Chloe at 3 1/2

I thought I would do a blog post about Chloe. 

I said to my mom the other day, "I wish I could just freeze her right now."  We are just in such a fun stage!  Chloe is delightful and funny and sweet and loving and helpful and obedient and such fun to be around.  

Tierra thinks she has a "sparkle"?  She's got nothin' on this girl.  (Sorry, Bachelor reference!)

 

This girl could spend hours a day coloring.  And she has some mad coloring skills for a 3 year old!  She walks around with what I call "artist hands"....markers are her medium of choice so her hands are constantly covered in markers.  Even if I just wiped them 10 minutes ago. 

Last weekend, Chloe, Audrey & I went to the middle school performance of The Little Mermaid. I was a little concerned about how she would sit still for a whole musical but she sat entranced the whole time! 

Chloe loves to play with her dolls Marley, Cassidy & Avery.  She got a double stroller for her dolls for Christmas, so often a few of her "kids" will come with us as we walk to the bus stop to pick up Audrey & Carter. 
Chloe gets brought along to many play dates and coffee meet-ups and apparently she has been listening in as the moms talk.  Lately when I'm talking with friends, Chloe will chime in, roll her eyes and say "Marley & Cassidy always poop in their diapers!" or she'll come up to me while I'm in the kitchen and report (hands on hips) "Mom, Marley & Cassidy are in time out because they weren't listening!"  Sure enough, I'll go peek in her room and they will be sitting on the bed. :)  She also tenderly wraps them up and reads them stories.  Such a good mommy.  :)

Last week  I made my first trip to urgent care.  And it was with Chloe.  (Honestly, I am amazed that we've made it this far without a trip to urgent care or the ER.)  I was afraid she might need stitches but we got off easy with a butterfly bandage.  Chloe appears to be so prim and docile to people who don't know her but at home she is wild child....climbing chairs, jumping off beds and sofas, tackling her 50+ lb. brother, trying to wrestle Daddy....

Chloe loves school and is now a proud member of the "zipper upper club" - which means she can zip up her coat all by herself!  She has made many friends in her class but she has one friend that is her favorite buddy.  When I come to pick her up, I often see them sitting and giggling in the hall together.

A few months ago we went to Chloe's school conference.  Her teacher told me that she asked Chloe (mostly out of curiosity) to point in a book to something that started with the letter A, B, C, etc.  She said she was surprised because Chloe could do it with every letter she asked her about, and many kids her age are just learning to identify letters.  Now it has kind of become a game we play where I ask her "what is something that starts with N?"  And she will go "nn, nnn.....nose!"  She is a little sponge.  It probably doesn't hurt that her big brother has always been obsessed with letters. :)

Well, I'm sure I'm leaving something out but it's getting late and I'm losing steam!  

Chloe girl, we sure love you and are glad you're a part of our family!  Keep being the sweet and spunky girl you are!

Old School

When I read this, I laughed my head off.  I got it from someone's facebook status, who had copied it from somewhere else, who had copied it from somewhere else....in any case, I don't know who I should "credit" with this but it is super funny.  Well, super funny if you are my age..... here goes:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way  I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the darn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd

Pinterest Greatest Hits, Dinner Edition

One of my favorite things about Pinterest is the RECIPES.  I probably have hundreds of recipe pins.  And I actually try a lot of them!  Some have been great additions to my recipe rotation.  Others have been total duds!  (I was going to include those in this post, and then I thought - let's just keep it positive!)

I have included a link to each website and all  pictures are courtesy of the blogs they came from - NOT ME!  Just want to make sure credit goes where credit is due.

So here goes.  My own personal favorites!

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Creamy Parmesan Sauce

I made this for my mom's birthday last year and even my picky brother loved it (and asked for it for his birthday dinner!)

It takes a little more time to cook so I don't make it often, but it is delicious and nice for a special occasion.

Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta

Believe it or not this is a weight watchers  "low-fat" recipe but I honestly don't do it completely low fat....fat free cheese is not part of my cooking repertoire.  

This is easy to throw together and full of flavor!

 Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

 This one surprised me.  I have tried all kinds of knock-off Chinese food recipes and none of them ever tastes remotely like what I expect.  This one was actually REALLY good.

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken

Super easy.  4 ingredients.

Tastes good.  Palatable to children's taste buds.

And did I mention EASY?

 Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup

 This is an easy slow cooker recipe.  MMMMM....

The kids didn't love it.  But they LOOOOVE Campbell's Scooby Doo chicken noodle soup so who's asking their opinion?? lol

 One of my favorite surprises has been finding recipes for homemade bread that don't involve lots of kneading or preparation time.  I have two favorites - one is for an artisan bread , and the other is for your more traditional crusty french loaves.  

Seriously, I now make homemade bread at least 2x a week!

 

 Dutch Oven Artisan Bread

You start this the night before (or in the morning), mix it together, let it hang out, bake it in a dutch oven.

It's kind of a chewy, denser bread - great with soup!

 

 Crusty French Baguettes

You can get these on the table in under an hour, start to finish.

