Good riddance

Lizzie is now officially potty-trained. I can't believe that I am done with diapers. Oh, what will I devote that budgeted money to now? Hmmmm. I had tried twice before, but gave up because I HATE potty-training. It's gross, stressful, frustrating, and a power struggle. This time, we finally figured out what worked for Lizzie. In February, I was trying to reward her with Valentine hearts. Apparently, Sweethearts are not good enough for my Lizzie. We discovered Hershey Kisses to do the job. I bought a few bags on sale after Valentine's Day in different flavors. Did you know they make a Butter cream Kiss? Well, she loved picking out the color of the wrapper (pink-Raspberry Chocolate, purple-Dark Chocolate, yellow-butter cream, Red-caramel Kisses) after she'd performed successfully. I am so proud of her and must have told her numerous times because now she keeps confirming it, "My family is so proud of me, right?" "Yes," I always reply. She likes to name every member of the family who is proud of her and have me agree. What a girl. Plus, I will never tire seeing that cute bum covered in Tinkerbell undies. She's such a cutie!

Taste a Rainbow

In this month's Family Fun, there is a page with a recipe for Rainbow cupcakes. When Emma saw them, she just HAD to have them for our Family Home Evening treat. After the persistent and sweet pleading (along with her getting her sister and brothers to gang up on me), I caved. Yes, it is an artifical coloring nightmare, but is it not beautiful? Everyone must understand I've always had an affinity for rainbows. I love the variety of colors, the organization, the promise associated with them, etc. I had one on my wall above my bed, etched into my glasses, decorating my folders, an entire page devoted to them in my sticker collection book, and yes, my shirts are hung in rainbow order. I know this is too much information, but now you know why I couldn't pass up the chance to cap my rainbow fetish with the baking of these beautiful cakes. Plus, my children were literally jumping in their begging, jumping as they waited for their turn to build them, and jumping as they anxiously awaited the finished product. It was a very exciting night!!!

This is the finished product cut in half so that you can see this gorgeous baked delicacy. :)

I'm opening it up to see the layered colors inside. Yep! They're in there!



Well, you start out with a white cake mix, prepared according to directions on the box. Then divide the batter among 6 bowls. Add food coloring in each bowl so that all 6 colors are represented--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Then put a nice sized dollop (I love that word) in a muffin cup. Now, I used the large Reynolds foil cups that don't need to be put in a muffin tin. You just put them on a cookie sheet to bake. I am glad I did because 6 tablespoons of batter +- the kid factor makes for a lot of batter that could easily spill out of a normal sized cupcake liner.

Each child "called" which color was theirs to assemble. Having 5 kids and myself, it worked out perfectly! My eye is twitching as I am recalling the scraping of the batter into the cups by my children. It was a bit nerve-wrecking, but with quite a bit of help from mom and some training on how to scrape the batter off of the spoon the most efficiently (apparrently, this is not a skill people are born with), we got the batter in the cups. Hallelujah!

Ahh! It took so much control for the kids not to lick their finger after every dollop! Pure relief when they (and even I) could lick that finger!!!

Stick them in the oven until they're done. Let them cool and enjoy heaven in all of its most vivid colors. :)

Enjoy the smiles!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

FYI: to those who know me, I honestly did NOT match my tablecloth to the dessert. It just happened that way. I promise! But still, isn't that awesome?!

The Art Institute of Chicago

During the month of February, the Art Institute of Chicago is free. We decided to go as a family for the first time (with our DAD) and sneak in on the last day. It was so nice having him with us. He enjoyed it every bit as much, too. I think he liked taking pictures of us exploring the museum more than seeing the art itself. I guess our family is our work of art and he was capturing that. :) There's my profundity for the day.

In the past, I've printed out a "scavenger hunt" for each child and had pictures of all of the highlights I wanted them to see listed on it. This was a great tool to keep their hands on the papers and not on the art as well as keep their minds and energies engaged in finishing the game and seeing who could find the next thing on the list. Yes, it was a brilliant idea. I didn't do it this time and we did hear more "When are we going to be done?" comments. However, they remembered a lot of what they saw last time and it was fun to have them recognize and identify different artists and rooms.

The next 2 pictures are obviously towards the end of our visit.

Emma posing with her favorite little girl. (We couldn't find the Dancer statue by Degas.)

I love this Renoir! The older sister's red hat makes me happy.

The size of Seurat's painting is awesome in its truest form of the word.

Monet, Monet. We all love the atmosphere created by the peaceful water lillies.

Learning something new.

I love this. It was so fun watching Evan read and study and process what he was seeing.

Braxton is a HUGE fan of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I was grateful that something like this was in the Modern Art display. It was a breath of fresh air after some of the funky stuff on the walls...and on the ground...and on the ceiling.

My absolute favorite picture of Carter this year!!!

