Last Day of Preschool!

Last Tuesday, the boys had their last day of preschool. What a wonderful school year it has been for them! Austin made great strides in learning to separate from Mama and take direction from his teacher. Clayton really blossomed socially and gained so many needed social skills. Way to go boys!

Clayton and Miss Jayne

Clayton and Miss Caren

Austin and Miss Linda

This year's teachers gifts were herbs in decoupage flower pots.

 

C and C smiles

Picnic table - revitalized!

I picked this little wooden picnic table out of someone's garbage a few years ago and we've used it a ton during the summer for picnics outside.  It was looking a little desperate and dirty, so I gave it a good few coats of fresh white paint. It looks SO much better and will be used even more this summer!

update to the last post

This was Caroline's response to all her disciplines yesterday.
She posted these little nasty grams on her door!

venting

OK, usually this blog is filled with joyful pictures, craft or recipe ideas, or light-hearted vignettes.  This post, will not be one of those posts. Today, I feel the need to vent. The morning began with Caroline sobbing and whining that she didn't want to go to school/hated school/wanted to stay home.  I had to basically drag her through each task to get her ready for school. (And no - nothing happened at school last week. She came home every day last week happy as a clam.)  So the day did not start off on a good note. After picking Caroline up from school, I had to run an errand with the kids and tried to encourage them to sit patiently and quietly while they waited. Sometimes this goes well. Today, it did not. They were disobedient and lacking in self-control. Did they do anything terrible? No, but they can definitely do better and it just frustrates me when they don't behave the way they are capable of behaving, especially in public.  It's been one of those days of non-stop disciplines.  They've been in naughty corner, have had pinches, and Caroline even had her precious lovey and new prized nightgown taken away for the rest of the day and night.  After all of this, I caught her writing a note and thought "Oh, she's writing an apology note to me. I feel much better now. " Of course, to keep in tune with the tone of the day, it turns out she was NOT writing me a note. She wrote a note to her lovey and her nightgown saying how much she missed them.  Sigh.  Finally, I make it to my prized 45 minutes of time when all the kids are either napping or in their rooms for quiet time and Clayton, for the 4th day in a row, emerges from his room, claiming he has to poop. His nap time is almost over, and he hasn't even fallen asleep yet (and Clayton without a nap is not a pretty sight.) Why is it that when he could poop any time during the day - from 6 am to 8 at night, he always has to poop right in the middle of his nap, which means he gets an extremely short nap and then is more disagreable for the rest of the day? Seriously? And not to be gross - but the kid has bathroom issues. So to spend 10 minutes wiping nasty mcnasty during my sacred 45 minutes is even more frustrating.  Grrrrr...
Am I overwhelmingly blessed? Yes. I am. And most times, I am more than content with life. But every once in a while, I just need to vent about life's little annoyances. Yes - they are indeed little, but they are annoyances nonetheless.   Thank you for letting me vent. 

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day this year. I feel so thankful to have such a loving husband and 3 beautiful children.  They definitely all made me feel appreciated and loved!
Thank you also to a wonderful mom (who was visiting my sister and her family in San Fran, but surprised me with a neat personalized tray) and great mother-in-law (who so graciously watched the kids on our date night the night before). I am blessed!

Happy first birthday!

Happy first birthday (yesterday) to my sweet niece Makenna!

Date Night at the Tavern!

Grandma Phyllis very kindly watched the kids last Saturday night so Kevin and I could have a date night. We got to go to Libertyville's Tavern and eat amazing food. What a great night!

Airport Outing

On Tuesday afternoon, I surprised the kids with an outing to the Palwaukee airport in Wheeling. We found a great spot right next to the runway and had a blast watching the small planes take-off and land.  The kids would scan the sky and start screaming with excitement when they spotted a plane making its way around the airport to the southern runway.  They would then "run with the plane" as it descended, landed, and zoomed down the jetway.

