Nix9to5

Happy Birthday, Bear! (Godzilla Cake)

// November 18th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // Children and Babies, Cooking

Just a few days after Halloween, my tiny baby Bear turned three, which is unbelievable to me.  It seems like just yesterday that I brought him home from the hospital and had a near panic attack as Hot Husband turned out of the hospital parking lot and onto the road and all those other cars were driving past at such high speed.  I mean, I knew I’d have to be the one to keep him safe, but I had never considered all of the outside forces that I’d have to contend with.

And now he’s three.  And I have to contend with forces like gravity and velocity.  And pee.  Lots and lots of pee.

That teeny tiny helpless baby can count, recognize his letters, spell his name, and know that only Tyrannosaurus has two fingers.

For his birthday, Bear wanted a Godzilla cake, which is fitting, since he shares Godzilla’s birthday.  I’m an inexperienced cake decorator, but I figured I’d give it my best shot.  Knowing that the mini panda cake for his first birthday took me hours upon hours, I figured I was in for a huge challenge, but I guess I’ve improved some since then.  It still took forever, but not as long and it turned out okay.

The first thing I had to decide was whether to try to sculpt a cake or get a molded pan.  It wasn’t much of a decision.  I bought this dinosaur pan from Wilton:

Bear didn’t even try to tell me it wasn’t Godzilla because of the number of fingers or spinal plates or whatever.

I figured using a molded pan would make decorating the cake much easier as I just followed the instructions and the features on the cake.  Unfortunately, step one of decorating the cake is to “frost the entire cake white.”

So much for features.

I then placed the pan liner alongside the cake for a visual and began following the directions, trying to get from White Blob to this:

Here’s my Godzilla cake step-by-step:

Look!  He even breathes fire!

“What do you think of your Godzilla cake, Bear?”

“I think pretty good.”

Happy birthday, sweet Bear!

Happy Halloween from Godzilla!

// November 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Life in General

I thought about pre-dating this post, but then I’m not sure it will publish to my Facebook feed or my Twitter feed.  Just pretend you are reading it two and a half weeks ago.

Bear loves Godzilla, an obsession which was handed down from his father, Hot Husband.  It just so happens that Bear even has the same birthday as Godzilla, and while this fact is very exciting to Hot Husband, I can assure you that it was NOT planned that way.  In fact, Bear was supposed to share MY birthday–he was due on my birthday, but came a few days before so that I could keep my own he could have his own.  But this isn’t the birthday post so I’ll move on.

Bear decided to be Godzilla for Halloween.  Of course, they don’t make Godzilla costumes for almost-three-year-olds–at least, not that I’ve ever seen–but they do make dinosaur costumes.  We found a great T-Rex costume and put it on Bear and told him it was Godzilla.

He said, “This isn’t Godzilla.  It only has two-fingers.  It’s a Tyrannosaurus.”

Seriously?  My toddler can tell the difference?  I thought I’d have at least a few more years of “close enough,” but there’s  no fooling this kid.

From thenceforth, he told everyone who asked that he was going to be “Two-Finger Godzilla” for Halloween.

And without further ado, here’s Two-Finger Godzilla:

Before the MDO Fall Festival

Ready to Trick or Treat

Trick or Treating

Trick or Treating at Beela's

And just for fun, here’s Bear singing the theme song to the Godzilla cartoon from the 1970′s:

How to Build a Birthday (by Amanda)

// October 24th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

My baby is another year older and I’m starting to realize that I don’t have babies any more.  Just boys.  Big boys.  I think each birthday hits me harder and harder as I see how time is flying by.  How the days of reading them stories, tucking them in, and loving on them in public will rapidly come to an end.  For now, they still need me and want me and think I’m cool, but I’m really trying to relish that fact – - for soon, I’ll be a lame ol’ mom that they just want around to take care of their laundry and food and tote them places…

But today is a happy day – aside from my weird hormonal meltdown – to celebrate Super D making it to the ripe old age of 3.  This year he got to pick his own party theme, and he chose a “’struction truck” party.  I’ve already done the dirt cake in the back of a dump truck for both boys’ 2^nd birthdays so I couldn’t do that again.  (And it turns out Super D doesn’t like chocolate, so a strawberry cake wouldn’t look much like dirt anyway. )  So I just went with plain strawberry cupcakes – which if you overcook them slightly (oops) actually have a slight orange tint, which works well with a yellow/orange/black theme.  Also in my favor, Super D was born a mere 2 weeks before Halloween, so orange and black party supplies are easy to find.

