I Still Have This Blog

I remembered that I had a blog. Mostly, I realized the link to this blog is still on my Instagram profile thing. So I checked to see when I last updated and then thought I should maybe update again? Sure.

Soooooooo, my family no longer lives in Illinois. We live in Iowa now. So there's that. All of my kids are in school now, too! My oldest is in second grade, my middle is in first grade, and my youngest goes to preschool (because it's free in our city); so I get about three hours a day for four days a week to do stuff kid-free. I would have said "to do whatever I want" but that's not true. I mostly have to spend one of those kid-free chunks of time doing grocery shopping and another of those kid-free chunks of time doing laundry. I really don't know what I do for the other two chunks but one of those days I probably nap because mmmmmmm naps. And I think I probably just watch TV or read or something one day.

I think I'll throw in some pictures from the last however many months because people like pictures...

I like to beard our family photos. This one is on the bag I use when we go to the library.

Simon turned 7 in April. He had a creepy crawly birthday party.

Charlotte turned 4 in May and had a rainbows & unicorn party.

Jonas turned 6 in August. He had a Mario party.

Chase had a Michael Jackson birthday party in September.

Halloween: Batgirl Charz, Ninja Jonas, Enderman Sime

I creeped kids out with my Bearded Lady Halloween costume.

So that's my random update. There ya go...

Writing

Well, today is the last day of September and my previous blog was posted in the beginning of January, so as you can tell, I'm really on top of things...

Yeah...

I really enjoy writing. Specifically, I enjoy writing stories. Even more specifically, I like to make up those stories. Giving regular updates on what my family is up to (at least in blog form) is pretty boring for me. With Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it also feels redundant. Social media allows me to post those silly conversations, proud moments and daily craziness right away; then I feel like there's no need to expand on those things here. So I don't.

But I am writing, I promise you that. I get a little giddy just thinking about the story I have to tell, too. It is not a children's book. It is not a short story. It is not a book to encourage moms of young children. (I'm actually quite bored and tired by the mommy blogs anymore unless it's a blog of someone I know personally.)

I'm writing a novel. Or maybe a series, I'm not quite sure yet. I don't know if I can get the whole story out in one book. Or if it will be just one book and then do a spin-off book with a certain character or storyline from the book. I've been inspired!

Inspiration is a wonderful feeling. I've basically been wanting to write a great story since my freshman year in college. I must have started at least ten times, but then I'd determine that those stories were either lame or have been done before. Then sometime this past January/February, an idea just came to me.

Now, I'm not going to reveal what the story is, but it is definitely in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. And if you don't like that genre, you will probably hate it. And even if you do like that genre, you still might think it's a lame story. But I'm excited about it and my mom will at least tell me it's great. I concluded some time ago that I have an overactive imagination and it can actually be productive by making up characters, environment, imaginary physics and such for others to read and enjoy. I hope to publish some day, but I probably won't seriously start looking into that for some time yet. It is a goal, though.

So, that's the update on me. I'm writing. For real. And I guess I can post some kid pictures since you're used to seeing kid pictures on here.

Simon turned 6 in April and had a Skylanders party

Charzie turned 3 in May and had a Mickey Mouse party

Jonas turned 5 in August and had a shark party (at the end of Shark Week)

 Chase turned 33 in September and had an R2D2 cake because I found a sweet R2D2 cake pan at a thrift store. He's not a kid, but he does have a sweet cake.

There's no picture of me with my birthday cake because no one made one for me and I won't make one for myself. I do cakes and birthday parties for my family, but I don't do it trying to be better than other moms or make other moms feel bad for not doing it. I just enjoy coming up with cake & game ideas, executing those ideas and eating cake. Mmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaake. (Another reason I'm done with the mommy blogging world is when the birthday party issue comes up the blogs are often either showing elaborate/expensive birthday parties with styled pictures I find mostly ridiculous or the blogs bash those parties saying those moms are ruining it for all the other moms. I feel I fall more in the middle but could be seen as making other moms feel bad. I'm terrible at keeping up with cleaning & laundry, but at least my kids have fun birthdays!)

