So say the people.  We were making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies tonight, and when it came time to blend, both Sugar and Engineer suggested getting a stool so they could watch and also laugh.  And sure enough as soon as I started the mixer, they both spontaneously erupted with canned laughter. 

I never realized that making cookies was so funny.

I guess it’s been a long time since I was 5. 

I just have to post some of the wit of Engineer:

He had his first music class on Tuesday and the teacher told me he has a beautiful voice (beam).  As we were getting in the car I told him that I heard he did some wonderful singing.

E: I did NOT sing
Me: Well Miss Singy said you did.
E: (matter of fact) Well, maybe she’s lying. 

              —————–
 

At kindergarten when they don’t finish their snack, the rest of it gets put in their backpack.  Engineer keeps coming home with pretzels in his baggies.  (Yesterday it was even pretzel goldfish.)   

Me: Do you not like pretzels or something?
E: I like pretzels.
Me: Then how come pretzels keep coming home with you in your bag?
E: Because I forgot to throw them away. 

My kids and I are really excited because our chickens have started laying eggs! 

On the downside, they might not lay in the winter unless we turn their lamp on at night, hens need 16-18 hours of light in order for them to lay.  And this little fact got me thinking…

Why do I have to ovulate in the winter if chickens get to be exempt?  I’d like to not have a cycle when there is not enough sun…

Of course, I don’t think I’d like to lay an egg five days a week either, so I guess there’s a trade off there.   

Well, we are finally home from a lovely family-reunion vacation in Pennsylvania.  We played with the cousins, went to theme parks, visited great grandma, had a birthday, ate cake nearly everyday and met real live Amish.  When we aren’t so jetlagged and the 2 weeks of mail is cleared from the kitchen table,I’ll post more about it.  Probably sometime next spring…

If you are like me and have more than one or two children, I have a recommendation for you: find yourself a friend with only ONE child.  Preferably a child around the same age as yours and that plays well with him or her. (Vice versa as well, parents of one, find yourself a friend with more than one).

I tell you what, it is the best thing ever.

Why?  You might ask, is this the greatest match made in Heaven?  Well, I will tell you.  The reasoning is simple.  Parents of multiple children, like myself are always ready to have some peace and quiet and pawn off a few children.  Parents of one child, like my friend Juniper, tire quickly of being their child’s only playmate and are ready to have a few more children over.  Can you do the math?

I can send one, two or three of my children over to Juniper’s house and get some work done because no one is here to destroy my efforts.  When my kids are at her house, Juniper can get some work done because her daughter isn’t constantly nagging her to play ponies with her.

It is the most perfect, most beautiful thing ever that I sometimes feel a little guilty about.  

(And yes I watch her little princess too, so she can have mom time.)

Conclusion: Get yourself a mom of one friend today! 

Or at least that’s how she percieves it.  Always on the go– with lots of carseats and small kids.  I can relate.

 P.S.  There is but one carseat.  All the rest of the "babies" are secured with the orange "string."  That is how they are kept safe.

Every morning that Charming leaves before the children wake up, he comes into our room, says goodbye and requests that I not forget to say morning prayers with the children.  It always makes me think Qui-Gon Jin’s last request in Star Wars Episode 1– "promise me you’ll train the boy…"  Something to smile about I guess.

So this morning, after a nightmare filled sleep (I think I am watching this show a little too much) I get this request and then 30 minutes later the girls are in my room requesting, not prayers, but breakfast.  We are working hard on getting the people to ask before they get food, but they seem to never ask when I am able to do it, and always ask while I am asleep.  Anyway.  For about 20 minutes they snuggled in my bed, kicked each other and drew pictures on my back.  When I was finally not a zombie Sugar asked a funny question.

"Why do you have squishy dots on your back?"

I have moles.  Who doesn’t?  But why would she call them moles when squishy dots is a much better descriptor.  Is there a suggestion box for that somewhere?  New, better, medical terms suggestions?

 Anyway.

So then we made muffins for breakfast.  Spider immediately wanted butter on hers.  She then proceeded to eat a piece, request more butter, eat a piece, and request more butter until her muffin was gone.  And when it was gone, I went in to clean the kitchen.

And when I cam back, she had found something else to eat:

Yes, that is butter in her squishy little hand.  And yes that is a butter knife in her mouth.  I’m a terriblt mother, I know.  How was your Monday morning? 

…because all they need is a big piece of foam that they can make into a slide or a "hole."

So for Earth Day today, we decided to do a fun little craft that I found on the internet. (Though I will tell you now, all I did was decorate the cans and put dirt in them, none of that drilling they called for over there.)  We rinsed out cans and containers (recycling!) and used fun scrapbook paper to decorate them.  Then we filled them with dirt and herb seeds.

The lovely Laylee and Magoo (oh yeah, and their mom too) came for some Earth Day festivities and we had a fantabulous time playing outside (yay, sunshine!) and then herbing away.

To do the craft the kids first drew a picture and wrote the name of the herb they were going to plant on a little paper.  Engineer and Laylee’s handwriting was quite impressive, while Magoo’s was quite Kathryn’s.  Both Magoo and Sugar were sort of helpless about the drawing part– Magoo insisted that he simply COULD NOT do it himself and to his mom said, "you DO IT," and Sugar just begged for assistance. I wrote and illustrated the label that Sugar quickly turned into "blueberry oregano" by using a blue crayon to fill it all in.

It was very fun, and very naptime.

And after it was all over, I received a special package in the mail.  Some plants I had ordered online.  (On Earth Day, how appropriate.)  As I was looking at the packing slip, I read something really funny– down near the bottom it said, "You are going to rock this gardening experience."  And I laughed and thought, "I SO am."  No really I was thinking, "they are so humorous over there.  What a funny thing to put on a packing slip."  And then I laughed even harder as I remembered my online ordering experience had allowed me to input some notes.

Yeah, it was a message I had sent myself.  I’m still chuckling about it.  

And here is our finished project:

…than the feeling of tiny hands wrapped around your neck while you’re snuggling in bed.