things I heard today

Before we picked up Carl today, I pulled the front of Gretchen's hair up into a whale spout (which she did not like, but tolerated for about an hour... I will make an appointment for next week to get her hair cut short again). Carl looked at her and said, "It's fancy. You are doing the fancy hair?"

Then tonight, after putting them into bed, I went into our bathroom to listen over the baby monitor. (Yes, I have had people say not to use one over like 18 months old. Whatever. If I followed that rule, I would have missed so many great conversations and sing alongs over the past few years) Anyway, the discussion tonight was all about names. Right now, Carl likes to call Gretchen 'Gretchen Boe' instead of 'Gretchen Zoe'. (If you don't know, in Gretchen's case, Zoe rhymes with Joe, not with Joey.) This B instead of Z sends her off the deep end. He knows it. He is a button pusher. (He calls Lew "Sal" after a character of a sanitation bear on Noggin... and Lew gives Carl the same fulfillment that Gretchen does when he pronounces her name wrong. I keep telling them both not to let him get their goats, but they are still pretty much playing into Carl's hands.

Back to the monitor mumblings.

Carl: Gretchen Boe
Gretchen: That hurts my feelings, Carl. Can you say Gretchen Zoe?
Carl: Well, sure I can! Gretchen Zoe!
Gretchen: Oh thank you, Carl. That makes me smile!

They went back and forth about 3 more times with similar exchanges involving Carl Zee-odore instead of Theodore before I heard this:

Carl: Close your eyes and go to sleep.

She mumbled for a couple more seconds, but then the room went quiet. Good night, Everyone.

hey Lori

No offense meant here... but I think maybe you oughta go into your email and take out a bunch of our email addresses. I get at least one spam from your account daily. Maybe you didn't realize that. I haven't emailed you because I figured you weren't in control anymore. ♥

8:00 am

That's when they convinced me to let them go outside to play today. "Can we jump in our jammies?" Has anyone ever asked you that? Yeah, I didn't think so. So, you see why I had no good answer in mind. So, "I guess so" was the reply. We were up early because we had to say goodbye to Grandma this morning before Daddy took her to the airport. Gretchen misses her best friend so much already!! And Carl's speech therapist reported to me that he told her, "Daddy took Grandma to the airport" so I know he was thinking about it all morning, too. Thanks, Grandma - for all the playtime and babysitting! Lew & I got 2 chances to go out to dinner alone! That hasn't happened since, well, since the other grandmother was here to visit. A very welcomed treat, I'll say!!

So, here they are, jumping in their jammies!

On Mother's Day we assembled the Christmas present Uncle Kenny, Aunt Annie, Joe, Claire & Kate gave us last December. And, the kids are loving it! At first, they cried. They sobbed really. All because they were supposed to take turns. The safety feature says only 1 child inside (over age 6, even) but we were going to slack on that and let them both jump together. Well, that wasn't good enough for Gretchen. She cried to be allowed to jump alone. Carl cried when we told him to get out and give Gretchen a short turn... which would be followed by his turn. So, 2 sobbing kids - yes, Gretchen continued crying through her turn. But, 2 days have passed and now they are pretty content jumping together. Carl even leaves to play on the swings only to be called back, "Oh Prince!" "Yes, Princess?" "Prince, come back and jump!" "Sure, Princess!"

Here's Gretchen on Mother's Day:

What have we learned from this?

Don't skimp on pee pees.

Or more specifically on Acini de Pe Pe. It's Italian for "peppercorns" due to the shape. It's the pasta used in the fruit salad that we refer to as "Pee-Pee Salad" but you may know it as "Frog Eye Salad." I'm not sure which image is more palatable. (Hey, if you wikipedia acini de pepe, it actually gives you the recipe for Frog's Eye Salad. Mine is better. I'll give it to you if you want.)

Anyway, if you know us, you won't be surprised to hear I stood in the pasta aisle in Harris Teeter for several minutes and held two boxes in my hand. One was 16 oz of Acini de Pe Pe. (This was a nice find since many places have gone to 12oz boxes and that messes with my recipe.) One was a 16 oz box of Orzo pasta. Orzo is the Italian word for "barley" and it's a rice shaped pasta.

orzo 16 oz = $1.39

pe pe 16 oz = $2.59

So, back to my statement that if you know me, you would expect me to be mulling over these two boxes. But not for long. The acini de pe pe box went back to the shelf to join it's friends awaiting someone hungry yet richer than myself.

Fast forward.... the bottom line. While it may taste fine, it doesn't not feel right. While it may be perfectly acceptable for me alone at home, I will not cheap out if I will be serving the salad to anyone other than just Gretchen (who only picks out the cherries to eat them) and me (who also picks out the cherries, but to avoid them. She & I are living in harmony on this one).

Thought I had a photo of a true bowl of pee-pee salad, but I only have the recipe steps. Here are what pe pes look like, though.

