Four Bright Coins

Mace's class worked for several weeks to memorize this little chant about money and performed it at Friday Morning Meeting in front of the school. Mace got to tell a joke, and he was surprisingly tentative.

My Dancing Princesses

MaraJade and Eowyn love to dance to anything, but particularly the Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses movie. I recently found my only remaining dance costume and let Monster wear it. She loved dancing to her favorite songs in dance costume - usually she's in princess costume with her Superman doll as prince! If you watch closely, you can see she's imitating the video pretty well. I know she'd love to start dance lessons, but I just have to figure out how to squeeze that into the budget!

Spring Break 2011

We had quite a bit of fun this Spring Break. PJ had the week off, and we just stayed in town but did a bunch of fun stuff (thanks to Groupons, Entertainment Book and the like!). As I recall, we went to: Enchanted Playhouse (think McDonald's playland plus Gymboree - fine, and close to home, but not worth the $7.25/kid), Precision Elite Gymnastics open gym, JJ Jump, Pietro's, bowling, swimming, plus dinner at Olive Garden. Oh, and Tristen had his first cavities filled. :-(

Maceism of the Day - 3/25/11

In the car (again), the boys somehow got to asking me about Grandma Beth. They asked if she was my mom (we've actually had this conversation many times, but I know it's confusing for them), and I replied no, she's my stepmom. Conversation followed thusly:

Mace: "Do I have a stepmom?"
Me: "No. If Daddy and I got divorced, and he married a different woman, that would be your stepmom."
Mace: Pause. "Oh." Pause. "So is Alex your stepdad?"
Me: Pause. Think...think....think...ummm.....
Mace: "No. He's just Grandma's friend." Pause. "When will they have kids?"
Me: "They're not going to. Auntie Auntie and I are Grandma's only kids."
Mace: Pause.
Me: Waiting....cringing...
Mace: "Do I have a stepdad?"
Me: Whew! He moved on! "No, but if Dad and I divorced, and I married a different man, he would be your stepdad."
Mace: Pause.
Me: "Would you like that? Having another dad?"
Mace: "No way!" Thinking Pause. "Unless you married James Bond. That would be pretty cool!"

Visiting our friends!

It's been over a year since mine and MaraJade's best buddies abandoned us to move to the 'Couv. We've been able to visit a few times since, but it's hard because our schedules with preschool and such are completely opposite. But during Spring Break week, we managed to find a free day for both our families, so the Bocek girls got to spend the whole day with Savannah, Ruby, Mae and Makelle. We had such fun! But now we miss them even more. :-(

Unfortunately, I only managed to take pictures of MissE and Miss Mae. Hmmm...too busy visiting by chance?

Could have been best buddies.... (sorry Makelle, I can't resist)

Pretty Miss Mae

Oh! I did get one of Sabanna!

Beehive Cake

My first non-birthday fondant creation! My mother-in-law requested a beehive cake for her RS Birthday event. After lots of thought and online research (me? nah!), plus several different game plans, here's what I ended up with:

I had initially wanted something more realistic and - well, I guess - sophisticated. But I ended up going with cutesy, and I do love it. This was my first time molding little figures from fondant and gumpaste, my first time covering my cake board, plus many other firsts. It was really fun! Oh, and I used my favorite moist chocolate cake recipe, with chocolate ganache filling and caramel buttercream. I hear it was tasty as well!

Bees and flowers drying

1 9" round, 1 8", 1 6" and half of a pyrex bowl

First couple of tiers filled, stacked, doweled and crumb-coated

Almost done crumb-coating

Covered! And I didn't tear it once!

Well, not until I stuck a finger through it. Doh!

The kids kept calling the largest bee the queen, so I decided to make her a wee crown. :)

Responsibility!

In the interest of preserving Mom and Dad's sanity, instilling our children wtih a good work ethic and sense of place in our "community", and just because I think it's time, we've been focusing on the kids helping out more around the house. We had a pretty good FHE about it, we've instituted Chore Charts for all the kids (the boys had an after-school chore duty sheet before) and we've promised to be more on top of allowance doling. I know, current parenting philosophy is that children shouldn't be paid to do what they are already supposed to around the house - they should do it just because they live there. And part of me definitely agrees. However, I also believe that it's important to teach the kids how the world really works: you have a job with parameters, and when you perform your job as expected, you receive compensation. Don't do your job, no money. I guess I favor realism over idealism too much. And we did explain that there will be things we ask them to do that aren't on the Chore Chart, and they won't receive money every time we ask them to help out. The Chore Chart items are what they receive money for. Anyway, even prior to this, I had started having the kids fold their own laundry. We dump it in a big pile, they sort into their baskets, fold and put away. It's so nice! Here, on Laundry Day:

Of course, Mace needs many, many reminders to stay on task, Monster (if she's in a mood) just wallers around saying "I can't!" to everything I tell her to do, and Tristen is very responsible, but also quite bossy. It's a work in progress. :)

PreSchool

We love our pre-school. We really, really do. MaraJade loves it, the boys loved it (still think it's the best school ever!), we love the curriculum, staff, kids - everything! Our kids all learned so much their pre-school year, and thrived in the loosely structured, child-and-play-led program. This spring, Teacher Kristen and the High School Helpers have focused a lot on plants. MaraJade has brought home and sprouted wildflowers, sunflowers, and even has a grass head! I wouldn't change pre-schools for anything!

1 year pics

It only took 4 tries, but we finally got MissE's 1-year pictures taken. First 2 times, she was sick and I had to cancel at the last second, third time, got her dressed and ready, to the photo studio in a good mood and all, then she wouldn't let me leave her side and I actually had to leave. I couldn't believe it. So I rescheduled (AGAIN), but had Grandma take her this time. I waited in the lobby with the boys, and she was still pretty whiny and resistant, but we actually got some cute pictures. And since I don't do individual professional pics past 1 year (the thought gives me hives and makes my wallet empty!), it'll only be home photos from here on out! Well, except for our rare attempts at family pictures *shudder*.

Maceism of the Day - 3/7/11

Last month, in church, the kids were learning about the Plan of Salvation and the levels of Heaven (Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial - highest to lowest (go to http://www.lds.org/ and search the site for a much better description than I can give right now)). As ususal, figured they weren't paying too much attention.

Fast forward to today in the car. MaraJade and Mace are fighting over some toy (go figure!), which Monster has possession of and is gleefully denying Mace access to. Very calmly, Mace says, "If you won't share that with me, you're going to go to the Telestial Kingdom. And then you'll be sad." Unfazed, Monster still won't give, so Mace launches into a mini-POS lesson, enlightening her on what she'd be missing out on if she makes such a poor decision.

At least someone is learning.