New Toy

I got a new toy a few weeks ago! I am enjoying my Sun Oven. I got this so that I can cook all summer long! I have made a pie crust, granola, brownies and rolls so far, with out getting the apartment hotter than it already is!

There has been a learning curve...like using two oven mitts--so the food doesn't fall out of the pie tin. And that I can tilt the solar oven up to catch the later in the day rays--so that the brownies get baked--the would have eventually gotten done, but they weren't finished in time for our company.

I'm having fun experimenting and enjoying my power to bake in the summer!

Dad's Happy Birthday

 So I wanted the Bug Hero's birthday to be epic! I started with a little distraction--"I got you LEGOs for Christmas. Expect something different for your birthday." He was distracted, but told me later that he knew that if he didn't get some LEGOs that it would be a fail for the birthday. So it's a good thing that there were LEGOs present.

The Friendly Hero got to pick out a present from the presents that I had purchased. He decided that he wanted to give Dad the LEGO car. I stressed that it was a surprise. He helped me wrap it and then went downstairs and told Dad that he's getting a secret in red wrapping paper. I thought all was good, whenever Dad would ask Friendly Hero what he was getting for his birthday, he would respond, "I'm getting you a secret. I wonder what it is!" As he handed the present to Dad, he said, "Here is your secret. It is a car. It will be blue."

He's getting the idea, slowly. He did a lot better than Christmas. He spent a month asking Dad to build the LEGO he was giving Dad for Christmas.

I made a LEGO cake. We love that it stacked, just like regular bricks.

The best part of his birthday is the present I gave him. For those of you who don't know, The Bug Hero has spent the last year dreaming of the perfect hooded sweat shirt. It's yellow and has the LEGO red insignia on it. We looked for it at Legoland. Not there. He looked for it online. Didn't exist. So he put his dreams on hold and decided to wait. It would come. But he'll tell you all about this dream sweat shirt whenever he can. So, I found a yellow sweat shirt on sale, and decided to make him his sweatshirt.

 Here he is modeling it. Doesn't he look handsome?

It was a great birthday! I love how the sweatshirt turned out, and I could keep it a secret. It was hard, because I knew how much he would love it! And how much he wanted it. It is awesome!

Aunts in the Bed

On occasion, the Friendly Hero finds an Aunt in Mommy and Daddy's bed. It usually happens if the bed is unmade when we come up to get dressed in the morning and Dad's already at school. Today, Aunt L, was in the bed. But he has found each of his Aunts several times.

So, Aunts, if you ever lose yourself for a morning, or have a blank spot in your memory---it's because the Friendly Hero stole you for a little bit to play.

Popsicles

Saturday was really hot. So we had Fudgiciles. It was Peaceful Hero's first introduction to a Popsicle. He got it everywhere. You can't see his legs where he let it drip onto.

He was happiest when he let it drip onto the cement. The Friendly Hero wasn't much cleaner....

 They even got it on me. Do you see the Peaceful Hero's hand print? He wasn't happy until he was clean. He takes after his father that way. (And I'm ok with good hygiene.)

 This is the Friendly Hero's mess. All over his face, hands and pants.

All I can say, is that the boys enjoyed them. They loved the cool treat on a hot day. They just didn't like being sticky afterwards.

Star Wars Day!

May the 4th be with you. National Star Wars Day. To help the Bug Hero celebrate in style, we had a Star War's themed dinner. We had General Grievous Pizza:

And Han Solo in Jello-ite.

Pretty Impressive, right?

Sometimes

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Elder and his followers. As I was reading this time, it stood out to me that sometimes we experience trials and struggles so that we can testify to others that Heavenly Father is aware of us, and He doesn't leave us comfortless.

This past month we had that type of experience. I know that Heavenly Father is close by. He watches over us and He loves us. When trials come upon us, when our hopes and wishes don't come true, we are not alone. We are held by a loving Father who comforts us.  For the past few months, we have not been alone and will not be alone. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are here for us in all of our trails, to mourn with us, to strengthen us and to bring us closer to them.

Cement

This is a story of drama. A story of woe. A story of tears. A story with HEROES who save the Hero Family!

To set the stage:

This morning, one of our really helpful maintenance guys knocks on our door and tells us he is fixing the cement--in the crack right at our door frame. And not to touch it because it's a beast to clean. The Friendly Hero promises him so nicely that he will never touch it, and the Peaceful Hero screams because he's mad that we're not outside. (It was one of those days that Mom couldn't do anything right and ignoring him made the screaming worse.)

Fast forward to the afternoon. We decide to go out to the playground. I lift both boys over the crack, and we head off. I get to the playground and notice that the Peaceful Hero got some cement on his foot, and rubbed it into my pants.....I decide not to care. Because this is the point of the day where enough has happened that I stop caring about everything and decide to start laughing. (When other people are close to tears due to stress and frustration, I am usually on the brink of laughing hysterically....if that doesn't make it better then I start crying.)

We had a great time at the playground. The Friendly Hero decides to ride his friend's bike home and not tell Mom. He also decides to take his favorite friend home, who is also three. I don't notice right away, because we're playing and all feeling better because we're still outside. Well, about 5 minutes later, the best friend comes back, because there is cement on her fingers. She's really upset. We find out that acetone is the best thing to take it off, from another friend who had it all over her one year old daughter yesterday. Well, about ten minutes later I go home, and I find this on my door step.

I carefully go in, and the Friendly Hero has it ALL over his hands and feet. (I didn't get pictures until they were in bed.) I don't have any acetone, so I go and borrow some from a friend. We get part of the cement off of one foot, and Friendly Hero pours acetone over his pants. Off go the pants. I go inside to rinse off the pants and notice cement on the floor, carpet, door knobs, bathroom door, bathroom floor, bathroom counter....everywhere the Friendly Hero has been. (I stop laughing hysterically and try to fight off tears.)

I come outside to tears. The Peaceful Hero dumped water all over the Friendly Hero so he takes off his sopping wet underwear. We're still on the front porch. We move to the back yard. I chase down the Peaceful Hero because he decided that he didn't want to hang around his brother after dumping water all over him. I go to ANOTHER friend's house and borrow her acetone, since we've used up the first bottle. I call the Bug Hero and tell him we have an EMERGENCY.

We go to the back yard and we are working on cleaning up the Friendly Hero. We are half way through one foot, when our Hero shows up in the form of Friendly Hero's best friend's Mom and Brother. They come armed with Non-acetone fingernail polish remover and cotton balls. They start scrubbing and it comes right off! They help the Friendly Hero clean his feet, hands and face. The Brother is 5 and surprisingly a happy, enthusiastic scrubber, he can't get enough of cleaning cement with cotton balls. I go upstairs to get the Friendly Hero some clothes, and change my pants and come downstairs to a clean carpet, floor, door knobs and all else has been taken care of.

We wash our clothes and everything is well again. We haven't used our front door yet tonight. We walk around. I hope the Cement dries soon.

Here are the light spots from the non-acetone cleaner.

The spot on the bathroom door.We're leaving it as a victory mark.

I am very grateful for Friends. This would have been very traumatizing without them to come to our rescue. As it stands, we are laughing about it. At bath time we had to use more acetone, as we found some on the Peaceful Hero's ear.

I have checked the laundry--my pants are fine and the Friendly Hero's pants survived the soaking in acetone they received. I also have eaten an entire bar of Swiss chocolate. I was saving it for a day like today when it is medicine.