Blah blah

Yesterday morning the boys were mooching my breakfast off of me. Taye came over and asked, "Can I have some, please?" Darius, looking very serious, came over and asked, "Numalumaluma? Peese?" Of course I said no.

The other night I was baking for the neighbors (my moms says thats what I get for talking to people...) when Taye came in and asked, "What the heck are you doing Mama?"

Don't ask why...

The other morning I was making scrambled eggs for breakfast. One of the eggs just would not crack, the shell did, but the thin membrane was still intact.

For some reason I thought it would be cool to see if I could take the whole shell off without ruining the membrane - then I would have a membrane-egg. And that would be cool. Not that I have any idea what I would do with it.

Anyway, I got a little more than halfway before I sprung a small leak at the top.

A few more pieces later, I had three big holes, and decided to give it up.

I still think it would have been cool to have a membrane-egg. :o)

Thanks Murphy

I don't really know who Murphy is, or why he gets to make a law, or even why his law is still in effect when everyone hates it so much. But I want to thank him for having his law, which caused Luis' car to die on Tuesday. I know it was Murphy's Law because we only needed it to last until February or so, just until our tax return came in. And because just two short months ago, we put over $300 into it, in hopes that would be good enough to get us to February. And also because it is a 20 year old car, so asking it to last just 2 more months (with a nice 2 week break coming up) is clearly just too much to ask. So thank you Murphy, thank you for making a law that brings frustration and annoyance to those around you (wherever you are). Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Drumroll, please...

The train table, as I have mentioned, is finished, and is ready for its big unveiling. I think they're going to hate it :o)

Buppa the Builder:


Here is the finished frame and top:


Then we had to glue and screw the track on top to make sure they don't fall off when the top is flipped:

That was the end of a long days work at the shop (for Buppa, I made blocks). When we got it home, the real fun began. I started by painting a nice green around the tracks:


Then I took a darker green and sponged that over the green base to make it look more like grass:


The end result:

Next I painted the chalkboard side (picture below) and then the frame. I just chose an off-white for the frame, so it would match the green and the black of the chalkboard paint:


Knowing Buppa will be checking, I even painted inside the corners:



The other night Luis and I painted the little wooden chairs with the rest of the green paint. I also made these bags several weeks ago to hole all the pieces when its time to flip the top over:

One is just a big sack for holding the train pieces...


and the other has a big pouch for paper, and a smaller pouch for the chalk and eraser:

So here it is, the completed project! The chalkboard side:

And the train side (complete with chairs):


I even set up all the pieces so that you, my adoring public, could see the whole package. :o) Plus, the houses are kind of pointless, and I'm planning on just throwing them in with the blocks since I think they'll get more use that way, so it may never be set up this nicely again!


Its kind of a silly set anyway, look at the proportions!


And the train jumpers (kids, do not try this at home, very dangerous!)

We also found Sasquatch living in the little town's forest:

These guys saw him and just fainted dead away:

And since we all know he is going to end up there anyway, we sent Mack on a test run.


OK, clearly I had too much time on my hands last night while setting this up and taking pictures. What can I say, I guess I should start a new project!

Christmas Party

Last night we went to Matt, Tia, Olivia, and Eva's house for our traditional, annual do-something-together-for-Christmas get-together. We have been trying to come up with some sort of a tradition to do together every year, and I think we've finally found the perfect one - dinner and Christmas cookies! We had a really great time.

First, of course, there were presents! We gave the girls their leggings (someone opened them before Olivia woke up, so I did some last minute re-wrapping). They were a hit, and Olivia put them on right away (they fit!)


Tia made the boys these really cute pillow cases:



And she made this super cozy blanket for me, uh, I mean the boys...

For dinner Matt made delicious burgers, and we had salad to go with it. Darius came up with some, um, interesting ways of eating his. For the record, that is a screwdriver, not a knife (which is way better, and safer).


After dinner, it was playtime! There was a lot of running around, giggling, tickling:

And babies:

At some point the grownups just couldn't wait any more - we wanted cookies! It was too late (and we were too impatient) to chill the dough so that we could cut out shapes. We decided to just make balls and decorate with sprinkles and frosting. The kids were all excited to help out with the dough making. I felt a little like Martha Stewart leading the group. There was a lot of measuring:

And mixing:

And more measuring:

And even more mixing:


And baby kissing:

And finally it was time for sprinkles! Olivia, I learned, is a very serious cookie decorator. She concentrates very hard, and does some amazing work.

And Taye likes to sample his work before its done, you know, to make sure its not poisoned for the rest of us.

We also learned that the red sugar sprinkles come out the fastest.


Once the decorating was complete, they were ready for the oven:

While they cooked, Taye and Olivia helped us clean the sprinkle mess off the table.


Then there was nothing left to do but wait for them to be done cooking. We waited...


and waited...

(for the record, he was actually knocking on the oven door at this point, but that doesn't really come through in pictures)

and waited...
Finally, after 10 long minutes they were done! We let them cool off, then frosted them.


And after all that hard work, we were able to enjoy the delicious cookies!


I think it was definitely a tradition in the making. Everyone had such a great time, and there were yummy cookies - what more could we ask for? We stayed for a little while longer, and finally decided it was time to head home. I can't wait for next year!