Yep, That's Really the Best One

We tried to get a family portrait done at the grandparents for Father's Day, and we utterly failed. We think we know why, and want to offer some suggestions on how NOT to prepare your kids for a decent photo:

1) Don't feed them crepes with chocolate-hazel nut spread, whipped cream, powered sugar, and toffee chips for breakfast. It's great and all to have a dessert breakfast for Father's Day, but we set the kids up for a major crash--and crash they did.
2) Don't expect to have happy kids after an hour drive, where they have enough time to get very, very tired, but not enough time to have any productive sleep.
3) Don't try to do outdoor shots when it's 95 degrees and 80% humidity. The kids no likey.

The Big Mo

We went to the Big Mo to see Up and Night at the Museum 2. Amy's been on this "Thumbs Up" thing lately. So, let's see how the kids rate the trip:

An hour and a half in a little van with my 3 crazy sisters?

THUMBS DOWN!

A little extra caffeine to keep us up until 1:00 (AM)?

THUMBS UP!

Daddy says no rides!

THUMBS DOWN!

Playing Connect Four with yourself--you can't lose!

THUMBS UP!

Front Center Parking Spot

THUMBS UP!

"Look Mommy I'm Daddy!"

Kala loves to dress up. Now her dress up has become cross-dressing in Daddy clothes--from Mommy's clean laundry pile. We're hoping she never grows into them.

Easter Dresses

Will Work For Food

Ahh, the childhood rite of strawberry picking! It's only natural that children, who are so good at picking (and eating) things, are drawn to this ritual . . .

Look at our hard working team! (shown here with friend Heidi) A couple of minutes later, Mikala will complain that her basket is "too hebby" and Mommy will have to carry it the rest of the way . . .

Sara is shown here eating a strawberry that's apparently a little sour, but she will eat it anyway because she is a human garbage disposal. This is why she has to be strapped to Mommy's back for strawberry picking--at least until she's out of the dirt-eating phase . . .

Claire apparently doesn't care that her parents take it upon themselves to dress her like a New Kids on the Block groupy. She was a pretty good worker.

So, that's a sampling of our recent strawberry picking trip. Hopefully we tricked the kids into experiencing a little work.

In Hot Water

Our water bill has been rather high for the past two months (by rather high, I mean $100+) which means a leak. We spent a month looking for a leak, and we figured it must be our "you-gotta-jiggle-the-handle" toilets, so we replaced the innards of those, but the leak was not gone.

Then we found a mysterious pool of hot water in our backyard by the house. A hot spring in our yard? nope. Looking up, we could see the source--the water heater emergency drain pipe, not dripping, but poring. We went up into our attic to inspect our water heater (yep, we store literally a ton of scalding water, right over our heads, reason #1,356 why its time to move). The old heater seemed to be oozing water from several orifices--hot water. So, we're paying for water AND electricity to make our little hot spring.

The above picture is of the NEW water heater. Here are some fun facts about the installation:

Price of new water heater: $298

Price quoted from Lowes to install: $450 (difficult installation)

Price for materials for us to install: $190 (most was for tools we keep--bonus!)

Number of trips to Lowes for project: 5, so far

Number of marketable skills learned in process: 3

Number of people it takes to lift a 50 gallon water heater into an attic: 4

Number of people we had to lift a 50 gallon water heater into the attic: 2

Number of days without a shower: 2.5

Number of loads of dirty laundry waiting for us: 13

Number of date nights spent fixing the house or car: 9

Call us if you need help sweat-fitting copper pipes, installing dielectric unions, or extending a 240V electrical circuit with 10/2 wire. We know how to do all that now.

Sugar Babies

Try to imagine the most disorganised, hectic moments in your house--then multiply that by 10, and that's what the Hood's house is on Sunday mornings before Church. Mikala and Claire took advantage of Mommy and Daddy being distracted last Sunday morning, and snuck off to the laundry/pantry closet (yep, we have a small house) and found a bucket o' sugar and went to town. By the time we noticed they were hiding, I fear they got several spoonfuls of sugar down each (sneaky Mikala tried to close the bucket and play dumb as we opened the door to the closet)