Random Catch Up Time!

A lot has been going on around here and not much of it has made it to the blog.  Not a lot of it is super-interesting, but I mostly use this space to document life with 4 kids and there are things I don't want to forget.  Here, in no particular order, are some things:

Baby Girl lost her first (and second) tooth this summer.  Exactly one week apart.  She was BEYOND thrilled at this occurence.  As a matter of fact, she would like it to happen EVERY week. ;)  Her brother thought it was great fun to follow the trail of "fairy dust" to the back door.  (Sidenote:  I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy didn't USE the back door, so I don't know what he was actually following.)

The boys had their first cross country meet of the season (an invitational with a total of 9 teams): 

 I love how Youngest Boy looks like he's praying.  He was pumped. 

 And then he wasn't.  He got a side stitch, but we didn't know that as we're yelling for him to at least RUN across the finish.  He was walking and we thought that HE thought he was done.  But, alas, he was just crying his little eyes out.  Poor thing.  And he came in with a pretty decent time (16:14.30 for 1.75 miles), especially considering he walked quite a bit. 

 Oldest Boy easily cruised across the line with a time of 20:03.50. 

 We also went to the zoo.  We decided it would be a GREAT idea to go after the kids' orientation last Friday because A) Mr. MOTH already had the day off and B) Our yearly pass was about to expire.  In hindsight (which is 20/20), notsomuch.  Our kids are all morning people.  Going after lunch was a recipe for disaster.  They were hot, tired, hungry, and EXTREMELY cranky.  So were their parents.  My parents did OK, though.

 And, this morning, they left for the first official day of school - Kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th grades.  {SIGH}

Yesterday, Little One had a follow up at the ENT doc for her ear tubes.  I made the appointment thinking that school would have started yesterday but, since it didn't, Aunt Jo came to stay with the older kids while we went.  Little One was NOT happy about leaving and on the way home she just kept saying, "Will Aunt Jo still be there?  Are you SURE?" and "I need to get home to MY KIDS, Mommy!"  As we were driving down the Interstate I was using the cruise control.  She must've been able to see. 

Little One: "Mommy, do you have your shoes on?"   

Me:  "Yes, baby."

Little One:  "Then you need to put your foot on that long thing and make us go FASTER!  I need to get home!"

Mr. MOTH is probably to blame.  My dad followed us down to the zoo on Friday and, because we didn't want to lose him, Mr. MOTH drove well below the speed limit - something that has happened, wait, lemme think, NEVER.  In the back of my head I could hear my dad saying, "It's a speed LIMIT!  Not a MINIMUM!"  Mr. MOTH may have muttered something about the location of the gas pedal.  Little One hears everything.



Red Cake meets Whoopie Pies

In my family, red cake (more specifically the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe of the 1970's - Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake) is a tradition.  It's delicious, yes, but for us it's all about the memories.  You had to beg (BEG!) for one for your birthday, but I'm pretty sure my grandma just liked to see us squirm.  She enjoyed eating it as much as the rest of us, but it is a PITA to make (for those of you abbreviationally challenged, that's Pain In The A$$).  You aren't truly a member of the family if your mixer isn't covered in blood-red stains from creating this beloved concoction.

However.  My Grams would have LOVED the idea of using a boxed cake mix for this.  Truly, she was all about shortcuts.  The problem is, it's the icing that makes the cake and, well, that's the tricky part.  It's not hard, per se, but it's...tricky.  So, because I wanted me some red cake but didn't want the hassle of having my kitchen look like a butcher shop, I bought the mix.  And then I got to looking at the box and lo and behold, there was an epiphany waiting to happen!  There was a photo of "red velvet sandwich cookies" - which is to say they looked like red velvet whoopie pies.  (If you don't know what whoopie pies are, I kinda pity you.  Google it.  You can thank me later.)  But wait!  What if I made the red cake part and then!  AND THEN!  Filled it with the Red Cake ICING!! 

Oh, yes.  I did:

 (Uncle Mark, stop licking the screen now...)

