-so-patiently for the chocolate coating to harden before I could dip another one. And then there was the question of where to store all of them? After I filled the three styrofoam bricks and still had over 25 to go, I ran out to my garage, got the old, I mean, ancient, cooler from the 90's that has seen so many campgrounds with Brian and me, and turned it on its side. There... instant cake pop stand.

music music music

The boys' music concert went off without a hitch. The compromise minutes before we headed up to the high school auditorium was that Logan could keep the "mohawk" he had worn to school that day if he agreed to wear a "church" shirt. Anything with a collar sends him in a downward spiral, so I picked a battle I could live with: hair or shirt, his choice. I had a feeling which one he'd pick. And Michael just sang his little heart out.

Happy Easter

You can dress them up, AND take them out. My handsome boys. Haven't had a picture with them in quite a while. And now, since it's mid-May, I should really update this blog. More pics to come.

We've been flocked

We woke up to a flock of flamingoes all over our front yard. Yay! Fun, cool a great fundraiser for our church youth group: you can send a flock to another family for $20. Then they have to pay a removal fee. You can, however, buy insurance to block the flock. Then the sender will have to pay extra to make sure your yard is pink. As I was saying, this is all well and good... unless you get flocked the day before Easter. And then--all your neighbors think you decorated your yard for Easter. Ugh!

The boys are loving the birds; I even enjoyed them until four or five people drove up and told us how much they liked our Easter decorations. NO!!!! They're not Easter decorations. This flocking has been going on all month and will continue for many more weeks. And we get the pink on Easter. Sheesh. So here are the boys after two services, which is why Logan has lost the tie and is ready to lose the rest of his church clothes any minute. They looked really handsome when we left our house for the first service this morning. Where was my camera then?

p.s. Flamingoes in the tree as well:)

goodbye, paas. hello silk ties!

A good friend invited us to "tie-dye" eggs. I was thinking groovy sixties, but then she told me I needed to go shopping for 100% silk TIES. Oooohhhhhh, "tie"-dying. A quick trip to Soroptomists for all the silk ties they had(.75/tie), and a few minutes cutting them up was all it took for these gorgeous works of art. Not kidding. It was easy and fun for all our kids. The best was the big reveal--unwrapping them after they had boiled in the ties. The oooohs and ahhhhhs were precious, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more: the moms or the kids. And, as is often the case in life, the ugliest ties made for the most stunning eggs. Happy Easter everyone!

handsome handsome

Upon Logan's insistence, we took the boys for haircuts. While I loved watching Logan's flowing locks blow in the wind as he ran like a gazelle, his hair was driving him crazy. And we are foolish enough to think that it will one day be warm here in the Pacific NW that we figured short is better.

The other day we got home from school, and I made the boys their usual afternoon snack. Routine calls for hand-washing and then homework while they eat their snack. But on this particular day, I was pleasantly surprised to walk in to the dining room to find both boys working assiduously on unassigned creative writing: comic strips. They both just wanted to write stories. Now, these tales included blood and death, of course, but I am thankful for baby steps. They were writing. And there was no hair in their eyes.

redhead hogs

Rest assured, my son will NEVER have a motorcycle.. at least not while he's under my roof. However, what are you going to say when Uncle Ed offers to take you for a ride?