Cake Pop Update

Well, I did it. I attempted to make BOB the Blob cake pops for Sarah's upcoming birthday party. I'm very happy that I decided to do a dry run before the event because let me tell you, they aren't nearly as pretty as anything Bakerella has put out. Ready for the pictures? I'm warning you, they aren't nice!

Now as you stare at these hideous orbs of blue, please remember that they are supposed to be blob-like. I think if I had bothered to finish decorating them to look like BOB, they might have stood a chance to be not terrible. I didn't end up dipping the whole batch because they were just so unappealing to me.

Well, after making the hideous blue blobs on a stick, I gave them to my testers for dessert after lunch (testers = Mary, Rori and Leah). Mary and Rori both took a bite and declared them too yucky to eat. Leah managed to scarf down hers and ask for another. I saved one for Sarah to eat later (she was bonding with Miranda for the day) and she also declared them nasty. Actually her first comment after taking a bite was "is it OK if you just make cupcakes for my party?". She tried really hard not to hurt my feelings. What a good kid!

Long story short, everyone (except for Leah) who tried them thought the coating was disgusting. The cake/frosting mixture inside was deemed merely "OK". I can't say that I could recommend them to anyone.

Now, what am I going to do with a freezer full of cake balls? LOL!

Becky Homecky

Thanks to Jessica, I have been sucked into the joy of Cake Pops. For all of you (um...the three of you who might actually read this blog) who do not know what a cake pop is, you need to check out Bakerella ( http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ ). Tonight I'm attempting to make something that doesn't look horrible. It is my trial run before Sarah's birthday party next weekend. If they don't suck too badly I will make a batch. If they look really awful, I still have time to order something.

So stay tuned to see the outcome of what could be my finest baking disaster! Perhaps even worse than the psycho bunnies I made for Leah's birthday!

Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

We are currently knee-deep in birthday season here at the Boehm household. The season officially starts in February with Lilah's birthday and continues through June with Mary's birthday. The funny thing about all these birthdays is that I never manage to get cards and gifts out in a timely fashion. I know all year long that they are coming, yet I can't manage to plan accordingly. Geesh!

A good example would be today. Today is Colin's birthday. Colin is my godson, yet I can't manage to make a card in a timely fashion to send to him. I mustered up a e-card, but that isn't so thrilling for a 5 yr old. I would like to say that I'm busy, but really I have plenty of time. I think the real problem here is that I'm lazy. There...I said it. I'm lazy. Getting motivated is a real issue for me. So Colin, I wish you a very happy birthday and there is always next year! Oh, and Luke (whose birthday is at the end of this week), you stand about a 20% chance that I might acknowledge your special day in a timely fashion. :-)

Speaking of birthdays, I just love this picture of Leah that was taken after her birthday party was over a week or so ago. My sister got her a complete set of baby doll gear and Leah has taken a liking to the pack-n-play in particular. She drags it from room-to-room and uses it as her personal recliner. I wonder how long this thing will last if she keeps using it in this fashion?

For all you March birthdays out there - Happy Birthday!

Bein' Cultured

On Saturday morning we were trying to figure out what to do with three kids who were bouncing off the walls. Naturally, Joe came up with the idea of taking them to the Art Museum. I have to confess that it has been many years since I had been there so my memories were quite distant and slightly off-track.

For some reason, I had it in my head that the Columbus Museum of Art was really small and really boring. Color me surprised! The first floor is mainly interactive stuff for kids. The girls had a great time!!

Here is Mary trying to put together a four-sided George Bellows puzzle:

And here is Sarah trying to draw a figure in the George Bellows style:

Of course, once Mary and Leah found out that they could also draw something, they had to be in on the action. I wouldn't say that any of them had a George Bellows reproduction on their hands, but they all did pretty well. My girls all really enjoy drawing and creating some art so this part of the exhibit was right up their alley. When we were finished with George, we moved on to the Elijah Pierce exhibit which was also very interactive. Mary really had a great time playing with the magnet replicas of his scuptures. For some reason, Satan was her favorite. She called him "the guy with the tail". I suppose I should be happy that she is so innocent, huh? Here she is with her favorite magnet. Some people would say that her Hannah Montana T-shirt actually depicts satan! LOL!!

