Making butter in a ....... specimen cup?

One of Daniel's schools had a "Night at the Museum" this evening. We have a small museum nearby that focuses mainly on Kansas history with a mostly Mennonite theme. It's a cute little museum, and they opened it up just for the kids and their families tonight.

We didn't get a chance to look at any of the exhibits for more than a split second at a time because they had so many activities set up for the kids, but they had a blast. They had a rice table where the kids could dig for bones, a long jump area ("jump like a jackrabbit!"), an area to make a snake out of little cardboard tubes, story time in the cabin, some animal pelts, and a few other activities.

But the favorite activity, by far, was making butter. In a specimen cup.

Yes. A specimen cup.

They poured a little bit of cream into the cups (hey, at least they were sterile, right?), screwed on the lids, and the kids got to shake away until they ended up with a little blob of butter sitting in a puddle of buttermilk. Honestly, it looked really gross. But they got to taste the final product and they loved it!

Although...I have to admit that I did feel a little odd jamming random specimen cups into my purse before we left. And even more odd when we stopped for drinks on the way home and I had to take them out and sit them on the dashboard of the van in order to get to my wallet.

Butter. In specimen cups. I don't even want to know what's next.

Busy day

Up before the sun, as usual, getting the kids off to school - with yet another dashboard breakfast, this time courtesy of the local Kwik Shop. Vanilla cappucino and a king-sized Snickers - the breakfast of champions on this particular day!

Daniel had his Christmas program at playschool, complete with a very special visitor at the end.

The Dude came over this evening, and after I threatened the girls with cleaning their room myself (aka "garbage bag rampage") he opted to help them get their laundry folded and put away. Or maybe he was playing with Barbies with them. That's still up for debate.

Seriously though, having him help was a lifesaver. Getting the girls to put their laundry away is a constant battle, and since he showed them a "new" way to fold things, they just thought that it was so cool and now they're doing it "his" way. Whatever - as long as it's put away, I don't care.

Daniel, of course, was tired. Poor kid. At least this time he fell asleep on normal furniture - just not in what I would consider to be a comfortable position.

Tomorrow we get to get up early and get everyone up and dressed and fed and get the girls ready for basketball. They both have games at the same time tomorrow - in two different towns. So Ex1 and I are meeting in the middle so that I can give Sarah to him and he'll take her to her game, and then I'll take Emily to hers. After the games, we'll meet in the middle and I'll give Emily back to him (and Jared too, unless he opts to go to Sarah's game) and then Alex, Daniel, and I will be back home relaxing with The Dude.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to take a nap.

A calmer day...for the most part.

After the complete and utter chaos that was yesterday, today was a welcomed calm.

The morning started out cold (and frosty) but the kids actually got up with only minimal airhorn action. We all managed to eat breakfast and I even got a shower *gasp* before we left to go to school.

I got the older 3 to school on time and then dropped Alex off at his school, and Daniel and I came home and hung out for a while. I did some cleaning and stuff (of course) and then took him to school. Then I had to run back out to the girls' school to take some stuff that they had forgotten this morning (grrr.) and some stuff that they didn't know that they needed.

I happened to stumble upon this scenario and sat and watched them for a few minutes - just long enough to determine that I am very happy that I do not live in that house. Seriously, watching these guys work was interesting. It's hard to tell from this angle, but that pole was within a couple of feet of the roof of that house. I'm sure that they're professionals and all that, but.....yeah.

A perk of the day was remembering that I didn't have to make supper tonight! *happy dance* There was a preschool function for us to go to where we would be served "stone soup" that was made by the kids. The soup was absolutely delicious - and probably tasted just a smidge better because I didn't have to make it.

But of course we couldn't get through even a 45 minute meal without at least one attitude problem - so once we all got done eating, we piled back into the van and came home and the boys went to bed early. Very early.

Sucks, but I can't deal with them when they act like total spazzes out somewhere. One of these days, they'll figure out that they're not going to get away with it. At least, I hope that they will.

It's times like this that my singleness comes back and slaps me in the face. When we first got there, of course the boys had to go to the bathroom. One at a time. I swear, it was like they plotted against me - as soon as one got done, another one had to go. By the time I got them all taken care of, my soup was lukewarm at best. Then on the way out of the building, they all decided that they wanted to run off in different directions - another reason why they went to bed early.

But still, while being single sucks (at times), I'm also grateful that I'm not in a crappy relationship. I know that there are good guys out there, but I haven't found one yet, and I'm ok with that. For now. Sort of.

Ok, maybe I'm starting to get tired of it. A little. Or a lot.

But I'll live.

Open House

One of Daniel's preschools had an open house tonight. Sarah opted to go to a football game with her father, so the other four kids and I hung out for a while before it was time to go. We walked to a nearby pizza place to get supper (one of the perks of living in town) before we went...

What's left of Sand Creek as of today. Thank you, Mother Nature, for this beautiful mess.

Just below the bridge, where there's usually several feet of water.

Poor dog has to walk across the creek to get a drink!

Once we got to the open house, Daniel had fun showing us around. Alex had a blast too, since he went to the same school last year.

Daniel pointing out his self-portrait.

His face! Sort of resembles me in the morning...

His placemat for snack.

Mmmmmmmm........cookies!

A Daniel-sized water fountain.

Can't see all of them, but there were about 15 out there. *IN* the city limits, I might add.

All in all, it was a good day. The kids were nowhere near as fired up tonight as they were last night (thank goodness) and after we picked Sarah back up they all went to bed voluntarily.

But of course we have another full day planned tomorrow, so we'll see how that works out......