Our Day in Pictures...

Apparently, I live in Seattle - it's been raining almost nonstop and we haven't seen the sun since Thursday. All this meant a weekend indoors. Are you scared?...Don't feel bad...I was too.

Standing in the Rain...

We had big plans for the kids' first weekend since starting school - well, not big plans, but the usually plans; the beach, the park, maybe a bike ride and whatever else came to mind. But no, Mother Nature had different plans for us. So we had to make the most of being rained-in which meant lots of baking, lots of crafts, lots of board games and lots of messes! Perhaps the messiest thing we did was make cupcakes, try not to have a heart-attack when you see Owen...

He was dissecting it, don't you think?

When it's time to do something hands-on with the kids I try not to care about the mess that may be made in the process. Half of their enthusiasm comes from getting crazy with the paint, or icing, or glitter, or whatever sticky, messy substance we're dealing with at the time.  Thankfully, I have 2,416 table cloths for this very reason, so clean up was a sinch - shake it outside and pop it in the washing machine. Whoop!

Luckily, only Ari helped me make the batter. And I say 'luckily' because can you imagine if Owen had used the blender-thingy (can you tell I'm good in the kitchen...I mean, I don't even know what half the machines appliances I own are called and I just learned a few year ago that the words 'stove' and 'oven' aren't interchangeable. I thought the whole machine or unit or whatever could be called either a 'stove' or an 'oven.' I didn't realize the stove was on top and the oven was the door-thingy you bake in. Hey. Don't judge me)? So Ari helped throughout the entire process while the boys were only interested in licking the beaters and  doing the actual decorating. But that's really no surprise; it's just like men to want to get straight to the good stuff. You know it's the truth.

Mmmm

Ethan is at the age where he is not amused by my camera in his face, but he's a good sport about it and copes by making goofy faces in 97.8% of all photos I take. Somehow, when I take a bunch of pictures of him in a row it turns into an unspoken dance-off. He raises his eyebrow being silly for a picture, I vogue back trying to elicit a laugh out of him, he strikes a funny pose, I try to top it with my own ridiculous stance, then pretty soon he's break dancing on the floor and I'm busting a move like I'm Kevin James in "Hitch." By now, I've gotten a genuine laugh out of him and he could care less about the camera (for a few minutes at least).

He's no longer hiding from the camera and now focused on the important things in life: licking the bowl clean.

I think they ate just as much batter as we baked, which was impressive and disturbing at the same time. Time to bake the goods and the boys were no where to be found, "Call us when they're cooled off..." were Ethan's last words before disappearing upstairs with Owen to demolish their room play.

But Ari anxiously waited while the cupcakes cooked. 

Jersey too.

Of course, when it was time to get to their hands dirty the boys graced us with their presence again. They each had different decorating styles; Owen thought that dousing the cupcakes with as many sprinkles as possible was the best look, while Ethan went for a minimalist approach. Ari was somewhere in between the two styles. Being the competitive threesome they are, my kidlets wanted to vote on who had the best cupcake. I played the safe, typical mommy route and said that everyone's cupcake were fabulous in their own ways. When in all honesty I would've voted for my own cupcakes. What? Did I just write that? Moving along. One cupcake was decorated with stars, which they dubbed "The Star" (and they thought it was quite funny)....they kept saying, "Look, that cupcake is The Star cupcake, get it Mom?"...Yes children, I get it.

"The Star"

After choosing the star of the bunch, we devoured a few of our creations and saved our faves for another day and time. Except for Owen, that little dude was eating nonstop the whole time. I'm pretty sure he consumed three days worth of calories in an hour and a half...and what was the first thing my little man asked after we cleaned up our cupcake bonanza? "What's for lunch?"

He just kept going, and goin, and....

Dear Mother Nature, 

Please give us a little bit of sunshine this week. My four-year old's stomach will thank you.

~L