Genetics

The girls created a dessert for tonight.

It is chocolate chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate sauce, and a chocolate ball on top. It is genetic that we are all programmed to love chocolate.

As you can see it was yummy.

The Size of Things

I wore Chloe's shoes today. Granted they were her cheap-imitation crocs (which HAVE to go down as the UGLIEST shoes ever created- Crocs that is not hers in particular). None the less they fit. Those are my feet in her shoes.
I was headed out to check on the food I was grilling for dinner. I didn't see any of my shoes by the backdoor, so I stuck my feet into her shoes. I was expecting my heels to be hanging over the edge but nope. Slid right in. How did this happen? Look at the child...
I mean, sure she has the surly adolescent look of disgust but she has had that since she was two. She is only eight.

The foot while I admit it contains some magical properties that lead it to draw dirt to every white sock she places on it... still it doesn't look that big. I hope this doesn't pan out the same way it does for puppies. When their feet are huge it means they are going to be a massive dog. I am not sure that I can swing the groceries if this is going to be the case. Plus now I think she is eyeballing my foot wear.

Arts and Crafts

Alexa selected three arts and crafts books from our trip to the library yesterday. They inspired her to begin a few projects today. We didn't have all the correct materials but were able to make it work. She started out wanting to make pin-wheels.
She uses them as a make shift fence to keep Cabbie out of her flower garden.

Not really sure how the construction paper will hold up out there, but she was happy. Chloe joined us and we moved on to alligators.

Alexa added a butterfly to her collection.

Chloe went off on her own and created a small bird. "These are the birds that sit in their mouths clean the alligators teeth." Of course you need one of those.

Don't worry she gave her sister the tutorial so she could make her alligator a teeth cleaning bird too. I think Chloe should write her own craft book.

A Dog's Life

About two and half years ago I made the decision to break down and let my kids get a dog. I had been without a pet for some time. I lost several pets right in a row and it just seemed like too much. Having to make the decision to put an animal down. When to know if their quality of life has been passed by the amount they are suffuring. I couldn't stand going through that again. The kids really wanted a dog though. And I made a decision. I decided that to choose not to bring an animal into our lives simply because I was afriad of having to say good-bye to it. Well, that didn't make a lot of sense. To miss out on all those years of fun and love because you would miss them when they were gone. It is kind of crazy. So, I changed my mind and said yes. The girls really wanted a Boston Terrier.

I worked through the Boston Terrier Rescue group and ended up adopting Cabernet Calloway. A 7ish year old dog rescued from a high kill shelter in Texas who was residing at a foster home in New Hampshire. Cabernet's name had been shortened to Cabbie by the foster family. A name that has stuck with him since. Cabbie is not a picky fellow and quite frankly couldn't care less what you call him as long as you are following up his arrival with a snack. Cabbie is a good dog. He really doesn't bark. He sheds very little. He cleans the floor with such vigilance I have almost given away my broom entirely. He sleeps every night under a pink and purple butterfly blanket on Alexa's bed. Aside from a desire to eat any piece of food that is not kept under lock and key, he is incredibly low maintenance and asks for very little in life.

Cabbie had a check up on last Friday. It was his regular twice a year (because he is considered and old dog now) check up. I mentioned to the vet that he had this odd bump on his rear leg. She checked it out and used syringe to draw some cells out to check later. She also noticed that he had developed a heart mummer. She called me later and said that the bump should be removed as it is the type of growth that can turn malignant. The catch being that to sedate him to remove the lump he needed to have the heart murmur checked out to make sure the sedation would be safe. We went today so he could see the dog cardiologist. The good news is that Cabbie has a very low grade heart murmur and should be fine to have the surgery. Although the leaky valve causing the murmur will continue to get worse as he gets older there isn't anything that we can do to stop it. They recommend a low sodium diet to slow the process. I swear you could see Cabbie cringe as he is already on such a strict diet now, there isn't much more you could take away from him.

