Wordless Wednesday Pixie Edition

{School} Reading Saturday

My bigger kids just finished their latest school fundraiser-- a Read-A-Thon!

I was actually kind of excited for this one, because reading is totally doable, no one was selling lame over-priced junk, and all the money actually goes to the school instead of some little fraction.

We did warn people, though-- think carefully before you give them a "per minute" pledge.

The example/suggestion was 10 cents per minute.

No big deal, right?

Until you start doing the math....

That's a dollar every 10 minutes.

If anyone had gone that route, here's what they would have owed my kids:

MeiMei-- $72

Mister-- $132

Boo-- $198

That's right, my kids read 720, 1320, and 1980 minutes respectively.

In like 2 or 3 weeks.

Because hey, they're my children. ;)

Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas

From our Family to Yours

Wordless.... Monday: Party Edition

Wordless Wednesday: Almost Done...

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

recipe

Wordless Wednesday

World Teacher Day

Posting late today, but I couldn't miss celebrating our teachers.

I've had some amazing teachers in my life.  My kids have had some amazing teachers.

My kids currently have some pretty awesome teachers too.

We've been blessed.

Of all the memories of teachers in my life, one woman stands out.

Meet Ms. Pratt.

Ms. Pratt was my 10th grade English teacher... and became my good friend.

Here she is with Pixie, who's named for her.  If we did the godmother thing in the LDS church, she'd totally be Pixie's.  :)

We owe so much to good teachers.  Happy World Teacher's Day!

May the FOURTH Be with You

Chronicle Books sent us a cool activity kit for our May the 4th party this year!!  How awesome is that?

It had this great poster:

And this fun new book-- each page is like a little comic.  It was a HUGE hit.

It also had stickers, activities to copy, pins... ridiculously cool.

SO-- it needed to be an awesome party.  We put it together and celebrated with Alyson's crew (of Eat, Read, and Be Mommy).

We needed light sabers.... (these were a "hit" [pun so very intended] but they make an insane squeaky sound when they hit each other, so there was actually less fighting than anticipated, lol).

And blasters.... (which were actually pretty much a flop-- didn't work well AT ALL).

(Playing with the blasters)

Here are 6 of the 7 padawans.... LuLu kept wandering off.

(Epic light saber battling)

The activity that was the biggest hit, though, was rescuing the poor soldiers frozen in carbonite.  Each of the padawans had a tray with "carbonite" (baking soda mixed with just enough water to pack it) and a bowl of vinegar....

along with some cool Star Wars ice "cubes"....

and they were off and "saving" the poor plastic army men.  

My kids play with vinegar and baking soda on a regular basis (gotta love cheap entertainment) but this was LuLu's first time.  She'd pour a bit of vinegar and look up at me exclaiming "WOW!"  It was pretty cute.

And of course you can't have a party without food-- here's our tie fighter and ewok snack.

The kids read the book in between activities and overall we all had a blast!! (Ironically, excepting the part with the blasters... wouldn't do that bit again probably....)

HUGE thanks to Chronicle Books!!  

A Long Non-Bookish Snarky Post

**Warning: long post containing possibly egregious snark**

So, my Shutterfly package went on vacation to Colorado.

I emailed customer service asking why it had left Utah and nearly coming to my house and got back a general "the estimated delivery date is between [this day and this day]-- if you have not received it at that time please contact us" which is not actually helpful.

Here's my (possibly unnecessarily snarky) response:

"Okay, no offense, but that's possibly the least helpful response possible.

Maybe I didn't make my concern clear-- my concern is not that the package is late, I was concerned that there was something incorrect in the shipping information sending the package hundreds of miles out of the way. If nothing else, it seemed like a company would like to know that something like that had occurred since it can't possibly be either efficient or cost-effective for your company to ship a package nearly to its destination and then send it on vacation in another state. I'm sure Colorado is quite nice in the spring and that my photos are having a lovely time, but it seems rather silly for them to be sent there.

