a long-awaited visit from the cousins

Our cousins came to visit last weekend! The boys were very excited to see them and Aunt Kim and Uncle Chris (who, we learned later from Ewan is "half good and half evil"). Poor Chris did get beat on a fair amount by our boys-I guess he was like fresh meat to them-but he was a good sport about it. We mostly hung out, played a fair amount of Just Dance 2 on the Wii (see previous post for videos of the kids dancing), went to a consignment sale :-) and hauled ourselves to the Little Husky Festival. I say every year that I don't want to go, and every year, we end up going. I don't like it because it's crowded and there's usually long lines to play the different games. Pretty much, you buy tickets to play games, to win tickets, to trade in for Oriental Trading catalog prizes. The plus to this year's event was that the Butler basketball game was on in just about every room and we got to see them win! Final Four here we come! Dinner, more Wii time and off to bed-Saturday was a full day. Cale and Cassie-looking cool in their new shades, courtesy of the festival the traditional cousins couch photo-Ewan, Savannah, Liam, Marcus, Marie, Cale and Cassie (the C's didn't fit on the couch-everyone's getting bigger/older) click here http://redheadedwarriors.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-evening.html for the previous couch photo to see how they've grown :-) You may not be able to tell by his face, but Liam did enjoy seeing his cousins and the girls were quite taken by him as well. still cool the next day

Just Dance fun

I checked out Just Dance 2 from the library for last weekend while the cousins were here. Little did I know how much everyone would like it! I may have to find a copy to buy for us. Here are three little videos I took of some of the kids dancing. The camera is a little fuzzy on one side. I thought it was the lighting in the room, turns out, the lens was smeared and needed cleaned off :-).

a recent visit from Grammy Pammy

The weekend after St. Patrick's Day, Grammy Pammy came for a visit. She hadn't been to see us since right before the new year-winter kept her away. She brought a tote full of girl clothes from Aunt Bitsy that the boys helped sort. They were facinated by the girl colors and some of the fabric choices for the outfits. Liam was more facintated by the empty tote. He did not want to get out or let us put clothes back into it. One of the fun things we usually do with Grammy is get a meal at our (the boys') favorite restaurant-McDonalds. It was extra exciting because I took us to the nearest one with a play area so the kids could run around. The one we went to also has a video game station, so instead of climbing all over the climbing thing, they spent a fair portion of their time trying to play those games. I cut that plan short with an executive decision to take them all to the nearest park. It was cool out, but the sun kept everyone warm. The other fun thing the boys like to do with Grammy is play board games and card games. This can be tough, because some of the boys-mostly Cale-are very competitive and always want to win. This time, Grammy played a Lego game, some Uno, Chutes and Ladders (in which she claimed the boys all cheated) and her "favorite" game-Monopoly. Not the junior version either. The grown up, count out your money, buy your properties, chance, go to jail, etc. monopoly. The boys are big fans-Grammy-not so much. But, she was a very good sport and played a short game with them. You can see how much Grammy loves this game :-)

Thanks for coming to visit Grammy!

Cale's on two wheels!

Look who's on 2 wheels! Cale decided to try out his bike on Sunday and he did great. I remember last year, Cale was not happy that Andy took the training wheels off his bike and that kind of stopped the bike riding for the season. This year, Cale was doing a lot of scooter riding, but then, he asked for his bike. Andy promised Cale a new helmet if he learns to ride 2 wheels. I guess it won't be long before we go shopping.

the walls are green!

Just forgive the clutter and focus on my newly painted green walls! We met our timeline of finishing the painting by last Wednesday. The living room/kitchen walls went from a gray color to guacamole. At first, I was a little overwhelmed with how green the walls looks, but as we kept painting, the color looked better. I love how it makes the cabinet wood pop now and it goes great with the dark brown we painted the front room.

Now, I need to find some artwork to hang on the walls. Andy and I are not quite agreeing on what to hang, which is fine since I have no time to look anyway and it takes me forever to make decisions on pictures.

Happy late St. Pats Day!

