What the HAL is going on? or Ella's Passion Project

Our piano teacher recently pointed out that when I say "Ella's at HAL" it sounds like she is in a much darker place.  In the spring the kids in HAL (High Achievement Learners) worked on a passion project, which they presented at the end of the year.  They could pick any thing they were interested in learning more about, and were supposed to spend a certain amount of hours researching and working on a presentation.

Ella could have picked anything.  I thought it would be dance, or music, or writing, or stars, but she surprised me with "baking."  She wanted to know more about how it works, and to do more of it herself.  We ordered books, she did research on the internet, and she baked 3 different yummies (mostly) by herself.  She made cookies and this power point as her presentation on what she learned.  I helped with the execution of one or two things, but it is 99% her hard work. 

Ella's Presentation Table.

Livi and Carter being "supportive."

Ella explaining her project to one of her advisors.

Why I Should Always Wear A Wooden Plank Around My Neck...Or At Least A Wood Bead Bracelet

I love the idea of teacher appreciation week, and I think making desserts is a great way to celebrate, but because nothing at the kids school can be easy, this always turns into an ordeal. They don't want cookies on a plate. They don't want a box of doughnuts. They want full on gourmet desserts presented in a classy way, (no paper plates) but you don't get anything back, so it must be displayed on something you are willing to never see again.

The teachers draw numbers and they go in order and pick out what dessert they want. No one wants to be the dreaded last dessert on the table. The "pity" dessert, if you will. Last year I did cake pops in a flower pot, but this year I wanted to try cupcakes. Cupcakes beyond vanilla and chocolate. Cupcakes that make other cupcakes cry in envy. Cupcakes that wouldn't be picked last for the baseball team (or whatever cupcakes play).

I made Hot Chocolate, Strawberry Lemonade, Red Velvet, Cookie, and S'more flavored.  Good-bye waist.

I decided to try 5 different recipes (because I have a stress related death wish) so I could find just the right recipes to present. Of course finding the ingredients required for gourmet cupcakes in Scottsbluff is as easy as finding Tonks when she escapes out the front door, so I spent most of the morning going from grocery store to grocery store. By the time Livi and I got home from morning errands it was lunch time. We have lots going on at our house this week, and because I don't want the other joy school moms/insurance interviewer/cub leaders to see my house in all it's natural glory (I swear evil elfin brownies drop off all the junk they clean from other people's house right into my living room), I spent a couple hours cleaning up around the house, got the kitchen spic and span, and then went on a baking spree.

 It was a well oiled machine in my kitchen. I would bake a batch of cupcakes, and while the next batch was baking I would make the icing for the last batch that were cooling. Things were running so smoothly and I was so happy with how easy it was to make 100 cupcakes that I should have stopped to knock on wood. It turned out I hadn't bought enough red food coloring or powdered sugar so I had to make frantic phone calls to Eric begging him to pick some up on the way home. By the time he got there I had a pile of egg shells and butter wrappers that would make Paula Dean gag in horror, soup on the stove for dinner, and french bread in the other oven. Eric surveyed the mess and calmly walked by with no comment.

 Livi came running around the corner to hug Eric and promptly slipped on the floor. This is when life went from organized chaos to full on pandemonium. Eric offered Livi a hand up and she squirmed and tried to pull away. All of a sudden we had a 3 year old screaming in agony. She was clutching her arm to her side and making noises I have never heard from her before. I was running around frantic saying we needed to go to the ER and Eric was grimacing (I think he was thinking about our deductible) and trying to tell Livi she was okay. Livi didn't believe him so I forced Eric into the car and off to the ER we went.

When I went to the ER with meningitis it took 8 hours from when I went in to when they released me.  It took 2 hours from when they ordered X-rays to when I actually went to have them taken. We have found the trick to a short ER visit: Screaming Toddler.

Livi showing off her stickers for doing so well with the X-rays

With in 5 minutes of us getting there the Orthopod Doctor had popped Livi's elbow back into the socket. A few minutes later she was getting X-rays. We were there for less than an hour overall. Once Livi's elbow was back in place she immediately stopped crying. It was like a little switch had been flipped.

She is totally fine today, no pain, no swelling, just 100% rambunctious little girl. We even had joy school this morning and by the way she was attacking our tree with a lightsaber you would never guess that she couldn't move her arm last night!

I Melted The Face Off A Bunny, Dyed My Hair, and Ethan Started A Blog

So the title basically explains everything in a nutshell. First off the bunny. I tried to make more cake-pops and while they were delicious, they did look a little bit like funky aliens.

