Connected with Wolfgang

We were riding home from school yesterday when Wolfie was telling me about a book they read at school that day. It was "Tales for the Perfect Child" by Florence Parry Heidi. In it, Harriet whines to get her way. Apparently, she whines a lot. And it works all the time.
Wolfie suddenly exclaims "Hey, I can make a text to self connection!"
I'm thinking 'huh, where the heck do you get this stuff?!' but say "Really? What's the connection?"
"Well, Harriet whines and whines to get her way and I know someone else just like that!"
Feeling a little apprehensive and rather knowing the answer, I ask "and who would that be?"
"My little sister of course!"
To which Princess replies "HEY! I do nooooot!"
Now I was torn. Do I say good job on making the connection or don't treat your sister that way?? I went with Good job.

Fun at the Lake

Question: When does Lake Michigan look more like the Atlantic Ocean?
Answer: On Weds, 9/16! I have never seen such large waves so close to shore.
We went to a beach in Illinois with some friends. The kids had a blast and were completely soaked to the skin. But, really, they had such big smiles I couldn't be angry about the yucky laundry that would be required at home and the sandbox amount of sand that got transported home with us in the van. I think most of it had been in the Princess' underwear and in Wolfgang's swimsuit! Only one problem, he didn't take off his regular shorts before he got in the water. Really, what is going through his head sometimes? I think it's better I don't know.
Here's some pictures of the fun:

Why Silence is Not Always Golden-Part Two

And then, I walked into the dining room and this is what I saw:

It appears the Princess has set up her own beauty parlor with a special focus on hair cutting.

Poor Barbie, I guess she wanted a new 'do for school:

Oh Pretty Little Pony, I remember your long flowing locks that have been tendered by the amateur hair stylist:

And then, I saw the real evidence....

A pile of blonde, brown and multi-colored hair. Lots of blonde, brown and multi-colored hair. It seems the little stylist decided everyone needed cuts.

It's a good thing school started. Hopefully she won't be opening up shop there and offering her services to classmates. Holy mackerel!

Why Silence is Not Always Golden

When your daughter is nicely, quietly playing in the other room allowing you to get all your work on the computer done, this is why you need to check on her:

The hair is approximately 1/4 inch long at the biggest of the small lengths. At least she only hacked off half of her bangs and none of the back or sides of her hair. When she looked in the mirror she declared "I should have cut more to make it even!" Heaven help us.

By the way, did I tell you that this happened the night before the first day of school and the night before we got our pictures taken for the new church directory? Lots of pics to preserve this 'precious' memory.

First Day of School

Yeah, first day of school. We were mostly excited, a wee bit nervous, and very happy at my house. I'll let you figure out from the pictures which one was nervous. ;)

The kids went happily off to school and had a great day, although Wolfgang requested a bigger sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

I was glad to pick them up, hard to believe it, but I missed them today. Now off to get church family pictures tonight for the new directory.

Sorta Apple Cobbler

Tonight, I made teriyaki chicken drumsticks, green beans, pan fried potatoes and some apple cobbler for dessert. The kiddos RAVED about the cobbler. Once they finished it and had their dishes put away, I told them my little secret. My sorta apple cobbler did not have any apples in it. It was made with zucchini! Neither of them believed it at first and then Wolfgang requested that I make more healthier things that taste as good as the cobbler. I did have to tell them that it still had a lot of sugarand it is, in the words of Cookie Monster, 'a once in a while food' but it was quite tasty. The recipe I had was for Zucchini pie but I didn't want to take the time to make pie crust (and I had no crisco) so I made cobbler instead. It was very yummy and I will definitely make it again although I would add at least 1/4 cup less sugar. I'll post the recipe when I have a little more time.
It's fun to fool the kiddos. I need to do this again!

Trial Run

Princess is a big Kindergarten-er this year and Wolfgang is a mighty 3rd grader. To ensure that we get our morning routine down, we had a trial run at getting ready for school today.
So, this morning we got up at school time, had breakfast, and got ready. The kids even packed their backpacks with their imaginary lunches, homework and water bottles (well, Princess used her real Dora water bottle, guess the imaginary one was leaking or something). Then, we got in the car and drove to school.
And, we were 10 minutes early! We didn't actually get out and walk up to the school doors but we looked everything over really well before we moved on.
To celebrate our successful trial run, we drove through McDonalds. A couple hashbrowns and a cinnamon melt later, the kids decided that we needed at least one more trial run to practice.
I wonder if they realize that Mickey D's is not included on a regular school day?