Zack made Groundhog Day cupcakes for his work homies! I'm impressed!
Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Friday, which, according to German folklore, means folks can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter.
Since 1886, Phil has seen his shadow 96 times, hasn't seen it 15 times and there are no records for nine years, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. The last time Phil failed to see his shadow was in 1999.
Ok, I'm trying to catch up after being gone for a week!
Here is a pic of Marcel after eating an ice cream. As "big boy" as he can be sometimes, food mustaches remind me that he is still only 6 years old!
A sight you don't often see in Austin- an icicle! We are preparing for a freeze here. It is supposed to be coming soon, and they anticipate that the city will close down tomorrow...
photo by zack
Pirate's Booty:
my desk at work. Zack and Marcel hooked me up with the Pirate stocking accoutrements this year! Not shown- my cool "I want to be a PIRATE, Argh!" t-shirt.
photo by jennifer. messy desk by jennifer. always.
No, I didn't take this photo- I googled it. It would have been nice if my cinnamon rolls actually came out of the oven looking like this (minus the flames) but, sigh...they didn't.
For my coworkers very last day of work, we decided to do a breakfast. I had the great idea of making Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls. As soon as I got home, I made the dough, let it rise for an hour, punched it down...etc....and a few hours later the cinnamon rolls were ready to put in the oven.
But....I used the wrong pans. And while they were baking (they were looking BEAUTIFUL! Giant and yummy!) Some of the sugar mixture dripped into the bottom of the oven and started smoking. We turned of the oven (the smoke alarm was going off at this point) and then we looked into the oven to see flames! Zack had to use the fire extinguisher to put it out. Bye Bye beautiful cinnamon rolls.
So the smoke detector went off FOREVER. We opened every door and window and the darn things still wouldn't stop.
Zack cleaned the oven yesterday and turned on the self-clean cycle of the oven to clean up the rest of the mess. AND THE DARN SMOKE DETECTOR WENT OFF AGAIN! For like 30 minutes. Marcel and I were chillin in the closet to get away from the ear piercing sound.
Quite an adventure for some cinnamon rolls. I ended up buying some at HEB...:(
I kid now, but I was seriously depressed about this on Thursday night...
photo by ?, Artwork by jennifer
A coworker of mine is leaving tomorrow so I made her a crying snowman cake. Now that Marcel knows I know how to make cakes, looks like I won't be getting off easy at birthday time by getting a HEB cake...
The tricky thing was the transport of the cake- I didn't have a cover big enough for cake, and I didn't have any toothpicks to make a little saran wrap tent. So check out how I had to transport the cake to work. Yeah, got a few looks bringing the cake into the kitchen....
photo by jennifer
The best Christmas present.
Marcel made this in aftercare. It is the cutest thing ever.
photo by jennifer. Cuteness made by Marcel.
Marcel was feeling his Chucks with flames. Right after the photo was taken, he pumped his fists in the air and yelled "Yes!"
The child likes his "style".
photo by jennifer
Sending you virtual Christmas Cookies! That's about 6 hours worth of cookie making, pretzel dipping, and coffee cake baking!
Merry Christmas!
On Christmas Eve, Salado Santa brings your family dog its presents, such as booties to sniff, bones to chew, dead birds to snack on, hats to wear, poop to sniff, bushes to pee on, and barf and branches to eat.
Love,
Marcel and Zack and Salado too.
This is Marcel at the neighborhood hayride last night. Zack threw hay at Marcel while I was taking his picture.
We are getting in the Christmas spirit around here! Marcel is off from school for the rest of the year and is ready for Santa to come. We just emailed Santa a letter to let him know:
I like you Santa Claus. I hope you fly well with your reindeer. I hope a lot of boys and girls have been very good all year. Have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year. And I hope your elves are making great toys.
photo by jennifer, hay contributed by zack
Yeah, it's blurry- but I thought it was funny!
