When I grow up......

Over dinner tonight, James mapped out his future career plan for me. He's going to have a different job for each season.

Fall - Pilot
Winter - Lake Ice Thickness Tester
Spring - Weather Man
Summer - House Builder

That is Wack......y

Today was "Wacky Tacky" day at school.  James is excited that he's wearing 2 different socks.  



2 different WHITE socks.  




2 different white ANKLE socks!

And he's wearing red pants with a lime green shirt.


Watch out for us... we are sooooooooo "Wacky"!!!

Valentines Treats!

James wanted to bring some cute treats in to school for his friends on Valentine's Day, so I racked my brain for something easy that we could do together. Inspiration struck when we were at Chip's Chocolate Factory watching them make their fudge and I spied chocolate covered marshmallows in the display case.

I thought "I can do that!" and "How would we make that valentiney?"

I pondered the problem for a few days and got my answer on a trip to the commissary when I saw a huge display of heart shaped marshmallows and sprinkles. LIGHT BULB!

So earlier today James and I got out all our gear to make our treats.

To make these you need:

long lollipop sticks
1 lb of dark chocolate candy melts (or melting chocolate of choice)
Heart shaped marshmallows
Crisco
paper towel
sprinkles
tall coffee mug (I put this mug into my tiny crockpot to keep the chocolate melted... you can just keep microwaving and stirring if you prefer... but you want it tall to be able to dip your whole stick with)
block of Styrofoam
paper towels


I folded a paper towel up and put a little crisco on it, so I could grease my lollipop sticks. The Marshmallows go on MUCH better and keep their shape when you grease the stick. If you don't, the marshmallows tend to resemble little butts,



which is ok if that's the kind of thing you want to convey... lol... but I didn't think it was *quite* appropriate for Kindergarten, kwim?

I left a little dab of crisco at the top of my stick and spun the stick as I inserted it into the marshmallow.




Much better!!! No Marshmallow carnage on the stick...



I did this for all 4 marshmallows. I only inserted the stick 1/2 way through the last marshmallow so the stick didn't show.

Having an adorable helper putting the marshmallows small to large on the plate for you makes things go so much faster! lol






Once you get all the sticks made, it's time for the CHOCOLATE!!! YUMMY!!

I put my chocolate and a tablespoon of crisco into a tall coffee mug (the easier to dip into) and popped it into the microwave... 1 minute, stir... 30 secs, stir... until all is melted and ready to go. I then put the cup into my small crockpot to keep the chocolate melted.




Dip your stick in the chocolate and then shake/drip off the excess chocolate.







Add Sprinkles! We found it was neater to just dribble the sprinkles directly onto the treats instead of rolling or dipping the treats into the sprinkles... especially if you have an over-enthusiastic sprinkler, lol.




I stuck them into my styrofoam at an angle to compensate for any drips. The styrofoam went into the freezer after each pop to help the chocolate set up.




Finished treats!







I'm just going to pop them into some pretzel stick bags and attach James's Scooby-Doo Valentines to them and then we'll hand them out to his friends at school. I hope they enjoy eating them as much as we enjoyed making them!

Conversations

in my Kitchen:

James: Mom, Christina and I can get married, right?
Me: Uh... yeah.. when are you planning on having the wedding?
James: Oh.... when we're older
Me: Ok... so not like next week or anything right?
James: Nah, not next week, I need to be older
Me: How old is "older" enough to get married (sweating)
James: Oh.... about 28 or so..
Me: Yes!! Yes!! 28 is EXACTLY right!! Good Answer!!!




In the Car: (when "You Should Be Dancin" by the Bee Gees comes on the radio)

James: Hey!! That song was on Despicable Me!
Me: Yep
~pause~
James: SWEET! My Butt is dancing!
Me: lol




In the parking lot at the Commissary:

Upon seeing his first "Smart Car"

James: ~squeal~ That car is a-DOR-able!!! It's sooooo CUUUUUUUTE!!!!

I R Genius

I locked my keys in my car this morning.



Which in turn had me locked out of my house.



Which wouldn't have been such a huge issue in the grand scheme of life, if it wasn't for the fact that it is 4 degrees outside with a windchill of -6 and Hubby has training today, so is out of the office and incommunicado.



Thank goodness I had my cell in my pocket with the emergency # to housing programmed on it. They had a Service worker out in less than 20 minutes. He checked my I.D. (I thankfully had my wallet!) and went to work on the door with his big ring of keys.


I'm now back in my house, no worse for wear. My keys are still in my car, and I'm not going anywhere for a while, but I am extremely thankful we decided to live ON post when we moved here 4 years ago! lol

SNOMAGEDDON!!

Ok.. not really. But it *did* snow. A lot! And it was COLD and WINDY!

James managed to hit the Trifecta of Snow Days. School was out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the weather and Friday was Parent-Teacher Conferences/In Service... so no school THEN either!! We haven't a full week of school since mid-December!

AND it's supposed to Snow again on Sunday.






*sigh*








It got so bad on Friday, I took him to a McDonalds with a playland and to the movies to see Yogi Bear.... neither of which are things I would usually be caught dead doing, lol.


Anyway... at least it was warm enough today to toss him out the back door to play in the snow. And NO... I did NOT slam it and lock it behind him! lol I went out and we slid on the snow and made a snow man.











Oh... and see that beautifully dry sidewalk behind the snow man?? SOMEBODY decided to throw snowballs at the garage wall while I was typing this, getting snow all over it.

The short perpetrator is sweeping the walk as I speak, whining "There's tooooo much snoooooooowwwwww!"

Uh Yeah... there wouldn't have been.... if you hadn't THROWN it there, Genius! ~facepalm~