Next, I have a bad scale. I lose 5 lbs one day and gain 8lbs the next day. It brings to mind yo yo dieting, but in an immediate and literal sense. I weighed myself yesterday, changed the battery to see if that helped, and gained 5 lbs in the 30 seconds it took to change them. I don't know which weight was right, but either way it was depressing, so a few minutes later I had to go to my hair appointment and I ended up with...highlights.

For the first time in 10 years.

They aren't extreme, but they are the result of the perfect storm of my weigh in debacle and Livi constantly asking why no one in our family has yellow hair like her. The hair looks great. The hair on my face...not so much. I don't have the California coloring to go with the California hair anymore. I'm too pasty and I think the yellow is too gold for the undertones in my skin (which is saying something since she went with the ashy blonds and not the yellows). It's not a huge change, but I think at this point in my life darker might be better. We will reevaluate in a few weeks and see what I do next. You never know, she has bright blue she can cover the blond with and it this point all it would take was another day like Thursday and I could take "blue haired" to a whole new level in this retirement town!

Lastly, Ethan has his own blog. Well, Ethan and his friend has comics they draw that now have their own blog. Ethan wanted me to make 15 copies, each, of all of his comics, and he wanted to sell them at school for $1. I get his motivation, but since I wont let my kids take the fund raisers for school to our neighbors I am not about to let him hock his wares on the school yard. I decided I would post the comics on his blog and then if someone wants a copy they can order them. I thought it would save time (I'm lazy, I didn't want to make all those photo copies!) and I was wrong. Setting up the blog was not easy and removing all the personal information the boys wrote on the comics (like our phone number and address along with last names. They should have just printed their social security numbers on them) took a lot of editing.

They also have a name for their company (Sto-Bag Inc) that sounded too much like a bad name you would call someone, so although they are not changing the name of the company, I did convince Ethan to have a different title for their blog. They also are not the most conscientious of spellers so I had to do some creative editing there to make the final project reflect their original aesthetic. Sorry, rambling. If you want to check out the cover of their first (of several) comic books go to Two Funny Guys Comics and check it out. We would love any feed back!

Mutant Cookies From The Black Lagoon

This is NOT how my cookies turned out

I'm not quite sure how I ended up baking sugar cookies for both Ethan and Ella's classes, but that is what happened. One minute I want to make a batch to cheer me up and all of a sudden I need enough to feed 40 kids and adults. Oh, and my kids desperately want them the next day, because you can't wait an extra day when you are 6. Impossible.

If you have ever tried to make sugar cookies you know that it is all about waiting. Waiting for the dough to chill before you bake. Waiting for the cookies to cool before you ice. Waiting for the icing to set before you transport. Trying to fit that all in one morning was not the mood elevator that I had wanted making these cookies to be.

I also had the added pressure of knowing there is one Jewish girl in Ethan's class and 2 Jehovah's Witness' in Ella's class. Sooooooooooo, not every cookie could be super Christmas-ie. Trying to not alienate these very nice kids, I decided a star and gingerbread man wouldn't be too bad. Oh, but wait, what color are gingerbread men?

Have you ever tried to make brown food coloring? It is not as easy as I thought it would be. When I was little and tried to mix colors it seemed like every thing you mixed would produce brown. Not so when you are bigger and actually want to achieve that muddy brown that red and blue always use to make. Now all you get is a weirder and weirder color of purple. Mix in a little black and you have a color that seems to have grown in a radioactive swamp.

Since this was a very bad color to use on gingerbread men, unless you want the kids running in fear, I thought maybe a light sky blue would be good, but of course they ended up looking more like mini Captain America's.
The kicker is the Jewish girl picked a Christmas tree.

Also while I was there I noticed Ethan's desk. What am I doing wrong?

Deer in the Headlights

Eric turned 32 on Thursday. I can't believe we are "in" our 30's. I can't believe we were ever 17 and dating. Where has the time gone? What happened to my hips? Okay, so this shouldn't be about me and my aging phobia, so let's move on to what we did on Eric's big day.
Eric, of course, had work, but luckily (yeah right) our kids get up early and we had time to open presents before he had to go to work. The kids were "good helpers" by which I mean they brought gifts over to Eric and opened them in front of him.
Livi has gotten to that fun stage where she understands that bright colored packages mean she gets to rip them open and there are fun surprises inside. Unfortunately she hasn't grasped the idea that not all presents are for her.

