Politics with a 6 year old

On our way home from school today Munchkin recited her po-em that she has to recite next week in front of her class. It is about voting and has the word candidate in it. This is our following conversation:

Mommy: Do you know what a candidate is?
Munchkin: Someone you vote for.
Mommy: Did you know there is an election next week?
Munchkin: Yep
Mommy: What are we voting for in the next election?
Munchkin: The President of the United States!
Mommy: Do you know who the candidates are?
Munchkin: McCain and Obama.
Mommy: Who do you think we should vote for?
Munchkin: McCain.
Mommy: Why do you think that?
Munchkin: It just sounds better in my mouth.

We have not talked politics too much in front of the kiddos so it surprised me when she said McCain. But, it made me laugh when she gave her reason. Typical 6 year old thinking? Or the wisdom of a child?

{TWD} Creepy Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes Part Deux

Finally! They are done. I have spent the day moving boxes from my living room to the office. When we took our house off the market last month we decided to close our storage locker at the same time. It wasn't worth the money we were putting into it to keep it. So a 10x10 storage locker was emptied into our living room. Granted the storage locker was not full but there was enough to really stress me out! Now my office can stress me out....

What fixes stress better than a little chocolate though, right? I am pretty excited to try these tonight with my Bunco group. I am pretty good at usually choosing a new recipe when having people over for dinner and they usually turn out...OK. But, you can't go wrong with baked goods...I don't think....

This weeks recipe was brought to you by Clara at I heart Food 4 Thought. You can find the entire recipe on her site so go check it out. She also has an entire site dedicated to cupcakes so if you are a cupcake aficionado make sure to check that one out as well!

If you still want to join you have only a couple of days left to sign up. All you need is the book, a blog and to ask! In the meantime go check out how over 275 other bakers did on these!

{TWD} Creepy Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

Ok ok! I am the lamest ever!! I usually get my recipes done before Tuesday so I can actually post on Tuesday. Well, I am having Costume Party Bunco at my house today so I am making them for the party! Please come back tonight so you can see pictures of my creepy cupcakes!!

Ice skating

Saturday was a fun filled crazy day for us. We started out with donuts from Shipleys and staying in our PJs for awhile. I finally got the kids dressed in their costumes and we headed to our second Trunk or Treat event of the season. Since every church in our neighborhood has a fall event and since you can throw a rock in any direction from our porch and hit a church, there are quite a few events. A couple of years ago they were all on the same day so it was easy to go to all of them. This year they are spread out on all different days. We didn't get to stay too long at Trunk or Treat as we had a birthday party to attend. My kiddos got to get a lot of candy, color a pumpkin, and run a race. Munchkin won the gold medal in her division.

The birthday party was all the way up in Hendersonville at Circus World. The mom putting on the party had said when she gave us the invite that I could just leave Munchkin there. I didn't have to stay. In my mind I thought "Are you insane? Do you realize how big that place is?" Circus World has a bowling alley, Ice Skating Rink, Laser Tag, Bumper Cars, a pizza/party room and Arcade. No way was I leaving my 6 year old there to run around unsupervised. Each of the kids at the party were given a wrist band so they could do whatever they wanted. Munchkin really wanted to try out ice skating first. Because Munchkin wanted to do it, so did Little Man! I asked him if he was going to ice skate for 2 minutes and then freak out. He said no (which I knew he would) and I got him a ticket. We were given our ice skates by a guy in a huge uniformed bear suit. Apparently they were having a halloween bash there later that day.
Munchkin got her skates on first and didn't even want to wait for us. Well, she would have but I told her she could go ahead without us as I still had to put skates on Little Man and myself. The birthday girls sister was already out there and Munchkin went to join her. She was hugging the wall by the time I got out there. Little Man was great about letting me get his skates on him and he did awesome walking in them and getting to the ice. He was out on the ice for about 2 minutes and started to freak out. His little ankles had a really difficult time staying straight in his skates. I got him over to the side and let him sit on the bench to watch. Munchkin did great. She fell about 14 times...she was keeping track, not me. Even with the falling she had fun.


