Portrait of Five

Holden's biggest birthday wish was to be "The Boss" on his birthday.  Possibly because we have frequent and lengthy conversations about who is in charge at our house, and he always seems genuinely surprised that it isn't him. But I'm nothing if not a sucker for the birthday boy so we did our best to accommodate.  

After setting a few ground rules (no illegal activity, we can't go to Lagoon when it's not open, etc.) here is how my 5 year old chose to spend his big day.

He wanted to make sure we spent the whole day celebrating, so we decorated his door for a little first thing in the morning surprise.

Of course, presents were next on the agenda.

Then he chose "one of those sandwiches made out of pancakes" (gag) at McDonald's for breakfast, along with a lengthy stay at the PlayPlace.

Our attempt at a homemade pinata was a big fat fail, so we improvised with a last minute birthday treasure hunt for the intended pinata candy.

After that, he spent some time playing with his new birthday loot.

Then it was off to preschool, complete with the world's most ghetto birthday treat to share with his class.

He seemed to celebrate hard at preschool also, judging by his hat, sticker and treat bag.

That's the best photo I could get.  His mind was clearly on other things.  Because after preschool we headed to Boondocks Fun Center.

He threw around all sorts of activity ideas, but when it came down to it, all he really wanted was to spend all his time and money at the arcade, which surprised no one.  That kid loves arcades.

And the prizes that come with it.

All that arcad-ing made the birthday boy hungry, so we headed off to Noodles and Company for some spaghetti and meatballs...What's that you say?  That's not meatballs?  That's because when his food came he didn't know they were going to use "that kind of spaghetti" (you know, the spaghetti noodle kind) and asked for Mac and Cheese instead.  I had been trying to tell him he wanted Mac and Cheese the whole time, so I was about to tell him tough luck, but lucky for him, Dad had pity on the birthday boy and traded him meals.

Finally, it was back home for cake.

And a Holden's choice Redbox. (Monster House if you were wondering).

His last decision of the day was to stay up late, so he got an 8:30 bedtime.  We live dangerously around here.
We'd go broke quickly if Holden was the boss every day, but it was nice to have this day to document what goes on in his little 5 year old brain.

Valentine

As you know, I tend to be pretty hit or miss about holidays, but I will say that we celebrated Valentine's Day hard this year.  So hard that we burnt out by dinner time and my homemade pizza with heart shaped pepperoni turned in to delivery from Papa Johns....But overall, the day was a success!  I should just name Pinterest as my honorary valentine, since it is doing it's darnedest to make it less obvious that I don't have a creative bone in my body.

The Happiest Birthday On Earth

 Warning:  Ever since the untimely demise of Picnik, I feel like getting the photos from our activities under control and onto my blog is more effort than the actual activity.  So I am pretty much over this post already, and have just started writing.  Hope you don't mind  the glossed over version.  Since it is pictures of someone else's birthday party, I am going to go out on a limb and say no one will be heartbroken.  Here goes.

Holden has a nasty habit of trying to steal my sister's birthday thunder, so we decided a joint party might ease the blow a little bit.  Joint theme a 32 year old and a 4 year old will both like?  Not a problem when the whole world has Disneyland in common.  Please don't ever tell me if you don't like Disneyland.  I won't be able to take it.  Seriously.

The birthday kids.

Annnnnd, I just noticed the same picture is in here twice.  Pretend you didn't see it.  If I tried to fix it now this post would never get done.   Plus, the "Photo With A Character" Booth was one of my most inspired ideas, if I do say so myself, so getting to see it twice is a blessing, really.  See?

Also pictured:  Toy Story Mania Dart game (I got blisters on my fingers stuffing those darn balloons full of candy, but Holden was out there the whole time, so I'd say it was worth it); Souvenir stand complete with glow sticks and the infamous giant Disney lollipop; and Disneyland Monopoly...always a favorite at this house.  

My dumbed down version of Disneyland food.  

And it wouldn't be a party without my annual cake fail.  I don't exactly have a steady hand.  I've come to terms with it.  

Family Picture, or, why we didn't get family pictures taken this year.  We've always got at least one child on the loose.  Just squint really hard and use your imagination.  

Birthday bash first timers this year:  My grandma (who came from Alaska just for the event, I'm sure); My niece Kelsey (on Grandma's lap); my soon to be sister in law Annie (Yay!); and Harper.  

Not pictured:  Presents.  I figured you'd been through enough.  And it just reminds me that last year I was so impressed Holden blew out his own candles, and this year he read his own birthday cards.  And that just reminds me he is growing up way too fast.  

Phew...We made it.  More about four coming to a blog post near you once I no longer want to swear at my computer screen.  

Be Mine

Reo is going to clean my house for me.

My sister brought over cherry hearts and cookies.

Holden was extra sweet and cuddly.

The most Valentine's Day enthusiasm I could muster was looking at Pinterest to see if I had pinned anything that I could accomplish without leaving the house (turns out no).

So, I requested a do-over.  Sometime this Spring my family is entitled to a make-up Valentine's Day, where I do crafts, heart shaped food, love letters, the whole shebang.   This should appease all the Valentine's Day haters out there who say we should be showing love all year, not just one one day.  I couldn't agree more.

So really, I didn't fail....I am just spreading the love.

