The Walking (Ginger)bread

Mark and I spent last week watching The Walking Dead. I didn't realize the impact this zombie laden show would have on my life. I could go on and on but I will just focus on a couple of things. The first is that I was glad that Mark and I watched it when I was able to hop onto the road to recovery because otherwise I think he would have been tempted to "put me down" when I had a fever that "burned hot like a furnace". I wouldn't have blamed him though because when you watch back-to-back zombies you do get a little paranoid and I would have done the same.

The other thing I would like to mention is how during one of my now routine zombie checks I thought I had found a live one in the middle of my living room floor. Maya had managed to rip her gingerbread house off of the foundation and was hovering over it scarfing it down. At the time it really reminded me of a zombie feeding frenzy-crazy eyes and all.

Okay fine my last zombie hot tip is to get a cross bow-SUPER handy weapon to have when the zombies take over.

Warm Fuzzy Sick

I have been sick since Sunday. Monday night and Tuesday I had such a high fever I could barely move which is something since I have birthed at home, recovered from strep throat, run on a lightly sprained ankle for miles all without any medical attention. Serves me right because I am the first to call a sick person a baby.
I feel better now-in that I can function as a mom. I learned that when I am sick my kids can do many things on their own. Normally when I am sick I can call upon my inner mom to take care of what needs to be done for the kids. The inner mom this time was weak, very very weak.
Lucy brought me salt water for my sore throat that I managed to gargle after several doses of motrin, get the littlies ready for school and all the kids packed their own lunches. They got their shoes on after my first raspy request instead of having me shout it out 10 million times. They cleaned and they took care of each other and there was a temporary truce on all fights so that I wouldn't have to hear the fighting during my in and outs of consciousness. Aida covered me in blankets when she saw me shivering and took them away when she read not to over bundle a fever. Then there is my lovely Mark that I knew I could count on for everything even though he as so much to do already. I literally did not know what day it was until yesterday.
Lucky for me before I went down I gave my last energy into finishing our gingerbread houses which provided them with sustenance until mark could get home.
Ed would find me from time to time and with a furrowed brow he would tell me that he would make me a love heart so I would feel better. I woke up to find a stack next to me several times. The little guy would draw me one and if I wasn't better he thought more was better so he would keep drawing them faithfully everyday, every hour. I would tell him I felt better but eventually he would figure it out I wasn't and a new pile of lovehearts would appear. He was doing what he could and he didn't give up hope that it would work.
Here is to my wonderful family for not giving up on their wimpy mom. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I leave you with a poem by Maya. I really like the ending. Happy Thanksgiving y'all. :)

Children's Court

Run for the children by the children presided by Judge Aida. We never really know what we wake up from a Sunday nap. Sometimes it is fine, other times it is scary, or messy, this was one of those times that surprised and impressed. Aida seems to have taken on the style of a British Judge with the white haired wig (do they even still wear them?). I am sure Aida was fair in her sentencing to Edward because he seems to be taking it well. :)

Tell Me

Here is a picture of young Mark.  Does anyone else see a resemblance to him and Maya(if Maya had Ed's hair)?

Halloween Crafting

This past weekend Janae came for a visit and we made some Halloween garland, caramel apples, and decorated cupcakes.  I switched out some pictures for some more spooky ones-just to creep the kids out.  I am proud of my bug ones-I think they came out nice.  I layered backgrounds and bug illustrations that I found online and  layered them with vellum.  Thanks to Janae for donating some Halloween paper for our garlands and Aida for making a wonderful Fall tree.  Aida says the sign is removable and she plans on making the tree change with the seasons.  I thought it was pretty clever.  Things have cooled off a little bit here but then we will have a couple of warm days too so the leaves are still pretty green.   It was hot when we took the Madsens to the Ocean City Block Party.  We mostly found a place to park, looked for food to feed the kids and then went home.  The kids made it a little hard to cover a lot of ground but it was a little too crowded for me anyway.  I guess I always like to check these things out.  Maya did enjoy getting her face painted though and Aida thought the chocolate covered bacon was pretty tasty. :)

Gillians Playland

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City. In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets. I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months. It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides. Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party. Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them. We will just look...

Aren't the creepy bears perfect?

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City.  In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets.  I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months.  It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides.  I have more pictures from my "real camera" but I thought I would share the ones from my phone. :) Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party.  Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them.  We will just look...

