My Crazy Thursdays

I HATE Thursdays. Well, after about 3:30 anyway.

3:30

Pick Jordan and Jackson up from the bus stop (although today it was finally cool enough for them to walk home!!)

4:00

Drive the junior high carpool

4:30

Madison tumbling

(6 miles EAST of our house)

4:45

Jackson football

(1 mile WEST of our house)

5:00

Pick McKenna up from swim team (luckily close to football practice!)

5:30

Jordan soccer

(4 miles EAST of our house)

5:45

Pick Jackson up from football

(1 mile WEST of our house)

6:00

Pick Madison up from tumbling

(6 miles EAST of our house)

6:30 Pick Jordan up from soccer

(luckily between tumbling and our house)

I seriously spend my afternoon zig-zagging across town. It's exhausting. You wouldn't think spending 3 hours in the car would wipe me out, but it does. Maybe it's the mental exertion of keeping track of which kid goes where and at what time?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having girls old enough to babysit. But on days like today, I really miss having only little kids at home.

First Day of School

(I've got a lot of catching up to do, but for now I'll at least try to keep current happenings posted.)

Usually it's kind of nice to get back to school and get into a routine. Although I'm never excited when all the activities get going and I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off from the time my kids get home from school until the time I go to bed. (Notice I didn't say until the time my kids go to bed because more often than not I beat many of them to bed!) But this year McKenna's classes start at 6:45. That's 6:45 A.M. Holy cow! I want more sleep!

Here she is, looking all cute. It's her first day of high school (10th grade).

Next come Jordan and Jackson. Their bus doesn't pick them up until a respectable 8 a.m. Thank goodness! (I can get a little nap after McKenna leaves but before they wake up, at least on the days I don't drive. :)

It's Jackson's first day of kindergarten. ALL. DAY. KINDERGARTEN. Can you believe it? I'm down to one kid at home. It's been 12 years since I've only had one kid at home. Hallelujah! He's so excited. He says he doesn't need any help getting from the bus to his classroom. And he can't believe how many boys are in his class. (He's definitely a minority around our house.)

Jordan's in 4th grade this year. She has an awesome teacher so I know she'll have a great year. And she's being such a great sister making sure Jackson is comfortable on the bus and getting around school.

Madison is in her first year of junior high (7th grade). They don't start until 9:05 but she's one of the first ones up so she can get "ready". She takes longer to get ready than anyone I know. And she generally goes through about 5 outfits in the process, all of which end up on her bedroom floor. (I'm sure I'll be completely gray by the time she's all grown up!)

Last, but not least, Kennedy's in pre-school. It's only two days a week for two hours, but I LOVE those two hours. The house is quiet. It stays clean. And I get a lot of stuff done. But of course the most important thing is that she's learning so much. Ha! Ha! I'm just grateful she loves preschool. I was afraid she would have separation anxiety as she's such a mama's girl, but she hasn't at all.

Just a little side note. McKenna's on the swim team. Between that, starting school so early and homework, her goal tonight is to come home from swim practice, eat and go to bed. It's the 3rd day of school. It's FRIDAY, and my teenager can't wait to come home and go to bed! She's growing up. Awwwwwww. It makes a mother proud.

Cheer

I should have posted football pictures, and basketball pictures, but since I really don't know how to use my camera, none of them turned out very good. Not to mention it's really hard to figure out where McKenna is in the routine AND take a picture of her at the same time.

I have a lot like this one. Exciting, huh?

I have even more like this one. Can you even tell which girl is McKenna?

Most of them ended up something like this.

This one would actually be really cool if I was a better photographer and it wasn't fuzzy.

The basketball pictures are just more of the same. Probably worse because they were indoors so the lighting wasn't as good. And I can't currently find the memory card they are on. Oops. :)

A couple of weeks ago McKenna's cheer group competed in the state championships. One of the moms purchased a professional DVD but I have yet to get my hands on that. So you'll just have to settle with our video. Taken with our camera. Not the best. And if you can't pick McKenna out, don't feel bad. I only can a couple of times and that's because I saw the routine the night before and I knew where she was.

