Pizza snack

This afternoon, Evan asked for a pizza snack. And our day was going such that I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to do any paid work anyway, so I decided he could make a pizza.

First, you throw some ingredients together (flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, warm water, oil). And stir.

Flatten out the dough.

Kiss the dough. (I'm not sure if this actually helps, but Evan asked if he could kiss it.)

Spread around the "sauce" with your finger. (In this instance, "sauce" is actually ketchup because I didn't want to open a can of tomato sauce for his pizza snack.)

Add pepperoni.

And cheese.

Bake at 400 for about 6 minutes.

Take a picture of the finished product, think that it looks really yummy, and worry that it will actually be really good and never replicate-able since nothing was measured.

And enjoy!

Vacation day - Quad Cities (February edition)

Last Monday, we took a Vacation Day to the Quad Cities. In case this sounds familiar, we also took a Vacation Day to the Quad Cities in August. On that trip, we went to the John Deere Pavillion in Moline, Illinois. The destination this time, however, was the Family Museum in Bettendorf, Iowa. Here's a picture journal of our museum visit.

Evan, of course, liked being able to "fill" the truck with gas.

Kendra could have happily spent all day on the slide.

Laura enjoyed finding small spaces that were the perfect size for her to hide out ... or occasionally just hide.

She also enjoyed picking all of the flowers.

Which Kendra quickly replanted.

Evan had fun building a wall.

But I have no idea where he got his wall-building tendencies.

Kendra enjoyed "driving" all the Bob the Builder machines. Especially the pink skidloader. What could be better for a girl whose first word was "backhoe" but now loves pink more than almost anything!

She also seemed to like the time she had playing at the "water pump" with her daddy!

Evan disappeared for a few seconds which gave me quite a scare. Silly me, I should have known he would have gone back to the combine simulator and strapped himself in to do some harvesting.

When he wasn't harvesting or doing other "manly" things like that, he was dressed up as a bumblebee, complete with high heels, putting on his own singing and dancing show.

When Laura wasn't in the stroller or her small hiding places, she was finding precarious places to stand, such as on a chair to push the Bob the Builder voice buttons.

It was a great day! We stopped at Palmer to visit some people we hadn't seen for a couple of years. We fed Evan and Kendra chocolate chip pancakes topped with chocolate syrup and whipped cream right before sticking them in the van to go to sleep on the way home. Laura threw up all over me right after her siblings ate their suger-laden supper (go figure that she's the one who would throw up). And, we remembered to take a token picture of me, just to prove that I was indeed along for Vacation Day - Quad Cities (February edition)!

(We are now looking for suggestions for our next Vacation Day. Requirements include a ride not longer than 2 1/2 hours each way. Low price (or free) admission. And filled with fun!)

Dentist visit

Last Tuesday was Evan and Kendra's first dentist appointments. Unless you count that time when Kendra broke off her front tooth falling out of a high chair with her cousin and had to go to the dentist to make sure her tooth was ok, which I don't. So, last Tuesday was their first dentist appointments.

We had known a few months ago that there was one area of Evan's teeth that we weren't getting brushed very well, so we've been concentrating more on that area. We expected minimal problems with his teeth.

Kendra goes to bed with a cup of milk or a cup of juice every night. And drinks 1-4 cups of milk or juice during the night. I had noticed a few days before her appointment that it looked like there were holes forming in her teeth. I had myself mentally prepared for the "attack" from the dentist when he would ask me what kind of mom I was letting my child go to bed with milk/juice every night and thereby ruining her teeth. I had not yet decided if I'd take the high road where I listen to him and agree with him, or if I'd take the more-likely road where I say that I'd rather have her have less-than-perfect baby teeth and actually drink something since she will drink at night but not during the day and have her hydrated than have her in the hospital regularly for dehydration. But it was a moot point. He said that both of them had perfect teeth. Yay!

So, here's a few pictures of their first dentist appointment.

Kendra was supposed to go first. She was more than a bit timid.

So, at my request, they let Evan go first so Kendra could see how to "be big". He was great! As soon as he was in the chair, he had his mouth open, before they even had the bib on him.

He got a bit twitchy a few times when he didn't like what they were doing, but he was this good. The entire time.
And then it was Kendra's turn. Her check-up went exactly like this. The entire time.

Gender roles revisited

Since I seem to like blogging about my kids and how they set up gender roles in their play, I'll do another one. I'll use the story Kendra told me at bedtime tonight, which was a completely true story.

Kendra: Onest upon a time (yes, she says "onest" instead of "once"), Evan and Kendra went downstairs to play. Evan took his baby. I took my pliers. Daddy was working on stuff. Daddy was working on the shower. The end!

Orzo to the rescue

Tonight's supper at our house was "spaghetti". Where "spaghetti" hardly ever involves actual spaghetti noodles. We rotate between macaroni, rotini, wheels, bowties (or butterflies as they're called in our house), and shells. But tonight was special. Tonight we tried a new noodle. Tonight was orzo! Ever had it? Ever seen it? It's itty bitty noodles that look like long-grain rice. I bought it last week when it was on sale to see if it would work better for Laura, who loves the flavor of spaghetti and noodley dishes but doesn't seem to like the texture of noodles. And how'd it go over? Complete success!!! Evan, who normally stomachs spaghetti but doesn't necessarily prefer it, ate over half of his bowl. Kendra, who is a noodle nut, ate her whole bowl, plus half a bowl of the orzo noodles that I had made into macaroni and cheese (I overestimated how much to make to go with my leftover spaghetti sauce). And Laura, who was the guinea pig in this experiment and who had the same size serving as Evan and Kendra, ate ALL of hers. By herself. With a spoon. All of it!

So, to recap. Orzo. Success. Smiles!

And since this is a perfect opening to share spaghetti-face pictures. Here are the 3 kids at roughly the same ages after a self-fed spaghetti meal.

Evan at 13 1/2 months:

Kendra at 15 1/2 months:

Laura at 14 1/2 months:Can you tell which 2 kids had similar eating habits as far as cleanliness goes?

Parental roles

Evan and Kendra are playing "house" or something like that. All I know is that Kendra is the baby. Then...

Evan: Hey! Let's play Mommy and Daddy! Do you want to play Mommy and Daddy?
Kendra: Yeah!
Evan: Do you want to be the mommy?
Kendra: Yeah! I'm the mommy!
Evan: Ok! I'm the daddy! (Runs and grabs an empty coffee can and sits down on it.) I'm on the pot!

(I'm pretty sure this is the point when my attempted nap failed completely. I was laughing too hard to go back to sleep.)