And it is the most delicious bread.  100x better than store bought!

So there you have a few of my favorites.  Maybe I'll do another post on my favorite pinterest DESSERTS next!  

A fun valentine's day

This year Valentine's Day fell on a day off from school - it was really fun because we all got up and didn't have to rush off.  We could just enjoy breakfast together and relax!

First we started with pink pancakes and candy.  Lots of candy.  Oh, and valentines. :)

 Everyone's in a lovey mood when gifts are being handed out to each other. :)

  

In the morning we went to a friend's house to have a Valentine's party with a bunch of friends.

 

 

First the kids decorated their Valentine bags.

 

Some kids were more interested in playing!  :)  

 

There was also a craft that involved shaving cream and food coloring.  I think Audrey's hands were purple for the next day or two despite repeated washings!

More crafty fun.....

Perhaps this is why Audrey's hands were stained?

The kids also played games, exchanged valentines, made their own pizzas for lunch and decorated heart cookies. 

My friend Katie -who hosted the party -  has a lot more patience for chaos than I do!
Later, back at home, we had lasagna, salad, & bread for dinner by candlelight. :)  It was a really fun day!

More Valentine party observations

After Chloe's party at preschool today, I have decided that the amount of Valentine "loot" children give is related to birth order. 

For example:
Firstborn - Child brings a Valentine for each friend (usually homemade, probably off pinterest and completed 3 weeks ago) PLUS an entire goody bag of treats for each child (all healthy or organic and including fun non-edible items).  Mom FOR SURE attends the class party, because she is homeroom mom.

Second born - Child brings a Valentine plus a single item for each child, by gender (ie, boys get "boy" valentines, girls get "girl" valentines, plus a lollipop thrown in for good measure).  Mom sometimes attends party but might forget to sign up soon enough to ensure her "spot" as a helper.

3rd+ born children - Child has to remind parent about buying Valentines and they are usually whatever is left at Target the night before the party.  They may or may not be geared toward gender.  (Hey, don't they teach you in preschool that "you get what you get and you don't get upset?" :)  Sometimes they might include leftover halloween candy.  Mom has attended enough preschool  parties already and is done. :)

Okay, this is slightly exaggerated but judging from Chloe's Valentine mailbox, not too far off.....

In my defense, I did get Chloe gender specific valentines, they were bought well ahead of time, and no halloween candy was used.  :)

But I didn't go to the party.  :( 

Next year my 2 older kids will be in school all day so I am totally there!

Unless I forget to sign up in time.....

Valentine's Day in 3rd Grade

Today I had the privilege of attending the 3rd grade Valentine's Day party. 

I LOVE going to kid parties at school.  They are just hilarious and I get to see who Audrey spends time with all day and what her classroom is like.  The kids always make me crack up.  They just say and do the funniest things. 

Today did not disappoint.

At the party we divided the kids into 4 groups and they rotated between stations.  My "job" at the party was to read a book to the kids who came to my station .  So basically I read a book 4 times (to 4 different groups of kids).  I did not bring this book in , another mother did, but basically the plot is this:  a boy has a little crush on a girl in his class, he makes her a valentine, he's too scared to give her the valentine, then he finally has a burst of courage and gives her the valentine after all.

At the end of the party, one of the other moms says to me:  "Audrey is your daughter, right?"

She proceeds to tell me that it seems a boy in her group has a little crush on her.  Apparently after they came to the reading station, they went to the craft station.  Crush boy, apparently inspired by the story and in a burst of courage, announces to his table, "My valentine is sitting at this table...."  There are only 2 girls at the table, and crush boy turns to the one who is not Audrey and whispers in her ear who it is (and it is not the other girl.).

Later I tell Audrey this and she says "I know Mom, I heard it" and rolls her eyes.  I guess she doesn't really reciprocate his affections. Honestly, she thinks boys are kind of gross right now.  Which is just fine with me. :)

Anyhow, I was chatting with some kids at the end of class, and one boy says to me,  "Audrey is a lucky girl, you know."

I said to him "Why is that?".....wondering if this had anything to do with crush boy....

He says, "Well, because you are her mom and you are really nice!  Not everyone has parents that are so nice, you know."

Oh bless his heart, it was so sweet.  I could have hugged that boy right there but I just gave him a big old thank you. :)  

And no, he was NOT crush boy..... unfortunately....because THAT is the kind of boy I would love to have as a son-in-law some day!! haha

Fashion Plate

Audrey has an artsy side to her and yesterday she came home from a friend's house with (what I call) "a bee in her bonnet"....ie, she has an idea, and she can't let it go until she follows through on it.

She wanted to be a "fashion designer" and make some clothes for her American Girl doll, Kylie.

This is what she came up with all by herself.:

She took an old pair of leggings with a hole in the knee, cut them up, and made a dress, fingerless gloves and a hair band! 

Then she decided Chloe's bitty baby, Marley, needed a matching outfit.  This is a little "ooh-la-la" for an infant but hey, now the "sisters" can match!  :)