The Breadut (patent / trademark pending)

We do love us the Ben. And Ben loves himself a donut. And daily would be preferred.

A recent conversation: 

Ben: Mom, can you buy me a donut?

Me: No. 

Ben: Can you make me one?

Me: No. 

Ben: How about making me a Breadut instead?

Me: A what?

Ben: A Breadut. 

Me: How do I make a Breadut?

Ben: You melt some chocolate, then put it on bread, then add some sprinkles!

Well, okay, then. A Breadut, it is!

Recipe: two squares of trader Jose's dark chocolate (50 calories), a slice of thin bread (45 calories), sprinkles (5 calories). Melt the squares, spread on the bread, add sprinkles. 

I dare ya to give it a try!

Don't let my smolder fool ya, I ATE IT ALL.

Talent Show

The school talent show was last Friday. It's always a popular night with the kids and has grown tooooo big. Last year there were 50 acts and the show didn't end until after 10 (we left early). This year, in an effort to shorten the show, they limited the acts to 30 drawn by lottery and were encouraging large groups. I put it out there into the 1st grade universe that Emma wanted to sing Let it Go, and we had ourselves and instant group, "Olaf's Sweethearts". We had one rehearsal, because really - these kids know the song inside and out!

I took video of the performance so no action shots to post. This is a before shot. They did great. It was absolutely adorable and they got a huge reception of applause when they were done.

How cute is this certain performer?

After 6 3/4 years, the child is finally requesting I do braids and pony tails in her hair. It's pretty fine and doesn't stay perfectly, but I love that she no longer has ONE hair style.

There handsome fellas were my dates for the show - boys from Ben's preK class. They held up pretty well for the two hour show, but with about 8 acts to go Ben was done and was whiny and fidgety. After every act he announced in a very loud voice, "How many more?" I think there may have been a few parents who were feeling the same way.

Family BBQ at the beach

Perfect weather has come to the island. It's warm, sunny, no humidity - the kind of weather where you want to be outside ALL DAY. And guess what, that's what we do!! We eat all meals on the patio, the kids play together for hours on end - something we just couldn't do at the penthouse. We really do love us the bungalow!

We are three minutes door to door to our village's private beach. We joined up with a bunch of families yesterday afternoon and played the day away. The water is still cold, but that doesn't stop the children. Daddy is rocking Bronchitis so he stayed home to relax and missed out on some yummy eats. Emma ate everything in sight - seriously, she must have eaten three meals worth of food. I am guessing she was making up for calories not consumed at her first ever sleepover Saturday night at her pal, Anna's.

What this pic is missing is the aftermath: sand flea bites. This girl will be a scabbed scarred mess. Oi.

Easter Bunny goggles worn for three hours straight...

FOOD@

Our pal, John, pretending to be sad that he had to eat Brian's portion of the food.

I wanna ride!!!

We still don't have living room furniture and after seeing all the fun our friends were having with their paddle boards, we just may skip the sofa and get one for ourselves!!!

Holy busy

We have been non stop this past month and I have no complaints. We started out the month with a quickie visit from Abuelita (who has not been to LI in 10 years!) AND in the same day we got a two hour visit from our cousins from Ecuador who happened to be in NYC for the week and took the train out to visit us. Such an amazing day. Take it how you will from me - I have back packed the planet and met some amazing people - but there is something to be said about FAMILY.

We love this family!!

This next pic is NOT family, but they may as well be - our neighbors who were in nursery school with Ben and now preK - we watch them after school til their Mommy gets home from work (she is a phys ed teacher at a diff elementary school) - 20 min a day and look how far Ben has come! He used to freak out about sharing his toys with them daily and now he is the King of sharing. Lilly and Tyler - you will always be our LI cousins!

Where's Ben?

I found Ben. He is eating a cracker sandwich at a restaurant with Abuelita and us. Yes, a cracker sandwich!!! I don't even waste my money on the kid ordering food I "think" he may eat (he never does), so on this grand occasion he ate saltine crackers between two hunks of my soup in a bread bowl bread.!!

And she fell for it!?! Mom's a sucker!!!