So if you want to see an inordinate amount of pictures of my kids, follow me on Instagram @weesher. If you want to read dumb stuff I say, follow me on Twitter @weesherweesh. If I know you in real life, we can be Facebook friends (but only if I know you in real life) if you search for me. I may occasionally post something or other amusing on here or maybe give a book update, but this blog will probably be neglected.

I will leave you with things I've been into lately...

Books: George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I am currently finishing the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons. I think I'll get into the Halloween spirit by reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein once I've finished.

TV: Doctor Who (I don't get BBC America, so I have to wait until the current season comes to Netflix or Amazon Instant Video), Classic Doctor Who (I started from the beginning of what they have on Netflix/Amazon and am currently on the episodes with the fourth Doctor, the one with the long scarf), Game of Thrones (HBO), True Blood (HBO- started this one over the summer when the GOT season ended and now only have a few episodes left of the series!), The Walking Dead (AMC- don't get AMC so we bought the series on Amazon, but we don't get to watch it until the day after it airs), Drunk History (Comedy Central), Impractical Jokers (TrueTV- we don't get this channel but watch it online sometimes).

Movies: I go to maybe two movies a year. The last movie I saw in the theater was The Lego Movie with my kids. I am pretty set on seeing the next Hunger Games movie in the theater when it comes out, and I'm totally cool with seeing it alone. I'm sure we'll watch lots of horror movies on Netflix/Amazon this October, too, after the kids go to bed. 

Sports: HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA (this is a joke because I don't watch sports, except my kids doing gymnastics class, and that is quite amusing- the boys do cartwheels like Oompa Loompas.)

Food: Entenmann's snack size (chocolate) frosted donuts, Eggo pumpkin spice waffles, Count Chocula, burgers with BBQ sauce, crab cakes, crescent roll sandwiches, cake, Breyer's lactose free ice cream

Kids' Activities: sending them outside to play, sending them to the basement to play, telling them to color rocks they find outside, gluing stuff they find outside to paper, Legos, reading books with them

Music: The Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Beck, Lucius. I mostly like 90's alt rock with a bit of newer music. Alice FM is my favorite radio station.

I don't really know how to end this. Hopefully next time it won't be quite so long between posts. And hopefully next time I'll have made real progress on my book!

Jonas' Super Rad Aquabats Water Balloon 4th Birthday Extravaganza

As of today, my Jonas is four years old. We had been planning on having an all-out party for him since last year he didn't get one due to our big move (we bought a house and moved in four days before his third birthday). We had thought he would have a Batman theme and were looking for someone to show up dressed as Batman, tights and all...

But right before I started gathering party supplies he told me he wanted an Aquabats party. I said OK and that I wasn't sure if there were Aquabats party supplies, but we'd figure something out. Turns out there are Aquabats party supplies but only online at one web site. Before ordering I made sure he actually wanted an Aquabats party, and he told me he wanted "an Aquabats WATER BALLOON birthday!" So that's what we did...

Invitation front

Invitation back

So the Aquabats would be an actual rock band who also happen to be super heroes. I was a fan in the 90's but sadly never got to see a live show where they dress in their super hero costumes and battle evil monsters while playing music all live on stage. They now have a TV show for kids on The Hub and there's a season on Netfilx. Rock band + super heroes = awesome in Jonas' book.

For Jonas' cake, I made it chocolate with buttercream icing and drew the Aquabat logo guy on it. I also made a bunch of funfetti cupcakes with cookie burgers on them (thanks Pintrest!) in honor of one of Jonas' favorite segments on an episode of the show: Burger Rain. (You can watch a video of Burger Rain at the end of this post.)

I altered some decorations I had from Charzie's Yo Gabba Gabba party (I'll have to post on that later) to make them Aquabats-appropriate. And we had fruit, veggies, chicken nuggets, cheese & crackers to snack on.

