Cupcakes!

We brought cupcakes and frosting for Gramma to do with the kids… Grauntie Marge ended up helping as well, and then I got stuck frosting them and Katie did the sprinkles. 

We had them as birthday dessert for Katie after the Wednesday night group dinner when everyone came back to the house to visit. We even sang Happy Birthday to Katie and she loved it!

   
 

Sorting Christmas Legos for next year.

We got the kids the LEGO City Advent Calendar Building Kit so after they had opened all the doors and built everything we asked if they wanted to do it again next year…because if they did, we had to sort all the pieces and take everything apart. They said yes. So I tasked Katie with that job to keep her out of my hair while I started putting away Christmas decorations. She did amazingly well! 🙂

 

What should we call this pizza?

When we just use whatever leftovers are in the fridge? Leftovers pizza sounds too much like leftover pizza. Tom suggested Garbage Pizza but that seems a little…drastic (and Owen didn’t like it)? Fridge Pizza also seems a little boring.

Tonight was Italian meatloaf, cheddar cheese, and BBQ Sauce pizza.

And Katie wanted to help so we let her “paint” the sauce.

 

Bushes be gone!

Our bushes have been needing a major trim for quite some time but Tom has just been too busy. He promised me when his night class was over he’d take care of them. Well, he finished his class Tuesday night, so tonight he started trimming them. Katie and I were two doors down hanging with the neighbors. And then I turned around…and saw one entire overgrown bush completely GONE! He said once he started trimming it, all that was left was twigs! And we’ve never liked it, so he just pulled the whole thing out! (We would love to pull out the other ones as well but that’s a lot of work and a lot of expense to fill the space again.) Owen even helped clean up to earn some spending money.

Here’s a before picture (from an old blog post):

The boys and their tools. (Tom just let Owen hold the saw—he didn’t actually get to use it.)

 

Cooking dinner with my mom!

What did we make?! CITY CHICKEN!!!! It’s a bit of work so I’ve never made it but my mom made it off and on when I was growing up and it’s a favorite!. She’s here visiting so we made it together today. 🙂

Of course, Katie had to help, too.
2016-05-08kids042

She did pretty good until the last piece she couldn’t get on the stick…and she wasn’t too happy (as you can see on her face).

2016-05-08kids043

2016-05-08 16.37.24

2016-05-08 16.37.32

What is city chicken, you may be asking? Breaded, fried, and baked skewered pieces of veal and pork. It looks like chicken legs—like non-farm “city” people might have. Apparently way back when, veal and pork were also cheaper than chicken so it was a faux chicken. It’s DELISH. (Similar recipe to ours here.)

Christmas Eve!

Getting ready to bake cookies for Santa!

2015-12-24kidsxmas01

2015-12-24kidsxmas02

Fresh-baked cookies and a Christmas shooter (vanilla egg nog) for Santa!

2015-12-24kidsxmas03

Owen wanted to put his new Lego creation out for Santa.

2015-12-24kidsxmas04

Christmas jammies and Santa hats…

2015-12-24kidsxmas14

Along with lots of outtakes!

2015-12-24kidsxmas05

2015-12-24kidsxmas06

2015-12-24kidsxmas07

2015-12-24kidsxmas08

2015-12-24kidsxmas09

2015-12-24kidsxmas10

2015-12-24kidsxmas11

2015-12-24kidsxmas12

2015-12-24kidsxmas13

2015-12-24kidsxmas15

One good family picture out of about 15 attempts!

2015-12-24kidsxmas16

Uncle Grob!

2015-12-24kidsxmas17

And then a ticklefest ensued.

2015-12-24kidsxmas18

2015-12-24kidsxmas19

2015-12-24kidsxmas20

2015-12-24kidsxmas21

2015-12-24kidsxmas22

2015-12-24kidsxmas23

Time to decorate!

The kids were super excited about putting the tree up (since the bag had been sitting in the living room for a whole day)!

Owen was excited when I handed him two bags of Christmas Legos! He had forgotten about them!

Katie’s placement of her first three ornaments:

They were both really good helpers and I didn’t even have to help them much! Yay! And my OCD-tendencies don’t bother me at all—I don’t much care where the ornaments end up!