St#ff Logan says

Logan is, how do I say this nicely, "strong-willed."  It's not necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes frustrating and other times admirable.  He is an animated and funny kid, most people like having conversations with him.  However, he does have a very short fuse.  
The other day he was very mad about something.  I have learned that the best way to talk to him when is like this is to just repeat everything he says.  The other day he was mad, mad, mad about something I couldn't understand, and our ensuing conversation went something like this:
Logan: IT JUST MAKES ME SO MAD
Me: It makes you mad?
Logan: YES!!! I CAN'T FIND IT ANYMORE!
Me: You can't find "it"?  
Logan: I LOSE IT ALL THE TIME!
Me: Okay, now I'm confused, what do you lose?
(I've gone off script even daring to ask what "it" is.  The consequences could be fatal)
Logan: MY TEMPERATURE,  HELLO! (say hello with sarcasm)
Me: You lose your temperature, or your temper? (stifling laughter)
Logan: AAGH! YOU'RE NOT LISTENING, THAT'S WHAT I MEAN, MY TEMPER!
Me: Okay, well I hope you find it soon.


That was a fun one for me.  Almost as fun as the one I had with him this past Sunday. 


Ethan: Mom!! Logan is eating a gorilla poop!
Logan: NO I'M NOT!!! I'M JUST SMELLING THE GORILLA POOP!
Me: You're just smelling the gorilla poop?
Logan:YES!! I JUST LOVE HOW THE GORILLA POOP SMELLS.
Ethan: No, I saw you eating the gorilla poop.
Logan: ETHAN, I DID NOT!! I ONLY SMELLED THE GORILLA POOPS.


At this point I have to leave the room because I'm laughing too hard and Logan takes these things so seriously that I'm not allowed to laugh when he is this upset because it just escalates his anger.


I suppose it bears mentioning that Gorilla Poops are what I call those no bake  chocolate oatmeal cookies.  I had made them that morning for primary. 
   

Ethan and Alyson's Birthdays

Ethan's 8th birthday was on May 19th.  Alyson's 11th birthday was on May 24th.  Having their birthdays so close together makes for a very hectic week for me.  It means that within the week I make two birthday cakes, two classroom treats, and I plan two birthday parties.  It's a whole lot of baking.  Every year on May 25th I swear I will never eat frosting again.
Normally I throw a "friend" birthday party every other year.  We usually invite the whole class and  then try to go to the park (it always rains here in Montana in late May), and then we play games and eat cupcakes and I make the guests goody bags for when they leave.  In an effort to simplify things this year, I asked the kids if they wouldn't mind having lower key parties where they will only invite two or three friends.  I told them I would take them to a movie or swimming or something.
Alyson thought that would be fine, but Ethan was afraid that he would hurt someone's feelings by not inviting them. 
So Ethan invited everyone in his class plus a few extra and went to the park (no rain for the first time in 5 years), and guess how many of his friends came?  Three.  That's right, three.  Oh well, I guess nobody's feelings were hurt.  I didn't plan too much, I brought a whole lot of silly string and balloons and they played for quite a while.  I can't post pictures of it as my camera ran out of batteries at the party.  He had an "R-4" cake.  No simple R2-D2 for him, no, he wanted R4.  So that was interesting.  I stacked 2 cupcakes on top of each other and and frosted them white and then I made "red" frosting and tried my best to make it look like R4.  While I was making the cake, Ethan came in and said "R4 is supposed to be red, but I guess pink is nice too."  Always trying to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.  I told him that red frosting is hard to make, but I was trying.  He was quick to explain the pink frosting to anyone who saw the cake.  I think he was a little embarrassed by it.  It did look kind of sad.  He seemed to have a fun day though. His presents included: "The Riddler's" car, a marble run, and a plasma car.
Alyson invited three friends and wanted to go swimming.  So I found a hotel in town that would let us swim for 6 bucks a person.  I brought a couple of Little Caesar's pizzas and, viola, party done.  I read a book and snapped pictures while they swam.  The hotel had a water slide and a bouncy house.  There was no time limits either so they swam for 3 1/2 hours.  They had a really good time.  Alyson wanted a digital camera for her birthday and she also got a slip-n-slide, and a reading lamp for her bed. 
I was glad she got the digital camera for her birthday, it's nicer than mine and she has all the cords so I can post here from her camera.  THANKS ALYSON! 
After reading my cousin Natalie's blog, I used her idea for an ice cream cone cake.  We had eleven cupcakes that were the scoops of ice cream.  It turned out really cute.  One of my best cakes ever (that's really not saying a lot).  We took some pictures of it with Alyson's new camera.  Then Neil was fiddling with her camera trying to learn how it works when he said "uh-oh."  Turns out he had just erased the pictures of the cake and we were half done eating it.  So there's no evidence that I made a cute cake.  
Anyway here are some pictures of Alyson's birthday party.

They are a cute bunch of girls.  The first picture is Hallie and Zoey, the next picture is Jena and Alyson.  

"Bolt" vs. "Megamind"

Normally, my mornings go something like this:

Get up, Get the kids up, Feed them breakfast, Pack their lunches, Get them in and out of the tub/shower, Get them dressed, Get their hair done and teeth brushed, Drive them to school, Come home, Put a movie on for Rylee while I get in the shower, etc, etc....

So usually Rylee wants to watch Megamind.  I'm not sure why but she loves that movie.  Well, this morning I couldn't find Megamind, so I put on Bolt for her instead.  Bolt is a movie about a dog who travels cross-country to get back to the little girl who owns him.  

While I'm in the shower, I hear this wailing start.  She sounded so upset, but not hurt.  I hurried out of the shower to find her bawling her head off about the poor dog who lost his little girl.  She was sobbing and pointing "doggie, doggie, oh no doggie."  Amazing how much of the story she understood being only 21 months old.  

I felt bad for her, but not bad enough to comfort her before I got out the camera and recorded a little of it.  It was kind of funny. (Does that make me a bad Mom?)  She was too upset to get to the happy ending and she was inconsolable when I turned it off.  So we searched (sobbing) together for Megamind until we found it.  Now she is happy and watching that.  So I thought I would try to upload the video I shot here.  We'll see if this works.

Well it sort of worked.  The video I took was a little longer than that and with better picture.  Oh well.  You will get the picture.