Mr. Buff

Dinner Time!

Curry Chicken, the Jarrett family recipe, is a success at our house. Yaya and all the Jarrett women will be proud:

What A Job!

I did not expect this job to be SO much more difficult this year!

Plan for the morning: have entire 4-tiered wedding cake plus small anniversary cake baked by 11:00 AM.

8:15 - Pans prepared, ready to mix batter.

8:30 - First set of cakes in oven.

9:10 - First set of cakes cooling. Second set of cakes in oven.

9:30 - Boys dressed, breakfast on the table.

9:55 - Last batch of batter ready. 5 minutes to go on cakes in oven. Elliott calling for more food in his high chair (surprised?).

10:00 - Cakes out of the oven. Elliott's still hungry.

10:01 - Malachi's making something with glitter glue and yells that he got it all over the table.

10:02 - Elliott's still yelling "Mom, mom!" while clapping his hands. (Translation: "More, more!" with his version of sign language.)

10:03 - Cooling rack slips off counter and three cakes fall to the floor. As you can see, I'll need to bake some more.

10:15 - I call a friend to distract myself from the situation on my floor. (And to keep from screaming or crying, whichever may have come first.)

10:20 - Third set of cakes in oven.

10:25 - Glitter cleaned up from table. Elliott on floor in living room playing.

10:49 - Malachi working on craft at table. Elliott playing with truck in living room.

10:50 - Third set of cakes removed from oven.

10:52 - AHHH!

10:53 - Find camera and take picture. It looks like I'm going to be baking all day, so I may as well laugh about it, right?

Boys!

Basement Update (finally!)

All the way back in June I posted about us finishing the basement. At that point Erik had begun hanging drywall...and then cross country began and I don't think he worked on it much more after that. He was able to get about half of the drywall hung, but it turned out to be too much work for one person who already had a full time job and a coaching position (not to mention responsibilities as a dad and husband!).

So, last week we FINALLY decided it was time to hire someone to get it done. They finished hanging the drywall today and will be back tomorrow to begin the taping/mudding/sanding process. By this time next week I'm hoping to have my paint roller out!

The stairs coming down, the doors to the utility room and the bedroom

The bedroom

The play area and my closets for cake-making supplies
The family room

The back part of the family room, a storage closet and the bathroom

Day Out With Thomas

When I was planning Malachi's Thomas-themed birthday party last March I found out about an event called Day Out With Thomas that happens every September in Lebanon, OH. After church today we took the boys to see Thomas in person and enjoy the other festivities, such as the train tables, inflatable games, hay maze, tatoo station, video/story telling, and the grand finale - a ride on the train!
Even Elliott enjoyed the fun!

Other than the train ride, Malachi's favorite activity was playing with the trains.

We had a great day together and loved seeing our boys having fun.

Soccer Season

Malachi's playing soccer this fall and today was his first game. He's #7 on the purple team.

He did pretty well...for a 4 year old playing a sport that he doesn't understand!

My Assistant

Just checkin' on Mom's cakes...... and doing the dishes!

Howard's New Toy

Our neighbor, Howard, got a new toy - a paddle boat! He's invited us to use it whenever we want so Malachi and Erik tried it out the other day. Malachi liked it but was disappointed they didn't go anywhere. He said that next time he wants to go to GranMols and Papaw's or Yaya and 'Buelo's! (Thank goodness Yaya and 'Buelo are coming to visit us because that would be an loooong paddle boat ride!)