If this is a random occurrence but nothing is wrong with the shipping information and my photos are merely making an entirely circuitous route to my home, then feel free to disregard my messages. I was hoping to be helpful in that either there was a problem in the shipping information and catching it earlier would be better than later or your company could save shipping costs by correcting whatever routing makes some packages randomly go elsewhere needlessly. Next time, I shall simply wait until the package is late and risk things being beyond repair."

Their response?

"We thank you for contacting Shutterfly.

Please accept our apologies for the previous response. We see that the order is expected to be delivered by April 15, 2015. If you have not received it by then, please write to us. We will be glad to assist you further.

Thank you for choosing Shutterfly. Please let us know if we can offer additional information. "

Oh gee, thanks.

Here's the thing-- I love Shutterfly.  I do.  But oh my gosh, can you be any less helpful?

Basically what they're saying is either a) your package isn't late, so we're not going to actually read your email or b) we don't know the answer to that, so here's a stock response.

Anyway, the package arrived ahead of time, safe and sound, and looking quite relaxed for its get-away. ;)

And what was in this package, you ask?  Pictures of this cute little Pixie, done by Lani Wilkinson Photography!

Birthday Breakfast: A Food Post

I promise, there will be actual bookish posts soon.  Really there will.

But I had THIS for breakfast today....


and it's just kind of too good not to share.

The original recipe for these Double Chocolate Brownie Batter Pancakes is from Chocolate Covered Katie.  It's a tiny batch of not-too-sweet chocolaty goodness.

Adding strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles makes them AMAZING.  (Though I should point out that we only add the syrup and sprinkles for birthdays at our house.)

For those who hate doing math, like me, here's the recipe x16 (which feeds out family of 6 [Pixie doesn't count yet] with leftovers), with math courtesy of my husband, the human calculator.

(I should point out that the original has healthier ingredient options, such as using applesauce in place of the oil.)

4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup cocoa
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oil
3 cups milk
1/3 cup vanilla

Mix and cook!  If you're feeling fancy, make Mickey Mouse pancakes. :)

And a happy birthday to this crazy boy-

Happy birthday, Mister!

Meet Pixie!

Weighing in at a tiny 6 lbs 14 oz, Pixie ended up being a much more apropos nickname than I realized it would be, lol.

We're doing well and I'm already finding my post-baby reading groove. :)

Just for giggles, here's a quick look at the older monkeys as babies:

I have cookie-cutter children, what can I say.  :)

In other news, school starts in a few days, hooray!  I need to post some more Summer Reading updates for sure... Or a wrap-up at any rate.

And Then Life Happened....

See I was going to do really well posting this year....
Then life happened, lol.

Here's a recap of Jan-early April:

Boo, Mister, and MeiMei all had strep throat at least twice.
Hence, we were referred to an ENT and over 6 weeks (2 week recovery time each) all three had their tonsils out.

I know how to have a fun time, let me tell you.

Also, since her birthday in December LuLu has gone from 2 teeth to... 12 with 2 coming in.  So... yeah.  (And she got tubes put in her ears within a week of her birthday too.)

And then there's this....

Meet Pixie, coming this summer to a Habitue home... well, not necessarily NEAR you, but you know what I mean.

So really... reading isn't happening a lot.

It's happening a little... and come late summer/fall it will probably be happening a lot, but in the meantime reviews might be a little more sporadic.

Christmas Storytime Brunch

Our Christmas storytime brunch was on Christmas Eve this year.  We had each of the kids over 2 pick a book and then the moms each picked a book so we ended up with about 7 or 8.

Sadly, the older kids (from Mister up-- ages 6-9) totally ditched us when it was time to read.... even though they'd picked some of the books.... in favor of chapter books they read themselves.

Whatever.

The little girls liked sitting and listening to us read the books.

