Gymnastics, Sunshine and Starch

Saturday brought Maisie's first gymnastics competition.  That's her below, in 5th place with her left hand raised and her right hand gripping her arched out stomach.  This was for her performance on the trampoline.

Below is her being awarded 4th place for the double mini trampoline.

And her last event, the synchronized trampoline she and her partner earned 7th place.

The competition was stiff.

But coming home with 3 medals at her first competition worked for her!  When asked if she liked it and want's to do more competitions, she said "No, the waiting was too long and boring.  I just want to focus on baking contests." 

I totally get it.

So Sunday Maisie asked me to help her learn to draw shadow and dimension. 

Really?

We found a sunny spot on the front porch and practiced with trees, shadows and angles.  It was my favorite part of the day. 

And the warm sun had nothing to do with it...

Meanwhile my Culinary Arts students are learning about starches.  Below is a completed Blancmange, complete with a thickened blueberry sauce. 

Don't get to excited.

During our recipe development unit, I had one group end up with cupcakes that looked like this.

If this isn't job security, I don't know what is.

Spring

Is it weird one of my concerns of moving to the country was Molly hadn't learned to ride a bike?  She and I both have the same traumatic memory of me shoving her on the lumpy grass in the Lutheran Church lawn to the point where she stood up from her bike and said, "Why do you keep pushing me into the grass?" as she held back tears. 

On Saturday, February 18th, she finally figured it out.  I absolutely love the fact that her daddy is in the photos with her as he holds a.... 'Coke'.  It was a 70-some-degree Saturday in February.

Two of my favorite people in the entire universe we're smilin' right at me holding the camera; how's a girl get so lucky?

But when your bike chain falls off you've got to entertain the photographer in other ways.

Swingin' is fun...

But a little adrenaline makes it more fun!

When your big brothers have to fix your ride.

It'll be her car before we know it... take a breath Dad, take a breath.

Sometimes I wonder if hysterical pee-in-your-pants laughter is spelled "s-i-s-t-e-r-s"?

And Maisie's baking/food obsession doesn't fall far from the tree.  She's entered a Winterset Hy-Vee Cupcake Wars contest.  We tested 2 different recipes over the weekend and finally submitted our winner Sunday morning.  If her recipe is in the top 3, she will have 2 hours to bake her cupcakes in March in front of an audience with the proceeds of her winning cupcakes going to the Winterset Theater.  Her cupcakes are a healthy version of Almond Joy's and are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  Our runner up was Cherry Coke Cupcakes (there's a Theater Theme goin' on).

Don't worry, I'll keep ya posted!

Just because.

These two after school.  Did I mention Mack's going out for baseball this summer? 

And the neighbor girl doesn't miss a beat.

Dear Spring, You are WELCOME here!!!

Missing Eclipses and Valentines Day

Mack's Science teacher offered extra credit for a photo of the lunar eclipse Friday night.  It was scheduled to occur at 6:43 p.m. I inherited a knack for going above and beyond to ensure my kids good grades at school (thanks mom), which is why I stood in the middle of the road for 30 minutes Friday night waiting for the big moment. 

I swear it didn't happen.  I felt robbed.  I came inside to make sure dinner wasn't fried on the stove check the news- sure there'd been some solar mistake.  Maybe they had the time wrong?  Nope.  The date?  Nope.  I'm still perplexed and wondering why the nonexistent lunar eclipse didn't make headlines.  Was it all a dream?  So confused.

Meanwhile, Tuesday marks Ross and Caroline's 2-week anniversary.  Right now he's stressing about HOW to give her this Valentines Gift since they don't physically talk to each other at school.  He splurged and bought her the $7.99 box of chocolates from Fareway.  He also included a Heath bar (thought is was a Health Bar?) since he's learned it's her favorite.  I finally had to tell him "No" when he asked if he could buy her the stuffed dog at Walgreens.  Good Lord.

In other news, nothing screams the arrival of Spring like seeing the girls walk the path from Grandmas with foil wrapped pie.

I was reminiscing through old blog posts as a distraction from the mountain of laundry I needed to fold and realized one year ago we'd never dreamed we'd have the 4th child in this photo.  In two short months, we'd finally see his face for the first time. 

We believed with all our hearts we could offer this child a better life by claiming him as ours. 

Little did we realize how much this little guy would bring to the table in regards to happiness.  Kinda funny how that worked out.

And to think, we could've so easily missed it.

Gymnastics, Ear Wax, Fire and Snow

Maisie has NOT been singing Rachel Platten's  "Fight Song" in front of an audience like she did last year.  (side note: feel free to follow her on musically- its' a new obsession)

This year she can be found flipping around south central Iowa Varsity Basketball games.

I can clearly remember 1988 gymnastic performances held at the Long Grove Civic center with Joan Brandon as the coach.  Those fold-up mats, the boombox, warming-up in the basement and the nerves as I wondered if I'd remember my routine and how much that double cartwheel and somersault with Heather was going to 'WOW' the crowd in their folding chairs.

 Tuesday night was Maisie's final performance and it just so happened to be at I-35 gym.  Score!

Pre-performance jitters.

 And finally, the show began.

 Sorry, there's just a lotta crotch in gymnastic photos.  Its the nature of the beast.

 Now that the final performance has taken place, we move onto competitions.  Look out Shawn Johnsons mom... there's a new gymnastics mom on the side of the mat.

In other news, we thought Ross had an obsessive tic by always opening his mouth to 'click' his jaw.  He claimed his ears felt clogged and couldn't hear well.

Turns out he was right.

Of course Mike had a bottle of 'Ear Wax Remover' available and scrubbed in for the procedure. Tuesday morning. 

Because apparently we have plenty of time before school to perform ear wax removal surgery.

Eating breakfast while the remover soaks. 

Don't judge the pancake-on-a-stick breakfast. 

We were in a time crunch and it's his favorite this week.

Ready to drain!

And by Wednesday we had a snow day.

So we walked to the woods to make a fire.  And yes, this is also how we dispose of our paper trash.

 Mack takes fire building very seriously. 

Eventually Molly and I had to walk Maisie back to the house because her feet were freezing.

Both girls left their snow boots at school and had to wear rubber rain boots.

 Molly told Maisie she was being a baby and proved it by refusing to wear gloves.

Where did we get this one?