And here is what orzo pasta looks like:

Pe Pe Salad

• 16 oz acini de pepe
• 2 lg cans pineapple tidbits
• 1 jar cherries
• 1 can Mandarin oranges
• 1 tbsp flour or cornstarch
• 1 c sugar
• 8 oz Cool Whip (or 12 - I like extra in there)

Boil and drain pasta. Don't rinse pasta. Combine all fruit juices, sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add to pasta. Let cool together. Fold in fruit and Cool Whip.

variations: use 2 large cans tropical fruit or 2 lg cans fruit cocktail instead of pineapple/oranges/cherries.

Just remember........ don't skimp on pee pees.

photo Friday... Mother's Day edition

Everyone knows "homemade is best". Today, I received the best Mother's day gifts from Carl & Gretchen!! Today, I brought Gretchen to school alone since Lew and Evelyn were home to hang out with Carl. I wasn't going to leave Gretchen - just drop off the final day of teacher Appreciation Week gifts (cards with their names on them), have our special breakfast "Muffins For Moms" with her and pick up the surprise she had been excited about giving me all week! I pretty much knew about the flower pots, but my cards were a very pleasant surprise!! I know Gretchen loves art and drawing, but Carl doesn't always choose that for his favorite activity. So, I would have wondered if Carl made this by himself, but Tracey & Ashlie both told me he really did both the painting and the awesome drawing of me!

Tracey said he drew my legs and body first and declared himself done. But, she said "Mommy needs a head." so he drew one! by himself! Then she said, "How about some eyes?" and picked up a brown marker. He yelled at her, "No green!" (wrong color for my actual blue eyes, but it's just funny that he was so opposed to brown. ) Then she said, "Let's add a mouth" and he said, "OK. Red." So, apparently, there is an artist inside that boy after all! Here's his picture of me:

Now, the picture was in the back of a booklet that each child made me. The teachers interviewed the kids and those pages were in there as well. Kind of funny that today I gave the teachers each a card filled with answers to the interview questions I had asked them about their teachers and school.

So first, I'll share Gretchen's drawing. Now, she informed me that first she drew Daddy, then Mommy. And her teacher made sure to point out that we both have a heart and lungs! That cracked us all up!

The rest of the booklet had these questions and answers:

My Mom's age is....

Gretchen: 16 (of course, she knows you have to be 16 to drive a car)

Carl: 4

She likes to eat....

Gretchen: pizza!

Carl: spaghetti

All day she....

Gretchen: Does lots of things; takes pictures all day!

Carl: Goes to bed!

When she's by herself, she likes to....

Gretchen: sleep in! (gee, see a theme emerging here? It's incorrect, by the way!)

Carl: Take Grandma to school

I help her by....

Gretchen: waking up!

Carl: Finishing make the wet ocean (I think this is deep, don't you?)

What I like to do with my mom is.... (how cool are these answers?????)

Gretchen: Hug her!

Carl: Play!

and one final photo here... Carl took this picture of my this morning before I brought Gretchen up to school. Oh, by the way - in case you are feeling bad for Carl, I knew he wouldn't eat muffins or drink orange juice, and he was wicked happy to get to stay home with Daddy!! Plus, when I got home, I made him his own batch of pumpkin muffins. He was not deprived!!! Anyway, he took this shot of me wearing my very first Mother's Day shirt. They were 6 months old when they made that one for me. I haven't done this year's yet.... I have a couple days still! tee hee)

it's teacher appreciation week

This is Teacher Appreciation Week at pre-school. So, we have been having fun with little items to let the teachers know that we are very lucky to have them! Last week, I sent a note home to all the parents asking each one to bring in 4 flowers on Monday... one for each teacher. So, every child would give the teacher only 1 flower, but since there are 21 kids altogether... each teacher would receive a beautiful bouquet. I brought 4 vases over to school late last Friday and the teachers found them first thing on Monday morning - just in time for kids with flowers to begin arriving!

Friday:

Tuesday:

I was so happy that the other parents joined in so well!!! Part of me worried the vases would remain kind of empty because parents thought I was being pushy. I'm glad I was wrong. one mom even thanked me for organizing it.

We also have given them wallet sized photos in magnets. I went in a couple weeks ago and took photos of each teacher with the twins to use for those magnets. They have them displayed on the class fridge... cool! Today we brought them cookies and tomorrow we are bringing them more magnets - this time hand painted by the kids.

How well do you know your belly buttons??????Friday will be the final day to celebrate. I am making cards with their names on them using each letter vertically and picking an adjective that begins with that letter...

Loving

Educator

Affectionate

Huggable

(I am editting this to add the photo of hte finished cards)

I'll interview the kids about the teachers and school to write inside the cards. I love this kind of stuff!

let's go to the beach!

"I honestly think the beach is the only place children truly entertain themselves."

-Donna McLavy

photos taken Friday 4.30.10