Just kidding. For some reason I can't get my video to upload. It just keeps loading and loading and loading and never manages to finish. So, if you want to see the video, click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-_dLPl280M

Here's a picture of the whole squad:

And here's a picture of her stunt group:

And here's a picture of just McKenna:

If you didn't catch it in the next to last picture, they were STATE CHAMPS in their division. WAY TO GO!!!

Successful Conclusion???

Here's what we ended up with:

Basically it's the silver version of what I previously had. Although it's 2 years newer it has about 4,000 extra miles on it. But the leather interior is in GREAT condition (much better than mine) and it has a DVD player. Yeah! We should break even when all is said and done. Oh yeah, if you didn't already figure it out, my car was totaled.

I'm ecstatic. Jared's iffy. He had something with less miles and a higher price tag in mind. But since it didn't have leather seats or a running board, he decided to let me get my way. Just keep me in your prayers -- if this car has issues in the next 5 years Jared will NOT be happy.

Disclaimer: The car was in an accident. Jared paid $5 for the police report. From that he got the owner's name. It didn't have her phone number but a co-worker suggested looking her up on Facebook. Which he did. And within just a few minutes she called Jared. (Amazing, huh?) The accident was just after they bought the car new. It was of course repaired and has run great since. They loved the car and just traded it in for an upgrade.

Look What I Did!

Since life has been so easy and uneventful lately (ha! ha!), I decided to spice things up a little. So here's what I did:

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LUCKILY, it appears no one was seriously hurt.

AMAZINGLY, I didn't panic, freak out or cry. I was completely calm. Even when I saw the guy pull out in front of me and I knew there was no way I could stop before I hit him I remained totally calm. I just said to myself, "You're going to hit him." And then I did. (After hitting the brakes, of course.)

HOPEFULLY it is all his fault. Everyone agrees it should be his fault. He even admitted guilt and apologized profusely after we moved our cars off the main road. Although that's not exactly what he told the cop. But since I have yet to hear from his insurance company I'm not sure how they feel about it.

SADLY, they towed my car away today. In a few days we should know if it's totaled or not. Since we recently changed the timing belt, got new tires, registered for 2 years, and filled up with gas we're hoping they fix it.

AMAZINGLY Jared was not one bit mad. Not even upset. He happened to be in the garage when I got home. When he saw the car he got a shocked look on his face. Then he smiled and asked me if I'd had a bad day. (He loves me.) Of course he will be a little upset if it is totaled. Mostly because of the money we will lose on the aforementioned items.

ODDLY, Jared is most concerned about the miles I am putting on his Land Cruiser. Since we have 3 cars I didn't opt for rental insurance. (Thought I'd save a few bucks each month.) So until the other driver's insurance company admits liability we don't know if a rental car would be covered. Jared wants to get one anyway so I don't put miles on his precious Land Cruiser. He'll drive it out of state to go elk hunting but heaven forbid I put a few miles on it taking the girls to tumbling, etc. :) And if I were to wreck his Land Cruiser . . . well let's not go there. (I'm laughing as I type this just thinking about how each mile is irking him. Maybe I'll take a road trip. Ha! Ha!)

I just hope this little bump in the road (literally!) doesn't turn into a major road block.

A Birthday and A Cake

We finally got around to celebrating Kennedy's birthday a few days late. But she didn't know the difference and it was sure a lot more enjoyable to celebrate it on Sunday than try and squeeze it in between practices, concerts and games.

It's hard to believe our baby is three. THREE. And she starts primary in January . How did this happen? Time really does pass faster the older you get.

Since Kennedy loves horses (neigh-neighs as she calls them) and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the color purple, I found this cute purple pony and that became the theme for the cake. Working with fondant was much easier the second time round. I even used gum paste for the decorations on top of the cake. It was really easy to work with but unfortunately the fondant and gum paste took the food coloring differently so the pinks aren't the same. Oh well. She's 3. I'm sure she didn't notice. :)
And since we have plenty of toys Kennedy had to be content with mostly necessities -- clothes, shoes and hair accessories. But she had a lot of fun opening the gifts.
She got so embarrassed when we sang to her. At least she didn't run away like she did when they sang to her in nursery.

