Toddler Turns Three

I love this girl so much! She is spunky, vivacious, persistent, funny, and always up for anything and everything. She is in love with her sister and brother...

...and is the cutest little sister anyone could ever ask for. I mean, really, just look at this face...

And this one...

And here she is with her "hey buddy"...

The number one item on her birthday wish list this year was a bicycle, complete with helmet and knee pads. She got her wish...

And she wanted a puppy-dog...

His name is Spot.

Lastly...

Candle-tasking: The only tasting of the cake that she enjoyed. Oh well.

♥ We love you, Eliza Poppy! ♥

The Wench Makes A Rainbow Cake

I'm sure we have all seen the the infamous "Rainbow Cake" on Pinterest. It is a lovely cake. This is not that cake. Nope, nope, nope. This is the lazy-ass person's version of that cake—and I use the word version very lightly.

First of all, the local Wal-Mart was out of regular food coloring and, because I was buying ingredients at the last minute, there was no time to shop around town for food coloring. So I bought the only thing available there—the neon colors.

Yellow boxed cake dyed with neon food coloring. I was still feeling like I just might end up with a cute little cake.

Then, I decided that I didn't want to make a homemade cake after all, especially when the boxed ones are so cheap and convenient. And, of course, why make homemade frosting if one is going to make a boxed cake, so canned frosting made its way into the cart as well. And why buy white frosting, sported by the inspiration cake, when all the brats and the Comrade prefer and love chocolate?

Here's what it looked like after I stacked them. At this point, I was becoming disappointed with my rainbow cake-making decisions. The colors weren't as vibrant as I had hoped, and the chocolate frosting was not helping.

Here it is stacked, iced, and decorated with M&Ms. It looks like a regular chocolate cake.

The layers are droopy. I realized here that I definitely should have cut off the tops of each layer so they would lay straighter. Live and learn.

It almost looks cute from this angle, but I was still disappointed the colors weren't more vibrant.

And, after all that, the cake tasted like crap. The Comrade was the only one who liked it. :(

Despite the nasty, disappointing cake, Eliza was happy with getting sung to, blowing out the candles, and opening her gifts. I ♥ toddlers!

Sandbox Repairs

Years ago, when Kaden was but a wee toddler, Papa built a sandbox. The brats, minus Eliza who was nothing but an egg-in-waiting, had a lot of fun in that sandbox. Then the cats discovered it and decided  to use it as a luxury shit-hole. The Wench had no patience for scooping cat poop out of the sandbox every time the brats wanted to play in it, so it was emptied and stored behind Papa's trailer. Until today...

The bottom of the sandbox was pretty well rotted away and needed replacing. The brats improved their carpentry skills by hammering on a new bottom.

Kaden was a natural and finished an entire side—plus helped with Eliza's side—by himself.

Eliza worked with me, hammering the nail into place after I had given it a good start.

Mary Jane grudgingly admitted that Kaden was better at something—driving nails. I didn't realize until now that both pictures of her working were taken while she was correcting her mistakes. At least half of the nails she started had to be pulled and begun again. She finished her side last, but did it by herself all the same.

The brats love their new (again) sandbox!

 Thanks, Papa, for helping us repair it. It's simple days like this the brats will remember and cherish forever.

Another Day Older

So, it's my birthday but you won't be seeing any pictures of me. I absolutely do not think my current weight needs to be documented for posterity. Sometimes I do feel bad that I'm uncomfortable getting my picture taken but, obviously (if you saw me), not enough to get off my fat ass and do something about it.

We didn't do anything for my birthday but gather round the table, sing and eat cake. I took a few pictures of everyone else.

Doesn't the Comrade look dainty with his birthday celebration hat on? Eliza picked them out special for me.

The three brats, also sporting birthday hats. Notice the orange plates, cups and napkins. Awww... The Comrade remembered my favorite color.

Birthdays around these parts are damn exciting!

I did spend the morning watching Eliza dig in the dirt wearing aluminum foil. I'm not exactly sure what she was trying to be, but she was pretty happy with herself.

Fall fashion at its finest, don't you think?

Maybe a chef's hat?

We take playing in the dirt seriously.

Block Party!

My husband bought me a new camera for my birthday. He was forced to give it to me early when his video recording device lost batteries during Mary Jane's birthday. Anyway, I've wanted to be a more active blogger (these brats are growing up fast and I've already forgotten too much—something had to be done, dammit!) so I felt a new camera would aid me in this endeavor. Except, of course, when you forget to bring said camera with you when you take your brats somewhere fun. 

One of my dearest girlfriends invited us to a block party hosted by her church. It was a huge event with face painting, jumpers, games, music and food. The kids had a blast. I forgot my damn camera. Doh! Here are some pictures of them afterwards. Whoopee. I included them all because I'm sure no one wants to miss out on all the angles of their face paint. Notice there are no pictures of Eliza solo. She is absolutely an attention hog but, oddly enough, loses patience when it comes to picture taking.