I took out the boys’ trucks and washed them thoroughly and used them for serving dishes.  I made cupcake picks from the “Boys Will Be Boys” Cricut cartridge, with the help of my mom.  (I had tried to find printables or something in stores, but couldn’t find anything I liked.)  I even got my hubby to borrow a few cones for me to use for decoration.

But my favorite part of the party, I think, was the party favors.  I lucked out at the Target dollar spot and found hard hats and tools.  I painted the hats with paint pens to make them more party-esque, and sent one home with each child.  I put a couple of tools and a Dum dum inside each balloon*, blew it up, tied it, and strung it up.  Before the children left the party, they lined up and one-at-a-time, got to pop a balloon with a pin to get their prizes.  This was a pretty big hit, as far as I could tell.  (My boys are asking me to make more for them to pop.)  I’ll definitely do this for future parties.

For school favor bags, I’m sending “Being 3 ROCKS” bags with yogurt raisins for “rocks”.  It’s just something small, but really, that’s enough for a class of young’ns, in my opinion.

I hope these pictures will help give you some ideas to make a construction truck party of your own.  It’s big fun for little boys, and is a super-easy theme for parents to work with!

Note from Nicci:  I told you she’s amazing.  To see all of the fantastic details, click each picture for a larger view.  Also, check out Amanda’s train birthday cake and tractor birthday cake that she made for her boys’ other birthdays.  I’ll see if I can talk her into sending me pictures of her fishbowl cake and any other amazing cakes as well.  

Memo to Mommy

// October 19th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

I found this from Parents magazine via Pinterest:

Table Talk (by Amanda)

// October 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Family

I don’t like saying this, but the awful truth is, I often hate dinner time.  It’s not that my boys are picky eaters – I mean, they have their likes and dislikes (whereas I, on the other hand will eat anything in sight – - except for ketchup…NEVER ketchup) but they’ll usually try just about anything, for which I am grateful.  We have a couple of problems, though.  My oldest son spends most of his time acting crazy and trying to “entertain us”, crossing over quickly into “annoying us” territory, and strongly distracts his little brother from eating and leads him to mimic the crazy/annoying behavior.  And my little one, aside from doing most of the things his brother does, eats about one bite every 8 minutes.  It’s like he forgets to chew!  It drives me insane!  I know the rule about kids will eat when they’re hungry, but I want them to eat at mealtimes!  When I clean up the kitchen after dinner, I want to check that box off for the day.  Kitchen – Done!  I don’t want to go back in later to make something else and clean up again.  I don’t give them a lot of snacks and there’s never anything between lunch and dinner – except for some playtime and a nap.  We’ve yelled and set a timer and taken the food away and fed them ourselves and anything else we’ve heard from friends in similar situations.  Nothing seemed to work…until now!

We’ve developed a new “game” called, as Bo Chuck decided, Table Talk.  We have a two-minute hourglass that the boys got at a dentist appointment.   It’s supposed to tell them when they’re done brushing, but to be honest, we don’t use it.  Not for that, anyway.  Its new place is at the kitchen table.  When we all sit down to eat, we flip the timer over, and each person takes a turn telling about his or her day till the timer runs out.  (I know this doesn’t sound like a long time, but it can really put you on the spot!)  During your two minutes to talk, no one else gets to talk.  They just eat.  So, for the first 6 out of 8 minutes, you’re quiet and doing nothing but eating.  I’m not sure why this works for our boys, but it does.  And, it gives me a chance to hear a little about my husband’s work day, since I’m typically terrible about asking.  I like hearing what the boys have to say, too.  It’s funny how nervous they seem to get when it’s their time.  After each person goes, we can ask him/her questions about things they’ve said.  Once we’ve all had our turn, we ask random questions.  We’ve even written out some questions and dialogue-starters – and discussing what would be on the “table talk cards” was one night’s discussion.  We now have a glass bowl that stays on the kitchen table with various questions and conversation starters:  “What’s your favorite …”, “Would you rather…”, basic personal information (birthday, what’s your address/phone number, where were you born, what’s your full name, etc”), basic Bible questions and memory verses, inkblot tests (what does this look like to you), and other pre-K-level questions (seasons, days of the week, count to…, and such.)  Tonight was the grandparents’ night to come for dinner, and we got to play with them, too.  Super D was a bit keyed up, but overall, Table Talk was a big success, even with the adults.

