Always Hungry, that child...

Eclair just slammed her spoon down in a disgusted fashion and addressed her stomach in a rather upset manner, "BUT I JUST FED YOU."
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Thursday is...

Women's Conference at BYU. I am excited. Very excited. Because I need to eat one of these.

Is that wrong?

Oh yeah, my wonderful and amazing fantastic and smart friend Bonnie is speaking. She is AWESOME! (remember Bonnie? she made me fudge.)

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Band Geeks Go To Prom

THE BAND GEEKS WENT TO PROM. Boy band geeks asked girl band geeks.
Some of them had hairy legs (note: my son, Thing Two, with the quizzical brow in the red there, has, by far, the hairiest legs. I am so proud.).

Some of them did not. They had cute shoes instead.
The non-hairy leg ones were quite lovely.

But, alas, they were after all Band Geeks.


A good time was had by all.

The End
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Photo and Quote of the Day...

... or quotes, actually, from Eclair:

You're not stupid, you just don't know anything!

and

I got permission from myself!
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Maybe...

Maybe if I threatened to send them to Iceland, they would help me clean the house. This amazing photo from Google Images was too good not to share. I almost WANT to go to Iceland.

Repurposing

A lot of the crafting blogs I read do a lot of "Repurposing." Taking something you already have around the house, and using it to make something new. I'm all for that. It means spending less money at the craft store, and I have TONS of crafting stuff I have acquired over the years.

I was looking at the lovely plastic cottage cheese container that sits on my desk holding all my pens and pencils and anything else cylindrical that will ruin walls when Eclair gets the urge, and thought I could make something better and more attractive. So I hunted up a bunch of pretty things to make something new and exciting.

Here's the list of materials I used:

Empty vegetable can, washed (didn't remove label, made it easier to glue things to the can)
Velvet fabric scrap
Extra trim from a headband
An assortment of attractive feathers
Googly eyes (a must for any craft project, really)
Hot glue !

After gluing the fabric to the label, I pushed the feathers into the fabric from the top. Then I glued the trim around the bottom of the can, and glued the eyes on.

TAAA DAAA!!!!

Can you tell I was inspired by our recent trip to the zoo?

I found peacock feathers in my enormous "Box O' Feathers" and used those as my main inspiration. Then I found that cute little scarecrow, and thought "he could be the zookeeper!" Isn't it amazing? This will really liven up my desk.

What do you think? I'll bet you want one just like it. Lets take another look at it.

Or not.

It is actually quite hideous. And should be burned.

Disregard anything you have seen above, and lets start over.

We'll still use the can, cause it's there, and it's free.

Then we go to The Graphics Fairy and look for some amazing art. Print the art the same height as the can, then go to town with some modge podge.
Isn't that better? There, sitting on top of the "Enormous Box O' Feathers" is a much better, simpler, less hideous craft. Even I can do this one, and I have no crafting skills.

Eclair asked if I wanted "the pretty one" or if she could have it? It's somthing only a developmentally delayed eight-year-old could love. Hey, we all gotta find love somewhere, right? I don't get to burn it after all. The boys will be so disappointed.

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Fries.

I have had an obsession of sorts with a particular website. It has amazing recipes and photography also. We made fries last night from this website, fries that don't involve standing over the deep fryer for 40 minutes producing small batches because, yes, we are not McDonalds and have a small home fryer. Trying to make fries for seven people is quite a production. I refuse to do it because it's tedious. That is my husband's job. It's really the only thing he cooks that doesn't involve a barbeque grill. His specialty, you might say.

So, I'm relieving him of duty, and using this recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks.

After he ate these fries (which the children loved, and I loved because it took NO time to prepare!) he said he likes his fried fries better than baked ones. I mentioned the calorie savings from baking instead of frying, and he has given in.

Give them a try, they are wonderful. And easy to prepare in incredibly large amounts.
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The wildest animal rode home in the car with me...

Spring break. Went to the zoo. Too bad she's not excited at all. The reason for this face is snakes. She really likes snakes. When we reached this exhibit near the end, she had been asking for nearly two hours, "Where are the snakes?"

So you will fully understand her fearlessness, I post this photo from last summer:


Here's some other fun stuff we did:
(Hey, pretty good photos considering I'm shooting through chain link and dirty glass)

Those prarie dogs really startled her. I laughed out loud. She popped her head out to see me, then saw that prarie dog right next to her and yelped. It was great. She came back again, a little braver this time, and then tried to play with them through the plexiglass.

Notice how the mouth is hanging open in every picture? That pretty much sums up the whole day. Chatter chatter chatter: Mommy, what is the giraffe eating, and why is his tongue blue? Which one is the mommy? Why did the zebras die? How much does a baby elephant eat? Can I pet it? Why is there poo everywhere in there? Ooooo! Is that one the baby? Are we going into another stinky zone? Is that more poo? Don't the penguins like it when it is cold outside? Why are the bears gone? Can you make that animal come down out of the tree so I can talk to her? Do I like bats? What would happen if I fell in there? How does that alligator sleep with his mouth wide open like that? Are those the same lions -- No -- I know they are tigers -- from "Two Brothers" and can I pet them? Why does that girl keep screaming? Does the train ever run over the animals? and Where are the snakes, where are the snakes, where are the snakes, where are the snakes?

