Taking the Scenic Route

Zane turns NINE! (how did that happen?)

27th December 2010

Zane turns NINE! (how did that happen?)

Zane had to wait for Oma and Opa to unwrap the gifts.  It was worth the wait.

And Uncle Steve & Nora, who gave Zora her heart’s desire (bike) for her birthday, came through with Zane’s heart’s desire for his birthday.

Then Oma & Opa’s gift:  A trip to Chucky Cheese.  Much cheering ensued.

You know the sweet part?  Zane didn’t really want anything, so he happily gave Zora  his tickets to get what she wanted.

Than back to the house to meet up with Robert’s family, who came to join us for cake.

Zane decided that he didn’t want a Mario themed cake, and for a while he wanted a pirate ship cake.  Then, being a sucker for TV advertising, he begged for this for his birthday cake:

He wanted it with chocolate chip cookie layers instead of the pictured cake, notable for a very literal kid.  We chose chocolate frosting to go in between the layers.  It doesn’t look fabulous, but it was SO GOOD.  There was not a bite left, and that never happens.  We remade it a few days later just to have leftovers. lol.

Those are trick candles, they keep reigniting, amusing Zane.

By the end of the evening, he was “Peopled out” and went back to the corner, found his new book, and got lost in that.

Perfect day.  The days events would have been turning him into a crazy person a short time ago, but he not only handled it, but enjoyed it.  So proud of my boy.

posted in Autistic Life, Birthday, Milestones, Zane | Comments Off

23rd December 2010

Zora turns FIVE!

First Oma came by and we opened gifts.  A car from Oma & Opa, a weaving loom from Zane, and a bunch of cookie cutters from us.

Then the cake.  After an ever changing cake request, Zora finally settled on a “rainbow cake”.

The layers are a combination of strawberry and vanilla, topped with homemade buttercream frosting and marshmallow fondant.  I discovered while making it that kool-aid does not work as a coloring agent.  Makes a flat cake that tastes like a sweet tart.  lol.

Then we went to McDonalds to have a happy meal, per Zora’s request, and met up with some friends.  After supper they came by the house and helped us eat cake.  Eilysh got her an Eeyore stuffed animal that was an instant favorite.

posted in Birthday, Friends, Milestones, The 2 Opas (J's Parents), Zora | Comments Off

22nd December 2010

Gettin’ Ready for my 5yo

Making the birthday girl’s “Rainbow Cake” tonight. I know I will get a lot of “help” frosting it, so I thought I would save myself the stress of dealing with food dyes and batter by getting the layers done tonight.

Disadvantage of going digital: no leftover newspaper for wrapping presents. hmmm…didn’t think that one through very well. lol.

posted in Birthday, Zora | Comments Off

19th December 2010

Christmas & Birthday at the Farm

Although we will have my parents over on Christmas day, this is the official family celebration, including Grandma and Steve & Nora.  Since Steve & Nora won’t be there on Christmas they brought along the kid’s gifts.  They really made a huge impact with their gifts this year, and we are very thankful because we didn’t have the ability to do it ourselves.

How to drive a (almost) 5 year old crazy.  Tell her that the big box is hers, but don’t let her open it *right now*

First glance under the big box (after pulling off all of the wrapping paper and then realizing that she just had to lift it up…we are so mean)

Zane was also very pleased with his gift.  It was a building toy that Nora loved as a kid.  She helped set it up and they played with it together for a while.

Grandma and Zora talking about her jacket (the pattern)

The other thing he got was the connect four game he has been asking for the last few months.  He was quite happy.

After building with Zane, Nora (and Steve) went outside to help Zora learn to ride the bike.

Great day, great food, wonderful family.

posted in At the Farm, Autistic Life, Birthday, Christmas, Extended Family | Comments Off

1st August 2010

Oma & Opa’s Birthdays (and Anniversary)

My parent’s birthdays are one day apart and Zora wanted to have a party for them.   She carefully chose the candles and cake (she wanted white cake with cream cheese frosting in the middle and strawberry frosting on the outside.  I think what she *really* wanted was enough frosting that she could eat half of it and still have enough to decorate the cake.  :laughn1: )  When they came over she insisted on digging out all of the old birthday party left-over supplies for a more festive experience.  Steve & Nora were here too, but they might shoot me if I posted the pictures, since I kept catching them with full mouths and mid-expression.

Clearly, they are still in love.

He kept asking me: “Is the plate full or empty?”  and it sort of confused me.  He asked in between each bite.  After about the third time I finally figured out he was asking if it was ok if he didn’t eat it all.  (Do I have to make the plate empty?) As soon as I told him he didn’t have to finish it, he looked relieved and left the rest of the cake.  A kid that isn’t really into cake just baffles my brain.

posted in Autistic Life, Birthday, Extended Family, The 2 Opas (J's Parents), The Kids | 1 Comment

11th July 2010

Happy Birthday Zach!

Zach’s birthday was pretty low key this year.  Zora helped make the brownies for Dad because she insisted that he needed a cake of some kind.  Both the kids made cards, and Zach’s best friend came over and bought him a burrito from Chipoltes for his birthday.

From Zora, picture is a truck

From Zane, picture is a skateboarder

posted in Birthday, Zach | Comments Off

15th January 2010

My birthday present to ME.

