betrayal of the worst kind...

The time: Easter Eve
The place: Nana's and Poppa's in San Antonio

Nana was making deviled eggs for our Easter feast the next day while a certain boy named Tank wandered in...

"Nana?" the small boy inquired.

Nana, while intent on filling the little egg boats just right, always had time for her beloved grandchildren, "Yes, Tank?"

"Are you making Devil's Eggs for us?"

With a smile, "Yes, honey. I am."

Tank's eyes widened with anticipation. "For dinner tonight?"

Nana turned to her littlest grandson, "No, they're for Easter tomorrow."

The jubilant face turned dark and his eyes narrowed, "TRICKERY!" In one movement he turned on his heel and ran up the stairs to sit with Poppa, the non-betrayer.

Nana and a quietly observing Mommy, watched him leave, turned to each other and laughing, repeated, "Trickery?"

Who even taught him that word?

choosy girls choose asiago

Scoochy has a discriminating palate. For instance, she prefers dijon over "regular" mustard and Chili's kids' pizzas taste like "cardboard." If there's one thing she adores, it is the combination of asiago cheese and bread. Whenever someone is going to the store and asks if anyone needs anything, Scoochy pipes up with, "Asiago bread!"

I decided to indulge her and bought her a $6 wedge of asiago and told her she could make her own bread. She did and those three lovely and absolutely delicious loaves were the product of her labors. Bravo, Scooch!

they are smarter than we give them credit for.

Apparently The emp has been paying attention. Her older brother Tank's job is to fold washcloths and put them away. He was still working on his schoolwork when The emp, who was playing with Daddy, saw the pile. She immediately began folding them. She was having a little bit of trouble so Daddy showed her how to do one properly and that was it. No more instruction necessary. She folded the entire stack and carefully piled them. Then she proceeded to walk into the kitchen and put them away, without prompting! It never ceases to amaze me when they reveal how they understand and are capable of so much more than we thought.

She knows exactly where she's going.

I told her, "I'm gonna take your picture." This is the tail end of her telling me, "No."

This is actually the towel cupboard. She saw that she made a mistake, closed the door and opened the correct one. I'm still shocked.

another wave begins.

The house was quiet. Too quiet. But we didn't notice. We just kept doing what we were doing. No one had the slightest idea what was transpiring in the pantry.

I knew I needed to start making dinner. I walked into the kitchen and I heard glass tapping on glass. At first I was confused. What was that? Suddenly it dawned on me. The quiet. The lack of a visual on the littlest member of our family. I turned to the noise and when I saw the spice jars lined up in a row on the ground, I knew there was mischief afoot. It was the emp! You have to be impressed though. She actually got the step stool and dragged it in. Otherwise she couldn't have reached the spice jars. I guess I am always reminding them to "find a solution." And she did. Boy, did she.


No one has told her. No one has said a word so it must be genetics. There's no other explanation. But if anyone doubted if Princess Cutie Pops and The emp were sisters, this exact incident would be a strong argument for their shared genes. The following pictures are Exhibit A, B and C against our little emp. When you are finished, jump over here for the evidence of PCPops mischievousness. Focus especially on the fifth picture over there. PCPops has a knack for destruction, but we thought the toddler-type of havoc was behind us. Oh, no. No sirree. The emp has taken up the torch. God help us.

The first glimpse of The emp's handiwork.

We caught her just in time. She almost had the foil off of that soymilk. Most of the mess above is sesame seeds.

Cumin seeds, mustard seeds and other spices that were dumped out.

After her stern talking to. Poor little thing. (Although I wasn't thinking Poor little thing at the time.)

In all she wasted about $5 dollars worth of spices. Luckily I buy them in the bulk section or at the Asian market otherwise she would have done about $20 of damage. Oh, kids. Ya gotta love 'em.

the 8th of Princess Cutie Pops

Our Princess Cutie Pops turned eight. She chose red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and poinsettia decorations. We had fun putting them together and the entire house smelled of cinnamon gum.

The hoard.

We got her ears pierced for our present and knowing this in advance, Nana and Papa got her five pairs of earrings! Now she just has to wait six weeks before she can wear them.

As usual, a great present from our friends.

Her siblings got her a pair of "real crocs" in her favorite color.

christmas cookies, belated.

Every year the kids each pick out a cookie to make with mommmy. This year had new ones and an old favorite:

Princess Cutie Pops picked delicious Eggnog Logs. I was surprised to find that it called for absolutely no eggnog, but did in fact taste rather egg noggy in the end. 

As usual, Scoochy chose a decadent and rather upscale cookie. She has such a sophisticated palate. Chocolate mint wafers...oh my goodness. Dark chocolate flavored wafers sandwiched around chocolate mint ganache and dipped in chocolate. To. Die. For.

"Hmmm...which one to eat as soon as Mom is done taking pictures?" Dodge is just like his Daddy. Why try a new recipe when we know Peanut Butter Blossoms are delicious? I'll give you one guess what he'll pick as his cookie next year...

