It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

Nana came to our house Friday night bearing gifts. Bearing Star Wars lunch boxes (also very cool, but not seen here) and these:

So, so, so fun. We could hardly wait to try them out. Of course, that meant we had to enter the world of alternate ingredients. Sugar cookies = butter and eggs = none for Josh and Ben = very sad boys. We used Ener-G egg replacer, ground flax seed and butter flavored Crisco to get a very unpromising dough. It was dry, crumbly and tasted a little bit weird to me. But we persevered and managed to get it rolled out so we could use these:
The boys were ecstatic. Both Josh and Michael got a chance to use the cookie cutters, which is why some of them don't have many facial features. They honestly had a difficult time deciding which cookie cutter to use first because they were all so cool. This then led to long discussions about which one they were going to eat first. They entire process was fraught with wonderfully difficult decisions. Jason kept quiet for most of the time, but I think he struggled with the same decisions.
For Josh, the bounty hunter won out and even though he was very excited to eat Boba Fett, he was true to his native cautiousness and took a nibble of the helmet before committing entirely to this new food. I thought it was a complete miracle that he picked a cookie up and put it in his mouth entirely of his own will. Trying to get him to try an Oreo was just about as difficult as trying to get him to eat a vegetable, so this was definitely a break-through. Apparently the draw of eating Star Wars characters is strong with this one.
Success! He even closed his eyes and rubbed his belly with pleasure and informed me that he likes these cookies even better than bread. Somehow, I thought that might be the case. Thanks, Nana!!!

Right Around the Corner

I am in the middle of a sewing frenzy. This frenzy was brought on by the realization that CHRISTMAS is only 4.5 months away. So, I made a list, checked it twice and dusted off the sewing machine. I have gifts and decorations that I would love to get done. Sometime. Before next Christmas. Here are a couple I got done this week.

First on my list was the tree skirt that I started in January. The one my kind friend helped me with and counseled me to go home and finish right away or it would never get done. Yeah, she was right. So, eight months later, I finished the skirt. Jason got a little confused and thought it was a festive shawl.

I can only hope it looks this good around the tree.
Second, I am making bean bags for my niece and nephews this year - these aren't stuffed yet, but I am pretty happy with how the boy ones turned out. The colors are great on Tucker's. Cale's are harder to make out, but Jason pointed out that they are camo so it is supposed to be hard to read his name. Hopefully this frenzy will last.

The Big Boys

Monday was a fun filled day for me and the two older boys. We ditched Daddy (ill) and Ben (too much work) and went to D.C. I gave the boys the choice between going to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and the Air and Space Museum to the space ships. Space won out. So we hopped on the Metro and traveled into the District. Since Nana works at GWU, we took a little detour to stop by and see her and honor her with the chance to take us out to lunch. Lucky woman.

Michael got a chance to check out what it is like to be an Office Manager. Doesn't look too hard, does it?

Then we headed to the most kid-friendly restaurant we could find, TGI Friday's, for lunch. This is what happens when you arm a 4-year-old with a knife and it takes more than 5 minutes to bring food to the table:

Fueled up on pasta, fries and soda, we hopped back on the Metro and went to the museum. Us and half of the world's tourists. The boys loved the huge rockets and old spacecrafts. And Josh enjoyed posing with his jaw dropped in awe so we could all remember how impressed he was with them.
Again, Josh was awed. And Michael enjoyed showing off his belly. I lose a little bit of control of them when I am behind the camera.
Aside from the humongous rockets, we love this museum because of all the hands on activities and experiments that are accessible to the kids. They even got to climb in the cockpit of this plane.
After about two and a half hours at the museum, the boys were done. Feet were hurting, legs were hurting and mouths were whining. So, they collapsed in front of these pictures of the planets for one last photo and we went home.

Of course, leaving D.C. is never a simple process. After locating the nearest entrance of the nearest Metro station, we had a 45 minute ride back to our car. The Metro train had no air-conditioning. I think that might be against the Geneva Conventions. All I can say is, it wasn't pretty. Getting off the train into the hot and humid Virginia weather was a relief. But, we made it home and hopefully the boys have great memories.

