Did you know?

Since April is the month of Luke's birthday, I thought I would occasionally post a piece of trivia about Luke and his personality. And here we go with #1...

Did You Know.....?

That anytime Luke is served cut up hot dog on either of his two Spiderman plates, he insists that you put the ketchup on the plate on Spiderman's head? Yup, he gets kinda cranky if you just put it willy nilly on the plate. So the other morning I did a rockin' sombrero! Pretty good, huh? Just add "condiment artist" to my repertoire of special skills.



But was Luke impressed with my mad ketchup skillz? Eh.

Cindy is now 6! Which is great because....

On her new Connect 4 game "it says on the box you have to be 6 years old to play it! And that is so perfect!" :)

Yes, Cindy turned 6 on Tuesday. And it is safe to say she had a pretty great day. I have been letting her stay up late pretty much all week and so on Monday night at about 10:30 she finally said she was going to bed so that I could "get everything ready for her for the morning. You know, like all the decorations and streamers and stuff." Ummm, yeah. Because I was totally going to do that.... So on Tuesday morning I woke up early to put something together for her birthday (I figured the swim party was her birthday, right?) I went running first, just to mentally prepare for the day. And also because Publix didn't open til 8am. But I got some balloons and set out her presents. Poor Luke woke up first and when he saw them he shouted "It's my birthday!!!! Which present can I open?" He was a little crushed that none of them were for him. But Cindy finally straggled out of bed when Luke went in and reminded her in her sleepy stupor that it was her birthday. She was pretty excited :) And she chose cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast. (Which might be the real reason I felt so motivated to go running that morning....)



She got the new Barbie Mermaid Tale Movie!!!!! And books, and some clothes and daisy clip for her hair.


















Cindy requested a Mermaid cake this year, so after some brainstorming with my mom, I did a rectangle cake with blue frosting, a border of Cap'n Crunchberries, swedish fish to swim around the edges, edible easter grass as my seaweed, and a little cupcake "rock" for the Mermaid to sit on. And since my mom got Cindy one of the Mermaid dolls from the Barbie movie, we just sat her on that cake and Voila! Nothing to it :)


I did trick candles again this year and they were amazing! Almost too much. Cindy and Luke had the best time blowing them out, over and over and over and over....



We had a small party at Grandma's house. A chance for Cindy to be an actual mermaid on her birthday. I think everyone had a pretty good time. She also loved getting to spend time with her cousins- including Laurel, who happened to be in town at just the right time! Yay for good timing!



Cindy has very kind friends who gave her some very sweet gifts. Little Nathan Bailey gave her this framed picture that he made himself- complete with castle and princess. ADORABLE! She already hung it up in her room. Can't wait til they are both teenagers and it's still there :)



And just so everyone knows, Luke is a swimming maniac!!!


Don't let the smile fool you...



The night capped off with watching the Barbie movie for a third time and Happy Meals at McDonald's. Good job on having your birthday be on a Tuesday, Cindy. It was meant to be.

And I always take pictures of Cindy on her birthdays- most parents do that, right? And these were the better ones. The only bad part about our habit of making goofy faces all the time in pictures is that it is hard to remember how to actually take a normal one when it kinda matters. It's my own fault, really. But she managed a few good ones. Out of the 41 I took.








And just for a slice of nostalgia, (and also because I just recently got all these pics scanned into my computer and I don't want to waste my work) here are some pics from birthday number 1, which was like a million years ago, I think. She has come a long way! :)

Why I haven't been blogging much this week....

Since it is Spring Break and Jacob and Cindy both have the week off, we have been tackling a huge home project for the past three days and that is to finally get our dang paver walkway finished! We toiled and labored and it looks FABULOUS. I could not be happier :) Or more sore. My body aches absolutely all over. I pretty much carried almost every single one of those bricks to its resting place. Not fun. Not to mention that in the process I also uncovered about 50 lizard skeletons, a huge roach compound and a very long snake. But it was worth it :) And the coolest part is that we had exactly the right amount of rectangle bricks. Seriously, we were within ONE. Amazing!

P.S. Cindy's Birthday Pics coming soon!!

Sweeney's Law, Volume 1

1. If a beverage is within 6 feet of Luke, he will find way to spill it.

2. If you make yourself one sandwich, Cindy will want it. If you go ahead and pre-emptively make two, she doesn't want either.