Little Man was dressed in his Super Why costume for ice skating. Munchkins Strawberry Shortcake costume, hat and wig were all stuffed in my purse. Once we were done skating we went out and Munchkin bowled a couple of frames and then was just done with that. Then, she waited with several other kids for about 15 minutes to play laser tag. As soon as the door closed behind them it was time to go up for cake and pizza. That was ok though all of the kids were really hungry.

We finished off our night at the Drive-In in Franklin, KY watching High School Musical 3. It was really cold but the kids were bundled up in the back of Angelas van. Little Man always runs hot so he made a good human blanket for me for awhile.

It was a good day but we were exhausted!

LifeStock

Friday night LifeChurch hosted LifeStock at a local high school. Our Lifegroup all decided to go as a group that night. The worship band from our campus played all kinds of songs that everyone could sing along with. It was a really fin night full of music, friends and fun!




The band is full of amazing musicians.

All of our kids seemed like they were going to do really well at the concert. They sat in rapt attention at the beginning of the show.

It didn't take very long though for them to figure out what a great slide the sloped floor made. They spent almost the entire concert sliding under the chairs. Little Man watched until the very end and finally took two turns! Silly boy!

I am terrible at taking photos inside..in the dark. But Miriam is not. You can check out her blog here. Sorry if I messed up your shot Miriam!

After the show I managed to grab a quick shot of our campus pastor Ken Behr, fellow guitar player Cian and Bobby. They were just hanging out talking so I am sure they were thrilled to be photographed. I did warn them that I would post them on my blog though.

Lindsey and I have decided an arranged marriage may be in the works. I know, I know! We obviously don't want our kids to start thinking about that at this point but the mamas can right? We know they are both growing up in solid Christian homes! Aren't they cute?

This was just one shot of Little Man I got cuddling with daddy. He was having fun but this little expression says he was starting to get a little overwhelmed by the noise and activity.

More of the sweet kids.


Last but not least Angela, Lindsey and I grabbed a quick pic together. Aren't we cute? :)

This was a fun night and we are already looking forward to the next one!

Reading Transition

It is amazing to me how fast a transition can come on. When Munchkin was reading the Magic Treehouse books (she has about 4 left in the series) she would read them out loud. She would bring them with her everywhere and there was a constant stream of Munchkin from the backseat. It wasn't annoying like asking every ten seconds when we will be there is. It wasn't being mean to Little Man. It was nice to hear her sounding out new words and really hearing the flow of her reading.
She brought a book in the car the other day that is a little bit higher level. I think it is a 4th grade book. The library has a sticker system that says what kind of books you can check out and I think I remember seeing blue as 4th grade. Anyway. I realized she was silent. There was no sound. I looked back and she was into the book. I think it is quite a bit more difficult than the Magic Treehouse books. But, she is reading to herself! It happened so fast it took me by surprise. I had gotten used to hearing that sweet voice reading and reading and reading. Now I have to ask how the book is.

I did read the book she is reading first to make sure it was OK. She is having a little trouble with some words but shows them to me and we sound them out together. One was Vietnam.
It makes me a little sad that she is transitioning in her reading so fast. But, I am so proud of her at the same time. It makes me treasure the moments she still lets me read to her even more.

Conversations of Faith

The last few days Bobby and I have both been talking to Munchkin about faith and accepting Christ. She has had tons of questions about faith, and baptism and angels. So, it has been challenging and wonderful all at the same time. More than anything else in this life I want our children to know Christ and to want to walk in His ways. But, I also want it to be their faith and not just because they were born into a Christian family. I don't want their faith to be regulated by just being in church Sunday morning or for it to be because the south is a church culture.

I hope and pray that our kiddos see us living our faith every day and in everything we do. I pray that they will be solid strong Christians that want to change the world for Christ. I want them to have compassion and empathy for others.

