bad to the bone

Q's cake for this year was my most ambitious yet. with many things, i have lofty visions that i can just not execute on. i was worried that this would be one of them, based on the complexity. it involved a car-shaped cake, stacked on a small sheet cake to make it taller like a truck, plus four mini bundt tires and crumbled brownies for dirt. it started off bad. the first attempt at the car shape didn't even make it out of the pan (apparently pam is not sufficient for greasing up such an intricate pan) and necessitated a 2:30 a.m. run to the store for more cake mix and crisco. but once the pan was properly greased and floured we were good to go (and quite sleepy.) - but considering the late night, the early struggles, and my lack of any actual cake decorating tools/skills, i think it turned out ok! Q knew right what it was. he told me it was "awesome" and that's all that matters!

say (chuck e.) cheese

while i was setting the tivo to record sprout on his birthday (in case he made it on), Q saw a commercial for chuck e. cheese. despite never having been to one, or even really knowing what they are, he was sold and decided that was where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. but that night when asked what he wanted for dinner he asked for the "pancake store" (ihop) and we thought we were off the hook. as soon as we placed our order to declared he would rather go to the cheese. too late, we told him we'd go some other time. he hadn't mentioned it again so we thought we were off the hook. - fast forward to friday... caroline was home sick (with mimi who was up for the party) so it was just me and Q on our way home. i decided i wanted to go to the dollar store to get some supplies for the party and went to the closest one on the way home. of course, right next door... the rat. he was so excited because he thought that was where we were going. i again dodged it by saying we couldn't go without pickle. - then on saturday he was pestering me about it. i told him we'd go if he took a nap because i *knew* he wouldn't nap. but bet your butt he napped so we went saturday night for "dinner" (quotations used because i hesitate to call that food.) - wow. just wow. what an awful place.

these pics are memorable only because 5 minutes prior i had noticed that their cartons of apple juice had expired on july 13th. mimi went up to the counter to exchange them and was ignored for five minutes. so she stalked the manager and went right up to him. they were across the restaurant and with all the noise we couldn't hear the conversation, but we witnessed what was obviously mimi telling him the juice was expired. then the dude looks at his watch, like he needed to verify that it was actually beyond july 13th. it's august dummy. and that is clearly after july. but despite awful food, awful service, and awful, unattended hellions, our munchkins had a grand time.

here quentin discovered that he got tickets. don't tell him that the tickets can be exchanged for junk. he thinks they are just for counting.

suffice it to say we brought the kids home and immediately decontaminated them. and as far as Q is concerned, the rat is closed everyday except the 32nd of each month.

school party

on tuesday, jeremy and i went to school for Q's birthday lunch. the kids devoured two party-sized pizzas, a huge tray of fruit, and copious juicy juices. Q was very proud that we had monster jam plates and napkins. he also selected key-lime frosted cupcakes. and from what i've heard, his monster jam treat boxes were the talk of the town. ahh, kids and their plastic junk!

her royal highness

Yum

While Caroline has enjoyed drinking out of a big girl cup, putting things in the cup is even more fun. Yes, that's a hot dog! Want some?

quentin was famous again this year! considering i sent in his photo and message on sunday, i wasn't expecting he'd make the show. but he did. he was so excited to see himself on chica again. he watched it like 5 times in a row last night and was begging to watch it again tonight. sorry for the bad video of the tv. i'm sure there's some tech geek way of getting stuff off the tivo and onto the computer, but i don't know how to do that.

words from the road

on the way home from school today, all blurted out in response to absolutely nothing at all:

"megasaurus is itchy because he is wearing polka-dot underpants."

"i want to wash my toes."

