Octodogs

Last week, Malia found a fun recipe that turned ordinary hot dogs into octopi and when placed on a bed of sea shell pasta, created a intriguing looking dish. So on Saturday, we were able to have this fun treat. Malia helped cook and decorate the "octodogs" with ketchup and mustard faces and arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing manner on their sea shell bed. The only disappointment of the endeavor was the lack of goldfish crackers. We improvised with cheese-its and called them "rocks" and were satisfied with the outcome.
It was actually better than I expected. The Alfredo sauce on the shells made this dish a classy and fun version of mac & cheese and hot dogs.

Malia, co-cook and the one who found the recipe in the first place.

Jessi, biting off multiple limbs.

Kaitlyn, eating hers, one leg at a time.

A close up shot of the masterpiece

The WIB or (Women In Black) enjoying a fun meal together.

New clothes

My girls just don't cooperate when it comes to clothes! They are growing so fast that their clothes are just not fitting anymore. Worst than that is they are not growing fast enough to be big enough for the clothes that their next biggest sister just grew out of! So we had to go out and do clothes shopping. Sigh. I don't like clothes shopping. However, I really did enjoy shopping for the girls this time. We went to Savers for pants (jeans, mostly) and had a blast monopolizing their biggest fitting room. We had a pretty good system going with Grandma handing us more pants to try on as I was handing her pants that were either "Yes" or "No." The girls were very cooperative and didn't complain either, which was great. Savers was great because we got most of the pants for either $3 or $4 as opposed to retail of $20-$50! Also, the girls had great fun dragging each other around in these little hand baskets with wheels.

Bethany and Grandma Hammari

Jessica Red Riding Hood

Malia

Kaitlyn

The big purchase of the day were the dresses. Bethany's ensemble was the only one not bought at Dillard's. We got her at Saver's and her sweater she had gotten on her birthday but this the first time she got to wear it. We like Dillard's because we have had good success finding modest dresses for girls. It is harder to find things for Bethany now that she is so big. She is exactly the same height as Grandma Hammari now and is wearing the same size shoes as I do. Heaven help us!

Kaitlyn's Half Birthday

In Kaitlyn's class at school, they do a cool thing for those kids whose birthdays fall during the summer months therefore wouldn't get to celebrate in during school with their classmates. They celebrate those children's half-birthdays. Well, Kaitlyn's birthday is in July so she got to celebrate her half birthday with her class. On her actual half birthday, Jan 21, she was sick, so her celebration was postponed to last week. She was so excited. She has finally lost her first baby teeth for this auspicious occasion and had a great time at school. And of course, you can't beat having homemade pizza for dinner!

Princess Kaitlyn showing off her half birthday crown and her missing teeth!

Pajamas and Braids

The girls have been having fun with their pajamas lately. The three younger ones all got a pair of fuzzy pants because they were on sale at Walmart for $1 each. They like to wear them on the same night as one another and all match. Well for Valentine's Day, their Uncle Dan, who works at a publicity company now, sent all the girls matching shirts from a U2 concert. They were so excited to match completely now!

The second picture I thought I should take to commemorate the day I actually did all my little women's hair! I like that they are all in pastel colors and the picture shows their height. Bethany just got measured at just over 5ft tall.

The Triplets!

The first time I've braided all the girls' hair.

My little reader!

Since Jessi is the only child not going to school, her grandma and I have bought some educational videos from Leapfrog as well as some educational toys so that she can have "school" at home. Well, little did we know that she would love this so much that it wasn't long until she knew all her alphabet with their corresponding sounds, could write her name and knew a whole lot of numbers albeit not necessarily in the order that is commonly heard every day.
So, last week, on a whim, I decided to borrow some BOB books from the library. For those of you not familiar with this series, it is a series to help children to learn to read, akin to the old Dick and Jane books. While sitting on the floor of the library, I showed Jessi the book and opened it to the first page and she shocked me by immediately saying "M" "A" "T" "Mat!" Well that clinched it and I borrowed the two compilation books they had.
I tell you! She has read through both books! I caught this reading on video, posted it on youtube because it is so darn funny! I not only have a reader, I have a star! I dare you to disagree! To see it just click on the title to this post!

The trouble with spiders

Arachnophobia is one movie that I can guarantee you will never be played in my house. A month or so ago, we had issues with little spiders suddenly making a break for it and scurrying across Malia and Bethany's floor at the most inopportune times, like right before bedtime. Malia was, at the time, sleeping on the bottom bunk and she would then refuse to go to bed. Well, after many very frustrating nights, Bethany, in a very diplomatic move, switched beds with her and thereby alleviated the fears of the floor-crawling menaces.
Well.....last Saturday night, in an aggravating twist of fate, a small, almost transparent spider appeared on the ceiling adjacent Malia's bed and before I had a chance to kill it, ran full speed in her direction! Not surprisingly, we had several more terrible nights where Malia couldn't find anywhere "safe" to sleep except perhaps on the couch upstairs and, unfortunately, in Mommy's bed.
The solution to this creepy crawly problem came from her daddy in Africa. He suggested getting her a bug net such as you would need in areas with, you know, REAL bugs.
I was able to procure one at one of our favorite stores, REI. A fun side story about this bug net is that the name of it is the Mombasa and Arnie was at that time IN Mombasa, Kenya!
Well, the happy ending to the story and the most important thing is that Malia now is sleeping in her bed again. ALSO, another one of those annoying ceiling-crawling critters appeared on the ceiling last night while Malia was in bed under her net this time, and she DIDN'T freak out and was able to go to sleep!
Success!

Malia's bug net

A six year quilt

So I am so behind in blogging that I have decided to just start where I am and back track later if I have moments to spare. Otherwise, it might be too overwhelming for you all.

I am proud to announce the completion of the top of a quilt I have been working on since Kaitlyn was a baby. My mother in law and I selected the material for two twin quilts and a baby quilt that were all going to match. Kaitlyn's baby quilt has been done for some years now and the original plan was to have the two twin quilts go to Bethany and Malia while Kaitlyn was still in a crib. Well......six years later......
All of my girls are in twin sized beds and Bethany and Malia are very particular about what colors they have in their vicinity. So! It appears that Kaitlyn and Jessica will become the lucky recipients of the twin sized versions of baby quilt!
The other one I am frantically working on it as I am posting....well, not exactly right now....but you get the picture. I am hoping that I will have the other one done in a much more reasonable time. My ultimate goal is not to move again without these done!

The top of the quilt