We read:
Santa Claus and the Three Bears
Mr. Men: The Night Before Christmas
Santa Claus: The World's Number 1 Toy Expert
Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
Llama Llama Holiday Drama
Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree was the only one totally new to me-- oh my gosh, so cute!  I may need to acquire it.  Because, you know, we don't have enough books.

Seriously.

(Just wait until you see Monday's post.  The book situation is getting out of control.  But still, what harm could one more do?)

Wordless Wednesday: Just a Bit Late...

Happy Pioneer Day!

From my little pioneers....

(Poor Mister, boys didn't wear bonnets... and Mommy isn't talented enough to make anything else.)

(What's Pioneer Day?  In Utah we celebrate the LDS pioneers entering the Salt Lake valley and declaring that "This is the place" on July 24, 1847.)

America For Me

I was going to save this to go with my next WWII book review, but it feels appropriately patriotic for today.

My husband's grandmother passed away recently and during her funeral I learned a lot about this remarkable woman.

I knew she was born in the late '20s in Germany, and that she came to America when she was young, but I'd never put it all together in the historical context.

Until at her funeral I suddenly thought, "Oh my gosh, she got out just in time."

This is an essay she wrote (and it won the essay contest!), posted here with permission from my husband's aunt(s).

She wrote this in 1942, when she was about 14 years old.

I hope we can all feel this way about our country.  Happy Fourth of July!!

America For Me

America has been the hope of the world, the hope the dream of millions of immigrants who, like me and my family, came to America to find the things we could not find in another country.

I came to America only six years ago.  It seems such a long time ago now.  The country where I came from was quite unlike America.  In that country there is no freedom.  The people have no hopes or opportunities, they too were once a free people, but that is gone now, but someday they shall be a free people again.  Like a great wise man said, "This too must pass."

In America we have all these things.  We all have an equal chance to go forward whether we are rich or poor.  Some of our greatest men who like Andrew Carnegie came to this country as a small boy and built for himself a great fortune, but he gave much of it for the cause of humanity.  Perhaps had not he and his parents come to the United States he might not have had the chance he did have.

In America we have freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion.  In Germany there are no such freedoms.  I remember one day as I was going to school a teacher was walking on the other side of the street.  He gave a salute, not seeing him I failed to return it.  When the teacher and I arrived at school I got a good scolding and a lecture about my disloyal behavior.  If it had happened again I might have got into serious trouble.

Have you ever realized how many luxuries we have?  In our home in Europe we had no gas or electric stove, but an old coal stove.  We had no ice box or telephone, or a washing machine.  Here we go out riding in  automobiles and to the movies once a week, but over there we went walking on sunny days and stayed home and amused ourselves in other ways on rainy days.  If we went to the movies once a month we were quite extravagant.  Here in America we are a free people.  We have no fears that a friend of neighbor might turn out to be an enemy.  I shall never forget the tramp tramp of soldiers feet and the rumble of tanks and artillery that were continually going through our town.  The soldiers also had to have a place to sleep, so every family in the town had to give up a room so two or three soldiers would have a place to sleep.  Yes!  That nation was preparing for a great and dreadful war.  Here in America the boys were playing their favorite games, football, basketball and baseball, with never a thought of war, and that's the way it should be in any peace loving nation.

I'm indeed thankful to be here in America, the land of Freedom, that I can say, do and think what I like without fear of anyone or anything.  Although I was only eight when I came here, I was old enough to be able to contrast the life I had left behind with the new one.

Fate was indeed kind to me to bring me to America, the land of liberty.  I want to be a good American, living up to my responsibilities.  I'm proud of America and I want America to be proud of me.

Irmgard Pirente Feb 22 1942

When I'm Not Reading...

If my posts seem a little scattered this month, here are a few possible reasons...

SeaWorld:

My brother-in-law's wedding:

And technically, I guess the title of this post is a bit inaccurate... of the 6 books I took on our trip, I read four.  :)

What fun things are YOU up to this summer?