Decorations & snacks

I had ordered some official goodie boxes & fillers for our kid guests, and then Jonas helped me choose some extra stuff to stick in there, too.

Guest loot

We started out just hanging out and snacking. I had a water table set up for the two-and-under crowd. Then we really kicked things off with a water balloon toss.

Water balloon toss

Next, the kids got to take turns chucking water balloons at Snakey. Snakey is actually a monster from the show. I painted him on cardboard and covered it with contact paper. After they all had a couple turns, we had them line up and attack together. They thought it was awesome.

The boys chucking water balloons at Snakey

But even more awesome than that was when they got to use a water balloon slingshot to battle the Floating Eye of Death (another actual monster from the show, which I also painted & contact-papered). I rigged this bad guy up on the kids' fort. I tell you what, boys ages 3-6 were all about that slingshot.

This guy had some fantastic aim.

After defeating Snakey and the Floating Eye of Death, we had a water balloon and water gun free-for-all. Then it was cake time.

Cake time

Jonas blew the candle out at the wrong time and freaked out. I re-lit it, he blew it out at the end of Happy Birthday and all was well.

We had cake and ice cream (vanilla or "monster" which had M&Ms and cookie dough in it) and then opened presents. Jonas got quite the birthday loot! The big surprise was our big gift at the end...

Jonas discovering his drums

Yes, we're crazy and bought our four-year-old drums, real drums, for his birthday. Kid's got rhythm.

And of course, Jonas being Jonas, had to go and do this:

This picture sums up Jonas

Now watch yourself some Burger Rain!

Neglect

Yeah, I've been completely neglecting this blog. It's not that I haven't had ideas to blog about, it's more that I haven't felt like any of those ideas are worthwhile.

I'm tiring of blogging about what's been going on and just posting pictures of my super cute kids.

Before everyone and their grandparents were on facebook, this blog was an easy way to show my friends & family what I've been up to, but now they can just facebook stalk me or instagram stalk me or twitter stalk me and see that in real time or close to it. I'd rather write something a little more entertaining.

The problem is, I've been uninspired.

I don't think I'm going to change the world or become some sort of internet comedian or make it as a mommy blogger or anything. I just want to write something... else?

Since I'm uninspired, I'll just give an update with pictures of what's been going on:

Simon got glasses.
Jonas wants glasses (and will wear his sunglasses around the house).
We had about a week of sick kids.
We cleaned up lots of gumballs from our yard.
There are still lots of gumballs in our yard.
Simon turned 5.
I made him a bug cake & we celebrated with our church community group.
We also made a trip to Kings Island to celebrate again with family.
Chase has been playing music.
I went to a concert at a basement venue where I saw Lucius and Tall Tall Trees.
I hula hooped with a friend between sets because a hoola hoop enthusiast hangs out at the house where we saw the concert.
Chase bought me a Lucius shirt.
I waited too long to change Charzie's diaper & pee got on that shirt.
I'm working on Charlotte's 2nd birthday party.
It's Yo Gabba Gabba! themed.

Now pictures:

Simon showed me bugs in a book & I put them on his cake

Spectacled Sime blowing out his candle

Simon at Kings Island with his funnel cake

My grandpa poking a kosmoceratops with his cane at Kings Island

Simon & Jonas showing some dino-love at Kings Island

This one is almost 2!

The birthday invitation (front) I designed for Charlotte

A Lincoln Coloring Page for YOU!

It's Ol' Abe's birthday today.  I drew this years ago and made it into a coloring page.  Print it.  Color it.  Enjoy.

Oh, and while sitting in my lap as I posted this, Charzie looked at my Lincoln picture and said, "Oh no!  Scary Guy, don't eat me!"

Our September: Goings on & a Photo Dump

It's been, what, a month or so since I've last blogged?  Seems about right.  Lots has happened this past month!  Ready for a photo-dump?