I hope everyone had a nice St. Patrick's Day. It's my favorite holiday because there is no expectation for it. You can do lots of stuff, you can do nothing-wonderful.

I was more than averagely motivated to do a few things for the boyos for this day. I started out by making breakfast-green pancakes. The kids were happy. They like pancakes anyway and the green was a cool bonus. I tried to encourage the boys to wear green, especially Marcus and Cale since I didn't want them getting pinched at school (if anyone does that anymore). Ewan swore he did not have a green shirt and I really don't think he cared. (Later in the day, he did put on a green tshirt that was in his dresser-imagine that!)

Liam wore green, too, but I never did get his picture. I was a little busy that day. Andy's treat for St. P's day was to get all 4 of his wisdom teeth cut out. The dentist had been on him for several years to get it done and we finally made the appointment. Andy did fine, the whole thing took about 2 hours and that included going to CVS afterwords to get his perscriptions. We got him home and he slept for a few hours and woke up in time to see his Butler Bulldogs win their first game in the NCAA tourney.

I also made rainbow cupcakes for the boys. They were pretty easy-just a cake mix that you separted into different bowls and dyed different colors. They were pretty to look at and pretty good to eat. No pictures of those-they only lasted a few days.

No corned beef and cabbage for dinner either. Andy probably wasn't up to eat that kind of meal, the boys would have complained about eating "real" food and I had to work anyway. We saved the corned beef for the weekend and had reuben sandwiches. :-)

How lucky are we?

It says, "I am lucky because I am rich." Cale

I guess we really are.

Cale's kindergarten program

Cale had his kindergarten program last night. It was a farm theme and all the kids wore "farm" looking clothes. Cale actually wore a pair of jeans-the first time in months. (If there are only jeans left in Marcus and Cale's drawers, they will come tell me they have no pants to wear.)
The kids that performed last night were half of the kindergarten population (the other show, with the other kids is tomorrow night), so almost everyone, it seemed, had a speaking part. Cale did his line great. You could understand what he said. The songs went quickly and I think the whole program took about 40 minutes. We actually had great seats since we got to the school early. Here's 2 photos from the night.

Cale's line was, "The problem with this cow is that she's not part of a team. What's obvious with this cow, is lack of self-esteem."


There's Cale, on the end, second row up. Perfect for taking pictures. He was so cute. He told me earlier in the week not to be sad during the lost sheep song. :-) He did a great job singing!

Marcus had his first sleep over

Friday night, Marcus was invited to another little boy's house to spend the night. I was barely involved though, since this all went down when I was on my way to work. The boy (who is also in 2nd grade and lives in our subdivision) brought a note over from his mother, introducing herself and asking if Marcus could spend the night. My baby sitter texted me and I called her to get the information. I had never met the boy and it was 10 minutes till I had to be at work, so I defered this decision to Andy. Andy was on his way home, talked to the mom and when he got home, he walked Marcus over to see if he wanted to stay. Turns out, this boy has been to our house several times to play. (Must be when Andy's home and I am at work) Andy said that Marcus wasn't sure at first, but he decided to stay at the boy's house. I think we both thought that Andy would get a phone call in the middle of the night, but he didn't. I kept checking my phone to see if Andy would text me that he had to go get Marcus. Anyway,Marcus had fun. I guess they stayed up until midnight playing video games and they watched some wrestling. When he came home the next morning, Marcus looked tired and that afternoon, he actually took a nap. I guess we'll be having a sleep over here soon in the future.

a little bit of pink

Our baby girl got her first presents the other day-2 cute outfits. The mom that bought them knows Andy and only has boys. She was excited to buy for a girl and wanted to get her her first leopard print clothing. Mission accomplished.
Then, today, my friend Karol gave me some hair ribbons that she had from her girls. I think I was more excited than Andy. ("What are these for?" They're for your hair Andy.) How fun to start hoarding things away for later!

sweet freedom for the wee-man

The baby gate is down! (for now) Liam has mastered walking down the stairs. He really likes being able to go up and down whenever he wants. He especially likes going into his brothers' room to find cool toys to bring downstairs.

