Molly is Three

cork·er  (kôrkr) n.
1.  A striking, outstanding, remarkable or astounding person or thing

I was going to type a bunch of things about my magnificent Molly,but I think the pictures say it all!!

I love you my little Miss Molly!!

halloween 2011

As is our annual Halloween tradition, we went trick or treating on Mai Street Placerville.

This year Scott was Captain Picard, (complete with phaser and tri-corder app!)  I was a spiderweb and Jonah was my spider, chloe was Athen, Dillon a robber, and Molly a butterfly!

Chloe looked sad there, but really she was just looking at her candy….

Here is Dillon’s awesome pumpkin;

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

pumpkin time!

We try every year to get to Apple Hill and hit the pumpkin patch for our Halloween Jack-o-lantern needs!  So for FHE we loaded up (most) of the family and headed out.

Daddy grabbed his pumpkin,

and I had mine,

ha! I LOVE that picture! here is his normal face:

When we got home we finished the night off with roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on our little bonfire (are bonfires supposed to be big?, so is that an oxymoron? )

It was a perfect fall day and we had a great time!

backyard movie night

We celebrated Dillon’s 14th birthday by having a backyard movie night.  We invited the family, had cake and ice cream and watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure on the side of the house while munching on 3 different kinds of popcorn from the “popcorn bar”.  It was SO fun!

here are some of the crazy cousins:

here is a really bad pic of the movie, but you get the idea…

last minute cake decorationg:

The cake was really good, i doctored up some mixes to make a choc/vanilla marble cake and made a basic chocolate frosting..

The best cake mix doctoring I have come across:

mix up the batter according to the directions, and in addition add:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
big dash of salt
1 TBS vanilla extract

YUM!

During the movie Molly went in the house and came out a little later with sticky fingers… upon investigation I found this:

I am actually surprised it wasn’t much worse… she annihilated a cake I made a couple of weeks ago….

Here is what I did for the popcorn bar:

I made the popcorn cones for everyone, and bought scoops at the dollar tree for serving.  The cherry popcorn was the favorite, it was totally gone at the end of the night, but my favorite was the pb n chocolate!

All in all it was a hit and we can’t wait until our next backyard movie night!

how many flags?

Six Flags!

Chloe earned a free ticket to Six Flags for reading a bunch of hours, and also in celebration of Dillon’s 14th birthday this week we took the family to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.  We got there half an hour after opening and stayed till closing (which was only 8:30).

We saw the Shouka show.  It was so amazing to me to see that huge whale!  Seriously, HOW do you train those things?

Jonah was actually quite good.  He’s getting to be quite a little traveler this summer!

How’d I get so lucky??

Some of the cousins earned tickets too!

check out these cuties:

it was so fun to take Molly on all the little rides, she Loved it

It was a good day

Jonah James Langdon

Here is our darling baby boy, number 5!

born on June 25th,
weighing in at 9 lbs 12 oz
and a long 22 3/4″!!

welcome to the chaos Jonah!!

stay tuned….

I’m coming back to blog land!!  It is the best journaing i’ve ever done and I miss it!  So stay tuned, I will be back in the saddle again SOON!

-J

little miss

Molly Jane you are growing up way too fast!

you have the cutest little fingers:

and the busiest little toes!

I wish you had a pause button sometimes!

flashback to yesteryear

me:

scott:

notice the same wood paneling, the funky furniture… can’t you just hear the Carpenters playing in the background?

Golden Truths

I came across this while preparing to teach a “positive parenting” class.  I thought it funny and so so true!

