Happy Mole-O- Reformation-Ween...

So many things to celebrate in October!  Mole day was Thursday the 23rd so I got to introduce my students to Mole Day on Friday.   I made myself a shirt with washable markers, so it is already but a dim memory... *sniff*

 We had Mole snacks... Guaca-Mole and Donut Moles.  And we told mole jokes.  It was fun to introduce a new batch of budding scientists to the happiest day of the year...  another generation of science nerds... ha!  One of them said he could only find two mole jokes that were even remotely funny.  Really!?  How is "What kind of fruit is Avagadro's favorite?- WaterMolens!" or "How would you describe a stinky chemist?- Mole-oderous!" not absolutely hilarious??  Kids these days.

 

The girls and I built a little cabin out of sticks in the back yard.  It was so nice out.  And I was feeling lazy.  

Sunday our potluck came over for a wiener roast.  Bob was using a rope and a chunk of block to get dead limbs out of the cotton wood before people showed up.  It didn't look very safe to me.   

 The girls have no idea what's coming... 

 The long line of kids chairs.

 We built the fire on the garden...  Mom brought us some straw bales from the farm. 

We may not have many outside toys, but we have bricks! 

The weather was gorgeous!  So perfect for being outside around a fire.  And the International Space Station flew over- which is always cool, but it was super bright that night.  The company was pretty fabulous too, as always!

Little miss and I built a straw fort the next day.  I was very sad I really don't fit in a one bale wide fort anymore... 

I think I'm having fun...

So I am not one of those super moms who take their kids to pumpkin patches and orchards...  we were at dollar tree and she got to bring home a plastic pumpkin.  She was very serious about painting it. 

On Wednesday we went to the farm for combine rides.  Cecily was not sure she wanted to ride the combine.  "I will go to the house with Grandma."  We got to the point of "I will go on the combine with Grandma and Grandpa will go in the back."  Hehe.  She went with Grandpa and Grandma, and then stayed on and rode with me.  Dad even let me drive a little bit.  I hadn't driven the latest model yet... always a little bit scary, although there wasn't anything to hit in that field.

Amber and Kaleigh came for supper on Thursday. It was good to see them again and hang out for a little bit.  Cecily pretty much insisted that Kaleigh play with her the entire evening.  And it took her a long time to settle down that night.

Somebody is getting better at sitting by herself.  She's pretty proud of it too.  Hopefully this means she's passed this growth/development spurt and will start sleeping again at night.  I would like that very much.   

Elsa (of course-"I will wear my Elsa dress."), the chubby cheerleader, and I walked to a few of  the neighbors to "take-a-treat." It's hardly dressing up if you wear it every day...  It was cold. And then we went home and the door bell rang maybe five more times.  Cecily had a great time waiting for people to come.  "Who is coming to my house?"

Blessings.

Otter Botter Anyway...

Little miss loves to sing even though she doesn't always get the words quite right... "Otter Botter Anyway" is her version of "the cold doesn't bother me anyway..."  Makes us laugh.  That, and "Bringing in the cheese."  And "the laundry song" which I think is "When the Roll is Called up Yonder."  She also runs around singing the start of "The circle of life" from the Lion King... it's in Zulu so she does a fairly good job of that...  ha. 

Emmy-girl likes to chew on things.  And smile.  She is fussy/inconsolable sometimes, I promise!  

Ah, the ever present Elsa dress.  *sigh*  One afternoon she was running around waving her arms and I asked her what she was doing: "The ice doesn't work.  I can't make the palace."  I laughed.  A lot. 

I decided I need to be in more pictures.  Too bad I don't have a personal photographer and have to resort to "selfies."  Ugh.  I would be happy if that word went away, it annoys me. 

 This was NOT my idea.  But they were both so happy that I let it continue...  hehe.

The girls and I went to the farm Thursday afternoon to play for a little bit before we all headed to Michelle's house for Kendra's baby shower that evening.  We picked up hedge balls and saw the cows and pigs and Gus and the beanie babies and the doll house...  The shower was nice.  I am not a fan of showers, but they had pie!  And Cecily was good.  She got to help 'Krenda' with her presents so she was happy.   

