Open Wide

Guess who made his first trip to the dentist? 
Will was a trooper and was pumped to receive a little maze toy for his good behavior from the trinket machine.

Little Bakers

  Lucky Ben and pals spent the evening at a local bakery creating and baking personal pizzas.  When asked by the bakery owner to come up with a  few names of 4,5 and 6 year olds who might enjoy an evening in the kitchen, we easily came up with a list.  We arrived with extra manual egg-beaters in hand and each baker dressed in their own apron.  The preparation area was ready and waiting with flatbread par baked pizza dough, pizza sauce, two kinds of cheese and pepperoni.  Each young baker was responsible for their own pizza and patiently waited as they baked in the large gray commercial oven that sent homemade bread smells swirling around the seating area at the bakery and tempted the hungry parents waiting and hoping for some leftovers.

Next came an experiment in patience, of which apparently, Baker Jenny has been blessed with bread truckloads.  Imagine nine children trying to separate eggs.  All senses were titillated with sights, sounds, touch and eventually smells and taste.  The cracking of the eggs in Ben's novice yet seemingly confident hand as he rammed his thumb into the gooey egg mess.  One egg....pierced yolk.  Two eggs...gooey yolk again.  Third egg....egg white in bowl, yellow yolk left in his hand.  A success of sorts.  After whipping the egg whites (with yolk) for a bit with the clanky hand held beaters Baker Jenny commented, "If there is any yolk in the whites it gets pretty foamy because of the fat in the yolk.  Ben, just dump yours out and try again."  "What?", I think remembering times in the kitchen cooking with my boys and getting irritated with the mounding messes and wasted ingredients.  "Was she for real?"  Yes, she was and she didn't bat an eye or lose a millimeter of her effervescent smile as she passed the plastic dump bucket piled high with broken egg shells and frothy, fatty "almost but not quite" meringue.  So, we tried again.  This time much improved.  The group combined efforts and with the help of the mammoth kitchen aid mixer and metal whipping attachment Baker Jenny whipped those egg whites with added sugar into shape.

 As they waited for their meringues to bake, they mopped the kitchen floor. Who knew 6 year olds would enjoy that as much as they did!!

End result was some creative sprinkled meringues and a lot of happy kids.  Thanks Baker Jenny!!

A Night at the Museum

Kevin, Ethan and Ben spent the night at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh last weekend.  They were able to tour the museum after hours and play a lot of games with the staff.  The most memorable was a smelling game where Ethan was the only person with a super sensitive sniffer that could recognize 'vanilla'. 

The spent the night under a caribu until 4:00 am when Ethan awoke not feeling well.  He spent some time in the men's bathroom then Kevin packed up and under cloak of darkness sneaked out of the museum with the assistance of a security guard.  Some friends woke up the next morning and couldn't figure out where they had gone.  I was surprised to find them on our doorstep at 7:00 am.

Sounded like a lot of fun though.  Meanwhile Will and stayed home.  I put him to bed at 9:00 pm when he looked at me with his puppy dog eyes and asked, "Can I sleep with you guys?" which I ignored until he cried at 11:00 pm and I caved.  Good times.  Good times. 

Oops

Forgot the cutest skating video of Will and this buddies shaking their groove thing.

Skate Fest Twenty Twelve

To celebrate lovely lady friend Kimberly's birthday we gathered at the local roller rink to skate our hearts out this past Saturday morning. Perhaps if I had read how to take better moving images photographs, they might not have turned out so blurry. Oops.

Hooray for me, though, I did finally figure out the video feature and enjoyed watching the kids shake their booty to the music.

Annual event? Perhaps if we start stockpiling Advil.

Some of us were hurting the next day....you know who you are!

Caregiver is my Middle Name

Throughout my Junior High years I spent the weekends with my Grandparents. They lived in town and my Grandma had suffered from a stroke and needed help getting around the house, cooking, and general taking care of. It was during those years that I mastered the poached egg on toast, instant coffee, and could throw together a good supper of shake n bake pork chops and potatoes.

Sometimes I wrestle with guilt that I could have done a better job of it. When my Grandma needed to go to the bathroom in the night she banged on the wall of her bedroom with her cane until I came to help her. I remember getting impatient with her one night after she called me in 3 or 4 times.

I have been helping my family care for my Mom this past week. She was in the hospital for 4 days and when she was released I had to learn to give her a shot in her stomach twice a day. It was pretty scary the first time I had to pierce her skin, but after a couple of days I felt a little more confident with flicking the bubble to the top, wasting .5 mg, creating a bubble and flicking it to the top again.

My Mom can be a feisty patient. Perhaps it is due to being in the nursing profession for 30+ years. When she was in the hospital a number of years ago for pain in her chest (ended up being pleurisy) and the doctors were unclear of what it was and wanted to perform a rectal exam, my mom declined it saying "You are going to have to go up awfully far to check my lungs."

I am so thankful that she is recovering so well. A highlight of last week was when my Mom opened the door for the home health nurse who walked in and asked, "Where's the patient? Is she back in the bedroom?" My Mom grinned and replied, "Umm, I am the patient."

Cutlery

Just when you think you have things a little figured out....life throws a fork in your path.