Book It

Remember the "Book It" program? It's still around! Nathan can't read yet, but he participated in the program by logging the time that we spend reading together. He logged enough hours that it put him in the "top 3 readers" for his class. He and the other 2 kids (4 and 5 year olds that can actually read) received a bookmark, gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, and free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

Note his crazy hair! It's a battle every morning!

Mathew's First Birthday

Today was Mathew's birthday! I can't believe he's a year old already! Nathan woke up this morning and sang Happy Birthday to his little brother...

We had some friends over this afternoon for cake and dinner (in that order)!

Mathew enjoyed his caterpillar cake...

actually, he LOVED his cake.

After cake, we opened presents. Mathew received toys, clothes, and books. He also got his 5th tooth!

Caterpillar Cakes

I took the day off work today to run errands, take Mathew to the doctor, and to bake and decorate a cake for his birthday tomorrow. I picked a caterpillar cake, actually two of them. I found the cake pan at Williams Sonoma. Each caterpillar is made of 8 pieces. The cakes took longer to complete that I thought. After baking and cooling the little "cake-lets", the decorating began. I frosted parts of the cake in red, yellow, blue, and green.


Then I sprinkled them with colored sugar...


brushing off the excess with a paintbrush.

I practiced on the body pieces before attempting the head.

Finally! The catepillars started to take shape...

I found these twirly "antennae" candles at the grocery store.

I am NOT a baker... and most certainly NOT a cake decorator, so I was pleased that the cakes turned out!

Geography and Country Music

Nathan and Chris were doing a puzzle of the United States. Nathan picked up the Texas piece...

Nathan: This is Texas
Chris: That's right!
Nathan: If you gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band....
Chris: Actually, that's Alabama
Nathan: (Looking at the Texas piece in his hand) Huh?

If I have to explain the humor in this, just forget it, it won't be funny.
If I don't have to explain why this is funny, then you're probably rolling around on the floor laughing your head off!