Although I didn’t hit the goal I was wanting to (to be under 200lbs), I did hit a milestone today at a 50lb loss, but more importantly, I got a phone call from my Dr. My A1C levels came back at a 5.2! (“normal” is 6ish, and higher being pre-diabetes, then higher yet is diabetes.). That means I am doing a lot better at controlling it (I am not on insulin, and don’t have problems with hypoglycemia at this point, which can lower the number in a “bad” way). My blood pressure is good (not fabulous, but good), and although my cholesterol is within normal range, my HDL (the good one) is too low of a percentage, so I need to address that now too. However, it is likely that if I keep exercising and sticking to the new eating habits, it should shift into a more healthy balance. My cholesterol level isn’t severe enough to be medicated, just monitored at this point. (however, at this point I am staying on the metformin, which helps with the PCOS)

So, today I got the gift of empowerment. Feeling like my efforts are finally starting to pay off. It feels damn good.

posted in Birthday, Health, Me | Comments Off

10th January 2010

Early birthday dinner

For my birthday dinner we went to Il Vincini, our new favorite place.  Dad wasn’t able to make it because he is sick, so we missed him, but it was really great to finally meet Nora, Steve’s new friend.  She seems like such a neat person and I can’t wait to get to know her better.

So, for my birthday, the three ladies had a Menage a Trois.  lmao.  What a hilarious name for a wine.

Everybody had pizza, except me, who had an awesome salad.

It is so good to see my brother happy again.

It was a great dinner, although we all agreed that I can’t possibly be turning 40 in a week.

posted in Birthday, Extended Family, The 2 Opas (J's Parents), The Kids, Zach & Jennifer | 1 Comment

27th December 2009

Zane turns eight.

Mom and Dad came up (thank goodness the weather allowed) and had a surprise for Zane.  Chuck E Cheese!

We had fun, and even though the place was crowded (obviously not the only people with near-Christmas birthdays that decided to go out), he had a blast.  No meltdowns, and an actual smiling face.  (when he gets overwhelmed, even if he is happy, he has a fairly flat expression…you really have to know him to know that he is happy when he gets like that).  That, in itself, made it a fabulous birthday for us.

We had pizza and hung out there for over 3 hours.  Zach and Zane headed off together, and Mom and Zora headed towards the littler kid area.  Dad and I floated between the two groups.  It was SO much fun to see both the kids having such a blast.

There was a “sketch artist” booth that we sat down in, and he giggled as he watched the computer “draw” our picture.

And Zora got her picture taken with Chuck E Cheese too.

Then we went home, opened the gifts (“Tech Deck” stuff & wii Super Mario Bros. game from us, big Mario figures from Zora, a Sequence game from Grandma & Grandpa, and a colorful Ball of Whacks from Grammie) and it was time for the cake and ice cream.

Zane requested another Mario Bros. cake.

And the all important candle placement…

And time to blow out the candles!

I can’t believe I have been a Mom for eight years now.  I have now officially been a mom longer than I was dealing with trying to be one. (if you don’t count the surgeries and stuff since I was 12-13yo to preserve my ability to have kids).  Awesome!

Happy Birthday to my favorite son.  You make me proud every day.

posted in Autistic Life, Birthday, Zane | 1 Comment

23rd December 2009

Zora turns FOUR! (wow, where does the time go?)

Birthday party time!  Oma and Opa (my parents) came to the birthday party.  Originally Robert’s family was going to come at the same time, but since Robert had a bit of a cold he didn’t want to give to my dad, they offered to come after my parents left.  We had a lot of fun with them too, but my camera batteries died, so there aren’t any photos of that part of the celebration.

To start off, Zane wanted me to get all weepy with the utter cuteness of his present label:

I had a beautiful outfit laid out for her to wear, but she had other ideas and it was not a battle I had any intention of fighting on her day.  She topped it off with a “bow tie” to complete the look.  :)

While the pizza is in the oven, we decided that Zora had been tortured long enough and let her open her gifts.  She started with Zane’s gift.  (the dinosaurs she has wanted for a while).

She got a play pizza from Grammie, and a play birthday cake from us.

Oma and Opa got her an apron and “make” book (recipe book)

After the pizza (hence the pizza mustache), the CAKE!  She wanted a “Super Car Cake” with a pink car. (She kept eyeing the Dale Earnhart cake in the store, but you could not pay me enough money to look at a Dale Earnhart cake in my home.)  We were going to do more with it, but we have never worked with fondant before and it took longer than anticipated, so the finish line, flags and other details got left off. (and I forgot to get pink frosting for the name.  ah well)

And, the playing commences.

It was a great birthday.  Mom and Dad had to head out fairly quickly to dodge the blizzard on it’s way, but Robert’s family came and Zora and Eylish had a ball playing with her new play food, dress up, and watching a princess movie.  Awesome day, and wore our birthday girl out.

posted in Birthday, Zora | Comments Off

  • Zane's age

  • Zane is 22 years, 2 months, and 22 days old
  • Zora's age

  • Zora is 18 years, 2 months, and 26 days old
  • Random Quote

  • Many times the only difference between having a weird kid and having a seriously expensive, heart breaking, time consuming, life altering psudo-medical problem is the word “Diagnosis”. — ShaggyDaddy (MDC)

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