And, for the past week, when we sat down for dinner, there’s been no yelling, no feeding children that are fully capable of feeding themselves, and some surprisingly clean plates at the end of the meal.  And, I feel a little better getting to hear about my kids’ and husband’s days.  Even though I’m with the boys most all day long, their perspective of the day’s events can be quite different from mine!  And when fall break is over and they’re back to school, I’ll hopefully get a glimpse into their school day – the time of which I don’t get to be a part!

“The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get.”

// October 17th, 2011 // No Comments » // Cooking, Family, Time Management, Work at Home

I saw that quote on a poster in one of my elementary or junior high classes when I was growing up.  I don’t know which class, and I don’t know why it stuck with me, but it has certainly seemed to relate to my life lately.

A few weeks ago, I had a crazy-busy week with trying to meet work deadlines before the end of the month while simultaneously preparing for Hot Husband’s 80′s theme birthday party by making a Pac Man cake, cleaning furiously, preparing snacks, decorating, and putting together an awesome 80′s costume.  Somehow, despite my stress and my unwavering belief that I couldn’t pull it off, everything got done, and got done well.

Here we are just a few weeks later–the house is messy again, I’m behind on work again, I haven’t been working out, my fridge is empty, and I just realized I have fewer than three weeks to come up with a theme for Bear’s third birthday and plan the party.   At the end of September, I thought I was really getting it together.  Today, I have no idea how I ever got so close to caught up or how I’ll get there again.

Does anyone else feel like you can’t let it go for even a second or it all falls apart?  I think constant vigilance must be the key to success.

I think when I was writing about planning the birthday party, I promised some pictures.  Well,  I certainly don’t want to break a promise, so here are a few 80′s party pics:

Pac Man Cake

Rockin' the 80's Style

80's Movie and Band Poster Fridge Decor

Breakfast Club Movie Poster Re-Enactment

Any excuse to wear a costume . . .  Only two weeks until Halloween!!

Tomorrow’s post will be from the Amazing Amanda, who’ll be sharing a tip on how she gets her boys to actually eat dinner without resorting to antics and without taking roughly 38 minutes between bites (if you have a toddler son, I have a feeling Super D’s dinner time feats will be shockingly familiar to you).

Speaking of Super D–Happy birthday, little man!!  We love you!!

A Toddler’s Rules of Possession

// October 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

I saw this on Rookie Moms.  Sounds about right.

Noodle Day (by Amanda)

// October 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Crafty Stuff

We recently had another rainy day with no real plans.  I sure wasn’t dragging the boys out in the pouring rain to run errands (and I slept in a bit and didn’t really have time to get ready – so being in public wasn’t really an option anyway.)  I had to think of something to do…

Cartoons were on the TV, and I knew I didn’t want that to be what we did all day, so I decided to try something.  The boys have enjoyed stringing/sewing things lately – - I think because they’ve seen me sewing recently – - so I decided we were making necklaces.  I bought some big beads the other day, but some of the holes were a little too small and wouldn’t go over our ginormous craft needles.  Frustrating.  Noodles, however, would!  But rather than stringing plain, ol’, boring noodles, I decided to spruce them up a bit, using a technique we learned for coloring rice on teachpreschool.org.  I took 4 ziploc bags and colored sharpies and put a number on the front of each bag in a different color.  The boys counted out the appropriate number of noodles for each bag and dropped them in.  I added a dash of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring (to match the number on each bag).  After sealing the bags tightly, I let the boys shake them to mix the color evenly.

I lined 2 cookie sheets with paper towels and then dumped each bag of noodles out onto the paper.

With a hairdryer on the low setting, I let each boy dry his noodles.  It was fun to watch the noodles blow around and roll on the pan.

