Thursday, March 17, 2011

Rainbow Cupcakes

These are perfect fo St. Patrick's Day!
Make a box of white cake mix, following all of the instructions.
Separate the batter into 6 equal portions. I like to use plastic cups for this.
Dye each portion of batter one of the colors of the rainbow with food coloring as follows:
Red- 18 drops
Orange- 12 yellow and 4 red drops
Yellow- 12 drops
Green- 12 drops
Blue- 12 drops
Purple- 9 red and 6 blue drops
Evenly layer the batter in your lined cupcake pans, one color on top of another.
Bake as directed.
After cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with white icing or whipped cream (like a cloud).
For even more fun, stick a foil wrapped chocolate coin in top and serve to your little Leprechauns!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Laundry

I don't think I know anyone who enjoys doing laundry. It's something I especially hate, though.
We don't have our own washer or dryer hook-ups in our apartment. It's one of the ew things about our place I complain about. I would give up my dishwasher to be able to do our laundry here. Now, there are laundry facilities on site but I still have to go outside to use them. There are three washers and three dryers. One washer and one dryer don't work. Completely out of commission. One of the dryers that is in working order, though, can't do its job. If you put in anything bigger than your socks and underwear in it you will find a pile of hot but wet clothes in it after $1.25 and 45 minutes. And unlike most laundromats, you cannot add a quarter or two for another six or eight minutes each. You get 45 minutes or nothing. So on laundry day there's no point in using both washers to try to get done faster.
I usually have one load in the washer and one in the dryer. My day is lived in 45 minute increments. I actually set a timer because if someone else wants to do their laundry and your machine has stopped, they will not hesitate to take your clothes out to put theirs in. This goes for the dryers AND the washers. You can imagine how furious I was one afternoon to find a pile of my wet clothes on a table. Ugh! I would never do that to someone else, I feel it' extremely rude. And because I don't take it upon myself to move other people's property, washing on Saturdays is out of the question. I don't know who it is but someone leaves their clothes in the dryer all day! I made that mistake enough times to do my washing during the week.
But anyway, my timer is going off and I have to go get my clothes.
I wish I had my own washer and dryer!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Kindergarten Registration Part 2

Getting to school with everything we needed was only half of the battle. We got our visitor's pass and waited in the office. I signed some paperwork and Matt got a cool new backpack filled with goodies. Then we were escorted to the nurse's office. I fell in love with her! I instantly relaxed around her. Matt was initially shy, but she got him to open up in no time. She showed him some pictures that she would use to check his vision. When Matt looked in the machine she as patient with him. "Don't guess," she said at one point. "Just take a second to look and tell me where the 'E's are pointing." Then she checked his hearing. She adjusted the headphones to his little head and showed him how she wanted to raise his hand when he heard the beep. She explained that the beep would get quieter and quieter, "until it sounds like a whisper," she whispered. He was so cute raising his hand, fingers stuck together. Towards the very end, though, his chin started to tremble and his bottom lip quivered. "I don't like it," he cried. But we were done and he pulled it together with only a couple of tears.
The nurse took us to a tiny office and introduced us to one of the kindergarten teachers who seemed really sweet. She talked to Matt about his family and cat. She told him about her cat, Meow. He told her about his water gun and she said she had one, too. She had him stack ten blocks and count them,write his name, cut and snip paper, all of which he could do well.She took out some number flash cards but we have only just started with number and letter recognition at home and he got moody because he didn't know what they were. Same with the letter flashcards. Then she took out a box of crayons and asked him the colors. He got most of those wrong, which I don't understand because he's known his colors since before he turned 3. Next were shape flashcards. He called the oval a circle, but got square, rectangle, and diamond, so that was ok, I guess. He was asked to draw a picture of himself and he drew a stick boy with a gun. (sigh) She graciously allowed that it was his afore mentioned watergun. She sowed him a small book and asked him to locate the front, back, letters, and words. She asked him to point to the words while she read. He didn't do so well with the book even though I read to him almost every day. But now I know how I can read to him better. Finally, she set a timer for a minute and had him identify pictures. Those he got all right. She praised him for getting worm; most kids said snake.
And then we were done. I signed Matt up for a kindergarten readiness class. Twice a week, half days, in July. I think he will benefit from it. We got home and opened his bckpack. He got a pack of triangular crayons, a new pair of scissors, a pencil case with pencil, ruler, eraser, and pencil sharpener. He got a pawprint sticker for Cougars, his school mascot. And a bunch of parent resources including flashcards and effective ways to use them, which I will do. I feel like Matt could have done better on his assessment, but I also now know what the are looking for. So, all in all, a positive experience. My baby is growing up so fast!

Kindergarten Registration Part 1

I took Matt, my almost 5 year old, to kindergarten registration on Friday. It was bittersweet. Only a small taste of what's to come, I know.
The day started out... ugh. My husband left for work at 5:30. I had every intention of getting a shower before the boys woke up. I fell asleep. Lucas woke me up around 7:00. I picked him up and brought him back to my bed where we both fell asleep again. We woke up somewhere in the 9 'o clock hour. I knew the school was near by and wanted to walk there. I couldn't remember how close exactly it was so I wanted to give us p l e n t y of time. An hour would be enough I figured. So we had to leave at 10:30. That was doable.
Matt woke up in a cranky mood but I figured He'd perk up after breakfast. So I got together all the papers I needed and folded them into my wallet. While he was eating I got myself dressed and ready.When I got to my hair I couldn't find my hair pin. I spent 10 minutes looking for it but found it. Lucas decided then was a good time for a nap but I figured it would give me time to get Matt dressed and ready. At 10:30 I put the stroller outside and unfolded it. Matt put on his shoes and coat. I went to get my nice coat on but couldn't find it. I didn't want to wear my ratty white coat, I wanted my nice sophisticated black pea coat. It went with my sophisticated hair pin that I spent so long looking for. It wasn't on the couch, hanging in the closet, over the closet door, on the glider; it wasn't anywhere! I checked all those places and then some again. I found it in the closet, not on a hanger but squished between two other coats. Finally I thought I was ready. It was time to go. I checked my bag just to make SURE I had everything. My wallet wasn't in my bag. I looked on the coffee able, couches- including the cushions- in the kitchen,, the boys's room, the bathroom... everywhere I could possibly think of. I began to panic. Everything I needed was in my wallet. If I couldn't find my wallet there as no point in even going. I spent about 20 minutes looking for it before I found it in the trash can. Thank you , Lucas.
We were finally on our way. I had everything I needed. Even after a late start, we got to the school ridiculously early. We walked around the perimeter until we were only half an hour early.
What a day. And we hadn't even walked in yet.