Country Boys

Beautiful spring weather has returned to the Helena valley. As the boys and I were driving up the road to our house, Megan and her daddy were riding our horses down the road to meet us. Kellan and Jacksen decided they wanted in on the action so they "horsed around" while I made dinner.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for Megan and Marc. Our plan is for the McCauley kids to stay home with their daddy this summer. They will have a lot of fun with their summer activities and we will save lots of money not paying for daycare and preschool! Megan and I are going to kick off her summer vacation by going to lunch and a movie with her little kindergarten girlfriend. Then, starting next week, Megan and Kellan will be taking swimming lessons for two weeks. The following week Megan is taking a horseback riding class. At the same time Kellan will be participating in t-ball and then in July Megan will be attending a three-day basketball camp. Whew - I have a feeling Marc will be happy to go back to work in August!

Thankful

I was just reading a blog about a couple who have trying to conceive for over three years and it took me back to my days of struggling with infertility. Those were some hard days, but remembering them really makes me appreciate my three beautiful children. Seven years ago I wasn't so sure Marc and I would be blessed with one child, much less three!




The McCauley kids were kind of tired this evening, and they were having a difficult time channeling the little bit of energy they had left toward anything constructive, so we baked a chocolate cake (yes, from scratch!). At the beginning of this school year Megan went through a phase during which she would only check out cookbooks from the school library on library day. One week she checked out a cookbook filled with wonderful and easy recipes. This is one of our favorites:

Extra Special Celebration Cake

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2/3 c. oil

2 t. vinegar

1 t. vanilla

2 c. water

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round 9 x 1 cake pans.

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. In separate bowl, mix oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir oil mixture and water into flour mixture realy hard until well-blended, about 1 minute. Immediately pour batter into pans, dividing evenly.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Cool completely and frost/decorate.

The phase of checking out cookbooks came to an end when she came home with a Betty Crockers cookbook that must've weighed 30 lbs! Her backpack was waaaaay too heavy!

Like their daddy, Megan and Kellan absolutely love to clean out the bowl.

This photo is funny for two reasons. The first is how messy they are and the second is that Megan kind of looks like Gene Simmons from KISS. Dontcha think?

One more tiny tidbit. On the way home today Kellan asked if we needed to pick up Megan, too. I told him no and that she was at the doctor with Marc because her eyes seem to be infected (refer to my earlier post about pink eye). He then very seriously asked "Are they gonna take 'em out?". Too funny!

Brrrrrrr!

Only in Montana would it happen to snow (yes, that white stuff that floats from the sky in winter) on June 6th! Marc ran the 10K and I very quickly walked the 5K in the Governor's Cup yesterday. I wish I could say it was fun, but it mostly very wet and very cold!

After our races, we rested for a bit and then hauled the McCauley kids to Bozeman for Marc's cousin's (Sara) graduation party. It was colder in Bozeman than it was in Helena, but we all did our best to enjoy a summer bbq in a beautiful park. The kiddos had a great time, but they sure got wet and cold! Due to the distraction of the weather (good excuse) I forgot my camera so I have no pictures to post - darn it!

Our little sweeties are a bit tired and their parents are tired and sore (remember, we both participated in the Gov Cup yesterday) so we have had a slow-moving day! The coming week is sure to be busy with school and work. Best of all, Megan graduates from kindergarten on Wednesday! Can you believe that?!

Pink Aye Yi Yi

Yep, our sweet little Megan woke up with pink eye, otherwise known as conjunctivitis, this morning. So....she enjoyed an unexpected day off from kindergarten. She and I had a nice time running errands and eating donuts at the Donut Hole before I dropped her off at school with her daddy. She spent the afternoon helping (I use that term loosely) her daddy at work. After school, they both took a long nap!