And after 3 or 4 tries she even managed to blow out the candles!

Corporal Punishment

This is what happens to children who misbehave at our house:
Ha! Ha! I'm joking. Actually Kennedy tripped and fell while she was at her counsins' house. This happened 2 days before we took family pictures. Of course. (And maybe I should mention that I used Photoshop to make the bruise look worse than it really is.)

McKenna was worried that Kennedy looked too sad, so I included this picture as well. Whenever you take her picture Kennedy tends to stick out her tongue.

Just For Fun

I have no idea who took this picture or why, but I thought I would post it just for fun.

Halloween '10

Yep, it's that time again. When I run around trying to find costumes for my 5 kids without breaking the bank. I hate it. Although once the costumes are taken care of and we are out trick-or-treating I always have fun.

Luckily I talked Jordan into being a witch. Gotta love hand-me-down costumes. :)
Kennedy didn't have a choice. I went through the container of costumes and decided she would be a Hershey's Kiss. This costume is A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. And with Jared's help I actually got a picture where she was smiling and looking at the camera.

There is a long story behind this costume. McKenna and her friends decided to be princesses. She picked Sleeping Beauty. No pattern was to be found. And I certainly wasn't spending between $50 and $500 to buy a costume. (Yes, the one she really wanted was $500.) Luckily we found this dress at Good Will. It was half-price Saturday so it only cost $5. Score! All we had to do was dye it pink. Unfortunately we didn't know how difficult it is to dye polye

ster. I dyed it twice to try and get the actual pink of Sleeping Beauty's dress but this is the best we got. (Seriously, the lining which isn't polyester is burgundy, but this was the darkest we could get the polyester.) I bought white material to make the dress look more like Sleeping Beauty's, but due to unfortunate mother-daughter difficulties, that never came about. So this is what she ended up with. Oh, well. At least it came in under $10.This is what we were aiming for.
When I saw this costume at Costco I jumped on it. It's not scary and it doesn't involve a mask. Perfect for Jackson. And don't forget his pumpkin. He drew the face on a pumpkin they made at school and asked me to replicate it. He's very proud of his pumpkin.
Another hand-me-down. And McKenna's friend Kendyl did an amazing job on Madison's makeup and hair.
Here's the whole crew. Not a bad looking bunch, huh?
Here are the 3 princesses -- Belle, Jasmine and Aurora. All three got their dresses at Good Will. Not bad, huh? (Except for the fact that we have become addicted to half-price Saturdays. :)
Just thought I should throw in a picture of Madison and her friend. There were 4 of them that went as fairies.

Soccer

Jordan wanted to play soccer this year. She is having so much fun. Her team decided to skip the professional (I use that term very loosely) photographers in lieu of a parent photographer. The lighting is horrible but there's not a lot of options in the middle of the soccer fields.
With a team like this it's amazing they've won all but 2 games. Go Blue Cheetahs!Here's our cute girl all decked out in her soccer uniform.
Since I am incapable of simultaneously watching the game and taking pictures, I took a picture of warm-ups. Maybe I'll get an action shot in one of the remaining 3 games. (But I'm not counting on it. :)

One Rainy Day

Last week (or was it two weeks ago?) we had one of those rare rainy days. Really it only sprinkled for a few minutes, but around here we count that as rain. Anyway, I was busy helping Jared fix the dryer and when I looked up I found Jackson and Kennedy cute as can be sharing an umbrella. Of course I had to take a picture.
So cute, right? Can you see the love and admiration in Kennedy's eyes? And Jackson is being so kind to let Kennedy hold the umbrella. (Just ignore the fact that Kennedy's hair hasn't been combed and that Jackson is in desperate need of a haircut.)

In reality I took about 30 pictures. In 29 of them they either looked like this

or they were fighting over who got to hold the umbrella.