The other day my heart leapt for joy when Munchkin said "I have chosen! I love God!" I know she does. She loves to be at church, she loves musical worship, she loves the Bible verses she is learning and she love Konnect. Prayers are a little difficult but some of the things she comes up with give a glimpse into what a prayer warrior she could be someday. She often prays for those who are struggling that they wouldn't have to struggle anymore.

I know her little heart is pure but is it my own insecurity that I want her to say the magic words/the sinners prayer? I pray that Bobby and I are the ones that get to lead her and Little Man to Christ. I pray that he and I will both get to be there when they make that decision.

Munchkin is asking all kinds of questions about baptism. She wants to know how old the kids were at church that got bap-ti-tized. I said probably 7,8, or 9. She insisted that some of them were probably 6! Maybe. I told her that her daddy and I were both 10 when we were baptized. I also explained that it is a symbol to show others that you have asked Jesus into your heart. She seems to get it. I don't want to push her. I know Bobby doesn't either. So, I guess we pray, we wait and let each of our kids keep exploring until they are ready to make their decisions. Until then the lines of communication will stay open and I pray we will have many more conversations of Faith.

{TWD} Pumpkin Muffins

I will start out my saying I am no fan of pumpkin anything. I don't like pumpkin pie but I had never tried pumpkin muffins before. I think it may be a texture thing with the pie though as these were absolutely delicious! I am also not a fan of nuts in anything but a Snickers bar. Again...texture. I think it messes up fudge, cookies and brownies. Why mess with chocolate perfection? I was not terrible excited to make these muffins as I did not think I was going to like them. I was also not sure my kids would like them. I did think Bobby would like them though so I soldiered on and made them.

It think it helped that everyones status updates on Facebook the day I made these had something to do with baking Pumpkin something.

Since I don't like nuts I decided to make half a batch with chocolate chips and the other half with walnuts. Oh yeah, the recipes called for golden raisins too. Since Little Man is the only raisin eater in the house I left them out. I figured he wouldn't miss them and if I put them in I would be stuck with 6 muffins with raisins.









Here are my two batter halves. Little Man surprised me by asking for a beater. He took a few licks and handed it back. The boy is not a batter eater.











This right here kind of made me want to gag. The words congealed and coagulated also make me a little urpy..... the pumpkin is what made me think them. Although, it was just the indentations. The pumpkin smelled good and came out of the can quite nicely. I have half a can left to make another batch of muffins with.







These smelled delicious when they were baking and my Little Guy kept coming in and asking when they would be done. Finally the time came to test them. They were a hit...with everyone in our house! I liked these a lot..well the chocolate chip ones anyway! Little Man ate both kinds without a word of complaint. My daughter is like me with the nuts. She only tried the chocolate chip ones but her comment was "Mommy! These are better than cake!!!"
My husband also liked these a lot. He really likes nuts in his baked goods so i guess I should make some with them a little more often for his sake.
So, this was a good one that will be making its way into our regular fall cookbook!

For the recipe you can check out Sounding my Barbaric Gulp by Kelly or you can purchase the book Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Thanks Kelly for picking such a delicious recipe!

Salient and Nashville Predators

Saturday night Bobbys band Salient had the opportunity to play at the Nashville Predators game. They were pretty excited about it and so were we. The band only got so many tickets so we called out friend Ron and asked it he would be able to get any. He was able to and they were awesome seats! Thanks Ron!! :)
We were only a couple of sections away from the band so Bobby was able to get back and forth easily from the stage to our seats.
They got to play in between periods for a few minutes. They had to do a couple of things on the fly as the time limits were a little funny. That was ok though. They are used to having to change things up at the last second. Comes with being in a band I suppose.

The kids were super excited about the game and did really well. Munchkin cheered and cheered and cheered and then asked me why everyone said "Suck!" I had to explain to her that hockey fans are apparently not the most polite people on the planet and they were kind of being bad sports toward the other team. So for most of the 1st period I heard in my right ear "Let's go Predators, Let's Go!" A kid in front of us cheered with her for a little bit and another guy went hoohoo a few times with her. Everyone smiled though and didn't seem annoyed.