Here we are at an interactive display in the architecture exhibit. The kids are seeing a web that moves and changes depending on the movement of society around us. Eventually it gets all tied up and breaks. I didn't fully understand the message it was trying to portray, but it gave the kids license to act silly and they drew a crowd.

My favorite picture of the day. Steve even caught close-ups of the two of them looking at each other. I admit I nearly get misty-eyed as I see how cute they are looking at each other. I promise this was not how they were gazing at each other this morning at the breakfast table. :)

My thinker.
Braxton views his world in a different light. I wish I could experience it just once.

She's lucky she's so cute! I am so grateful that she introduced our family to the world of girls and PINK. Now if I could teach her how to sit like a lady, we'd be making major progress.

Here she is again, but done with looking at the walls! There is no art above her, mind you.

We actually had to backtrack to find Van Gogh. We couldn't leave without paying him a visit!

Lizzie's trying on the chainmail for size. You can tell she has brothers because as soon as it was on, she was punching with that hand. But again, the tactile stimulation with her hand inside something is comforting for her (see previous post). Funny girl. She found a hole in Carter's jeans at the knee and worked at it while he was sitting and waiting until she could fit her entire hand between the denim and flannel lining!!!

Curiosity knows no bounds.

Upon leaving the museum, there was an old fashioned puppet show. It was a contraption that was hooked to a man's bicycle so that he could put on shows wherever he pleased. Now, all he did with his puppets was have them take coins, fight over them, dance with them, then deposit them in a can. If there was a storyline plot, I would have given him some money. I guess I was an entertainment snob that day. Oh, well. The kids were intrigued for 2 minutes or so.

The final stop in Chicago for the day...the faces. I love how they change. The face opposite the one we were standing by was a young white male who looked nice. Emma said she wanted a picture by him instead. Then he smiled and had gross yellow teeth. "Gross. Never mind," she quickly said. A girl's gotta have her standards.

I wanna hold your ha-a-and

This picture cracks me up because it is proof of Lizzie's hand-holding fetish. Sweet Emma has gotten so used to it that it's just a part of life now. Lizzie LOVES to hold hands. She'd die happy if one thumb was in her mouth and the other hand was being encompassed by another. Since before she turned 2 years old, she had a bedtime ritual of sticking her hand in Steve's or mine and twisting it and rolling it around within our hand until it was in the "just right" position (think of when a doctor or teacher explains a ball and socket joint--that is the motion she does). Sometimes she'd have us put our other hand on her knee. Sometimes she wants to hold our hand in the more traditional way with the other person's fingers taking up the space left by our opposable thumbs. If she's ever caught sitting next to someone in our family or on their lap, a hand must be held. Pockets will sometimes satisfy the need to have a hand covered. Embarrassingly enough, the space between buttons on a shirt have sometimes been attempted. Overall, I think it's precious. I don't know if this will last forever or not, but for now it's one of the cutest behaviors Lizzie has and don't want to forget it!

Snow angels

It seems silly posting this now as the snow is melting, but just over a week ago, we had some of the most prime snow cover Illinois ground. It was wet and heavy--perfect for play. It was also above 20 degrees, which means my kids will last longer than 5 minutes outside--again, perfect for play. We couldn't pass this chance up, so we called over a friend (Katelyn Pocock) and seized the day! The girls were so cute and having so much fun. I had to grab my new favorite toy (my new Nikon D3000) and capture these angelic faces. I love pictures of kids in the snow. I love the colors of the coats, the bright hats, scarves, and mittens, the pink noses and cheeks all against the natural white background. Hallelujah! I had so much fun being the photographer, while the girls had fun being girls. I love how they bounced between being daredevils, sculptors, and princesses.

Emma is so photogenic! This is my favorite shot of the day. Isn't she gorgeous!?!

After making another snow angel, she is still smiling even though there's snow caked in her hair.
Happy with a stick--This she gets from her brothers. I'll never understand the power and draw a stick can hold.

Showing off 2 of the 7 snowmen we made. Correction--Katelyn made a snowbunny. I loved watching the progression of understanding as I showed them how to make the first snowmen and then to watch them do it on their own. They just need a few more muscles and inches in order to lift and stack those heavy balls of snow onto each other.

Every snowman needs a carrot nose!!!

And so do little girls, I guess.

Of course, Lizzie loved making the girls cry as she ate her way through various noses. That grin of hers is one of mischief. :)

Angels we have heard on ...

Isn't this sweet?!

They did so great taking turns giving pushes, sharing sleds, etc.

Cutie-patooties

Their masterpiece!

Emma's turn

I do have to say something about this hat. My talented sister, Mandi, made this hat with a matching scarf for Emma when she was a baby. It reminds me of the Jan Brett book, The Hat, because it keeps growing along with her and seems to have housed some animals while we weren't looking. I just laugh at her when she puts it on and it nearly covers her face like a ski- mask. At least I haven't had to buy her a new one! This is definitely a one-size-fits-all!

Thanks, Mandi!