watermelon pops, a moth's tombstone, and eyeball stew!

There is never a dull moment around here, I tell ya! Just when I think the creativity can't get anymore creative, one of my girls comes up with something that just blows me away! Last night, together they brought me a "mommy and me cookbook" that had some yummy homemade popsicle pictures in it with a quick and easy recipe ~ so I promised them we could make them. Well, first thing this morning they wanted them for breakfast, but somehow I managed to redirect them and hold them off until after mass. (whew!)

As we were making them, they both wanted to fill the popsicle molds with different liquids. I allowed them to try apple juice, coke zero, water with a squeeze of lime, and our watermelon mixture. I drew the line at caramel syrup and beer. (they didn't want to put them together, however, I still had to draw the line somewhere or we would have run out of molds before we got to putting in our homemade stuff!) Maybe I should have suggested the caramel and beer combo and maybe it would have been a hit and then maybe we would have needed to market them and then maybe we would have become local popsicle celebs. hmmmm. Crazier things have happened, right?!

Anyway, this isn't the creative part of my post.... it's still to come, after these quick photos......






The next thing to report is that we have an official resident bug rescuer in our house this summer, and Holland is her name-o! She does come complete with a little sidekick-bug-rescuer-wannabe-helper so I can't complain because now I don't have to be the assistant! Anyway, in just this last week, she rescued a moth with a broken wing, captured a caterpillar at audobon park, dug around in the mud for a couple of roly polies, and then today she caught a dragonfly bare handed!

As she was nursing the moth back to health, it somehow took a turn for the worse (i.e., got squished) and died. She insisted on a funeral, and she made all the arrangements herself! She buried "frisy" (pronounced "frizzy") the moth in a play pie tin covered with sand with a rock headstone that she decorated all on her own! Here..... see for yourself:



Cute, huh? (and quite creative, too ~ remember that was one of the main points of this ridiculously long post)

Well, since we are speaking of creative, I saved the best for last...... EYEBALL STEW....... (and I don't really have anything to add to that - it kinda speaks for itself!)



And to think I have missed a whole year of this sort of thing by not blogging. : (

I'm back though so stay tuned for more ashmash tales to come!

last day of kindergarten

just a few months ago, we were walking holland to school for her first day of kindergarten, and now here we are driving her to school for her last day of kindergarten! (it's funny how things change over the course of a year - we were so eager to walk to school every day at the beginning of the year, and i am embarrassed to say that we drove 90% of the time, and we only live about 5 blocks away). pathetic, i know.

she has had a wonderful year at school and she really loves going. she absolutely adores her teacher, and will miss her terribly. we were saddened to hear a few weeks ago that 6 of the teachers at her school, including her kindergarten teacher, were let go due to financial crisis and decreased enrollment. not good.

i will just leave it at that.

so on a much more pleasant note, i introduce to you our very own-soon-to-be-first grader.......

a couple more birthday shots!

my june bug turns 3 and the return of ash mash, the blog

My oh my! Where in the world do I even begin? (I guess I unintentionally took a year off!) I have been thinking for the last few months that I would like to start the 'ole blog back up again, but it was sort of overwhelming to try and pick a random date. As the months and months without blogging stacked up, it seemed impossible to pick up where I left off so after giving it more thought, and letting more and more months stack up, I thought it would be appropriate to just literally pick up where I did leave off - Dylan's birthday. So without further ado....

Happy Birthday, my little june bug! And hello long lost blogging buddies!



Our birthday celebration started a little early this morning! Holland woke up at about 6:30 this morning, and ran over to Dylan's bed and jostled her around a bit telling her to "wake up" "wake up". Holland reported that Dylan kinda groaned, shouted "no", rolled over, and pulled the covers over her head. So then, Holland quickly and energetically reminded her that it was her birthday (she couldn't just let her fall back fast asleep, you know! After all, it was her sisterly duty to get her up and ready to celebrate).

Holland told us that Dylan just heard the word "birthday", kicked off the covers, and jumped eagerly out of the bed!

By this time it's about 6:4oish and I hear a set of pitter patters coming down the steps. Holland was dressed in her school uniform and Dylan was dressed in her birthday girl shirt and mixed matched pants that were sitting out on her bedroom floor. Holland quickly rushed Dylan into the kitchen to see the birthday presents and balloons that the birthday fairy had left, and I kinda rolled over, glanced at the clock, and wished this wasn't happening quite yet! I did somehow manage to get Dylan to come into the bed with me for some "birthday cuddles", but this only lasted until 6:52, and then the party got started!

All in all, it was a good birthday -

chocolate chip muffin top with candles, birthday song, zhu-zhu pet accessories from holland, new sandbox toys, new gardening tools, a Diego DVD, balloons all over the place, birthday tutu, a ribbon to follow all through the house to unveil the beautiful new dollhouse filled with furniture, mini bday photo shoot, a mobius "hungry caterpillar" reading and art activity, lunch at dylan's favorite restaurant with grandma & grandpa (the noodle express), more presents (webkinz pelican, bird stuffie, a lemur stuffie, a new baby doll, and some bday cash), back home for some sandbox playtime, out to fishtrap lake to try out the new swing set grandpa built, cookies and ice cream with more candles for dinner, walk to the lake, playtime in grandpa's boat, back home again, bedtime reading of excerpts from bedrest boutique, a reading of last year's favorite book (brown bear, brown bear) followed by lots of birthday girl cuddles and snuggles.

I seriously can't believe my baby is three! I have been telling her jokingly for weeks that she needs to stop growing and that I am so sad that she is not a baby anymore. This is usually followed by a fake pouty lip and silly wail of a cry from me, in which she replies, "I can still be your baby". "I can always be your baby".

And then I say, "seriously?" "you can still be my baby even when you are a big girl?" and she says, "yes, I can still be your baby even when I'm a big girl!".

I then hug her repeatedly, squeeze her tight, swing her around, say "oh good! I'm so, so glad you are gonna be my baby", and then we both giggle with delight!

Those words have been music to my ears for months now, and they help soothe the sting of her growing up so fast. Unfortunately, tonight at bedtime, she was short and to the point when she broke it to me.....

"Mommy, I'm not your baby anymore because now I'm a big, big girl". (at least she waited until the end of the day to tell me!)

Apparently, I didn't listen close enough to our verbal agreement - it was only until she was a "big girl" and now that she's three, she's entered the "big, big girl" phase - so the deal is off.

she's not my baby anymore.....

(sniff sniff)