Brownie Biscuit

I'm sure you're wondering what the hell is a brownie biscuit. It surely isn't food. That would be just a little nasty. Little Dude has a Webkinz Jr. monkey. His name is Brownie Biscuit.

Brownie Biscuit is starting to look a little sad around the edges. His tail no longer curls. He can no longer sit unassisted. He is definitely well loved. So well loved that we have to celebrate his birthday. This little tidbit of information was sprung on my out of nowhere the other day.

Since Little Dude was so excited about his monkey's birthday, I had to get in on it. I told him we would pull out the Easy Bake oven and make some cakes. I would like to point out that is the Easy Bake oven was really "easy', it wouldn't have taken us an hour to bake those cakes!

But in the end it was worth it. And from what I was told, the cakes were really good. I didn't get a bite.

Until next time...

Red mohawks and a walk

If you read yesterday's post, than you already know that the 4th of July is a busy holiday for us.

On the 4th itself, things really get busy. Especially this year.

Of course we all don our red, white, and blue. Little Dude wanted his hair sprayed red and blue again this year. Thankfully GG opted out of it. Last year, the red stained her hair for 2 months!









Along with the spray colors, Little Dude also wanted a mohawk. Surprising it held up most of the day! Please don't ask why he looks stoned in this picture. He has the same look in almost all pictures I take!

This year was especially busy because we were walking in the parade with the Girl Scouts. Little Dude was supposed to try and walk with the anti-bully group for the schools, but he somehow managed to stay with us girls.

While I walked with our troop and our lovely float built around a stroller

Little Dude took a ride in the van. The whole entire route!

After we successfully walked (and rode through) the parade, we made the trek back home for lunch. I had to make a quick trip to my mom's before heading to a picnic at a friend's house. I think this is a picnic we might have to go to every year. Both of my kids had friends there, as did I. As well as good food and good drinks! Everyone needs a little whipped cream vodka for the holidays!

As the sun began to set behind the storm clouds, a friend and I, with our 5 collective kids in tow, began our walk uphill to the high school stadium for the firework display. We found a good spot where everyone could see and my friend's stroller was easily accessible. As soon as a drum and bugle corps began to play, the sky opened up. For the second night in a row, we were caught in the rain. Thankfully my friend's husband, who volunteers for the 4th of July committee, was there. He found us a nice dry spot in the press box to wait out the storm.

The rain finally stopped and it only delayed the start of the fireworks by 10 minutes. We found a new spot to sit and waited for the show to start. It was well worth the wait!

Yes, this is a firework!
Pretty awesome, right?!

Wordful Wednesday by

and


Until next time...

I will survive

I survived a Girl Scout overnight trip! I want to know why the adults don't get a patch for that? It's quite an accomplishment to make it out alive!

I have to give much love to those who host this event. Everything was very organized and very fun. Yes, even I had fun. Until the sleeping part.

The night started out with group events. The 314 of us were split into 3 groups and we rotated between 3 stations. Our group, the orange group, started off with the campfire. That really worked out because I was starving! The girls and adults roasted wienies and made s'mores. The best part of that event? Hearing someone yell "Watch where you put your wienie!".

Our next station was inside the dome and went off relatively well. Until the end. We made tie-dye shirts, which turned out great. We also made letters to the troops. Before it was time to move on, the girls in my troop were goofing around. GG was tackled by one of her friends and it was ugly. She landed on her shoulder funny and I was afraid she dislocated it. She moved it a few times, but I could still tell it hurt her. She refused to let me take her to someone to have it looked at and instead she opted out of participating in our next station, mini golf. She showed her friends the proper way to hold the club and would retrieve their balls when they hit them too far. Even though she was hurt, she still had fun. The funny thing is, her shoulder miraculously healed when I told her she couldn't ice skate if she was hurt.

Before heading to the main building where the ice rink was, we had to stop back at the dome and change into warmer clothes. GG had to use the bathroom so I decided to take her and we would meet our troop in the other building. Of course there was a line at the bathroom. This kind of thing tends to happen when you only have one toilet available. The other one was just nasty! Yes, one bathroom for 314 people. There were 4 porta-potties, but personally, I have to be really desperate to even go near those!

Finally it was almost our turn. We just had to wait for the woman in front of us to finish. I don't know what the hell she was doing, but perhaps a porta-potty would have been a better option for her. I did hear paper ripping and I can only assume she was lining the seat before she sat. Then there was a bunch of shuffling and jingling. Possibly a belt? We stood there for 5 minutes and I'm still not sure she did anything! Perhaps I should have printed out Momma Kiss' rules on proper bathroom etiquette and shared them? Or perhaps she knew these rules and was trying to make us leave so she could get some privacy (see previous comment on her using the porta-potties because you're not going to get privacy when there's a frickin line!).

GG and I ended up walking out and decided to find the bathrooms in the other building. We peed, she got skated up, and headed out on the ice with her friends. The girls and some other adults who were not me skated for about an hour before we headed back to the dome, where we would be sleeping.

We set up our sleeping in prime real estate on the lovely hard as a rock green astroturf. We wanted a good view of the movie, which would start promptly at 11:15. That's past my bedtime, but I really wanted to see Tangled. I can tell you it was a really good movie. Up until the point where Rapunzel escapes from her tower. That's when I crashed. I woke up a few times through the night because I couldn't feel the side of my body I was sleeping on. If you've ever slept on astroturf, than you understand. If you haven't, it's probably more comfortable sleeping on a brick road.

And just when I finally fell into a deep sleep.... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. Some bitches set their alarms for 6 o'clock in the bloody morning! Who does that?! The lights were coming on at 7. If that didn't wake you up, then the girls who were woken up by the lights surely would have gotten you up. Thank goodness coffee was provided.

I think everyone had a good time. I know I did, but I really have to wonder. Last week, I read a post by Erin about things that SAHMs should be paid for . If I were to add "Surviving a Girl Scout sleepover" to that list, how rich would I be?



Until next time....

Send some luck please

Before send out my plea for help, I do want to take a moment to point out that Girl Scouts is a great organization.

For the girls. Adults? Not so much!

GG has been in scouts for a few years now and she looks forward to each and every meeting. I have been a leader for almost 2 years now and I dread each and every meeting. The meetings with the girls as well as the leader meetings.

Tonight I get the pleasure of experiencing my very first sleepover as a leader.

Enter plea for help.....NOW!!!


Assuming we don't get lost, we should arrive a little after 6pm. From the time we arrive to 11pm, the schedule is packed. There will be ice skating, tie-dye shirt making, hot dog roasting and s'more making. I am looking forward to the activities. The other girls who will be there? I'm scared. The place where we are going can hold up to 600 people for these overnight trips. That's a lot of girls all between the ages of 5 and 9.


Enter plea number 2..... NOW!!!


At the end of the night, oh, say, around 11:15 a movie will be shown on the ceiling of the arena. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to show a movie this late a night, but whatever. The best part is, we all get to sleep on astroturf to watch the movie.


Enter plea number 3.... NOW!!!


Assuming we all make it through the night, we can all wake up bright eyes and bushy tailed at 7am for breakfast. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I am anything but a morning person. People who know me refuse to talk to me until I've had at least one cup of coffee. The people I am spending the night do not know this. It could get ugly!

You might think this sounds like a fantabulous time, and it sort of does. You might also think that GG and I can return home Saturday morning (they kick us out of there at 8) and sleep all day. This one you are wrong. Both of my kids have soccer games so we will be at the field from 10:30 to 12:30.


Enter plea number 4.... NOW!!!!


If I make it through the night, I fear I won't survive the morning. Please wish me luck and keep me in your thoughts during what could be a tough time.



Until next time (hopefully)....

I need a fix

Wednesday nights can be miserable nights for me. Thankfully it's only once a month that I really have to put up with it.

I'm a Girl Scout Leader. Once a month on a Wednesday, the leaders have a meeting. We discuss what each troop is doing and any events that are coming up. All we do is talk and sometimes I take notes. You wouldn't think listening to someone talk for close to 2 hours would be tiring. But it is.

After every meeting I come home, plop my butt on the couch, and watch crappy TV. My brain just cannot function.

But that has since changed.

The other leader of our troop has been bringing her baby to the meetings. Leader meetings have turned into baby time for me. He's a big boy, but oh, so cute. When her arms just can't hold him anymore, I gladly take over. If she needs to do something, I will gladly take a hold of him while she works. Sometimes I wonder if I just have that look in my eye that screams "I need a baby fix!!!'


I absolutely love babies, but the husband and I have decided that 2 is enough. Hell, sometimes Little Dude by himself is more than enough! But anyway, the husband has very justified reasons for stopping at 2 and quite frankly, we couldn't swing it right now even if we wanted another baby. Financially and spatially. Although he probably wouldn't have to twist my arm too much if he did change his mind.

For now, it's probably best that I get my baby fix through other people's children. Plus, I can give those kids back when they start to cry. That's probably the best part!


Until next time....

How to decorate a cake

Last Thursday was our Brownie troop's long awaited "field trip" day.

Why is field trip in quotes? Because we really didn't go anywhere. We had someone come to where we meet.

A friend of mine decorates cakes. I learned a few months ago that she also teaches cake classes. I knew this would be perfect for the girls in the troop.

She provided all of the supplies - cakes, icing, fondant, tools, and went to work teaching the girls how to decorate their little 6 inch cakes.

The cakes were frosted with butter cream icing that was to die for! Then they had pink, purple, and green fondant to use for bows and flowers.






Sadly neither of those cakes belong to GG. I'm a bad mom and forgot to take a picture of her cake until it was cut and partially eaten.

But I did get a picture of her enjoying her slice.

As well as one of her pretty roses.

Wordful Wednesday by

and



Until next time....

Pure Torture

Surprise, surprise, it snowed.

I could share a picture with you of the 7 inches that wreaked havoc on this city Monday night as well as Tuesday morning, but I won't. Not only am I sick of snow, I'm sick of taking pictures of the snow.

So instead I'm going to share the ultimate form of torture!






Last Friday was Girl Scout cookie delivery day. The truck comes, us leaders help unload it, and then we stop and stare.






Some cases are smaller than others so you can't see every type of cookie in this picture. I took this after we were done unloading the truck. There are well over a thousand cases of cookies in those piles. Most sections are 150-200 cases across as well as 2 or 3 rows deep. That's a lot of cookies.

The torture? You may think it's the constant bending over to unload the cases, or counting everything to make sure we have the right amount, but it's not.

It's pure torture to be surrounded by over a thousand cases, more than 12,000 individual boxes of cookies and we can't touch a single cookie!

After the truck is unloaded, leaders collect all the cases their troop ordered. Then leaders have to break down those cases to the individual girl level. And then we wait for those girls to come and pick up their order. The whole process took 5 hours.

We all seem to have a good system when it comes to this, but I couldn't wait to get home so I could open up my own boxes. 5 hours looking at something so yummy and not being able to touch it? I repeat, pure torture!!!




Wordful Wednesday by

and



Until next time....

I just can't do it!

The past few days have been full of ups and downs. Mostly ups and downs for me. Just when I would get excited over something, it would be followed by a disappointment. Let me explain...

In preparation for the Super Bowl, our school declared last week black and gold week. J and I had decided to do something during our Brownie meeting that would coincide with all the black and gold stuff.

Her and I both crochet. I have tried to teach GG a few times, but with no luck. Honestly, it took me a while to figure it out. All I have to say is thank goodness for YouTube! What made it even harder to teacher her is the fact that she's a lefty. I'm not.

At our meeting last Thursday, we decided to teach the girls how to make the basic crochet chain. They would use yellow yarn and add some black beads. It took longer than anticipated, so we plan to do another tutorial at a later meeting. We were only able to show a few of the girls, but GG was one of them. It wasn't me who finally helped her to figure it out how to make a chain, but hopefully in the future I can help her learn more.

My excitement over her new skill continued into the next day. But Little Dude had crushed my excitement. It wasn't intentional, but that doesn't make me feel any better!

The 4 of us were in the car on the way home from picking the husband up from work when I hear a noise. I wasn't sure what it was so I let it go. The boy makes weird noises because he's a goofy kid. Sometimes it's better not to ask. He does it again. Sure enough it sounded like a whistle. When we were stopped I looked behind me and asked him to do it again. He did. And then GG joined in, followed by the husband. I'm surrounded by 3 whistling fools and I am not happy about it!


They tried giving me pointers and telling me to keep practicing. I'm sorry, but some people just can't whistle!




Until next time....

Rudolph with your nose so bright

Hey yinz guys! It's Friday!


Thank goodness. This was my one week a month that was full of meetings. I hate those weeks! I certainly don't want to end the week on a sour note, so I thought I would show off the craft my Brownie troop made this year.





Supplies needed:

Large tan colored pom-poms

Dark brown pipe cleaners

Small eyes

Small red pom-poms

Clothes pins

Scissors

Tacky glue or a hot glue gun


1. Cut a pipe cleaner in half. Cut one of the halves in half again. Bend the larger piece into a "U" shape. Twist one of the smaller pieces around each of the ends. Glue to the back of the tan pom-pom.

2. Glue the eyes and nose to the front of the tan pom-pom.

3. Glue the tan pom-pom to the top of a clothes pin.


If you use tacky glue, you may have to hold the pieces in place for a minute or 2 for the glue to set. Once you have your reindeer assembled, you can clip him to a branch on your Christmas tree.





Enjoy!


For more fun stuff, please go visit Amy at Keeping up with the Schultz Family




Until next time....

It's funny how the world works.

I wasn't voted into office for the PTA, but I might as well have been. My friend, J, is the secretary. She is also in charge of the memberships. She's pregnant and was due Friday. For her sake, she better have that baby over the weekend!

This PTA membership stuff makes me kinda glad I wasn't voted into office. Number crunching and paperwork does not suit me pre-coffee. I could take the stuff home to work on it, but apparently that side of my brain doesn't function that early in the day!

Really I don't mind the work. It keeps me up to date on the going on's inside the school and helps curb my addiction to Bejeweled Blitz! But that's not the point of this. My point is that I feel included.

I am almost always the one on the outside looking in. It's not always fun, but there are perks. Sometimes it's better to watch things unfold from a distance than to be smack dab in the middle of it all.

This feeling like I'm a part of something is foreign to me, but I must say I like it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to work on the Brownie meeting stuff. The group may be small, but they are far from quiet. Our plans don't always go accordingly!



Until next time....

An obstacle course and a cow

Last Saturday was our local Community Day. Yet again I get roped into volunteering to help, and as it turned out I wasn't even needed.

Let me back up and start from the beginning - the fun part.

I wanted to get a good parking spot so we got there when the whole thing started, at 1pm. As it turned out, that was never going to be an issue. Maybe because it's only year 2 of said Community Day, but there really weren't that many people there at any given point in the day.

The husband joined us, which was equivalent to pulling teeth. I needed a way to get Little Dude home so he wouldn't drive me crazy get bored when it came time for me to sit at the Girl Scout booth.

Little Dude had asked to do the climbing wall. We didn't think his legs were big enough to get very far, but we let him try none the less. Surprisingly he made it half way to the top. That's about 20 feet up! But then his foot slipped and he was stuck. Apparent;y 50 pounds is not enough weight to let him slowly descend back to the ground. Once we got the guy's attention, he had to climb up and pull Little Dude back down. But all in all, his climb was pretty impressive.

After seeing her brother do it, of course GG had to give it a try. She made it almost as far up as her brother. Again, pretty impressive. Much better than I could have done! At first she was disappointed, but as we pointed out, along with her friend's dad, she made it further up than he did. I love when a girl can do something better than a boy!

I really wish I had the video to show you. I spent over an hour last night trying to figure out what the heck I was doing. I did manage to get both of their climbs on video on my phone. But when I finally figured out how to upload it to my computer, the darn things were sideways!

Again, smart phone, dumb user!

But I did mange to get a picture of Little Dude going through the inflatable obstacle course - the one he was too little to get through last year.




The big event was Cow Patty Bingo. For those of you not familiar with this, let me explain.

There's a fenced in area and in this area a grid is painted on the field. A cow comes and is let into said area. The job of the cow is to do it's business on one of the squares. Whoever bought that square wins money.

Just like leading a horse to water, you can lead a cow to a field, but you can't make him poop. And believe me, they tried! Maybe next year, they should feed Candy some fruit before she comes out!





As for my time volunteering, I said I would help and they were watching me walk around with my kids for a good 2 hours. I couldn't' very well blow them off. So off to help I went. At any given time, there were more volunteers/Girl Scouts than there were kids who wanted to make our little craft. But I did stay to help clean up, so my time there did have some sort of purpose.



Until next time....

Silver and GoldOr Maybe Just Gold

Go vote for the Umbel kids @ parenting BY dummies Photo Contest! Please and thank you!

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Last Sunday GG had the honor of helping in her cousin's Gold ceremony.



The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. A girl, either as an individual or with her troop, must do a special project in order to receive this award. My cousin, with the help of her troop, made 2 quilts that would be mailed to wounded soldiers.

My cousin was asked if she had a sibling or cousin in scouts who would like to help with the ceremony. Her sisters are both older and GG is the cousin who lives the closest.



I dropped GG off Sunday morning. It takes about a half hour to get to their house and then it would take another half hour to get to the hotel they needed to go to. Poor girl spends so much time in the car anymore it's ridiculous! But Sunday - it was worth it!

GG practiced her role before the ceremony with and when it was time for the ceremony, GG was the leader of the flag ceremony. Because she also had to lead the closing ceremony, she was one of the first to eat her lunch. That meant she had time for not 1, but 2 ice cream sundaes. Complete with hot fudge and sprinkles from what I hear!

She brought home a program from the ceremony. Her name is not it in, but she cannot wait to show her troop and tell them all about it. I really hope this experience made an impact on her and someday she, too, will try for her Gold Award.









Until next time....

I Think We Should Have Bought a Back-Up Plan

So last night I had a Brownie meeting. We only have one real meeting left and then our end of the year ceremony. I'm happy the Girl Scouting year is almost over, but I'm a little sad, too. Anyway, our meeting last night focused on the Make It, Eat It badge. I finally found a no-bake cookie recipe we could make and the other leader had a recipe for fizzy punch stuff. We each kept coming across recipes for such cookies where you had to melt butter and/or chocolate on the stove first. I guess we should have specified with Google that we meant no-bake and no-cook! Anyway, here's the recipe I finally found...

No-Bake Peanutty Oat Treats

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
2 cups (any combination of) raisins, diced dried mixed fruit, miniature marshmallows, shredded coconut, chopped peanuts, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels or mini candy-coated chocolate pieces

In large bowl, combine peanut butter, sugar, milk and vanilla; mix well.

Stir in oats and remaining ingredients.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Let stand until firm.

Store tightly covered.

Makes 4 dozen.

(credit here)

We split into 2 groups. My group used chocolate/peanut butter chips and the other group used marshmallows. We would let the girls have some for a snack and the rest were going home. While we were waiting for the cookies to set so they wouldn't be a complete gooey mess when they ate them, we had them color a few things that will be used in our ceremony in a few weeks. We also had them take turns adding ingredients to make the punch. The other leader and I were trying to bag some of the cookies to take home when we realized they were still a gooey mess. Did you notice that an exact time to sit isn't mentioned in the recipe? Ya, that would have been real nice!

The girls loved the cookies and the punch was met with some mixed reviews. I'm not sure what happened to the cookies the girls took home, but I can tell you that ours turned into one giant sticky cookie!

Until next time....

Suggestions are Advisable

Thank goodness the black cloud has disappeared. As a matter of fact, things started going uphill after that moment, thank goodness.

Little Dude and I decided to take a walk yesterday afternoon to enjoy the nice weather while it lasted. I wish we would have had more time last night so GG and I could have walked to our Brownie meeting, but we get back from picking Chris up around 5, have dinner, and rush to the meeting by 6. The Brownie meeting was rather amusing. It also helped to reinforce the fact that I am not as young as I'd like to think. We are working on the Girl Sport patch, so exercise has been the topic for the past 2 meetings. We stretch and then do activities like throwing and catching. I use the excuse that these girls are smaller than me and that's why they are so flexible. Can we just stick with that, please? And by the way, giving 1st and 2nd graders balls to throw and catch inside is NOT a good idea! I thought someone would lose a limb!

The conversations these girls were having while they were throwing and catching were funny! I don't think they realize how loud they are. And some of them seem to talk just to talk. I realized during these conversations, that I am really tired of hearing about Justin Beiber and Hannah Montana. Oh, and the Twilight stuff. One of the girls is obsessed with it! I'm not sure if that's something an 8 year old should be obsessed with, but I'm not a Twilight person. I could be wrong.

We also asked the girls for ideas for field trips now that we have the money in from the cookie sales. I guess that question was a tad too general. The responses we got were Disney and Hawaii. Sorry, we didn't sell THAT many cookies girls! So then they came a little closer to home and suggested the zoo or Kennywood (local amusement park). I can maybe see the zoo because they do have group programs, but I am NOT going to be held responsible for a bunch of girls at a big, crowded amusement park! Me and the other leader suggested a horse riding thing, which was a huge hit, and then a few places involving food. Food always works!

So if you ever have to ask a group of girls where they want to go, give a few suggestions first! Open-ended questions are not the route to go!


And now it's Friday and I am so glad for that. This whole week was crazy. But what week isn't when you're a mom?! If we weren't running around, someone was sick. So I have declared today a quiet day.

Ok, maybe not since Little Dude is freaking out over yet another bug.

Midday Escapades
One 2 Try
Hearts Make Families

Until next time....

I'm Changing My Name

Yes, soccer season starts this week. For GG anyway. And the one time I forgot to mention on the registration which nights weren't good is the season she has practice on a bad night.
Due to Brownies, she'll have to miss every other practice. But I want her to go this week because it's the first practice.

My mom agreed to take her - thanks Mom!!!

But remember that 3 feet of snow we had that just melted? It is a mud pit out there!
And let's pretend my house is at sea level...
That would make her practice field on the ocean floor.

I saw this in my horoscope today.
It's a reference to friends.
So to anyone I've formed a friendship with out there
Thank You!

I feel like crap so while I'm trying to get better,
click the Post-It below.


Until next time....