Luckily, my parents were here on Sunday to taste-test.  Lemme tell ya, I really had to twist their arms! ;)  I had to laugh while we were, uh, sampling them because I was just licking the icing off from the outside of mine when I looked at my parents and they were BOTH doing the same dang thing!  It really is the best part.  Good news, family!  I'm going to make these for Christmas and tint the icing green!  Whoopie!

And, because this just makes me smile every time I see it and also because - after starting to run again after OVER A MONTH of injury - it's exactly how I felt:

PS - Even with the box mix, my kitchen still looked like a butcher shop.  Also, I adjusted the recipe per the reviews and added an extra egg and 2 TBSP vegetable oil.  They came out delish but flat.

Hidden Talents

My boys.  A lot of folks say, "Boys will be boys!"  which I find to be kinda a stupid thing to say.  I mean, obviously. But there is something to it, I think.  My boys have the ability to do something that my girls (mostly) just don't have.

They can clog a toilet in the blink of an eye.

Even the industrial ones at Walt Disney World (yes, Jodie, the ones that whoosh crap away at 90,000mph)

Monday evening as I was making dinner, Youngest Boy came into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, it didn't go down!"  Translation:  I pooped and it's stuck in the potty.  Now normally this isn't a big deal.  It happens SOOO often that we have a plunger near every toilet and we just take care of business and all is well.  Except this time.  Instead of the water just stopping (which is what normally happens), it didn't.  And to top it all off, I forgot all about it in the dinner/leave for practice/where's my water bottle/can you please tie my shoes again rush. 

Mr. MOTH came home and jumped on the treadmill in the hopes of mostly completing his work-out before we left so he could keep a close eye on the girls.  He wasn't quite finished when we were ready to leave so the girls went down in the basement with him.

As I'm driving down the highway I get a call.  "What the heck happened?!?!  There's water everywhere!!!  It's dripping through the basement ceiling light fixtures!!"  (You might remember a similar story from a couple of years ago).  Needless to say, we have since had a little chat about when it's OK to just walk away and when there's the need for true panic. 



S'mores by Solar Snack Set-Up

I mentioned before that we've been participating in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's Summer Brain Games.  We completed Week 5 Solar Snacks awhile ago but things around here are just a bit crazy.  Here's how it all went:

Mostly, the girls just supervised on this one.  You line a pizza box with aluminum foil, cover the opening with plastic wrap and place whatever you're hoping to "cook" inside on a paper plate.  We made s'mores (because that's what the directions recommended and I wasn't feeling particularly creative)(I did want to try to pop popcorn, tho, but I really wanted this to work):

 As you can see, the results were delicious:

For future reference, I would recommend NOT placing the top graham on the s'more until melting is complete (45-60 minutes) because ours just slid off anyways.

I believe we are going to skip Week 6 Take Flight because we spent all last week making paper airplanes.  Week 7:  Light Up the Night looks like a lot of fun and I'm hoping to get to it before school starts.  However, this week was Cross Country Camp - which my boys totally rocked - and we are all exhausted.  And my home is starting to house an entire family of dust bunnies.  And the laundry!  Oy!

Blessing In Disguise

Last week, Mr. MOTH had to travel out of town for work (Last time!  WOOT!) and, of course, we had some pretty severe storms.  I didn't even know they were coming - we had planned to play in the pool that afternoon.  Mom called and said, "Turn on the weather." and hung up - she was at work.  The sky was blue, clear, and sunny.  I waited until the kids were finished with their after-lunch TV viewing and switched it to the Weather Channel.  Just as I did, a warning flashed across the bottom of the screen and the announcer said, "A tornado warning has been issued for our area..."  Youngest Boy freaked the frickety frack OUT!  We spent the next hour-and-a-half in the basement (this isn't exactly a hardship since Mr. MOTH finished it, but still, a mama's got stuff that has to get done!).  Between keeping them calm and entertained, fielding texts from Mr. MOTH who was watching Intellicast from Chicago, and finding the flashlights when the lights blinked out, I was exhausted!

