Theo cooking and more spelling word fun

 Theo finished first grade. We're proud of him.

May 10

Last night we made Scripture cake, which Theo has been begging to make for a week. 

It was fun to look up scriptures and to get ingredient hints. It wasn't fun to peel and grate 3 cups of apples while the 3 year old twins whined that they wanted to help and they would be really careful. I still didn't trust them to grate the apples. We made it through and they got to help with everything else.

The recipe came from a family cook book Jay's sister, Natalie, put together years ago -- back when Jay was not married yet, much less had kids. Theo has made a lot of recipes out of it recently. He made snickerdoodles and attempted rock candy and maybe other things I can't think of. And he has a big list of more sugary sweets he wants to make from it. The recipe book doesn't just have sweets, but that is Theo's focus. 

Today I decided to give my girls a lesson in snake safety. 

I asked them what they would do if they saw a snake. Miri said she would surprise it to scare it away. I asked if Wendy had any ideas. She said she would scare it away with monsters. Then she started growling. 

I told them they needed to listen to my idea, and that they needed to walk away and tell mommy or daddy. They should not touch it or get closer to it or stay around to scare it. Then I role played it for them. 

Then I invited them to pretend. 

Wendy narrated, "I'm walking. And here's a . 

 .uh . . . uh"

"Snake, " I said. 

"No, it's a cave." She walked a little bit farther. "I'm in a cave.  Oh, it's a snake!" She ran away and told me about the snake. 

Miri chose to find her snake in a cave as well before running away and telling me. 

I admire their creativity. I hope they don't try to scare dangers away. 

Spelling word: broke. 

Wendy: Like, I broke a plane. 

Me: A plane? That sounds expensive. 

Miri: And surprising.

Spelling word: sorry. 

Wendy: Like, sorry I took the plane. 

Theo was making pancakes from a mix (the only way to do it when you're out of eggs) when he ran to me upset. Jay had been in charge of Theo while I was putting the girls to bed.

Theo told me that he broke my measuring cup and he was so sorry.

I assured him that he looked like he felt bad and I had broken measuring cups too. He told me that wasn't the worst part: he couldn't find all the plastic pieces and so the pancake mix was all ruined!

We talked awhile.

Later I went out to Jay and Jay was like, "Yeah, I told him to just go to bed. Wait, there are missing pieces. We have to throw this mix away."

"Yeah, I know. Theo told me. Didn't you already tell him that?"

"No, I didn't know until now."

I know Theo is smart, but I was pretty impressed that he figured out that the pancake mix wasn't safe to eat. 

May 18 I'm pretty sure I already know what thing I do that my kids are going to find soooo annoying when they get older: me singing. 

And no, not because I sing a lot. I do sing a lot. 

It's because I sing instructions at them when I'm feeling impatient. 

(Singing to the tune of taps) "Let's get into the house, just keep going. Turn around. In the house!"

Static hair

Through the rosebush

Watering plants

Theo made doughnuts from the family cookbook. They were great. I don't deep fry very often at all.

The Amazing Theo did a magic show for the talent show at his school. He did great.

This was a success of a snack the kids can make a lot of by themselves: slice bananas. Put peanut butter in between. Freeze. Dip in melted chocolate and freeze again.

Wendy with Luca and Miri by herself

Wendy asleep and Miri very unconcerned about her twin's antics.

I just come in and find Wendy brushing Miri's teeth.

Apple cars were an attempt at another healthy snack the kids can made a lot of themselves. These were a failure -- the kids were upset that the moment you picked them up, they fell apart.

(sigh) Will you ever learn?
It cracks me up that Theo wrote this as a sentence for his spelling homework, parentheses and all.