Happy Birthday to Me!

This year, I had three requests for my birthday: 1) That I would get an afternoon with my daughter at the salon,  2) That I didn't have to plan for or make dinner, and  3) That someone else would do the dishes.  So, on the day of my 39th birthday, Cara and I baked a cake in the morning and went to the salon to have our hair done that afternoon.  My husband made tacos for dinner and I didn't have to do the dishes.  It was a birthday just the way I like 'em....low-key and relaxing.

White box cake (my favorite) decorated by Cara.

Craig and I really don't do much for our own birthdays.  We have a standing rule that, if you don't have a gift idea that you're excited about getting, then don't get a gift.  Years go by when neither of us get gifts for each other and then there are years when we both go overboard.  There's no scorecard and no pressure.  It works well for us.  This year, Craig got me a welcome mat that I had totally nerded on and on about when I saw it on ThinkGeek.com months prior.

Connor showing off my upside down birthday gift.
It says "Welcome" in binary.  It's okay to be jealous.

Even though we are very reserved for our own birthdays, Cara has always been concerned with making sure that she recognized her father's and my birthdays.  She always has a hand-made present for us and she has made sure that her brother has shared in this generous spirit, often reminding him a week or two in advance of the upcoming event.  They both work very hard, in secret, to come up with such wonderful presents for us.

My birthday gift from Cara (complete with origami frame).

Connor worked on this at school. He told his teacher, very animatedly, that it was for my birthday.  

One of my most precious gifts I get every year isn't really an actual present.  Ever since Cara was very little, the moment her eyes open on either Craig's or my birthday, the first words out of her mouth have always been "Happy Birthday".  The bleary-eyed sweetness of that statement as the first thing on her mind on her parents' special day speaks volumes as to what a generous heart she has. 

And this year's birthday, my first day of the last year of my thirties (a fact that I am not taking very well), my son's first words to me that morning were, "So, when your eggs get rotten......" 

Happy St. Patty's Day

After having already established that St. Patrick's Day was "not a present day", Connor asked what the holiday actually was about. I was hoping that my husband, after having spent a month in Ireland and years as a practicing Catholic, would be able to educate his son on who Saint Patrick was.
Gullible as I am, I actually believed him for a half second after he said, "Saint Patrick was the patron saint of adults making poor choices."

Good girl!

Today's conversation on the way to school...

Me: "Do the girls in the junior high have boyfriends?"

Cara, "No. They have cell phones."

Me: "What do cell phones have to do with boyfriends?"

Cara: "They're better."

His name is what????

On the way home from school today, Connor informed me that some people are flat. Yes, flat. With an L.

He was reluctant to explain what he meant by that beyond telling me that being flat required a flat car to drive.  When I pressed him to find out the origin this statement (half-expecting him to cite "my friend Charlie"), he threw me for a loop.

"My friend told me. His name is Cheeseburger. Cheeseburger Glen Joey."

This mother is a hamster

In the other room, I hear one of my kids saying, "I will fart in your dreams." The other kid comes back with "I will fart in your general direction."
I was trying to stifle my laughter, all the while supressing the urge to high five the one for the Monty Python reference.

Valentine's Day 2012 (part 2)

After the Christmas decorations were put away, my brain began to spin about Valentine's Day.  I looked around on the web for some sources of inspiration and came to this article showing how to make salt dough magnets. It passed our test of being ridiculously time-consuming, so we set out to make these.

Making the dough was very simple.  Since it closely resembled cookie dough, Connor didn't believe me that dough containing half a cup of salt would not taste good. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to capture his taste test, though it closely resembled the time when he didn't believe me about lemon juice, as seen in this video.  When he finds the baker's chocolate in the cabinet, I will be sure to have the camera ready.

Cara rolling out the dough

Cutting out the hearts

After we had all of the dough cut into small and large hearts, we baked the dough for 2 hours.  When the dough had cooled, we began painting them with acrylic paint.  Since we were using quite vibrant paint colors, we ended up having to put about 4 coats of paint on each side.  Needless to say, our craft area was overrun by day-glo hearts for about a week.

Midway through the painting process

And here are the hearts after the painting was through. 
(Like the Chewbacca cup?)

When the million coats of paint were dry, I warmed up the hot glue gun and started gluing small hearts on big hearts.  Cara then took to the paint pens and personalized and decorated each of the hearts.  It was so sweet how she paid attention to what colors each of her friends liked and what design she thought they would appreciate the best.  

When she was done, we had sets of

pins

earrings

and bookmarks.

After all of the gifts were assembled, we cut up some card stock, glued a couple of pieces of different card stock together, used our heart hole-puncher, attached the hearts, and Cara wrote out some Valentine's Day greetings for each recipient. She even managed to include a personal joke or inside reference for each card, another detail that just shows you how thoughtful a kid she is.

This project was messy, less than economical, and very time-consuming.  Not only would I do it all again, I would look forward to it.  Cara and I get to spend some awesome one-on-one crafting time together.  We love this annual tradition so much, we've actually purchased some items for next year's Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day 2012 (part 1)

Let me just start this by saying, I like doing crafty things.  I don't consider myself extremely talented in this area, but I enjoy tasks where I get to use the left side of my brain.  The school that Cara goes to gives me the perfect opportunity to get those creative juices flowing every Valentine's Day.

At Cara's school, there are only a few guidelines for Valentine's Day.  First of all, no candy. Easy enough (and kind of a "no duh" rule in my mind).  As for the cards that Cara distributes to her classmates, no store bought cards. If your child is going to pass out cards, they have to be home/hand made.

Cara and I usually start talking about what she wants to make for her classmates right after the Christmas decorations are put away.  Last year, we iced and personalized sugar cookies and made card stock cards to go with them.  (Picture of the cookies before they were personalized found here.)  This year, we took on an even bigger project, which I will include in my follow-up post.

In addition to the valentines for classmates, the parents are encouraged to use this opportunity to make a valentine for their children. Here are our Valentines to Cara from 2011 & 2010.  I think this year's Valentine turned out pretty well.