The Best Kind of Fail

I found this cool counting game for Hannah on Pinterest:

I really liked the idea and for our Art class today (two birds, one stone ladies and gentlemen) she helped me make our own version of the game:

We decided to do a pumpkin instead, and used the candy corn with jelly pumpkin candy.  She LOVES this 'game' as I called it.  One of the die is for the corn and the other is for the pumpkins.  She puts the right number of each on the big pumpkin and then adds them up to give me the total.  Then I say, "Yes! 4 plus 6 is 10, good job!"  Then we clear the pumpkin and do it again, and again, and again, and again....and...again.  I had a chiropractors appointment which I thought ended our fun time.  But she wasn't near being done.

Here she is at the end of my bed with the game.  I told her it was night time and we would play the game tomorrow, but that just wasn't the answer she wanted.  She brought the game up to my room so she could keep playing with me.  I'm beyond happy that she loves this game so much, but as I titled this post, this is the best kind of fail.  I wasn't planning on playing this game WITH her for hours on end!  But, seriously, how can I complain when she is learning so much and being so dog gone cute doing it!

First Day NOT Back to School

I actually did it, I've been thinking about it for so long and it finally happened.  My kids woke up on the first day of school and....we didn't have to go anywhere.  We parked ourselves in our dining room and did a full days work of homeschooling.  It went pretty smoothly for the first day, I got to experience first hand how my kids SOAK up knowledge!  I was super boring, I focused on the basics, and yet they were awesome with it all.  I really hope this is the precursor to how life will be.  I know we will have our ups and downs, but for the majority I would love to have more days like this than the other way around.  We had Art today and for our lesson we did First Day of School photos.  We were going all over the yard trying to find the right lighting, we tried different positions until we could get a semi-professional pose.  It was so funny how much Miriam was getting into it, before I could say anything to the person I was taking the picture of she was behind me saying, "Straighten your back, pull your shoulders down, drop your chin...etc."  It was awesome!  I think I got some pretty good pictures, and here they are:

 Of course I couldn't leave Charlotte out, and yes, she is running around in the street in her pj's.

To celebrate our first NOT back to school day we ate dinner al fresco!  I absolutely LOVE when the weather is nice and we can eat outside.  The lights are a bonus.  The kids truly felt special and I was filled with love for each of these beautiful spirits Heavenly Father has trusted me with.  I can only hope and pray that He will give me the continued guidance to be the teacher He wants me to be, and the teacher that they need for many years to come!

Rice Krispy Wedding Cake

I don't normally do wedding cakes, but when someone at my church approached me about doing their son's wedding cake ALL Rice Krispies, I was intrigued.  They showed me a few examples on Pinterest, but I was worried that I wouldn't get the depth for the height of the cake to look right.  I knew I needed a deep dish cake pan to make the tiers in so I wouldn't have that layered look inside each tier, it had to be a block of Rice Krispy or it wouldn't look right.
I found some Fat Daddy cake pans, but they would have been to expensive, and I was worried that I may not get them out all the way.  So I asked Theo to make me some deep shadow boxes that I could use as a frame for each tier. In no time at all, he cranked out these bad boys:

10X10, 8X8, and a 6X6

I covered the sides with tinfoil and greased them up real good, then placed them on greased up plastic wrap so they wouldn't stick to the table.

Here are the Krispy tiers all snug in their packed frames.  It took 19 batches of Rice Krispy treats to fill these suckers!!!

The naked cake all stacked and pretty.  Good thing Theo had the foresight to build the frames with screws, even with all the shortening the bigger tiers gave me a tough time.  Theo just unscrewed the screws and pulled the sides off, it was magical!

And here is the cake in all it's glory!  They had the decoration already figured out for the cake so I just had to stack it and she added the flag bunting and a really cool sparkly ribbon on the bottom of each tier.  I'd have to say, this is my favorite version of a Rice Krispy wedding cake, of course I am a little biased...:)

A Birthday to Remember

Even though Hannah turned the big 5 last week, we finally were able to have her party last night.  She has been talking up Chuck E. Cheese for the past year!  I can't tell you how much I hate this place; video games, children running a muck, a giant rodent...but since my kids are limited to which birthdays they actually get a big party (1, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16) I was acquiesced to oblige.  I was, however, impressed with all that was included in the party package.  And also since that meant I didn't have to entertain or clean up after the party, Chuck E. Cheese has earned a gold star in my book.  That has not changed my mind what so ever to quickly saying 'No!' when Hannah asked this morning if we could go back today.  LOL!  Here are some pics from the evenings festivities:

She got a cool crown, that she wore the entire time.  It had 8 extra tokens, and she used every single one!

Miriam's duck face

Hannah's friend Elsa playing air hockey with her Dad.

Elsa's brother just chillin' with Chuck.

Charlotte has quite the throwing arm, she got at least two balls in the other lane, LOL!

The party crew getting ready for the show.

This was a bonus in  my book, I knew the mouse would come out for pictures, but what I didn't expect is that he was going to come party with us.

Hannah with her cake, and I feel I have some 'spaining to do.  When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted me to make, she said she wanted a Chuck E. Cheese cake because she "Wants to know what they taste like."  "Well, you are the birthday girl." I replied through gritted teeth.  It was good enough, and at least I didn't have to do the cleaning up afterwards...see! no bitterness here...

Rocking out on her awesome balloon guitar!

A cool medallion, which is hanging right up with Theo's and mine's running medallions.  Hey, it's a great achievement to make it to 5!

Blowing out the candles

Dance off with Chuck!

Time for poses!!

Charlotte has got to be my only child who hounds these fuzzy ginormous abnormal animal costumed people.  I thought Chuck E. was going to have to file a restraining order against her.  Here she photo bombed another little friend of Hannah's who was trying to get her photo with him. *Sigh* Sorry Lexi, she has issues!

This was another bonus, they have this Ticket Blaster that she got to stand in and the tickets swirled around as she tried to catch as many as she could.  I was feeling anxiety that she wasn't getting many, (I think she ended up with around 8, and that was with 3 stuck in her hair) I was afraid that she would be bummed that she didn't get many.  But there was a catch, this was just for show and she actually got 1,000 tickets afterwards! Phew!

Opening presents!

I think she fared well, two games, a My Little Pony plush doll with white glitter polish.  I didn't mention that we got her the My Little Pony castle with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor wedding set for her birthday last week.  Polish was the first thing to go on when we got home last night, she slept with Twilight Sparkle and this morning she couldn't wait to play her new games with her sisters!

She's telling her friends thanks for the gifts, Lilia is in the background and the little boy is Josh.  We had a really good turnout, plus it helps to have a big family so just in case there really aren't a lot of kids we give the illusion of a big party!  She had a blast and was so happy her friends could be there to enjoy it with her.

Thanks Chuck E.!!  You have redeemed yourself in my book.  See you in a few years...at least...hopefully...