Mario Mania

"Mommy, can you play the Mario theme on your violin?"

"What?"

"You know..." The little guy belted out the tune in his nice six-year-old voice.

"Hold on," I said. "Let me get the violin."

Somehow I managed to produce the tune, not quite perfectly, but good enough for the little guy.

A little while later he came in holding some styrofoam concoction with a pencil going through it.

"What the heck is this?" I asked.

"A Mario propellor hat."

"Oh."

Even at school, he draws Mario pictures all over his papers. I think it's an obsession. I don't know if I should laugh or be worried.

Cookie Cramp

I think I'm going to be sick. I have this terrible habit of sampling all the cookies I make. I've been baking a lot of cookies (tis the season!). Three batches were made just today.

Here's what else happened today: a cookie exchange. You know what that meant - I had to sample everybody else's cookies.

So let me see, I think I've eaten about seventeen cookies today. No, make that eighteen. Ugh! No wonder my tummy doesn't feel so good!

Shoveling Snow

It's that time of year again, when the fluffy white stuff falls from the sky. It has a nasty habit of accumulating in the driveway, making it difficult to traverse to and fro. Today was one of those days where the handy dandy shovel had to come off the hook in the garage and be put to use.

As I toiled outside, my six-year-old son decided to join in the fun. He grabbed the kid shovel and began doing his thing. What was his thing? Getting a load of the white stuff on his shovel and flinging it high into the air.

"Look, mommy. I'm making it snow!"

Gee kid, thanks!

Carrot Sandwich

"Who wants to make lunch today?" I asked my kids.

"I do!" they both shouted in unison.

"Okay," I said. "Go make some lunch."

My daughter made normal ham and cheese sandwiches for my husband, herself, and her brother. I had the honor of being given my six-year-old son's concoction.

I looked at the sandwich. I touched the bread. It seemed stale. "Um, did you microwave the bread?" I asked.

"No," he replied. That was good, because I didn't want him using the microwave yet! "I toasted it."

I opened up the sandwich. There were about a dozen mini carrots inside. A carrot sandwich! This delectable delight was served with a side of goldfish crackers swimming in ranch dressing. Would you believe, it was actually good!

Culinary Disasters

Today was Christmas cookie baking day. Fortunately, that wasn't a disaster. Here's what was the disaster:

As I worked on creating cookies, my daughter decided to do a little cooking of her own. She pulled out the blender, some yogurt and an assortment of vegetables. "Mommy don't look," she said.

I knew that was going to be trouble. She filled up the blender, pressed the grind button, and concocted something green. "Here mommy, drink this."

I looked at it. "This is going to kill me," I said sniffing it. I took a sip. Yuck! "What is this stuff?"

"Spinach, carrots, ice, and vanilla yogurt."

Note to self - don't mix those ingredients!

Next creation: Honey bread. My daughter got some wheat bread, rolled it in a little ball and coated it with honey and parmesan cheese. Then she nuked it in the microwave, twice, for 40 seconds. "Here Mom, eat this," she said handing me a rock-hard ball on a plate.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

I took a little piece off. "Yuck!' I exclaimed. "This is awful!"

"Here," I said handing her a package of chocolate molten lava cake. "Make this."

She mixed and poured and did pretty well until she knocked the filled muffin pans on the floor.

"Ugh!" she cried looking at the chocolate lava which was now spread across the floor.

It definitely was not a good cooking day for her!

Dirty Dog

"This dog stinks!" I exclaimed as I got a whiff of our 12 week old German Shepherd puppy. "He needs a bath!"

My husband is the bath-giver for the dog. (Hey, I took care of the kids, so he gets to take care of the dog. Besides, there's no way I would want to deal with that squirming bundle of fur in a bathtub!) So he took the dog up to the bathtub. There was an awful lot of yelping and splashing and carrying on up there.

When he was done, the dog looked like an oversized drowned rat.

"Honey, go check out the bathroom," my husband said.

Did I really want to?

I went upstairs to take a peek. The tub was covered in dog hair. There was a black dirt ring at the water line, and there was hairy water all over the floors and walls. What a mess!

"Um, so who's cleaning up that mess?" I asked.

"You are!" my husband exclaimed.

"Not!" I said. "And when you're done cleaning up that mess, why don't you brush his teeth!"

Hee Hee.

Christmas Present

This evening I was wrapping Christmas presents. My son sat down next to me and decided to do a little gift wrapping too. First he had to create some presents. He went off and got some paper and sissors.

"Mommy, I'm going to make some paper snowflakes and wrap them up. I'm going to give them to a person I know whose name is Sherry."

"I see." I watched in amusement as he made the snowflakes and then proceeded to wrap them. He must've used at least a half a roll of Scotch tape doing it. When he was finished he had a nice little package completely covered in tape.

"Here Mommy, this is for you. Put it under the tree and just forget about it until Christmas."