I Has a Hungry

Check this out :

Looks pretty nummy, right?

Well, I wouldn't know about that! At two thirty we were called into the Pirate room at the Fun Factory. We are here celebrating my seven year old son's birthday, I was busy taking pictures as the "helper" passed out plates and cupcakes and so I got NONE. My eldest ate three of them, so I assume he found them to be tasty, but holy hell! I'm STARVING. Right about now I could use an appetite suppressant! My whole body is shaking from hunger and I am starting to get a headache.

I'm seriously considering paying 5.95 for a basket of french fries! or maybe 7.50 for a burger! And a very very very cold glass of water would be awesome too! I chose to wear a long sleeved shirt to the Fun Factory - after all, I'm not int here running and playing, so what could it hurt? WRONG! the joint is absolutely packed right now! I'd hazard that they are very close to full capacity, so it is extremly hot in here!

*dying*

Hubs just told me that we should think of heading home soon, as it is almost 4PM, and I absolutely agree! Home, a drink of water - a VERY LARGE one, a quick sandwich to tide me over and then an hour long nap. That's my plan anyway.

DS(i) update

So, the last time I was here, Parker had just broken his most prized possession, his Nintendo DS Lite.

That same night, hubs and I went out and bought him the new DSi. Basically, the DSi is a DS plus. It has so many awesomely cool features.

Parker is very pleased.

Check out these pictures, Parker took them on the camera (there are two cameras in the DSi)and edited them on the DSi as well.

Here is one My husband took and edited :

And this is one I did, of our cat, Tigger:

The one where Life is NOT FAIR

I have three boys. Each of them has their own Nintendo DS Lite. Out of those three boys, My eldest, Parker, takes the best care of his. he has the original stylus for it. he cleans it, gently and thoroughly at least once a week. He does not drop it, he does not leave it laying around - he LOVES it.

And still, this happened :



That Pokemon you see there? That's a DS skin that He saved his own money to buy. True, the DS is well used, he plays it most every day - more than the other boys do, for sure, but its NOT fair that his is the one to break! Blake drops his DS every single day. The screen on his even has a chip out of it! I often pick it up to find it sticky and gross from his dirty hands - yet his works fine.

Poor Parker. He is so upset.

His brothers have both offered unlimited use of their game boys to him, but it isn't the same.

Oh what I would not do for an extra $169 right now so that I could go out and get him a new one. It would be different had he misused the machine, you know? If I saw him tossing it on the counter instead of gently putting it up. If I found it on the floor or if he kept dropping it, but he doesn't!

And he is so so very sad :(

Success

A few weeks ago I made "Cupcake Bites".

The Bites were my very first foray into candy making. I guess not candy, but chocolate. I was very worried that it would be hard, the packages are covered with warnings about over heating, about how to keep it warm so you can work with it about how the slightest bit of moisture will ruin the candy, and it was just...scary.. But, at the same time, I really, REALLY wanted to try to make them.

And so I did.

And you know what? It was time consuming, but it was not that hard. I melted the candy in my microwave on "defrost" becuase I do now own a double boiler. In fact, I am uncertain what a double boiler is, exactly.

The bites were cute, and fin, but I was not a fan of the cake inside. According tot he recipe, I had to bake a cake, then crumble it, then mix in a tub of store bought icing to make the balls. For the icing, I used a store brand that I knew already was not a very good tasting one, and that might have caused the problems. I will be making them again, for Blake to bring to his class for his birthday, but I will be using the "good" icing (and a white cake mix, the chocolate cake covered in the chocolate was just too much chocolate!)

Because of my cake Bite success, I felt confidant going to Michael's and picking up more meltable candy and some molds to play around with. I decided to try my hand at some Easter themed chocolate suckers. I was pretty taken with the Horse mold they had (it would be so fun, and challenging, to try to "paint" the candy for all theequestrian apparel). Another mold I fell in love with was a race car mold. The picture on the package showed sweet fire and lightning designs painted onto the cars!

In the end though, we just picked up the Easter mold and left the decision of what to make for next time. Besides, just becuase the Cake Bites were a success, does not mean I will succeed with the Suckers.

Except... I was!





I had So much fun making these, and after the first set, I invited the boys to help me make some too. Since we only bought one mold, I was only able to make nine suckers at a time, and since after each color is "painted" on, the mold has to be refrigerated to set the chocolate, it was a very time consuming activity, but OMG was it ever fun.

DUUUUDE!

So, we did our taxes. And by "we did our taxes" what I really mean is "we took them to a professional and let him do our taxes".

We used to file our own, you can pick up ( at least in Canada you can) forms at the post office that detail how to file, it's actually quite easy. Then, on year, hubs sat down and did our taxes and we ended up owing something like 14,000. Which, of course, is NOT right. She he did them again, and again , and AGAIN. each time he got the outrageous owed amount and we gave up.

We took them to a professional. Sure, it cost us 140 dollars to do them, but when the professional did them, we ended up with a refund (it was just big enough to cover the cost of getting them done LOL)

But, anyway. We have been taking our papers to Edmund for about three years now, but going to his company for about six. Edmund gave us the super awesome news that we will be getting a great refund!

Great as in we could go out and buy new living roomfurniture. Or Micah a top of the line laptop. Or a super huge LCD tv. Or go on a kick ass vacation!

We picked vacation. Now, we've gone on vacations before, but our vacation was camping. And yeah, camping is fun, I love it, but it's not really a vacation, you know? This year, this year we are going on a real vacation, and I could not be more excited!!

T-Day

Well. Here we go. Friday is T-Day.

Taxes.

So far our family vacation to Alberta is right on track, but it really ALL hinges on the amount we get back from taxes. Now, becuase we have arranged to stay with family on the trip It's like getting free hotel rooms, you know? So we don't have to worry about that bill - and normally, the hotel bill is the most expensive part of the trip. unless you are flying, then its the airfare LOL

Anyways.We are all pretty excited about the trip, despite recent happenings in our family. It will be...awkward, to say the least, to be vacationing when I am a gazzillion months fat, but hey, other than not being able to go on the rides at Calloway park (yay! I hate rides - this is a ready made excuse!) I can't see how anything but the amount of bathroom pit stops we make will change!