Oscar Stew

It’s been a long while since our last one hit wonders post. Hopefully catching up on the ole blog will help me sleep better at night. Oh wait, I have an 8 month old that likes to keep me up all hours of the night no matter how clean or clouded my conscience is.

Without further ado, here is a glimpse into the small everyday moments of the oscarstew house.

 

Our snack options have been thinning lately. The kids were thrilled to find some ritz crackers and good old fashioned peanut butter. Classic, and salmonella free!

Mmmmm…yes, they were really that good.

The kids were kind enough to share with Rowan. She had this cracker turned to mush before I put my camera down.

 

Drew celebrated a momentous occasion: 100 days of kindergarten complete!

Mr. Artsy-Fartsy commemorates his feelings about 100 days the same way he expresses his feelings about everything. There’s one hundred beans on that paper…plus or minus a few.

We also celebrated some chores well done with many much chocolate cupcakes. Finger lickin’ good!

A few hours later (while Drew was at school) Miss Brinley, uh – I mean Cinderella came by for seconds. And thirds.

Rowan snagged some mesh fabric while we were working in the “study” the other day. Just own it Gypsy-Ro! Oohdalally! Oohdelalee! Fortune tellers! Lucky charms! Catch the dope with your horoscope! (watch out she’ll rob you blind!)

Drew hurt his hand the other night. I braced myself for tears but all I heard was “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS! I’m bleeding, now I can use my first BOLT bandaid.” Boys!

Drew is a fantastic “Stay-at-home” brother. He desperately wanted to change Rowan’s diaper. He opted for the velcro diaper after trying a few with snaps. This yellow diaper is now labeled “Drew Approved.”

He even went the extra mile and put her back in her jammies. I wonder what it feels like to be so loved?

Then there was the flour incident. No worries, we were able to recover 99% of the good stuff. Luckily the day Brinley chose to pull this stunt was the same day I had mopped the floor, making the recovery sanitary. Silver lining people, silver lining.

Homemaker Scoob. Up for any challenge…

Oh yes, this boy can sew a wicked crooked straight line!

Brinley and I have kept ourselves busy in the kitchen as usual. She thought the molasses was yucky. My mom always called it gopher butts, and I thought she was weird. Apparently Brinley thinks the same. Gopher…mole…ha! 

Brinley was super proud that she cracked an egg all by herself! Success!

Drew getting his chores done like a pro. Check out the trash bag / jet pack efficiency backpack. All in a days work…and if it makes him feel like Buzz Lightyear while he is doing his chores – BONUS!

Cruel and unusual punishment! What the heck is a bottle for if there is no reward?!

We bought a Butterbraid from a fundraiser at Drew’s school a few months ago. He has been itching to bake it ever since, but I was saving it for something special. We finally decided that a Tuesday morning was special enough. Plus, Ryan was vacuuming and that was momentous in itself. (actually he vacuums more often than I do, but I don’t really want to admit that).

 

Here’s Rowan chilling in her central perch watching all the hustle & bustle in the kitchen…

She’s up on the latest technology, and reconfigured to the hands free bottle.

Brinley got sick again. Drew made her a necklace in hopes of making her feel better. Secret decoder ring: “I heart you Brinley.” awwwww… Drew is up on the latest slang, I heart you?? Where does he get this stuff?

Rub-a-dub…Rowan was sure they were going skinny dipping. No bubbles allowed!

Since today was windy and cold, I suggested that Brinley wear pants to Ballet. She gave me this look and said, “That would be CRAZY! I can’t dance in pants!” Oh sorry – my bad. We settled on an undershirt instead.

 

And finally, the kids were totally NOT thrilled with dinner tonight. They dined on the last 6 chicken nuggets, and some instant oatmeal. Time to go shopping!

Time flies. Rowan is a whopping eight months old. I’ve been (trying) to have some fun with her in the studio. She usually has her own ideas, but I take what I can get. I can’t wait until she is old enough for bribery!

Most of the time she is an angel. We finally have her taking consistent naps, but night time is still a constant struggle. We’ve tried it all, and she is just stubborn. I wonder where she gets that from?

The dimple-cheek angel is a rare bird. Did I mention it’s even more rare at night?

Here is miss Itty Bitty wearing the outfit she wore home from the hospital when she was 2 days old! Finally, it fits! She is about 14lbs these days, and carries most of it in her cheeks…both varieties.

 

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Or shugga shugga, honey honey?

This looks like a sweet innocent kissy face, but beware – she’ll slime you!

Rowan’s favorite thing is anything that crinkles. Toys are just ok, she’ll go for a chip bag or crinkled paper over a brightly colored toy. And yes, I saved a weeks worth of chip bags to get this picture. So?

She can’t get enough. I’ll freely admit that I’m a Sun Chips addict. It’s my “treat,” and every time I open a bag you can bet that Rowan will be clamoring at my feet waiting for her turn.

I want every last crumb of goodness out of this bag! I swear she didn’t learn technique this from me…

We had a wasp in the house today. It flew in and disappeared right as Ryan was supposed to leave for work. Of course! We spent 20 minutes searching the entire house trying to find it with no luck. So Ryan sped off to work, and left us to fend for ourselves…

Not even 30 minutes later I heard it buzzing around the living room. It was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up there.  In the 2-story vault. We spent the whole afternoon throwing beanbags into the window trying to smoosh it. We hit him a few times, but failed to cause any damage.

After the bean bags got stuck in the window we started throwing empty bottles. And socks. And gloves. Then gloves stuffed with shoes. And all manner of objects. The wasp didn’t budge. At this point he had been a guest in our home for 6 hours.

That’s when I knew I would have to whip out the big guns. I don’t have a great picture of our weapon (photography courtesy of Drew), but imagine a mailing tube duct taped to a broom. Yeah that oughta do it, and if it doesn’t, it was Ryan’s idea.

I obviously didn’t have the presence of mind to remove the dustpan before attacking. Who has any mind at all when a big nasty wasp is buzzing around the house?

I thought I had him, but alas, he crawled up the window once again like nothing had happened. We were losing daylight, and I was afraid we’d have to sleep with a bulletproof wasp on the loose. *shudder*

And that’s when the door knocked, and the hero came in.

Rob Clark saved the day. And the night! One of the kids took this picture with Drew’s Fisher Price camera right before he left. It seems like such a small bug, but it was a huge relief to me and the kids! Thanks Rob!