Earache

"Mom, my ear hurts."

Words that almost always mean a trip to the doctor. Emma is my healthy child and it's a rarity for her to be sick enough to stay home from school. When I called the doctor's office I was pleasantly surprised that they could get us in by 11 am.

We show up for our appointment and breeze right into the exam room. When does that ever happen?! The Doctor looks in her ear and announces that it's slightly red and has some fluid, but she won't need antibiotics. Music to my ears.

Leftover Sunday

We've started a "leftover" dessert night with another family. They invited us over a while ago and in full disclosure they wanted us to know they had already made the dessert. Since their kids didn't like it, they needed to try and foist the rest of the dessert on us. We heartily agreed to bring leftovers as well.

Theoretically, "Leftover dessert night" is a good idea. In reality, if you have leftover dessert, it's because the kids won't eat it. Leftover dessert is rare in our house. Luckily Micheal's cheesecake had some remnants leftover and we were able to share that. They brought cupcakes which satisfied all the kids and then some. I'm not sure that giving sugar to 7 kids is the wisest thing to do right before bedtime...

Happy Birthday

Michael, they say it's your Birthday....Happy Birthday to You!
In honor of your special day I'm baking the traditional birthday cheesecake as I type. Maybe we can sit on your new bench and eat cheesecake tonight. :)
The cheesecake turned out great. I think this is the first time the top hasn't cracked...ever. Let's hope it tastes as good as it looks.

School Pictures

Yup, it's that time of year again. I can't believe school pictures crept up on me again. I swore to myself last year that I was not going to spend the money on school pictures again, but here we are again. To buy bad pictures or not? That is the question.

The school is encouraging parents to dress their children in "fall" colors. They will have an environmental background. It screams 1970's. I especially love the log to lean on.

On the upside, I got Jack and Emma's haircut. If you'll notice, Emma's bangs are a little crooked, but isn't that the charm of school pictures.

Totally Awesome

So, it's Monday. Usually that means "a case of the Mondays", tears for spelling, and some kind of disciplinary action for Emma. I had a slight case of the Mondays when Emma didn't get a sticker today (it was an accident that she kicked the boy in the nose). But my day took a turn for the better.

My day started to pick up when I tried to book an airline ticket to see Debbie. I have been looking at flights since last week and just couldn't commit to buying it. Then I was waiting to see if Sherri would join in the reindeer games and join me in Seattle. (Come on Sherri, you know you want to) Well, I was all set to buy the ticket but I had to register through Expedia and lost the tentative itinerary that I had been looking at. I was frustrated, but excited to get tickets nonetheless. I looked up the same flights and low and behold I was able to get the same flight times (different airline) for $10 less. Paying ten dollars less totally made my day.

To top off my totally awesome day; I made bread that totally turned out good. We went swimming at the Rec Center for Family home evening.

A+ For Effort

We did it! Emma has such a good week at school that she earned a reward for her efforts. She had a playdate with a friend on Friday afternoon.

Last week her teacher and I came up with a "sticker" program for good behavior at school. Emma and I sat down and discussed what kind of rewards she could earn by behaving at school. At first she wanted to earn toys. I nixed the idea because I didn't want more toys added to the millions they already have. Instead we came up with activities that she could do. The list included;

-invite a friend over
-make cookies with Mom
-paint nails
-go swimming
-rent a movie of her choice

Let's hope that we've turned a corner and will not have anymore "incident reports" . Dare I ask for more ideas to add to the reward list?

Lilyisms

Lily has been saying some pretty hilarious things lately and I wanted to write them down for laughter's sake.

-We were shopping for some clothes and we walked by the bra aisle on the way to the fitting room. Lily said, "Look Mommy, knee pads. Do you want some?"

-Lily was watching a neighbor (discreetly) nursing her new baby. Lily asked, "What are you feeding Colin with?" Amused neighbor responds appropriately. Lily asked again, "Does Colin use a fork?"

-We're also going through a "naked" Barbie phase as well. She pointed out that Barbie's elbows (boobs) didn't have knee pads.