After they were good and dry, I removed the paper towels and evenly distributed the colored noodles in their pans.  I also strung yarn through a craft needle and tied a button on the end so the noodles wouldn’t slide off the end.  (This required burning the ends of the yarn because my button holes were small.)   After that, the boys strung their brightly colored necklaces.

I snipped the yarn at the base of the needle and tied a knot at the end, leaving a large enough loop to slide over the button.  Easy on, easy off!   The boys, being so giving, decided they had made one for me and one for daddy.  Daddy’s looked very nice with his polo and khakis at the dinner table, and I enjoy the splash of color the necklace adds to any outfit!

The Bro-Bots (by Amanda)

// October 7th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Crafty Stuff

The Bro-Bots

I like making things – and making holiday shirts and such for my boys is fun….BUT, my oldest boy is going on 5 and anything too “cutesy” just isn’t going to work anymore.  That’s why I was super-pumped when I found this idea for a robot shirt while browsing on pinterest. http://www.annaleahart.com/2010/04/we-heart-robots.html

(What did I ever do in my spare time before my sister told me about this site?!!)

I printed the picture so I could make my own version and showed it to my oldest son.  “Would you wear something like this?”

“No way.”

“Why?”

“It has a heart!”

Oh…  I really hadn’t even noticed that.  I asked him if he’d wear it if it didn’t have a heart and he said probably.  All systems are a-go!!!

I looked through the T-shirts that Super D has recently outgrown (and destroyed) to look for a gray one I could cut into pieces.  Not a problem.  I then located a long sleeved white T-shirt for each boy.  (I typically buy one or two when they’re on sale just for crafting purposes, so I already had a couple on hand.)  Last year we made snowman shirts and Bo Chuck’s never was great, so I decided to re-use it and just cover the snowman face.  Yay, me, for re-purposing!!

I cut the front, back and sleeves from a gray t-shirt and then ironed it onto some Heat and Bond iron-on “material” I got at JoAnn.  I was too nervous to cut out the fabric, though, so I used scrap paper to make patterns first.  I let Bo Chuck help design his robot – he told me which head, how the arms should be, which buttons he wanted to use and where, and things like that.  (Now he’ll have a vested interest in his shirt because it’s his creation.)  After I had decided on the layout of the robots, I cut out the t-shirt with the iron-on paper on the back side.  This actually made cutting knit material much easier!  I then ironed the robots onto the shirts.  I bought light-weight heat-and-bond (not on purpose) so sewing the edges was still a must.*   I very nervously began to sew with a contrasting thread (for added flair).  I’m not a great seamstress, and the shirts may not hold up forever, but I thought it turned out okay.  I also pulled out my sewing manual and learned how to make a zigzag stitch!  I don’t typically venture from what I know, so this was a big step for me!  Ha!

Because I wasn’t sure about ironing on with buttons in place and whether my buttons would be in the way when sewing with a machine, I saved them for last.  The problem with that is that I didn’t want the knot from the button on the inside of the shirt to rub and chafe my kiddos.  So, I just tied string through the ribbon and then glued them on with (what I think to be) washable, permanent glue – E6000.  The first wash will tell me if I bought the right stuff, I’m sure.  If I didn’t, I’ll get something better and re-glue them or figure out how to sew the buttons on without rubbing my boys’ bellies raw.

The boys are very excited about their silly new “bro-bots” and asked to wear them immediately.  If they hold up to a young boy’s wear and tear, their mom will be very excited, too!  (I’m always skeptical when it comes to my sewing skills!)

*  If you wanted to make one of these and didn’t want/know how to sew, you could just buy heavyweight heat and bond or stitch-witchery.

Note from Nicci:  I LOVE these Bro-Bot shirts Amanda made!  I’m thinking I may actually attempt this because it is way too cute for words.  Thanks, Amanda!!!

So, What Do You Do All Day? (by Amanda)

// October 3rd, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Children and Babies, Life in General, Time Management

Note from Nicci:  While I’ve been hard at work trying to get this new cleaning routine down from the I Hate Housework Challenge, the Amazing Amanda has been thinking about some of the ways she tries to make housekeeping manageable with two small boys.  She shares some of her ideas here.

On days we stay at home, I feel like I work all day to keep the house clean, and by the time my husband gets home, the house looks pretty much exactly the way it did before (at best.)