He still had to go to work, which is a bummer but even the State of Nebraska doesn't give work off for employee birthdays (but Arbor Day? Really?) Eric got Megamind from Ethan so we popped that in and watched while we had a fun pizza dinner.
I had made cake balls a few weeks ago and Eric had enjoyed them so I got the Cake Pops book and tried to make them for his birthday.

This is what they were suppose to look like, courtesy of bakerella.com and this is how mine turned out.

Not too bad for a first try but they do look a little high...or scared...or manic. I should have practiced before doing them for a birthday. One problem with cake pops.....where to put a candle?

Why Is October Always So Crazy?-UPDATED

It has been a very interesting week. I've been run ragged with all the different activities, deadlines, baking, costume making, birthdays, and parties that have gone on this week that it is actually a relief to sit down for once and just type for my blog. Sorry to everyone who called me this week, not only am I still recovering my normal voice from being sick, but my mind has been elsewhere as the stress has mounted.
I will go into these more for anyone interested, but I want to review the week before my brain wipes it from my memory as a self defense mechanism.

Sunday: Played 3 hours of piano at church and found feud with program lady has escalated.
Worked on costumes

Monday: Helped kids carve pumpkins at school for zoo spook-tacular from 8:15-11:00, luckily Eric took an early lunch to help out.

Went grocery shopping
Worked on costumes
Had family home evening where we carved our own pumpkins.

Worked on costumes.

Tuesday: Went to Ella's class to read a couple of books while her teacher did testing
Worked on costumes.
Went to zoo spook-tacular to find the kids' pumpkins (Ella's had giant "E" on back so we could find it)


Wednesday: Made a QUADRUPLE batch of sugar cookie dough.
Worked on costumes.
Baked half the sugar cookie dough batch (roughly 50 cookies)
Worked on costumes.
Wrapped presents.

Thursday: OPENED PRESENTS - Livi's 2!!!!
Went to Ethan's class to help kids who didn't finish writing assignment at their home.
Went to mini plays put on for Ethan's class by high school kids.
Went to do visiting teaching (which time was changed as I was pulling up).
Baked rest of sugar cookie dough.
Took Ella to ballet.
Baked brownies for Livi's cake.
Ordered pizza.
Had Bagley's over to celebrate Livi's b-day.

Iced 91 cookies.


Friday: Got stuff ready for both kid's parties.
Took Livi to 2 year check up, got 2 shots and finger stick for blood test.
Dropped off Eric's forgotten lunch.
Tried to finish my costume.
Went to kids' parade and parties at school.

Worked on Eric's costume.
Went to ward party.

Cleaned up all the sewing crap all over my house.
Sat on couch and refused to move.

My Octobers always seem to be like this. The rest of the month wasn't a cake walk either. I always feel more stress in October than even December. Maybe it's because I have all month to worry and plan, were as in December you get the last week to only worry about how you are going to pay for everything you did the 3 weeks before. I'll do longer posts on the major activities, but right now I am going to bed and letting my mind just rest.
p.s. OUR WINDOWS CAME IN!!!! Hopefully we can start getting some real work done on our house!

UPDATE: To clarify, the feud is new, and not really a big deal, but funny. I did start the costumes in September, but remember I did 5 costumes by hand. Livi's had hand beading and a pleated bodice. Ethan's and Livi's I had to adapt the patterns quite a bit and they involved appliques and Ethan's is reversible. Ella's didn't even have a pattern, so I had to make a mock up in muslin. I didn't procrastinate, I just had a full plate. Sorry. Oh and I did all the carving for our family because it went really late and kids had to go to bed. They picked out stencils and helped outline, but I did the actual carving while Eric put the kids down. FYI

Ella Turns 5, Oh my!

My Bella turned 5, I can hardly believe it. It's too bad we couldn't have painted pottery and watched animated movies for her birthday and my mom had already gone home, but we still tried to have fun. We started by opening gifts in the morning. Grandma Joan and Grandpa Alan gave her a Ken doll so her Barbies wouldn't be so lonely. Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Rulon gave her a talking Dora doll that plugs into the computer and you can change her eyes, jewelry etc. Thank goodness I got a new computer so she can play with the doll. Our old duct tape model couldn't handle it! :) We had hot chocolate in her toy tea set for breakfast. Ella got to pick out the color (pink) of her cake, and the decorations. Luckily the Bagleys could stand to come over twice in one week and we got to spend a little more time with them over dinner and cake. Thank goodness for good friends who are there to help your kids feel special and celebrated. Happy Birthday Ella Bella, we love you!