Highlights: 2 fights by TooToo, 6 goals and free frostys from Wendys because the Preds got 5 goals! :)
Little Man fell asleep after the 2nd period and the band got booed.....Ok, the band didn't get booed but it seemed like they did. Right at the end of their last song the video on the megatron cut to a bunch of kinds in Rangers jerseys. That is where the booing came it but it just happened to be at the same time the band finished. How many times in your life can you say you got booed by 10,000 people?

Mister Mark got the kids a bag of cotton candy at the end of the game. They each ate a little bit and then bounced off the walls until we got home. Silly kids! We ended up at the late service on Sunday dues to getting up REALLY late!

I love going to see the Preds play but it was especially fun since we got to see Bobby and the band play!

Oh yeah, also took a walk around downtown before the game with Jeremy and Dana and her family. We checked out the Ghost Ballet on the Riverfront.

The Simple Womans Daybook

I found this site through A Year at Oak Cottage, which I found through Tuesdays with Dorie. I think it is a lovely way to start off the week and will be posting this on Mondays.

The Simple Woman's Day Book . . .

FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008 ...

Outside My Window...
The weather is beautiful. The leaves are just starting to change and a frost warning was sent out for the day. No frost but a nip in the air. Just enough to break out the sweaters and make cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I am thinking...
about my friend Beth today. She is moving soon and I am hoping she will make it to My Gym this morning for our make up class. That reminds me...I need to text her!

I am thankful for...
My sweet husband who got up this morning and bathed the kiddos so I could get a few things done downstairs. I am so thankful for the hard work he puts in every day at his job to provide for us.

From the kitchen...
Soon there will be the delicious scent of chicken, potatoes and carrots coming from the crock pot. In the meantime I can still smell the cinnamon rolls I made for breakfast.

I am wearing...
Jeans and a t-shirts and a gray hoodie. Normally I would be in flip flops but the weather has just gotten cold enough that I have had to start wearing shoes. I have on my black Target One Star Converse tennies. This is my standard uniform.

I am creating...
Scrapbook layouts in my head and storage solutions for all of our stuff.

I am going...
all day long today. I am editing pictures this morning, heading to My Gym for a make-up class, will walk this afternoon, take Munchkin to dance class this evening and maybe get home in time for Heroes.

I am reading...
If I get to read today I will be reading Readers Digest. It is sitting here next to the computer. I may have too much on my plate for that today though. I did just read the entire Twilight Series though.

I am hoping...
I can fit everything in I need to do today including laundry, and unpacking at least a couple of boxes.

I am hearing...
Super Why from the living room and the dog just being loud.

Around the house...
There are still boxes and boxes and boxes piled in my living room. I am trying to go through them to put away, give away, throw away. It is difficult though as I am quite sentimental about my "stuff". I know I shouldn't be but when you are not near family I find it nice to have the reminders of them around.

One of my favorite things...
Is hot chocolate when it just starts to get cold outside.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...
Pediatric ophthalmologist appointment for my Little Man, volunteering at school and unpacking more boxes. Watching the Big Kahuna one day and making sure Munchkin gets her homework done. Finding another book to read and of course Thursday night TV. Making the rest of Little Mans costume, finding one for Munchkin. There is a lot on our plate this week.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...
This is kind of an older picture. I can tell by the hair. This was before she was swimming every week. The chlorine was really bad for all of this beautiful hair and then we cut it off. She has always loved books and reading. I guess that is why she is 6 and already reading 4th grade books.








Check out the Simple Woman to read more posts like this one.

