Early Birthday Party

We had Aidan's birthday party a week earlier than we would've normally done, but we have a family wedding to travel to the day after Aidan's birthday, so the 21st it was. We were hoping for a sunny day so we could have the party outside, but that was not to be. The forecast was for showers, so we just planned for inside.

Aidan requested a Dinosaur Train birthday cake, since that is his favourite tv show, and he just loves dinosaurs. So, I pulled out my handy train cake pan, made up PW's chocolate sheet cake recipe and got baking. I ended up with enough batter left after filling the train pan to make a 9" round pan. My original plan with that was to make a roundhouse, like in the show, but, despite Pam-ming the heck out of the pan, it stuck and crumbled. I had no idea what to do with it, then, the next day, the episode they ran of the show had the volcano Old Smoky in it. That's what I could do!! I can make it into Old Smoky. I just needed a little marshmallow fondant to wrap around the crumbled pieces of cake to shape it into a volcano, and I would be set. Then I crushed up some cookies to make dirt to bury the "fossil" dinosaur cake decorations I had, made some buttercream  grass to cover up the foil on the baking sheets(I needed one for the train and one for the volcano), and I was all set. I think I scored some major coolness points with my little boy this weekend.

He got a whole pile of stuff, including a Lightening McQueen backpack that, I think, was his absolute favourite gift(I've never seen a child hug a backpack before).

Busy Morning

I finally managed to get a full grocery shopping trip in with all 3 kids this morning with almost zero fuss. I wrote my list, did eenie, meenie, miny, moe to determine who got the first thing on the list, then divvied it up between the 2 older kiddos, they got to pick some stuff(like ice cream flavour or juice flavour), some stuff was set(like butter), and we got in and out with no one throwing a fit, needing a time out, or me having to chase anyone. They even got to pick out a yogurt drink for themselves for being so good.

This afternoon, I'm working on Aidan's birthday cake, which he wants to be a Dinosaur Train, so I'm having to use the train cake pan to get that one done. I've had problems with the cake not coming out properly, so I'm doing a trial run today so that if it doesn't work out, I have time to try again. I used the chocolate sheet cake recipe from my Pioneer Woman cookbook, and ended up with enough extra batter to fill a 9" round pan, so I may be able to put together a mock roundhouse from the show too.

Such a Good Day

I know this is my second post about today so far, but honestly, the second part of the day went surprisingly well, there was a bit of a dust-up just  before dinner when the kids decided they didn't want to clean up the toys in the yard before coming in for supper(heck, they just wanted to keep playing) after being in the sprinkler for about a half hour around 5, and I was a little tad further behind on getting the bread dough ready than I thought I would be, but it all worked out just fine. Kevin got the kids taken care of and dinner served(while I finished getting Brynna changed). After supper, I got the bread dough rolled out, got the hamster out while Kevin tidied up the dishes(I was going to carry my plate, etc into the kitchen, but he beat me to it) and then got the bread in the oven(after Kevin set it to heat up). It's working out so very well this first night. Everyone is more relaxed, not as hyper and stressed. It's beautiful. I hope it continues to work so well.

Good Monday

So far so good. Kevin and I had a talk last night about ways in which we can improve how things work around the house, helping each other to get things done so that no one is taking too much of the load. I'm going to ask for more help, and he's going to try to give it. In the evenings we're going to divide and conquer, I'll get the hamster out, while he does the dishes and keeps an eye on Brynna. Hopefully this will allow things to get done and allow more free time to relax for both of us.

Kevin also suggested that I do some "training" trips out with all 3 to see how it goes, and expand things as they improve. So today, we needed milk for the kids and some liners for the big green bin. I laid out the plan to Caleigh and Aidan, and let them no, in no uncertain terms, that if they didn't co-operate with me and each other, that we would leave without getting their milk(although we would most certainly get Brynna's milk) or the bin liners. I told them that I would also need their help finding the liners because the store is in the middle of major renovations/reorganization and everything is upside down.

The kids did really well, such a major improvement. It was such a huge surprise and relief. I just hope that the rest of the day goes as smoothly.

So, Brynna is almost 13 months(tomorrow, eek) and is turning into an eating machine. She's gobbling down avocado, chicken, steak, mashed potato, salmon and lots of other yummy stuff. So much so that she doesn't seem to want to drink as much as she wants to eat, which isn't so good. I couldn't believe that she actually wanted to eat salmon last night to the point where we had to cut her off. Of course she did try to wear her salmon-y smelling bowl as a hat, and unfortunately her hair ended up all oily and smelling of salmon. To the point where I had to break down and give her a bath this morning to be able to wash her hair to get the stink out.

She hasn't started walking yet, but has decided that walking with Mommy or Daddy can be fun, so she's working towards it, but I think crawling is so efficient for her(and she doesn't have as far to fall if she looses her balance) that she is loathe to give it up in favour of bipedal motion just yet.

We're also starting to look around at things that the kids will need for school in the Fall: 2 pairs of indoor shoes, 2 sets of ice packs for lunch bags, 1 larger backpack for Aidan, and, of course, some containers for the food they'll need to take for the day. We have yet to hear from the school board or the transportation authority as to whether Caleigh was able to get an empty seat assignment, so that's still up in the air, but I really don't want to be walking all 3 to school in the middle of winter. Oh well, we'll have to deal with whatever happens when it does.

Trip Planning

So, my EDL came this afternoon, so I'm now able to cross the border into the US of A. So now the trip planning can begin in earnest. We're looking at going down through St Catherines/Buffalo and taking the I79 down, but on the way back, we'd make our route go through Raleigh and then up past NY City and through Washington, DC. Kevin was talking about maybe going to Cape Hatteras, but figures that might be more trouble than it's worth road-wise. This would all be so that we could take a break at Derby Line on the way home, but it might just add way too much driving to be workable in the amount of time we have to do it in.

Up Way Too Early

For some reason, Brynna woke up crying just before 5:30 this morning, which is very unusual for her(as she usually gets up around 7:45). When I tried to calm her back to sleep, Caleigh got up to go to the bathroom. Then not 2 minutes after putting Brynna back down thinking she was calm and would go back to sleep, she was upset again, so I was up. She nursed for her usual breakfast amount, then I tried cuddling with her on the couch. She was almost back to sleep when Caleigh and Aidan started making all sorts of noise in their room, so after that there was no hope of getting Brynna back to sleep because she was excited by knowing her sibs were up too. That was before 6:15. It's going to be a LONG day.