El queso es viejo y podrido. ¿Donde esta el sanitario?

$225?

Please.

1: cut.
2: drill.
3: sand.
4: file.
5: sand again.
6: oil.
and like most project that I do with Kasey, it also involved steps 7-10:
7: sing.
8: dance.
9: laugh.
10: quote Encino Man.

The finished product:

a cheese press made from local maple for <$10

The question I keep getting is, "Why?"
Answer: To make cheese! Actually, no.... The main motive here is:
To EAT cheese

and hopefully, we will. 60-90 days from now.

Every Sunday,

I sleep in.

Every Sunday, Aaron wakes up with the kiddies at whatever unnatural hour they decided was acceptable for weekend rise and shine.

Every Sunday, I am served breakfast in bed (always a waffle with chocolate chips and syrup) at 7:30 by three sticky lovey children.

I love Sundays.
I married up.

"Stuffed to the Muff"

It's ok. You don't have to understand the title. It's a Lawrence family joke.

I have been craving hot, fresh, tiny donuts since I read a friend's blog post about an apple farm that served apple cider mini donuts. I had to have some.

Fortunately, it was craft fair weekend in NWA.
Unfortunately, the tiny donut booth didn't come to the fair this year.
Naturally, we were devastated.

Suffering the painful sting that occurs when cravings meet disappointment, Quincy, Corbin and I sought out an alternative deep fried sugary goodness. We would get our fix, and would not stop until our cravings were satisfied, we ran out of money, or one of us went into cardiac arrest.

What the WHAT?

Deep fried PB&J?!
I love it here.
We sat in the shade with a group of ladies down for a weekend from Maine. They were in love with Corbin and asked if they could keep him. He hammed it up and they shared their deep fried tomatoes and "Spud Dogs" with him.

"What is a spud dog?" You ask?

Well, I shall tell you! Put a foot long hot dog on a stick. Then send a couple potatoes through one of those apple peeler corer things. Thread the potatoes on the stick so they spiral around the hot dog.
Deep fry the crap out of it.
Smother it in chili and nacho cheese.
A Spud Dog is born! Winning!

Other goodies that can be found at the Spanker (heheh. "spanker") Creek Craft Fair are:

-baklava
-crepes with everything on them
-Monte Cristos: a sandwich with Crisco, ham, cheese, spicy pickles, and jam that has been battered, deep fried-obviously- and dusted with powdered sugar.
-funnel cakes
-every flavor imaginable of fresh squeezed lemonade including chocolate, blueberry, watermelon, and hot pepper.
-Deep Fried Everything, from french fries and onion rings to pickles to snickers bars and Twinkies. The kid in front of us in line tried to order "deep fried butter". Is that a thing? Why not just order the whole Fry Daddy and drink the grease?
-Deep Fried Coke: Coco-Cola batter that is deep fried (act surprised, y'all) dusted with powdered sugar, and dipped in a carmely dipping sauce made with coke and browned butter.
-Chocolate dipped fried cheesecake on a stick

Did you have a heart attack just reading that? Those are the goodies that are available at THREE BOOTHS. Yup. There are half a dozen more to choose from.

We ate "funny cake" as Q calls it



Downed not one, but two fresh squeezed lemonades. Locals: does anyone subscribe to the Daily Record? A reporter took some pics of the kids sharing a lemonade, took our names and told us to check tomorrow for a photo.

Pounded a foot long deep fried corn dog.And got a giant bag of sweet and salty kettle corn. Yum.

We walked around and checked out a few of the booths, but then I decided to be realistic. We were there for the food, not the crafts.

The kids danced while these guys played Circle Be Unbroken and Wabash Cannonball. I sat and listened, then had a shocking realization.I actually KNEW these SONGS. That can't be right.

WHAT exactly did they put IN that "funny cake" batter, anyway?! Ahhh!
We headed over to the antique motor display. It was actually really cool. Corbin especially loved throwing corn into the old grain mill. Quincy named her rubber duckie, "Van", and is now calling our minivan, "Duckie". She is in such a silly phase right now. Everything that comes out of her mouth makes us laugh. (see next post)

We picked up a 5lb basket of Arkansas Black apples on the way out.
See? We eat healthy stuff too.
know what's cool about the Arkansas black apple? You can store it in your crisper for 6 months.
It actually does turn black. Gross?
I don't know, we've never kept them long enough for them to turn black...I'll get back to you on that one!
Stuffed to the Muff?
Yeah.

Mission Completed.

Good Mail from Auntie!

We got a package in the mail from my sister, HolleeAnn and brother in law Paul.
Holy Moly.
It is the package of all packages.
Look at that excitement:

It was like one of Oprahs Favorite Things Giveaway episodes. I pulled away the tissue and revealed the contents of the (huge) box) And Quincy's head actually blew off her neck with excitement.

