Monday, February 25, 2013

The Passing of the Wings and Memories


I don't do many of the fictional or fantasy characters with my kids, i.e. Santa, Easter bunny and others. It's not that I did not want to... I really was looking forward to all of that stuff when I first became a parent. But I have a brother who does not believe in telling kids all of those things and I knew he would spill the beans, so I did not do them.....except the tooth fairy.

I loved being the tooth fairy and when my first born began losing teeth I was very seriously excited about the role. Once my daughter came along, I thought I had gotten it down pat, but never counted on the fact that she would be afraid of "something flying into her room at night and reaching under her pillow!" The tooth fairy changed to only leaving treats and money on the outside of the bedroom door.

Jackson lost a tooth on 2/19/13 and was excited about the tooth fairy coming to his room. After the boys went to bed, I asked Jordan if she would like to don the wings and be his tooth fairy. She was so happy. The transaction went smoothly and he came rushing out the next morning waving his dollar. I was happy 'cause at least I had the money this time...in the past the tooth fairy has been known to not have any small bills in the house and has had to leave a sugary treat in stead. :)

Wednesday 2/20/13 was Entertaining Angels. It was so very cold and windy that we did not expect too many people. We did end of still having a good crowd with 2 new families signing up. I am amazed that 3 years later this little ministry is still going and growing strong. My dear friend came to help us with distribution and brought her 4 little girls with her. She surprised us with spending the night so my house was running 9 kids deep! I call my little house elasti-house 'cause it seems to stretch to accommodate more and more so easily. I had learned a new recipe for chicken pot pie and made 2 jumbo pies for dinner and they were so good. They are switching from traditional school  to homeschooling for next year, so my friend asked if they could join us in school to get a feel of homeschooling. It was such a blast to have a room full of children. She took notes like crazy and we had good conversations about good fitting curriculum. When they left on Thursday, it was very sad as always.

Thursday 2/21/13 was James' 12th birthday! Usually the kids don't have to go to school on their birthdays but with having guest and us all being downstairs for school, he joined in with us. We had a great day and Jordan made "Whoopies" for his birthday.

Whoopies

1 box cake mix
frosting
sprinkles

Make the cake mix as directed. For these she used a gluetin free white cake. Using a griddle, make silver dollar sized (2 in diameter) little cakes, flipping and cooking on both sides like you would a pancake. Set them aside to cool. Each whoppie needs 2 little cakes so to make a dozen you will need 24 little cakes. Jordan used pre-made frosting, but you could make your own. Add a small dollop of frosting to 1 side of a little cake and add another cake to make a small sandwich. Now roll the edges of your little whoopies in sprinkles.   A very neat way to eat cake.

Friday 2/22/13 greeted us with a big snow storm. The boys shoveled for a while and then I had to run an errand. While out, I surprised the kids by taking them sledding. I took them to a pretty infamous hill in our city (it is huge and is on a very well used golf course in our town) that my parents used to take us to in the 70's and 80's when my brother and I were kids. Since it was still early in the day, the snow was still powdery and needed to be packed down before they got a few good runs in. It was funny because we were the only ones on the hill and then another homeschooling family showed up and the father ended up helping all of the kids with sledding. Very fun.

The weekend was spent providing respite and doing lots of laundry.