Emma lost another tooth after a long dramatic let it dangle by it's root for a day or two before mom RIPS it out then I loose it in my shaggy bedroom carpet...

Back story : we never found the original tooth - I used her saved old last tooth to pretend we found it!!!

Emma, just know we love you and were tired and wanted to go to bed and so cheated with the old tooth, we are cool, right? Fist bump?

PTA plant sale last week. Em decided to get me a lovely begonia:

Happy Mother's Day!!

Ben was the hit of the Plant Sale - sadly because I shoved him in the corner with the ipad, but happy because every kid - after shopping - wanted to be his pal and have a shot at angry bir*s!!

No bullies here!

We popped int PA last weekend for various celebrations:

Happy 66th DADDY!!!

Aunt MIKI even came to visit!!

Happy May 4th birthday to you!

Then there was this:

REAL moms eat cookies on their birthday!! 43 years young!

Oh, yes, as per usual - Mother's day / Birthday:

How lucky am I???

Hey E&B of the future - RARE pics of your Aunties and Grandpa together!!!

Happy.

And just cuz you never met her:

Grandma Ruth with Aunt Lori - I'm feeling you around a lot this Spring, Grandma!

My pal sent me this pic of Ben behaving (?) at Emma's lacrosse last week:

mud from head to toe!!!

This must ALWAYS make a parent happy - falling asleep with a book...

ART SHOW!!! What a fun night!

A sample of Ms Emma's work.

And Master Ben!

Tonight our kiddos played nicely together for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT without complaining about bugs or hunger or what have you! They were swinging from the limb sprouts  acting as if they were vines and having a BLAST. Dodo even enjoyed watching:

Must. Eat. All. Unfamiliar people.

Look!

Look what we have been up to!

Ben can now get his own breakfast started! He gets the waffle out of the freezer, into the toaster and toasting away! Our little boy is growing up. 

We will miss out date mornings with him sans Emma when school gets out. I can't believe he starts K in Sept. I pray for the teacher - he is still experiencing focus problems. As per usual, super smart, but refuses to participate unless someone is at his side encouraging him to stay focused. Sigh. 

We still love him a whole lot!! :) How could you not love him with his creative mind! Lookie, here:

Another use for my window frames...

Em is doing great. She rocks at lacrosse and is good in school. We still battle quite a bit at home - she is strong minded and spreading her wings. We've had a few battles get ugly but thankfully we work it out by bedtime. Whatever will the teen years bring?

Summer must be near! Our first ice cream from our fav place. 

April fun

One third of the year has passed! We have achieved our goal if moving into a home. Now to get onto the others for the year!! Continuing to settle into the bungalow... We've got our morning routine down. Ben is still our early riser. We hear his door open as its an old home and all the frames are slightly off causing the doors to stick. He then comes upstairs to use the master bathroom because for whatever reason he is afraid to wake Emma by opening her sticky door. I think he chooses wisely.

He spends his early mornings building with the little Legos. As a matter of fact, much to my dismay, daddy and the children turned my awesome window cut out into a display unit. Grrr. 

Might I suggest you purchase yourselves some sticky tape soon because there will be a shortage of it soon with all the tape Ben uses on his daily creations (whether to display Legos or build crafty things)!

He still gravitates towards those wooden blocks we have had for 6 years now. Whoever purchased those for us - you got your monies worth!!

Happy Easter!!

Wow. Haven't journaled in ages. What's up Batter likers? We had a lovely simple quiet Easter. The bunny was chocolate good to the kids and they are excited about Summer to try out their gifts from him. Unless you are Ben, then you wear your gift daily because you think you look like a minion.

Emma was excited about her jumper thingy. She hasn't figured out how to use it yet but when she does, look out! She has mastered regular jump rope which she does on a regular basis inside out house - but I don't care, she is getting exercise and the only beings she is disturbing are the basement creepy crawlies.  

It was about 40 degrees but they still wanted to test out their water shooters. "Fine," I said, "But don't get wet." Nice try, mom! 

We did a quickie egg hunt w our pals in the afternoon. It was fun and a great end cap to the beautiful Spring day. 

Breakfast!

And a sweet note to you all from Emsadoodle.