 After our plane viewing, my hungry plane-watchers and I went to Red Robin for hamburgers and tried out the new "Swirl Cup" frozen yogurt place in Lincolnshire.

 It was a GREAT afternoon.  The only negative was a very upset Clayton after his grip on his green balloon loosened and the balloon soared up to the clouds. His engineer-mind was racing as he tried to figure out a way to retrieve it. But to no avail. He was distraught.  Luckily, the frozen yogurt proved to be the perfect distraction!

Happy 5th Birthday Sofia and Eva!

My God-daughters Sofia and Eva turned FIVE years old. We celebrated at their house with lots of loving relatives and really good barbeque. Happy Birthday girls!  We love you!

Mother-Daughter-Dolly Tea Party

On Sunday, I hosted a Mother-Daughter-Dolly tea party for a few little girls and their moms.

The girls had fun playing "tea party" with their dolls, tasting tea in real tea cups, eating sweet treats, and making a tea party hat craft. 

It was a cold and stormy day which made sipping hot tea, munching on scones, and having good conversation all the better.
We added a service component to our tea party and the girls helped make a fleece blanket for Project Linus.

The scones were a hit with the kids and adults alike.  Here is the recipe.

Chocolate Chip-Toffee Scones

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips  3/4 cup chocolate-covered English toffee bits (they sell these at some grocery stores, or you                                                                                       can just crunch up heath or Skor bars.) 2 cups chilled whipping cream 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted Additional sugar Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly butter 2 heavy large baking sheets. Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Stir in chocolate chips, and toffee bits. Beat cream in another large bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into dry ingredients. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead gently until soft dough forms. about 2 minutes. Form dough into ball. With a floured rolling pin, roll out to 1/4-inch-thick. Use small 2 - 3 inch cookie cutter rounds (or the top of a small juice glass) to cut into circles. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, spacing apart. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 10 - 14 minutes. Serve warm.

Kindergarten school sing

Caroline had her first music concert with her kindergarten class this past week.
She was SO excited to wear a fancy dress, she could barely contain her excitement!
(By contrast, it was the "worst day ever", as she called it, when I made her wear jeans and a polo shirt to school yesterday.) A child who hates to wear jeans... yeah, I know that 's going to change. Soon enough, she'll want to wear nothing BUT jeans!

"puppets"

Clayton came up with this one. He tied a long ribbon to a hanger, put his pajamas on the hanger, and then dangled it down the landing at the top of the stairs.  I cut out a paper circle that he made into a head, and  taped it to the top of the hanger. Voila! Homemade life-size puppets! Caroline loved it and had to make her own!

Snickerdoodle Muffins!

I tried a new muffin recipe the other day (we had 2 sets of Teacher Appreciation Luncheons to bake for!) and it was a hit with Kevin and the kids. Snickerdoodle muffins!
Snickerdoodle Mini Muffins

 1 cup butter, softened

 1 cup sugar

 2 tsp vanilla

 2 eggs

2 ¼ cups flour

 ¾ tsp baking powder

 ¾ tsp baking soda

 ¾ tsp cream of tarter

 ½ tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

 ¼ cup buttermilk

2/3 cup sugar

 2 TBS of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a mini-muffin tin with liners. (They are too fragile for just cooking spray.)

In a mixer, combine the butter and sugar and cream until fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Add the sour cream and buttermilk and mix to combine.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.

Use scooper and plop a scoop of batter into the bowl with the sugar and cinnamon.

Gently roll the batter in the sugar and cinnamon.

Place the ball into the muffin liner.

When you have completed all of the muffins, I sprinkled the leftover sugar onto the tops of all of the muffins.

Bake the muffins at 350 degrees for about 11-12 minutes or until they are golden on top and just baked through.

Friends

We had some friends and their children over for dinner 2 weekends ago. Of course, I forgot to take pictures - except for a few random shots of the kids. Oops! Oh well. We had a marvelous time talking (the adults) and playing together (the kids).

Best Friends

Beautiful flower arrangement from Annette