"our froggy friend is not orange."

happy 4th birthday quentin!

happy birthday to my sweetest little guy! we love you so much!

surname

caroline knows the first and last names of each of her classmates (even the harder indian and polish last names!) but the funniest one of all is how she says her own name. she is care-nine poo-pon.

the art of torture

but... caroline will say, "yes! cat movie!" quentin will jump up and down, declaring victory. after letting him celebrate for a few moments, pickle will calmly declare, "i want to watch elmo" and giggle as her brother descends into madness. also, we've previously discussed that Q does not like to called "quinny" like his classmate. so sometimes we call him that to tease him. (it's an amazing distraction if he's having a tantrum because it redirects his anger and can be easily smoothed by admitting that he really is quentin.) caroline has picked up on this and frequently calls her brother quinny to drive him bonkers. my kids are hilarious.

the art of persuasion

quentin is really honing his negotiation skills. since we have a fancy DVD player in the car, i let them watch a movie on the long commute home from work/school (if they both had a good day at school.) caroline used to just go along with whatever Q wanted, but now she demands a turn to pick so we alternate days. quentin is also currently obsessed with what he calls the "cat movie" - a really bad adaptation of the richard scarry books starring a cat named huckle (who is voiced by toot of "toot and puddle" if you watch a lot of nick jr. - ugh.) whenever it's caroline's turn to pick, quentin will suddenly become all sweet, give his sister a hug, and say in the most syrupy voice possible, "sister, you want to watch the cat movie right? you love the cat movie. that's what you want to watch." but...

ugh.

another bad posting month. maybe i will have to do another blog-a-palooza in august.

yup.

really sick.

my new assistant

pickle got booted for school for runny poop today (she looks really sick, eh?)

i had a few things to wrap up so she chilled in my cube while i worked.

more QQ

as Q is bouncing around our bed, well past bed time:

me: why aren't you sleeping?
Q: i AM sleeping.

quotable quentin

yesterday when leaving school and walking to the parking garage:

"sister. you can't play in the road because the cars want to hurt you. they will make you broken and make you dead. and get your shirt dirty."

brightly-colored plastic

our two scores this evening: a sand/water table and a kitchen. i heart side-of-the-road finds!

2 year stats

last wednesday, caroline and i dropped Q off at school and then went to the pediatrician for her 2-year check-up.  here are her key stats:

 

• head circumference = 47.5 cm ( 56^th percentile)
• height = 32.75 inches ( 17^thpercentile)
• weight = 25.5 pounds ( 48^thpercentile)

 

yup, short like me. she lucked out and didn't get any shots because the office was out of the one vaccine she needed.  she did get the finger stick for a blood test for anemia and lead checks.  the trooper didn't even flinch or cry.  she's meeting and exceeding all her milestones.  caroline was quite happy to show-off her absurd jumping ability and was talking like crazy, impressing the doc.

 

i think she liked the special trip to the doctor, because every day since then as we are getting out of the car at school she asks to go to the doctor again.  she also told me she wanted another "sticker" (band-aid) for her finger.

backflip!

awesome freestyle

havoc on the harbor

yesterday we went to our 4th monster jam of 2011. it was down in baltimore and we weren't really planning on going, but after the philly show last month, Q kept asking when we were going again. we told him when he started pooping on the potty, and well, he magically started doing that a few weeks ago (and not in his pants since, not even at night!0 so we were kinda painted into a corner. his friend lilly wanted to go see what all the fuss was about so we baby-swapped caroline for lilly and headed down to b-more. - unfortunately we didn't make it for much of the pre-party so we don't have a lot of pics. it sucks too because there were some sweet trucks at this one. (monster jam is so getting a strongly-worded letter from me... if you are going to advertise the party in the pits as going until 5:30, you can't start yelling at three year-olds to get away from trucks (yes, they yelled at the kids) at 5:10. -

attempt at a superman pic for jeff. fail.

attempt at a grave digger pic (while getting yelled at.) fail. again.

monster mutt dalmatian! my favorite.

nitro circus

watching from the outside at 5:15 after we'd been booted from the event supposedly closing at 5:30. grrrr.

the field. lilly liked the fact that the seats were purple.

ironman - another first time truck for us

the mutt

three different grave diggers - driven by dennis anderson and his two sons, adam and ryan

lilly, when original grave digger won his first race

superman

lady with a newborn at monster jam (it was like that scene in "sweet home alabama" - "you have a baby! in a bar!"

nitro did not last long. oops.

crazy air from el toro loco

the newest digger - "son-uva-digger" - up close

one of several lost wheels during the evening

overall the kids did great. this thing went until 11 p.m. and they both hung in there. (i'm sure the $10 sno-cone and $15 cotton candy had something to do with it.) it was an awesome show with an unbelievable freestyle from maximum destruction (yes, Q totally has us all into this now.) i'll post a video in another post.