Burnt Offerings

My poor children. When Nick works at night (which is only once a week), my kids are used to less than gourmet cooking. For at least 6 weeks in a row we dined on chocolate chip pancakes (at least the pancakes were wheat, I tell myself) and then Emma burned out on that meal! (imagine that) Lately, we have switched it up a little by rotating between spaghetti, pizza, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Tonight it was grilled cheese sandwiches. It seemed to be taking awhile to heat up the griddle, so I ran to the bathroom for a minute. When I came back the tomato soup had boiled over and the girls' sandwiches were black! So, I got everything out again and started on round two. When I called the girls for dinner I presented them with the burnt ones first--just to test their reaction. Emma looked at them for a minute and then looked at me and said, "Mom, these are burnt." (uh, yeah) So I said, "I know....I'm sorry. They burned when I ran to the bathroom!" So, Emma took her plate to the table and as Brielle joined her she said, "Brielle, Mom burned the grilled cheese sandwiches when she went to the bathroom." I waited for more reaction.....I waited for the refusal to eat dinner (which happens when I don't burn dinner).....I waited for demands of a new dinner.......nothing! I was biting my cheek to hold back from laughing. Emma just started dipping her sandwich in her soup. Then she commented, "Brielle, it's pretty soft if you dip them in soup and you can't even tell it's burnt!" Brielle starts biting into hers and while I'm watching her she says, "I can't really taste the burnt....just a little bit." (really? because they're totally black!) So, being the mean mom I am, I watch them take another bite or two before I realize that they are going to eat their whole burnt offering unless I stop them! So, I grab the second-round sandwiches and tell them that I made them new ones when I burned the first ones. The charred sandwiches quickly end up in the garbage as we laugh about it. And then I start to wonder--- do I really have the best kids or is my cooking regularly this bad? Maybe it's a combo of both!

Dinosaur Park 2010

Last month I got to go with Brielle on her preschool field trip to the Dinosaur Park.  First they started off learning about dinosaurs in the education room and coloring their own stegosaurus (I think). Then, they could explore the rest of the park. It's funny how the kids mostly wanted to play on the playground toys, but eventually we got them to wander around and look at the dinosaurs! Right before we left we went inside the museum to explore the dinosaur bones and they were all mesmerized by the animated T-Rex who was roaring at the Mama Triceratops! You could see their imaginations running wild! 

Happy Houses

I'm so grateful for grandma's who have the patience and time to be creative! A couple weeks ago, my mom invited the girls over to decorate Haunted Houses (it didn't matter that it was 2 weeks past Halloween)! They made a huge mess of orange and black frosting, but they had a great time and snacked on their houses for the next few days. My mom also had some big boxes that they made into houses and decorated the outside and inside. They had brick, flowers, grass, clouds, and birds on their houses. They were so cute and the girls were very proud of the homes that they made. I love it when they are entertained with simple things!

Halloween

This sorry post is the extent of my Halloween pictures. Let me explain....Halloween started on Thursday with Emma's school costume parade that was immediately followed by her class party which was at the exact same time that Brielle had her preschool carnival, so I took the camera and Nick took the video camera. (hence pictures of only one child). That night was at our ward's Trunk-or-Treat and since it was dark by the time we were outside, I didn't take any pictures then either. The next night Emma was invited to two birthday parties which overlapped a little so she gone for four hours that night doing Halloween stuff. On Saturday we planned to go to Nick's parents Trunk-or-Treat but by the time we got there it was raining and Brielle didn't want to get her Jasmine dress wet and Emma only walked around to 10 cars before people packed up and left. So, then I told myself to get a picture of them on Sunday sometime...yeah....never happened. Just picture Brielle in a cute purple princess dress with a crown and high heels and if you could see Emma's picture better you would notice her costume was Jasmine as well, but she looked more like a gypsy to me. Anyway, you can tell Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  We just do the basics!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

It's finally Brielle's turn to have preschool field trips!  Her first field trip was last month at the pumpkin patch where she got to pick out a pumpkin, play in the corn box and go down some fun slides. She had a great time and it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her. Her perfect pumpkin was not even allowed on our porch until Halloween weekend because she wanted to keep it in her room!

Soccer

Emma wanted to play soccer this year. I don't mind encouraging new things, but it was a lot of work to add one more activity to our week. It turned out that practices were on nights that Nick was at work and games were also while Nick was at work so it was up to me to get her everywhere. The bad thing was that I know nothing about soccer so I was a little lost. Luckily, Emma had fun. She was a little timid to play but she did a great job for having a clueless parent! Hopefully, we'll both feel more comfortable in the spring!

Disneyland Delights

A few funny things the girls said while on our trip.

Upon walking in our hotel after it had been cleaned up by housekeeping. "Wow, the servants do a really good job at making beds!"

While watching the firework display where Dumbo and Tinkerbell fly toward the castle Brielle says to me, "Mom, it's Tinkerbell, it's Tinkerbell!! I just knew she was going to be here!"

When Nick and Emma were waiting in line for California Screamin', Emma got stung on the arm by a bee. Since I wasn't there she was telling me about it on the way out of the park that night. "Yeah, it hurt really bad. It hurt like a mother.....and a father!"