I've mentioned before how much my kids love informercials and always want to get products they see on infomercials...

This morning Caleb turns the channel off PBS and onto some random channel, stopping once he recognized an infomercial on the screen. He sat and watched for a few minutes about Cindy Crawford and why her skin looked so good, even at age 41. (Apparently the secret is some fancy skin doctor and a brand of skin care products called Miraculous Beauty.)

The next thing I know, Caleb's asking me, "Can boys use that stuff?"

So we are continuing to compile our list of tv products for our kids for Christmas - Camille will get her Snuggie, Caleb will get his Miraculous Beauty products (since he's getting older, he apparently wants to retain his youthful complexion) OR Hip Hop Abs. (He saw the infomercial and learned to do one of the exercises and now does it all the time.)...Chloe has not as yet chosen a favorite, but rest assured - we'll keep our television on until she does!

Information

This morning Rob was out and about and happened to stop by some yard sales and pick up some treasures for the kids. Among the treasures was an Easy Bake Oven. After Rob brought it out for them, he stood outside talking to the neighbors while the kids rushed up to Caleb's room to inspect the goods. I was working on a birthday cake in the kitchen and didn't realize what was going on until Camille came down asking for my phone.

C: I am just going to use your phone for a minute, okay Mommy?
M: Why do you need my phone Camille?
C: I have to call somebody.
M: Who do you need to call?
C: There's a number on the box that says if you have questions call.

Apparently my children couldn't figure out how to open the oven to put the cake inside (not that they had cake ready to bake...they were just scoping things out) so they were going to call the company to ask. Fortunately I ran interception and got them to bring the oven back downstairs (they had to make a second trip upstairs for the manuals). I explained that you don't open the Easy Bake oven, you just stick the baking pan in the hole in the side with the purple handle that they were using for sword fighting. (They didn't believe me, however, until their dad came in and told them the exact same thing. Apparently Daddy knows much more than Mommy does about toy cookery.)

We mixed up some cake batter, stuck it in the oven and twelve minutes later had the smallest cake known to man. We divided it up (almost) evenly between my three children and the two little neighbor kids (so everyone pretty much got one small bite). Delicious!

Playing in the Back Yard

Just a few pictures from this afternoon...

Camille swinging

Chloe riding on the big swing

Chloe stood on one end of the yard and kept calling out to Rob - "Daaa-dee! Daaa-dee!"

Oh dear!

At the Beach

The other day I didn't want the girls to watch tv in the morning so they found their bathing suits and pretended they were at the beach.


Looking at her sunglasses (right before they broke).

A pretty smile.

Our hike

The other day we took the kids for a hike up a trail in one of the local state parks.

Here Caleb is thrilled to hike.

What a cute smile!

Checking out some trees.

This is the tower at the top of the trail.

My family on top of the tower.

Caleb thought that since we were in a tower, they should do some fighting.

The girls played a few rounds of Ring Around the Rosies.

And Camille did a little dancing.

It was certainly a hike we'll have to repeat. Everyone had a blast!

You're How Old?

This morning Camille comes out with this little gem:

"Mommy! It's your birthday! You're 81!"

Me: "Thanks, Camille, but I'm 31."
Camille: "Yeah. That's what I meant. Happy Birthday!"

Nothing like really feeling old before my time!

Sharing a birthday is really fun, especially when I get to share it with my mom and my daughter. We're lucky enough to live close enough now to get together to celebrate!

I'll give a report later...maybe some pictures.