EZ bake? I think not

We decided to break out the ez bake oven today. I was instantly reminded how there is nothing easy about it! I like to think of it as the "big pain in the ass oven".

It takes 20 minutes to heat up. It takes 16 minutes to bake a cake. And 10 minutes to bake each batch of nickel sized cupcakes. We have used about 10 bowls, spoons, knives, etc to mix batter and frosting. I am not exaggerating.

All of that for a bite sized reward.This is the finished batch (yes, that's the whole batch) of chocolate truffles. 

And these are two bathes of red velvet cupcakes. Yep, they are nickel sized too. 

Luckily, savannah has a better attention span these days. When she first got this she would get bored before the oven even heated up!!

So, I dropped one batch and burned my hand trying to pick the pan up. And now I need to go run the dishwasher and hand-wash the pans because they are not dishwasher safe. Oh...ez bake oven...you are one of my least favorite "toys"!

Dress up!

Monster High clones.

Savannah got an eye mask at a sleepover party, and realized that she now has an outfit just like one of her monster high dolls. So, here she is posing all dressed up as Draculora!

Monday fun day

Monday was Presidents' Day, which means that the kids stayed home and we found something fun to do. Since there's nothing to do in Tuacaloosa,  we did the one thing we always do - go to the children's museum. 

Gage played bank teller...

We played a few mean rounds of hangman and tic tac toe.

We pretended it was a blizzard in the little closet that blows ping pong balls around them.

Savannah built an obstacle course

Mommy surrounded Gage by Velcro shapes

And then...Gage crawled into a kaleidoscope!

That's a lot of Gages!!

Crazy hair

No, it's not crazy hair day at school.  It's just Gage, who badly needs a haircut!

Luckily, we took care of this crazy hair the other day. His hair grows so fast it's unbelievable!

Birthday celebtation #1

We had an early birthday celebration last night because Adam left for a conference today and won't get home until late on Valentine's Day. So, here is celebration #1 (I think we have 4 celebrations - last night, tomorrow in her class at school, on her birthday, and at the end of this month for her sleepover party). How in the world is Savannah 8 years old already?!?!

 

 She opened a few presents last night, but the rest are being saved until her birthday :-)

party time!

Gage was super excited about an invitation to his friend Collin's birthday party, which was at an indoor playground. They spent almost 2 hours running around like maniacs, stopping only for cupcakes (well honestly, Gage just licked the frosting off and bolted back off to play) and to sing to the birthday boy.  Phew...was he tired when he got home!!!!

it's all fun and games until someone falls out of the truck :-(

The kids love to ride down the little hill in the backyard in one of Gage's dumptrucks.  I convinced them to ride down together last week. It was fun to start out with...

Still fun...

 This is where things went south.

Gage launched out of the truck. He hurt his hands. The truck smashed into him. Pepper jumped on top of the entire pile of them. Poor Gage :-(

Frozen frenzy

I promised Savannah I would buy a Frozen Elsa dress before her birthday party. They have big hola a for a play/singalong. She was so excited that the dress I picked up has a train. I mean really excited. Now...if only Pepper monster would stop trying to eat it :-/

Gotta go

Sometimes, when you pull the car into the garage...you've just gotta go. 

Grandparents' day #1

Today was 2nd grade grandparents' day. I had to stand in for the grands again, but savannah (aka snaggletooth) wished they were there with her. We enjoyed a special lunch, visited the book fair, and packed up the special gifts she made for her grandparents.  We bought Gage a book also and left it on his desk as a surprise with a note from us. 

Then, I signed her out early and we snuck out to get her nails done. She chose pink with yellow polka dots, so she looks like easter!

Old man Gage

For the 100th day of school, kindergarten had all kinds of special celebrations. I popped in to see his teacher and found this little gem on the wall outside their classroom. This is Gage, when he's 100 years old :-)

Puppy madness

This is just a typical morning. 

She tore some ribbons out of my rug

She also played with and barked at the door stopper for a while.

And..she made off with a roll of toilet paper. 

And that's just what I took photos of.  She got into plenty of other trouble in the 3 hours she had been awake!!! She keeps life interesting!

Head protection!

Savannah told Gage that someone in their school has lice. He was completely freaked out about that. So, he decided to wear a hat to protect his head! It turns out (I talked to the teachers to get the lice lowdown) that a class had them going around before XMAS, but they are gone. 

Adam ❤️ Pepper

One day, I walked in and saw THIS. Pepper is not allowed on the furniture. Adam said "but she's just a puppy...she likes it...she's so snugly".

The very next day...this happened. Three times. Adam is in trouble!!!

Is say he loves this puppy...

Astronaut ice cream

Our babysitter Jess went to the space museum in DC and brought home some treats for the kids. Savannah got a freeze dried ice cream sandwich. Gage got chocolate ice cream. 

Savannah says two thumbs up. Yum!

Gage. Well, Gage didn't like it, so he cried. He said "please don't tell Jess I didn't like it. I don't want her to get upset". Sweet boy...

Luckily, I had taken him out for ice cream the day before and his leftovers were in the freezer.  I think he's much happier with good ole ice cream!

Big puppy!

I had no idea that puppies grow so fast!! Pepper is getting huge!!!

100 days project

It's hard to believe we are over half way through with school this year! Next week marks the 100th day of school. Gage has an assignment to count and display 100 of "something". Of course...he went with superhero stickers!

Character award!!

Well well...look what Savannah received AGAIN...she was awarded the character award at school. 

Savannahs project

Savannah's teacher gave her an extra project to do over the XMAS break. Only savannah and one other boy in her class were gives the project. This was extra work that was given to the kids who are testing for the gifted program.

Savamnah had to choose an American hero, research that person, and do some kind of project (or her choice) to capture what she learned. She chose Martin Luther King Jr.  So, we went to the library and checked out a big stack of books, and she got to reading.  After XMAS she started making a newspaper ad her project.  She wrote "articles" about MLKs childhood, family, segregation, and his "i have a dream" speech. She also wrote an article about why she believes he is a hero, and how he inspires her. She wrote that he inspires her because he shows her "how one person can make a big difference in the world".

Today she presented her project to her class, and her teacher emailed me to say she did a great job.

She's growing!

Pepper has almost doubled her weight since we got her! Phew...she is growing fast!!  Look at those big feet! She's going to be a big girl!

She has learned to sit, lay down, and shake. She's learning stay, come, and how to walk nicely on a leash. Here's Gage telling her to "sit" and do "paw" (shake).