Gingerbread Masterpieces

Here are some pictures of the completed houses.
Alexander's house was precariously placed. It did eventually fall down, all the better to eat!

Christian's was my personal favorite - notice the one-legged man on crutches. Maybe it's the guy from the strip club lawsuit (see "jury duty" post)

Anabella worked hard on hers. It looked like it would topple, but held up surprisingly well.

Lynlee was trying to put as much icing as she possibly could on her house. And she thought her mom would let her eat the whole thing!

This is Jonathan's. He didn't have the patience to make the actual house (Daddy made it) but the decorating is all his! He really enjoyed the eating part that night. Notice the garbage truck behind it. Jonthan ALWAYS has some kind of vehicle with him. This time, it was a garbage truck. Since then, I sent the remaining candy into school with Chris. I can't have it sticking to Jonathan's teeth!

Alexander's birthday party

I think I'm finally recovered from Alexander's party on Saturday. It's partly my fault, as I chose to go on a nine mile run that morning (!) The theme for his party was gingerbread houses. The twelve kids made gingerbread houses out to graham crackers and icing (homemade, of course, to avoid transfat). While the icing hardened, we played some games, including BINGO (they made their boards as they came in, throw the candy on the Christmas tree, and my favorite, marshmallow on a string. It was amusing to watch them hold the string for their partners. You can tell a lot about a child by how easy or hard he makes it for his partner.

It was a great bunch of kids. Alexander is still of the age where he has boy and girl friends, so I wasn't stuck with 12 boys. The girls seem to keep the party a bit calmer. He got some great presents, too, including Mad Libs, Clue, Matchbox toys, an art kit, soccer socks and ball, 20Q, and more! We finished off the party with a yummy gingerbread cake. I'm glad we decided on that - if I had served cake with frosting, there's no way the kids could have eaten it! They left on a sugar high. Sorry, other parents!

Jury Duty

This past week, Chris' mom has spent every day in jury duty. She was not allowed to talk about it, or even tell us what case she was on. All we knew is that she was involved in a civil lawsuit. We were surprised then, this morning, when she told us to open the local section and read all about the trial. The headline was Man wins millions in adult club lawsuit . Read about it here:http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD03120807.htm

Jonathan stories

Here are some pictures of Jonathan doing one of his daily chores. The older boys empty the dishwasher every morning before school, and Jonathan is responsible for putting away the silverware. Notice the line of race cars watching him as he puts them away. I asked if the cars were helping him and he replied, "No, they don't like putting silverware away."

An update on our adventure with gum:

• Day one: Chewed gum after supper, then made a big deal of showing us as he spit it in the waste can.


• Day two: Pulled out the waste can in the morning to show me AGAIN where he spit his gum. No, we didn't empty it that night. After snack, chews gum and accidentally swallows it.


• Day three: Chewing gum after snack while playing outside. Comes inside, distraught that the gum dropped out of his mouth somewhere in the backyard. Searches for it but can't find it.


• Day four: Finds yesterday's gum outside, brings it in, shows it to me, then throws it away.


• Day five: Today. Who knows what will happen!

Adventures at Dr. Barnes' office

• On Monday, I trekked all three kids to the one and only pediatric dentist here in the Daytona area: Dr. Barnes. My kids love going to the dentist. Dr. Barnes is a magician in his spare time and always entertains the kids after they sit through an exam and a cleaning. They also leave the premises with a goodie bad that includes a new toothbrush and a toy from the treasure chest.

• We've been faithful with our visits, taking the kids every six months. So imagine how mortified I was when they told me that TWO of the boys have cavities. Alexander didn't surprise me too much. We've been watching some cavities for two years now, hoping the teeth fall out before they need to be fixed. His time has run out, however. Today I took him back and he got four sealants on his permanent molars and two cavity fillings. While they did the work, he was gassed up on nitrous oxide and watched Star Wars on the TV mounted above the chair. He was so engrossed in the movie that he didn't even realize they were giving him the novicane shot. Later, they told him they had "put his tooth to sleep" so Dr. Barnes could work on it. He was quite a trooper, and made it through very well!

• Now, the other cavity child is NOT Benjamin, the one with braces. It's JONATHAN!!! That's when I was really embarrassed. If it was Benjamin, I could blame it on his poor brushing skills or the braces. But when your four year old has 6 cavities, there's no one to blame but the parents.

• Why does he have these cavities? They're fast growing, because they've appeared in the past six months. Dr. Barnes blames it on a few things. First of all, Jonathan is a "grazer" when he eats. Nutritionally, it's the best way to eat. For your teeth, however, it's the worst possible scenario. He always has some type of food residue in his mouth, just eating away at his teeth. Another problem is his choice of foods. No, he doesn't eat many sweets or candies. Unfortunately, some of his favorite foods are even worse for teeth than candy: raisins, crackers, goldfish, just to name a few. They all stick to (and between) your teeth. It's not a pretty site.

• So here's what we're doing in the hope that these cavities stop growing and we don't have to fill them.

1. Brush his teeth FOR HIM every morning and evening
2. Floss his teeth every morning and evening
3. No more raisins unless it's right before a brushing
4. Give him peanuts and cheese (which nutralize the acid in his mouth)
5. Let him chew sugarless gum after eating if we're not by a sink for brushing teeth.

• Yes, you read that right. I'm giving my four year old gum, on the dentist's orders!!!! It stimulates saliva production and helps kill the bacteria in his mouth. He is, of course, thrilled with this prospect, as he's never been allowed to chew it before. We've had stern talks about not swallowing it and throwing it into the waste can. Here's hoping all of these measures help and we have a much better checkup in June.

Happy Birthday, Alexander!

Alexander's 8th birthday is on Tuesday. It's hard having a December birthday, so this year I did something different - I put the tree up last week but decorated it for his birthday, not for Christmas. After his birthday, we'll put up the Christmas ornaments. I hung pictures of him all over the tree. Alexander loves it, but Benjamin is complaining "It's not fair" since he's never had his own tree!

Port Orange Christmas Parade

This afternoon was the Port Orange Christmas parade, one of my favorite events of the holiday season. This year the parade lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. The kids could have been in it, but they chose not to. I like to think they're like me and like watching the parade, waving at all of our friends. In reality, however, they just like getting the candy. This is the first year I encouraged the candy - Alexander's birthday party is on Saturday, and we'll use the candy to help decorate our gingerbread houses.

I always enjoy watching our parade. All of the local businesses, it seems, participate. They decorate floats, cars, trucks, even a bulldozer! This year's theme was "Sun, Snow and Sand," which doesn't make a lot of sense in Florida. Especially this year, when we were sitting there, slathered in sunscreen, sweating in 80 degree weather. There's nothing like watching a Christmas parade in shorts! We even rode our bikes there and back to avoid the traffic congestion.

The above pictures are: The boys waiting for the parade, the start of the parade, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (??), a singing reindeer in a race car, and our church float, which Benjamin and Alexander helped design.