Presents. Presents galore!
Seriously, ga-LORE. Something for everyone! I love me some Halloween decorations!
Glow in the dark trick or treating wands

skull bubble necklaces

halloween dinner plates (cafeteria style-with the cute little compartments for each food-love it!)

halloween bowls

halloween forks and spoons

trick or treat bags (that are hillarious, the monster one for Corbin kills me)

skull fruity snacks with light tweezers to pick them up with (can't wait to reuse the tweezers in preschool!)

a gummy candy stick--this is what truly amazes me about my sister. She totally could have put together a package full of sugary sweets and my kids would have loved it...for 5 minutes. The fact that these and the fruit snacks were the ONLY junk food in the entire package is proof of how thoughtful she is. I do love candy, but I love it even more that she sent a package with fun that would last and last.

Batty heatbands and halloween ribbon headbands

halloween socks! (I will shamefully admit that these have been worn a bit too often already...let's just pretend I do a LOT of laundry, ok? ok.)

should I go on? but wait! there's more...

(I am SURE I am forgetting stuff, there was so much!)

glittery halloween window stickers

halloween kleenex

a light up ghost decoration (LOVE!)

metal dogtag ornaments for our Halloween tree with vintage halloween graphics on them (my fave.)

spider kitchen dishtowels (my other fave)

halloween stamps
A glittery cat head bunting. (I hate cats, but I LOVE this. maybe because they are supposed to be dead.)

spooky skull and spider necklaces that light up
and my (other other) fave, a really cute Roxy shirt that I bought for my cute niece Jordan a few years ago. I loved it so much that I almost bought one for myself. Then, my other cute niece, Taylor got one, too, and when I was reminded of how cute it was I almost bought it again, but didn't.
J's closet was purged awhile ago to make room for new wares, and rather than consign the shirt with the other clothes, HolleeAnn mailed it to me. It's really cute, it fits perfectly, and I love love love that it was recycled back to me! Thanks, sistah!

Thanks for the fun package. Opening present after present that were all selected just for us with love and for no reason other than to bring us happiness filled me with joy and gratitude.

I have such a great family. Even though we live far away from everyone, they make time to show interest in my children. They call and talk to them, to hang pictures of them in their homes, skype, send cards, letters, and emails asking about soccer, talks they gave in church, parties, school, music, and everything else.
They tell my children they love them.
They show my children they love them.

We are so blessed to be recipients of this great love.
Look how happy it makes us!

Happy.
Thanks, Auntie!

Yesterday...

Quincy: "Bloody Hell!"

Thanks for nothing, Harry Potter.

Oh Tinkerbell

Reese is twirling around the living room in a Tikerbell dress and singing, "Oh Tinkerbell, oh Tinkerbell, how lovely is my dre-ess" to the tune of, "Oh Tannenbaum".

She has no idea that she didn't invent the tune.
It's pretty cute.

Young Learners: Mice!

Letter: M
Color: Black
Shape: Triangle
Number: 3
Songs/Poetry: The Leaves on the Trees, 5 Little Pumpkins, Mrs. White had a fright

Books: Mouse’s First Halloween by Lauren Thompson, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Take a Mouse to School, by Laura Numeroff, Mouse Count and Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Dramatic Play: Mouse Count!
Provide mice, a jar, a rock, and a snake for the children. Encourage them to recreate the story of Mouse Count.

Share: Bring something that begins with letter M

Art:
Busy Bees: Triangle Mice.

Friendly Frogs: Mouse Shapes! Just like the story by Ellen Stoll Walsh, we fool the sneaky cat by creating mice from paper circles, squares, and triangles. Math: pre-time-telling clock matching activity I have two of these clocks. I would "set the time" on one clock and challenge the children to move the hands on the other clock so the times matched.

Shared Reading: A Mouse Has…
Each page adds a piece to the mouse. This is a simple repeat sequence story and the children catch on quickly and add to the story as they read out loud and give the mouse a body, a tail, eyes, whiskers, ears, and at last 4 legs and it "runs" away.

Later, when it was time to go outdoors, I did a cognitive activity and each child named the mouse parts from the story back to me as a "passoword" to get through the door to play outside.
Cooking: Let’s bake cookies!

Question: Cause and Effect
Friendly Frogs: If you give a real mouse a cookie, what will happen next?

Fine Motor:

Friendly Frogs: I can use scissors

Busy Bees: Mouse Tweezer Transfer
Gross Motor: What Time is it Mr. Wolf?

This is a game similar to "mother may I" where the children line up along a fence and take turns asking one child (the wolf), "What time is it Mr. Wolf?" Mr. Wolf has his/her back to the children and states a time ("one o clock", "six o clock" etc) in response to each of the children as they take turns asking. The hour of the day equals how many steps the child can take, so if Mr. Wolf answers with "4 o' clock" the mouse can take 4 steps closer to Mr. Wolf. Since Mr. Wolf can't see the children, he doesn't know which of the "mice" is going to catch up to him first. The sneakiest mouse arrives first and gets to be the Wolf next.

Dramatic Play: Face Painting check out my little mice...don't get eaten by the wolf!

Phonics: All Aboard the M train! We attempted to create a giant letter "M" with the train tracks...but it ended up looking like an S. We found items that begin with letter M and placed them on the tracks for the M train to pass. Phonics: Create a list of M Words and Share items that begin with M.

Music and Movement: Hickory Dickory Dock and October songs/poems.