Clarissa Lost Her First Tooth

On Friday, April 20th, Clarissa lost her first tooth. She was so excited! (She has actually been wishing for months that she could lose a tooth, especially when she would have friends that had lost one.)  The Wednesday before I looked at Clarissa and her tooth looked a little crooked, so I asked her about it. She was surprised to find out that it was loose, her new tooth was already poking up. So, she wiggled it for a couple of days, and on Friday evening, Quinn helped her pull it out. He said it was pretty loose that he didn't have to pull that hard.

She wanted to wait to put it under her pillow because she wanted to take it to school to show her friends. We convinced her that it would be just as exciting to show them the hole, and she put it under her pillow that night for the Tooth Fairy. 

April Fool's

I know I've posted a lot today, and hopefully you'll have time to check them all out. This is my last post for the day.

So, this is how we celebrated April Fool's at our house yesterday.

We invited some friends over to have a nice Sunday dinner with us, little did they know what they were getting into!



We started out with some jello juice, which everyone seemed to prefer to eat with a spoon once they got their straw un-stuck.  We poured a little juice on top of the jello, which, next time, I will leave the straw out. Everyone seems to want to play with their straw, so it was a dead give away right off. Although, later that night we fooled our nieces and nephew with the juice, we had pulled out the straw, and it was really fun to watch them try to get more "juice" out of their cup. 



We all sat down at the table, and explained that dinner was still cooking, so we would start with cake. All of the kids were very excited to eat cake first, especially the cherry candies on top!  They were very surprised when it didn't look quite right, and then the 12 year old asked to have his cake warmed up. Weird request, but Quinn was happy to grant it. The younger kids took a few minutes to figure it out and didn't really understand why it looked weird, and why we put mashed potatoes on the cake. So, it was really meatloaf, with mashed potatoes and cherry tomatoes on top.  I have seen these cakes with the potatoes dyed different colors, but Quinn really hates when food is not the right color it should be, so I kept it all white. This cake was especially convincing to our guests at first, especially since they know I decorate cakes, so they didn't think it was too weird that I had decorated a cake for "dessert".

They thought it was a lot of fun, and kept wondering and guessing what we might serve them for their real dessert.



This is the best turkey I have ever made! (Quinn makes our Thanksgiving turkeys)

 

The turkey was complete with white meat, dark meat, and even some stuffing. I made a spice cake, and a white cake. I cute up the left over cake pieces from trimming it to make the stuffing. I needed some more oranges, and some parsley to decorate the platter better, maybe next time.

They were all very excited when we brought out an entire meal for dessert. Roast turkey, peas and carrots, and mashed potatoes and gravy. The peas and carrots were Sixlets and quarted orange Starbursts, and then ice cream with caramel sauce and yellow Starbursts for butter.

One of the boys even took some extra peas and carrots home so that when his mom asked him the next day to eat his vegetables, he'd be ready!

Clarissa is already trying to plan some April Fool's tricks for next year.

Quinn's Birthday

Quinn's Birthday was on St. Patrick's Day again this year!  (Clarissa has been very interested in holidays, and trying to understand why some holidays are always on the same date, like St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, birthdays, etc., and why some are always on a Sunday like Easter and Father's Day.) 



As tradtion goes in our family, we had breakfast in bed for the birthday boy, Clarissa was very excited to make breakfast for Quinn. We made sure to pour him a big bowl of Lucky Charms that a Leprechaun left at our house. This is everyone enjoying Quinn's apple-cinnamon milkshake. Sarah enjoyed it too, she was just crawling around at the other end of the bed.

We celebrated Quinn's Birthday the next Monday with his brother's family.  We had corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.  And a green mint chocolate chip/Oreo/ganache/whipped cream covered ice cream cake.

Quinn prefers that I make him a yummy tasting cake over a creative cake shaped as something, which is ok with me, it's much easier to make. 

Clayton's Preschool

This year I have been doing a little preschool with Clayton and some other kids his age, 4 other boys, and 1 girl. We just do it once a week, for about 2 hours. We each take a turn teaching, so we teach one week, and have about 4 weeks off. It has been so nice for Clayton, and for me to have some time with just Sarah. It's a pretty basic preschool, it's mostly just play time. We have snack and one little craft or activity, but there attention spans are still pretty short.

This is just a couple of pictures of them having snack and coloring a leprechaun.

