Happy New Year!

I'm taking a break from the festivities (read: hiding from my children).  I always make the kids a festive slushy drink on NYE.  I got Pina Colada this time, which they liked well enough to have two glasses.  It is, of course, almost all corn syrup.  Ben has turned into Captain Mood Swing, going from giddy to heart broken to surly in a flash.  Julianna is like a squirrel on speed.  If you saw Over the Hedge: she's Hammy.  Girl.  Chiiilllll.  Lily, thankfully, only had most of one glass and is unharmed.

I decided to make fondue our official NYE meal.  I got a new fondue pot from Goodwill today, so we were able to have two different fondues at once.  I made a traditional Swiss and then just melted some colby jack, realizing that the kids probably wouldn't like the Swiss one.  Here's Ben after a taste.  What do you think? (the red eyes don't really reflect the nature of his soul.  AOL's picture editor wouldn't work and I don't feel like more hassle.  Just imagine this was taken after the slushy drink and that was the evil coming out)


They all liked the melted colby-jack, though.



Steve and I however, enjoyed the Swiss.  A lot.  And now it's like there's a cheese ball in my stomach.  And not that good kind dyed orange and rolled in nuts.  After the cheese I made a caramel fondue that was amaaazing.  It was just a package of caramels, a half a can of evaporated milk, and half a bag of mini marshmallows, melted (melt caramels first, then add other stuff).  We dipped apples and bananas in it and it will be fantastic over ice cream.

Then we played some games and the kids drank their crack juice.  Now Steve and I are hiding upstairs and the kids have a movie.  Hopefully, they'll just fall asleep quietly down there.  Maybe I can move the clocks ahead...

In other news, Ben lost his first tooth!  Julianna had lost her first at 4.5, so I thought Ben was going to have these little teeth all his life.  But one finally came out.  It was loose forever, but itfreaked him out to wiggle it too much.  The other night, he was biting legos apart (yes, legos figure into every single aspect of his life), and several roots popped.  Filling his mouth with blood.  Causing much screaming.  Steve got to him first and didn't understand what he was screaming (something like "AUGH!  AUGH!  I! WAS! BITING! A! LEGO! AUGH AUGH AUGH!"  He thought he'd fallen or something.  I managed to understand through the hysterics and we got Ben cleaned up.  The tooth wasn't out yet, though.  It fell out in the middle of the night.  he came downstairs looking for one of us to show, but we'd thoughtlessly gone to bed, so he fell back to sleep on the couch, where he lost the tooth.  He insisted that he get a dollar anyway.


I went to see Justin last night.  He's out of the hospital and staying with his friend (?) Amy.  It turned out that Tash and Brent were there too, so  Mom insisted on photos.  That gives us a good chance for a before and after.  The before is actually not as bad as the first time I saw him. I think it was taken 4 days in or so.
Before:

And last night:



That's some healing.  Thanks to all for their prayers and good wishes!  And Happy New Year!