Legos, Legos, Everywhere!

Brayden turned 11 on the 23rd of July.

The kid LOVES Legos. He designed a Lego cake out of his Legos and I, out of the goodness of my heart, made it for him. I hadn't ever played with fondant before so it was a new experiment for me. I was very glad fondant comes pre-made in the bright colors! I have to send a HUGE thanks to MOM Evans for all the years in 4-H and all the cooking lessons which have made me unafraid to take on projects such as this.

Brayden loves Legos. He got all Legos for his presents! Go figure!

Happy Birthday to my B-man!

Now You Knew Better Than That!

Have you ever done something and then thought later, "Duh? I'm such a dork?" That would be the story of my life. I'm always impetuously doing things and then thinking later maybe my action wasn't such a good idea. Can you say QUEEN of Open Mouth Insert Foot? I'm thinking maybe I have ADD tendencies.... Hmmmm. What was I talking about? Oh, yes doing something and then thinking later maybe I shouldn't have done that...

How many of you have met Elise? On the surface she seems like a well mannered obedient child. AND she is for everyone but me. She is the Queen of Tantrums (a title I used to hold but has now been passed on to my posterity). Saturday morning she got "into it" with her twin sister Abby. Abby is the Queen of Quick Wit and a Sharp Tongue (a title also formerly held by me and passed on...). Needless to say there was some screaming, scratching, punching and hair pulling (NO! I didn't do any of it!). To help them calm down and hopefully solve the problem I sent Abby to their room and had Elise sit on time out in the family room. AND the tantrums BEGAN! Usually I have great patience and will just step over Elise and ignore her or tell her she's not doing it right she needs to kick harder and scream louder. Not on Saturday. We were getting ready to go to an Evans family reunion and my patience was shot from earlier tantrums. Plus I was afraid she was going to kick over Bob's fish tank. I am very proud of the fact I haven't killed him yet and I wasn't letting a tantrum ruin my record. I counted back from 5 for her to get back on time out. It usually works. Not that day. So I proceeded to hook her under the arm pits to plant her butt back on the couch. As I turned, she threw herself back. I really hurt my back. Yep, I knew better than to pick up a hysterical 72 pound 8 year old. Too late now. I'm walking like an old lady with scoliosis.

It gets better! My friend Joan Krogman calls to tell me about great back to school sales at Target. I can't answer the phone, I'm at the chiropractor getting deep tissue ultra sound. Now Joan is my good friend who went through my Master's program with me. She is going to be the twins' teacher next year. Elise answers the phone and tells her, "Mrs. K. I hurt my mom. BAD! yep she tried to pick me up when I was throwing a tantrum. Yep. You know me the 8 year old Drama Queen. I have to take her Diet Coke in bed..." On and on she goes. Mrs. K is in laughter tears. She's going to have a Drama Queen crown made and ready for Elise on the first day of school, and Elise is proud of it.

Yep, I knew better than that!

Lagoon Passports

Lynn and I decided that we would use my "educational reimbursement money" to buy season passes to Lagoon. We felt we wouldn't we going on any big vacations this year so we would go to Lagoon as often as we could.

The first trip was in May and I went with the kids. They thought they should start out in Kiddie Land on the small rides. For example they rode the kiddie roller coaster Puff. I rolled my eyes cajoling and begging them to ride roller coasters. I am a roller coaster NUT! I could ride them all day long, over and over.... Do you think my kids would give in to their mom's passion for fast cars? Uh, NO! I had to wait for a few trips later....

The twins have surpassed my expectations. Abby is a roller coaster riding fool. AND because she doesn't want to be out done, Elise will ride what Abby rides. She might sob when the ride is finished, but she goes.

Abby really wanted to ride Wicked. I was a bit concerned, I mean it goes straight up and straight down. It's propelled by magnets and "wicked fast". We took her on it. She sat right in-between Lynn and me. I looked over and she had her eyes WIDE open. She was making these noises making Lynn think she was crying. NOPE!!!! Laughing! She absolutely LOVED the ride. We got off and were walking down the queue and she says, "Can we go again?" You bet little one!

I'm hoping, and bribing Brayden. He said today, "Maybe we can start with the White roller coaster..." A mom can hope can't she?

Here Goes...

For a year now I've been sending out almost weekly e-mails about our Barton Life. My cousins, friends and many others have been after me to create a blog. So here goes. I'm now a blogger. More Later!