Happy 7th Birthday Bubbers

I am late posting pictures of Maya and her 7th birthday. Maya surprised us all when she ended up being a surprise home birth and she has continued to have an element of surprise in all that she does. I love Maya because she is an absolute original and you never know what she will say or do. Since she "turned seven" she has really been trying her best to step it up a notch and be all she can be. I remember when she used to dance around saying, "la la la" over and over again with a huge smile on her face. She still dances around-a lot and she still smiles a lot but she has also been showing me lately just how smart she is. I love my little bubbers and I can't wait to see what she has in store for me in the years to come. We had a bit of a Barbie purge so all we could find was this Liv doll. Maya was thrilled and proclaimed this the best birthday ever. I also attempted in the same day to make some puppy cake pops. I admit I didn't have some necessary items on hand and the edible marker I had was not up to bakerella's standards. I think she must use a sharpie equivalent of a edible marker because the ones I tried did not work well. I think I need to find a better marker before I attempt it again. However, the kids loved the pops and honestly Mark and I had a really good laugh at ourselves trying to put it all together midnight the night before Maya was to bring them to school. Thanks to my buddy for sending me the book to work from ;).

Isn't she lovely? -Lionel Richie

The lady is on fire!

Classic Maya not listening to a word I say when I tell her to smile-instead she stuffs cake in her mouth. Nice.

Lucy specializes in homemade wrapping paper. Here is Maya's head with dot art.

Aida made her a 3 D house and even made a cloth covered bed and princess wallpaper. If anyone comes by you must see it in person.

Aida's homemade card reads, "Maya sometimes I don't like you. but usually I love you My little Princess" Maya really loved it.

Puppies in a basket anyone? Mark said it looked like I was suffocating them-Mark is one sick puppy if you ask me!

I couldn't resist making a chicken. I had to us the blue marker because my black one was rubbish!

Maya couldn't stop looking at the beautiful cake-haha.

Attn: Jaffa

I think you're going to like this one.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Today Lucy is nine. We love her and her crazy animals! Lucy is an original and has a very sweet heart she brings so much to our family. I will write more to her about her in her yearly birthday letter but I wanted to get something done. Every year I miss posting her birthday because it is at the beginning of the school year and things get crazy and I get overwhelmed. :) She requested a purple cake and submitted a drawing for what she wanted the top to look like. I think I really hit it out of the park.

I Have This Neigbor

that is AWESOME! Out of everyone we have met since we have moved here I have to admit she is one of my favorites. We are lucky to have great neighbors all around but I actually like her. Her yard is a collection of plants shared from friends and various finds sculpted around her own visions of her yard. I like my neighbor, she is smart and funny, willing to not only collect eggs for me while I am gone on vacays but she actually likes my birds. I like that she is herself and confident about that. I got to go inside her house and WOW it was not at all what I expected. It was very unique and cool!
Why did i get to go over there? I was invited to be a judge for her and her friends' honey. My neigbor has 3 hives on her property (one is her brothers) and she has some friends with several hives each. My job? To pick out the best honey. The honey was collected from various times of the year from different hives. I think I tasted seven in all. She had even crafted a blue ribbon for the event-a present bow with a bee emblem glued into the middle of it. Apple juice and honey cake was served and a passage from Winnie the Pooh ( I swear she had like the first edition in her hand) talking about when the white cloth was placed on the table and a descriptive part about Tigger tasting the honey including lip smacking until he finally proclaims "Tiggers don't like honey!". We proceeded outside to the jars of honey set up on a white table clothed table. It was clever and fun and I got to take the winning jar of honey home. Since it was the first time I met these people (one of which has heaps of chickens) I didn't bring my camera and I took a secret photo with my phone. so here goes.

Laziness

This summer I have come in and out of laziness. Now that most of the work is done I feel good that I don't have to feel too bad about my laziness. There is school paperwork to be done, clothes to sort, and kids to tend but I feel like I can let that slide for just a little bit longer-okay I guess I should feed the children. Mark found this clip for one of his classes and when he first showed it to me it was totally how I was feeling. I think it was sometime at the beginning of the summer perhaps when I was feeling burned out and lazy and it has come and gone as summer has. If you cared for this clip I also really enjoyed the clip about bacon, no okay the cake one I like the cake one. PS go bakerella for getting to go to the emmys!

Tah dah

I guess Kim and Ruth have waited long enough. I admit I hesitated because I do feel like it looks much better in "real life" but I am too lazy to take pictures again to do it justice. I do love it though-easy to clean and not smelly I couldn't have asked for more. I would have liked to get a mirror trimmed in wood but this one is a medicine cabinet that can hold extra rolls of toilet paper, huge shampoo bottles and has a very clear image. We decided the extra storage in the cabinet would be better than having to add other shelves and cupboards in such a small space. We decided the hand held shower was important to wash all the sand down from the beach. It is so great to be able to come home from the beach and shower off everyone before they get all through the house and then we hung a double shower bar up so we can have extra drying space for beach towels and swimming suits.

BEFORE

AFTER

I really like my shower curtain it-it softens things up a bit.

My straight sided toilet-look no bolts to clean around-I LOVE it!