Year in Review [Summary: A Good One!]

This is my year-in-review post to close out 2011. All in all, a good year here in Kansas. It started off snowy. When I think of January 2011, I think cold. And snow. And not being able to go anywhere because it was so. darn. cold. Why does January have 31 days again? February started out GREAT. It was my birthday! I had a party! My awesome husband set up a LIVE trivia game for the grownups upstairs, and the kiddos watched Toy Story 3 in the basement. My team (fueled by three babies) won!

March was OK. My dear friend had medical issues and a very premature baby (who is doing great now), and my other dear friend lost her mom. So maybe it wasn't really OK; it was a worse month than most. But we pressed on. In April, we celebrated Trucko's big #1! I took the day off with him on his actual birthday and the two of us had a great day. We went to Wonderscope, followed by lunch at Fritz's, where your food is delivered by train:

Happy boy, happy mom. In June, we spent a week at the beach and in July, we flew to California for a long weekend for my grandmother's memorial. Lots of time with the extended family. It was fun. Truck did set a new family record of length of time crying on a flight (55 minutes straight; from here to Chicago). He got more and more teeth. My big boy celebrated #8 in July. He had a joint birthday party with a friend and we took 20-some boys to a minor-league baseball game. We had bought the suite at the elementary school auction. It was approximately 110 degrees. Thank goodness we had air conditioning in the suite!

August is back to school time here in Kansas. TOO EARLY if you ask me. But back to school we went. It's been a great year. Third grade is absolutely transformative, and the big guy has perhaps the world's greatest teacher (second only to MY third grade teacher) (and maybe his grandmother!). Noodle started kindergarten at 4 1/2 (private). She'll repeat kindergarten next year at the public school. She loves it, which is making the year magical. She's gone from knowing her letters to reading chapter books in a few short months. It's so fun to watch her think. She and I took a girls trip to San Diego for our cousin's wedding and had a blast. A definite highlight was getting room service and eating pancakes in bed!

September and October were blurs of soccer and baseball games. Halloween came quickly, our house filled with candy, and my dream of having all three kids wear the same bear costume faded away when our Truck was (AHEM) too large for the costume (at 18 months) that his sister wore at almost-3. We had a full house (all four grandparents, and one great-grandmother) for Thanksgiving, and then it was Christmas! Both of the big kids performed in Christmas programs at school, and it was great fun to go and watch them sing and dance. And now we're knocking on 2012. The year flew by impossibly fast - it's true what they say: the days are long but the years are short!

Oh yes, I've discovered Pinterest

I had dinner with my old book club the week before Christmas, and one awesome friend had made each of us a super-cute snowman that she saw on Pinterest. That was all it took for me. Another friend sent me an invite that night, and ever since, I've been hooked. OK, I now GET what everyone was talking about. So, without further ado, my very FIRST Pinterest-inspired project! This is what gave me the idea: I bought a paper mache canister at Michael's, cut some scrapbook paper to label it "12" (for 2012), cut some more paper to stash inside, and I plan to write funny things I want to remember that the kiddos say on the paper throughout the year. We'll see if I stick to it, but I think it could be an easy way to keep track of things, and when the year is done, they'll all be stored in my nice #12 box.

Thank you, Pinterest. I think we will be having a long and happy relationship!

Christmas Eve Day

We went to Union Station on Christmas Eve. One member of the family was less than happy about having his picture taken:

We rode the train (well, the two under 48" did), explored Science City, had lunch at Panera, and let the kids spend some of their own money at the candy store. A wonderful, wonderful Christmas Eve Day.

Slick

I took Noodle ice skating yesterday with her kindergarten class. It was her first time on skates, and my first time in, oh, 10 years or so.

The first time around the (very small) rink took us about 20 minutes. But she got progressively better, and by the end, she wasn't even holding onto the wall! And me? Well, skating while holding a 5-year-old up is definitely a challenge, but it was great. I actually am ready to do it again!

How Could I Forget?

I forgot to mention the most awesome part about Noodle's birthday party. THE CUPCAKES. Or rather, I should say (as requested SPECIFICALLY by Miss Noodle) the purple and pink swirled, white frosted with sprinkles, RAPUNZEL CUPCAKES:

I started with 2 boxes of white cake mix. Then I added food coloring and made pink and purple cake batter:

Then I put some of each batter into an ice cream cone cup and used a skewer to "swirl" the colors together:

I baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes, and voila! This made plenty of cupcakes for my 17 guests, as well as assorted brothers, dads and moms. And each guest got her very own Rapunzel ring (I ordered these on Amazon):

FiveFiveFiveFiveFIVE!!!

Our Noodle is five! Here she is, waiting for her pajama party to start Saturday night:

She celebrated on Friday at school with Rice Krispy treats and princess fruit snacks for the class. After school, we whisked her away to her dream destination: Chuck E. Cheese. Because she is a second child, she had NEVER BEEN. Don't tell her that we took her big brother when he was 8 months old (before we got smart). She had a blast playing games with her brothers, getting a million tickets, and then we let her use ALL OF THEM to pick the prizes (she picked a few for each brother). After dinner, we went to Krispy Kreme and everyone picked out a celebratory donut. She got a snowman one. WAY better than cake, if you ask me.

Saturday night was her birthday party. Seventeen, yes, seventeen, DON'T JUDGE, little girls came over for pizza, cupcakes and to watch the movie "Tangled." THREE HOURS OF BLISS IN OUR HOUSE. Ha ha ha. Noodle had a blast, though, so it was worth it. Next year, though, we are totally adhering to the "age plus one" rule. SEVENTEEN GIRLS. What were we thinking!?

Santa, Part Deux

Santa came to the bank last weekend. We were there at 9 AM sharp to see him arrive on his fire truck. Noodle went first and asked him for the cleaning cart that she saw LAST YEAR at Toys R Us next to the vacuum she asked for last year. Perhaps she thinks Santa only does cleaning supplies?

Squash went next and almost crushed Santa. This might be his last year that he's invited to sit on Santa's lap. He was totally undecided on the ride there about what to ask for. He started by suggesting a "micro particle accelerator." But he was just kidding, because GOSH MOM, they're liek $60 million. So then he pondered a microscope. In the end, he settled on a Spy Gear Trip Wire, to guard all his stuff from intruders, and a video camera. A VIDEO CAMERA? Apparently he and his buddies have plans to make movies of themselves playing baseball. Good luck with that Santa!

Last but not least was Trucko's turn. This is the face of a sweet boy who asked for candy canes.

Hope Santa brings him a whole stockingful!

Basement

All he wants to do is go in the basement [that's the basement door, hence the child-proof handle he can't open]:

And dump out a bin of toys (all my bins are VERY well organized [in theory]: animals, musical instruments, balls, etc., and no, they never ever get mixed up) (ha) and say "Mommy, help please, clean up time" OVER AND OVER AND OVER until I help him clean it up. Repeat. Repeat. At least he also likes to play air hockey, so occasionally I get a reprieve of "BRUDDER! AIR HOCKEY PLEEEEASE!" Brudder usually obliges.