My Husband Cracks My A** Up (Pun Intended)

Okay, so Aron's work chili cookoff was yesterday. He and I both entered chili. He spends a ton of time and uses tons of premium ingredients in his ... peppers, onions, spices, roast, beans made from scratch (the ones ya boil). I am his opposite in many ways, this being yet another way. I make the easiest chili possible because, frankly people, I have other things to do. Like write award-winning blog posts and educate my children. So he made the picture above to go along with my chili and he emailed it to me. I laughed until I cried. Note the cow going into the grinder. Note the can opener with the beans. Note the "secret ingredient." I think I'm the only spouse who enters, so of course everyone is going to know it's mine! Maybe if he had put some boobs on there, I would have won!!!!!!  Quick! Photoshop some udders on that cow!

For you English-challenged people, I think I made a punny up top ... you know, how chili makes fire come out of your butt? Tough crowd.

Ceramic Birthday Parties

KC Ceramic Cafe

SO. MUCH. FUN.

A little bit ago Callie and Eva got invited to a 5-year-old's birthday party at Kansas City's Ceramic Cafe. It was weird to just have a bunch of estrogen in Aron's big red truck (The Beast) heading to a party. You know how Sam is like my appendage since he was born, and I'm just a weird mom who doesn't like to leave her kids much in general. Well, okay, there are those weeks when Aron's traveling and the second he gets home I want to grab Toshiba and head to Starbuck's.

Digression. I am the master of it!

Anyway, it was awesome! They had a blast! Callie painted a little heart-shaped dish to hold jewelry or whatever. Eva painted a ladybug bank. I figured the kids would be too young and would make a huge mess, but it worked out so well! Then they did presents (in the back room, where the painting happened), then cake and ice cream bars and juice pouches. It lasted about 2 hours and was a very cool party. I'm not naming names because some people are keen on their privacy. A week later, the birthday girl delivered the finished painted products, all glazed and fired. The girls were thrilled.

I want to go here on individual dates with my kids. I want to go here on a date with my husband. I want to go here on a date BY MYSELF and paint all the letters in my kids' names and hang them on my living room wall.

Gotta go ... this is giving me an idea for an article. So I can spend all the writing money on a trip to Ceramic Cafe!

They Call Me ... The Laminator

Finally broke down and got a laminator! We've been laminating Pokemon pictures I've gotten them off the internet and then we put magnetic tape on the back. They play with their creations on the fridge and on our steel back door and on the commercial freezer in the basement.

I'm thinking this is a great way to make cheap decorations for parties ... laminated pictures of balloons, the number the birthday kid is turning, pictures of cakes, etc. The sky is the limit!

What do you like to laminate?

Happy Bday Callie With the 20/300 Vision and Twins Funny

Happy 7th Birthday to Callie!!!!! We love you, our little cheerleader, and can't wait to see what your strong-willed self will become someday. You love horses and your doll Laura and your friends and Pokemon and jewelry and dogs and bunnies and makeup and fashion and unicorns and Barbie and fairies and dresses and chicken noodle soup without tomatoes and pink and music and singing and rainbows and laughing. Yesterday I took all 5 kids to the eye doctor and only the oldest 3 were seen. It was pandemonium! Callie has one eye at 20/30 and one eye at 20/300. I think they added an extra zero and messed up. There goes another couple hundred bucks! And I sprung for the nice pink ones (I cleared it with Aron first), which I project will be broken by Michael's birthday in April due to younger siblings and putting glasses in goofy places. How do you get a 7-year-old to take care of her glasses ... and keep them on all the time? I was 11 before I needed glasses, so this is nothing traumatizing around here ... those glasses will just be like my 6th child. Maybe we DON'T need a dog when we have glasses to care for!

This picture is in honor of my husband and his twin brother because I thought they'd get a kick out of it. Most likely Aron is the one grinning and making Eric cry!!!!!!!!

Eva Guest Post: Homeschool Geometry

Hi, it's me, Eva. I am fo years old. I like pink. This is a picture of me doing algebra or geometry or something. I made a nine-ta-gon out of boxes I found in the pantry. You can do the same thing. Just find a pantry with boxes in it. Any old pantry will do. Then put the boxes so you make a nine-ta-gon. I don't know how many boxes that is, but it is a LOT. You can also make cool things out of toilet paper rolls, your brothers' Pokemon cards and your mom's maxi pads. Take the tape off those and you can stick them to the wall to make cool creations! Just becuase you are only fo doesn't mean you can't be learning all day long!