Chase turned 31 and I made hims some pretty delicious peanutbutter chocolate cake bombs.  Next time I'll use a little more chocolate and a little less peanutbutter to make them more fantastic.

Chase, the boys & cake

The in-laws visited and we discovered the ridiculous awesomeness that is Scheels. (Read this in Stefon's voice) This store has everything: an indoor ferris wheel, sporting equipment, taxidermy, crossbows, aquarium, arcade games, photo ops, children's play area, animatronic presidents and delicious mint chocolate fudge...

Simon with Granny & Jonas with Papaw on the Sheels ferris wheel.

Granny & Papaw with the kiddos on our porch swing

My in-laws also went with us for the kids' first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Let's just say next time we'll just eat at home and go for the games.

Charzie with Chuck E.

 Some friends stopped by to visit & see the new house and we lined our kids up to take their pictures as we do whenever we get together.

Ezra, Silas, Nella, Charlotte, Jonas & Simon

I took the kids to the State Museum where there is a children's play museum all for free!

Simon posing in front of the giant mammoth/mastodon puzzle he did himself

We got new kitchen appliances and have been searching for artwork, curtains & area rugs for our house.  Eventually there will be before & after posts, but no room is quite finished yet to post an after.

I won tickets from a local radio station to go see The Smashing Pumpkins in concert in a couple weeks!!!

And then there was the Disney World trip with my parents.  This trip was exhausting and fun.  Some Disney trip highlights: Simon looking teeny tiny riding big rides, Charlotte dressing up in her Cinderella to parade around Magic Kingdom (and lady even took her picture to show her daughter-in-law what 16-months-old at Disney looks like), Jonas getting to spend almost a whole week with his grandpa, dessert with almost every meal, Charlotte exclaiming "Mouse!" whenever she noticed a Mickey Mouse anything, Simon & Jonas getting a pirate makeover and just having the fun Disney experience with my parents & kids while my kids are still little.  My mom should be a Disney vacation guide. 

Some Disney World low points: Jonas freaking out for every single ride (I mean every. single. ride.) because it wasn't his turn to get on yet, the stroller parking nazis and cheapo toilet paper (c'mon, Disney!)

Like I said, it was exhausting but fun.  Here are some pictures from our trip:

Cinderella got to meet Charzie

Me on the spinning tea cups

Simon riding Thunder Mountain with my dad

Chase & Jonas on Toy Story Mania

Peter Pan told the boys not to be pirates...

...but they were too creepy cute not to be pirates!

Jonas with his arms up on the Peoplemover (not a roller coaster)

Charzie with her arms up like her brother

Jonas checking out gorillas with his daddy at Animal Kingdom

Charzie snackin' with Neena on the bus

And the boys with Minnie & Mickey, of course!

And we have many, many, many, many (you get the point) more pictures.

So that was September.  Now it's October.  Maybe I'll give you another update in a month!

Birthday Cake Bombs, Coming Soon!

Tomorrow is Chase's birthday.  For his cake, I'm making him cake bombs, but not just the regular kind, I'm making an alteration to the recipe! *Gasp!*  First, let me tell you that I'm not really much of a cook or baker, but I'm not bad either.  I'm the kind of cook who does just fine as long as I have a recipe and all the ingredients.  Then I follow the recipe pretty much exactly.  The only alterations I really make are leaving out nuts and raisins (in my opinion, raisins ruin pretty much every dessert, but nuts are OK, just not preferable) or maybe adding some mint chocolate chips.  So this recipe alteration is a bit of a big deal to me.

Cake bombs are basically the same thing as Bakerella's cake balls, only I make them bigger and they're not pretty.  Typically I'll do chocolate cake bombs with can of plain ol' vanilla icing and chocolate bark, and they're pretty amazing.  I've used cream cheese icing, too, which is more amazing, but I'm lactose intolerant so it's not that great on my digestive system.  But today, friends, today I am substituting something that I can't imagine being anything but very very tastey for icing...  peanut butter.

