#WINNING isn't everything; and some other stuff.

This weekend Evie's Brownie troop had some fun things going on. Sunday afternoon there was a book swap and bake off. The Brownie girls were in the 'cookie' category, and had to submit 20 cookies, baked from scratch - no mixes allowed, and they were to measure, mix and time their cookies -  I was only allowed to handle the oven portion of the event.

Evie made Snickerdoodles because I, being mother of the year, didn't have any brown sugar in the house, and we also didn't have 3 hours to let dough chill before we baked these things. Do you have ANY idea how many cookie recipes call for brown sugar? And I can't believe we ran out, but that's beside the point. We all love us some Snickerdoodles here, so that wasn't really a hardship.

Evie did a great job with her cookies, and (more importantly?) didn't really create a giant mess either! Mommy was happy :) I did catch her scooping up the cinnamon she'd spilled on the counter to try to put it back in the container, but we chatted about how that wasn't such a good idea.

Sticky hands and 2 dozen cookies later, we were off to the book swap and bake off! Hmm, 4 girls brought in cookies, and we have TWO Snickerdoodle entries....note to self, never run out of brown sugar...

While the goodies were being tasted and judged by the 'experts' (I have no idea who those ladies were), the girls did the book swap - everyone brought at least 5 books to trade, got to take 5 home, and any leftovers are being donated to the school's book sale in May...
...and they made book marks and swaps to take home with them.

The ladies finally finished judging - I didn't envy them having to taste 3 cakes, 2 pies, 4 cookies, some brownies and no-bake cookies (nope, no envy here!) - and the girls all sat down to await the results...

Evie tied for 3rd place. I blame the ladies in charge for having us take the plastic wrap off the plate the minute we walked in the door :) Anyway. This is where things got tough - Evie and William are SUPER competitive, and they want to win. Always. Doesn't matter what it is. Our schools have bingo night about twice a year and the first year William went, he was in tears because he didn't win. As long as we kept playing , he held out hope that he was surely next, but once it was over & he had to face reality, the misery began. No matter how often we play games at home, whoever doesn't win really gets their nose out of joint. I try to remind them ahead of time that 'many will play and few will win', but how well does that really sink in? Matt has taken to telling them that, as a family, we don't have a history of 'winning' - I'm not sure I agree with telling them that - but it does seem like at Bingo when they call out the raffle winners, the same names keep cropping up. I'm thinking next time we will skip the contest and just bake cookies for fun.

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Kid Bits

A few things have bubbled up to my attention this past week with the kids - I tell you, nothing adds more dimension to your life than having kids - lots of them :) Here are my favorite bits from the past week:


William had a sleepover this weekend, and a peek in his overnight bag revealed that he had packed his pjs & toothbrush, a change of clothes, a Webkinz hamster, his 'buddy' (the lovey he's had since babyhood) and his multiplication practice book. Because you never know when you might need to do some math.

William also has a secret admirer. He pulled a heart-shaped piece of paper out of his backpack on Thursday & asked me what it was - Well! It said:

I love you 

Gess how loves you

Hint=blue eyes

Of course, William has no clue who stuffed this in his backpack, and no idea which girl in his class has blue eyes. This is not the first time William has drawn attention from the ladies, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Unfortunately for them, he has no clue :)

Sarah, who was none too pleased when I moved all my toiletries into her bathroom almost four weeks ago, would like to know when we will be moving back out of her bathroom. I guess she's done sharing.

Jason - who shocked the life out of me last night by actually eating some spinach salad and then asking if he could please have MORE - has officially turned into all boy. He loves nothing more than to come running up behind me and smack me with both hands on the backside. And then he laughs. Because it's big and fat. So big and fat! And he laughs some more! Let me just say that he is the ONLY person on the face of the planet that I would tolerate this from :) Because he's my little buddy. I love him and he loves me. I know this because he tells me so :)