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Happy Birthday Mr. President

Posted on August 4, 2009 9:18 am by TheAngelForever

This morning NHL woke up. One of the first things he said to me was that it was President Barack Obama’s birthday today. Yes, my almost six year old son knew that the President’s birthday is today.

You may be asking yourself, how or why he knows this fact or several others about United States Presidents that he rattled off to Nana and Papa last night? The answer is mainly that he loves to learn. When he hears something, he sets it to memory. Just like his Daddy had when little, NHL has a some what photographic memory.

Of course, the real answer is that we bought sets of U.S. Presidents flash cards and ones of the United States. Nana found them at Target in the dollar bins as you walk in. NHL loved them so much while visiting her a few weeks back that I went and looked for them. As a teacher, I love having as many educational and fun things around the house.

Sunday JL and NHL decided to look at the U.S. Presidents cards. They sat there for quite some time reading about each of the presidents. JL noticed that President Obama’s birthday was the day after his. NHL recalled this and as you know said it first thing this morning. Last night he was even able to tell Nana several other facts about more distant presidents.

While NHL was playing with the cards at my parent’s house he asked me which presidents were around during my life. I knew most of them. What I did not realize was there was one other. Since I was a December baby born after an election I was technically born during the Ford administration. Sad that I never really thought about that, but I always remember Carter being mentioned when I was older and never thought about when he was sworn in. To answer NHL’s question I quickly pulled out all of the cards for the presidents and showed them to him. Then we talked about the two presidents during his life and how there will be many more to come.

Anyone else notice how different #43’s photo is compared to the rest? I thought it was odd how his was a close-up shot rather than the more traditional portraits. I’m assuming the current president’s photo was a quick one they used to get this product out fast.

Yesterday while on the way to drop the boys off to Nana and Papa (we were going out to have dinner for JL’s birthday), JL asked NHL how old he thought he was. NHL guessed 31. When JL told him he was 34, NHL immediately said "Oh, so next year you can run for President Daddy!" So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, TechyDad will be running for president in the not too distant future – LOL!

So what kind of fun educational items do you have/use with your children or did you love when you were a child? Please let me know in the comments because inquiring minds would love to know.

Categories:
birthday interesting kid talk laughs nhl photos real world news

Birthday wishes for TechyDad

Posted on August 3, 2009 9:00 am by TheAngelForever

Today is a special day in our family. It is the reason three of us spent time baking an extra special cheesecake for tonight. On this day, many years ago in a city that often appears to be in a galaxy far far away, my husband was born. Today JL will be spending the day at work, coding lots of important items. Thanks to going in early this week, he will leave to pick NHL up from Dinosaur Camp. From there we will be dropping the boys off to have dinner with Nana and Papa. Not sure where JL will pick to have his B-day dinner, but my guess is something that involves sushi. After that we will head back to get the boys and finally test out the tie-dyed cheesecake together.

Here are some new photos from the weekend of my amazing husband with our boys. These are when we went to build at Home Depot Saturday morning to make a message center. I can already see the future when JL teaches the boys to build their own computers from individual components.

Later in the afternoon, it was sunny out and we went to the park. All three of the boys had fun running all over the place. The two little guys even had some special one-on-one time with JL.

Last year I wrote a piece, with lots of photos, about our years together and it still sums everything up. JL is the geek of my dreams and I love him more and more each day. Most women would only dream about an amazing husband who cooks dinner almost every night, cleans the bathroom, and loves to play with the kids. This is my reality and I am truly blessed to have found my TechyDad and married him.

Categories:
birthday jl looking back my boys photos

The Pop Century Tie-Dyed Cheesecake experiment

Posted on August 2, 2009 10:13 pm by TheAngelForever

Back in December, we did a lot of research to try to figure out which Disney World resort to stay at. Several of the Disney message boards had amazing posts with information about anything and everything you could ever want to know. Seriously, they had information about the rooms, pools, buses, and even the food. Best of all, they had photos of items that helped to lure us into staying at the Pop Century Resort.

One night, JL and I were sitting at the laptop reading about the Pop Century. At the time our reservations were at a different value resort on Disney property. We read about all of the activities that took place at Pop Century each day, especially for kids that were NHL’s age. Then we looked at photos of things from the food court. We were immediately intrigued by something called tie-dye cheesecake. The photos were amazing and we sat there almost drooling. Several days after this we changed our reservations to Pop Century Resort.

