Stir it up, little darlin’. Stir it up.

When we were kids, we weren’t allowed to play with our food. As a parent, I can understand that. Dinner time is the most frustrating time of the day for me, and it really makes me crazy when the boys yutz around and make a mess. So, there. I’m sure that my parents feel vindicated now that I have just typed that sentence.

But, we weren’t allowed to do anything with our food except eat it, and this extended to stirring our ice cream. This is a problem for a girl who would much rather have it all soft and of a malt/shake-like consistency instead of remaining in a scoop form. So, every time we had ice cream, I would inevitably get in trouble for playing with my food.

I did it anyway.

I still do. I am 42 years old, and I still get immense satisfaction from knowing that my dad’s head would explode if he saw me stirring my ice cream all together into a soft and runny-ish soup. Is that wrong?

And, although I would like to say that I allow the boys to do the same thing that would be a lie. I regularly find myself telling them to “just eat your food, already!”

Geez, lighten up, mom!

Are you tired of zoo pictures yet? Too bad...

We are determined to use that family zoo pass from Uncle Norris as much as possible! What a great gift that has been. This particular day was overcast and only in the 80s. We managed to have loads of fun while Bub was at a funeral. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that we had the better time.

Is it just me, or is it some kind of unwritten parenting law that you must take pictures of your kids while at the zoo? We all do it, and then we have 73 photos of the same kids seeing the same animals at the same zoo several times. The weird thing about this, I think, is that we don’t even have the greatest zoo! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good zoo; it is. But, it’s no San Diego Wild Animal Park!

But, these are the greatest kids...

Missing the girls.....

This is what happens when you split up in the mall and one brother gets to see our awesome friend, Geri, and the other brother just misses her.

He was SO excited to see her that he picked a flower, and we RAN through the mall to try and catch her.

We didn't make it in time. He was heartbroken all the way home and until he fell asleep.

Just being silly

Why is it so much fun to take pictures of yourself? When someone ELSE is trying to take a picture, we avoid it or put a silly smile on our faces or glare at the camera or whatever. But, when we are taking a picture of ourselves, our whole demeanor changes. Strange. And Fun.

Of course, when you are five, you have license to be silly any time you want!

Dear Kids: Mommy is a total Tough Mudder BADASS!

See my running blog for the race report(s).

Part 1 Pre-race jitters

Part 2 The first 11 obstacles

Part 3 The final 12 obstacles

Part 4 Retrospective

Friends

On the left is one of my best friends, E. I’ve known her for probably 22 years, and I adore her. I feel like we’ve always been close, even though for 16 of those years, she lived in Alaska. She’ll be going back there relatively soon, too. I’ll miss her so much!

On the right is her new girlfriend, A. They have known each other for about 18 months, but the rest of us have only known A for about six months. Since we don’t all get to do too much together, the jury is still out on A. It takes a long time to get in good with our group (just ask Bub), but I must say that she’s doing a good job so far. She makes E. happy, and that’s all that we really car about.

Cute, aren’t they?

Drop Cookies

Meatball continues to love to cook with me. Peanut will help, but he mostly likes cracking the eggs and using the mixer. Meatball loves the entire process. Here he is doing his first batch of drop cookies. I remember very vividly my mom teaching me to do the same thing. “Scoop the batter with one spoon, and scrape it onto the cookie sheet with the other spoon.”

Next, I’ll have to teach him how to fit twelve on a sheet. That’s how I learned multiplication, by the way…