Pre- Birthday Frosting and Cake Adventures

Is there anything better than a child's excitement over a birthday? These two are busily making a cake, and shaping  fondant. The frosting is cooling in the fridge and Seb is toddling around with his tooshie on display saying "happy birthday to you."

This is my best birthday eve ever.

Quinta Photos

 

Better late than never, right?

 

 Seb inherited this tendency from Freddy.

 Why lean over when one can lie down and get a closer look?

 Mooj did his homework on the sunny lawn surrounded by little cousins buzzing around him.

On Cleaning

Things have been getting increasingly disorderly around the house. The fast comings and goings of children with so many bags, papers, equipment, and who knows what, means that "I'll get that later," is uttered far more often than "gosh, let's put this away and help out."

My position of letting every person deal with his or her own stuff was simply untenable. Here's a big shocker- mess doesn't bother (my) children like it bothers adults. Not to mention, if I'm going to chose between making them clean or study, school will always come first. 

I've taken every stance at both ends of the extreme, from being mother and maid in chief, to the drill sargent who won't so much as get a spoon when asked. I wish I could say that I've cracked the code and figured out the best way, but I'm writing this in complete defeat. 

I have made a few changes that I'm happy with: 

Big kids do their own laundry on Sunday. It takes all of five minutes to put their clothes in the washing machine and hit start, and later hang their things on the line to dry. 

I no longer clear any dishes or non- perishables that are not my own or Seb's. After a few days of this, one could hardly see the counter, so I've softened that stance to moving dishes to a tray, where they await eventual migration to the dishwasher. 

The kids have to clean their own bathroom. 

Lastly, I moved the TV cabinet from our upstairs sala to the entrance. It's a catch-all for rugby/tennis/PE bags, and has a separate compartment for shoes. So far, so good. 

Since I don't have recent pictures with me, here are a few of Freddy at Seb's current age- 16 months. 

It feels like decades ago that I was taller than Moojie and Freddy was a baby. 

Seb and Pipocas

Waterproof gear and wellies make Seb one happy boy. 

Stomp away, Seb.

It's amazing how much entertainment value one puddle holds.

A Park Day With The Little Boys

Homecoming

We had a weekend away just north of here and we all got the chance to unplug. We were internet and electronic device free for the whole weekend and that was almost the best part. 

I was having a minor meltdown that the year went by too quickly. Annual events always drive home the point that life is zooming by. 

Last year's quinta post is here: 

http://lifeonhappystreet.blogspot.pt/2013/06/quinta-pictures-on-my-phone.html

I'll do a big post like I do every year, but for now I have to do two things: 

1) shower

2) tackle this 

This is only about half of our stuff; I think we bring less when we go to California for the Summer. 

School Lunch and Snack Fatigue

I started out this school year pouring over Pinterest under the search term "school lunch ideas." I was revved up to be the best school lunch maker I've ever been. Ideas for bento boxes, wraps, crudités and dips, and fun sandwiches cut into animal shapes were just the begining of my intended lunch/snack revolution . I was going to freeze smoothies and let them thaw to perfection by lunchtime, and do colorful charts with food group graphics so every day would be a lunch party and Freddy would be the winner of the unofficial best lunch award. In short, I was going to rock school lunches. 

Fast forward to now, and ten minutes before school I'm like " oh crap, we have nothing in the house to make for lunch. Freddy, can you eat a jar of baby food for your fruit today?" They have kindly not complained about the increasing frequency of peanut butter, nor my suggestions that cream cheese on bread is to a "meal." 

I'm running out of steam in the lunch department, wait, make that all departments, but I feel revived when it comes to school snacks. Cue Nigella's breakfast bars. 

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/breakfast-bars-55

Zita might have accused me of trying to put seeds, nuts, and raisins in everything I bake, but they can be tailored to suit every child by adding as many nuts or seeds as wanted. Chocolate doesn't hurt either.

I think a chocolate version would be the perfect travel food, field trip food, or durable snack to throw into a sports bag.

Oh, and as far as school lunches go, the only thing keeping me going is the promise of Easter vacation getting close. 

Photo Dump

Seb spends a lot of our kitchen time pulling things out of this cupboard. The time it allows me to spend getting dinner going, or to load up the dishwasher, is worth the few minutes it takes to put it all back. 

The big kids before school. This is as much as they were willing to pose for me. 

Zita made this cake that was half eaten before I got a chance to snap a picture of it. 

Seb loves waffle mornings, and happily calls them "lawfuls."

Blackie, who is not allowed in the house if you couldn't tell, jumps in my lap every time I feed Seb out of the highchair. 

Rugby ball inspection

I can't take Seb to Aldi without him climbing into the drink palettes. I let him shift the bottles around for a while before I put him back in the cart, only to have him beg to get back to the "juice" for the rest of the shopping trip. 

Freddy was enthralled with this dog in a carpet shop window last week and snapped this picture with my phone. I'm in the background weighing red versus bordeaux with Seb slung on my hip. I need some serious help on revamping our entrance. It currently has two major problems: 

1 there's nowhere to put or hang anything 

2 there's white paint all over the place (long story for another post )

The Visit: Part Two

We had Bay Area friends with us for a week of fun. The timing was great since the kids were in their last days of school before Carnaval break and had mostly finished up tests and school work. 

I loved that the kids had some American company and since Pai is not really home during the week, I loved the company too!  Beyond the fun of having roommates, highlights for the kids were: 

Golden Grahms for breakfast

TV during the week, but not just any TV; they watched the Simpsons, Wipeout, and Fear Factor. 

Cake (see below) 

Their daughter plays soccer, which was a huge novelty for our Zita. I still don't think she is over the facts that girls play soccer, because in her words "it just isn't done." 

I failed in a big way in terms of touring- a feisty toddler does that- so our hope is they will be back for more. 

Dinner on the last night was a 13th birthday celebration. One pastel de nata cake and one chocolate hazelnut cake fed us all well. Seb can't get enough of candles and singing, so much so that he calls matches "happy birthday you yous." 

Why sit at the table when one can sit on the table and access the cake more readily? 

Seb gained the most for sure. He loved having extra kids around, and lucked out that their kids played with him and taught him lots of new phrases and tricks. 

Last photo before they drove on to Spain :( 

This is out of order, but here are all the kids on the first day before we walked down to the beach. I would bet my life that no one could put the children pictured in order from oldest to youngest.