January 2014 – Our Family Adventure

The children’s day at “school”

One of the things I love about the kids daycare is the little piece of paper I get at the end of each day telling me what they did. I find it so entertaining that I felt I should share their day today!

Ajax’s day for 01/20/2014- he ate everything and relaxed quietly. Here are the teacher’s notes- We discussed things we do in the winter. Ajax said shovel snow. We planted four different kinds of herbs. We drew snowflakes in our journals.

Noomi’s day for 01/20/2014- she ate well and napped from 12:05-2 pm. The teacher’s notes state- We counted to five. Learned the colors and said the name of a friend wearing the color as we went over them. Learned the letter “A” and said words that begin with it. Our circle time story was “I love you because you are you.” We did a book review. We fingerprinted a friendship mural.

Too cute!

MSU museum

This weekend was fairly quiet to report. On Saturday my parents and grandma Flo came to visit. We made pancakes, and Ajax got to play in the snow with grandpa, while my mom and I went grocery shopping.

On Sunday, we took the kids to this small natural history museum on Michigan State’s campus. The kids loved it and ran almost nonstop. They also chattered away nonstop about everything. We tried to remind them to keep their voices in check, but they were pretty excited. Noomi’s favorite thing were the stairs, while Ajax loved the dinosaur bones.

On a development note – Noomi’s vocabulary is finally expanding. She is currently referring to all drinks as wawa. We keep repeating to her WATTTTER, Water. But she keeps saying – wawa. Oh well, she is now at least using words to communicate what she wants.

Ajax is also doing well, though he’s been in a bit of a stubborn phase lately and I admit that he’s so quick and sharp, I have to remind myself that he’s only 4. I hope he someday uses this power for good, lol, because right now he’s pushing poor Mr. Dave and I pretty hard.

Red Velvet Pots

In the recent Parents magazine (Feb. 2014), I saw a recipe for a dessert, which looked awesome, easy and quick. It was so easy that Ajax helped put most of it together. It cooks in the microwave and we all hovered around watching it rise. Ajax was quite proud of his dessert!

1/4 C milk
1/2 tsp white vinegar
6 tbs flour
1/4 C sugar
2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tbs vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp red food coloring (I didn’t have any food coloring)

Directions-

In a small cup, combine milk and white vinegar.
In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate small bowl combine the vegetable oil, egg, vanilla, and food coloring. Add the milk mixture and the oil mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until well combined. Divide batter between 2 mugs; do not fill more than halfway.
Microwave each mug individually for 1 1/2 minutes. When done the cake should be firm and springy, not doughy. If it isn’t done, microwave in 15-second intervals up to 2 1/2 minutes total. Let cool for 3 minutes. I think this would be excellent with a little hot fudge over top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

No one wants a beating

The other night I was rushing to pick up the kids as I left the office a bit late. The kids do not like to be the last ones picked up and I don’t really blame them. When the clock creeps toward 5:30-6 pm everyone wants to go home. After I collected the ninos and loaded them into the car, Ajax asked what we were having for dinner. I said that we were most likely having leftovers as I was very tired and daddy was working in Dearborn today. Mom, he said, I want you to make dinner. I will make dinner, I said, when have I ever not fed you dinner? Ajax then said, Mom, I want you to make dinner, or I’m gonna beat you. I immediately busted out laughing, as Ajax was completely joking. I looked in the rear view mirror and seriously told him that wasn’t funny. He then wagged his finger at me smiling saying, I’m gonna beat you mom, really, I want you to make dinner. This went on for a bit, when I realized this such thing probably shouldn’t be encouraged, so I called a time out and told Ajax that though I found this conversation funny, he wasn’t allowed to say that type of thing to anyone else. Ajax said ok!

After the kids went to bed I told Dave about my conversation with Ajax. Dave pointed out that I needed to watch what I said around the kids because Ajax picked that up from me. I told him that was ridiculous… but apparently I had threatened to beat Dave just last night for failing to make rolls with dinner.

The above photos were taken by Ajax who ran around with the camera. He was quite the photographer.

Snow emergency

Grandma Dara and Grandpa Rod were heroes and babysat the kids for two days last week since Dave and I both had to work on Thursday and Friday. We ended up meeting Grandpa near Saginaw at the Cracker Barrel on News Years day, which was a first for the kids and they loved it. And then we met again at the Cracker Barrel on Saturday to pick up the kids. We then stopped back in Lansing, changed, and then headed into Farmington Hills for dinner with family friends. Dinner was excellent and the kids ran nonstop. It was very nice watching the kids run around with all the other kids, running the same pattern around that house that I ran as a kid (round the stair case, into the kitchen, down the hallway and back into the living room). We ended up staying till about 9 pm when we realized a pretty big storm was rolling in, so we hit the road. It was a good thing that both kids passed out because it took a very long time to get home.

On Sunday a wicked storm rolled in with frigid temperatures and over a foot and a half of snow. The weather was so bad that schools and businesses alike closed for Monday. Hence, I am home now with the kiddos. Dave and Ajax spent time outside yesterday and today shoveling, but so far none of the side streets have been touched, so I’m unsure how I’ll even be able to get to work tomorrow the snow is so deep.

Here are pictures of our day at home so far. Noomi and I made a blanket fort which Ajax played with legos and matchbox cars upstairs.

Hello 2014

Today everyone slept in till 8 am. It was very nice. It would have been nicer, however, if Noomi hadn’t been up several times last night. I guess that’s our fault really, we were all out late last night and one thing we hardly ever mess with is our night time routine and bed time (which is 8 pm at the very latest). Last night we messed with both those things, but it was New Year’s Eve and both kids did enjoy themselves. We ended up going over to a friend’s house and were there till 10:30. Noomi has never been up that late. Both kids, however, did very well! There were no fights, no hitting, and generally low volumes (for ninos). Ajax was a ham and after Noomi warmed up a bit she kept walking up to everyone and holding up her hands to be picked up. It was too cute. By 10:30 we decided we had to split as we could all see meltdowns coming. Both kids passed out after only 4 minutes in the car. Ajax even got to try some “crackers” which he kept thinking he could eat in the car and once he realized they popped open, he was so excited. The hostess even let him take a few home, which was way nice.

After everyone finally got up and moving today, we met grandpa Rod 1/2 way and he took the kids back home to Mikado so they could babysit tomorrow and Friday, as Dave and I have to work. We met at the Cracker Barrel, which both kids LOVED.