More Golden Truths…
(Author Unknown)
Things I’ve learned from my children (honest and no kidding):
(1) There is no such thing as child-proofing your house.
(2) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
(3) A 4 year-old’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
(4) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing pound puppy underwear and a superman cape.
(5) It is strong enough however to spread paint on all four walls of a 20 by 20 foot room.
(6) Baseballs make marks on ceilings.
(7) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on.
(8) When using the ceiling fan as a bat you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit.
(9) A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
(10) The glass in windows (even double pane) doesn’t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
(11) When you hear the toilet flush and the words Uh-oh, it’s already too late.
(12) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
(13) A six year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36 year old man says they can only do it in the movies.
(14) A magnifying glass can start a fire even on an overcast day.
(15) If you use a waterbed as home plate while wearing baseball shoes it does not leak — it explodes.
(16) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq foot house 4 inches deep.
(17) Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a four year old.
(18) Duplos will not.
(19) Play Dough and Microwave should never be used in the same sentence.
(20) Super glue is forever.
(21) McGyver can teach us many things we don’t want to know.
(22) Ditto Tarzan.
(23) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can’t walk on water.
(24) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.
(25) VCR’s do not eject PB&J sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
(26) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
(27) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
(28) You probably do not want to know what that odor is.
(29) Always look in the oven before you turn it on.
(30) Plastic toys do not like ovens.
(31) The fire department in San Diego has at least a 5 minute response time.
(32) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earth worms dizzy.
(33) It will however make cats dizzy.
(34) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
(35) Quiet does not necessarily mean don’t worry.
(36) A good sense of humor will get you through most problems in life (unfortunately, mostly in retrospect).

valentines 2010

Here are the valentines Chloe is giving out this year:

I found the idea on a blog somewhere and I can’t find it again to give credit! oops…

I took the picture, then fancied it up on Picnic,  then sent the print off to Walmart for a bunch of copies.  (here is the actual photo, taking a photo of a photo doesn’t translate too well eh) …what a cute girl!

Then I rounded the corners with my fancy schmancy corner rounder punch thingie, then I used an exacto knife to cut slits at the top and bottom of her hand and inserted the oreo pops. Fun and easy!

Love it!

candy land

“Who can take a sunrise
Sprinkle it in dew
Cover it in chocolate
and a miracle or two?”

“The candy (wo)man can cause she mixes it with love and makes the world taste good”

I am having fun making sweet treats for school valentines parties. -and for our own eating pleasure of course!

First up: oreo cookie pops

These are soooooooooo good.  Really – you need to make some.  I found the tutorial here on How Does She?
I first made these for Christmas.  The older kids gave them out to their friends and Chloe gave one of these to her teacher:

Her name is Mrs Ball so it said “B is for Ball” – cute huh?! – and she now uses the block for pencils and pens.

A few tips and tricks about these cookie pops;

1.  All oreos are not created equal.  Ug!  The first time I made these I used mint filling oreos and chocolate filling oreos – both fantastic.  Those oreos separated easier and didn’t break very much.  Also there seemed to be thicker filling to accommodate the stick better.  This time I used regular oreos, and EVERY SINGLE ONE broke.  It is ok because most of the time the chocolate holds it all together, so no stress if they break.  Just “glue” them with the chocolate -usually the chocolate you are putting in the inside to hold the stick will be enough to hold it together… You can’t even see the breaks when they are smothered in delicious chocolaty goodness

2. I like to use the longer sucker sticks – the 6 inch ones – they look great and are extra fun.  Rotate the stick back and forth to get it down into the filling easily.

3. The white chocolate ones, in my humble opinion, are the best.  Make sure to use good tasting melts.  (I love Guittard Melt n Molds)  ***if you happen to live near a Winco, in their bulk section you can get the melting wafer/disks  for a great price that are really good too.

Next on the dessert menu: Pretzel Button Candies

I actually posted about these last year, but could not for the life of me find the ring shaped pretzels.  I have made them a few times with the square grid ones.  But lo and behold my friend had to order some online, and had to order more than she could use, so she ever so thoughtfully gave me a bag! (insert halleluja chorus here)
et viola!:

how to

gather:
pretzels (rings of course are the best, but squares, or twists are do-able!)
m&m’s – colored to match your holiday or event (reeses pieces are great too)
hersheys kisses – most any kind, rolos are super good too
parchment lined baking sheets (important -use parchment!)

Heat oven to 225.  Place pretzels on baking sheet and put a kiss or rolo on each one.  Bake in oven for about 4 minutes until soft – but not all melted!  Some chocolates take longer depending – my hugs were quick and the rolos take a couple more minutes.  You may want to stick to one chocolate type per pan.  As soon as you pull the pan from the oven push a m&m into the center of each one (“m” print side down).  Make sure the chocolate spreads to the edges if you are using rings.   Let them cool and harden before storing in an airtight container.  YUM

Next I will show you how we used the cookie pops for Chloe’s Valentines – so fantastic!