Our little emp is trying to grab Tank's plate of Chocolate Meringues. These babies were melt-in-your-mouth delicious and super simple to make. The only drawbacks were having to pipe them and the 2-hr baking time. But hey! That's what Christmas cookies are for, right? It's that extra little oomph that we don't want to give cookies the rest of the year.

She's got it all figured out.

Princess Cutie Pops' birthday is Christmas Eve. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She answered, "A horse. And I want a horse for Christmas, too."

Daddy shook his head, "Sweetie, that's a waste. You can only ride one at a time. Why get two?"

Confidently she replied, "Because next year I'm asking for a chariot!"

Who says kids never plan for the future?

san antonio zoo time

inseparable

The emp and Chewy (short for Chewbacca) have become fast friends. I don't know any other dog who would put up with that little girl's mauling of her. The emp is completely fearless and Chewy is completely docile. What a pair.

a pocket full of rye and then some

We have a gigantic map on our dining room wall. It is the topic of many dinner conversations, tonight included. After answering many "Is this a country or a state?" questions, the kids noticed that Russia was rather large. This got us discussing how a country's size doesn't always match how powerful and rich it is.

"Mom, does the United States of America have a lot of money?"

"Yes, we're considered a rich country and that's one of the main reasons we're so powerful."

"Is England rich?"

"Yes, England is considered one of the rich countries."

"...and portable!"

"What? Portable?"

"Yeah, it is so small you could just drop it in your pocket."


Kids...Where do they come up with this stuff?

God, Himself, would want some

Biscuits and gravy is my most favoritest breakfast on the planet. With that as a base, you can take it for granted that we love biscuits and gravy in this house. LOVE it. I make it about once or twice a month for specials. (kids term) Today was one of those days. We had gone to the pool at 8am (no need for sunblock, the pool water hasn't heated up to a simmer yet, and the only other soul we see there is Mr. Bill  from Long Island on occasion). Soooo, we were there and my oldest jumps in and almost immediately jumps back out again. It was along the lines of watching a jump in rewind it was so impressive.

Apparently a snake of unknown venom-capacity had decided that he loved the pool in the morning as well. After chasing him around with the long hook thing that you use to pull drowned people to safety, I finally managed to flip him out and crush his head with the handle. I'm usually not one to kill snakes, especially when I'm not sure they're poisonous. They are highly beneficial animals, buuuuuut I couldn't run the risk of him finding his way to my little one year-old's chubby little foot. Not when we've got water moccasins, diamond backs and coral snakes to deal with here. Sorry snake. All of this to say that our normally fun time was a bit overshadowed with tension. Every shadow now had to be investigated and "ok'd" by mom.

On our walk back we talked about what to have for breakfast and we all agreed on biscuits and gravy. It was just that kind of day. My oldest took his first bite and after the unavoidable "Mmmmmmm!" he said, "Mom, this is Heaven's Breakfast."

I couldn't agree more.

oh, the possibilities...

My kids are in the back of the Sienna one-upping each other on "What God could do if He wanted to."

"You could grow to be as tall as a tree if God wanted you to."

"You could shoot fireballs out your hands if God wanted you to."

My youngest son, Tank, not to be outdone, pipes in, "You could live to be a million but still be a baby and learn to say "hello" if God wanted you to, and grow a beard."

Silence.
Then eruptions of laughter.
Hmmmm, methinks we've got a winner.

Jokers Wild.

PCPops: Mommy, everyone wants the Joker in Go Fish.
Me: Why?
PCPops: Because we love little men riding bicycles.

Of course. Why would a kid love a card for anything other than aesthetic reasons? Wait a minute, do you even use Jokers in Go Fish?

Anatomical discrepencies...or not

PCPops comes walking up to me..."Mom! These are my kidneys." (pointing to her knees)

I'm just about to correct her when she says, "I'm a kid and these are my knees. Kid knees!"

Oh the pun of it!

Night of the Doughnut

8 kids + 2 types of melted chocolate + powdered sugar + sprinkles + dozens of doughnuts = one messy, fun and delicious time

When Dug was traveling, I decided (I still have no idea why) to have our friends come over and eat doughnuts with us. Don't get me wrong, it was super-duper yummy and way too much fun, but I was sweeping multicolored sprinkles off my kitchen floor for weeks!

In this picture, you'll notice Dodge has apparently become side-tracked from his job. Yashel is more nose-to-the-grindstone while still enjoying a mouthful of freshly deep-fried yumminess.

PCPops and Woozy aren't quite as careful as their siblings. I think their plan goes something like this: one finger of chocolate spread on doughnut...one for my tummy...one for the doughnut...

If Fuzzy Bee wasn't so covered in chocolate, you'd think he was posing for the children's version of GQ.

Realizing there's no prettifying a powdered-sugar-face, Scoochy fully embraces her inner doughnut monster.

Sally, my co-conspirator, enjoying the fruits of our labor. (Actually the labor part -i.e. cleanup- hasn't even started yet in this picture.)

PC Pops and the sixth year.

Princess Cutie Pops turned six on her last birthday. (Which just happened to be four months ago in December, but you'll forgive me right?)

I don't know if a birthday girl could look cuter.