Capture Music City books are in

And I have mixed feeling about it. I am a little bummed that I ordered it early. It is a nice book with great pictures in it. But....I don't have any pictures in it. My one picture of Bobby and Little Man playing guitar on the swing is on the DVD but that is my only picture that made it. My name and blog address are in the index but it is still not one of my pictures in the book. I ran down to pick it up at Davis Kidd tonight while Bobby went to a birthday party with the kiddos. I despise Green Hills. There is a lot of money there but there is also a ton of traffic there. We drove down there every week when Little Man was in therapy and I was so glad we went at ten in the morning when there was little traffic. Friday night at the Green Hills mall is a horrible horrible time! I was already late due to traffic when I had to drive around the entire parking lot for 10 minutes looking for a parking spot. Did I mention Davis Kidd is right next door to the Cheesecake Factory and is in the same parking lot as the movie theater?

Once I got through the door I couldn't find the books. I made my way downstairs and discovered the other 218 photographers sharing stories about how wonderful it was that their photos were in the book. I missed the part where they highlighted the award winners. I was told later that every one of them are long time professional photographers. After flipping through the book really quickly to see if any of my photos were in there I sat down to get a better look. Another photographer was in the room with me and was livid. I could see it on her face. When I left she was talking to the people from the Tennessean and informing them that it was a political process and that it wasn't right that you had to buy the book without finding out if your pictures were in it ahead of time. I think something that might have helped would have been having a DVD player set up with the other photos displayed. Maybe that would have helped....or maybe not.

I did meet a couple of really nice people and the book is very nice. But, I am just disappointed that my photos didn't make the cut for the book. Of course, I am not alone....

Cheetah-Licious!

I belong to a website called Moms Like Me. It used to be Music City Moms but just switched over to the bigger network. It is an interesting bunch of ladies that have lots of great ideas. Discussions range from politics and religion to cloth diapering and meetups.

One of the new categories on the site is The Grab Bag. I happened to pop in a few days ago and saw that the moderator that works at the Tennessean was giving away tickets to the Cheetah Girls. So, of course I put my name in to win. Well! Win we did!!!

I called Bobby to tell him that we got 4 tickets and he sounded....I would say excited but that would be a lie. He was excited that we won but I could hear the wheels turning in his head on how he was going to get out of seeing the Cheetah Girls. I let him off the hook by telling him I would invite Angela and the Soccer Star if he wanted to stay home with Little Man. After a huge sigh of relief from the other end of the line and a good laugh from both of us I called Angela.

We met up at Chickfila so we could carpool last night and headed downtown. Munchkin was super excited about seeing the Cheetah Girls. The funny part about that is we don't have cable so we don't see the Cheetah Girls. Of course you can hear our friend Chad singing on the One World Movie so we had heard a couple of the tracks. But, we have never seen the Cheetah Girls live or have really heard their music. As soon as I told Munchkin we were going though she was ecstatic!
I have to say thank you to the Tennessean and Moms Like Me for the tickets! We were in the Tennessean suite and it was so much fun. I have to say, seeing a concert...unless you are in the front few rows..the best way to see it is an a box. We had a great view of everything. We hadn't had a big dinner before we left the house so I was glad to see that they had also provided hot dogs, chips, cookies, and water.
Munchkin was very silly. She was having a fantastic time until she fell and smacked her head on the chair. Why did she do that? Um because she was doing something I had just told her not to do. Once we got ice for her head she was fine although she spent far too much time running back and forth to the freezer to get ice to put on her head.

These were the other ticket winners from Moms Like Me/the Tennessean. Our Moderator is in the picture as well.
And here is our happy little group. I think both the girls had fun but I think they were more excited to hang out with each other than the concert. I had fun hanging out with Angela too. The music was fun and I could see putting a couple of the songs on my mp3 player in my running mix.



Asthe concert went, it was really good except for a couple of thing. I think I said at least twice "oops! Someone just got fired!"

The first time the girls were supposed to go up on the pedestals the lights came on and the tech was still out on stage trying to fasten the girl in the middle in. So, only two of the girls went up. Another oops moment was when the track was skipping on one of the girls solos. I mean unless you sing like your voice is skipping along with the music......

