Easy Bakin'

Every once in a while we try to have little "dates" or one on one time with the boys. Since there are only two kids it makes it pretty easy. We each take one and do something. This last time I asked Miles if he wanted to go somewhere or stay and make cakes in the Easy Bake. He wanted to stay and bake. My little chef.


Is it going to come out ok?

Yea!!! It did!




Miles had an idea of how he wanted to make all the little cakes. I'm not sure if it was meant to be little wedding cakes for each of us, or just something more elaborate than a single or double layer cake. All I know is that we baked and baked and baked. A total of about 5 hours.


Voila! The finished product. It is a three layered cake. However, he used a cup to cut the top layer to make it a little smaller than the first two layers. He was so proud. We made four of these. Three cakes per "cake" equals 12 cakes baked in the Easy Bake Oven at 12 minutes a piece. It was longer than what you are figuring. But it was a good date for me and Miles.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Everyone has been healthy and again mom, dad and Santa spoiled the boys a little. We did try to do better this year.
The pajama tradition. They get a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve. Miles still wants the footie pajamas. I don't know what I'm going to do in a few more years. I hope he will be ok with just a set instead of footies.

The milk and cookies are ready for Santa. They do like making cookies for Santa and with all the craziness that is Christmas Eve I have learned a valuable lesson. Ready to cook cookies. The boys feel like they baked cookies, I just had to get a cookie sheet out.

Christmas morning loot! I like to call this the calm before the storm. The last moment the house will be somewhat clean for the next few days.


Carter got his Darth Vader light saber. He has always been drawn to the dark side. What an evil one he is.


Miles saw this toucan at Big Lots a week or so before Christmas and he decided that he really, REALLY wanted it for Christmas. Santa was able to get it for him and he was so excited. Really? Whatever.


Quinn and the boys got Lego headlamps. They were ALL very excited about them.

Oh the things they will be able to do now!

Three Months...

Wow! Has it really been three months since I last posted? I have thought about posting stuff many times but it appears I did not actually get around to it. I better get caught up and add more.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids love making gingerbread houses, but I don't want to buy a $10 kit for each of them and I'm not too good at the graham cracker houses. I came across this pan this year that is in the shape of a gingerbread house and I thought it would be perfect. Nobody else was quite as excited as I was about but I still had faith that it would turn out well.
I mixed together a gingerbread cookie mix (I'm going with simplicity right now) and Miles and Carter each got to press it in the pan. We cooked them one day and decorated the next day.

Carter going to town with the frosting.

Miles is more focused and has a definite idea in mind of how he wants his to turn out.

Carter is so proud of his creation. He even has frosting on his shoulder.

Miles masterpiece.

Despite some skepticism they turned out great. Miles and Carter both had a good time decorating and it was a whole heck of a lot easier than putting an entire house together. Here is to a new and easy tradition!

A visit to see Santa!

Christmas is fast approaching and I realized we hadn't had the chance to visit with Santa yet. We usually run into him somewhere along the way and since we hadn't we decided we needed to make a trip to see him. We headed to our nearest mall which happened to be Valley Fair mall. We got there at 4:00 right before Santa got back from lunch or something. There wasn't a very long line but there was a line and Carter does not like to wait. Poor kid.

Miles so excited. His front teeth are a little big for his smile right now.

Carter is excited too. His teeth are another story in and of themselves.

Getting close to Santa.

They were so glad they got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. As we were driving there Miles was going down his list and Quinn and I were listening thinking, well it sounds like Santa will be prepared for you. Then Carter started on his list for Santa and Quinn and I started panicking. Nothing sounded familiar. It is a good thing we went and saw Santa when we did. As we were walking away from Santa he stopped them and said, now you need to stop any fighting. It was awesome. We keep reminding them that Santa knows when they are fighting.

There was a little train there and two little boys had their hearts set on riding it. I went to see how much it was and came back and said it is $3 per person. So, one of you can go. The Christmas spirit was gone as they were not ready to give up their ride for the love of their brother. I only let that last for a few seconds before I told them they could both ride it. Carter looks more excited about the train than he did for Santa. Oh little boys.

What a cool train!

They wanted to sit in the coal car. They took a little trip outside and then back inside. Someday these boys are going to grow up and it breaks my heart.