Wedding

My cousin, Michelle, got married yesterday. It was the third wedding among her siblings in a year. As in exactly 365 days. Last year, on August 8th, my cousin Becky got married which started a domino effect. Her brother Dave followed a few months later and one day short of a year later, Michelle tied the knot.

Their parents must be exhausted.

Michelle's colors were red, black and white. This made for a sweet and sassy wedding.

Sweet:

Sassy:

Weddings are always fun. In my family, we have a family BBQ the night before where the two families get together and relax before the big day. So, Friday night both mosquitoes and people enjoyed the huge spread. The day of the wedding, we all went to the temple for the wedding and the chance to stand in the sun pretending not to be hot for the pictures. Then we went back to the church for lunch and to prep for the reception. Seeing as how I was on the kitchen staff this time, I had plenty of opportunity to make sure that the food was good. And it was good. (Especially the gluten-free cookies my cousin's wife made -wow.) Then we all grumbled about our sore feet, cleaned up and went home. It was a fun day. And now that the marriage-age children in that family are hitched, the betting pools are starting about the rest of the single cousins.

My Virginia cousins (sweet, sassy, crazy, funny and stressed) at the temple:

Dino Dig

On Friday, we packed up the boys and a picnic lunch and headed over to Leesylvania State Park for their Dino Day. The kids got to dig in a bucket of dirt for something paleontologists never find - an entire dinosaur, skin and all. There was a big dinosaur puzzle and dinosaur stamps to create their own dinosaur skeleton. Equally exciting, there were a few playgrounds and the Potomac riverbank to explore.

Friday was the last day of Operation Exhaustion - a carefully planned and executed campaign designed to minimize Josh's time with a girl in our neighborhood who is teaching him some bad habits. It was successful as he didn't play with her at all this week - but I am exhausted to the point of tears, so we are going to have to try another tactic next week. I don't really have a problem with him playing with her some of the time, but they have spent way to much time together this summer.

The Zoo

On Monday, we took the boys to the zoo. It seemed like a good plan for a (relatively) cool day in Virginia. With school starting this month, summer seemed short to me all of a sudden. So, we are ramping it up before we lose two of our family members to the school year. I can't remember when we went to the zoo last. Literally. I have vague memories of having gone a few times, but I can't seem to place them by year, so I really don't know when it was. I won't lie - there was some whining, but on the whole we had a great time. And since there were no meltdowns or injuries, I consider the visit a success.

So, here are before and after shots.

We saw the Amazonia Habitat, Kids' Farm, tigers, lions, prairie dogs, invertebrates, macaques, apes, orangutans, Reptile Discovery Center, crocodiles, komodo dragons, tortoises, gorillas, horses, pandas, emus, and zebras. In any case, the boys all began the day moving (or being carried) under their own power and after 4 hours theyall ended up in the stroller. This sit and stand stroller may have been our best purchase to date - 3 kids from ages 6 to 1 in one stroller literally saved the day.

While we were at the zoo, one of the Egyptian cobras escaped from the Reptile Discovery Center and went on killing rampage of the goats in the Kids' Farm. We left about then so the kids wouldn't have to be exposed to the carnage.

Mid Year Resolutions

I have no idea how I am doing on my New Year's resolutions, mainly because I haven't taken a look at them since the New Year. Way to go, Irene. I have, however, now made a couple of Mid Year resolutions. In no particular order, they are:

1. Read books we already own. I don't actually have a book buying problem, but I am developing back pain from carrying the book bag we bring home from the library every week. Which isn't a bad thing (the amount of books, not the pain), but to some degree it is a little silly considering how many books we already own that I haven't read. Most of them I inherited when I married Jason, but a few are purchases I never got around to reading. Recently I have read Among the Righteous, which is about Arabs who helped Jews during WWII, and am currently reading Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. In any case, considering that most of them are Jason's, I suspect this means I will be on a diet of mostly non-fiction relating to the Middle East, but it will probably be more mind-broadening than the Twilight series (which I am a little ashamed to admit I have read more than twice).

2. Speaking of diets - I am back on the Weight Watchers Wagon. I made this decision after a short, but telling, conversation I had with the Wii Fit board. The conversation went like this:

Irene: How much do I weigh?

Wii board: @#%$&#!

Okay, so the board didn't really swear at me, but it might as well have. That or groaned under my apparently ponderous weight. So, back to counting points it is.