I mean, a chocolate + peanut butter combination is almost always awesome.  And peanut butter has a similar consistency to canned icing.  Plus, we use Jif's all natural peanut butter, which I refer to as gourmet peanut butter (seriously, once you taste it, you may never go back to the regular kind of peanut butter; just a warning!).  I got the idea after making my third batch of Bakerella's dark chocolate chip comfort cookies which is pretty much the most amazing chocolate peanut butter dark chocolate chip cookies that I rave about.  They have become my go-to cookies whenever I have a reason to bake something.  Anyway, I was baking these cookies for about the third time in a month when I thought how peanut butter just might make cake bombs extra delicious, or at least it might be a fun switch-up. 

I just needed a reason to make cake bombs.  Chase's birthday is tomorrow.  Now I have a reason.  I'll let you all know if they are 'da bomb' or if they bomb.

Alisha the Coffee Drinker?

OK, I know you've been waiting for it, my coffee experience, so here it goes...

Chase, the kids and I all went to Barnes & Noble on my birthday because it has a Starbucks and the kids could run around in the kid section.  Chase explained to the barista baristo barista guy that it was my birthday and I was going to give coffee another go since I was now the big 3-0.  Barista guy said I looked like 25 or something (of course) but at least didn't make any comments about me not being old enough to have a bunch of kids.  They discussed what I should have and decided on a marbled caramel macciado (I'm guessing that's what it was and have no idea how to spell it and my spell check doesn't know either or my spelling is just too far off and spell check thinks it should be a "marbled caramel Macedonia.")  Since I'm lactose intolerant they used soy milk but Chase forgot about that when he told them to use (lactosey) whipped cream.  I had thought ahead and had one of my lactase enzyme pills, so all was OK.

We sat at a table and I took a sip.  I must say, I didn't abhor it.  I didn't even hate it.  I didn't throw up (and there was much rejoicing!).  I wouldn't say I liked it, I wouldn't order one again but might try something else.  I mostly walked around Barnes & Noble feeling all awkward holding a coffee and feeling obligated to take the occasional sip, but in the end, I probably drank 1/5 to 1/4 of the too expensive drink.  Chase took a few swigs and claimed he couldn't even taste the coffee in it.  It sure tasted like coffee to me, though.  At least I now know that if I had to drink coffee to save my life, I could, that is, if said coffee includes the fluffy stuff/non coffee drinker coffee.

Chase's Instagram documenting my coffee experience

I think next time I'll try something iced... if there is a next time.

Almost 30

Well, in two days I should turn 30, that is, unless I have that condition my mom has where I perpetually turn 29 every year since my 29th birthday...

Thirty, the big 3-0, the year one is officially a grown-up.  I wrote a blog about this last year, but I'll go ahead and revisit some of the things turning 30 means for me.  The biggest thing is seeing if I've acquired the taste for coffee.  On Saturday, July 14, 2012, my husband will be choosing the coffee I try to see if my taste buds know they're grown up.  I'm a bit nervous about this since I abhor coffee.  Really, I'm afraid I might throw up.  But I'll be brave and keep my promise to try it, mostly because Chase loves coffee so much and I think he would enjoy sharing his delight in it with me.

Thirty is also the age I will be when we become homeowners.  Wow, I'm such a grown-up!  As long as the bank gives us a loan (which we've been pre-approved for), we'll be closing on our first house August 15.  Our boys will have a bedroom together and their baby sister will have her very own (very girly) room.  Naptime will be so much easier!  AND our room will no longer be taken over by laundry!  (At our current place the washer & dryer are in the garage, so our bedroom doubles as where we put dirty clothes and where I fold the clean ones).  You know you're getting old when you get excited by the idea of having a clean floor being way easier when you have hardwood in the dining room (and most everywhere else) as opposed to old janky carpet.  I dread the process of moving, especially since it'll be three hours north-ish of where we live now, but I'm excited to live in our own house in a city with lots of things to do.

