Ice cold milk and an Oreo cookie...

Two reasons why I cannot have OREOs in the house:

1. I think I could eat an entire bag in one day. I have an oreo addiction.

2. THIS:

Thank God we ate outside tonight.

The Price of Sanity

Drinks after work with co-workers. No need for a babysitter: $32.00

Going out for lunch and then shopping with the King. No one spilled milk, put partially chewed food on my plate or threw a fit in the middle of the store: $125.00

Regaining my sanity and realizing how amazing my kids are: Priceless.




Thanks for a great weekend Grammy!

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

Enter your name at this site and it will tell you what flavor of ice cream you are.

You Are Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

So I guess I am a chunky monkey... how depressing is that? I think I will go eat some ice cream.

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

Restaurant Meme

My first meme!

Green3 obviously thought I was going to be bored on my weekend without kids and tagged me for a meme. Here are the rules.

1. Link to name of person that tagged you.


2. Include state and country you live in.


3. List top 5 favorite local restaurants


4. Tag 5 other people and let them know they've been tagged.

I am from Iowa. If you don't know what country that is in, look it up.

Since Green3 listed a few of my favorite Ames restaurants, I will expand out into the Des Moines area also.

1. Buzzard Billy's. This is the King and I's favorite restaurant. We go there for each of our birthdays. We love spicy food and I don't know anywhere else in the area that you can get cajun food. We always get the armadillo eggs as an appetizer and I get the Chicken Czarina for my meal.

2. Carlos O'Kelly's - I could make a meal on the chips and salsa alone.

3. Pita Pit - When I want to eat healthy and fast, this is my first choice. Tons of veggies and meats stuffed into a pita bread...yum.

4. Great Plains Sauce & Dough Co - Great Plains has the best pizza in Ames. The ultra thick crust is to die for (if the pound of cheese doesn't kill you first). The lunch deal is a bargain at $1.50 a slice.

5. Wallaby's Bar and Grill - This is hands down the best sports bar and grill restaurant in town. I have never had a meal there I didn't like.

So now I am supposed to tag 5 others... unfortunately I have no other blog friends so I am going to skip this. If you are one of the lurkers (a.k.a my family) that read this blog, post your favorites in the comments.

Pink cupcakes

It is Princess's last day at her preschool tomorrow so I told her we could bring treats. When I asked her what she wanted to bring she replied "Pink Cupcakes." So I looked through my cookbooks and found a recipe for Strawberry Cake.


Strawberry Cake
10 oz package frozen strawberries, thawed
1 package white cake mix
3 oz package strawberry jello
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease cake pans with non-stick spray (or line cupcake pan with liners).

In a mixing bowl beat together all ingredients. Beat for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Fill prepared pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

That's it! How easy is that? They taste pretty good too.

Here is frosting I made. It is a lightened up version of cream cheese frosting.

Light Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz brick of low-fat (Neufchatel) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
8 oz tub of light cool whip, thawed

Mix all together until light and fluffy. Store in fridge.

The frosting is very good on chocolate teddy grahams also (not that I would know...).

Unfortunately I didn't have any food coloring to tint the frosting pink, but she was happy with just the sprinkles. It is a good thing these are just for preschoolers. My decorating\frosting skills need some work.

We have lost control of the castle

I am seriously changing the name of my blog to Life in the Loony Bin because that is where I am headed.

We have lost total control of our house. The princess is contesting everything we say and will not do as she is told. Yesterday while the King was mowing the lawn the princess went for a bike ride while I pulled DQ in the wagon. We were three blocks from home when she started going down the slightest of incline and it freaked her out. She bailed off the bike and I helped her walk it to the end of the block where it was flat again. She refused to get back on and yelled at the top of her lungs that she was NOT GOING TO GET ON MY BIKE. I tried bribery. I tried threats. I tried speaking softly and reasoning with her. She just kept getting louder and louder. By now we have several residents watching us from their lawns. I finally decide to take control of the situation and picked her up, put her in the wagon and put on the seat belt to lock her in. She screamed the entire way home. Everyone in the neighborhood was watching me pull a wagon in one hand and carrying a bike in the other. I even got a "I've been there" comment from one of the neighbors.

Then tonight didn't start much better. When I picked Princess up at school she fell to the floor screaming I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME! Again, I try to reason, bribe and threaten her to stop and get in the van. Nothing is working. So I pick her up kicking and screaming and leave daycare. I am sure the teachers now think I beat my kids and I will have a visit from social services later this week. After dinner I told Princess that if she cleaned her room we could paint fingernails and toenails. Her favorite thing! She went into her room, but instead of cleaning she started dinking around. I gave her a few pointers on where to start. She did that and then asked what she should do next. I gave her a few more ideas, but by now the fingernail painting reward was just not worth it. So I told her if the toys were not picked up by the time I got back everything on the floor would go to the garbage. She assumed my threats were empty as usual and continued to play. 15 minutes later I went into her room with a garbage bag. She didn't even seem to notice. In fact she left the room to play with DQ. I put the stuffed garbage bags in the kitchen and she finally caught on and started crying. I carried the bags down to the garage and left them. Inside the bags are a few of her prized possessions (Fairy Barbie and Ariel). Will she get them back? Only time will tell.

And DQ? Not much has changed - she has always been on the naughty side. It was just a lot easier to keep sane when I had one princess.

Outdoor fun

It was a gorgeous evening tonight.


DQ's favorite thing to do outside is to take a walk with her stroller and baby. Tonight each girl had their own little stroller and baby and we walked for about 4 blocks. Now if I can only find a stroller big enough for me to fit in...they can start paying me back for the years of pushing them around.


All the kids in the neighborhood love to ride either their scooter or bike. Princess is anxiously trying to learn how to keep up with them.