Tuesday

Tuesday was the last day of a very long weekend for us. Here is a little of what we did.
We ate breakfast together.

Julia was so distraught when Matt had to go to work, we decided to make him a cake.

I'd love to say that the girls decorated the cake all on their own, but that would be a lie. I am just THAT untalented at cake decorating. What I'm pretty good at though is frizzing up my my hair, specifically frizzing/curling my hair with socks. (Don't ask. HA!) Julia liked it, but Audrey didn't. I enjoyed it for a few minutes, but it was soon in a ponytail - like usual!

We also spent part of our day just posing for the camera.

And as any mom does, sometimes I just have to force kisses on my children.

See the frizz I mentioned??? HA!

I love my girls!

Homemade Pizza

Publix has lots of Italian foods on sale this week. I had a much larger than usual shopping list to take advantage of these deals as the girls and I shopped earlier today. I even decided to try something new out in the kitchen. Homemade pizza. I bought the bakery prepped pizza dough, canned pizza sauce, and cheese (all of the items BOGO, of course).

All afternoon, I had glorious visions of making this homemade pizza with my girls right by my side to help me. I really should have known better...

Those glorious visions began all right. I had just 1 helper (the other decided she'd rather watch TV with Daddy). Helper Julia started off playing with the "smushy" stuff (soft and mushy = smushy... good thinking, Jules).


There are no more pictures of us preparing the pizza, because... well... because things quickly turned ugly. The pizza dough just wouldn't spread out anymore than it is in the above picture. The dough wasn't nearly as easy to shape as I was hoping. The youtube video I watched did not adequately prepare me. Watching my "stepsister" (quotes because we've only met 4 times and it feels odd calling her that) a Papa Johns employee, prepare a pizza over Christmas break did not adequately prepare me either. My glorious visions of wonderful pizza preparation dissolved into nothingness and left me kicking Julia out of the kitchen while I went about pounding, tugging, pulling, and glaring at the totally uncooperative pizza dough.

I don't like pizza dough anymore.

Eventually, I wrestled the stuff into an almost circular shape and called Julia back into the kitchen. She helped spread the sauce and cheese on top, and I spooned garlic butter around the outer crust. When we had the pizza in the oven, I made sure to apologize for snapping at her when I was actually annoyed with the dough. Poor sweet baby.

I then let the girls play on our flour covered work space for a few minutes before we cleaned it up.



Here's our finished product.


It tasted just fine but was definitely not worth my tears.
We will not be attempting this again.

381. The simple fun of last night's campout in the living room. Audrey took a long, late nap yesterday afternoon, so she didn't go to sleep until 1:30-2:00. I was asleep well before then. Matt stayed up with the night owl.

By 3AM, Matt was up with a stomach bug. Blessing 382 - we were in the living room and didn't waken to the sound of him throwing up. Blessing 383 - Matt's main illness was short-lived, although his exhaustion and achiness is still going strong. Blessing 384 - as of 9:30 Friday night, the girls and I have yet to come down with this stomach bug.

385. A zoo membership to take advantage of in order to do something "educational" on Julia's excused absence day and in order to give Matt some quiet time on his sick day.

386. Bravery for the girls to feed some of the animals. Perhaps soon we'll be able to feed the animals with our hands and not just by holding out a cup.

387. Picnic lunch while watching Tigers!

388. The humor of one child posing for the camera and the other one not caring a bit.

389. Pizza Hut "Book It" coupons that Julia has earned. After reading 20 books, Julia turns in her reading list and receives a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. We got one of these for the girls to share this afternoon.

390. Much needed nap time for Mommy when we got back from our zoo adventure.

Counting of Blessings continued... it's been awhile!

371. Hearing the girls sing along to Adele.

372. Dinner out Saturday night with just Matt.
373. A family breakfast before school/work on Valentine's Day. We had monkey bread, eggs, and fruit. Julia's eggs were pink/red.

Audrey wouldn't smile for me...

Ah, there's a smile.

374. The fun of packing a special something in the girls' lunches on Valentine's Day. Julia's always begging for Lunchables, but she rarely gets them. I surprised her with a pizza lunch able in her lunchbox. Audrey had a heart shaped sandwich and cheese stick. I also gave each of them a couple of fruit kabobs that they loved and have asked for again.

375. Getting to peak in on Audrey throughout our days at preschool. I love seeing her with her friends.

376. Losing 5 lbs in the last 3 weeks.
377. Getting to help lead Kids Club at Julia's school. This is a Christian club that meets before school once a week. We usually have about 75 kids in the Kindergarten and 1st grade group.
378. Perkiness this morning despite the dreary weather. I was driving home from Kids Club and I couldn't help myself from getting excited. I was making silly and stupid faces to myself in the car. I'm sure I looked like a moron to anyone that passed me, but I was loving the feeling of peace that surrounded me. I don't always have this.
379. A 5 day weekend for Julia and 6 days off for me and Audrey! Baldwin County gets Monday and Tuesday off for Mardi Gras, and we're not allowing Julia to participate in a MG parade at school Friday. Her teacher said the entire day would be spent preparing for this event, so she's not even going a half day.
380. Excused absence -Within 15 minutes of my handing a letter to a school secretary explaining our religious objections to the Mardi Gras parade, Matt received a phone call from the principal saying her absence for the day was excused.

A pie and a poster

Audrey made a pie yesterday.


Mommy helped a little, but Audrey did the important stuff... you know... stir, sprinkle, lick spoon, etc. We only had 1 box of pudding and our pudding pie recipe called for two, but we Bowman ladies knew just how to improvise to add more bulk... special extras!


I think Audrey enjoyed her creation.


Julia did too.


Speaking of Julia... The Kindergarteners were to do a 100 objects poster last month, but I forgot to take a picture of hers before we sent it in. Here's a picture of the poster we got back. Several leaves have fallen off, but I still wanted to document this Kindergarten project for her.

2 things melt this mama's heart faster than most anything else:

the sweetness of sleeping babes...

... and handprint crafts