Cake Pops

Last week this came in the mail:  

The kids IMMEDIATELY began begging asking if we could make these cake pops (only Carter kept calling them "Family Circles" haha).  And then they spent the past week trying to decide which kind they thought was the coolest.  My only criteria was that we NOT make the pirates.  (They were way too detailed for me and my patience level.)  They decided on cats and pumpkins.

Now, I have absolutely zero experience making cake pops.  (And I have heard from many people that they are not as easy as they look...) SO, I enlisted my trusty friend Lyn to help because -
1. she has made cake balls before at least
2. my kids love for her to come over, and
3. isn't every new adventure much more fun with a friend?

On Thursday Audrey had the day off so Lyn came over and off we went.

It was kind of a messy process ....

And it was a little trial and error (with a few pops that fell off their sticks ...)

 

But all in all, we had a lot of fun and we were all pretty pleased with the results.

Although I still think our "cats" look more like reindeer...

Carter & Audrey were very proud of their hard work...

 I really like how the pumpkins turned out!

 

 Our littlest cake pop sampler seemed pretty happy to test them out ...

Hey cake pop, where have you been all my life???

Yup, they were a hit.

May have to make these again sometime!

Yup, another Carter story.

Today Carter's teacher told me this anecdote about Carter....

She had 14 scarves for an activity, and there are 15 kids in the class, so she asked "Can somebody share their scarf with someone?"

Carter raised his hand .... and then said "Yeah.... I can't do that."

Nice.

She said  to me "It IS good that he knows himself ... and hopefully by the end of the year, sharing his scarf will be something he CAN do!"

Umm, yeah, I hope so too.

His teacher is someone who always frames things so nicely. :)

So proud of my little lady...

Determination

DETERMINATION is ...

 ...spending many long minutes...

 ...trying to get your brother's shoes on...

...and not giving up until the job is done!

Back to School, Part 2

On Tuesday, my favorite boy in the world started preschool again.  I am so excited for him this year because he loves school, AND he has a GREAT teacher that I just love!  I know he will love her too.

Carter and our neighbor Rebecca standing outside their school. 

Is he getting tall or what?

Happy new year of school, little boy!

Passages

This past week Audrey turned 8.

Lately she is just REALLY grown-up.  On Friday night I was getting ready to take her over to a friend's house for a birthday party and a sleepover.  She had come home from school and packed up her stuff (all by herself). I did a double-check of the bag to make sure she had all her essentials and then I noticed.

"Audrey, did you forget your Baa?" I asked.  Baa, as in the dirty little lamb that she sleeps with every night and hugs as she falls asleep.

"I don't need him." Audrey quickly replied.

I said "okay" in a casual way, but I blinked back tears.  "It" is starting.

You see, Baa has been a constant in Audrey's life since well before her first birthday.  He has logged countless miles with us on numerous airplane and car trips.  He has almost been lost a few times (resulting in a search rivaling an Amber Alert!)  He has received at least two facial transplants.  And most importantly, he has been a constant and well-loved companion. As I said, Audrey has slept with him every night.

And truthfully, she still sleeps with him -- but I guess taking your stuffed animal to your friend's house is no longer acceptable. 

Of course I know Audrey is supposed to grow up.  And I want her to grow up.  In fact, I am enjoying many aspects of her being 8 years old.  I can generally reason with her and have real conversations about real things.  She and I have recently started writing each other "notes" back and forth in one of her notebooks and I L.O.V.E. this.

But then there is Baa, and it makes me sad that she will start needing him less and less.

Because you know what that means -- she will be needing me less and less too. 

And that just stirs up some very complex emotions in this Mama's heart.  :)

Happy Birthday my Baby Big girl. 

(Who is now taking pictures of herself with our camera... )

Flooding

The big news around here is that it is raining cats and dogs.  (I said "raining cats and dogs" to Carter the other day and he quickly  ran to the window and said "WHERE??!?!"  So I had to explain that euphemism...Then he looked at me like I was nuts.)  :)

No seriously.  They made a big huge hairy deal out of Hurricane Irene ... when what they SHOULD have done is made a big huge hairy deal out of Tropical Storm Lee.  It has been raining here since Monday ... on and off during the day but torrential rains overnight the last few nights.  This morning I woke up and all the trains into the city had been suspended and the Schuylkill Expressway (one of the major routes in Philly) was shut down.  Around here it isn't TOO bad but the river a few miles away has not crested yet.  

Anyhow, the point of this post is .... remember that trip to Hershey Park I posted about (just last Friday?)  Well, this is Hershey Park now:

A massive flood zone.

(photo from coasterfusion.com)

They have a small zoo area in the park and apparently some of the animals died in the flash flooding. :(

I am really glad we went last week and not this one! 

And pray for people who live in the flood zone.  Some of our friends live right across from the Schuylkill canal and are expecting a potentially full basement of water later on ... boo.

The last hurrah of summertime

Guess where we went yesterday?

 Still not sure?

How about this?  (Hint:  Check out the shape of the window...)

Yep, we visited the land of Chocolate .... Hershey Park!

 Where your size is measured by candy bars ... Carter was a Reese's PB Cup...

And Audrey is now a Hershey Bar.  This means that she can ride most of the rollercoasters!

Although thankfully Carter could ride a few too.  Including the Trailblazer and the Sooper Dooper Looper!  He is so brave!

(I still cannot believe that my kids love rollercoasters.  When I was their age, I was terrified of them!  And Audrey rides them with her arms in the air!!  AAAAGGHHH!)

 

And yes, we did ride many of the "tame" rides as well. :)

Audrey driving..... thankfully we have many more years before we will reach this milestone.

We also went over to Chocolate World and saw how they make the yummy chocolate!

And you get some free samples when the tour is over.  Even better!

You may notice that Chloe is not in any of the pictures ... that is because we left her at home with her Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop.  They took her to the park and she had rides on the swings and a carousel, so no worries, she had her own fun time! ;)

 It was such a fun day.  Long and tiring, but oh-so-fun.  I love days like this when the kids are just enjoying life and having such a great time!  Good memories.

I have to admit, I almost feel a little guilty posting pictures of our day.  While we were running carefree around an amusement park, our neighbors were rushing their precious Gabby to CHOP.   Gabby is in the ICU with excessive swelling in her brain.  It is causing her to have difficulty eating, moving, even breathing.  It is obviously very scary, and they need our prayers.  PLEASE pray for them.