Me holding Charlotte

I don't really expect people to be able to tell that I'm 30 just by looking at me.  I mean, last week some lady said I looked 18.  I say she needs to get her eyes checked.  Now, I know I look young, but I don't look 18 young.  People I meet are super surprised to learn that I have three kids and often remark that I "don't look old enough to have three kids."  What I want to know is how many kids do I look old enough to have?  I mean, I had my first when I was 25, which is pretty normal, and they're all bunched together.  But when I'm at the park or in a mommy group or something and meet someone for the first time, they'll see me holding wrangling Charlotte (age 1) and assume she's mine.  Then they'll hear me tell Jonas (almost 3 and lately insists on being called Spiderman) to a.) stop throwing things  b.) stop bullying Simon  c.) stop walking around with his pants & undies around his ankles  or d.) all of the above.  After this, the new mommy acquaintance will usually ask if that one is mine, too, and I will say he is; and at this point I'll often just go ahead and point out that the 4-year-old whining because his brother threw something at him is also mine, because I can tell by the look on her face New Mommy Acquaintance is wondering just how many I have.  Then New Mommy Acquaintance's eyes usually get wide and/or her jaw drops.  That's when I either get asked how old I am or am just told I don't look old enough to have three.  I've even been asked if I was the kids' babysitter.  I mean, come on!  I pushed these kids out of my lady business and I want credit for being their mama!  But I guess once I'm 30, I'll be old enough to have three kids even if I don't look old enough...  Yay?

Turning 30 means no more shopping in the junior's department, no more low rise jeans (well, having babies means no more low rise jeans), no more wearing cartoon characters on my shirts (at least in public, I'll continue to wear them around the house because the boys get a kick out of seeing Cat in the Hat and Mario & Luigi on my shirts).  These things are fine, I mean, maybe if I dress a little more grown up people won't be so surprised that I have three kids.

I have two days (well, really, a day and a half) left of my 20's.  I feel like I should do something irresponsible.  Live it up.  Have cake for breakfast!  Jaywalk!  Post a picture of myself on Facebook doing something silly and I'll later regret it!  Watch Workaholics!  (Shhh!  Workaholics is my new favorite show, but don't tell because it's pretty dumb.  It's like Adam Sandler-type comedy: think Billy Madison & Happy Gilmore meet Stella.)

What dumb things should I do with my last day-and-a-half of my 20's?  You know, things that are appropriate in your 20's but not in your 30's?  Note:  I probably won't do any of the suggested things unless they can be done while taking care of three small kids (What?  I have 3 kids?  I'm not old enough!) and packing for our move.

A Jonas Photoshoot

Because of our anticipated move next month, Jonas is not going to get a big birthday party like Simon and Charlotte.  But we will do something special.  His birthday falls during the state fair, so we're hoping both sets of grandparents can come up and go to the fair with us (and see our new house!).  He absolutely loves the idea of riding rides with his grandpas.  He is such a grandpa's boy.  It doesn't really matter which of his grandpas he has, he just wants one of the three.

But anyway, the state fair birthday "party."  I figure we can get the boys arm bands for unlimited rides, get some extra tickets for adults to ride with them and let Charlotte ride a few.  And in lieu of an exciting birthday cake, I'll probably just cut out some super hero graphics, attach them to toothpicks and stick them in a funnel cake along with our #3 candle and voilà: an appropriate state fair birthday cake!

Since we won't be having a party, that means I won't be sending out invitations with Jonas' picture incorporated into the party theme.  So I decided to do a little Jonas photo shoot this morning to have some updated pictures to send out to family.  While on vacation in Kentucky, Chase & I picked up this coon skin cap for Jonas, and he looks stinkin' adorable in it.  He looks cute* in any hat, really.  And the cap inspired me to cut one of his gazillion pair of jeans into jorts.  Of course, to top off the nature boy look, Jonas is shirtless.

So now, for your enjoyment, Jonas' special nature boy photo shoot from this morning:

 

*Jonas doesn't like it when I say he's "cute."  He prefers to be called "tall" instead.