We got the Sufjan Stevens Christmas 5 CD set. Marcel was so excited to get it that he went into the bedroom with the songbook and listened to all of the songs. Big Sufjan Stevens fan. His favorite song right now- "Put the Lights on the Tree" - click here to watch the video at YouTube.
Did I mention that the CD it also came with cute little Christmas stickers?
photo by jennifer on blurry camera phone
Skeletor Santa
This was a halloween decoration that was on my office door for Halloween. Halloween passed and I took down my decorations ...but I decided to put the skeleton on my boss's office wall when he wasn't looking. And it has been there since. Today I decided to make ol' skeletor some holiday accesories- he needed to be a bit more festive for the Christmas Season, don't you think?
photo by jennifer
My car bee very fresh now, however perhaps it bee a bit too fresh...my nose was burning when I got into the car today. Whoo-eee sure that is some freshness.
phone photo by jennifer
De-stink your car with these cool air fresheners at Blue Q
Zack and Mar ran the Turkey Trot today- Zack the 5 miler, and Marcel the kids race. Poor Mar was tripped at the end, but forgot all about it when he got his big ol' medal. He totally brought the juice. Zack had a great race too! Good Times, as always.
photo by jennifer
More photos of the Turkey Trot at flickr
So, this photo was actually taken earlier this year. I don't have a "photo of the day" today....I tried. I tried to take a picture of the crazy wind that Austin is experiencing today, but I couldn't seem to get the "right" shot. It's hard to capture the wind...stuff was flying everywhere, flag poles were bending, used car parking lot banners were flapping like crazy...but it just doesn't look the same in a photo. So then I left the camera card at work, so no picture at all.
Anyway, instead here is an oldie but goodie- Marcel exiting the "plastic potty" at some event.
photo by one of us, I can't remember who. It's something we both would do...I'm sure we were in cahoots.
Ok- this is not what the Chia Garfield looked like on the Chia Pet package.
This one looks a bit...demented.
Not like Chia. More like Alfalfa Sprouts.
This is Marcel at BookPeople yesterday, at the "VIP" event for the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) Read-a-Thon. Marcel raised enough money to attend the event with about a hundred other kids from Austin area schools. Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series for children, told the kids a story and then quizzed the kids on their knowledge of Greek Myths. It was pretty impressive how many kids knew Hydra, Artemis, and Hermes...
At the end of the event they had the children pick out books- 2 of the same book, one for their school library and one to take home. In the picture you can see the sticker that was put in the book (In a Dark Dark Wood) to let everyone know that the book was donated in his honor. Pretty cool.
Thanks to Everyone who donated to RIF, he had a great time!
Phil- my brother (aka Uncle Phish)- is is town!
photo by Marcel
by jennifer
Day 2 of Chia Garfield...right now the seeds are giving out little sprouts that looks like a bunch of maggots on poor ol' Garfield's head.
by jennifer
It's that time of year- voting time. There are so many signs along the side of the road- it's a blur. This one however was all alone on the side of the road and caught Zack's attention...I saw it the other day too, and I thought it was a Dracula Halloween sign.
by zack
First trip to Cabela's: Mar poses in front of the taxidermy animals...with gun. So, your child is running around the store shooting all of the "stuffed" animals...and it's ok...you're at Cabela's!
by jennifer
Marcel lost his first tooth.
The tooth fairy came to the house last night. Marcel woke up singing "I'm Rich, I'm Rich!!!".
by jennifer
I took this photo on my run today- this is the trail I run on most of the time. Watch your step!
by jennifer
We had Zack's (belated) birthday party last night and Marcel decorated the cupcakes. You can't tell from the photo, but the cupcakes are sitting a pool of sprinkles...the boy sure likes his sprinkles.
by jennifer
Wednesday it was hot. Now it is cold...Time to pull out the hoodies and jeans!
Bring on the cool weather!
Here is hoodie-man on his way to school! Growing up in central new york, "back to school" was always about bundling up, so for me it feels officially like "back to school" time.
by jennifer