Bob and I did a puzzle.  Cecily helped.  Emmy even got in on the action and knocked a few pieces off the table.

 For the record- this is NOT an efficient way to cook.  But Emmy stopped fussing and Cecily's always happy to help... sooo... quench not the spirit, right?!  We were making biscuits for biscuits and gravy.  They were not the fluffiest biscuits I've ever eaten.  Little miss 'I can't want sausage' only ate the one bite we made her eat.   *eye roll*

Last night I hosted sewing club, which was a good time as always.  I am perfectly content with the size of our house... until we have people over.  The living room fills up so fast and my kitchen is really only a one cook kitchen.  O well.  I thought the food turned out pretty good; Emmy was a little clingy, but not too bad.

Today we went and got Cecily's three year old pictures taken.  She was very unsure about it all.  She was not very interested in posing or smiling or keeping her hands out of her mouth and her tongue in her mouth.  And her hair was slightly unruly as always.  So we ended up with one picture that is passable...it looks like her and she's smiling nicely.  There were some pretty hilarious pictures I did not get. I told her if she was good we could get ice cream so we went to Cold Stone when we were done, which I love. 

Blessings.

A series of unfortunate events

Ok, that's maybe a liiitle dramatic.  *grin*

Where were we? 

Church lunch went well- we had plenty of food and lots left over.  Which I love.  The girls were tired, but did pretty well considering.  Oh, there almost has to be some kind of donut mix-up, right?  I thought I had ordered white and chocolate cake donuts... they were both white with nutmeg in them, with white or chocolate icing.  And I ordered "old fashioned" donuts and what we got were unfrosted cake donuts... not quite what I thought I was getting.

This is what we did afterwards: 

Cecily had her 3 year doctor appointment.  She's still tall and skinny.  

I canned 6 more pints of whole tomatoes and then I washed all the canning/ freezing stuff and put them away.  Yay!  I have so much more counter space... and no more excuses to not clean the kitchen (oh, I'll just wait until I'm all done with canning and scrub it all down then...). 
Emmy found her feet.

 Naptime after school on Friday.  I'm sensing a trend.

Bob and Cecily went shopping and she got to pick out something with her birthday money.  He said she wanted to go down the costume aisle and would not be dissuaded from this Elsa dress...it's covered in glitter.  There is now glitter all over the house.  Emmy even has it in her hair.  woot. 

So we were planning on going camping in Iowa with some of Bob's cousins Saturday night...  but getting everything together for us to get there was just not going smoothly... it felt like "a series of unfortunate events"... plus Bob wasn't really excited to go in the first place... anyway, we didn't end up going.  I was/ am disappointed.  I haven't been real camping in a long time.  

So instead we went to the Koch Pork Chop Fry and invited Bob's family over for a snack after church like his Grandma used to.  (I refuse to call it lunch call...) 
We're all fighting colds over here... even the smiley one. 

Blessings.

Golden

Cecily turned three yesterday!  Her golden birthday... which she doesn't understand, and I couldn't really think of any creative way to celebrate so... sorry kiddo.  I asked her where the last three years went- "um... I don't know!"

I was perusing pinterest for cake ideas one day and she was looking over my shoulder and said- "Is that my polka dot melon cake?"  Ha.  Watermelon cake it is!  Emmy was in the high chair by me while I was frosting it and Cecily wanted her chair to be there too.

Well, hello blue eyes.  

 We went to the farm for cake and presents with my family Thursday night.  Everything she opened was- "this is mine." New cooking utensils.

 Candy and a princess.

 Then I stayed up past midnight running through the lab for school and not getting it to work at home.  And then I couldn't sleep because I was nervous it wouldn't work for them and about fires and the toxicity, etc...   And Emmy woke up at 5:30.  I was tired.

The lab at school went ok.  Not everyone got it to work, which was a bummer.  I had decided to go down to the church kitchen for lab because sinks are nice and we were going to use alcohol burners.  They all needed refilling and I must have slopped some denatured alcohol on one of them, because not only was the wick burning, there was fire all over the burner.  So Madi and I were trying to get it out when the table cloth we were using to protect the countertops (paper with plastic backing) caught fire.  Madi blew that out which started a napkin on fire which got tossed in the sink.  And then the burner flared up again so it went in the sink.  Ah. Um. 

