What was I thinking....It's almost midnight!

What was I thinking when I decided to start pumpkin bread at 8:30pm.  Let me rewind a bit and maybe we can figure this out together.

I got a call earlier today to remind me of activity days for Ellie tomorrow after school.  The girls are going caroling to some families in the ward.  While on the phone, I was asked to make something for the girls to give one of the families.  I said yes.  I'm always happy to help.

Since this was an "Ellie thing" I wanted her help in making it.  On the phone, she mention it would be an elderly couple.  I decided bread would be the better choice over goodies and pumpkin bread has been sounding good for a while now.  I knew I had to make it today with her since there would not be time after school tomorrow.  So I had Ellie do her homework and take a bath first that way I could get X Factor down for bed before we started.  I wanted to make it special for her without extra little hands interrupting us.

By the time we got started it was 8:30.  I didn't think this through all the way.  I forgot to consider that the bread would have to bake for at least an hour and then cool so I could put it away before I went to bed.  Poor Ellie didn't get to see the end result before I sent her to bed.  But she was thrilled when I told the kids they could eat pumpkin bread for breakfast.

Of course I had to try one while they were hot!  It's been years since I made good (when I say good I mean full of gluten!) pumpkin bread.  My mini loaves only took 30 minutes to cook, but the larger loaves took well over an hour.  There is a bigger one still in the oven when I took this pic.  It took almost an hour and a half.  

So now I'm just sitting here blogging, waiting for them to cool, so I can go to bed.  Even though I wasn't thinking when I started these, I'm glad I took the time to include Ellie.  She has been having a hard time with X Factor and she really needed some one on one time with me.  I love my little Jelly Bean.  She is so sweet.

Ellie's Christmas List...spelling and all!

cell phone
compoter
tv im my room
candy
toys
bubble gum
monster high
foot ball
my own gun
a lock door that is mine
soing micin (sewing machine)
purple wall paint
a big roll (a roll of paper for her art easel)
zooball
a sencey lighter (scentsy warmer)
20 doller bill
silly sring
more lego's
a pet turtle
more skeces (more squeakies)
a loneg bord (long board)
whell shoes (wheelie shoes)
a baby dog
a musneoto gun (marshmellow gun)
a bunny
ice skats

I thought some of them needed some translation!

She didn't learn by example

Walking by Ellie's room the other day, I noticed something not quite right.  Do you see it too?

Nope, it's not the nicely made bed.  I did that today.  Maybe you need a better angle.

Now do you see it?  Yep, those are binoculars in her window!!!!  I'm guessing she was spying on Jana's boys playing outside since that's all you can see from her window.  I can often here her yelling out the window at them.  I don't think we have a serious problem yet since you cannot see any of their bedrooms from our house and she's only 9.  Now if this happens when she's a teenager then I'll be worried!

Ellie's 9th Birthday

This year Ellie's birthday fell on a Monday.  So the Friday before we had a small party.  There was no school that day so she got to take two friends and we went to the movies.  We watched the Smurfs!  One the way home, I gave the girls the camera and they had some fun!

After we got home, we had pizza, cake, and icecream.  After which, she opened presents.  She had a great time.  I do have to mention that we sang to her and I took some pictures, only to realize I didn't have my memory card in.  So we hit repeat and sang again!



On her actual birthday, we took her to Walmart to pick out a new bike with the money she got.  She was very specific about wanting a purple bmx bike.  With a gift of money from us, she was able to get what she wanted.  We made sure to buy slime when we bought the bike.  And sure enough, the first time out she got a goathead in her tire.

I can't believe my little girl is 9.  Wow, my kids are growing up!

Love Notes

Apparently it's been awhile since I dusted. As I was doing some cleaning up, I noticed Ellie had been leaving notes in the dust on the entertainment center!!

It says "I love daddy because I'm a dad's girl."  What a sweet girl.  Yes, she is a daddy's girl.  She always has been and always will be.

Bet you never did this on your 2nd grade fieldtrip!

You would think that the day after Easter I would blog about it.  But I have something far more interesting to blog about.  Today I went with Ellie on her fieldtrip.  First we went to Celebration Park in Melba, right on the Snake River.  They learned how to hunt mammoths with atlatl spears. This was really fun.  A follow up family trip will definitely be in the future.  Then we learned how to make tools with rocks. To finish the experience up, we learned about the lithographs on the rocks.

The next stop was Cleo's Nature Trail.  This was a unusual place to say the least.  The kids were given a list of random things to find while we were here.  Here is just a sample of what the trail contained.

 It's not fair that the male peacocks are so beautiful!

 This spot had statues of Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin.

I had to make the next pic bigger so you could see the faces.

Devin was getting very tired and was trying to sit anywhere he could.  When he saw this bench, he immediately went and sat down.  I had to take a picture because of what the sign behind him said!

Ellie found this along side the path and said, "Mom, look. You can see its 'booty'tocks!"  I think she meant buttocks.



Some of the things I didn't take a picture of were a rainbow, a tomb, a graveyard, a troll bridge, unique license plates, hundreds of garden statues grouped by type, and safari animal statues.  We even saw a heard of live deer run through.  This is one fieldtrip I will never forget!

Score: The Door 1 .......... Ellie 0

None of you should be surprised that something happened to Ellie yet again.  After a broken arm, stitches, and hundreds of bumps and bruises, who else would it be!  In fact, just this winter she busted her lip apart and she went to the doctor (no stitches that time).  So when the school called this time, all I could do was laugh.

I wish I had some great story about how Ellie was pulling of a double back flip off the monkey bars or that she went down the big slide standing on one foot and blind folded, but that's not the case.  A teacher went to open a door at the same time Ellie did on the other side.  I the gash above her eye is where the part of the door handle that you push down with your thumb hit her.  And the mark below her eye is where the handle part hit her.  We are considering ourselves very fortunate that it missed her eye.  The teacher felt horrible.  Ellie made sure to go see her after she was stitched up to let her know she was alright.

Ellie was not happy about having to get stitches again.  The doctor also said we should expect some throbbing headaches over the next 24 hours and a generous sized black eye.

The before shot.

After 4 stitches!

Hemingway Butte & Babies

After a week of doing nothing, I couldn't take it anymore.  We took the kids and Weldon out to Hemingway Butte to go ride for the afternoon.  Wayne, Jake, and Weldon rode a short 18 miles, then came back to the parking lot where Ellie and I were playing.







Ellie





Wayne couldn't resist!





Jake



Weldon

Then Ellie and I headed to my mom's house to do some crafting with mom, Ann, and Donna.  I didn't get much done because I got sidetracked by CUTE BABIES! Thanks Donna.



Spring Break!

Spring break was pretty boring this year.  I cleaned the house like a mad woman (I'll discuss this more in a later post).  Ellie did tennis camp for 3 days. And Jake and Wayne...well they did nothing!

I just have 2 words... Angry Birds!