Brownies

I made brownies this afternoon, simply so that we could have brownies a la mode for dessert tonight. I let the kids taste the batter. John gave me a thumbs up and Gillian insisted on a second taste. The second time she dipped her entire finger in the batter and tried to quickly stick in her mouth. She ended up dripping brownie batter down the front of her shirt. She didn't care. She loved it. She said "It's yummy!" I made the brownies and as I was taking them out of the oven Gillian watched me. She asked "Who's birthday is it? Are we going to sing?" I explained that it wasn't anyone's birthday but I just wanted to make brownies. 

At dinner, Gillian refused to eat. I told her no brownies if she didn't eat. She immediately picked up her fork and ate all her chicken. After dinner, I made the kids their dessert. They dug right into their dessert. John ate all of his ice cream. They requested extra scoops of ice cream (how can you say no to that?). Overall fun night with my kids. 

The Return of Manket

Gillian got a hole in her favorite blanket (aka Manket). We brought Manket to Grandma's house for repair. Grandma said it was a big project. Gillian borrowed a blanket from Aunt Betty (aka Loaner Blanket). Grandma fixed Gillian's blanket and dropped it off at my office yesterday. I picked up the kids from school and told Gillian I had a surprise for her in the car. She was super excited to see her Manket.  She examined it to see if Grandma fixed it. She said "It's all fixed!"  When we got home, she insisted on bringing it downstairs to play with her. She also ate dinner with her Manket on the back of her chair. I know that doesn't sound that exciting, but in our house her blanket is only allowed to leave her bed when it is getting cleaned or she is sick. After dinner we called Grandma and Gillian said "Thank you! It's all fixed!" She also said to Aunt Betty, "Thanks for my loaner blanket!" She slept all night long with her blanket and when I woke her this morning she was curled up in her Manket. She is so happy to have her favorite blankie back. Thanks Grandma!

Nature Walk

Daddy asked me this morning why I was packing John's lunch in a brown bag. I told him that John was going on a field trip. He said to John, "Just another boring day at school today?" John said "Maybe for Gill! I'm going on a field trip. We are going on a nature walk and we are going to have a picnic." 

When I dropped the kids off at school today, I asked John if he wanted to wear his hat on his nature walk. He reached in the car and grabbed his new camo hat that Aunt Katie gave him. He put it in his head and said "Hope I don't lose it in the nature!"

At dinner tonight I asked John about his day. He said "I got to see three turtles and this is the part that Daddy doesn't like so much, cause he's afraid." Gillian screamed "It's a snake!"  We all laughed and I asked John if they saw anything else. He said "Well I didn't see a lot of natureous stuff. Like caves or bears." He is hilarious. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff. 

The Band-Aid

I picked up the kids from school today and in the car on the way home they told me about their day. Gillian said "John got a ban-did." I said "I saw that. John what happened?" John said "I fell and got a cut. And it was bleeding. I can't run fast now." I asked John to tell me what happened. He said "I jumped and fell." Gillian elaborated "John was running around. Him jumped off the wood. Then him get a band-did. Him has a boo-boo. I don't have a boo-boo. Him does. Him has a band-did."  Thank you Gillian. That was very informative. 

The Loaner Blanket

Any of my regular readers know that Gillian loves her blanket.  She has a Grandma Blanket that she loves to sleep with.  Grandma made her this blanket when she was a little baby.  Last week, we discovered a little hole in the blanket.

We called Grandma and explained that there was a little hole in "manket" and Grandma said we could bring it to her house on Friday.  I made the mistake of letting Gillian sleep with the blanket that night.  Since Gillian doesn't always fall asleep right away, I think she used that time to expand the hole.  Instead of having just one side of a square with a hole, her blanket now has three sides of a square unattached. 

We brought the blanket to Grandma's house on Friday.  Grandma says that it will take a little bit of time to repair the damage Gillian has caused.  Gillian was not too happy to hear that her "manket" would have to spend a long time at Grandma's house.  Aunt Betty came to the rescue.  She gave Gillian a "loaner blanket."  The loaner blanket is a little bit bigger than Gillian's "manket."  But Gillian doesn't mind.  As long as Gillian can stick her fingers thru the stiches, she is one happy little girl.  I think that the loaner blanket is causing Gillian to sleep in an unusual way. 

Below is a picture of Gillian from Sunday night (the loaner blanket is the white blanket Gillian is using as a pillow).

Daddy moved Gillian so that her head was back on her pillow.  But the picture below is how I found Gillian this morning.

I checked the kids tonight and below are the pictures of how Gillian is sleeping.  Again, let me point out that Gillian's feet are on her pillow.






