3. Cindy will have a bad dream at the exact moment you find the absolute best sleeping position.

4. Luke will then have a bad dream at the exact moment you get back to sleep after helping Cindy with her bad dream.

5. The minute I talk to another human, praising Cindy and Luke for some amazing behavior they exhibit, they will immediately discontinue said behavior for the rest of their lives.



6. If I finally get up the gumption to secretly throw away one of Cindy or Luke's annoying toys, they will suddenly become responsible children and need to throw something in the garbage 10 seconds later. And they will see their toy in the trash. And worse, the toy will live to torment me another day (or week, or month, or year as the case may be...)

7. If I plant a seed in my garden at the correct depth, with the correct soil and correct fertilizer, it will barely sprout. If Cindy's plants a sunflower in the middle of a shaded pile of cat sand, we will get a giant sunflower.

8. The only time Luke will decide to actually listen to me and go number two in the toilet (and not in his diaper) is at the exact moment my food arrives at a restaurant.

9. If I bring my video camera to Cindy's soccer game, she will play like she's blind and has one leg. If I don't bring the camera, she will score a hat trick in the first half.

10. If Luke had only one toy to play with in the entire world, he would leave it out on the floor, I would step on it in the middle of the night, and it would be a small, pointy hazard cone from his construction set.

A Cindy Quickie

Today when I stopped at a red light we had our windows down. The car that was stopped next to us was full of teenagers and they were blaring a loud rock song. Cindy made the wise observation, "Whoa, those kids are listening to boy music and the girls don't even CARE!!!!" Still my little girlie-q :)

Iron Chef March.........kinda, sorta.....

Okay, so my iron chef challenge for the month got a little wacky. I started out with a very specific ingredient/recipe and then my days just didn't pan out the way I planned, so I ended up counting two different things I made as this month's challenge. But I didn't really take the right pictures either, so we will have to muddle through this one together.

Part One:

Ingredient: Lamb
Recipe: Irish Lamb Stew

I made this for St. Patty's day. While I have eaten lamb before, I have definitely never bought it or cooked it myself. So I got a recipe off the Internet and went with it. Unfortunately, early tasting revealed it didn't have enough flavor. So this is the recipe that actually got followed:

3/4 pound cubed lamb
carrots
potatoes
onion
one can beef stock
tons of salt
pepper
tons of thyme
3 packets of beef flavored Ramen seasoning



After the ramen seasoning went in, it turned out pretty good. Even the kids ate it and we also had enough leftovers for Jacob's lunch the next day. It went good with the Irish Soda bread I made, in which I somehow halved the recipe, yet doubled the sugar. I am such a good baker! :)

AND, the best part of all, was that for dessert I finally made the Oriental Coconut Jello I picked up in the Asian food store on the island of Oahu in 2006. I guess subconsciously I like to make my own expired food.

Yup, it was time to finally try it. We dyed it green, of course, and I am going to have to get someone with Asian jello knowledge (Maggie?) to tell me if ALL oriental jello comes out in a ridiculously hard, crumbly brick or if it was just my packet being 3 years old. I was really hoping for a smooth and creamy texture but it was more like eating hard wax. But at least the cool whip on top was right on the money!

Cindy took this picture. I think it looks incredibly artsy. Nice work, trainee.





Part Two:

I was craving fish tacos the other day, so I found an interesting recipe and ended up having to buy some adobo peppers in chipotle sauce. And since I have never ever cooked with actual "Chipotle" stuff (even though every food in the whole entire wide world now comes in chipotle flavor), that was a new one for me.

Here is the recipe: Fish Tacos with Honey-Cumin Cilantro Slaw and Chipotle Mayo

This was 5 stars all the way! Kinda spicy, but totally delicious :)

Hopefully I will be back on track for April. Which would be great because then it would count as Iron Chef April as well as another Underwhelming Feat of Amazement :)

Get ready for this!

I have been thinking of a new feature for my blog. It is simply called:


Yes, I did design that graphic myself. No, it was not while intoxicated or under duress. It needed to be underwhelming. Nailed it!

So pretty much anytime I accomplish some sort of amazing feat that is sure to underwhelm you, you will hear about it. So now I officially give you the first of my

(just so you know, in my mind there is a loud echo-y voice that is saying that every time the graphic appears...)