The bad news is that Cabbie has a tumor on his heart. The tumor is common in breads such as his. It is most likely benign. It is possible that it will never grow as it is very small right now. It is also possible (more likely even) that is will grow and over time cause him large problems for his heart. This combined with the murmur mean that in the next 3 to 5 years Cabbie will likely develop congestive heart failure. That is a good amount of time. It is long time in dog years. It is still hard to think about. Having the vet give me a list of symptoms to watch for over those years makes it feel a bit like living with a time bomb. You never quite know when it will go off. It isn't something that I plan to tell the girls much about until I need to. Alexa is very attached to Cabbie. Just this morning she had a birthday hat strapped to his head and was leading him in a parade through the house. She will know when something in her life will change. Until then...
there are a lot of sticks to chew.

Garden Update

I know. I know. You have been on the edge of your seats... begging... pleading for an update on what has been happening in the world of Alexa's garden. Here I have been carelessly going on about cleaning the house and the summer reading program all the while you were thinking yes, but how about those vegetables? Well, worry no more. The sun finally came out today for the first time in like a week or something. So I took the camera out and captured the progress for you. Tah Dah!!!

Look at all that. You will notice that the tomatoes have cages. On one plant we have two actual tomatoes!!

We have sugar snap peas coming up, beans, peas, pumpkins, and cucumbers too. We have had a few set backs namely something has yanked out most of her corn. Which I am considering a good thing as I had my worries about all this fitting in here. You see Alexa's seed purchasing eyes were bigger than her garden.

We also has a squirrel or two eat all seven of our green soon to be red strawberries. So Alexa and I built this rather impressive (if I do say so myself) chicken wire and rock fortress to keep them off our plants. We want the remaining three strawberries baby and no body is snatching them before we get to sample them!!! Yes so that was the excitement here folks. Watching the garden grow now that it has some sun.

Oh yeah... the kids enjoyed the sun too.

And Cabbie... he was glad to see the sun too.

Summer Reading Program

Yesterday I took the girls to the library so they could sign up for the summer reading program. It is Chloe's fourth year and Alexa's first. They are both very excited to get started. Chloe loves to read and plows through books so quickly I was wandering through the stacks with her encouraging her to pick out multiple chapter books so that I wouldn't have to be back to the library the next day. I don't think it bought me too much time as today I found her in her room like this...She was so involved in it she never even noticed Alexa and I sneak in to take her picture. The funny thing is it seems like just last week when I was reading Owl Babies to her for the 1,000th time that I can remember thinking, "I can't wait until she can read for herself." And now... she is.



Alexa is so excited to finally get to sign up for this program. They have to be entering kindergarten in the fall to be able to do it. And don't think that watching her sister get prizes each week of the summer for the last four years hasn't built up some envy. She is so proud to finally have her own chart to fill in. It has further fueled her determination to learn to read. She marched us over to the learn to read books and we picked some off the shelf for her. The two of us sit together reading and working on our phonics. I can feel my brain digging back to all of the early reading lessons I haven't done since graduate school. But she is getting it!

Tonight she read several pages of one of the books to me with no help at all and she was pumped about it!

Cleaning Out

Last weekend I was upstairs vacuuming the bedrooms when I become disgusted with amount of stuff that was cluttering the kid's rooms. I warned them that when we started summer vacation it was going to be time to go through their rooms and get rid of all the things that they don't play with anymore. I met with resistance, of course, but I stood my ground. Today, vacation day one, I kept my word. I started with Alexa and then moved on to Chloe. We went through every basket, toy box, shelf, and bin in their rooms. They examined every toy. In the end each girl had an entire trash bag plus one full recycle bin of things that were broken, torn, or just plain useless and could be thrown out. More inspiring was this...

all of these are bags of stuffed animals, dolls, and dinosaurs that we are giving away. I am so excited I can't wait for a nice sunny day to just set them out front and watch them disappear. I have absolutely no interest or patience for a yard sale. I much prefer the free sign out front and the rapid removal. Inspired by how neat and clean their rooms were they moved on to cleaning out the art box. They decided to melt down all the broken crayons in a muffin tin to create new colors. They were pretty creative and focused.

They couldn't wait for them to cool off and see what they would look like.
I do think I need a new muffin tin though, but it is a small price to pay for less "stuff" in my house. I warned them that we aren't done I am moving on to the downstairs next.