About an hour later I got a call from my brother, E.  His power was out and, because his wife is performing in a musical, he was going to be home alone with baby V.  He scouted out the situation and decided it was going to be awhile.  He came to visit.  It was great because I rarely get to see her all to myself (well, I had to share with 4 VERY enthusiastic cousins!).  She is adorable!  She does this thing where she sits perfectly straight and then spins around in a full circle.  She looks like she's on a sit-and-spin, without the toy!

We made sure both V and E were well-fed, and once it was confirmed they had power they headed back home.  Truly, the power outage was a blessing in disguise:

I can't even believe her first birthday is just around the corner!!

A Milestone and Elderberry Pie

Last night - for the first time in almost 9 and a half years - there was no one officially sleeping in our nursery. :(  We moved Little One into Baby Girl's room (now officially called "The Girls' Room") and she slept in there.  We will move up to a big girl bed - right now it's a crib mattress on the floor (a smart move considering I went in last night to check on her and her head was hanging over the edge).  The idea is that she will stay in her OWN bed all night.  On paper, it seemed like a good idea.  In reality?  Notsomuch.  She seems to think that she can't get out on her own still, so when she wakes up, instead of coming into our room like her siblings (who STILL do it), she sat up and screamed for me.  Good thing her sister can sleep through a freight train!

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We have a bumper crop of elderberries growing in our yard this year.  I've been watching and waiting for them to get ripe for what seems like FOREVER and yesterday - when the birds were attacking the bushes - I knew it was time.  Perfect timing, too, because my parents come over on most Sundays and I knew if I made elderberry pie at least I would have someone to share it with.  It's really all about memories.  My Grams used to make pie with elderberries every year - I think it was one of her favorites.  I love pie.  Of ANY kind. 

Baby Girl and Grandma picked the berries off of the bushes (you cut the whole stem) and brought them to me. Youngest Boy, Baby Girl and I picked them off of the stems and into the bowl (4 cups?  That's a whole lotta berries, yinz guys!).  It took more than a hour for that whole process.  I had already made the crust so it didn't take long to get the pie in the oven and, even though we had to eat it when it was probably a tad too warm, it was worth the effort and stained fingers (and front porch).

For your baking pleasure:

Flaky Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening - CHILLED
1/2 cup butter - no substitutes (TRUST ME) - cold
up to 6 TBSP ice water

Using a food processor, combine flour, salt, shortening and butter.  Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Drizzle in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, JUST until dough comes together.  Divide in half and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 30 minutes (or up to 24 hours) before rolling out between two pieces of waxed paper.  Makes 2 9" crusts.

I used this Elderberry Pie recipe (I ended up adding a bit more cornstarch). (I also forgot the lemon juice)

Not Running and The Olympics

I am a huge fan of the Olympics.  I can't say I have one sport in particular that I like to watch but I just love the atmosphere; the competition; the fact that there's not much else on TV that inspires quite as much.  We watched some of the Opening Ceremonies together with the kids (until bedtime) and it's always worth the wait.  However, am I the only one who wants to punch Bob Costas between the eyes already?  Anybody else screaming at the TV for him to STOP TALKING ALREADY?!?!  I would have preferred to watch the ceremony with the mute button on rather than listen to him, except I wanted to TRY to hear the music and such (sometimes he would hush for a moment or two).  And there wasn't a single other person on the planet who was disappointed that the Parade of Nations went so fast!  He had to rush through all of his inane trivia so fast that half of the time the next country was already on it's way through!  Sheesh!  I still thought it was beautiful, humorous and inspiring - despite the commentary.  Easily my favorite part was Queen Elizabeth II.  I have a thing for the royals.  I also think the lighting of the flame this time was AH-MAZE-ING!

All of this athleticism is making me a bit twitchy to get back to running but, man, I have a serious pulled muscle.  One that is going to take a couple of WEEKS to get better and it is making me grumpy.  And chubby.  And lazy.  {SIGH}.  Rest is not something I do well.  But.  I also don't do pain very well and it freakin' hurts to run.  Believe me, I tried.  And that probably set me back at least a few days.  Stupid.  Oh, well.  At least I can turn on my TV and live vicariously through my fellow Americans vying for Gold! 

There's nothing quite like hearing 4 (OK, 6) voices at the dinner table yelling, "USA! USA! USA!"  Sweet!