Today while leaving my in-laws' house, I was the last to leave so I had to exit through the garage. I also had to close the garage door by pushing the button and then quickly running out and jumping over the sensor so the door would indeed shut. I pushed the button, began to scoot on out of there and at the last second I noticed some scraps of lettuce, apple and snow peas on a little board near the trash can. So in the course of about 2 seconds, I saw it, realized it was some food for our bunny and proceeded to pick it all up with one hand before successfully making it out of the garage. IT WAS SPECTACULAR! If One-handed Rabbit Scraps Handling was an Olympic sport- Gold. Medal.

P.S. If those scraps were not indeed meant for Rosa, sorry Karl and DeAnne for taking your compost. But the feat was still amazing nonetheless :)

The Right to Remain Seated

On Friday night I had the opportunity to take my kids to see the latest Chick-a-munk movie. You know, Alvin, Simon, Theodore; "the Squeakquel"? It was playing at the dollar theater (or 3 dollar theater as the case may be). So while Jacob was at his Elder's Quorum activity playing Xbox and slaughtering people, I was sitting in the theater trying to stay conscious. I barely made it. Cindy, however, was literally biting her nails and on the edge of her seat as Alvin and the Chippettes desperately tried to escape their evil manager and make it to the High School Sing-off to win $25,000. On a remote control helicopter. It was kind of like a documentary. Anyway, my parents joined me for this cinematic delight and at the end when the credits rolled- we didn't move. Nope, it is Bingham tradition that you wait until the last name, song, and final scene that all the other impatient movie losers didn't get to see, is over. (Ha ha, suckers!) Ever since I can remember going to the movies, we've stayed til the bitter end. "Bitter end" meaning "til the theater employees are planning ways to vandalize your car because you are preventing them from cleaning up." AND, what makes it ever better is looking at all the names that scroll up the screen to find the first names of those in your immediate family. Then the person whose name is seen the most times during the credits is the winner. David was tonight's winner by a long shot. There must have been about 30 David's that worked on that flick (and each one of them needs to be severely flogged). I also learned tonight that my parents have never seen the name Sadie (the name of my niece) in the credits of a film they have seen at the theater. I guess all the Sadie's of the world are just not old enough yet to have a job in the movies. So next time you head to the theater, check the credits. There's always some good stuff waiting to reward those who are patient. (Or those who are sitting there because they need some time to wake up before operating a motor vehicle. Not that I personally would know anything about that. I never sleep during movies :)

Uno, Dos, Tres!

Project #28-


When we got this house, I just couldn't’t stop
Admiring my stove, with its smooth cooking top.
But over the months, I’ve really abused it.
My special "cook top cleaner"? I’ve barely used it!
So my special sponge got opened, It’s immaculate and now you’re able,
To use it as a place to cook AND an operating table!
(Because who doesn't want to perform surgery on their oven, am I right?
Yeah, that was terrible...But it looks dang good!)




Project #29-

My blueish-green place mats needed a wash.
Whenever I saw them, I thought,"Oh my gosh!
These things are filthy and totally foul!"
So into my washer they went with the towels.

Now they are spotless and beautifully clean,
and this task has boosted my low self-esteem! Go Me!!!















Project #30-

I cleaned out my closet about 6 months ago.
And to the Goodwill, this pile was to go.
Yes, it's been sitting there all of this time,
but I thought, "One day I'll take it and things will be fine."

Well, 'one day' was this morning and to Goodwill I wandered.
And as for all that extra space? It is now my place to ponder.


Yes, this is me pondering....

My projects are over! I completed all thirty!
I've toiled and labored and cleaned what was dirty!
This past month has been a thrill-
Just like every other one, here in Sweeneyville :)

I must be Irish, because this is Lucky for me!

So upon further examination of my calendar, I realize that I have one more day to finish my projects! I was just counting thirty days as February 17- March 17. But that actually only gives me 29 days- boo-yah! I have one more day- which I really only need for one more project. Check back tomorrow for the full wrap-up!

On a side note, I may have discovered the perfect pre-running snack. I saw this idea in a magazine so the kids and I made a Fruit Rainbow, complete with Pot of Gold (fruit dip) in honor of St. Patty's day. We all devoured this up after our authentic Irish Lamb Stew and psuedo-soda bread I made for dinner last night. Quite tasty! Anyway, I went for a run this morning and I was invincible!! Best run I have had in over a month- seriously, there might just be a lot more Fruit Rainbows being made around here. Not that anyone would mind one bit :)

P.S. And it almost brought a tear to my eye when I saw Cindy make that face, totally uncoached. A thing of beauty!