Such a big boy!

scenes from the chili cook-off

Saturday was the chili cook-off at Ewan's preschool. I make sure to bring the kids every year. They don't like chili, but they do like games and dessert. Don't worry, there are sandwiches for the kids too, so they don't starve :-). They had fun. There were carnival type games to play, soda bottles to win at the ring toss (we have four bottles now that we don't even drink) and desserts to pick through. I let each of the boys pick their own desserts. Marcus picked a peanut butter, chocolate covered rice crispie looking thing. Ewan picked a cupcake with gummy worms on it. Cale picked the biggest cinnamon roll he could find and Liam helped himself to 2 cupcakes! The first one we gave him, the second one he walked up to the dessert table and helped himself too! The ladies thought that was very cute-he pretty much has most people wrapped around his finger. All I could think of was all the sugar frosting he was getting. He was a very happy little boy for the rest of the night-until his sugar high came crashing down :-).

Here's Liam ready to eat. He anticipates the flash on the camera, hence the closed eyes.


Ewan got some salad and applesauce.

I managed to get a picture of Marcus before he ducked under the table.

Finally, an eyes open pic of Liam!

But, some of the others wanted eyes closed pictures....Cale

...and Ewan.

The spoils of war. Candy, toys and soda.

The chilis Andy and I tasted were okay. None of them stood out this year as totally awesome. We didn't stay the whole time, so I don't know who won. They had a bake sale too, which I made a few things for. I made a chocolate covered cherry cake, some cinnamon blueberry bars and cookie pops. I have to share the recipe for the chocolate covered cherry cake because it is one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. I got the recipe from the Cake-Mix Doctor Cookbook.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake

1 box of devil's food cake mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 can of cherry pie filling (21oz)

mix these four ingredients together and then pour into a greased cake pan. bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. that's it! I covered mine with a chocolate glaze, but frosting would be great too.

Delicious!

lawnmowers are cool!

We went to Lowes today to buy a new dishwasher. We are on a plan to have all matching appliances in the kitchen (white, GE). The only one left now is the stove. The dishwasher we have isn't broken per se, but a piece that connects the top rack to the wheely thing that pulls it out broke about a month ago. So that kind of cemented our decision to get the dishwasher.

Anyway, we had Ewan and Liam (the worst shopper ever) with us and the first thing they found when we entered the store-after Liam took off running down an aisle-were the riding lawn mowers. One of these could mow our yard in about 10 seconds-maybe a little more. The boys let me take their pictures sitting on the mowers...

I also wanted to showcase Liam's shorter haircut. His hair was getting shaggy, even for me, so Andy took him to our favorite haircutter to give him more of a little boy haircut. I'm sure Andy was thinking that it was about time.


Once I took Liam's picture, Ewan wanted one too. He's a much better shopper than Liam and was able to entertain himself better in the kitchen department. I think he was a little disappointed that there were no doors to play with and run through like at Menards.

Marcus's tournament action

The HHPS Georgia Bulldogs entered tournament action last Saturday as the #2 seed (of 6) in the SEC tournament. They earned a first round bye, and played their first game on Saturday morning. I can't remember who they played, but they won-letting the other team come within 3 points before getting the win. Marcus had a good game and did what he does best-get the rebounds (he is one of the tallest kids on the team). I don't think he took any shots or really tried to dribble the ball. He did well, and you could here other parents cheer for him when he did get the rebound.

The Bulldogs played that afternoon in the tournament finale. They played the Kentucky Wildcats, who happened to be the number one seed in the tournament. I stayed home so Liam and Ewan could take naps and Andy and Cale went to the game. I got updates via text as to the score and it was nerve-wracking to look at the phone everytime a message came through. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs lost by 2 points in a very well-played game. Andy said that Marcus did well again. He started each game and played a good portion of both. The coaches made a good effort to make sure that each player got an equal amount of playing time.

Marcus got his trophy and got his picture taken with his team-thank you Andy! Again, I think the boys had a lot of fun with this basketball experience and we will try to do this again next year. Here's the team-you can see Marcus on the end in the blue shorts (he's #7).