Alexa's Last Day of Preschool

Alexa had her last day of preschool today. She has mixed feeling about it. She cried during the nap time when she had to say good-bye to the teacher who works the early morning shift. She is very sad about leaving her friends and teachers, but she excited to start kindergarten in the fall. Her teachers were very sad to see her go too. She has had a wonderful experience with them and grown a lot as a student.
Just for a little perspective, here is what she looked like on her first day of preschool at age three...


Pretty amazing.

Cutie Adventures

Alexa decided that Cutie should test the grass outside today after she cleaned her cage.

I think she was a rather annoyed hamster as the ball didn't really move on the grass all that well.

She seemed to prefer the wood floors inside.

Last Linda Day

Today was Alexa's last day at Linda's daycare. My kids have been going there since Chloe was three months old. Alexa still attended on Mondays and Fridays this year. I have been driving to Linda's house for about eight years now on my way to work and home again. It will be weird for all of us. In typical Linda fashion she gave Alexa a going away present and a certificate for moving on to kindergarten. Her gift was a sand art kit. In typical Alexa fashion she shared it with her sister when we got home. I decide that sand art was best done on the deck. They did a great job sharing the materials and taking turns.
They were happy with the results. I think the departure from Linda's will be slow to sink in for us. We will really miss her.

Ode to the Rice Krispie Treat

About six months ago I started getting this Parenting magazine in the mail. It is called Parenting the Elementary Years... or something like that. At first I though t it was just a free sample designed to make me order it. However, it showed up again the next month and the next. I have been getting on for about six months straight. It has become my running question to my family, which one of you thought I needed the parenting magazine? Because it is pretty good. I mean I wouldn't PAY for it, but it is entertaining reading at bedtime. None of them have owned up to it. Friday night I was reading it and came across this recipe using Rice Krispie treats. I should back up and tell you that two Thanksgivings ago I was visiting my friend Jason in Philly. We were waiting for things to cook and then digesting afterwards and we must have watched about ten episodes of The Cake Boss. This was the first (and only) time I have ever watched the show. I don't have cable or satellite dish and since my one and only TV is about twelve inches across I rarely watch anything. At any rate I was fascinated by the cakes that this guy could put together. It was amazing. I was even more amazed to learn that a lot of the shapes were Rice Krispie treats. The guy built and airplane out of them! I was extremely impressed. I have always thought of Rice Krispie Treats as a fixture at school bake sales not suitable for much more than thier rectangular shape stuffed in a zip lock baggie. So when I came across the recipe this weekend. I though I am so doing this, the kids will love it. So today I made these...

Cute huh? They were amazingly easy. I learned that the treats stay soft for quite a while so you can shape them into the balls. Which is handy because otherwise things would have the pesky charred flesh taste. I had a couple extra so I made two look like ice cream sundaes. The kids were pretty excited and I may be making these to send in to school on birthdays instead of cupcakes!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day dad!

We miss you lots.

Art Opening

Chloe had an art opening Friday, June 3 at Frog Hollow on Church Street. It would have been stunning if I had remembered my camera. Unfortunately it was after work and I didn't remember to take it with me to work so no camera. Luckily it is hanging for awhile so we got back down there this weekend WITH the camera. So here it is...

hanging right in the front of the store. An artist from Frog Hollow came to work with Chloe's class on this amazing piece. It is made of clay and mounted on wood. Chloe is responsible for the wonderful looking turtle in the middle and the painting of the leaves (the dark ones) on the tree.Pretty cool huh?

Alexa's Recital

Today was Alexa's dance recital. She was very excited. The were a lot of rules about not taking pictures or video taping during the show. I did take this one of her back stage before I had to leave her.

She is one nervous ballerina. She did amazing though. I was nervous about leaving her all on her own backstage with a crowd of other dancers, but she sat right down with her teacher and her group and waited her turn. I think I was most nervous about her getting herself into her tap outfit and shoes with out my help. As with most things it worked out, she got help from her teacher to make sure she was all put together and her shoes were tied nice and tight before they went out.

I took these pictures of her in her tap outfit on last Wednesday at the dress rehearsal where we were allowed to take pictures. She had a great time and can't wait for dance classes to start again in the fall.