martian volcano.

we love apologia's elementary science studies. whis week, we've been on mars, and the kids got to build their own martian volcano. mmm, love the smell of vinegar and food coloring in the morning. salt dough and hot chocolate, anyone?

breakfast.

yesterday anna found a recipe for hot chocolate fudge cakes in my cooking light (i swear it was!) magazine. in exchange for cleaning duty, she got to bake them right in the middle of the day! well, after everything else was mixed, she had to borrow 4 eggs from our neighbor miss marianne (thanks - we hope you enjoyed your little cake, too!), so time ran out and although they were all assembled, she had to leave for Christmas play practice, so... no cakes yesterday.

7:30 a.m., and she's up. ethan by my bedside: "mom, can we have anna's cakes for breakfast?" sure, why not, it's Christmas!!! (all month it is here, i'll have you know.) so... 8:00 am, special delivery to my shower (my spa shower is COMPLETE, for those of you who follow...) i receive warm, molten, COOKED LIGHT (no way, if you tasted this thing...) hot chocolate fudge cake. complete with a dusting of confectioner's sugar. and a piping hot cup of coffee with hazelnut biscotti creamer. oh, man, this IS the life. gosh, i hope my mother in law isn't reading this. if you are, NANA, I DID NOT ALLOW YOUR GRANDCHILDREN TO EAT HOT FUDGE CAKE FOR BREAKFAST. happy Christmas!

mom-blog-haters, prepare yourselves.

because what i have for you here will give you fodder for your feelings to grow. i present to you the contents of my washing machine today. from one load. (actually there were clothes, as well. and homemade soap. because i am amazing. even without a steam-dryer. and occasionally frugal. however, not so much organized and disciplined, because this was one of SIX loads of laundry done today. but i digress.)
one large lens of some type found by my son in a dumpster at an undisclosed urban location used for a recent family portrait sitting (dumpster diving is not stealing, right?) and because of location certainty, i can also ascertain that this pocket-treasure culprit is #1, who assisted me for this shoot. eight gold-plastic pirate coins, pocketed by an unknown, and un-confessing child. (unless daddy's getting desperate.) two silver ring thingies used most often to attach keys. used in this case, most likely, as a "someday-i-might-use-this-to-attach-a-tool-or-weapon-to-my-beltloop" pocket treasure. one perfectly shiny pebble. one small thank-God-it-was-here-and-not-in-one-year-old's-mouth grey lego piece. and one very small what-appears-to-be-ceramic-or-stone... muskrat?

boy do i love this little girl.

i cannot begin to tell you how amazing she is. so i'll just show you. lucky you.

look what my Papa made.

it's an ethan week.

because our big little brother lost his FIRST TOOTH yesterday! the tooth fairy hadn't made an appearance by either of his two middle of the night wake-up-and-check-and-then-visit-your-parents-to-tell-them-the-tooth-fairy-hasn't-come-yet trips. however, by sunrise, lo and behold, a DOLLAR!


do you know what he told daddy? he thinks the tooth fairy might be mommy (which it ISN'T, i promise!) because "she's tiny enough!" okay, give the boy two dollars. and a candy bar.

the wiggles.

my sweetie e. got to spend an afternoon "shakin his hips with wags" and groovin' along with the wiggles, compliments of our buddies the w. girls. oh, my, is he a lucky man, because in addition to the company of two beautiful young women of God and their cousins, etc..., they were chaperoned by momma w., who actually (sorry, girl, forgive me for letting out "our" secret) gets teary-eyed at their concerts like me! yes, that's right, the wiggles have a special place in her heart... in fact, i'm quite sure if they'd asked her to join the crew, she'd have left our kids for the rest of the family to care for in a heartbeat. thanks, girls!