The best questions were about the peafowl. We first encountered a peacock, bright blue and beautiful. Lovely tail feathers "just like on Curious George." She says "Is that one a girl?" and I have to explain to her how the most colorful birds are always male, they have to look pretty to attract a female. "The girls are really pretty colorless, not pretty at all."
To which she replies, slowly and sadly, "OOhh! Poor things!"

At the end of the day, she didn't even ask to go to the gift shop, all she wanted was this:

And there was much happiness.
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To quote Inigo Montoya, "Humiliations Galore"

Thing Two wanted to ask a gril to Prom. He lacks dating expertise, so after two weeks of dilly-dallying over how this would be accomplished, he asked the females of the household for assistance. This is what transpired:

Twelve balloons were prepared, with notes in each. Eleven notes read "see other balloon" and the last had a moderately clever poem asking said gril to the Prom. Here's where it all goes nuts.

Luke Skywalker and his friend,Other Matt, volunteered to deliver the message. They dressed up in costumes left over from last week's production of "Midsummer Night's Dream" performed at Luke Skywalker's school. They spent a few moments rehearsing, and then we drove to the gril's house.

Thing Two wasn't sure what to expect as we watched the delivery unfold from the safety of the car. Other Matt approached the door, rang the bell, and almost was rejected outright because we saw the mother peering out the glass pane at the top of the door, missing Other Matt completely due to his shortness. Finally, the door is opened, and Other Matt declaims with a badly executed English accent "Is the Mistress Emilee at home?", "Ya, that's me", "BEHOLD the messenger." He then bows low and scoots backward. Luke Skywalker appears, holding the balloon bouquet, gives it to dumbfounded gril. The cry out in unison, "SEEK THE HIDDEN MESSAGE" and run away. Thing Two is sitting next to me, shaking his head. "Did you see that? Did he really bow?" I was just glad we had the window down so we could hear the whole thing.

When they returned to the car, Luke Skywalker said to his brother, "I hope that was sufficiently embarrassing for you." His brother declined to answer.

Thing Two received his answer from the gril tonight. A video made after sucking the helium from the balloons. She said yes, in a very high pitched squeaky voice. Looks like she'll fit right in with the bunch of raving lunatics around here.
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Photo with quote of the day:

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
---Robin Williams

Merry.....Easter?

Woke up this morning to this. I wasn't the only one who was disappointed.
She actually looks pretty ticked off. She sat there for a long time, staring down the snow. The snow was so afraid, it melted.

Easter was pretty much a wash this year, in the basket and egg department. The Easter baskets are lost. Buried beneath all the stuff of my MIL's after she moved to assisted living. Here's our solution to no baskets:
Saturday, we were supposed to go to an awesome egg hunt that a friend was hosting, but we slept too late and missed it. We lame, we know. Then we had some FANTASTIC friends over for dinner, priesthood session and dessert.
We have been friends since Aubrey & Trent only had one kid, and now they have eight. That picture in the center there is my Luke Skywalker with Aubrey's Cole, it was their first General Priesthood meeting. They were bored, and my wise husband and wise Trent set them free for a few brief periods to wander the halls. These two wonderful men are so alike it is frightening.
There's no good photo of Aubrey's other three. They were just moving too fast -- like Tristan here:
See? The kid is a blur. They found the swords and light sabers, and there was just no hope after that. Eclair set up her tent on the deck, moved most of her toys and dress-up collection out there, and the grils were not heard from again.

I did some great research on creative egg dying online:
And didn't color one egg because I was having too much fun with Aubrey. We hunted white eggs. There was one casualty: The stupid Easter Bunny hid an egg between two couch cushions. You can guess what happened to it.

Here's some fun: Eclair got up before seven am, and just went upstairs to watch tv. I woke up about 7:30, and asked her if she had asked anyone to get up yet? She said she was letting everyone sleep in. What about hunting for your basket and eggs? OH YEAH!! I FORGOT!!!! It was hilarious. It took a full 30 minutes to get everyone else up. It looked like this:
The big kids "let" Eclair hunt their baskets and find all the eggs. Aren't they generous?

So. Chocolate for breakfast. Amazing french toast with buttermilk syrup, and creamed eggs for brunch. Pajama Church (General Conference on TV). Senior pictures with cute niece:Then off to Grandmother's house for Easter dinner. Look out for that little one with the binky: she colored my couch with a red sharpie marker earlier this week. Don't let the cuteness fool you.
Home again, home again, jiggity jig. It was a great day and lots of fun.

Now I need to go see if there is any chocolate left.
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The Box of Happiness

Three words. Elaine. French. Bakery.

Two more: Napoleon, Eclair (the real kind, not my kid)
Yum.

Wait! Let me try yours!
It should be called The Box of Evil Calories.
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Mean Mom.

Mean Mom. Thing One's first phrase. First time my first child put two words together, and they are "mean mom."

Probably because I am.

It's April Fool's Day.

And there is a milk jug in the fridge. Looks about a quarter full.

Of plaster.

Not milk.

Try pouring that on your cereal, kiddos.

What evil thing do you have planned for your loved ones today?

Happy April Fools Day, to both of you, blog readers.
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