This evening Mr. McCauley thought it would be a great idea to take the McCauley kids to the Spring Artwalk in downtown Helena. It would've been an excellent idea had it not been windy and raining. However, because I'm a supportive wife and mother, we went anyway. After the kids were quite wet and a little muddy, we took them to a graduation party for Marc's good buddy, Matt Watson's, nephew. It was great to see the Watson family - we had a very good time!

So Sad

This blog is supposed to be about the McCauley kids, and I do plan on sharing some tidbits about their day, but I thought I would comment on something so sad that has happened in our community. Last night a Helena teenager shot and killed a fellow student and wounded two others. What precipitated this event was an altercation between two boys (ages 15 and 16) via text messaging about a girl who they were both apparantly dating. Sadly, the kid who committed the crime was not involved in this triangle but decided to intervene on behalf of one of the boys. He was somebody who was evidently struggling in his life. I pray for the families of these kids and hope they feel the grace of God as they work through this horrible tragedy. This is a good reminder to teach our kids about making good choices and how their actions effect others.

Anyway, on to the McCauley kiddos. It was an interesting day for our children. Megan got to wear her pajamas to school today because her class had an all-day pajama party. She was so excited! I have to say, it did seem a little wierd to put her on the school bus this morning in her pajamas!

When I picked up Kellan from preschool today, he had been in a little trouble for being disruptive during rest time. This was kind of discouraging because he was in trouble yesterday for yelling in another kid's ear. However, I am proud of him for taking responsibility for his actions and accepting his consequence of going to bed early tonight without crying about it. He sure is growing up!

Jacksen....well, he had an incident today also. He bit his cousin, Andrew, who also goes to our daycare. Our wonderful daycare lady assured me that, based on his reaction to getting in trouble for this, she doesn't think it'll happen again. I sure hope she's right! Here is a cute picture of our little dinosaur after his bath tonight:

I am going to give my kids an extra hug tonight and make sure they know they are loved.

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. It's the last full week of school before summer vacation so Megan and Marc are feeling kind of antsy. Miss Megan has been living on the edge this week....on the edge of getting into big trouble! She is being just a little sassy, having just a little bit of a hard time following directions, spending an usually large amount of her time bugging her brothers...well, you know what I mean!

And Mr. Jacksen....well, it is still very light and sunny at bedtime so he wants to stay up and play. We put him to bed at 8:00-ish, but he is still up and playing in his room until the sun finally goes down around 9:30. Let's just say he is not a bundle of laughs when we are on the way to daycare at 7:15 in the morning!

It seems as though I always have something funny to report about Mr. Kellan. Not to say that Kellan hasn't contributed to my tension headache this evening, because he definitely had his part, but he is just so happy about being naughty that's it's a little easier to swallow when he isn't exactly behaving well. As usual, I have a funny photo of Kellan to add to my post this evening. When I picked up Kellan from preschool today, all of the kiddos were out on the playground enjoying the nice Spring weather. Kellan decided to be silly and pull his shirt over his head and run around the playground....giggling hysterically, of course!
Though I can't say that I enjoyed every minute spent with my little sweeties today, I can say that I loved them every minute today! Only 4 1/2 school days until summer vacation...woohoo!

"K" for Kellan

While Kellan, as our middlest child, can often be....well, a handful....he is also the McCauley kid who has something kind to say to his mommy everyday. Whether it's "You're the best mom in the entire world!" or "You make the greatest dinners ever!", I can always count on my little Kellan to make me smile. It is such a honor to be the parent of such a great kiddo! It's hard to believe he'll be off to kindergarten in just a year!

Marc was showing me a slideshow reflecting the activities enjoyed by the kids who participate in the Cub Companion group. (Cub Companion is program in which 8th graders at CR Anderson Middle School spend one hour per week during the school day volunteering in kindergarten classrooms.) Anyway, Marc sometimes takes the McCauley kids (well, either Megan or Kellan) along with him during some these activities. Each year the kindergarteners and 8th graders visit Sieben Ranch during lambing and Kellan got to tag along this year. Here is a darling photo of our middlest:

If only he could be this sweet and innocent all of the time!