When we went to Disney in May we knew that we HAD to try the tie-dye cheesecake. Of course, we did just that one morning as part of our breakfast splurge.

We had this colorful, delicious treat twice while on our week long vacation. . . so did my parents. A short while ago JL did a search for the tie-dye cheesecake on Google. He found a recipe mentioned on Slashfood.com that compared itself to the cheesecake at the Pop Century Resort. Today we went grocery shopping and JL mentioned that he wanted to try making this. It seemed like the perfect time since his birthday is tomorrow. So we bought the red velvet cake mix, got bricks of cream cheese, and bought food coloring just in case we needed it.

When we got hom JL and NHL baked the 9" round red velvet cake in our never used springform pan from my bridal shower. It also made a dozen cupcakes with the extra batter. Then I switched out and made the cheesecake part. We opted to only do four colors this time around. So I mixed green, blue, purple and yellow for our experiment. Here is the cake just as it was heading into the oven to bake the cheesecake part on top of the red velvet cake.

Now this colorful creation is baked, cooled and chilling.

Tomorrow we will slice in to test and see how our colorful creation tastes when we have it to celebrate TechyDad’s birthday.

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Submitted as part of Grace’s Kitchen Friends on Feels Like Home.

Categories:
baking birthday Disney food glorious food jl looking back vacation yummy

Field Day 2009

Posted on June 6, 2009 10:02 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Yesterday was your first experience at a Field Day. It was a little bit crazy, but lots of fun. The two kindergarten classes were together while the first and second graders were on the other side of the field. JSL and I watched you with the rest of the kids. We were so proud of you when you won the second place ribbon for the bean bag toss. You were amazing when you did the standing long jump. Who knew you were able to leap like a big frog?! Then you were in the second group of racers for the run across the big field. We watched as you easily flew across the field for the first place ribbon.

Then last night you were so tired at the late dinner for Nana’s birthday. You sat next to Mimi showing her how you write, thanks to Aunt M’s crayons and Aunt S having paper. You did not understand a fancy restaurant and waiting so long for food. When the meal was over and we finally got into the car after the long day you were tired. When we asked you said you were falling asleep. Sure enough before we arrived home you were sleeping in your booster seat.

Love,

Mommy

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Dear Kid Saturdays at Cutest Kid Ever

Categories:
birthday Dear Kid Saturday fun nhl photos school

A Big Birthday for Mom

Posted on June 5, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

My mother has always been there for me. Whether it was when I was a little girl, a teenager confused with life, college student trying to follow her dreams, or a new wife and mother, Mom has always been right there or a simple phone call away. Last year, I mentioned that she will always be my hero. My mother was unselfish and sacrificed a lot for her children because she wanted what was best for us. Still, there is more that comes to mind as I sit here with tears streaming down my cheeks. Once again on her birthday, I recall how my mother saved my little guy by breathing life back into JSL on that terrible night in February 2008.

Mom has shown me how to be an advocate for myself and my family. Mom stayed home with my younger brother and me when we were growing up. She helped to arrange play groups with friends, take me to endless swim lessons, watch at softball games, and was the leader of my Girl Scout troop. My mother was the one that always stood up for us when she knew there was something wrong at school or beyond. She made sure that each vacation we went on had something educational involved and always stopped to tell us the proper names of everything scientific (and I do mean EVERYTHING).

Today my mother is celebrating a big birthday. Recently, we have been talking about this milestone in her young life. You see, both my Nana and Papa passed away quite young. I think this birthday is hitting her hard and while I am typing this it is having a similar feelings. Just thinking too much makes my brain and heart hurt.

For this Aloha Friday please send a message to my mother on her special day in the comments. Thanks!

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday! Please know that no matter how we may disagree from time to time, I love you with all of my heart. You have given so much to me and I owe you for all that you have taught me. We are all going to continue to work together, as a family, so we have many more fun filled years with you. I want and need you to be there for all of us. The boys constantly talk about seeing Nana and spending time with you. It was so wonderful to see you and Dad with us and so happy at Disney World. It brought back so many wonderful memories from our Disney adventures when I was little. We will have many more fabulous memories, I promise you. Thank you for being such a great mother and Nana. I love you <3

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.