Later, one of the boys spilled their Copper Sulfate solution all over. It's mildly toxic.  We were in a kitchen.  We scrubbed it down with lots of water.  Have I mentioned I am pretty much the most timid chemist ever?  I don't like open flames and I miss my fume hood.  And then the pastor wandered through...  nothing to see here...

So once that was over I could relax and enjoy Cecily's birthday.  I made chicken nuggets for supper, which she loved. We let her open one present before we ate. Pay no attention to the small scab on her face where the neighbors dog bit her. *sigh*  

 Then it was time for her 'polka-dot melon birthday.'

 She hasn't quite mastered blowing out candles yet...

 We gave her "Olivia."

 And an owl sleeping bag.

 Indian princess dress for dress up.

 It's the Chief!

 By the shores of Gitchee-gumi...

 She wanted Emmy in the sleeping bag too.

I made milkshakes and she got a special umbrella straw. 

At bedtime, she wanted to sleep in her sleeping bag.  On top of her bed.  I let her. 
We serve lunch at church tomorrow.  Woot.  There's going to be company and I'm really hoping we have enough food.
Blessings.

Is that a pig that just flew by?

Oh these two girls. 

 Lets see, what have we been up to... 

Dave and June had a wiener roast one lovely Sunday evening.  Cecily thinks it's the best thing ever to eat hot dogs around a fire... glad somebody does...

Our new neighbors got married!  Somebody enjoyed the balloons that were tied to their car... and their temporary princess curtains... hehe. 

We got out the excersaucer for Emmy, but I think Cecily has spent more time messing with it so far than Emmy has spent in it. 

 Little miss discovered my Veggie Tunes CD and has been playing it over and over... and over... and over again.  Huzzah.  And then my students decided to have a veggie tales sing along while we were waiting for water to boil in class.   I am tired of Veggie Tales. 

We went to the farm one day for lunch.  We ate at the field, but Cecily didn't want a combine ride so we went back to the farm.  She got to play with Grandma and Gus and Emmy and I went to the doctor to try and deal with a nursing issue.  Woot.  Still not totally resolved... 

The girls and I went to some garage sales this weekend.  Didn't have much luck, but we got lots of exercise.  And Cecily came home with lots of "sprinkles." The ladies at one sale gave her a bunch of bead necklaces for dress up because it was the end of the day... 

My cousin Jesse got baptized this weekend.  I was really excited to go to Gridley- yes Mom, that was a pig that flew past the window... It had been a very long time.  I'm not sure if Bob and I have been there for church since we've been married... yeah.   Cecily played at Steve and Renee's with Christina, aka "Chris-ta-lina," and her cousins Karissa and Lavell during testimonies.  Once again, I didn't even get a backwards glance. I spent most of the evening in the back hall with my squirmy, squishy baby.  But, I got to talk to 'that Bob' and he totally made Emmy giggle so that wasn't all bad.   

Kaleigh offered to let us stay with them overnight which worked out really well.  And it was fun- I don't get to see her nearly often enough anymore!  Little miss was not shy at all.  She walked right in and asked Art, "Are you Kaleigh's daddy?"  And demanded that Kaleigh come play with her...  it's a good thing they are used to kids.  *grin*   The girls both did pretty well at church.  I think Cecily had fun... she's been talking about Chris-ta-lina and Lavell and "that other Susan." 

 

She deigned to share her polka dot blankie... 

 
I tried a reverse French braid... it was cute for about 5 minutes...

She insisted on wearing the too big "jaguar shirt" and no pants. *sigh*  In general, unless you're at the beach, spaghetti straps on little girls just look trashy.  And sometimes animal prints do too.  Especially when they are hand-me-downs like this shirt.  Around the house I don't care but I didn't let her wear it to the grocery store today.    (I probably have too many strong opinions on what looks trashy on little girls:  strappy things with nothing underneath, certain sparkly fabrics, velour, cheap jewelry, finger and toe nail polish- because, really, it NEVER looks nice, etc.... watch, my girls will love all of those things.  But I don't care- never to young to teach modesty and classiness right?! Wow I sound like my Dad...)  

 

 Aaannd, they're out.  

Blessings.