Some things

I picked Belle up from her dad's after work today, so let's say around 5:15pm. Between 5:15 and 6:30, I have heard all these things and they have each made me laugh.

On the drive home, I ask her about school and her friends and she is telling me that she doesn't want to play with Lilly all the time because she is "all up in my nerves!". Is this the same thing as 'getting on my business'? Haha!

It is hot and I don't use the air conditioner in the car. Belle tells me very matter-of-factly "I can smell my sweat you know." This one made me laugh out loud and every time I thought of it again, I would chuckle.

We had corn dogs for dinner (barf, I know but my cook ((Tren)) is out of town camping) and I hollered to Belle who is in her bedroom, how many she wants. "Three!" "What?!" "THREEEEE!!" "Come in here... I can't hear you." In the kitchen now so I can see her mouth moving. "Mom, I want three corn dogs." "You can't have 3 corn dogs." "I eat 3 corn dogs all the time, Mom." "You're getting one and if you need more, I'll make another one." "Fiiiinnneeee"

Right as I am setting her plate on the table she runs off saying "I just need to go poop... It's only 1 little one so this should be quick!"

Lovely. Just another thing I love about being a parent!

Dih.Zass.Ter!!!

Jesika is having a birthday tomorrow and I wanted to throw her a nice little suprise party. Talking with her husband, we decided it would be easiest to do it at my house on Friday. We have it all figured out and I get home from work and run to a few places to get items needed for decorating and dessert.

Now. I tried a new thing for the dessert and here is how it went. I was trying to find a new great awesome thing for a dessert. I came across these sweet cups/bowls that you make out of chocolate. This can't be that hard, because the person doing the demonstration was a kid. Or so I thought. I bought some water balloons because it was suggested in the blog. I nearly blew a vein in my forehead from trying to blow up the water balloons. Forget that. So, I use regular sized balloons and just didn't blow them up huge. Perfect. Then I make my chocolate like I would make if I was doing peanut butter cups. Then I dip my balloons in the chocolate and it goes great! I'm excited. I get one tray done (containing only 6 of these monsters).

Then I started noticing how these babies are NOT looking like bowls/cups and how they are looking alot like plates. Oh well. I make more chocolate and get started on my second tray. I'm starting to feel pressed on time and Belle is itchin' to help which means my train of thought is broken and I'm getting heckled. I prematurely dipped the balloons. Soon they are popping sending chocolate all over my house and me.

I'm supposed to be hosting a party and there is chocolate flying everywhere!

(Belle and I just noticed this little spot tonight...)

I let the chocolate cool and start cleaning up the floor and then finish the lovely little project. I put them in the freezer and moved on to decorating. I saw on someone else's blog (I know. I'm a theif.) this idea...

Do you love it!? I do. I could decorate like this every day. It was fun.

Jesika arrives and is surprised and it is great! Then comes the big reveal of these "bowls" and I go to the freezer to pop my balloons and use them for sundae bowls. I pop them and the balloons do not come out. What.The.Sam.Hill.Is.The.Deal?! I was angry. I sprayed them just like suggested before dipping. Ugh. Luckily, I bought some little fancy bowls at the Dollar Store so we used them and it was still fun.

Only one successfully came out and was usable.

So tonight we had sundaes again and Belle used it for hers.

And she enjoyed eating (part of) it too.

If anyone wishes to attempt this delicious little creature, let me know how it goes for you. Best of Luck.

1st Grade ... already ?

Well, the first day of 1st grade has come and gone. Belle is now going to a year round school in Meridian with all her her step-siblings. The school is roughly 2 miles from my work and about 4 miles from her dad's house. This will allow me to actually attend school functions and will also make things easier having all the kids at the same school. I can drop Belle off at her dads in the morning and then she gets on the bus with everyone and dropped off back after school at his house.

I asked Belle how the first day went when I picked her up after work and she said "It was boring". Perfect. It was the first day, so I'm sure they didn't go hard on the kids and put them to work... just showed them around and things. She told me they went to music class and that she learned you cannot yell in the music room because it has an echo. She got rained on at recess and left her sweatshirt in the classroom so she just stood and shivered. (a bit dramatic, I know). For lunch, I packed her a cold lunch. It was a jelly sandwich, small bag of cheetohs, choc pudding, 3 oreos, a fruit roll, and a juice. She ate the cheetohs and drank the juice. She "didn't have enough time before recess". I told her she has to eat her lunch otherwise she will not have the strength to learn and do the things she needs to. We'll see what's in her lunch box today. She made friends with Lily and Sophia. There are no cute boys in her class. whew!

I think she will enjoy this school and I think she will learn a lot. It is 1st grade. I can't believe it.

Here she is in her outfit. We were literally heading out the door.

Skinny jeans, new boots, sweatshirt (zipped as far as it will go), tank top and a slicked back pony tail.

LakeFork 2010

A couple weekends ago, we took a crew to Lake Fork. There was 9 adults and 10 kids (5 families) and 3 dogs. We took Grace and Hannah, Belle's new official step sisters along with us. Crazyness. Friday night when we all arrived we had smores and chatted around the fire and the kids began digging holes and getting dirty.

Here are the girls ready for bed in the SWEET tent trailer.

Saturday we all woke up and had breakfast and the "men" minus Vince went to Brown's Pond to fish the creek. There was some creek playing:
(left to right) Josh, Cody, Kole, Logan

And bike riding and dirt digging and some naughtyness and laughs. Not alot of "mmoooommmmmmm blah blah blah". We decided we would try and get some group pictures of all the kids while they were in one place. ((Koen is only about 3 or 4 months old so he is not picutred))

(left to right, back to front) Logan, Belle, Grace, Josh, Evan, Heather, Kole, Hannah, Cody



For the most part, they all cooperated. Except one ...



Then we had them line up their bikes. Most everyone had one. Cody posed in a Tonka truck. (Henry seemed to follow them all around and just stop and stare during the pictures.)

We headed to the waterfall. Randi jumped in!

Then Vince jumped in... I was almost not ready for him!

Then Hannah says she wants to jump in. Hannah is 9 years old. She is not my child. I wasn't sure if her mother would like her jumping off a 10 foot rock into moving water surrounded by rocks. So, I asked a few more times and she still wanted to. So, Vince stayed in the water to retrieve her and as soon as the last breath of Vince's "yeah" came outta his mouth telling her he was ready, off she went!



She repeated this again. And loved it. Grace was starting to get incredibly tired at this point and wanted to head back to camp. So we did and Belle and Grace and I took a nap. Much needed.

I wanted to plan a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids. So, Randi, Amber and I made our little arrow trail clues and lead them on a wild goose chase. I stayed at the finish line and have no pictures of the action on the hunt.

Here they are at the finish line, gathering up their treats.



I made some most excellent tie-dye shirts for them, too.



Oh I loved it! And they all wore their shirts again the next day.

Sunday, Grace woke up and her "tooth was bothering" her. She asked for a tissue to rip it out. She sat on Vince's lap and wiggle and pulled on that stinking tooth. But it never came out.

Come Sunday, Rooster and Henry were so exhausted. Henry could barely walk to the truck. He would walk and then sit down for a minute. Then walk. It was funny. They rested up and by Monday they were back to normal.

I enjoyed the weekend camping trip with all the kids! I hope to do it again next year!