Happy Birthday to Kenna

I'm sure you are guessing by now, but this family has a LOT of birthdays in January: three to be exact. We celebrated the last of the January birthdays today. Kenna turned TWO! It was an awesome day. Katie made a huge chocolate brownie cake for her. She doubled her favorite brownie recipe and stuck peppermint patties between the two layers--delicious!! Kenna's favorite thing in the whole world is candy, which she calls "num num." She knew she would get some on her birthday, so whenever someone would ask her how old she was, she would answer, "num num." Some people get old, some people eat candy. I guess that's just the way it is. She was playing with lipstick this morning, and decided to leave us a surprise birthday message. Check out the video.



Out of all of the presents she received, her favorite one of all was a battery-operated bubble blower that I got at Target for $1.99. Isn't that always the way it is? She only wanted Daddy to blow the bubbles at first, but eventually she got the hang of it and was playing with it forever (until we finally convinced her to get in the bath and play with her new plastic boat). All in all, the day was a blast. I love birthdays...it's just the getting older part that I can't stand. Here's a video of her playing with her new bubble blower.

Old Navy Coats On Sale

I stopped by Old Navy the other day and saw that their winter coats were marked down. I mean, really marked down. The $68 coats were $9.99. As any smart mom would do, I loaded up! I bought six coats for us to use next winter and the rest of this winter. Four of them for my oldest daughters. They were very excited to see them, but Kelsey, not wanting to share, put on three of the coats at one time and decided to try to escape with them. I found her in the kitchen dancing with all three coats on and zipped up. I caught her before she had a heat stroke.

White Boys Can't Rap!

At the dinner table tonight, my two oldest boys thought they were fly enough to rap...It was pretty scary. T-Pain would cringe!! Check it.

Katie is a Teenager!

Today is Katie's birthday, and she turned thirteen! It seems like last week she was wandering around the house in her plastic high heels, Barbie underwear, with one of my old handbags thrown over her shoulder, stuffed full of her very necessary toys and pretend makeup. Thirteen has always been a very special birthday around here, and I've been planning her gift for a long time. She got a yorkie puppy--something she has always wanted, but never voiced because she knew the rule of "no indoor pets" was iron clad.

Okay, so I bent the rules a little bit.

It's not everyday a special little lady becomes a teenager. Now instead of pretend makeup in her bag, she can carry around her yorkie!!

Check out the video of when she got her gift:

Snow Baseball!

I can't believe it...it actually snowed here. Okay, so it only lasted for 20 minutes, but it still snowed! The kids immediately ran outside (so much for homeschooling), and decided to start up a game of snow baseball. Check it out.

Wigglin' and Jigglin"

Every family has one--a crazy kid that will do absolutely everything, push every button, drive you crazy, and make you laugh your rear end off the entire time. Mine is Korben (we call him Kubby). He turned six last week--check out the blog video of him blowing out his trick candles. Today, he was clowning around in the kitchen and my husband had the video camera out. He then threw together a clip that is absolutely hysterical! Watch it. It's sooo funny.

Kenna Playing a Tune

My oldest daughters have taken years of piano, and they play often. Today, Kenna decided to try her hand at playing. I was working in the office (typing up an article on Carbon Monoxide--make sure you check it out on the website!), and she came in and started playing a song and singing along. Of course, I had my Flip video camera close by me, so I got to catch most of it. Check it out!

Happy Birthday to Korben!

Korben turned six today. I can't believe it! When one of the kids has a birthday, I always let them choose where they want to go out to eat. So, of course, we all headed out to Chuck E. Cheese today (or as we call it, The Chucksters). By the way, if you haven't been there in a while, Chuck is looking mighty fine as always. He's a little stiff in the joints, but I think it's because age is creeping up on him. Helen Henny was also looking fine in her cheerleading outfit (I have a sneaky suspicion that she and Pasqualey have something going on. He is one chef that definitely has a thing for chicken, if you know what I mean). I am a bit concerned about Munch--the big, fat, purple thing that plays the keyboard. He kept one eye shut during all of the performances. He either has a really bad eye infection or was just flirting with me. I'm not sure which. Jasper Jowls still only knows how to play one chord on his guitar. How did he ever make it in show business? I guess he and Ashley Simpson have the same agent. But anyway, enough about Chuck E. Cheese. Now, for Korben!!

Korben had a fantastic time. He was deliriously happy and ran like a wild man from game to game. All of the kids contributed their tickets at the end of our adventure and bought gifts for him. Never has a boy been so happy about a glow-in-the-dark lizard and a flimsy coloring book!! He was definitely living high on the hog!

As a surprise, my mother-in-law bought trick candles that keep burning after you blow them out. It was so funny watching him keep blowing and blowing! He had a blast. We all did! It's funny, really. Kids don't need a lot to make them happy. He had his family. Some cake. a few presents. And, of course, the Chucksters. What more could a six-year-old boy want? Check out the video of Korben blowing out his candles. It's so funny!

Spinach Lasagna!

Yummy! I love lasagna. It's also a great way to sneak veggies into your kids' diet. You can easily grate carrots, zukes, and eggplant and stick them in between layers. They will never know that they are actually eating a healthy food! Last night, I made lasagna and put spinach in between the layers. However, instead of using chopped, cooked spinach like I usually do, I just layered leaves of fresh spinach. It didn't go over too well with the youngest--Kenna. This was Kenna when she began eating her dinner. She loved it!



Here is Kenna when she took a closer look and found huge leaves of dark green soggy spinach in her bowl.




Oh, well. You win some. You lose some.

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

It was a beautiful day here in Virginia. I managed to find some t-shirts and shorts buried deep in the kids' drawers and we all headed outside to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine (after we finished the schoolwork, of course).

We played on the swing set, tossed the football, and jumped on the trampoline. I heard Karis, my 9-year-old, teaching Kenna how to sing, "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes." It was so cute that I thought I would share it with my friends.



I hope you are lucky enough to have a nice, warm day strike unexpectedly. If you do, make sure you get out and enjoy it! I'll end this blog with one of my very favorite poems:

I Meant To Do My Work Today

by Richard LeGallienne

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand,
So what could I do but laugh and go?

Beating the Post-Christmas Blues

My husband considers January 1st as the worst day in the calendar. That's because he loves Christmas and he hates saying "goodbye" to his favorite holiday. It's truly pathetic, seeing his sad face as he wraps up the Christmas ornaments and kisses them goodbye for an entire year.

This year, in an attempt to chase away the post-holiday blues, I decided to take the family ice skating. They were falling all over the place! But, finally, they got the hang of it (if you can consider taking tiny little baby steps as "getting the hang of it"). Klara, my four-year-old girl, and Korben, my five-year-old boy, loved skating together. There was one time that Korben took off and left Klara. She wasn't too fond of that little maneuver. Fortunately, I was there watching the whole thing and brought along my Flip camera to record it all. Check it out!



I hope all of you are finding some great ways to chase away the post-holiday blues. I'd love to hear them! Also, just to let you in on one of my resolutions. I've decided to become a much better blogger (posting at least three times a week). Please, friends, hold me to it. If I start to lag, let me know. We're all in this together!