Remember the band Hanson?The opener was a boy band called 535. The one man in our suite said "It's like watching Poison when they were 10!" They were tiny little guys and their drummer rocked! Munchkin screamed her little head off for them. I realized later the lyrics were "Let me hear you scream!".

One other hilarious moments that happened. Munchkin and the Soccer Star were dancing around when it was time for the Cheetah Girls to come out. The opening was airplane directors and over the PA a "fight attendant" said. Please take your seats! We are about to take off!" The girls ran back to their seats and sat right down! It was pretty funny!

So, we had a wonderful time thanks to some free tickets I won! Fun, fun, fun!! I don't think we could have had a better time if we had paid for our tickets!

{TWD} Lenox Almond Biscotti

One of the coolest things about joining Tuesdays with Dorie has been seeing people baking together from all over the world. This weeks recipe was chosen by Gretchen of Canela and Comino from Peru.
I will start out by saying that my husband LOVED this recipe. He likes almonds so it was almost a no brainer that it would go over well at our house. My little Munchkin also loved it. She commandeered a beater as soon as I was done mixing the batter.

It started out looking like these two little logs. I should have listened to the advice given on the Q & A on the Tuesdays with Dorie Site. I know my oven cooks slow AND I know that things take longer on my stones.
The logs spread waaaaay out and didn't look done but I thought they would bake a little more on the stone. I was wrong.



After mutilating the dough....yes it was still doughy there was no way each of my tasty little biscottis were going to stand up like soldiers to bake and dry out more. I tried. They had to stay down flat to bake again. So, they really ended up being more like an almond cookie than regular biscotti. I didn't really mind though. Regular biscotti kind of hurts the roof of my mouth when I try to eat it. You may be asking why I don't dunk it in my coffee to soften it up. Well, I don't drink coffee and dunking it in Diet Coke is just not the same.
I will definitely make this again and maybe try some of the playing around items with it. And, of course, I will bake it twice as long.
I think I heard some people put in white chocolate chips and cranberries. That right there says fall to me! Yum!

Bobby had a couple biscotti with ice cream and really enjoyed it.


I love finding new recipes that are not difficult to make, that my entire family enjoys.

If you want to join TWD you need to sigh up before the 31st of this month. There are so many bakers that the time has come to limit the number of people signing up. Check it out here if it is something you want to do!

Hendersonville Library

Did you know there is a brand new library in Hendersonville? We have lots of friends that have been there so we thought we would check it out today. Munchkin and Little Man are huge fans of hanging out at Barnes and Noble for hours on end so I figured the new library would be a big hit.
It is really cool! It is two stories and the kids section is closed off from the rest. That is really nice so you don't have to worry about your kids bugging the other patrons. We did take a quick tour around the rest of the library before hanging out in the kids section. The young adult section is in a room all its own. It seems like the fiction section is huge and there are study rooms for students.

The only drawback for us is that we don't live in that county so no checking out books for us. That's OK though. We get plenty in our own county.

A few pictures from our trip. The brand new building is beautiful. Although the sign out front kind of makes me think of the show Fringe. If you have seen it you'll know what I mean.




Once in the door you find yourself near a lovely staircase. And today if you were going up you were taking the stairs. The elevator was out of order. For us, any chance to take the stairs is good. It is great practice for Little Man and of course I should always take the stairs...

The kids section is full of books.
And this Gorilla. I think I heard one of the librarians call it Coco. He was pretty lazy just hanging out looking out the window.
A cute train:
This reading corner was so inviting. My kiddos ran/speedwalked their way right to it and claimed their seats.
A little detailing on one of the bookshelves:
Little man got distracted by the one toy in the entire kids section. The courtyard outside the window will be amazing in the spring. There were quite a few chairs out there just to relax and read.
And of course you can curl up in the corner of the "lovely" couches while your kiddos can read at pint size tables.
All in all a great trip. I am sure we will be hanging out there in the future. Of course, if we moved to Hendersonville then we could actually check stuff out....maybe sometime in the future...