Operation CrazyWoman: Day 10

For breakfast today I was trying to use up ingredients that we already had in the house.  I had two cans left of those cheapo Pillsbury biscuits that you use for Pigs-in-a-blanket, so we had "Cinnamon Slugs" for breakfast.  It's something I made up.  I rolled each biscuit into a "slug", dipped it in melted butter, rolled it in cinnamon sugar, and then put it in a muffin paper.

Then I baked them.

And put cinnamon roll frosting on them.

It was pretty good!  And at least it was something different from cereal, right?  If I were going to do it again I would probably bake them on a cookie sheet instead, so if you decide to try it keep that in mind.  Some of the muffin papers stuck to the melted sugar.

Our morning was pretty quiet and spent at home since many of us are contagious.  In addition to the usual round of making friendship bracelets, Olivia made thank you cards for her friends that came to her birthday party.

She did a really good job, and they were very cute - all handmade.  I printed out a pattern off the internet for her to copy to make the envelope/cards, and she took it from there.  And of course, each one included a friendship bracelet she had made.

Simon spent a lot of time climbing up into the high chair to investigate the awesome clutter I have accumulated on the counter in the past 10 days.  I got the camera to snap a picture, and he gave me this face.

So I took another one (see the clutter?).

One of our toys is an old costume pirate hat that Kelsey got at a birthday party a couple of years ago.  Wesley has been having fun with it.  When I took the picture he was giving me a good pirate "Argh!"

In the afternoon, I ran a couple quick errands with the 4 youngest kids while the 4 oldest kids cleaned the living room and dining room, and then watched Megamind.  It's amazing what how the promise of a good movie will turn 4 tired, listless kids into 4 industrious little work machines.  Dangle the right carrot, eh?

Fortunately, most of my errands didn't involve getting everyone out of the car.  The only place I had to do that was at Walgreen.  Maddox was asleep when we got there, so I took in his car seat.  Most of the time Simon sat in the back of the cart, but he eventually got bored with that and wanted to walk with the big kids.  While we were checking out, Mallie thought it would be fun to hang on the side of the cart.  Connor thought it looked pretty cool and joined her, along with Simon.  I had to act fast to grab the cart before it toppled over.  What stinkers.  Needless to say, Maddox woke up.

After our dinner of grilled hot dogs, chips, and watermelon (because let's face it - I'm way beyond having the energy to prepare a healthy dinner at this point), I decided it would be a good idea to clean out the pool.  Although the kids often do it when they get in, there's just something about having a grown-up do a thorough job every so often.  Kind of like their bathroom.  The kids clean it 90% of the time, but sometimes I just need to get in there and give the elbow grease it needs.  So anyway, I hopped into my suit and went out to clean the pool.  After a good 20 minutes I invited the others to join me, and most of them did.

Once I was nice and cooled off, it was time to do something I had been promising Wesley I would do all day: take him for a bike ride.  The kids had tried to go in the morning, but they were all in such cranky moods that it never happened.  People's helmets (which had been left outside) had dirt or spiders on them, and there was just a general feeling of its-too-hot-I-don't-want-to-do-this that I let them take the dog for a walk instead.  But poor Wesley LOVES to ride his bike, so I told him I would take him in the evening when it cooled down.  Yeah.  Cooled down to 97 degrees.  But I had promised, and Nan and Kelsey decided to join us.  Olivia would have come, too, but her bike has a flat so she's been using mine.

It was overall a pretty nice day.  We didn't do anything new or exciting, but we ARE planning a trip to the "rocket park" first thing in the morning with a picnic breakfast.  It's supposed to be 90 degrees by 9am, so we have to make it early if we want to go at all.  Besides, hopefully there won't be other kids there for us to infect.

And in closing, I wanted to share my favorite "Wesleyism" for today:

"Wow, that was weird.  When I sneezed some boogers were starting to come out my mouth."