The Wisdom of Our Fathers

Johnny: Lila, one day you will be able to travel all around the world and see people dressed like that.
Rachel: Um, those are Little Women dolls.  They're American.
Johnny: Hmm.

One is the New Two

Let's see if you can figure out Lila's stance on me taking her picture.

 

 

 

A Broken System

No exaggeration, there is NOTHING that frustrates me more than the school system in the United States.  I'm talking all of it...charter schools, public schools, private schools, testing, core standards, the pay.  I could go on forever, but I usually don't because I find it so frustrating.

So when Johnny sent me this New York Times article this morning I almost didn't read it because I didn't want to get worked up.  Unfortunately, I did read it and did get worked up, so now I am recommending it to you.

"Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?"

By Jal Mehta

"Real change in America is possible, but only if we stop tinkering at the margins."

I Need One of Those "Bless This Mess" Signs

Too bad I can't clean the living room because it's the Sabbath.

 

Healthy Strawberry Muffins

When we went to Target yesterday at 8:15am (apparently I am now that mom who goes to Target at ungodly hours with pajama clad children...hey we had to beat the rain), they were selling two big containers of strawberries for $4.  I decided to stock up and then went snooping around this morning for a healthy strawberry muffin recipe.



This Martha Stewart recipe for Strawberry Muffins was just the ticket.  It uses olive oil, which I have never used in baking before, has very little sugar, and partially uses whole wheat flour.  And instead of low fat buttermilk, I subbed skim milk with a tablespoon of vinegar added.

They passed the kid test, and I'm pretty sure they will pass the husband test.  He doesn't really take time to taste the food he inhales anyway.  Thanks Army.

When Zombies Attack

Whenever I am holding anything that looks interesting to the girls, they stumble toward me as quickly as they can with their straight-legged walks, arms out-stretched, begging for whatever it is that I am holding.  Saturday night the zombies wanted raw asparagus, so I gave it to them.



Not wanting to appear like they didn't actually want it after working so hard to get it, they both sat dutifully in their highchairs and chewed on raw asparagus.

Johnny, meanwhile, asked the internet if raw asparagus was poisonous.  Don't worry, we're good parents.

Lila's First Birthday Party

I'm so excited to share photos from Lila's first birthday party!



We decided to do a storybook birthday because Lila loves to read and play with books.  I got the invitations on Etsy from Toasted e Design.  The first section had the invitation; the second section was a coloring page requesting that each kid come dressed as their favorite storybook character, and the third section was a book plate.

I attempted to do all the food based on different books that Lila likes, but with the new additions to our family, the cupcakes were really the only things that made it that far.  We had The Snowy Day vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and white sprinkles.  Next was Fancy Nancy funfetti cupcakes with pink vanilla icing and pink crystal sprinkles.  Last was If You Give A Mouse A Cookie chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and half of a chocolate chip cookie.  Because of our demographic, the pink cupcakes were by far the most popular.

I did manage to throw in some themed food...



 like these strawberries for The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear.

Lila was a little cranky at the beginning of her party.  In my family we say "The Berenstein Bears and Too Much Birthday."

 

 She quickly perked up, though, once all of her friends arrived.

Lila was dressed as Olivia the pig.  We also had Thing One and Thing Two...

A few Fancy Nancys...

 

 And (almost) all of Lila's aunties came in town just for Lila's birthday and dressed as characters from James and the Giant Peach.

I tried to keep things short and sweet.  We had a box fort for the kids the play in and color on along with Meriahna and Sydney's hand-me-down slide.  Then Johnny read Olivia to all the little girls...and Hayes (a very brave boy).

After reading the book, we got to have cake.

These little girls were pretty good at demolishing cupcakes.

Johnny and I had the easy way out of dressing in black and white like Olivia's parents.

We are so thankful to have such a healthy, fun little girl in our family.



Happy Birthday Lila!

Photography: Valerie Fisher

Normal

It's ok! Our kids are normal!

"Why Does My Kid Freak Out?"

The totally legitimate reasons your kid just threw spaghetti in your face.

By Melinda Wenner Moyer

What Good Moms Do

Good moms allow their children to play with the coupons that come in the mail.

 

From Eat In to Play In

We've had a bit of a space problem in the kitchen lately.  The kitchen table seems to spend more time taking up space and getting kids stuck under it than it does actually holding food.  Since the majority of our time is spent in here, I told Johnny to move the table out.

Before:



After:

I got the rug from Costco.

Notice Lila's birthday decorations are still up.

Please don't notice the crayon marks all over the tile.

One reason we bought this house over other ones is that we could have a kitchen table in the kitchen.  I guess the things we think we need aren't always necessary.  Though I am glad I stuck to my guns about having a bathtub...and a washer and dryer.  Don't take those things for granted, suburban people.

Hobbit Meals

Somewhere between kid two and kid three, our meal schedule got way off.  We have now begun following the Hobbit meal schedule.



Breakfast: Lila gets up around 7:00am and eats breakfast.
Second Breakfast: Little Sister gets up around 8:00am. She eats, and Lila eats again (notice that she's still in the 95% for weight). Johnny and I grab something in this hour as well.
Elevensies: Okay this is actually more around 10:00, but everyone eats a snack.
Luncheon: At 12:00 everyone eats lunch; I sometimes get to also!
Afternoon Tea: No tea is involved, but there is usually some strong coffee for me somewhere in here along with some Goldfish and raisins. Delicious.
Dinner: The kiddos eat their dinner at 6:00. Bananas and clementines have been a favorite lately.  Lila is also into the chewing her edamame and then spitting it out routine.
Supper: Johnny and I pick over the leftovers off of everyone's highchairs.

I kind of think that this was not what the hobbits had in mind when they created their little meal plan.