Fun with Food

Ella came home from school so excited. She went to her first Deployment Buddy meeting. Since the kids go to school on an Air Force base and most of the students come from military families, deployments are a common practice and the school tries to help make them a little easier for the students by doing something fun once a month for the kids with a deployed parent. So, Ella went to a special class today and got a fun package with papers, stickers, envelopes and other things to help her write letters to her dad. She also got a cool new teddy bear that was welcomed into her room with open arms. Here she is with all her goodies:

And, totally unrelated, here is Mason when he dresses himself:

Watch out all you cute Nursery chicks: Mason is on the move!
On Thursday, we go to piano lessons. It was raining, so I parked and let the kids watch a movie while I practiced my German. The first clue that something was wrong was when I tried to open Jaxon's door automatically for him to get out, and nothing happened. Oops. I hadn't turned the car headlights off for the past half hour. Now, that really shouldn't be a big deal, right? But my battery stinks so it was pretty much kaput. We had lights, could run the movie, but the engine wouldn't turn over. Darn. I had half an hour til Jaxon's lesson was over. We were warm, safe, and no one had to pee (thank goodness) so things could have been a whole lot worse. So, who do I call? Again? "CHRISTY!!!" She drops everything and comes to rescue me in the rain. She jumps my car and we are off in no time. THANK YOU CHRISTY!!! By now Jaxon was done, the kids were hungry, and I was thinking about trading in my car. We hit the drive thru at McDonalds since it has been a few weeks since the Golden Arches have been visited by us, and little did I know how educational french fries could be. Look at Ella practicing her spelling with her pomme frites:

On Friday, I watched Olivia for a while. We are going to start swapping kids so I can add one more German class to my week and her mom can do Pilates by herself. I have decided Friday mornings will be our baking mornings, (how that is different than most other mornings, I don't know, since I love to bake any day, any time, any where) but I thought it would be fun for Mason and a little friend to make something fun once a week together. And since this is the start of October and the official start of Halloween season, we started off with Halloween cupcakes. Here are the budding chefs decorating their cupcakes:

Friday afternoon was dry for a little while so we could play outside a few minutes. The weather has been getting colder and the rainy season has definitely begun. We took advantage of the break in the wetness to run around a bit:


Our petunias are on their last breath and need some serious CPR to revive them. Ella and Mason started picking them and playing with them. Here's Mason bringing one to his favorite girl. Oh, why yes, that would be ME!


And here's Ella reminiscing about her Hawaiian days, trying to remember how to luau:

On Saturday, Christy and I headed off in the rain to go to the Homburg Flea Market. We die hards were there, looking for a great deal. Christy found some fun things, I found a fun wooden rocking horse for Mason and a wooden doll bed for Ella. Oh, yeah, I guess I found a little something for me too:

Isn't it cool? Doesn't it make you want to be a pioneer just so you can load this bad boy up and start trekking through the woods? Or maybe throw some kids in the back and go for a stroll? Or put a few beautiful plants/flowers in it and enjoy the whole vision? Endless possibilities...
Ella showed us a fun snack this afternoon. Her class has been learning about apples, so the other day they had some fun with apples, peanut butter and marshmallows. The ingredients were alright in my book, so we tried to replicate it at home. Here are Ella and Mason making 'mouths' out of the apple slices and 'teeth' out of the mini marshmallows: