The party to end all parties...

The most perfect weather surprised us on Saturday for our backyard Backyardigan's party. From 3-6 we partied hard. We had 14 kids from ages 8mos (or T minus 2 months if you count Heather F's big cute belly) to 5 years old and a bunch of friends over. We spread out all of Eliot's outdoor toys/balls and just let them have at it. Eliot did surprisingly well watching all of these people play with his stuff. Enjoy the pics! (These are compliments of my dad and his new sweet camera) Sorry there's so many, I actually cut down on the ones I wanted to put on here!

Chronicles of the cakes...

Birthday cakes. They are not something I dreamed of creating when I thought about motherhood. Honestly, never even crossed my mind. When I started planning E's party last year, Sharon and Maria were all giddy in wanting to help plan and create his cake. Here's what we all came up with:


I have to admit, it was more fun than I thought. So, in preparing for birthday #2, I started brainstorming. I found a cake online that was perfect for our Backyardigans theme. Then I stumbled upon some matching adorable cupcakes. Well, you win some you lose some, right? The cake turned out great, the cupcakes...uh...well, take a look. Here's the Backyardigans (Pablo, the blue penguin, is E's favorite character):

Here's how our cake turned out:


I love it!! I can say that because I didn't make it all by myself, Russ and my parents helped too.
Here's the adorable cupcakes that I found to make online:

I would like to say that Eliot made this, but no, it was me. And my mom. This is what we came up with (If you're laughing, it's WITH us, not at us...we're laughing, too)

Not a big difference from the online pic, right? Oh my, it reminds me of the playdough Mr. Bill from when we were kids! So, we made it a 'craft' for the kids to do themselves instead of staying up even later to make more of this disaster. Good thing the cake turned out so good!

By the way, I got inspired to start using fondant after seeing Heather's birthday cake for her daughter. If you want a yummy fondant recipe, just click here!

Eliot's Birthday! (Part 1)

So much to share! I'll keep it brief so that you can see all the pics! E's big day was Friday so we started the day with an important introduction. Chocolate Chip pancakes. Eliot seemed to have no problems in getting comfortable with them!




After we cleaned that mess up we (my parents are here for the weekend!)headed to another new activity: Monkey Joes! Eliot took awhile to process all that was around him but he finally loosened up and had a good time.








After a highly important naptime, we went with Grandma and Papa to pick out E's first trike-bike. Oh my. Eliot has a trike. And he loves it. Babies don't have trikes. "Kids" have trikes. Oh my. We finished the night with opening gifts from Nana, Papa, Aunt Manda, Grandma, and Papa. He's loving this whole 'birthday' thing!

After E went to bed, the four of us worked together to finish Eliot's birthday cake for the party on Saturday. It was quite the project. I'll do a separate blog about it so you can see the finished product. I was pretty happy with it.

Subbing Story 6

Still second grade:

Student 1: Mrs. Mohr, you need more tape.
Student 2: Mrs. Mohr doesn't need tape, she needs a drink! (and she wasn't infering water or soda...)

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Student 1: My pencil broke!
Teacher (not me!): Build a bridge and get over it!
Student 1: Now my heart broke!

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Student 1: Mrs. Mohr, what time is it in jail right now?

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Me to Student: Thanks for making me laugh today! You're one of the reasons my head didn't explode today!
Student: Yeah, I'm my mom's favorite, too.

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Student 1 to student 2: Nu-uh!
Student 2 to student 1: Yes-huh. Watch!
Student 2 to me: Mrs. Mohr, can't turtles lift cars?!

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and a future second-grader:

An expensive painting.

For Mother's Day I got a painting. It was an original. It had custom framing. It was expensive in many contexts. It cost years of tests, shots, co-pays, pregnancy tests, adoption fees, postage on paperwork, airline tickets, country fees, and international ATM fees. It cost tough conversations, tears, long runs to clear my head, eight months of my "real life", strong hugs, several hard Mother's Days, thousands of prayers, and rolls upon rolls of cookie dough. If I gave you a real dollar amount we might all throw up. However, this painting is worth it. It's that good. I would pay that "price" all over again.

It was made by two little hands. Two perfect hands. Two brown hands.

The same two hands that offered me part of his waffle on Sunday morning when Russ told him that it was Mother's Day. The same brown hands that rise in the air when he hears his new favorite song because he wants to "dance" with me. The same little hands that search through my hair to find which earrings I'm wearing each day. And the same hands that have to sign "more" because he's giggling too much to talk. The same sweet hands that blew me a kiss after I said good night to him while he was already tucked into bed tonight.

I'm in love. I'm in love with Eliot, I'm in love with being his mom, I'm in love with the Lord for creating him and "us", and I'm in love with this painting.

Subbing Story 5

Second Grade:

(background: I was teaching and noticed a boy writing a note to his friend and folding it up ready to deliver.)

Me: *****, let me have the note please.
Boy: Great! Could you give it to **** for me?

He was 100% serious.

"Helping" hands?

While Russ mowed the lawn tonight, I had a "helper" with making stromboli for dinner. This is the only time I've seen someone lick flour off themselves. E was excited to use the rolling pin and was so very effective. Can you tell which side is Eliot's and which is mine? Don't miss the tower of pepperoni! He wasn't very happy with me when I spread it back out.

His favorite part was "adding" the cheese. (Adding here is a good substitution for subraction) He cooks to the rule of "One for you, three for me". Little turkey. I kept telling him to put the cheese onto the sandwich, not into his mouth. He seemed to get it until I saw this after I'd turned my back...

He actually lifted all the meat off to find more cheese to EAT!

I can't tell you how much fun it is to have a toddler. He's learning so much so quickly. I love it. This stage is so stinkin' fun!!

Big Month for FE!

Spring is officially here, the tulips are in full bloom, no air conditioning is needed yet, children are found outside playing, and you need some great music to enhance that windows-rolled-down-sunglasses-on-trip-in-the-car. Well, it just so happens that I know of a new CD coming out May 23 that you might be interested in. FE (Fundamental Elements) is Russ' band and they have an incredible new album. Here's the info on the release party:



AND!!!! Yes, And!!! They're participating in a battle of the bands that’s happening inside Busch Stadium on Wednesday, May 28th at 5:30pm before the Cards game vs the Houston Astros in the Ford Plaza (behind the center field bleachers). Here’s how you can help. As a participant of the “battle”, the St. Louis Cardinals have given them a group of tickets in section 232 of the ballpark where FE fans can sit and enjoy the baseball game all together. These tickets are normally $34, but they’re able to get them to you for the crazy good price of just $20 each. You can buy the tickets online by going to the FE website or just buy them off Russ or me.



So fun!! I'm just a little excited about this! We've been listening to the album for the last couple weeks (band-wife privilege) and it's g.r.e.a.t.! Hope to see you at one of these fun shows!!

no words...

No big deal...

Just wanted to let you know that Russ and I will be heading to Cancun for an all expense paid trip to a golf and spa resort...no big deal...