You gotta love digital photography. We can remember life the way we want it to be (see 1st picture) and delete life the way it actually is (see 2nd picture).

Cheer

McKenna's been cheering this year, and now that the football season is coming to an end I'm finally getting around to taking a picture.
Isn't she cute?

Cute Hair

Whenever my girls have cute hair, you can thank McKenna. I have almost no talent in the hair department. So McKenna has taken it upon herself to keep the younger girls' hair looking cute. Here's a great example.
A close up.
Whenever I get around to posting about Jordan's baptism, you can see another great example of cute hair.

Snow

Last Tuesday we had a crazy storm blow through. It probably only lasted about 20 minutes, but boy did it pour! And hail!!! Trees were uprooted all over town. Madison and Jordan even spent the last couple of hours in school without any electricity because the storm knocked over a tree that fell on an electrical wire to the school. So they just opened the doors to their classrooms and did their best. (I doubt much got accomplished because none of the classrooms have windows.) There was even talk of cancelling school the next day, but sadly, the electrical lines were repaired in time. (In all 10 years my children have been in school here, school has never been cancelled. Not even once. Now that I think about it that really doesn't seem fair. There's nothing better than a snow day.)

I digress. After the storm blew through, I looked in my back yard and happened to see what looked like little piles of snow! It was only the hail that had ran off the back porch, but from a distance it really looked like the remnants of a snow storm. I'm sure this is the closest we will ever get to snow in our yard. We'll take what we can get.

More Domesticity

Recently I've been a little interested in cakes. Or cake decorating. Mostly because 4 of my children's birthdays are within 4 weeks of each other. (Not a good idea, if you're wondering.) Anyway, instead of just running to the store and buying a cake, I decided to make them. I'm not sure what got into me, but it was fun.

Here they are in order.

Jordan's cake was my first attempt. She wanted a paw print cake. This is what I came up with. The purple's a little blah, and the crumbs drove me crazy! (I had yet to learn about crumb frosting. Basically you frost the cake to catch all the crumbs. Then 10 minutes later you frost it again, and voila, there are no more crumbs. Of course you should also start with a frozen cake.) But Jordan was really happy with it. And so was I (except for the crumbs).

Then came Jackson's cake. (He wanted a Spiderman cake but I was too cheap to buy the cake pan. So he got a Cars cake instead.)

I searched online and took a couple of different ideas I found and combined them into one cake. I think it turned out great. I still had the crumb problem, but since all the white frosting got covered, you can't tell. Yeah! I did learn that it is helpful to have two batches of frosting - one for frosting the cake, and a stiffer batch for decorating the cake. The grass didn't look too good in real life because my frosting wasn't stiff enough. But you can't tell in the picture. :)

Madison opted for cheesecake. Thank goodness! By the time her birthday rolls around we are sick of birthday cake. I searched online and found this wonderful recipe for white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Yum!

Sadly the picture does not do it justice, or so I am told. (My diet prohibited me from eating any of this cheesecake.) But reliable sources told me it was very good. I will be definitely making this one again!

Finally it came to McKenna's birthday. I had been toying with the idea of attempting a fondant cake, and after the previous successes I decided to go for it. Here's what I came up with. (Again, this was a combination of a few different cakes I found online.)

Once again, the picture does not do it justice. It was A LOT of hard work but I LOVED the end result. And I learned a lot. I'm definitely attemping this again. But there are a few changes I will make:

1. I will not attempt to make a fondant cake the day after I finish canning jam (see previous post.)

2. I will make and freeze the cake several days in advance.

3. I will make and refrigerate the fondant several days in advance.

4. Instead of making one big batch of fondant and then breaking it into smaller batches to color, I will make several small batches and incorporate the color as I go. (Coloring fondant after it is already made takes a long, long time.)

5. I will buy more cake decorating tools. Hopefully at garage sales. :)

Now I just have to decide what kind of cake to make for Kennedy's birthday!

And if anyone knows an inexpensive way I can improve my indoor pictures, PLEASE let me know. (I'm sure it's all lighting.)