The Crayola Factory

Crayola sign made out of crayons

Aunt Missy and Uncle T decided that they wanted to take the kids on an adventure for their birthday.  They thought that an adventure to the Crayola Factory would be perfect.  It isn't far from home and both of them would enjoy it. 

The kids had their birthday adventure last Sunday.  When we arrived (after a quick photo shoot outside) and walked inside, John said "It's Crayn-tastic!"  The Crayola Factory has tons of activities for the kids to do.  Our first stop was naming our own crayons.  "I want pink or blue!" Gillian said.  Blue was available.  I helped Gillian type, Gilly Beanie on her crayon wrapper while Daddy helped John.  John picked green (it's his favorite color).  After we printed the labels and we wrapped up our new crayons, we moved to the next station.  Our next project was making magic markers.  We made a few markers and continued into the next room. 

 
The next room had a huge coloring table, a big ball maze, and a place where you could take your picture and put in on a coloring page.  John and I got in line while Daddy was in another line with Gillian.  John and I were just deciding what kind of background to have, and Gillian joined us in line.  She said "I take picture with Johnny!" Finally it was our turn.  The kids picked their background (the crayon-men were pirates), and it took us forever to get both kids faces in the picture.  They were happy with the results and we moved on.  We went to the big coloring table.  Gillian picked out a picture of ice cream cones to color and John found picture of an underwater scene.

 

We moved on to the next room.  The next room we got to draw on tablets, and send our drawings to the big wall.  John colored a green turtle, while Gillian made a pink sparkly shark.  The best part was waiting for their drawing to go onto the wall.  Just when the kids would lose their patience, their drawing would arrive and they would yell "That's mine!" and try to catch it. 

 

After we made our art come to life, we moved to the crayon-boats.  This room had a big water table, were the kids were able to move their crayon boat thru a series of locks and up and down ramps.  I know that Uncle T and Daddy had way more fun with the boats than the kids.  The big boys had a lot of fun moving the boats thru the locks. 

 

In the next room, there was an area to paint, an area to make a cardboard treasure box, an area to make your own puzzle and a huge playground.  This room was packed with people.  There were tons of kids on the playground and there was a big sign on the playground saying kids 3 and up.  Daddy and I looked at the playground and agreed that Gillian could not go by herself.  Daddy took one for the team and followed Gillian thru the playground.  While John, Gillian and Daddy were playing.  Aunt Missy and I colored a few sheets to cut into puzzles.  Finally, Gillian joined us.  We asked if she had fun, and she said "Yes! I go down the slide and say 'yee-haw!'"  Daddy, on the other hand, did not have as much fun.  He got a burn on his elbow from going down the slide.  He said "If she is going back it, you gotta go!"  John and Aunt Missy cut our pictures into puzzles and then John wanted to paint.  The kids painted a couple of ties and we put them thru the drying machines. 

 

 Doodle in the Dark was next.  The kids favorite part of this room was the "Move & Groove."  In the Move and Groove, you stand in front of a screen with a crayon man on it.  When you move the crayon man does the same moves as you.  John loved it.  He did all of his crazy dance moves.  Gillian kept waving at the crayon.  Also in this room, we got to write on backlit doodle boards.  Aunt Missy made sure Gillian Beanie and John Daniel's names were written there.     

 

 

The last stop was the fourth floor.  This floor was all about melted crayons.  We started with painting with the melting crayons.  Gillian loved the painting.  We moved from color to color so that she could paint her little dinosaur.  Gillian loved it so much that we stayed to paint another dinosaur while John and Daddy waited on line for the drip art.  The drip art is where you take two crayons and they melt onto a spinning picture.  Daddy and I got to help John make his drip art while Uncle T and Aunt Missy helped Gillian.  After we made our drip art we moved onto melting crayons into a shape.  John made a green dragon crayon and Gillian made a blue worm.  Not really sure why she decided on a worm.  

 

 

We had a great day at the Crayola Factory.  The kids are so lucky to have Uncle T and Aunt Missy to take them on a wonderful adventure.  Thanks Uncle T & Aunt Missy!!!

 

   



Exciting day

During dinner tonight, John told me all about his day. His class had Mad Science today and they learned about dry ice. He said "Dry ice is carbon dioxide. And when it melts it doesn't leave a puddle. And you can't touch it. It will hurt you! We should get some for Halloween. Then we can scare the trick or treaters. Cause it makes smoke!" John went on and on about the dry ice. In the middle of his lecture, Gillian interrupts and says "I found a feather!" Apparently the feather was the highlight of her day. So she told me "I found a feather in the big room. And Dorlisa wanted a turn then Christian, then Kurt, then me. But I got it. I got a feather!" Clearly there are different levels of interesting between an six year old and a three year old.