One of the Reasons I Am Enemies With Snow

Twice in the last three days, my plans to go grocery shopping have been foiled by impromptu blizzards that make it onto YouTube.    That means food is getting a little scarce around these parts.  Scarce meaning that my fridge is pretty much down to condiments and Diet Coke (because I would never run out of that, that is just crazy).
Last night,  while the snow was coming down in droves while I was supposed to be at Costco, I had to get creative.  I dug back to my Snow College roots and we had cheese fries for dinner.

Holden was not entirely convinced, so I brought out some carrots and pineapple to help me sleep at night.

P.S.  I just realized my last three posts have included pictures of Holden sitting at the table.  I promise we do things besides eat...Well, Reo and Holden do.  I am 14 and a half months pregnant.  All I do is eat.

Easter Stuff

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Easter could possibly be my favorite holiday. Here's why.

1. Dying Easter Eggs is just plain fun. And I am a fan of the hard boiled egg, so it doesn't even bother me to eat them afterwords.

2. Holden had no complaints about the process.

3. And I had no complaints about his chubby little hands that remind me just how little he still is. Nor did I have complaints about the awesome mess-free (in theory) stamping egg dying kit I found instead of those terror inducing cups of dye.

4. Easter candy is clearly the best candy ever (obviously). And your kid has to go find it in his cute pajamas (or his nasty sweatpants and a tee shirt because I was behind on laundry), which makes it that much more fun!

5. There are toys, but not too many.

6. Supposedly, the weather is getting nice enough to play outside with family (don't be fooled, it was wickedly cold in this picture.)

7. I get to play dress up on this little one, although I was solidly unimpressed with my options this year. Holden was solidly unimpressed with the photo shoot that followed, as indicated by his facial expressions that range from deer in headlights, to indifferent, to just plain over it.

8. And finally, I get to experience my annual Easter dessert fail. Seriously. I should not be allowed to bake on Easter. Or make cake pretty much ever.

Photography Fail

Today was a nice day.

I decided to take Holden out and try to take some Fall pictures in his super cute (in real life...I promise) hat.

Instead, I got some pictures of Holden in what appears to be a really bad mullet wig.

Advice to self: Leave everything to the professionals...Always...

Signs

Signs that things have gotten pretty lax at the Manning house these days:

1. The first thing Holden says to me when I go to get him out of his crib every morning is "licorice?" When I inevitably say no, he follows up with "Watch Elmo?" Depending on how early it is and just how lazy I am feeling, sometimes he wins on that one.

And also, I usually give in on the licorice later on.

Wouldn't you? Look how much he loves that stuff!

2. My cleaning closet is looking, well, unclean. At best...

3. Holden spends way too much of the morning looking like this:

The benefit of our new laid back lifestyle? We get to spend more time doing stuff like this:

Thanks for finally showing up, Summer. We are big fans.

Slave Labor

Would you believe me if I told you this was all his idea? Would you believe me if I said that dusting is one of his favorite pastimes, right after vacuuming and sorting laundry? I kid you not, the poor child sits in front of the cleaning closet crying "baa-cooom, baa-coom" multiple times a day. He also drags his giant hamper to the washing machine and tries to put his clothes in it.

He is either starting young with the whole "clean freak" persona or knocking my housekeeping skills. Could be either one.

Pie in the Sky

I am not a huge fan of pie in general. The one exception to this is pie that involves fresh fruit. So, after obtaining some peaches, I went to work to make a fresh peach pie. Specifically, this peach pie, from tastykitchen.com. It got 5 hot mitts (the highest of all honors), so being the trusting individual I am, I got out all the ingredients and got to work.

However, being the domestically challenged individual I am, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice that this "crust" did not call for the typical pie crust ingredients. But, not being a huge fan of pie crust, I was not alarmed. A little curious, perhaps, as the crust I was making seemed to resemble more of a meringue than a crust. Then a little bored, because even in my KitchenAid, getting my egg whites to form "soft peaks" took FOREVER!

This is what my crust looked like before hitting the oven for 50 to 55 minutes.

Odd, right? And this is what it looked like when it came out.

At this point I am a more than a little skeptical about what this pie will taste like. But I pressed on.
Now, I am much less skeptical, because I just added the two best parts of a pie, the filling and whipped cream.
I summoned Reo and we tasted the pie. We give it an overwhelming...Ehh...It wasn't horrible. I am not sold on the crust, but it wasn't a total disaster. Tasted a little like...slightly burned graham cracker maybe?

So, what do you think? Is a meringue-type crust a common baking technique that I couldn't wrap my non-baker little head around? Did I completely mess up some step along the way? Don't be shy, help a domestically challenged gal out!

Also, if you make this pie (which why wouldn't you, after the rave review I gave) it calls for WAY too much cinnamon. FYI.

Happy Tuesday!

A Mary, Mary Finale

See HERE and HERE if you need a Mary, Mary refresher course.

Bad news.
My "tomatoes" were diagnosed (by me) with Failure to Thrive.

Each day I nursed those plants with water and love. And I fully intended to use the tomato fertilizer I bought, but it looked kind of messy, and messy = overwhelming to my brain. But you only use fertilizer if you want giant State Fair sized tomatoes, right?

Day after day, I went out to check my little plant's progress. Day after day they looked the same. I would count 16 sprouts, about 3 inches long. The first week, this was exciting. The second, slightly frustrating. By the third week of this, I decided some "tough love" was in order, so I stopped watering them. I mean, at this rate, I wasn't going to end up with tomatoes until February!

On the 4th week, I put them to sleep.


Pray for me when the Apocalypse comes. I don't think I could be self sustaining if my life depended on it.