Mama's Birthday

Saturday was Mama's birthday, and even though she had said several times "I don't want a party", Mom and the kids had big plans anyway. Mama's goal for her 43rd birthday was to go on a 43 mile bike ride, so as she headed out the door, we knew we had plenty of time.

Mom broke out the supplies for Mama's cake-- a new recipe chosen by the kids called "cake in a cone."

Here is what it was supposed to look like: Delicious chocolate cake baked IN a cone, with whip cream and a strawberry on top....yum!

The reviews of this recipe all mentioned not to overfill the cones, so we were careful to leave the batter an inch below the top. This meant we had lots of leftover batter, which we used to make mini-cupcakes...fun!

With the "cake" in the oven, the girls got busy decorating....

....making gifts for Mama with Kate's new pipe cleaner/fuzz ball craft kit.....

....and creating birthday cards.

When everything was ready, they arranged it carefully on the table (note the pipe cleaner spider and snake sitting on top of the present).

The cake cones turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment--they weren't filled enough, so the cake didn't pop out the top like an ice cream cone. We were glad that we'd made mini-cupcakes too, because at least those looked good.

The girls gave the mini-cupcakes a try at snack time, and they were a big hit.

With the preparations complete, the girls settled in to wait and watch for Mama's return....

...which didn't take long, since she broke a derailleur cable at mile 34, and got a ride home from Uncle David and Melinda, who (luckily) happened to be driving by.

Mama was disappointed about not getting her full 43 miles in....

...but her frown turned upside down when she came inside and saw the party preparations.

Who doesn't like a surprise party, after all? It's especially fun when the party-planners are super excited about it also.

The first thing we did was bust into the cake cones. The verdict: Even though they didn't look quite right, they still tasted great.

Then Mama read all her cards....

...and opened up her gifts.

Besides the snake and spider, she also got some Browning Buckmarks for the truck (sweet!)....

.....and she found out she was registered for an all-women outdoor skill instruction weekend in May. She gets to choose between shotgun shooting, archery, ropes course, and other fun sessions.

Happy birthday Mama--we all love you so much, and hope you enjoyed the surprise party on your big day!

Easter Eggs

Unbelievably, we have never dyed Easter eggs with our kids before....how have we gotten out of it every year? This year Emily did one at school, so the pressure was on to dye them at home too.

We have plenty of eggs, of course, but Mama saved out the whitest ones all week so they would look pretty, and Mom picked up a PAAS kit ahead of time.

The PAAS kit suggested that we use vinegar with the color tablets to get the most "vivid" colors, so that's what we did....

....and they sure were vivid. Something about those bright unnatural colors makes you not want to actually eat the hard-boiled eggs when it's all over.

Since this was our first time, the kids were VERY curious about the process.

When the dye cups were ready, the kids carefully put the eggs in....

....one to each cup, since we only had nine eggs.

After soaking for about 1/2 hour, the kids carefully pulled them back out and put them in the "drying rack."  Mom had made the kids wear old clothes in case of spills, but the whole process was actually not very messy at all.

Here they are drying--the wet dye makes them look more sparkly than they actually are. The PAAS kit comes with a "magic crayon" that you use to draw on the eggs ahead of time, then the crayon design shows through the dye, which is pretty cool.

The kit also comes with stickers, and after bathtime the eggs were dry enough for the girls to apply them.

It turns out that the stickers that come with the $1.49 decorating kit are really small and hard to peel off....

....so the kids decided that only a few of the eggs actually needed stickers.

Here they are, ready for the Easter Bunny.

In previous years the Easter Bunny has hidden plastic eggs around the yard, filled with candy or colored beads, that the girls go out and find. This year, since our yard is basically a snow/mud pit, we contrived a new story:  The Easter Bunny will come to our house Sunday morning (while the girls are sleeping) and see the basket of colored eggs we've left out for him. He will then hide our colored eggs around the house (inside), and "maybe" also leave the kids a gift (if they've been good). Our kids have  never received an actual Easter basket full of candy, but that is the gift that the Bunny will be hiding for them. We know they're going to love the baskets, even more so because they aren't really expecting anything. Fun!

Running Club

Recently we were asked how our "Couch to 5K" program is going, and the answer is that it's going great so far! The kids have been surprisingly enthusiastic about the workouts (which we call "Running Club"). It probably helps that Mom (and sometimes Mama) are doing them too--they might not be as enthused if we were sitting there watching them, holding a stopwatch.

We have done most of our running at Colby, and we've only had to run outside one time (when the fitness center was closed). Thankfully, the Colby track was plowed that day.

Our favorite place to run is around the Colby gym floor, especially when it's totally empty like it was tonight.

The kids take turns leading during jogging time, which means we go up and down stairs and wind around all over.

Emily continues to maintain a nice steady pace, while Kate continues her method of sprinting at the start, then complaining about being tired for the second half of the workout. Hopefully one of these days she'll figure out the concept of pace (and yes, it's been explained to her. A few times).

We plan to keep doing this as long as the kids are on board--if it starts becoming a real drag, we'll dial it back and just do the 1-mile run at the preschool event. But for now, it's 5K all the way!

Maine Maple Sunday

Sunday was Maine Maple Sunday, so we piled in the car and headed up to Anson to visit the Luce's sugar shack.

We came up here for Maple Sunday two years ago, and remembered really enjoying it, and this trip was a lot of fun too.

Mostly because we got to see our good friends (and camping buddies!) Mary Beth and Greg....

....and their kids Cadence and William.

Just like last time we came, there were plenty of homemade maple-flavored snacks to sample....

....the actual boiling syrup tank to watch.....(that's the real deal right there)....

....and even some oxen to pet. The girls were a little disappointed that the oxen weren't dragging a sled around for kids to ride on, like last time.

There was something new, too:  Maple-flavored cotton candy! The folks spinning the candy hadn't quite perfected their system yet.....

....as demonstrated by the candy that was "escaping" from the machine.....

....but when the girls finally got their own bag of it, they agreed that it was delicious.

While Mom and Mama did some catching up with Mary Beth and Greg, all the sugared-up kids scaled a giant snowbank....

....and proceeded to have a big old snowball fight. Fun!

When Cadence was done throwing snow, she decided to jump into daddy's arms....

....and of course our kids didn't let that opportunity pass either.

Thanks, Greg, for catching all the kids!

We had a great time at Maine Maple Sunday this year, especially hanging out with these guys. We are really looking forward to camping with them again this summer!