After we were finished with Elijah, Leah suddenly had an attack of being a Terrible Three and we had to go through the rest of the museum at break-neck speed. By the time we hit the Egyptian exhibit, I had a security guy following me giving me the evil eye. It was definitely time to go!

All-in-all, it was a nice activity for the girls and who knows? Maybe they might have absorbed a touch of culture while they were there. HA!

Guilt, guilt and more guilt

Every once in a while (like a couple times per year), I have to travel for work. Generally it is one of those deals where you get up at the butt crack of dawn, fly out and then return later in the evening. The last couple of trips have been slightly longer than that though. I had to go to Jackson MS in December for a couple of days and I'm here again right now for some follow-up work for a full week.

Well, a couple days of being gone really isn't such a big deal, but an entire week? Geesh! So now I'm wallowing in guilt after being gone for about 36 hours. It all started Saturday night when Sarah was slightly weepy that I wouldn't be able to tuck her in for the whole week. Then Leah chose Sunday (when I was flying out) to throw up everywhere. Just in time for me to walk out the door and leave Joe with that mess.

And then today. I call home and I'm informed that Mary had an extremely rough day at daycare today. She was reprimanded 5 + times for not being able to keep her body to herself. Not-so-coincidentally, the last time she had these troubles at daycare was when I was in Jackson in December. Now I truly feel like crap because she obviously isn't happy that I'm gone. In some ways, it would be a lot easier if she just reacted like Sarah and vocalized her feelings about being Mommy-free for a week.

I would think that they would be excited to be free of me for a while! I have a few more rules than Joe. Joe will make them very kid-friendly meals while I'm away. Why wouldn't they be thrilled to be free of me for a little bit? I just don't get it.

Ah, and then there is the guilt of leaving Joe with ALL the work for the week. Once again, a couple days is no biggie but it starts to really be a pain in the bahookie after that.

I guess I will just have to get over it and just convince my colleagues to work a bit harder so we can go home sooner.

A little bit of guilt is healthy, right?

The face of a sickie

After being cooped up all day with her sisters yesterday, Mary woke up crying and screaming that she was sick and needed to stay home. Being the fabulous mother that I am, I just assumed she was trying to play hookey from Pre-K. It wasn't until she refused to eat her cottage cheese that I KNEW she wasn't lying. That child could eat a gallon of it if you gave her the opportunity. She is like that about feta cheese as well. She has a "unique" palate which is why I know something is wrong when she is off her food.

So here is a picture of the sicko in action. Note the really lovely red-ringed, puffy eyes. In my defense, she didn't look nearly this bad earlier this morning, but she certainly has degenerated throughout the day. Now I'm trying to figure out how to convince her that a nap is a good thing. Why do kids fight napping? I would give my left arm for a good nap!

Of course, I also have to consider what this means for tomorrow. I have only been actually IN the office for a whopping four hours this week. I suppose I should just be grateful that I have the luxury to work from home when I need to, huh? :-)

I did take a picture of Mary looking not quite as pathetic. this is more like how she looked this morning when I was being mean and telling her she had to go to school! Once again, the four-yr-old wins the battle!

Hooray for Mother Nature!

Like a good chunk of the US, we were slammed with snow and ice overnight. Yeah us! I'm sitting here in my sweatpants and fuzzy fleece sweatshirt hanging out and working from home. There is just something about this time of year that makes me want to hide away in my house and not come out so I'm always looking for an excuse to stay home. We received the much anticipated auto-dialer call last night so Sarah could even sleep in for a bit. OK, "sleeping in " in this house means 6:30 - 7:00.

We actually didn't get nearly as much snow as they were calling (no surprise, we never do), but we got a boat-load of ice. Here is a picture of our deck table. You can see the thick layer of ice under a wee bit of snow. I am digging the icicles too. I also took a couple pictures of some of the trees in our back yard. I just liked how they looked. It makes the sad, droopy evergreen in the back neighbor's yard actually look pretty. I think snow makes everything look a lot prettier though. I'm sick that way!

Here is part of the big tree in our yard. The white, blobby streaks are big, fluffy snowflakes. Did I mention that I love snow? Snow rocks!

Oh, and dontcha love the grey sky? It is perpetually grey here for the duration of winter. This isn't just because we are in the midst of a snow storm.