A few silly kiddie stories.

I left Austin in a clean living room to do some sewing. When I came back I saw that he was still playing quietly, only the entire room had been tossed. Cards & games were strewn all over the place. Frustrated, I asked Austin what he had done to the room. Without looking up he calmly said, "I didn't do anything." "Well, then," I wonder, "how did this room get like this?" With a shrug of his shoulders but still not bothering to look up, he mumbled, "I don't know. It's a mystery." Yeah, it's a mystery how I didn't start using a paddle at that moment.

Putting Austin's favorite orange pajamas on I said, "Where is my pumpkin boy?" Austin put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Mama. Can you stop saying I am a pumpkin boy. Every time you say that, it is annoying."

Here is my pumpkin boy sleeping with all of his dogs. Even a book got in to the party. This child is slightly obsessive..don't you think?
After I got home from grocery shopping I told the twins they could play outside. We have a plastic pool with a slide on the porch which had gotten some rain so I moved the slide to the grass and told them they could use it there. 5 minutes later pig-tailed Alaina streaks past me, buck naked. To emphasis the point she squeals, "I'm NAKED! WHOo-hoo!" I only get a "wwwhhaa?" out before I rush outside. There is Austin sliding down the slide (which they had put back into the pool.) "Look at me! I'm naked too!" So full of joy. So full of enthusiasm. So proud of themselves. So not going to happen. My twinnes were crestfallen as I redressed them in the backyard. "But we like being naked," they reasoned. Don't I know it.

Here I am holding the twinnies like I used to when then were babies.
Those rotten kids were at it again. Austin asked me to make a key-lime pie. Apparently he saw it on the back of a cereal box. A few days later Ethan demanded Flan. In order to make them sweat it out I waited two days before I broke down and bought key limes and a flan packet. I'm tough.

Here is Strawberry Souffle - Failure 2. I'm only more determined to get it right.
A few days ago Ethan came home and proudly stated to all who would listen. "I am NOT a Steeler's fan!" Anyone who vaguely knows us, knows that sports are not a common topic in our house, so my response shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. "Steeler's? Ok. What do they play? Baseball? Basketball?" (no need to rush the good news on me...I looked it up and not only did I find out they were football people but, oddly enough, from Pittsburgh and not Charlotte. Why would my boy care about a Pittsburgh team?) Ethan seemed equally confused at what sport they played and impatiently brushed off my question. "I don't know. But I am NOT a Steeler's fan! Sharif & Valaria from my class ARE Steeler's fans...but I am NOT!" Aha...my interest is sufficiently piqued. "Why not?" That, apparently, was enough to incite an eye-roll and a sigh. "Because..." (I love it when they slow down their speech for their not-so-clever mother.) "Stealing is naughty and I don't like it. So I am NOT a fan!" Whatever could possibly make more sense than that?
My sweet Ethan-boy went through a phase of making these little people for us and leaving them as surprises on our pillows or any place we'd find them. They are so cute that I held on to them. I usually throw everything away, so this was so out of character for me. You have to click on the picture to get the full effect.

Yeah! I finished Alaina's 1st dress from a pattern. That's right. An actual pattern. Let me tell you, when is says, "easy" on the pattern...it's lying. A zipper, alone, is way up there on the "so much harder than it looks" list.
Another problem I encountered was the measuring. Now, I measured the waist, chest and height perfectly. The problem was that there weren't any head measurements. Many of you may be unaware of the fact that my daughter has a giant noggin. Off the charts. 'It's like an orange on a toothpick!' Too harsh? 'Ah, go cry on your huge pilla if you can fit through the door' (anyone NOT get that movie?) Little did I know that this massive head was going to totally throw off all the other measurements. When I finished the bodice we barely squeezed it onto her head. Once on it nearly became impossible to remove it without taking her head off with it. Total nightmare.
I had to scrap the entire thing and create my own pattern to accommodate the melon. I cut the neck larger so that it would fit Laina's head and her pageant hair. I also made the arm holes a little larger so they would be more comfortable. After that the only real problems came when I had to work that zipper in. The first attempt was a complete catastrophe and the second/last attempt works but isn't too pretty.
And the last think that I think I'll do on this dress is move the bow about an inch more towards the belly. It's an easy fix and I didn't want to bother with it before the pictures. Just imagine that it is already done. ;)


I told her to show off the skirt and she almost showed a little too much off. Such an obedient, enthusiastic child.

Okay...now that's a little better.

And here's the money shot. I refused to buy any of the kiddies school pictures this year because they all turned out so horribly. Weird, forced smiles with tacky backgrounds. Problem is, now I have a wall with year old pictures on it. Shame on me. So I think this one will go on the wall.
Since Austin hated watching all the hoop-la without being involved, I primped him up a little too. He got a little dolled up and let me take a few pictures of him.
Poor Ethan missed out on the make-over since he was at school. Here are my little sweet twinnies together.
Sweet little lambs...they just love each other so much.

Last week when Robert was spending his spring break out on a beach in Mexico, being fanned with palm tree leaves and being fed grapes on what he likes to call a "work trip" wink-wink, I was home, alone, with all the kiddies. To spread out all the fun on my spring no-break, I decided to take the monsters to the zoo in Columbia, SC. This little zoo is about 1 1/2 hours away and really a perfect size for little ones. Despite my whiner (Austin) deciding that he wanted to go home after 10 minutes of being there, we had a pretty good time. I'm trying to remember what we did with the rest of the week...but I'm blanking it out. That's not a good sign.

Here is our zoo trip.

Happy Easter!

Decorating the eggs.

The egg hunt.


The loot.

My three cuties.

Me & baby girl. The sun was so bright we could hardly look up. I got my hair chopped off last week. Little old lady 'do?

A Souffle who became Souf-flat.
A sad little story about the little souffle who couldn't.

I thought I had it under control. Sure, Rob's been gone all Spring Break. Not a problem. It is also true that I got home about an hour after I thought I would. Bring it on. I was confident that I could do it all.

So between running back and forth throwing the kids in and out of baths and cooking up a quick dinner of shrimp and rice, I may have gotten a little careless with the souffle. The recipe called for 1 cup of strawberry puree. I threw in over 2 cups of mashed. Isn't more sometimes more? Is it possible to ever have too much strawberry? Wouldn't chunky strawberry bits be little surprise bites of pure heaven? The recipe asked to scoop the mixture into little souffle dishes coated with olive oil. Ah...Pam will work. And who owns souffle dishes?

The oven beeped just as we were finishing our rice bowls. Alaina was beaming, she was so happy. I brought out the not-so-puffy souffle. Apparently chunks of yummalicious strawberries creates pockets of hot juice that prevents a souffle from souffing. Not only that but it pools at the bottom creating a slimy layer of mush. I'm also thinking that the oil on the pan kept the souffle from cementing to the sides. Not so much with the Pam.

We covered our soupy flat sponge pieces with piles of sugary strawberries and cool whip. Not too bad. We'll just title this one "Strawberry Souffle - Take One."

Here is my little princess getting almost exactly what she asked for.

This is what happens when I tell the twinnies to play while I'm busy.

And this is what happens when I tell Ethan to keep the twinnies occupied while I'm busy.



"Come on...Smile for mama!"


And this is what happens when I tell Robert to occupy the kiddies.