Tyre's meal tonight was awesome and a little surprising. His main dish was a chicken salad. Actually it probably wasn't so surprising when he mentioned he was creating a McDonald's meal. We had salad, skinny french fries, and milk shakes for dessert. He originally wanted the milk shake to be the meal... which I'm sure no one would have complained about! It was great... and he also used the grill to cook his meat!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Around this time of year there are always a lot of things at school that cost money... gift exchanges, secret santa, teacher gifts... etc. I wanted to make sure the guys had gifts for these things... but thought they would have more fun making something rather than buying a gift. A friend's daughter gave me a bag of chocolate covered pretzels as a Sunday School helper gift recently. I thought it was such a great idea... so that's what we did. I just wasn't prepared for how "into it" the guys would get... and how much of a mess it would make. I think I'll be finding sprinkles in our kitchen well into the New Year! Still... the mess was totally worth it to see Tyre perfectly melting chocolate in the double boiler! I'm guessing there are not many 13 year olds that can list that as one of their skills!




Dan was at a fundraiser that night... we had to call and tell him to stop and bring home MORE CHOCOLATE!
The drying process. I should have counted how many we ended up making.

I was super impressed with each of the guys... but the next day before school Tyre made sure all of the wax paper was cleaned up and thrown away before he headed out to school... without me even saying anything! You gotta love that!

One of the perks...

of living in a house owned by the school district is...

Salted sidewalks before 7am!

I think our day would need about 10 posts to be explained... but I'll spare you the details and just say that we had a snow day today and EVERYONE was home... plus a few more. That's all I'm going to say... and that I just had to tell our 13 year old to give a toy back to Carter. Seriously!

Steven's meal was also fantastic. He made a favorite meal from home... roast beef sandwiches. He shopped with me for ingredients two nights before his meal so we could cook the beef in the crock pot over night. He made sure there were enough sandwiches for dinner and for everyone to take one to school the next day for lunch. Smart thinking!



I also had to include this shot from later in the night. This is Tyre's attempt at Dan's beard...

Fred's night for meal planning and making was a little more simple... but just as good as J's meal. He prepared and grilled burgers all on his own! They were super yummy!

All I want for Christmas is...

This morning we met a little boy and his nanny from Carter's Sunbeams class at the new discovery room at the St. Louis Zoo. It's called the ZOOmagination Station and is SO much fun! Carter had a blast... and I enjoyed finding out about another FREE and great way to spend our mornings!

This afternoon I was practicing with some different settings on my camera and was using Carter's water bottle as my subject (which is also a Christmas idea for me... hint, hint Mom :))...

while Carter was playing a two year old's version of hide and seek with Tyre. By two year old's version I mean Tyre would run into a room and lay on the floor in plain view. Carter would then scream his name until he found him and tackle him.

As Tyre was running by I realized that I didn't have a nice head shot of just him for our living room like I do of all the other guys. So... he sat for me in place of the water bottle. I love this picture of him! He's trying to be serious but just couldn't help smiling...

Carter is just a little excited about the whole gift thing this year... and he has the amazing ability to pick up presents as he is driving past the tree.

The Hair...

Poor Carter... sometimes I just don't know what to do with his hair. Take the first 10 months of his life as an example...
Why didn't anyone tell me how bad it was?! The poor kid probably couldn't hardly see for months. Dan and I were almost positive that he would end up with curly hair like Dan's... but instead he has STRAIGHT hair that grows like wildfire. I can't even remember how many haircuts he has had in his 2 1/2 years... but I will say that he has had so many that we just can't afford not to cut it ourselves. So... the hair cutting responsibilities have fallen on me... and those of you who saw him at church on Sunday can vouch for the poor skills I have.

Let me just say that it took 2 days and 3 sessions at our bathroom sink before it was not so bad that I wasn't embarrassed to leave the house.

Getting ready for the 1st cut on Saturday night.

Getting the diaper situated... he is so skinny!!

Before church I was frantically googling "how to cut a boy's hair." Still didn't get it right. Here he is with "the bowl" cut after round 2.

And here he is tonight. I finally figured out how to "blend" it properly. It still isn't perfect...

but it sure beats the bobby pins!

I've been trying to post for a good part of the day... but it's been crazy around here. I wanted to put up a quick picture of tonight's meal. We have been talking for months about adding the boys to the meal rotation... but it just never happened with everyone's crazy sports schedules. One of the many things they are supposed to be learning while they are here is how to be self sufficient after graduation. All 4 do have a huge role in our weekly chore rotation... but the meal planning and making hasn't been one of them. To be honest... food has been one of our biggest struggles here. And that struggle continued last night during dinner when someone made yet another negative comment about the meal. After dinner we gathered all 4 guys in the kitchen and gave them each a piece of paper. We told them they would be assigned a night to make dinner at some point in the next two weeks and that I needed their menu and ingredient list before they went to bed. They each (after several hours and a little bit of help) gave me a list and we drew names. J's name was drawn for dinner tonight. I just have to say that Dan and I were super impressed!

Here's the menu:
Chicken Alfredo (from scratch... he asked for it in a jar but we had him make it himself)
Canned Carrots
Salad with ham, craisins, shredded cheese and his favorite dressing
Steamed Broccoli
Garlic Breadsticks
Strawberry Cake and Birthday Party Ice Cream

He started cooking as soon as he got home from school and was not done until 6pm. We helped him with some of it (the meat and sauce) but he did most of it by himself while everyone else was enjoying their free time playing catch and hanging out in the basement.

He asked for an apron and his favorite music on Pandora and he was set...

The next 3 meals are planned for next week and will be a bit more interesting. I'll be sure to keep you updated...