 

The hardest part has been that every single morning Clayton asks if it's his school that day, and is very disappointed when 6 out of the 7 days it is not his school. 

Sarah

As many kids do, Sarah loves wearing other peoples shoes.  Her favorite pick has been, at least until I put the away, Clarissa or Clayton's winter boots. She would just put one on, and stomp around the house. It was so fun to watch her try to keep her balance, and go around picking up toys.


 

With the weather starting to get nicer, we have been doing a lot more playing outside. Sarah fell and scraped up her forhead, as seen in the picture above.  She still has a little scar, but hopefully it will go way.

It's fun to watch Sarah at this stage, she is exploring and learning so many knew things. Just this week she has learned what her "nose" is, and loves to find hers and point to other peoples noses. 

Braving the Boston Winters!

We were prepared to have a big winter this year. Last year Boston got so much snow, so we were expecting the same.


Clarissa was very dissappointed in the snow this year, I think we all were. Although, I did not miss driving in it, cleaning off the car, and walking Clarissa to school in tons of snow. I think the entire season, we got less than 10 inches of snow. We didn't even have any snow days, which Clarissa was also sad about.

Since there was very little snow, I made sure that the kids went out to play in it, even when there was very little, and it turned to mud by walking on it.

Here's our little snowman that Clarissa and I built. Maybe next year there will be enough snow to build a bigger one. I didn't know what to use for the eyes and mouth, so we dug through our old Halloween candy and found some suckers and some licorice. Later Clarissa put a hat, mittens, and a scarf on the little snowman so he wouldn't get cold.

Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures from our Valentine Dinner this year. Last year we got a heart shaped from Papa Murphy's, and Clarissa requested it again this year. Unfortunately, they don't have a Papa Murphy's out here, so I made my own.  I made individual ones for the kids, just cut the dough out with a cookie cutter. I also cut out the ham with a little heart.  The kids loved having their own little heart.


 

Grape tomato cupid hearts.

I didn't have a way to easily make a large heart shaped pizza, so I just did heart shaped pepperoni on the big one.

Clarissa's Valentine to Quinn.

Even though Quinn and I don't really get to celebrate Valentine's day, I think we will be continuing this tradition, the kids loved it. It's fun to include them on this holiday too.

Daddy Daughter Dance

This morning I was planning on posting our April Fool's pictures, but as I was loading the pictures onto my computer, I realized I have several other things I wanted to post too. So, I'm going to start at the beginning of them and work my way through them. I really should be cleaning my house instead, but this is a lot more fun.

When we lived in Illinois oure Rec Center of our little town put on a Daddy Daughter Dance every February, just before Valentine's Day. Quinn first took Clarissa when she was 2 1/2 and she loved it. They went every year after that, and Clarissa would look forward to her special date with Daddy. When we told Clarissa we would be moving to Boston, one of the very first things she asked was "do they have a Daddy Daugther Dance there?" 

Quinn, not being the one to dissapoint his little princess, decided to organize a dance just for her. We invited the Dad's in our ward and the ward that Quinn's brother lives in. We were very surprised in a lot of ways at the great response we got. We were hoping to have at least 20-30 people there, and thought that would be a lot of fun. As the days kept getting closer to the dance, the count kept going up and up, first 20, then 30, then 50, and it kept going. We didn't do an official count that night, but I think we had around 80 people, maybe a few more.



Clarissa helped plan a lot of the stuff with Quinn. At one point she told me my job was to make a cake and that her and Daddy would do the rest. So, this was the cake, I made heart chocolates, and it was a white cake with raspberry filling. We also had a lot of people help bring other food, which was great. 

I didn't take great pictures with my camera, since I was busy making sure the punch bowl was filled, cake was cut, and other treats didn't run out.

I loved watching Quinn and Clarissa dance, it was so sweet. Clarissa loved the slow songs where she could cuddle with her Dad.

Quinn went all out, and made sure it was a wonderful evening. He had plenty of fun music, including the twist, YMCA, and of course the limbo!  He also decorated the gym, had a photo booth where everyone could get a picture, a craft to make a valentine card, goodie bags, and of course a balloon drop (which was by far the most anticipated event of the evening!)  (you can see part of the balloon drop at the top of this picture).

It really was a fun evening, and I was glad Quinn planned it, that way I had an excuse to go. I think everyone loved it, and is hoping there will be another one next year.