Cinco de Mayo

We thought we'd have a little fun and make a pinata for Cinco de Mayo. Here's a little lesson for you...Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day like most people think. Jerry says it's a made up holiday so bars can sell more beer but it is actually a battle victory celebration. If you want to read more click here.

But you know us we're always looking for a reason to have a little party so after discovering Wesley doesn't mind digging in mud but touching paper mache is "disgusting" and getting paint all over the place and making a special trip to the store to get candy to put inside and adding all the tissue paper by myself we had ourselves a pinata. I offered to make it in the shape of something (my suggestion was a pig) but that was voted down cause "we don't want to smash a pig". So it was just a colored ball.

Hayden, Eli, Justus, Super Reggie (the stuffed dog), neighbor Ben, and Wesley BEFORE the swinging started

Wesley was super excited all weekend and kept mentioning the pinata and how much he couldn't wait until Cinco de Mayo. Even the twins kept asking "When is Cinco de Mayo?" Monday while he was out playing with the neighbor children he mentioned it and one of the boys asked me if it was true: "Are you really going to have a pinata?" You should have seen his face when I said yes! It was like I told him I was going to give him a hundred dollars! So our little family pinata turned into rotating neighborhood event. Children up and down Trotter court were cramming down their dinner to get to our house. We had one kid start but have to leave after he hit it...could we "save him some candy?" We had one kid come just in time to take the smashing hit! And one come just in time to scoop up some candy but missed his turn hitting.

Hayden went first

Justus was next

Then Eli

Followed by Wesley and the rest of the neighbors

Alec holding Hayden, Anchor, Wesley, Justus, and Eli with the broken pinata

We used a plastic baseball bat to smash it and in hind sight I guess I should have made it thicker cause it smashed pretty easily. Each kid only got one turn to hit! A few helpful pinata hints for you just in case you want to make your own:

• start the assembly a LONG time before you need the pinata ready, at least a few days or maybe even a week...it takes a LOT longer than you think to make one.
  
• make the paper mache several layers THICK so everyone can have more than one turn
  
• paint it and skip the tissue paper
• fill it with LOTS of candy (chewy is best, hard candy breaks)
• let the youngest go first
  
• stand back when kids are swinging the smashing stick, especially if they are blindfolded!
• And....invite the neighbor kids and you'll be the coolest family on the block!
  

Thirty Five!

This is a bit late...last Saturday was Jerry's 35th birthday. We had a small "party" and included Wesley as a birthday boy since we never really had a party for him. (The move was keeping us busy that week.) Wesley didn't seem to mind. It was super windy and pretty chilly so we didn't hang out in the backyard at all. Although we did send Jerry out to grill the pizza burgers. So we hung out in the kitchen, ate too much, and had a nice visit with my mom, grandma, and Abby's family.

Jerry and I were doing a little math and by the end of this month we will have been together for half of his life! That just seems crazy. Then we starting talking about it and realized Abby was younger than Roz is now when we started going out and I've know Jerry's brother Johnny for two-thirds of his life! If turning 35 doesn't make you feel old...that will! I still remember what I got Jerry for his eighteenth birthday! One of the items was a razor that he still uses! I get him freebies from CVS all the time but he always goes back to his old favorite.

Next time you see Hayden ask him to say "thirty five". He says it like a real Wisconsinite..."terty five"! Roz asks him to say it all the time cause she thinks it is so funny!

Spring???

Look what we woke up to this morning:

May is just around the corner. It won't snow in May. It won't. Right??

Not-So-Little JD

Here are a few shots of the quickly growing JD. He is not quite crawling but gets on his hands and knees to try. I almost don't want him mobile since that means he'll be getting into stuff and the gates will have to come back out. Although, I do think he will be happier when he can get where he wants faster. He rolls where he can. He can sit by himself for long periods now and has gotten to sitting by himself once or twice.

He babbles a good bit and can now wave "bye bye". And boy, can he eat! I mean EAT! The baby food stage is usually one bite in one bite out...but JD eats two jars of baby food plus cereal and sometimes yogurt at each meal. Not mention various crackers and cereals while he waits for us to get it ready. None of the other boys ever ate that much. He is starting to develop his own tastes too and if he doesn't like what you give him...he'll spit it right back at you. (Jerry loves that!) He doesn't get the cup yet, but he loves to play with it!

Getting ready for bath...

Doing baby push ups...

Bye Bye!

M&M Cookies

What do you do when you get four big bags of M&Ms for 58 cents at CVS? Make cookies! They are really good. Here is the recipe:

1 cup margarine

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large bag (14oz) plain M&Ms

Cream margarine and sugars, add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and half of M&Ms. Drop on greased cookie sheet, placing remaining M&Ms on top of each cookie. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
*Helpful hint: use a flat cookie sheet-they didn't rise for me right the first time I made them when I used the cookie sheet with a lip*

Here are the cookie chefs checking on their creation. The oven at the old house didn't have a window so they were enjoying watching the cookies bake through the window. Even Hayden was a good helper putting the M&Ms onto the cookies. Although he was more of a "one for me, one for the cookie" type of helper.

Oh Wesley!

When I walked into the kitchen Sunday morning to get breakfast started this is what I found:


Wesley put his big, stuffed Bob the Builder on the chair in the kitchen by the computer. But that's not all...Bob was wearing Wesley's bathrobe! Guess it was a little chilly surfing the internet in the wee morning hours! Later, when I showed Roz the picture she thought it was hilarious. I guess I'm not the only Wesley cracks up! Although, it makes me wonder what else he was doing while I slept a few more minutes...maybe I don't want to know!