hoops for hope

This weekend my nephew Trey had his eagle scout project. It was called Hoops for Hope. It was a basket ball game for children with Down Syndrome. The cool part was that they were playing with the UT men's and women's basketball players. My family helped out and Carter got to be a "helper" on one of the teams. It was a amazing experience for everyone involved. At the end, the players and Coach Pearl signed autographs. We had a basketball signed. This made the boys very happy, especially my oldest boy, Allen :). He was giddy being able to interact with these college boys that he has season tickets to watch.

claire's first day of pre-k

A week after the boys headed to school, it was finally Claire's turn. It about killed her to wait. She loves school. I loved her first day of school outfit-the ice cream cones are too cute. Claire was not nervous at all, just excited. She marched right in the room and her day was made even brighter as she saw that the class was having cereal and milk! What could be better for her...school and food! I kissed her goodbye and left her to fully enjoy her great fortune.

I picked up the boys first so they could come in and pick her up on her first day. As we walked into the class room, they were having a snack of apple slices. Claire looked at us, and then at her apples and then back at us. You could see her indecision...family-food-family-food?? Poor girl was being tortured until I said she could take the apples with her. Then she smiled and pick up her apples and ran to us with her arms open for a hug.

She had a great day and told me that she won the puzzle race. You go girl!

a diva in the making

The picture says it all-Claire is a Diva in the making, which is a little scary to her mom. Claire loves to go in my closet and try on my shoes while I am getting ready in the bathroom. She likes to put on a fashion show of her favorites. And the black boots always seem to make a few appearances. It will be fun/scary to watch what becomes of this girl.

first day of school and Jared's b-day

Yesterday was the first day of school AND Jared's birthday (8 years old). Jared wasn't too thrilled about this fact, but he was dealing with it. What he wasn't prepared for was waking up that morning and feeling a little bit more than a nervous stomach, he felt the real thing-the tummy bug! On the first day of school AND his birthday! Poor guy. So, as we took pictures of Carter, Jared was inside with the "sick bowl" and then the he had to ride in the car as I took Carter to school. Poor guy.

Carter had a great first day of school and the only thing he deemed important enough to tell us about it was that he got ice cream at the end. Finally at 6pm Jared was feeling good enough to open his presents and eat some soup instead of birthday cake. Poor guy.

But, today was a new day and Jared was dressed and eating breakfast by time I came out the kitchen. And he declared that he only had a nervous stomach today. So we snapped a picture of him and went to school. I am about to go pick the boys up, and I'm sure he will give me as much information about his first day as Carter did.

flickr game

Ok I tried the flickr game. It's where you go to flickr.com and type in your answer and pick a picture from the first page. I change a few questions. Here they are:

1. first name

2.favorite food

3. name of your high school

4. favorite color

5.what are you afraid of?

6. favorite drink

7. dream vacation

8.hometown

9.what do you want to be when you grow up?

10. what would you like to do right now?

11. what word describes you?

12. how old are you?

13. last name

14. favorite vaction

15. husband's name

16. least favorite food

Well, that was fun and Allen only made fun of me a little bit.

the blonde brownie curse

I have a family recipe for the best blonde brownies you have ever had. It is a favorite at my house. Jared is my baking buddy-he likes to help with anything in the kitchen, but especially baking because he likes sweets as much as me. The problem is that 95% of the time we make blonde brownies they turn out gooey. The kids love them this way also, I am not going to turn them down and Allen eats around the side of the pan where it is more cooked. I have tried so many different ways to fix this problem-cook longer, more flour, larger pan. Nothing works, it's just luck if they turn out. And to make things even worse my sister Lori seems to have the magic touch and 95% of her batches turn out right. But, her husband likes them gooey (ha!) So, as Jared and I just finished up another batch of gooey brownies, I called Lori to see if Scott wanted some.

the bottomless stomach

As I have mentioned before, Claire loves to eat. I will now expand on this, as it is something I want to remember. Well, I don't know if I can forget, but I may forget how much food meant to her in her early years. I am assuming of course that she will outgrow this. Let's hope so.

First off, Claire did not have real food until she was about 11 months old. In China she was only given formula, and when we adopted her at 10 months we had to start introducing baby food to her slowly. You would think this would make her a picky eater, right. Wrong. This girl loves everything. This is the good part of her love of food. At an early age she could handle the spiciest of foods. She is still at 4 willing to try any food you put in front of her and likes most of it. She will ask to try a food we are eating that she doesn't know what it is. Since my boys have never asked or wanted to try anything new besides a dessert, I assume she is unique. The food she doesn't like right now: banana and tomato. That's it...seriously.

OK, for the annoying part of her love of food. She wants to eat ALL the time. Food is never to far from her mind. And it is not like she doesn't eat a lot already. She can eat all of us under the table at a meal. I am not kidding. The girl can eat. But no matter how much she puts away at lunch she is asking 10 times when snack time is, and then dinner. When she sees anyone eat something she makes a bee line for them and asks for a bite or just stares at you. It is a challenge for me to not get upset about this as children asking for food is a pet peeve of mine. Carter and Jared don't have this gene and so it is new for me with her. I am trying.

The one up side with her obsession with food is we always have the perfect punishment when she needs one. No dessert just about does her in. It makes an affect. But she is a good little girl and will remind us that she is not allowed dessert that night when we forget, which almost makes me want to give it to her anyway. Almost.